Education

Gamification User Types HEXAD Validation Study

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1 O5FClRZSTMg4sSlO5WyJkA Gamification User Types HEXAD Validation Study

I thought it would be good to finally show you all the research results from Austrian Institute of Technology and HCI Games Group, Games Institute, University of Waterloo and of course Gamified UK around the User Types and the survey.

The link below will take you to a blog written by one of the researchers, Gustavo Tondello, who explains it all better than I can!

https://medium.com/@hcigamesgroup/the-gamification-user-types-hexad-scale-a6d8727d201e

Several studies have indicated the need for personalising gamified systems to users’ personalities. However, mapping user personality onto design elements is difficult. To address this problem, Marczewski developed the Gamification User Types Hexad framework, based on research on human motivation, player types, and practical design experience. He also suggested different game design elements that may support different user types. However, until now we were still lacking a standard assessment tool for user’s preferences based on the Hexad framework. There was also no empirical validation, yet, that associated Hexad user types and game design elements. A collaborative research project by the HCI Games Group, the Austrian Institute of Technology, and Gamified UK sought to accomplish these two goals: (1) create and validate a standard survey to assess an individual’s Hexad user type and (2) verify the association between the Hexad user types and the game design elements they are supposed to appeal to. Read More ...

Pokemon Go: The Good, The Bad and Some Lessons

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Pokemon go logo 01 Pokemon Go The Good The Bad and Some Lessons

Writing about Pokemon Go is almost as popular as actually playing it, so I thought I would join in the trend.

TL:TR It’s great fun but needs to have some careful consideration around safety concerns

In case you have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, let me just set the scene. Pokemon Go is a game based on the popular Pokemon franchise. It sees players using their mobile phones to hunt down and capture Pokemon in the real world. Using Augmented Reality (AR), Pokemon pop up all over the real world for players to capture and train. Once caught, they can be leveled up, evolved, battled with at Pokemon Gyms and more. Read More ...

Save Your Best Songs for the Encore

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Guitar 1468928560 Save Your Best Songs for the Encore

Years ago I read an interview with a musician (whose name escapes me), where he was giving advice to new musicians. There was lots of good stuff, but the one that really stuck with me was this.

Save your best songs for the encore, even if you never get the chance to play them.

At the time, this struck me as very odd. However, over the years I have started to see where this guy was going. The first thing is that all your songs should be good – if you rely on one or two and the rest are fillers, people will notice. If you are so confident in your songs that you can leave the ones you feel are best for a potentially never heard encore, you are on to a winner! Read More ...

[News] RNLI creates Minecraft beach survival game to teach water safety to children

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Image News RNLI creates Minecraft beach survival game to teach water safety to children

This Summer, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is launching year two of the charity’s Beach Builder Challenge using the interactive video game, Minecraft, which allows children to create and build virtual worlds.

The Beach Builder Challenge, available to play from 1 August, has been created by the RNLI to teach children about beach and water safety at a time when many young people will be visiting the coast during school summer holidays.

New for this year, the RNLI has expanded the virtual world to include a Beach Island Adventure, which means as well as being able to create epic beaches, this year creative youngsters are also tasked with completing four levels in the Beach Island Adventure. The four levels are based on the charity’s Stay SAFE acronym: Spot the dangers, Take Advice, Stay close to a Friend or family member, Learn what to do in an Emergency. Read More ...

Narrative Choice Architecture and Gamification

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Slide4 Narrative Choice Architecture and Gamification

The more I play games, the more I realise just how important having choices that are meaningful, or at least feel meaningful.

One of the key features that separates games from other media is that the player is put at the centre of the story and can interact with it, you are not just “along for the ride” as you are in a film or a book.  When you sit down with a book, you start at the start and then read every page until you get to the end (unless it is a choose your own adventure…). The only choice the reader gets is whether or not to start the book and read it all the way through. Read More ...