Gamification of Older Adults’ Physical Activity: An Eight-Week Study

Designing fitness programs to combat a sedentary lifestyle and foster older adults’ motivation and goal-setting is not yet well-understood beyond point-based systems. To improve older adults’ (over 50 years) health and wellness, we studied a gamified physical activity intervention over eight weeks in an experiment (N=30) with three conditions (gamified, non-gamified, control). Our qualitative analysis showed the gamified group exhibited more engagement and interest in performing physical activity facilitated by technology. Results from our quantitative analysis indicated significance in the perceived competence dimension compared to the non-gamified and the control group. Perceived autonomy was significant for the non-gamified group against the control group. The findings from qualitative and quantitative analysis show motivation, enjoyment, and engagement were higher in the gam-ified group. This provides support for successfully facilitating older adults’ physical activity through gamified technology, which helped us create guide-lines for older adults’ adaptive engagement

Game Play in Education: An Exploration of the What, How, and Why

This study explored whether teachers utilize games in the classroom, known as gamification and, if so, whether they used games according to game theory that exists in the field of gaming and game design. In higher education and secondary environments, educators report that problems exist as far as student behavior and engagement. Many students do not want to learn. The literature review conducted as part of this study indicated that when teachers gamified their classrooms few empirical investigations were conducted in the K-12 setting; another shortcoming was a lack of a uniform classification system for game elements among the literature, causing confusion in the research as to the approaches applied during each study and how conclusions were reached. The lack of practical application was important in this study because in order for game elements to engage and motivate students to trigger desired behavior, gamification should draw from the motivational qualities of good games as outlined by game designer McGonigal. Therefore, when a teacher opts to use gamification, a standard classification of game elements should be developed as part of educational game theory so that the what, how, and why is evident. In other words, teachers can benefit from this study by gaining an understanding of what constitutes a game element, how each element should be utilized, and for what purpose

Potential and effects of personalizing gameful fitness applications using behavior change intentions and Hexad user types

Personalizing gameful applications is essential to account for interpersonal differences in the perception of gameful design elements. Considering that an increasing number of people lead sedentary lifestyles, using personalized gameful applications to encourage physical activity is a particularly relevant domain. In this article, we investigate behavior change intentions and Hexad user types as factors to personalize gameful fitness applications. We first explored the potential of these two factors by analyzing differences in the perceived persuasiveness of gameful design elements using a storyboards-based online study (N=178). Our results show several significant effects regarding both factors and thus support the usefulness of them in explaining perceptual differences. Based on these findings, we implemented “Endless Universe,” a personalized gameful application encouraging physical activity on a treadmill. We used the system in a laboratory study (N=20) to study actual effects of personalization on the users’ performance, enjoyment and affective experiences. While we did not find effects on the immediate performance of users, positive effects on user experience-related measures were found. The results of this study support the relevance of behavior change intentions and Hexad user types for personalizing gameful fitness systems further

The Elusive Silver Gamer: Representations and Practices of Older Video Game Players

Over the past two decades, the increasing academic, institutional and media interest in older adults who play video games has popularized the figure of the “silver gamer” and its project of successful aging through digital play. This doctoral research examines what is at stake in older adults’ video game play. It stands at the intersection of the studies of aging, game studies, and studies of technology. The research accounts for the reciprocal relationship between discourses and practices as well as the agentivity of players within a constraining environment. It draws on fieldwork conducted in 2019-2020 in France: on one hand, biographical semi-directive interviews with sixteen older adults who play video games on their own; and, on the other hand, the ethnography of an association that organizes video game workshops in aged care institution, with non-participant observation in thirty of these workshops. The dissertation begins with an examination of the conflicted relationship between old age, play, and digital technology that limits older adults’ ability to become video game players. It then investigates the “silver gamer” discourse, outlining its techno-enthusiastic anti-aging narrative and its difficult implementation as a result of older players’ indifference towards its promises. The figure of the “silver gamer” establishes a narrow scope for older adults’ play, associated with health and self-discipline rather than fun or skill. The dissertation proposes an analysis of older adults’ gaming careers and play practices. The distinctive patterns in older adults’ video game play reflect the uneasy cultural and social condition of old age in contemporary societies. Older players tend to be particularly selfconscious, isolated from other players, discreet, and stable in their choice of games. Their play articulates a complex moral economy around time, freedom, and productivity. Their video game play exhibits a sense of marginality and restriction, but also adaptability and resistance, that is grounded in the experience of old age. The present research argues that the cultural representations, social norms, and material conditions associated with this stage of the life course interacts with individuals’ experience of leisure, play, and technology. In sum, (old) age matters in (video game) play

Wearables at work:preferences from an employee’s perspective

This exploratory study aims to obtain a first impression of the wishes and needs of employees on the use of wearables at work for health promotion. 76 employ-ees with a mean age of 40 years old (SD ±11.7) filled in a survey after trying out a wearable. Most employees see the potential of using wearable devices for workplace health promotion. However, according to employees, some negative aspects should be overcome before wearables can effectively contribute to health promotion. The most mentioned negative aspects were poor visualization and un-pleasantness of wearing. Specifically for the workplace, employees were con-cerned about the privacy of data collection

Understanding hotel visitors’ motives to use hotel gamified applications

While hospitality has been one of the industries that have been keen to adopt and use various technologies, the proliferation of gamification application is still to materialise. It is therefore very interesting to investigate the potential benefits of gamified applications in the area of the hospitality industry by identifying the motives of individuals’ when they use a hotel-gamified application. Hospitality industry is becoming more and more competitive and surviving and marketing a destination has become a challenge, so in order to gain a competitive advantage, the use of modern technology is crucial for many destination-marketing organizations. Gamification can be applied in technology-mediated and non-technology-mediated contexts. Within technology-mediated contexts, gamification is more applicable due to the favourable environment that such context offers. Recent evolutions indicate that mobile devices are becoming travel buddies and their use is profoundly influencing the different phases of a travellers’ journey. Hence, it could be assumed, that a mobile hotel gamified application is now easier than ever to develop and succeed. Since fun has become the requirement to ensure continuous demands for many products or services, companies and organizations feel the need to involve fun in their offerings to secure continuity in consumption and use. Therefore, this study aims to understand the meaning of fun for individuals when they will use a hotel-gamified application, using visual material so the interviewees would have an idea of how a hotel-gamified application would look if it was in existence today based on the current definitions of gamification

From Scapegoat to Working Mule : Views on the Beneficial Aspects of Video Games in Everyday Life, Education and Business

While this thesis explores both the negative and beneficial aspects of video games, it was mainly written to highlight the positive effects they have on us, whether we consciously realize it or not. The reader is first taken through definitions for various video gamer types. After this the thesis moves on to all the most common negative effects we often hear about in the media, following by an elaborate look into what we can actually learn and gain from video games. Since they have a broad range of advantages in different areas, everyday life, education, business and marketing have been taken into account as well as gamification and serious games. The hope is that this thesis provides the reader, despite only scratching the surface, with new information regarding video games and succeeds in showcasing them in a better light

Motivating Airmen to Engage with Technical Education: Experimentation and Analysis Using Modern Gamification Techniques

The development and integration of computer systems into today’s society and the subsequent growth of cyber as a warfighting domain has led to changes in military and civilian conflict. Several traits unique to cyber, including disruption and fast pace of change, has led to issues never before seen in the military environment, especially with educating and training. A new approach that leverages crowd-sourced content has been proposed. This approach relies on motivating military members to voluntarily engage with technical (cyber) education. The application of gamification, a design practice aimed at increasing user engagement by targeting core motivators in humans, in the military context is presented in this paper. The adaptation and evaluation of unique game elements onto the platform is also discussed. A human-subject study involving a survey and engagement-tracking experiment is implemented. Results are analyzed using visualization software and a novel framework we created. We then present results explaining what core drives motivate military members on average and within subgroups. We also show that engagement data can be attributed to motivation levels. Finally, we present recommendations to military leadership and education platform designers based on our findings before discussing ideas for future work