Make-Believe in Gameful and Playful Design

Gameful and playful design aspire to make existing activities and systems more engaging by infusing them with the engaging qualities of games and toys. One such quality is make-believe, the constitution of fictional “as ifs”. While frequently evoked, actual work on make-believe in gameful and playful design has remained quite scarce and scattered. This chapter therefore draws on neighbouring fields to break out five major design aspects of make-believe: theming; storification; scripting, ruling, and framing; role-play; and their integration in unified experiences. For each, the chapter presents explanatory theories; psychological and behavioural effects; design elements and strategies used to evoke said effects; and existing empirical studies. The chapter closes in summarizing how and why playful make-believe design differs from current gamification in form (often artistic one-offs) and technology (often audio); and what limitations future research should try to overcome

Game-inspired Pedagogical Conversational Agents: A Systematic Literature Review

Pedagogical conversational agents (PCAs) are an innovative way to help learners improve their academic performance via intelligent dialog systems. However, PCAs have not yet reached their full potential. They often fail because users perceive conversations with them as not engaging. Enriching them with game-based approaches could contribute to mitigating this issue. One could enrich a PCA with game-based approaches by gamifying it to foster positive effects, such as fun and motivation, or by integrating it into a game-based learning (GBL) environment to promote effects such as social presence and enable individual learning support. We summarize PCAs that are combined with game-based approaches under the novel term “game-inspired PCAs”. We conducted a systematic literature review on this topic, as previous literature reviews on PCAs either have not combined the topics of PCAs and GBL or have done so to a limited extent only. We analyzed the literature regarding the existing design knowledge base, the game elements used, the thematic areas and target groups, the PCA roles and types, the extent of artificial intelligence (AI) usage, and opportunities for adaptation. We reduced the initial 3,034 records to 50 fully coded papers, from which we derived a morphological box and revealed current research streams and future research recommendations. Overall, our results show that the topic offers promising application potential but that scholars and practitioners have not yet considered it holistically. For instance, we found that researchers have rarely provided prescriptive design knowledge, have not sufficiently combined game elements, and have seldom used AI algorithms as well as intelligent possibilities of user adaptation in PCA development. Furthermore, researchers have scarcely considered certain target groups, thematic areas, and PCA roles. Consequently, our paper contributes to research and practice by addressing research gaps and structuring the existing knowledge base

Gamification in Ethics Education: A Literature Review

Ethical literacy plays a significant role in human beings’ decision-making, influencing the quality of interpersonal relationships, harmony, well-being, and the sustainable development of society, economy, and technology. Among various pedagogical techniques, gamification, simulations, roleplay, and other game-based approaches have been recognized as potential avenues for experience and interactive-based pedagogy for ethics education. Although there is a rapidly increasing number of studies on game-based learning, the effect of gamification on the success of ethics learning is still unclear. Therefore, by conducting a systematic review of the extant empirical literature (N=101), this study aims at exploring the state of the art of gamification in ethics education, considering research design, adopted theories, gamification interventions, dimensions of ethics learning and effects of gamification. The literature synthesis revealed a variety of utilizing gamification for ethics learning in different facets with mostly positive outcomes. Based on the discussion of the main findings, seven different directions for future research are further proposed

Formative Research on an Instructional Design Theory for Fostering Self-Efficacy Through Gamification

The merits of gamification as a learner-centered pedagogy that positively influences learner engagement and motivation are widely established in the literature; yet, few studies have ventured beyond motivation to consider the impact gamification has on self-efficacy. Moreover, guidance for the effective design and development of gamified instruction is lacking. This study describes formative research conducted on the Gamification for Enhancing Learner Self-Efficacy (GELSE) instructional design theory, which was developed to guide the design of gamification aimed at fostering self-efficacy. The goal of formative research is to identify improvements for an instructional design theory based on a designed instance of the theory. The GELSE theory was applied to an undergraduate community health nursing course in a fully online, accelerated degree program. The theory was evaluated by answering the following questions: 1) What methods of the GELSE instructional design theory were perceived to be more effective?, 2) What methods of the GELSE instructional design theory were perceived to be less effective?, and 3) What improvements can be made to the GELSE instructional design theory?. Data was collected in this qualitative study through open-ended questionnaires, focus group interviews, semi-structured one-on-one interviews, and observations of online learner activities and social interactions. The results show that the GELSE instructional design theory is effectual for guiding the design of gamified instruction intended to foster learner self-efficacy. Additionally, the findings from the research yielded a number of recommendations for improving the GELSE theory

