literature review of online games

• Review article
• Open access
• Published: 10 July 2017

The effect of games and simulations on higher education: a systematic literature review

• Dimitrios Vlachopoulos 1 &
• Agoritsa Makri 2  

International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education volume  14 , Article number:  22 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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The focus of higher education institutions is the preparation of future professionals. To achieve this aim, innovative teaching methods are often deployed, including games and simulations, which form the subject of this paper. As the field of digital games and simulations is ever maturing, this paper attempts to systematically review the literature relevant to games and simulation pedagogy in higher education. Two researchers collaborate to apply a qualitative method, coding and synthesizing the results using multiple criteria. The main objective is to study the impact of games and simulations with regard to achieving specific learning objectives. On balance, results indicate that games and/or simulations have a positive impact on learning goals. The researchers identify three learning outcomes when integrating games into the learning process: cognitive, behavioural, and affective. As a final step, the authors consolidate evidence for the benefit of academics and practitioners in higher education interested in the efficient use of games and simulations for pedagogical purposes. Such evidence also provides potential options and pathways for future research.

Introduction

As rapidly evolving technological applications, games and simulations are already widely integrated in the traditional educational process. They are deployed extensively in the field of education, with an existing body of work examining the relation between games and education (Yang, Chen, & Jeng, 2010 ; Chiang, Lin, Cheng, & Liu, 2011 ). In recent years, digital or web-based games have increasingly supported learning. In the context of online education, this research area attracts a significant amount of interest from the scientific and educational community, for example tutors, students and game designers. With the growing expansion of technology, instructors and those who create educational policy are interested in introducing innovative technological tools, such as video games, virtual worlds, and Massive Multi-Player Online Games (MMPOGs) (Buckless, 2014 ; Gómez, 2014 ).

Games and simulations show mixed effects across a number of sectors, such as student performance, engagement, and learning motivation. However, as these studies focus only on certain disciplines, there remains a gap in the literature concerning a clear framework of use across academic programmes. As a result, the issue of efficiently integrating games and simulations in the educational process is often up to the instructor’s discretion. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to develop a framework to allow educators across disciplines to better understand the advantages and draw backs of games and simulations specific to their pedagogical goals.

Rationale of the study

The researchers set out to examine the effectiveness of games and simulations in the learning experience, and immediately encounter the first challenge, which relates to a lack of clear empirical evidence on the issue (Farrington, 2011 ). The scientific field is too extensive and requires further investigation. Furthermore, there is currently no formal policy framework or guidelines recommended by governments or educational institutions on the adoption of games and simulations in education. This is the case for many countries in Europe, the US, and Australia, where it is the responsibility of the instructor or institution to incorporate games into the curriculum.

The main motivation for the current review lies in the fact that games are already, to a certain degree, integrated into educational systems to achieve a variety of learning outcomes (Connolly, 2012 ), yet a comprehensive policy is still lacking. In this paper, the first step was an attempt to conceptualize the terms “game” and “simulations”. Although the two terms are neither wholly synonymous, or completely differentiated, in the main body of this review, the focus will be on lumping them together and perceiving them as points across a multidimensional continuum (Aldrich, 2009 ; Renken, 2016 ), since these educational technologies are consolidated under the umbrella of an interactive virtual environment in digital education.

A primary aim is to identify studies concentrating on the use of games and simulations for learning purposes, and to analyse the results by comparing them to prior studies’ findings. Two research questions guide the review analysis: a) How can the best practices/methods for designing and incorporating games and simulations in student learning be identified? b) How can games/simulations enhance Higher Education?

The major difference between the current review and the previous reviews in the field is the conceptualization of the terms “games and simulations”, which acts as an umbrella for further typologies. In other words, the researchers include more genres of games and simulations in their systematic review, compared to the other literature reviews. In addition, the researchers’ intention is to focus on the impacts of games and simulations on learning outcomes. The researchers don’t focus only on the cognitive outcomes, which is the most obvious and common topic among other researchers but, simultaneously, they analyze behavioural and affective effects as well. Furthermore, most of the previous reviews focus on the impacts of games and simulations on the learning process of certain subjects (e.g. Science, Business, Nursing, etc.), whereas this study expands research in a wide spectrum of academic disciplines and subjects. Overall, the current study offers a systematic review that opens new areas for further discussion, highlighting that collaborative learning, teamwork and students’ engagement also play a significant role for a successful learning process.

