The Effects of Badges and Avatar Identification on Play and Making in Educational Games

Kao, Dominic; Harrell, D. Fox

doi:10.1145/3173574.3174174

Cited by 37 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…HCI and games researchers have long been interested in games and learning [40-42, 48, 50, 56, 60, 62, 103, 118, 120]. This includes studies on tutorials [3], differences in frequent versus infrequent gamers' reactions to tutorials [82], leveraging reward systems [32], encouraging a growth mindset, or the idea that intelligence is malleable [55,86,87], avatars [57,59,63,66], embellishment [58,65], and many more. AI and games researchers have also begun to take interest, such as the automatic generation of video game tutorials [36,37], and the adaptation of tutorials to individual user skill levels [8].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Help Facilities in Game-Making Software

Kao

2020

International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

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Help facilities have been crucial in helping users learn about software for decades. But despite widespread prevalence of game engines and game editors that ship with many of today's most popular games, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how help facilities impact game-making. For instance, certain types of help facilities may help users more than others. To better understand help facilities, we created game-making software that allowed us to systematically vary the type of help available. We then ran a study of 1646 participants that compared six help facility conditions: 1) Text Help, 2) Interactive Help, 3) Intelligent Agent Help, 4) Video Help, 5) All Help, and 6) No Help. Each participant created their own first-person shooter game level using our game-making software with a randomly assigned help facility condition. Results indicate that Interactive Help has a greater positive impact on time spent, controls learnability, learning motivation, total editor activity, and game level quality. Video Help is a close second across these same measures. CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Computer games; • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Help Facilities in Game-Making Software

Kao

2020

International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

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“…A puzzle challenge is shown at the end of level completion, and the players solving puzzles receive additional points for their effort. Future versions might incorporate additional rewards such as badges [9].…”

Section: Code To Manipulate the Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optional Learning in Games

Joshi

2020

Extended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

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In educational games, players have to engage with the learning material to make progress in-game compulsorily. This project aims to make learning activity optional yet maintain player engagement with the educational content. To test the idea, we developed four game variants by integrating educational material in various game mechanics. Specific game mechanics are chosen, which may motivate players to engage in solving computer puzzles voluntarily.

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“…In games, characters are "agents through whose actions a drama is told" (p. 108, [17]), where players either inhabit and control them (avatars or player character) or interact with them in the game world (non-player characters (NPCs) [1,17,23]). As such, game character attachment is considered a key element for engaging [3,26] and emotionally rich experiences [5,24,51]. In this project, we understand 'character attachment' as an umbrella term for the sense of liking, connection and closeness a player feels to any in-game character, ranging from player characters (PC), the player's avatar, or NPCs.…”

Section: Character Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, similarity identification refers to when people identify with a character who is similar to them [10], whereas wishful identification pertains to people's desire to aspire towards being more like a specific character [19]. People often identify with the characters they control in games [2,13,44,53], which can enhance the player experience through increased autonomy and immersion [3,26], as well as enjoyment and positive affect [3]. A recent study by Rogers et al [44] also found that players identify with NPCs, where they reported to identify most strongly with the companion character, followed by the mentor and enemy character.…”

Section: Character Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Emotional Attachment to Game Characters

Bopp

Müller

Aeschbach

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

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Engaging game characters are often key to a positive and emotionally rich player experience. However, current research treats character attachment in a rather generic manner with little regard for the differing emotional qualities that may characterize this attachment. To address this gap we conducted a qualitative online survey with 213 players about the game characters they are particularly fond of. We identify seven distinct forms of emotional attachment, ranging from feeling excited about the characters' gameplay competency, admiring them as role models, to deep concern for characters' well-being. Our findings highlight the emotional range that players experience towards game characters, as well as provide implications for the research and design of emotional character experience in games. CCS Concepts •Applied computing → Computer games; •Humancentered computing → Empirical studies in HCI;

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The Effects of Badges and Avatar Identification on Play and Making in Educational Games

Cited by 37 publications

References 1 publication

Exploring Help Facilities in Game-Making Software

Exploring Help Facilities in Game-Making Software

Optional Learning in Games

Exploring Emotional Attachment to Game Characters

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