The influences of gamification on user experience in the healthcare sector

Abstract. Gamification is a considerably emerging trend focusing on the application of game mechanics to a nongame context. The objective of gamification implication in serious settings is to form the positive outcomes from the patients. While education and business have been taken advantages of gamification, the digital health domain just started the journey with this prevailing trend. That is why, there is an increasing demand for scientific research on the gamification in healthcare, especially the user experience under the gamified healthcare solution from the company perspective. With this inspiration, the study is conducted aiming at exploring the user experience under the impact of gamification in the healthcare context. Study indicates that it is the affordances, which are also known as game elements that stimulate various psychological and behavioural experience for the users. The combination of the achievement-oriented, social-oriented and immersion-oriented affordances in the gamified healthcare solution triggers the various psychological and behavioural experience. These experiences are examined under three perspectives which are stimulation, interaction and sense-making. Through the stimulation lens, the psychological experiences are favourably formed and dominant the behavioural experience. While, the interaction lens indicates the dominance of the behavioural experience, especially the performance-related outcomes. The sense-making view shows the actor-related behavioural experience outweighs of the other outcomes. The exploratory qualitative research and the semi-structured interviews are utilised to investigate the game affordances in the gamified solutions and the user experience from the gamified solution providers angles. The study expectedly contributes to the literature’ body of gamification by confirming the conceptualisation of the gamification and the formation of the user experience. The empirical implications are for the gamified healthcare solution design regarding the affordance combination and the utilisation of the insights from both patients and game players

Strengthening gamification studies: Current trends and future opportunities of gamification research

Gamification is now a well-established technique in Human-Computer Interaction. However, research on gamification still faces a variety of empirical and theoretical challenges. Firstly, studies of gamified systems typically focus narrowly on understanding individuals. short-term interactions with the system, ignoring more difficult to measure outcomes. Secondly, academic research on gamification has been slow to improve the techniques through which gamified applications are designed. Third, current gamification research lacks a critical lens capable of exploring unintended consequences of designs. The 14 articles published in this special issue face these challenges with great methodological rigor. We summarize them by identifying three main themes: the determination to improve the quality and usefulness of theory in the field of gamification, the improvements in design practice, and the adoption of a critical gaze to uncover side-effects of gamification designs. We conclude by providing an overview of the questions that we feel must be addressed by future work in gamification. Gamification studies would benefit from a wider use of theories to account for the complexity of human behavior, a more thorough exploration of the many opportunities coming from the world of games, and an ethical reflection on the use of game design elements in serious domains

Understanding personal and contextual factors to increase motivation in gamified systems

Gamification, the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has been shown to help people reaching their goals, affect people's behavior and enhance the users' experience within interactive systems. However, past research has shown that gamification is not always successful. In fact, literature reviews revealed that almost half of the interventions were only partially successful or even unsuccessful. Therefore, understanding the factors that have an influence on psychological measures and behavioral outcomes of gamified systems is much in need. In this thesis, we contribute to this by considering the context in which gamified systems are applied and by understanding personal factors of users interacting with the system. Guided by Self-Determination Theory, a major theory on human motivation, we investigate gamification and its effects on motivation and behavior in behavior change contexts, provide insights on contextual factors, contribute knowledge on the effect of personal factors on both the perception and effectiveness of gamification elements and lay out ways of utilizing this knowledge to implement personalized gamified systems. Our contribution is manifold: We show that gamification affects motivation through need satisfaction and by evoking positive affective experiences, ultimately leading to changes in people's behavior. Moreover, we show that age, the intention to change behavior, and Hexad user types play an important role in explaining interpersonal differences in the perception of gamification elements and that tailoring gamified systems based on these personal factors has beneficial effects on both psychological and behavioral outcomes. Lastly, we show that Hexad user types can be partially predicted by smartphone data and interaction behavior in gamified systems and that they can be assessed in a gameful way, allowing to utilize our findings in gamification practice. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework to increase motivation in gamified systems, which builds upon our findings and outlines the importance of considering both contextual and personal factors. Based on these contributions, this thesis advances the field of gamification by contributing knowledge to the open questions of how and why gamification works and which factors play a role in this regard.Gamification, die Nutzung von Spielelementen in spielfremden Kontexten, kann nachweislich Menschen helfen, ihre Ziele zu erreichen, das Verhalten von Menschen zu beeinflussen und die Erfahrung der User in interaktiven Systemen zu verbessern. Allerdings hat die bisherige Forschung gezeigt, dass Gamification nicht immer erfolgreich ist. So haben Literaturübersichten ergeben, dass fast die Hälfte der Interventionen nur teilweise erfolgreich oder sogar erfolglos waren. Daher besteht ein großer Bedarf, die Faktoren zu verstehen, die einen Einfluss auf psychologische Maße sowie auf das Verhalten von Usern in gamifizierten Systemen haben. In dieser Arbeit tragen wir dazu bei, indem wir den Kontext, in dem gamifizierte Systeme eingesetzt werden, betrachten und persönliche Faktoren von Usern, die mit dem System interagieren, verstehen. Geleitet von der Selbstbestimmungstheorie, einer der wichtigsten Theorien zur menschlichen Motivation, untersuchen wir Gamification und dessen Auswirkungen auf Motivation und Verhalten in Kontexten zur Verhaltensänderung. Wir liefern Erkenntnisse über kontextuelle Faktoren, tragen Wissen über den Einfluss persönlicher Faktoren auf die Wahrnehmung und Effektivität von Gamification-Elementen bei und bieten Möglichkeiten, dieses Wissen für die Implementierung personalisierter gamifizierter Systeme zu nutzen. Unser Beitrag ist mannigfaltig: Wir zeigen, dass Gamification die Motivation durch Bedürfnisbefriedigung und durch das Hervorrufen positiver affektiver Erfahrungen beeinflusst, was letztlich zu Verhaltensänderungen führen kann. Darüber hinaus zeigen wir, dass das Alter, die Absicht, das Verhalten zu ändern, und Hexad-Usertypen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Erklärung von interpersonellen Unterschieden in der Wahrnehmung von Gamification-Elementen spielen. Ebenso zeigen unsere Resultate dass die Anpassung von gamifizierten Systemen auf Basis dieser persönlichen Faktoren positive Auswirkungen auf psychologische und verhaltensbezogene Ergebnisse hat. Letztlich zeigen wir, dass Hexad-Usertypen teilweise durch Smartphone-Daten und Interaktionsverhalten in gamifizierten Systemen vorhergesagt werden können und dass sie auf spielerische Art und Weise erhoben werden können. Dies ermöglicht, unsere Erkenntnisse in der Gamification-Praxis zu nutzen. Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse schlagen wir ein konzeptuelles Framework zur Steigerung der Motivation in gamifizierten Systemen vor, das die Wichtigkeit der Berücksichtigung sowohl kontextueller als auch persönlicher Faktoren hervorhebt. Diese Erkenntnisse bereichern das Forschungsfeld Gamification, indem sie Wissen zu den offenen Fragen, wie und warum Gamification funktioniert und welche Faktoren in diesem Zusammenhang eine Rolle spielen, beitragen