Conceptualising games and simulations

In recent years, the interest in examining game use in higher education has increased. This includes educational games (Çankaya & Karamete, 2009 ), digital game-based learning (DGBL) (Yang, 2012 ), and applied games (van Roessel & van Mastrigt-Ide, 2011 ). In addition, scholars, sometimes, include interactive exercises (Mueller, 2003 ), video games (Biddiss & Irwin, 2010 ), or even expand to next generation video games (Bausch, 2008 ), in the category of games. With respect to web-based games, the technological platforms that implement digital game code include computers and consoles (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004 ). They can run on a web browser on mobile phones and other mobile gaming devices (Willoughby, 2008 ) (e.g., tablets).

Despite the abundance of game types, there is a lack of clear, shared definitions and terminology among scholars and educators, which has led to “terminological ambiguity” (Klabbers, 2009 ). Nevertheless, the need for shared terminology remains when discussing the different forms of games and simulations in higher education. Although academics and game developers may use varying taxonomy to categorise games, the majority broadly agree on the following seven genres (Gros, 2007 ):

Action games: response-based video games.

Adventure games: the player solves problems to progress through levels within a virtual world.

Fighting games: these involve fighting with computer-controlled characters or those controlled by other players.

Role-playing games: players assume the roles of fictional characters.

Simulations: games modelled after natural or man-made systems or phenomena, in which players have to achieve pre-specified goals.

Sports games: these are based on different kinds of sports.

Strategy games: these recreate historical scenes or fictional scenarios, in which players must devise an appropriate strategy to achieve the goal.

In recent years, several well-designed empirical studies investigating the effects of serious games on learning outcomes have been published. Sawyer refers to serious games as those games produced by the video game industry that have a substantial connection to the acquisition of knowledge (Sawyer, 2002 ). Zyda ( 2005 ) expands Sawyer’s definition, adding that serious games are games whose primary purpose is not entertainment, enjoyment or fun. Serious games, educational gaming, as well as virtual worlds developed for educational purposes reveal the potential of these technologies to engage and motivate beyond leisure activities (Anderson et al., 2009 ). At the same time, there is extensive literature exploring the potential learning benefits offered by game-based learning (GBL), which can be defined as the use of game-based technology to deliver, support, and enhance teaching, learning, assessment, and evaluation (Connolly, 2007 ).

• Simulations

Simulations create a scenario-based environment, where students interact to apply previous knowledge and practical skills to real-world problems, also allowing teachers to reach their own goals, as well (Andreu-Andrés & García-Casas, 2011 ; García-Carbonell & Watts, 2012 ; Angelini, 2015 ). During scenario-based training, the player acquires important skills, such as interpersonal communication, teamwork, leadership, decision-making, task prioritising and stress management (Flanagan, 2004 ). The practical scenario may be carried out individually or within a team (Robertson et al., 2009 ), leading to collaboration and knowledge sharing.

With the explosion of Web 2.0 technology, increased opportunities to engage with technological applications in a collaborative and participatory way have emerged, promoting information access, shared ideas, knowledge exchange, and content production (McLoughlin & Lee, 2008 ). Digital simulations, which engage students in the interactive, authentic, and self-driven acquisition of knowledge, are being adopted in higher education. Connolly and Stansfield ( 2006 ) define game-based e-learning as a digital approach which delivers, supports, and enhances teaching, learning, assessment, and evaluation. Game-based e-learning is differentiated from GBL, which tends to cover both computer and non-computer games.

Delivery platforms are an essential aspect for game designers when creating and distributing games and simulations (e.g. computer, video, online, mobile, 3D, etc.). Designers must pay attention to characteristics such as the technical challenges, modules and techniques associated with the game design, the players involved in gaming, and the teaching modes (e.g. single, multi-player, collaborative, synchronous, etc.). This study examines the diverse curricular areas and learning objectives each game intends to access. The above-mentioned game classification is presented below (Fig. 1 ).

Classification of games and simulations

The main difference between games and simulations is the following: games are tools which are artificial and pedagogical; they include conflict, rules, and predetermined goals, whereas simulations are dynamic tools, representing reality, claiming fidelity, accuracy, and validity (Sauve, 2007 ).

Previously conducted reviews/meta-analyses on games and simulations in higher education

To establish a context , the researchers, initially, examined the relevant literature on the effectiveness of all types of games and simulations in learning outcomes. Many papers are analysed and summarised as follows, providing useful guidance for this study.

Through their systematic review, Tsekleves et al. ( 2014 ) provide insight into the barriers and benefits of using serious games in education. (Regarding benefits, the authors catalogue: achievement and rewards, interactivity and feedback, motivation and competition, playfulness and problem-based learning, collaborative learning, progression and repetition, as well as realism and immersion. Finally, they propose some guidelines to help stakeholders better implement serious games in education. Similarly, Bellotti, ( 2013 ) suggest useful guidelines for the performance assessment of serious games. Following user performance assessments, they offer an overview on the effectiveness of serious games in relation to learning outcomes. Results reveal the effectiveness of serious games in motivating and achieving learning goals, the importance of providing appropriate user feedback, while emphasizing that new types of games are best deployed through proper instructor guidance. Moreover, they stress aspects they consider important, such as performance assessment with a view to fostering adaptivity, as well as personalisation, and meeting needs on an individual basis (e.g. learning styles, information provision rates, feedback, etc.).

The instructor’s role is also outlined by Lameras et al. ( 2016 ) who provide conceptual and empirical evidence on the manner in which learning attributes and game mechanics should be designed and incorporated by faculty, specifically with a view to fully integrate these into lesson plans and the learning process as a whole. Games allow practitioners to quickly come to grips with the way in which learning activities, outcomes, feedback and roles may vary, as well as to enhance the in-game learning experience. Similarly, the systematic review of 64 articles by de Smale, ( 2015 ) concludes that there is a positive or neutral relationship between the use of simulations and games and learning achievement. The researchers arrive at three recurring conditions for the successful use of simulations and games: the specificity of the game, its integration in the course, and the role of a guiding instructor, which are all conditions in line with Bellotti et al. ( 2013 )‘s results.

Young et al. ( 2012 ) choose 39 articles that meet the inclusion criteria related to video games and academic achievement, concentrating on the use of traditional games versus video games for educational purposes. The studies are categorised by subject, namely History, Mathematics, Physical Education, Science, and Languages. Results indicate that there exists limited evidence of the benefits of including education games in the traditional classroom environments, a finding which is contrary to the aforementioned studies. Smetana and Bell ( 2012 ) examine computer simulations to support instruction and learning in Science. In their comparative study between computer games and traditional games, they conclude that computer games can be as effective, if not more so, than traditional games in promoting knowledge, developing procedural skills and facilitating conceptual change. To integrate them properly as supplementary elements (Rajan, 2013 ), games require the adoption of high-quality support structures, student participation, as well the promotion of cognitive and metacognitive skills. This finding contradicts the study carried out by Girard, ( 2013 ). This study treats video games as serious games but considers their effectiveness as a controversial issue, finding that only few games result in improved learning, while others have no positive effect on knowledge and skills acquisition, when compared to more traditional methods of teaching.

In contrast, in their meta-analysis, Clark et al. ( 2015 ) systematically review articles to study the detailed effects of digital games on learning outcomes, concluding that games are important in supporting productive learning and highlighting the significant role of gaming design beyond its medium. Prior to this review, but running along the same lines, Backlund and Hendrix ( 2013 ), in their meta-analysis reported positive outcomes in learning when using serious games in the educational process. Wouters, ( 2013 ) performing meta-analytic techniques, used comparisons as well, to investigate whether serious games are more effective and more motivating than conventional instructional methods. They found higher effectiveness in terms of learning and retention, but less motivation compared to traditional instructional methods. Indeed, serious games tend to be more effective if regarded as a supplement to other instructional methods, and involve students in groups and multiple training sessions.

