Identifying Player Types to Tailor Game-Based Learning Design to Learners:Cross-sectional Survey using Q Methodology

BACKGROUND: Game-based learning appears to be a promising instructional method because of its engaging properties and positive effects on motivation and learning. There are numerous options to design game-based learning; however, there is little data-informed knowledge to guide the choice of the most effective game-based learning design for a given educational context. The effectiveness of game-based learning appears to be dependent on the degree to which players like the game. Hence, individual differences in game preferences should be taken into account when selecting a specific game-based learning design. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify patterns in students' perceptions of play and games-player types and their most important characteristics. METHODS: We used Q methodology to identify patterns in opinions on game preferences. We recruited undergraduate medical and dental students to participate in our study and asked participants to sort and rank 49 statements on game preferences. These statements were derived from a prior focus group study and literature on game preferences. We used by-person factor analysis and varimax rotation to identify common viewpoints. Both factors and participants' comments were used to interpret and describe patterns in game preferences. RESULTS: From participants' (n=102) responses, we identified 5 distinct patterns in game preferences: the social achiever, the explorer, the socializer, the competitor, and the troll. These patterns revolved around 2 salient themes: sociability and achievement. The 5 patterns differed regarding cheating, playing alone, story-telling, and the complexity of winning. CONCLUSIONS: The patterns were clearly interpretable, distinct, and showed that medical and dental students ranged widely in how they perceive play. Such patterns may suggest that it is important to take students' game preferences into account when designing game-based learning and demonstrate that not every game-based learning-strategy fits all students. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to use a scientifically sound approach to identify player types. This can help future researchers and educators select effective game-based learning game elements purposefully and in a student-centered way

Leveraging Asymmetry and Interdependence to Enhance Social Connectedness in Cooperative Digital Games

Play is a fundamental component of human development and is an important means of forming healthy relationships throughout life. Research has shown that the types of digital games people play, how they play them, and who they play them with can have significant impacts on players' social and psychological well-being. Playing games with preexisting social relations, such as family and friends, has been shown to help strengthen relationships, but it can be difficult to find games that provide both enriching social interactions and are able to accommodate the wide variety of player types, ability levels, genre preferences, and social roles that each player brings to the group dynamic. Asymmetric cooperative games---games that present their players with sharply contrasting aesthetic experiences in the same shared play space---are a unique but relatively understudied style of game that is well-positioned to tackle this multi-faceted problem by providing different players with different interfaces, challenges, abilities, and information while tightly coupling their interactions through shared goals and feedback. My research focuses on better understanding the design of asymmetric cooperative games and how they can leverage interdependence to enhance players' perceptions of social connectedness. Based on a review of existing asymmetric cooperative games and related literature, I developed an initial conceptual framework that identified several mechanical forms of asymmetry common to these games. I adopted a ``research through design'' approach to then apply several forms of mechanical asymmetry to the iterative design of two prototype asymmetric cooperative games, “Goombagrams” and “Beam Me ‘Round, Scotty!” (BMRS). I then conducted a series of focused player experience studies examining and refining different aspects of the conceptual framework using the most promising of those prototypes, BMRS. The first study established several characteristic dynamics of asymmetric cooperative play including considerations of directional dependence, synchronicity, necessity, leadership and primacy. These insights were used to evolve the BMRS prototype and mount a second study demonstrating that, even when controlling for visual and narrative aesthetic details, asymmetric cooperative play is perceived as more socially engaging than symmetric cooperative play. My third and final study closed the theoretical loop between the mechanical design elements identified in my framework and the socially enriching effects of interdependence by demonstrating how deliberately increasing the mechanical coupling between players could generate corresponding increases in perceptions of social connectedness. Collectively, my research contributions can help both game developers and researchers to design more effective asymmetric cooperative experiences through a better understanding of this uniquely social style of game

Using Gameplay Patterns to Gamify Learning Experiences

Gamification refers to the use of gaming elements to enhance user experience and engagement in non-gaming systems. In this paper we report the design and implementation of two higher education courses in which ludic elements were used to enhance the quality of the learning experience. A game can be regarded as a system of organised gameplay activities, and a course can be regarded as a system of organised learning activities. Leveraging this analogy, analysing games can provide valuable insights to organise learning activities within a learning experience. We examined a sample of successful commercial games to identify patterns of organisation of gameplay activities that could be applied to a course design. Five patterns were identified: quest structure, strategic open-endedness, non-linear progression, orientation, and challenge-based reward. These patterns were then used to define the instructional design of the courses. As a result, courses were organised as systems of quests that could be tackled through different strategies and in a non-linear way. Students received frequent feedback and were rewarded according to the challenges chosen, based on mechanics common in quest-based games. The courses involved two lecturers and 70 students. Learning journals were used throughout the term to collect data regarding student perceptions on the clarity and usefulness of the gamified approach, level of motivation and engagement in the courses, and relevance of the activities proposed. Results show that students felt challenged by the activities proposed and motivated to complete them, despite considering most activities as difficult. Students adopted different cognitive and behavioural strategies to cope with the courses’ demands. They had to define their own team project, defining the objectives, managing their times and coordinating task completion. The regular and frequent provision of feedback was highly appreciated. A sense of mastery was promoted and final achievement was positively impacted by the gamified strategy