How Geek Therapy Plays Into Expressive Arts Therapy: A Literature Review

Within this paper, I explore how geek therapy plays well with the methods of expressive arts therapy. The combination of geek therapy and expressive arts therapy can assist clinicians in immediately connecting with their clients and identifying strength-oriented narratives that honor the client’s preferences, modes of expression, and pop culture affinities. This engagement with expressive approaches utilizing affinity-based interventions can lead to a deeper sense of understanding of the client’s intra-, inter-, and extra-personal relationships. Through this literature review of expressive arts therapy and geek therapy, primarily focusing on video games in therapy, clinicians from all walks of life can explore these techniques with clients in multiple settings and within a variety of age groups. Video games are immersive, multimodal, and interactive digital experiences that can promote wellness through engaging a spectrum of cognitive processes, regulating emotion and physical states, exploring meaning, identity, and expression, and building interpersonal tools through in-person and/or virtual means. This paper explores how video games can impact bio-psycho-sociocultural-spiritual domains as well as other potentially therapeutic characteristics of video gaming, whether through in-direct/direct or active/passive experiences. Through understanding gamer motivations, this paper explores player taxonomy models and profilers that can assist in gathering assessment information. Lastly, ethical considerations and the potential for maladaptive behaviors are explored

Gamification towards and alongside equity, diversity and inclusion: Looking back to move forward

Given the urgent need for environments that enable everyone in fulfilling their fullest potential, many new media innovations have focused on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) actions. Gamification is one of these innovations, becoming a promising avenue to engage people towards effective social change. Yet, the intersection between EDI and gamification is incipient and fragmented, preventing a comprehensive understanding of current findings and future advancements in this field. This literature review systematically investigates the meanings, methods and effects of gamification in EDI actions (i.e. gamification towards EDI), and the design of equitable, diverse and inclusive gamification (i.e. gamification alongside EDI). Results elucidate how gamification improves performance, enriches experiences and fosters change, while analysing its design through gender, age and disability lenses. Future work calls for broader and deeper gamified EDI interventions informed by social sciences, diverse people-oriented design and empirical demonstration of sustainable social change

Level-Up your Learning – Introducing a Framework for Gamified Educational Conversational Agents

Driven by circumstances like the global pandemic many learners and educators realize the importance and value of self-regulated digital learning. To better support self-regulated learning, conversational agents have become more relevant. Conversational agents can act as tutor or as learning mate for learners. Although conversational agents have potential to better support self-regulated learning processes, challenges exist requiring implications about how to make these interactions more engaging and supportive. This study discusses the value of gamified conversational learning chatbots that use game elements to engage learners to guide researchers and practitioners to design conversational agents that effectively motivate learners and provide self-regulated learning at the same time. Therefore, we propose a systematically developed framework for gamifying educational conversational agents and contribute to theory by consolidating several theories about games, digital learning, and conversational agents and support practitioners by providing implications about what to care about when gamifying conversational agents