Evaluation of simulations and games: a comprehensive procedure and a case history.

This article deals with the dimensions of evaluating simulations and games in health education, provides a procedural model which incorporates these dimensions, and illustrates this model with a case history of the evolution of a game through repeated evaluation. The four major dimensions of evaluating a game are the purposes of evaluation, sources of evaluative data, emphasis on main or side effects, and timing of evaluation. The procedural model incorporates these dimensions of evaluation and is divided into stages of self-evaluation, expert appraisal, informal player tryouts, typical-use testing, field testing, and long-term evaluation. The case history illustrates the application of each of these stages to a short game in consumer health education.