124 research outputs found

    Playful User Interfaces:Interfaces that Invite Social and Physical Interaction

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    Designing Location-based Games : How to support players’ social interaction, physical activity and learning about their local environment

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    The earliest academic studies on location-based games (LBGs) were conducted in the early 2000’s, but the recent upsurge in the popularity and success of commercial LBGs has created a need to re-examine the genre in light of new empirical evidence. In 2016, Pokemon GO brought the LBG genre into a spotlight by being downloaded hundreds of millions of times and generating over 4 billion USD in lifetime revenue to date. Since then, new games such as Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World and The Witcher: Monster Slayer have emerged. Understanding phenomena related to LBGs is important for various stakeholders from game designers to urban designers and educators. In this dissertation we take an inductive approach to LBG design by gathering evidence from popular commercial LBGs with six original research articles (Studies I-VI). The studies focus on game mechanics that are unique to the LBG genre, and how reported positive outcomes of playing LBGs can be tied to these mechanics. Through the six studies we derive a game mechanics -focused design framework for LBGs, which we name the Triune PoI System, where PoI stands for point of interest. The system consists of three central components: exploration, discovery and navigation, and at the heart of these lies moving to trigger gameplay. The Triune PoI System highlights the importance of LBGs to provide multimodal motivation for players to move and play, and the crucial importance of the playing locations, the PoIs for scaffolding positive outcomes. We demonstrate how the following benefits of playing LBGs (1) physical activity; (2) social interaction; and (3) learning and discovery; are ultimately tied to the Triune PoI System (Studies I-IV). We also investigate the effects of aggressive marketing and LBG game mechanics on players’ well-being (Study V). Here we identify that aggressive marketing can exhaust players, but that the overall LBG playing intensity had a strong significant association with psychological well-being in our sample. We also demonstrate that nostalgia and imagination play crucial roles in scaffolding perceived meaningfulness of playing LBGs (Study VI). Finally, we propose that the popularity of LBGs may be explained by them embodying aspects of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that are missing in the urban way of living. TIIVISTELMÄ Varhaisimmat akateemiset tutkimukset paikkatietoon pohjautuvista peleistä julkaistiin jo vuosituhannen alussa, mutta pelien viimeaikainen suosio ja kaupallinen menestys antavat aihetta tarkastella paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suunnittelua uuden empiirisen todistusaineiston valossa. Vuonna 2016 julkaistua Pokémon GO:ta on ladattu satoja miljoonia kertoja ja sen suosion inspiroimana on julkaistu sellaisia paikkatietoon pohjautuvia pelejä kuin Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World sekä The Witcher: Monster Slayer. Näiden pelien ja niihin liittyvien ilmiöiden ymmärtäminen voi olla hyödyllistä monille eri tahoille, kuten pelisuunnittelijoille, kaupunkisuunnittelijoille ja koulutuksesta vastaaville. Tässä väitöskirjatutkimuksessa lähestytään paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suunnittelua induktiivisesti kuuden alkuperäisartikkelin avulla. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään mitkä ovat paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien keskeisimmät pelimekaniikat ja miten raportoidut positiiviset vaikutukset nivoutuvat niihin. Tulokset osoittavat, että suosittujen paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien keskiössä on ns. "Triune PoI System", joka koostuu 3+1 komponentista: tutkiminen, löytäminen ja navigointi; sekä liikkuminen. Toisin sanoen pelaajat lähtevät tutkimaan ympäristöään, löytävät sieltä mielenkiintoisia kohteita ja navigoivat niiden luokse. Lisäksi pelien keskeisenä elementtinä on pelkästä liikkumisesta palkitseminen. Tutkimuksessa osoitetaan, että liikunta, sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus ja oppiminen on suosituissa peleissä, kuten Pokémon GO:ssa, keskeisesti sidottu Triune PoI Systemiin. Lisäksi selvitetään mitä vaikutuksia kaupallisten paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien markkinoinnilla ja mikrotransaktiomekanismeilla on pelaajien hyvinvointiin. Tutkimuksessa havaitaan, että markkinointi saattaa väsyttää pelaajia, mutta kokonaisuutena paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien pelaamisella ja hyvinvoinnilla on tilastollisesti merkitsevä vahva yhteys. Lisäksi osoitetaan, että nostalgia ja mielikuvitus tukevat tunnetta pelaamisen merkityksellistä. Lopuksi ehdotetaan, että paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suosiota saattaa selittää niiden tarjoamat metsästäjä-keräilijä-elämän aspektit, joista urbaanissa miljöössä elävät ihmiset jäävät arkielämässään paitsi

    Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health

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    Based on a literature review and interviews with digital learning experts, explores how digital games can foster skills and knowledge for better academic performance and health. Makes recommendations for government research, partnerships, and media

    The effect of serious gaming on elementary student learning

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    With our ever-changing technological world, schools need to incorporate more engaging learning activities that expose and extend students\u27 learning with technologies. This literature review investigated the effects of serious gaming activities on student achievement. Thirty peer-reviewed journals were selected, analyzed, and evaluated. These studies were conducted about a variety of subject areas in the elementary setting in different areas around the world. Research evidence suggested that serious gaming, whose primary goal is not entertainment but instead to educate the user, can improve student achievement, meet their different learning styles, and enhance student motivation across curricular areas and regions. Recommendations for adopting serious gaming were discussed

    Comparative Analysis of The Effects Of Virtual Reality Active Video Game And Controller-Free Active Video Game Play On Physiological Response, Perceived Exertion, And Hedonic Experience

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    Over 60% of US adults are overweight or obese. Sedentary lifestyles are considered major contributors to the high rates and increasing prevalence of obesity. Physical activity is a critical component in shifting from sedentary lifestyles. Studies indicate that less than half of U.S. adults meet the CDC/ACSM physical activity recommendations. Interactive video games can increase PA, but no study has yet assessed physiologic effort, hedonics, and perceived exertion for playing immersive virtual reality (VR) and controller-free screen-based active video games (AVGs), compared to treadmill walking and resting. We ran 25 subjects (9 female, 16 male) in 10-minute sessions of five conditions. Head Mounted Display VR: Oculus (Fruit Ninja and Boxing), Screen-based AVG: Kinect (Fruit Ninja and Boxing), and Treadmill walking at 3 mph. One, six-condition (Rest, Treadmill 3.0, Kinect Boxing, Kinect Fruit Ninja, Oculus Boxing, Oculus Fruit Ninja) repeated-measures ANOVA was used to examine differences in HRmean. Three, five-condition (Treadmill 3.0, Kinect Boxing, Kinect Fruit Ninja, Oculus Boxing, Oculus Fruit Ninja) repeated-measures ANOVA were used to examine differences in HRpeak, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and Hedonics (Liking). Post hoc analyses using pairwise comparisons were used to further assess significant main effects of the condition. A Pearson\u27s product-moment correlation was run to assess the relationship between activity condition HRmean and RPE VR Boxing elicited the greatest physiological effort, producing vigorous-intensity PA. There was no significant difference in average heart rate for the Treadmill, Kinect Fruit Ninja, Kinect Boxing, and VR Fruit Ninja. Thus, the Kinect and VR sport and casual games are comparable to treadmill walking PA levels and qualify as moderate-intensity activity. The VR Fruit Ninja, VR Boxing, Kinect Fruit Ninja were the most enjoyed activities. Despite having the highest Heart rate and the highest self-reported Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), VR Boxing was significantly more enjoyable than Treadmill Walking. There was no statistically significant correlation between Activity Condition HRmean and RPE. Both casual and sports VR and AVG activities are enjoyable activities for adults, stimulating moderate-to-vigorous activity through a traditionally sedentary medium. This research extends previous works in active video gaming effects on physiological cost, perceived exertion and hedonics and fills the gap relating virtual reality active video games. The significance of the research outcomes is that this analysis provides a scientifically validated approach to support the establishment of physical activity level goals and guidelines in the development of active video games as a response and/or remedy to address the sedentary lifestyles that are contributing to American and global obesity

    Developing and evaluating the feasibility of an active training game for smart-phones as a tool for promoting executive function in children

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    Executive function (EF) comprises a series of interrelated cognitive and self-regulatory skills which are required in nearly every facet of everyday life, particularly in novel circumstances. EF skills begin developing from birth and continue to grow well into adulthood but are most crucial for children as they are associated with academic and life success as well as mental and physical health. There is now strong evidence that these skills can be trained through targeted intervention in a diverse range of approaches, such as computer games, physical activity, and social play settings. This thesis presents the process of the design and evaluation of an active EF-training game (BrainQuest) for smart-phones, in participation with end-users: a group of 11-12-year-old children from a local Primary School. The design process placed emphasis on creating an engaging user experience, a phenomenon which has eluded many serious games, by building upon motivational game design theory and satisfying end-user requirements. However, in the pursuit of promoting particular executive functions: working memory; inhibitory control; planning and strategizing, the design integrated aspects of a cognitive assessment while also utilizing a range of alternative approaches for training EF, including physical activity and social play. Following an iterative design process which included many single session prototype evaluations, a mixed methods evaluation was undertaken during a 5-week study with twenty-eight 11-12-year-old school children. The study gathered exploratory qualitative and quantitative evidence regarding the game’s potential benefits which was evaluated by triangulating a range of data sources: multi-observer observations notes, interviews with children and teachers, game performance data and logs, and cognitive assessment outcomes. The analysis describes the statistical relationships between game and executive function ability, before exploring user experiences and evidence of cognitive challenge during gameplay through a series of triangulated case studies and general whole-class observations. The analysis presents the game to be engaging and enjoyable throughout the study and, for most children, able to generate a sustainable challenge. Though there were initial difficulties in understanding the complex game rules and technology, the game became increasingly usable and learnable for the target user group and created opportunities for goal setting. It also encouraged feelings of pride and self-confidence as well as facilitating positive social interactions and requiring regulation of emotion, which are considered to be pathways to developing executive functions (Diamond, 2012). There was also promising initial evidence that the game’s variable difficulty level system was able to challenge executive functions: planning and strategizing, working memory, and inhibitory control. Most notably, the game appeared to support improvements in strategizing ability by demanding increasing strategic complexity in response to evolving and increasingly difficult task demands. Supporting BrainQuest’s cognitive challenge, several statistical relationships emerged between executive function ability and game performance measures. However, the game’s ability to significantly improve cognitive outcomes could not yet be concluded. Nevertheless, these findings have implications for both the future design and evaluation practices undertaken by cognitive training researchers. From a design perspective, less credence should be paid to simply gamifying cognitive assessments while greater emphasis should be placed on integration of formal game design and motivational theories. With regards to evaluation, researchers should understand the importance of establishing first whether CTGs can remain engaging over time as well as the feasibility of their challenge to cognitive functions

    Studying Serious Games for the Therapy of Children with Disabilities following a Co-Design Process

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    Therapy can be a long and tedious process where progress is usually not immediately visible. This slow process can discourage younger patients, especially children who do not understand exactly what they are doing. Serious Games can help in these situations since they are games designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. These games can be helpful as therapy tools because they promote engagement on the side of the patients, which in turn will make them feel more motivated to follow the therapeutic programme. In order to develop a game with a meaningful experience for users, beyond the fun of playing it, which helps them in their therapy, experts in the area need to be involved through close collaboration throughout the whole research process. Therefore, we de- veloped a game suite for the therapy of children with disabilities following a co-design process that included Cresce com Amor as the partner clinic. Cresce com Amor provided therapy expertise to the research team, collaborating in several phases of the process. Furthermore, by developing a classification system for serious games, based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which matches each game with body functions and therapy areas, we intend to support the classification of serious games in order to make them more suitable for their ultimate purpose. An in-house developed platform, called PLAY, supports the games by acting as a repository for the data collected and giving the therapists an interface to interact with and adjust the game parameters. The games use different interaction methods, other than the usual keyboard and mouse, to allow patients to seamlessly perform exercises that simulate the ones done in current traditional therapy sessions. By using off-the-shelf controllers, such as the balance board and dance mat, we can translate real-life movements more naturally into character movements in the virtual space.A terapia pode ser um processo longo e tedioso onde o progresso geralmente não é imedi- atamente visível. Este processo lento pode desencorajar os pacientes mais jovens, especi- almente as crianças que não entendem exatamente o que estão a fazer. Jogos Sérios podem ajudar nestas situações, uma vez que são jogos concebidos com um propósito principal que não seja apenas entretenimento. Estes jogos podem ser úteis como ferramentas te- rapêuticas porque promovem o envolvimento do lado dos pacientes, o que, por sua vez, fará com que se sintam mais motivados para seguir o programa terapêutico. Para desenvolver um jogo com uma experiência significativa para os utilizadores, para além da diversão de jogar, que os ajude na sua terapia, os especialistas na área precisam de estar envolvidos através de uma estreita colaboração ao longo de todo o processo de investigação. Assim, desenvolvemos uma suite de jogos para a terapia de crianças com incapacidades seguindo um processo de co-criação que incluiu a Cresce com Amor como clínica parceira. A Cresce com Amor adicionou conhecimentos terapêuticos à equipa de investigação, colaborando em várias fases do processo. Além disso, ao desenvolver um sistema de classificação para jogos sérios, baseado na Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade, Incapacidade e Saúde (CIF), que combina cada jogo com funções corporais e áreas de terapia, pretendemos apoiar a classificação de jogos sérios, a fim de torná-los mais adequados ao seu propósito final. Uma plataforma desenvolvida internamente, chamada PLAY, suporta os jogos, agindo como um repositório para os dados coletados e dando aos terapeutas uma interface para interagir e ajustar os parâmetros do jogo. Os jogos utilizam diferentes métodos de interação, além do habitual teclado e rato, para permitir que os pacientes realizem exercícios que simulam os que são feitos nas sessões de terapia tradicional atuais. Usando controladores comerciais, "prontos para uso", como a balance board e o dance mat, podemos traduzir de forma mais natural movimentos da vida real em movimentos de personagens no espaço virtual

    Mobile Games for Learning:A Pattern-Based Approach

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    The core concern of this thesis is the design of mobile games for learning. The conditions and requirements that are vital in order to make mobile games suitable and effective for learning environments are investigated. The base for exploration is the pattern approach as an established form of templates that provide solutions for recurrent problems. Building on this acknowledged form of exchanging and re-using knowledge, patterns for game design are used to classify the many gameplay rules and mechanisms in existence. This research draws upon pattern descriptions to analyze learning game concepts and to abstract possible relationships between gameplay patterns and learning outcomes. The linkages that surface are the starting bases for a series of game design concepts and their implementations are subsequently evaluated with regard to learning outcomes. The findings and resulting knowledge from this research is made accessible by way of implications and recommendations for future design decisions
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