Stakeholders influence on managers' environmental behaviors

La importancia del medioambiente ha aumentado tanto en teoría como en práctica en los últimos años. Los “stakeholders” – empleados, proveedores, accionistas, gobiernos, organizaciones no gubernamentales – han jugado un papel fundamental en la modificación del rol de la empresa respecto al medio ambiente. Los investigadores sugieren que la importancia de un “stakeholder” es la suma de su poder, legitimidad y urgencia. Sin embargo, los estudios muestran que la percepción del directivo será la que finalmente determine la importancia de un “stakeholder” para la empresa. La literatura ha investigado en profundidad cómo reaccionan las empresas ante las presiones medioambientales por parte de los distintos “stakeholders”. Sin embargo, no se pocos investigadores se han centradoen las distintas estrategias que los “stakeholders” emplean para presionar a las empresas con prácticas que tengan en cuenta al medioambiente. Los “stakeholders” que tienen una menor capacidad para modificar el comportamiento de las empresas emplean tanto estrategias de presión directas (por ejemplo: boicots y manifestaciones ante las fábricas) como estrategias indirectas de presión (por ejemplo, a través del empleo de alianzas y el aumento de información para la sociedad sobre las prácticas medioambientales de las empresas). Este trabajo explora la presión social como estrategia indirecta de presión empleada por los “stakeholder” para modificar las decisiones medioambientales de las empresas y, a su vez mide la efectividad de dos mecanismos no coercitivos para modificar las decisiones respecto al medioambiente de los directivos con menor preocupación por el mismo. Para ello, un experimento, juego del dictador, se llevo a cabo para probar que los individuos que toman decisiones responden de forma distinta en términos de comportamiento si le afecta económicamente pero con consecuencias medioambientales. Los resultados muestran que la presión social puede ser utilizada como herramienta para modificar las decisiones sobre el medioambiente. Además, los resultados sugieren que la influencia de los “stakeholder” será mayor si el directivo/a es consciente que sus decisiones van a ser conocidas por cualquier “stakeholder” en cualquier de los mecanismo llevados a cabo en el experimento.Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in organization theory and practice. Stakeholders – employees, suppliers, shareholders, regulators, non-governmental organizations – have played a crucial role in modifying firms’ environmental approach. Researchers suggest that a stakeholder’s saliency is the sum of its power, legitimacy and urgency. Yet, studies show that managers’ perception finally determines a stakeholder saliency. Stakeholder literature has investigated how firms react to pressures from stakeholders. However, few studies have focused on the diverse range of strategies a stakeholder can use to pressure firms to modify their environmental record. Stakeholders, which have less capacity to modify firms’ environmental behavior, use as direct pressure strategies (for example, boycotts and demonstrations) as indirect pressure strategies (network, alliances and spreading environmental information about a focal firm. This paper explores social pressure as a tool for modifying decisions regarding environment and checking the effectiveness of two non-coercive mechanisms to modify environmental decisions of those individuals that have no commitment to environment. For that purpose, a dictator game experiment was carried out aiming to prove that decision makers submitted to several social stimuli respond differently in terms of behaviors affecting them economically, but with environmental consequences. Results show that social pressure can be used as a tool for modifying decisions regarding environment. And, results also suggest that stakeholder influence is higher if a manager is aware that their decisions will be known by stakeholders in any of the mechanisms undertaken in this experiment

The enemy within:designing a cell-based gameplay system for cancer education

This paper outlines the design and preliminary evaluation of The Enemy Within, a browser-based game produced to raise awareness of the nature of cancer as a progressive disease. Aimed at high school and young adult audiences, the ambition with the game is to make visible to players the myriad ways in which healthy cells can mutate and ultimately inherit hallmarks of cancer, whilst also demonstrating how both real-world behaviours and underlying genetics impact both positively and negatively on cell health

De-Roling from Experiences and Identities in Virtual Worlds

Within dramatherapy and psychodrama, the term ‘de-roling’ indicates a set of activities that assist the subjects of therapy in ‘disrobing’ themselves from their fictional characters. Starting from the psychological needs and the therapeutic goals that ‘de-roling’ techniques address in dramatherapy and psychodrama, this text provides a broader understanding of procedures and exercises that define and ease transitional experiences across cultural practices such as religious rituals and spatial design. After this introductory section, we propose a tentative answer as to why game studies and virtual world research largely ignored processes of ‘roling’ and ‘de-roling’ that separate the lived experience of role-play from our everyday sense of the self. The concluding sections argue that de-roling techniques are likely to become more relevant, both academically and in terms of their practical applications, with the growing diffusion of virtual technologies in social practices. The relationships we can establish with ourselves and with our surroundings in digital virtual worlds are, we argue, only partially comparable with similar occurrences in pre-digital practices of subjectification. We propose a perspective according to which the accessibility and immersive phenomenological richness of virtual reality technologies are likely to exacerbate the potentially dissociative effects of virtual reality applications. This text constitutes an initial step towards framing specific socio-technical concerns and starting a timely conversation that binds together dramatherapy, psychodrama, game studies, and the design of digital virtual worlds

Exploring Cyberbullying and Other Toxic Behavior in Team Competition Online Games

In this work we explore cyberbullying and other toxic behavior in team competition online games. Using a dataset of over 10 million player reports on 1.46 million toxic players along with corresponding crowdsourced decisions, we test several hypotheses drawn from theories explaining toxic behavior. Besides providing large-scale, empirical based understanding of toxic behavior, our work can be used as a basis for building systems to detect, prevent, and counter-act toxic behavior.Comment: CHI'1