- Title
- Defining and measuring engagement in serious games
- Creator
- Hookham, Geoffrey Thomas
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- As of 2018, serious games are being used across a range of disciplines to enhance outcomes ranging from learning and business objectives, to the uptake of governmental and civic activities. A motivating factor lies within the belief that games, because they can be enjoyable, are intrinsically motivating. One concept used to describe this interest and use is engagement. The intent of this thesis is to examine engagement in the context of digital serious games. It considers how engagement has been defined, used, and measured across literature. The intention is to better inform the choice of methods for measuring engagement. Following results from a systematic review of literature, a three-part classification of engagement is adopted. This framework splits engagement into behavioural, cognitive, and affective components. The systematic review also raised the issue of how usability impacts on measures of engagement and so this construct was also considered in the following stages of the study. As a result of the review several diverse methods are selected and used in a case study to compare engagement between a traditional form of interaction and a serious game. To perform the case study developing a serious game called Shadow was developed. Shadow reimplemented a module from a traditional web-based psychological intervention program called SHADE. The intervention program is based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy designed to assist younger individuals with comorbid depression and alcohol or other drug use problems. Shadow was developed as a puzzle game, an alternative implementation of the Taking Charge of Your Thoughts module of SHADE. The two programs are compared across two experiments; a pilot study examining the interplay of methods including questionnaires, Think Aloud, and Startle Reflex Modulation; and a larger, refined study improving on the limitations found in the pilot. Outcomes from the comparative study indicated differences between SHADE and Shadow. Startle reflex modulation highlighted differences in affective responses between SHADE’s paper-based activity sheets and all screen-based areas of the game and intervention. Think aloud revealed a range of patterns related to observable affective and cognitive processes. Questionnaires highlighted overall differences across the dimensions of usability, competence, immersion, flow, presence, tension, challenge, and negative and positive affect. These dimensions comprise aspects of affective and cognitive engagement. In dimensions related to affective engagement, Shadow elicited higher immersion, presence, and tension, and lower negative affect than SHADE. Cognitive engagement results were mixed, SHADE presented a higher competence score, indicating the understanding from learning material was higher, though in Shadow the challenge was higher. This may indicate both programs were engaging on a cognitive level, but the serious game’s impact on affective engagement was more than SHADE’s. The outcomes from the overall study suggest engagement is a multifaced concept, which would best be described using the three-part classification of affective, behavioural and cognitive engagement. Further clarification of whether engagement is referring to a player state, or a serious game’s use or inherent property, in concert with the three-part classification, allows for targeted measures of engagement. Usability measures adopted in this study were deemed a useful adjunct to such comparative studies. The intention is to ensure comparable levels of usability are present in the compared conditions. The Think Aloud approach was also useful in providing highly contextualised information about the player experience. The study also looked at measuring the player’s affective state using the method of Startle Reflex Modulation. While this method is theoretically of direct interest for measuring engagement, it proved difficult to use for interactive and uncontrolled components typical of games.
- Subject
- serious games; engagement; measurement; Shadow
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1405146
- Identifier
- uon:35448
- Rights
- Copyright 2019 Geoffrey Thomas Hookham
- Language
- eng
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 489 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |