Video gameplay, personality and academic performance

The relationship between video gameplay, video game genre preference, personality, and GPA was investigated in an online correlational study with university students. In addition to administering self-report measures of GPA and personality, we asked three different questions regarding styles of video gameplay. The first asked the average time spent playing video games per week (habitual players), the second asked the total time spent playing favorite video games (selective players), and the third asked the number of different video games played in a year (diverse players). Students who were medium in selective player style (spent 11-50 h) had significantly higher GPAs than students low on selective player style (spent 0-10 h). Students high on habitual playing style (7 or more hours a week) showed significantly lower levels of Conscientiousness compared to students low on habitual playing style (0-1 h a week). Students who were high on the diverse style (i.e., 7 or more games played a year) showed significantly higher Openness scores than students low on the diverse style (0-3 games a year). Finally, several notable relations were found between video game genre preference, GPA, and personality. Results are discussed in terms of the positive implications of video gameplay on academic performance.     

Understanding the role of competition in video gameplay satisfaction

One of the key elements in many video games is competition. Based on Self-Determination and Flow theories, this paper explores the process through which competition makes a video game satisfying. A structural model that examines the impacts of Situational Competitiveness (manipulated via modes of competition) and Dispositional Competitiveness (as a personality trait) on gameplay experience is proposed and validated. The results show that the perception of video game competitiveness has a strong effect on Flow experience and Satisfaction. While an individual’s personality impacts the perception of a game’s competitiveness, this perception can also be influenced by the mode of competition.     

针对色彩教育的游戏化设计及效果分析

当前的研究普遍关注于运用游戏化来提高学习的参与度，但对于色彩教育这样的特定领域的游戏化研究还不充分，而且缺少对游戏化要素及学习效果影响因素的分析。针对这一问题，设计了一款用于训练色彩辨识能力的游戏模型。首先设计了核心玩法相同、但交互方式不同的两种玩法；然后在这两种玩法中都加入了相同的虚拟奖励；最后分别比较在有或无虚拟奖励的情况下两种玩法对训练效果的影响，以及在相同玩法下有无虚拟奖励对训练效果的影响。结果显示，玩法设计影响学习效率，而虚拟奖励显著影响参与度。     

Video-mediated and co-present gameplay: Effects of mutual gaze on game experience,expressiveness and perceived social presence

We study how pairs of children interact socially and express their emotions while playing games in different communicative settings. In particular, we study how such interactions can vary for environments that differ regarding the level of mediation and the associated feelings of social presence. Overall, the study compared three conditions (one face-to-face gameplay condition, and two video-mediated gameplay conditions; one allowing for mutual gaze, the other not) and focused on the social presence and non-verbal behavior of children in three conditions. The results show that the presence of mutual eye-gaze enriches the feelings of social presence, fun and game experience; conversely, the absence of mutual eye-gaze dramatically effects the quality of interaction in the video-mediated environment. The results of this study stress the importance of mutual gaze, and we therefore argue that it should become an integral component of future VMC systems, particularly in those designed for playful settings and children.     

Using animation to support the teaching of computer game development techniques

In this paper, we examine the potential use of animation for supporting the teaching of some of the mathematical concepts that underlie computer games development activities, such as vector and matrix algebra. An experiment was conducted with a group of UK undergraduate computing students to compare the perceived usefulness of animated and static learning materials for teaching such concepts. Undergraduate computer game development courses are currently a growing area of UK higher education. Computer game development can often involve the use of mathematical modelling of two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer game objects and their interactions. Overall, it appeared that animated learning materials appeared to be perceived as being more useful to undergraduate computer games students than traditional learning materials for learning such concepts.     

Do player performance,real sport experience,and gender affect movement patterns during equivalent exergame?

This study compared the movement patterns of forty-six college students, playing bouts of swimming exergame, while categorized based on their playing performance, gender, and prior experience of real swimming and exergames. Swimming events were divided into normal (controlled by visual feedback) and fast (no feedback) phases and upper limb kinematics were monitored during front crawl event. Those who performed better, completed the game with fewer upper limb cycles and in a shorter time (p < 0.003). Prior exergame experience resulted in higher start velocity (p = 0.019) and those who were familiarized with this swimming exergame, completed the front crawl event with fewer cycles (p = 0.022). Gender and real swimming experience did not affect biomechanical variables. With various playing styles and differences to real swimming movements, the data suggest that the motion capture device is not able to detect complex movements of swimming and previous knowledge of real swimming do not necessarily transfer into better exergame performance. These changes might have happened due to higher adaptation to the exergame. Understanding these patterns may help in the development of more realistic sport exergames and meaningful gameplay.     

Are you a human or a humanoid: Predictive user modelling through behavioural analysis of online gameplay data

Intelligent agents are widely used in robotics, gaming and simulation. A key issue is modelling human behaviours so that intelligent agents can use a human’s behavioural model to imitate them and predict their next moves. In this article, we use Internet-based multiplayer online gaming (MOG) as a case study to present our approach to predictive user modelling through behavioural analysis of online gameplay data. As latency is an inherited bottleneck of the Internet and is likely to remain so into a foreseeable future, a lot of efforts have been made to address the resulting issues. Most of the existing latency handling techniques are based on the assumption that latency is within an acceptable threshold so that they can alleviate or even completely hide its negative impact on players’ quality of experience (QoE) that directly determines consumers’ satisfaction of the provided MOG services. While this assumption is mostly valid, it is worth noting that a player’s Internet connection latency always fluctuates (known as jitter), possibly to the extent of exceeding a MOG’s designated threshold in which case none of the techniques can handle properly but disconnecting the player from the gameplay session. Forcing a player to quit prematurely simply due to a spike of unusual high latency has a significant negative impact both on the gameplay’s fairness and on the player’s QoE. To improve customer satisfaction of a MOG service, we propose a more tolerant approach by temporarily substituting a player with a humanoid bot in the event of latency hikes so that the player always remains in the gameplay session. The challenge in this approach is to create a personalised humanoid bot that can imitate the playing pattern of the individual human player being substituted. Our solution is to first extract key variables that have impact on the human player’s decision-makings through behavioural analysis of the player’s historical gameplay data, then model the relationships among these variables, and finally creates the player’s humanoid bot with the model. In this paper, we use a multiplayer online pong game as a case study to explain behavioural variables, modelling techniques, processes, outcomes, and performance studies.     

Learning immunology in a game: Learning outcomes,the use of player characters,immersion experiences and visual attention distributions

This study contributed to the current body of literature on game-based learning by investigating the way playing an educational game, Humunology, affected learning about the immune system and examining further the association between game immersion and visual attention distribution. A total of 79 undergraduate and graduate students participated, and data were collected both in situ and ex situ. The results showed that the students learned through playing Humunology, and the analyses of the use of player characters indicated that the game design facilitated gameplay behaviours that are consistent with the science content. The use of the eye-tracking method also revealed that students who were more immersed in playing Humunology paid more attention to areas related to player characters. The interpretations and limitations are discussed further.     

Enhancing 5th graders’ science content knowledge and self-efficacy through game-based learning

Many argue that games can positively impact learning by providing an intrinsically motivating and engaging learning environment for students in ways that traditional school cannot. Recent research demonstrates that games have the potential to impact student learning in STEM content areas and that collaborative gameplay may be of particular importance for learning gains. This study investigated the effects of collaborative and single game player conditions on science content learning and science self-efficacy. Results indicated that there were no differences between the two playing conditions; however, when conditions were collapsed, science content learning and self-efficacy significantly increased. Future research should focus on the composition of collaboration interaction among game players to assess what types of collaborative tasks may yield positive learning gains.     

An old game,new experience: exploring the effect of players’ personal gameplay history on game experience

This experimental study explores how game experience differs between players with different gameplay histories within the same game universe. We are interested in how prolonged engagement with a game series affects the gameplay experience in relation to the most recent game version in the series. A total of 54 participants were divided into four groups depending on their gaming experience, namely non-gamers, new-gamers, old-gamers and core-gamers. They played the mobile version of Super Mario Run, and questionnaire data was collected after the gameplay session. The results of the study showed that not only the players’ personal gameplay history but also the length of experience or degree of familiarity with the game universe affected the experience of playing a new game in the same game universe. Additionally, familiarity with the game universe had a positive impact on the feeling of competence, immersion, emotions and flow.

     

Designing concurrent full-body gestures for intense gameplay

Full body gestures provide alternative input to video games that are more natural and intuitive. However, full-body game gestures designed by developers may not always be the most suitable gestures available. A key challenge in full-body game gestural interfaces lies in how to design gestures such that they accommodate the intensive, dynamic nature of video games, e.g., several gestures may need to be executed simultaneously using different body parts. This paper investigates suitable simultaneous full-body game gestures, with the aim of accommodating high interactivity during intense gameplay. Three user studies were conducted: first, to determine user preferences, a user-elicitation study was conducted where participants were asked to define gestures for common game actions/commands; second, to identify suitable and alternative body parts, participants were asked to rate the suitability of each body part (one and two hands, one and two legs, head, eyes, and torso) for common game actions/commands; third, to explore the consensus of suitable simultaneous gestures, we proposed a novel choice-based elicitation approach where participants were asked to mix and match gestures from a predefined list to produce their preferred simultaneous gestures. Our key findings include (i) user preferences of game gestures, (ii) a set of suitable and alternative body parts for common game actions/commands, (iii) a consensus set of simultaneous full-body game gestures that assist interaction in different interactive game situations, and (iv) generalized design guidelines for future full-body game interfaces. These results can assist designers and practitioners to develop more effective full-body game gestural interfaces or other highly interactive full-body gestural interfaces.     

Impacts of behavioral engagement and self-monitoring on the development of mental models through serious games: Inferences from in-game measures

The present study investigated the potential of serious games for the acquisition of complex cognitive skills by assessing learners’ mental model development, operationalized as an increase in Mental Model Accuracy (MMA). Furthermore, we assessed behavioral engagement and self-monitoring as two specific engagement types within the gameplay process and analyzed their impact on mental model development. German undergraduate students (N = 97) played a serious game developed to foster practical money skills. We obtained pre- and post-gaming measures of MMA to analyze the development of mental models by applying a structural assessment method. Unobtrusive measures of behavioral engagement and self-monitoring were obtained by computerized collection of participants’ in-game activities. Although we did not find a significant increase in overall MMA through playing, the degree of self-monitoring had a significant and positive effect on post-gaming MMA, even beyond the effect of initial MMA. Behavioral engagement had no impact on mental model development; however, it was positively related to self-monitoring behavior. The results are discussed in light of findings from research on self-regulated learning and controversial notions regarding the effect of behavioral engagement in serious games. In addition to insights into gameplay processes that affect mental model development through serious games, the present study also has practical implications in stressing the importance for game designers to provide learners with the opportunity to engage in self-monitoring behavior while playing a serious game.     

Supporting conceptual understanding of the associative and distributive properties through digital gameplay

There has been a steady rise in the support for games as learning environments. This support is largely based on the strong levels of engagement and motivation observed during gameplay. What has proven difficult is the ability to consistently design and develop learning games that are both engaging and educationally viable. Those in the game‐based learning community contend the solution is to tightly integrate instructional objective(s) within the game's mechanics. In order to investigate whether or not intrinsic integration would aid in game design, an experimental study was conducted with 111 fourth and fifth graders in which three versions of a game were designed in order to determine which approach would have a more significant impact on conceptual understanding of the associative and distributive properties. It was found that those who played the intrinsic version of the game (properties mapped to game mechanics) had significant learning gains compared with those who played the extrinsic version. Perceptions of the game are also discussed, along with future directions.     

Using multi-channel data with multi-level modeling to assess in-game performance during gameplay with Crystal Island

Game-based learning environments (GBLEs) have been touted as the solution for failing educational outcomes. In this study, we address some of these major issues by using multi-level modeling with data from eye movements and log files to examine the cognitive and metacognitive self-regulatory processes used by 50 college students as they read books and completed the associated in-game assessments (concept matrices) while playing the Crystal Island game-based learning environment. Results revealed that participants who read fewer books in total, but read each of them more frequently, and who had low proportions of fixations on books and concept matrices exhibited the strongest performance. Results stress the importance of assessing quality vs. quantity during gameplay, such that it is important to read books in-depth (i.e., quality), compared to reading books once (i.e., quantity). Implications for these findings involve designing adaptive GBLEs that scaffold participants based on their trace data, such that we can model efficient behaviors that lead to successful performance.     

Using commercial video games in flipped classrooms to support physical concept construction

Based on the flipped‐classroom model and the potential motivational and instructional benefits of digital games, we describe a flipped game‐based learning (FGBL) strategy focused on preclass and overall learning outcomes. A secondary goal is to determine the effects, if any, of the classroom aspects of the FGBL strategy on learning efficiency. Our experiments involved 2 commercial games featuring physical motion concepts: Ballance (Newton's law of motion) and Angry Birds (mechanical energy conservation). We randomly assigned 87 8th‐grade students to game instruction (digital game before class and lecture‐based instruction in class), FGBL strategy (digital game before class and cooperative learning in the form of group discussion and practice in class), or lecture‐based instruction groups (no gameplay). Results indicate that the digital games exerted a positive effect on preclass learning outcomes and that FGBL‐strategy students achieved better overall learning outcomes than their lecture‐based peers. Our observation of similar overall outcomes between the cooperative learning and lecture‐based groups suggests a need to provide additional teaching materials or technical support when introducing video games to cooperative classroom learning activities.     

Using the saliency-based model to design a digital archaeological game to motivate players' intention to visit the digital archives of Taiwan's natural science museum

Museums in Taiwan have developed various digital archives, but few people have visited these digital archives. Therefore, this study designed a digital archaeology game for high school students to play. Based on the concept of “learning for playing” (i.e., players who want to win will study more), the digital archaeology game contest aims at attracting students to visit the natural science digital museum. In the game, researchers (players) reorient the artifacts, structures and architectures through excavation and assemblages to understand the world of natural science based on the saliency-based model. To examine whether this game prompts learners to visit the natural science digital museum to acquire knowledge, 80 students from three high schools were recruited and grouped into 40 pairs to compete against each other. After the contest, questionnaires were collected and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the research participants' gameplay self-efficacy affected their perceived hedonic values and was mediated by the perceived ease of playing the game increased their intention to visit the digital archives of the natural science museum. The implications of this study could be used for promotion of digital archives or other digital museums.     

Validating gameplay activity inventory (GAIN) for modeling player profiles

In the present study, we validated Gameplay Activity Inventory (GAIN), a short and psychometrically sound instrument for measuring players’ gameplay preferences and modeling player profiles. In Study 1, participants in Finland (\(N=879\)) responded to a 52-item version of GAIN. An exploratory factor analysis was used to identify five latent factors of gameplay activity appreciation: Aggression, Management, Exploration, Coordination, and Caretaking. In Study 2, respondents in Canada (\(N=1322\)) and Japan (\(N=1178\)) responded to GAIN, and the factor structure of a 15-item version was examined using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results showed that the short version of GAIN has good construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity in Japan and in Canada. We demonstrated the usefulness of GAIN by conducting a cluster analysis to identify player types that differ in both demographics and game choice. GAIN can be used in research as a tool for investigating player profiles. Game companies, publishers and analysts can utilize GAIN in player-centric game development and targeted marketing and in generating personalized game recommendations.     

The role of executive control in young children's serious gaming behavior

The present study examined (1) how executive control contributed to in-game behaviors in young children while playing a serious game, (2) whether the levels of control changed when the game was played repeatedly, and (3) how the first experience with the game mediated the role of executive control to in-game behaviors when the game was repeated. Attentional and action control were directly assessed in 106 kindergartners, who played a single-leveled serious game twice. During their gameplay, the following behaviors were registered: time, number of scaffolds needed, mistakes, verbal expressions, questions, irrelevant game activities (drawings), and off-task behavior. The results for the first game round showed that time, expressions, and the need for scaffolds were predicted by attentional control. In the second round, a strong role for action control was found to overcome off-task behavior and irrelevant drawings. Verbal expressiveness was again influenced by attentional control. Moreover, mediation effects of attentional control to efficient in-game behaviors in the second gameplay were evidenced via scaffolding and expressiveness in the first gameplay. It is concluded that in new games children's attentional control contributes to formulating strategies and problem-solving, while their action control underlies sustained and goal-directed learning over time.     

Comparing the retention and flow experience in playing Solitary and Heart Attack games of San Zi Jing: A perspective of Dual Process Theory

Most educational games require high speed process; they require fast recognitions and accurate hand-eye coordination to play. Under this constraint, Dual Process theory (DPT) indicated players have different levels of cognitive process over different games which affect their mood. Csikszentmihalyi highlighted that a flow experience is the essential psychological effect on mood and cognitive process. According to DPT, how students engage in different game design will affect their learning retention effects. The flow experiences were examined in this study in relation to Solitary and Heart Attack games of San Zi Jing (a Chinese educational poem). The present study was implemented with a sample of 209 5th and 6th grade elementary school students. The students were assigned with one of the games randomly. The results indicated that in terms of flow experiences, Heart Attack group was significantly higher than that of the Solitary group; secondly, solitary game showed a better retention rate than Heart Attack game did after one month; even though the retention rate of both type games have slight loose after one month. The results of this study suggest if the game design emphasizes on learning retention, solitary game is recommended for higher grade students. Whereas, game design for hedonic values, then Heart Attack type is recommended. Future studies may focus on additional contents and establish more trials to examine the effects of flow experiences and engagement effects.     

Digital game-based learning in a Shanghai primary-school mathematics class: A case study

This study examined the perceptions and experiences of a teacher and students in a Shanghai public primary school when digital games were used in a second-grade math class. The participants included one teacher and 45 students. Data collection methods included classroom observation, focus-group and individual interviews, and document analysis. Digital gameplay, when used once daily over a 6-day period, was found to enhance student engagement and interest in learning; many students, however, were concerned about its effect on academic achievement and eyesight. The teacher employed a “making thinking visible” approach using pencil and paper and problem-solving strategies to help students understand the game's mathematical principles and master mathematical knowledge. Obstacles included large class size, difficulty evaluating learning outcomes, balancing fun and learning, and effective game–classroom integration. This study found that exam-oriented education and traditional teacher-centred teaching in China influenced participants' perceptions and experiences of digital game-based learning.