Games for health journal
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Games for health journal · Dec 2015
Development and User Satisfaction of "Plan-It Commander," a Serious Game for Children with ADHD.
The need for engaging treatment approaches within mental health care has led to the application of gaming approaches to existing behavioral training programs (i.e., gamification). Because children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to have fewer problems with concentration and engagement when playing digital games, applying game technologies and design approaches to complement treatment may be a useful means to engage this population in their treatment. Unfortunately, gamified training programs currently available for ADHD have been limited in their ability to demonstrate in-game behavior skills that generalize to daily life situations. ⋯ In this article, game development and the scientific background of the behavioral approach are described, as well as results of a survey (n = 42) to gather user feedback on the first prototype of the game. The findings suggest that participants were satisfied with this game and provided the basis for further development and research to the game. Implications for developing serious games and applying user feedback in game development are discussed.
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This article is based on an invited presentation for the Exergame Preconference Symposium held in Houston, TX, May 19-20, 2014 that was hosted by Tom Baranowski, PhD, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine. Its purpose is to provide insight into the ways in which theory can be used to guide exergame research.
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Games for health journal · Feb 2015
ReviewNarrative in Exergames: Thoughts on Procedure, Mechanism, and Others.
Narratives are stories with a beginning, middle, and end that provide information about the characters and plot. Exergames are videogames that require players to move or exercise. Narratives and exergames have seldom been examined together. ⋯ However, the rewards offered by these possibilities may be offset by the challenges they pose. These challenges include the difficulty in fully integrating narratives into the gameplay, the players' limited information processing capacity, difficulty in measurement, the lack of full understanding of the player-character identification process, and the narrative saturation effects. Innovative research is needed to bridge the two potentially important domains.
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Games for health journal · Feb 2015
ReviewBetter Together: Outcomes of Cooperation Versus Competition in Social Exergaming.
Children and adolescents most often play active videogames, or exergames, in a social environment. Social play may enhance the potential benefits of an exergaming experience, much like group exercise and team sports are observed to improve physical activity-related outcomes above those of solitary exercise. Two ubiquitous elements of exergames are cooperation and competition. ⋯ Although the current volume of literature on competition and cooperation in exergaming is small, social exergames hold promise as an engaging alternative to traditional physical activity interventions and may promote a broad range of positive outcomes for children and adolescents. Principles of cooperation and competition are applicable for developers of health-promoting games. Future research is needed to further understand the mechanisms of how competition and cooperation in social exergaming impact physiological and psychosocial outcomes.