How does real learning work with serious games?

Those who don’t test the future will lose to those who do!

A small thought experiment: What if you could test the future before it happens? Not just think it through theoretically, but actually experience it. What would that mean for your decisions? Imagine a space where you question assumptions, try new approaches, and experience how you act under pressure. Not an abstract concept, but a real experience. Here you can test, reflect, and develop strategies that don’t just sound logical, but feel intuitively right – because you’ve experienced them yourself.

This is learning. Not as consumption of knowledge, but as an experiment. Theory explains many things. But true understanding only emerges through experience. Whether conflict resolution, negotiation, or lean management – knowledge only becomes valuable when we test it in practice. Serious games foster a safe environment where mistakes become opportunities for growth rather than failures.

This article shows why real learning only begins when we experience it – and how exactly this becomes possible.

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots. I’ve lost nearly 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan [1]

Just as in sports, we learn through failed attempts in games – not through pure theory. Only through trying and failing do we develop real competence.

Learning through action and adaptation

Learning doesn’t happen by listening, but by doing. It’s a cycle of experience, reflection, theory, and application. Educational researcher David Kolb describes this concept as Experiential Learning. [2] His insights are based on the theories of developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who showed that people either integrate knowledge into existing thought patterns or adjust their perspective. This is precisely how real competence develops.
Here are two practical examples to make it concrete:

• A leader experiences in a serious game that control doesn’t always lead to better results. They realize that clear communication and trust are often more effective.
• A team member who adheres to fixed processes learns in a lean management game that standardization is important, but flexibility remains crucial to reduce waste.

Serious games are like mirrors for our thinking. They let us feel what works – and where we need to rethink.

Emotions anchor what we learn

Emotions are the glue of memory. John Medina, neuroscientist and author of Brain Rules [3], explains that emotionally charged experiences stick particularly well. Serious games activate exactly these mechanisms. When players work through a challenge, they often experience joy, frustration or tension – emotions that deeply anchor the experience.

More well-known is the Flow theory of psychology and management professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (simplified pronunciation: “Cheek-sent-me-high”). [4] He describes “flow” as a state of complete immersion where learning is particularly effective. Total concentration, appropriate challenges, and genuine engagement. A serious game offers exactly that: clear goals, immediate feedback, and a positive, rewarding experience – even if not all tasks in the game are solved. This means: more motivation, deeper insights, and sustainable learning.

“Sometimes people get really frustrated in the game because they can’t move forward. But that exact moment ensures they have a real insight later.” – Dana Pylayeva [5]

Mistakes as learning opportunities

Serious games offer a zone of courage where mistakes are not just allowed but desired stepping stones. The concept of “Return-on-Failure” – measured as the ratio between learning outcome and the effort expended for it – shows that the learning effect from mistakes is often greater than from successes. Julian Birkinshaw, Canadian professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, describes in Harvard Business Review that it’s not about avoiding mistakes, but extracting maximum insight from them. [6]

Learning from mistakes while experiencing our own competencies strengthens our confidence in our abilities to successfully execute desired actions and overcome challenges – even in difficult situations. Canadian-American psychologist Albert Bandura has shown that people who feel capable demonstrate more motivation, perseverance, and resilience (keyword: Self-Efficacy Expectation). It helps learners better master challenges, self-regulate, and continuously work on their abilities – which leads to better learning and deeper understanding in the long term. [7]

Learning is not an individual sport

Playing promotes both individual learning and collaboration. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky describes that people learn best through exchange and with supportive partners. His “Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)” shows that we grow most through challenges we can overcome with support. This strengthens self-confidence and maximizes learning potential. [8] A serious game brings people exactly into this zone. It challenges, enables collaborative learning, strengthens cooperation, and helps participants gradually expand their developmental boundaries.

“The strongest aha-moments come when teams realize: ‘Oh, we could have just talked to each other.’ That’s when real learning happens.” — Sonja Sinz [9]

Debriefing: The key to learning

A serious game is only the first step. The true magic lies in the follow-up discussion: the debriefing. Here participants reflect on their decisions, actions, and consequences. Experience becomes true knowledge only through a meta-level understanding.

Whether referred to as lessons learned, after-action review, or insight sharing – debriefings make blind spots visible, uncover patterns, and show paths for improvement. Specifically, the value lies in making implicit assumptions visible, recognizing blind spots, and testing new ways of thinking. This allows participants to integrate insights, conveyed lessons, and strategies into their thought patterns and adapt their future approaches.

Thus, debriefing is more than just looking back – it’s meta-learning that helps question and improve one’s own learning process so that future learning becomes more sustainable and adaptable. And only in this way does the serious game not remain just an exciting experience, but creates real added value for everyday work.

“After a game, I don’t just want to hear what someone learned. I want to know: What specifically will you change in your work?” — Dana Pylayeva [10]

Conclusion: Good decisions are learned through wrong ones – not through lectures and slides

Learning means not only absorbing information, but experiencing, reflecting on, and applying it. Serious games create exactly this space: brave, motivating, and with lasting learning effect.

Or to put it in the words of George Bernard Shaw: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” [11]

The question is not whether you play – but whether you can afford not to.

Notes (partly in German):

Julian Kea has more than 20 years of experience as a serious games facilitator and runs the well-known Serious Games Podcast (he talks about his background, motivation and target audience here in an interview). You can easily reach him on LinkedIn if you want to exchange ideas about serious games or have a specific need.

[1] Michael Jordan, Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh, 1998
[2] Factsheet: Lernen durch Eigenerfahrungen oder erfahrungsbasiertes Lernen
[3] John Medina: Brain Rules
[4] Flow-Erleben: Theorie von Csikszentmihalyi
[5] [10] Dana Pylayeva, Serious Games Podcast DevOps Culture Simulation, 2020
[6] Harvard Business Review: Increase Your Return on Failure, 2016
[7] Albert Bandura: Das Konzept der Selbstwirksamkeit
[8] Lev Vygotsky: Theorie des sozialen Lernens
[9] Sonja Sinz, Serious Games Podcast Fang-Schuh, 2024
[11] Wikipedia: George Bernard Shaw

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Julian Kea has published two more posts on the t2informatik Blog: