Effects of Game Mode in Multiplayer Video Games on Intergenerational Social Interaction: Randomized Field Study

Abstract

Background Maintaining social relationships is a basic human need and particularly essential in old age, including when living in a retirement home. Multiplayer video games can promote positive social interactions among players from different generations while playing. Yet, such facilitation of positive social interactions depends on specific game design. To systematically investigate the effects of game design on social interaction between seniors and their coplayers, the game Myosotis FoodPlanet was developed in this study, and the impacts of 3 different game modes on social interaction were compared in a controlled field trial. Objective This study aims to compare the effects of 3 different game modes (competitive, cooperative, and creative) on social interactions (verbal and nonverbal communication) between seniors and their younger coplayers. Methods This study was conducted in a Swiss retirement home as a controlled field trial. Participants were residents of the retirement home (N=10; mean age 84.8 years, SD 5.9 years) and played in pairs with their caregivers. Each pair played 3 game modes in random order. This resulted in 30 game sequences of 20 minutes each. A within-subject design was applied with game mode as the within-factor and social interaction as the outcome variable. To assess the quality of social interaction, 30 video-recorded game sequences were analyzed based on an event sampling method. Results Analysis of variance for repeated measurements revealed significant effects: there was significantly more verbal communication in the creative mode than in the cooperative mode (P=.04) with a strong effect size (Cohen f=0.611). An examination of verbal communication revealed more game-related communication in the creative mode than in the cooperative mode (P=.01) and the competitive mode (P=.09) with marginally significant effects and strong effect sizes (Cohen f=0.841). In addition, significantly more biography-related communication occurred in the creative mode than in the cooperative mode (P=.03), with a strong effect size (r=0.707). Regarding nonverbal communication (eg, laughing together), analysis of variance for repeated measurements showed significant differences among the game modes (P=.02) with a strong effect size (Cohen f=0.758). Results showed that there was significantly more laughing together in the competitive mode (competitive>cooperative>creative). Conclusions The results show that game mode can be an important factor for shaping the social interactions of players playing together. Compared with other modes, creative game modes can increase verbal communication. In contrast, competitive modes may stimulate more laughing together. This has important implications for game design and the use of computer games to promote social interaction between seniors and their coplayers in practice.

Use of serious games with older adults: systematic literature review

“…Two modes 'solo mode' or 'social/group mode', are also available in this serious game for collaborative game experiences. And, precisely in this more social line, is Myosotis FoodPlanet, a video game designed by Zahn et al (2022) to promote positive social interactions between players of different generations while playing. Specifically, it is an iPad game that involves two players jointly preparing a Swiss cheese fondue by dragging floating ingredients into a pot.…”

“…Indirect to these domains (physical and cognitive), video games also provide benefits for maintaining and improve the social health of older adults as an aggregate value of serious games. However, and despite identifying some video games (see Boj et al, 2018;Dijkstra et al, 2018;Kaplan et al, 2018;Qiu et al, (2023); Pereira et al, 2019;Triandafilou et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2019;da Silva et al, 2021;Zahn et al, 2022) designed in multi-player format to encourage social interaction among users, this does not appear to be a clear use for this type of resource in specialised research on the subject to date. Even so, some examples of studies (Faraji and Metz 2021;Lin et al, 2022;Pageau et al, 2022) highlight the idea that social isolation in older adults is a risk factor that significantly reduces their quality of life, so they support the use of video games as a tool for encouraging group activities, integration and social interaction, as well as maintaining a social identity role (Cacciata et al, 2019;Di Lorito et al, 2021).…”

“…In particular, the ability of these video games to significantly foster positive intergenerational social interaction between young and old people, and consequent improvement in long-term psychological well-being, comes to the fore. Thus, previous research in which serious is specifically designed as an intergenerational game (Qiu et al, 2023;Zahn et al, 2022) stresses the importance of analysing the social dimension of the exergame and recommends that future empirical studies directly compare different game forms to discover the effects of intergenerational interactions. According (Vázquez et al, 2018) social health is thus an emerging domain that is gaining greater weight in the design of video games for older adults and this line of research must be expanded.…”

Enhancing active aging through IRAGE: Mitigating social isolation with intergenerational gaming

“…This research aims to determine if older adults can use ICT tools to communicate remotely, reduce social isolation, and benefit from communication with their families, especially younger members. Zahn et al [ 49 ] compared three game modalities for older people: competitive, collaborative, and creative. One of the main conclusions drawn by Zahn et al [ 49 ] is that participating in creative games can increase verbal communication skills.…”

“…Zahn et al [ 49 ] compared three game modalities for older people: competitive, collaborative, and creative. One of the main conclusions drawn by Zahn et al [ 49 ] is that participating in creative games can increase verbal communication skills. Based on this finding and other considerations, we propose an experience where participants can communicate through a creative storytelling game.…”