These findings are compatible with those in the survey conducted by Rutten, ( 2012 ), which focuses on implementing games as laboratory activities, concluding that simulations have gained a prominent position in classrooms by enhancing the teacher’s repertoire, either as a supplement to traditional teaching methods or as a partial replacement of the curriculum. Nevertheless, they stress that the acquisition of laboratory skills cannot be wholly conducted via simulations. However, in areas where simulations have been widely accepted as a training tool, simulations can play a significant role in making lab activities more effective when offered as pre-lab training. Fu, ( 2016 ), through a systematic literature review, identify the multi-dimensional positive impact of serious games in business education, with the most frequent outcomes being knowledge acquisition and content understanding. The study also confirms that GBL and serious games can influence player engagement, perpetual and cognitive skills and social or soft skills. The affective and motivational outcomes are examined in entertainment games, games for learning and serious games, which reflects the trend of using gaming elements as both a medium of entertainment as well as a mode of learning. Ritzhaupt, ( 2014 ) produce meta-analysis based on 73 articles, demonstrating that achievement measures (e.g., standardised test scores) are the most commonly investigated, while the second most frequent is affective measures (e.g., usability or attitudes towards technology) followed by behavioural measures (e.g., task behaviour).

Merchant, ( 2014 ), via a meta-analysis, compare the effectiveness of games, simulations and virtual worlds in improving learning outcomes. Findings indicate that playing games individually enhance student performance more than playing collaboratively. Nonetheless, the researchers claim that there is no statistically significant difference between the effects of individual and cooperative instructional modules regarding simulations. Student learning outcomes deteriorate after repeated measures, since after spending a certain amount of time playing games, the learning outcome gains start to diminish. On the contrary, Shin, ( 2015 ), through meta-analysis, aim to identify the effects of patient simulation in nursing education. They find significant post-intervention improvements in various domains for participants who receive simulation education compared to the control groups, thus leading to the conclusion that simulations are more effective than traditional learning methods, enhancing the player’s psychomotor, affective, and cognitive skills. In their work, simulations provide students with authentic clinical situations, allowing them to practice and experience in realistic and safe environments.

Connolly et al. ( 2012 ) develop a multi-dimensional approach to categorising games and offer a review of 129 papers on computer games and serious games, explicitly targeting cognitive, behavioural, affective and motivational impacts, as well as engagement. The most frequent outcomes are knowledge acquisition and content understanding, as well as affective and motivational outcomes. Gegenfurtner, ( 2014 ) in their meta-analysis of the cognitive domain, examine how design elements in simulation-based settings affect self-efficacy and transfer of learning. They conclude that gathering feedback post-training, as opposed to during the process, results in higher estimates of self-efficacy and transfer of learning.

Researchers also look at games and simulations from a theoretical perspective. Li and Tsai ( 2013 ), examine the theoretical background and models employed in the study of games and simulations. They focus principally on the theories of cognitivism, constructivism, enactivism, and the socio-cultural perspective. Results indicate that although cognitivism and constructivism are the major theoretical foundations employed by game-based science learning researchers, enactivism and the socio-cultural perspective are the emerging theoretical paradigms drawing increasing attention in this field. This literature review indicates an increasing recognition of the effectiveness of digital games in promoting scientific knowledge and concept learning, while giving lesser importance to facilitation of problem-solving skills, exploring outcomes from the viewpoint of scientific processes, affect, engagement and socio-contextual learning. This view is echoed by other researchers, such as Warren, ( 2016 ), who systematically review and demonstrate the effectiveness of simulation games on satisfaction, knowledge, attitudes, skills and learning outcomes within nurse practitioner programmes. After comparing online simulation-based learning with traditional lectures, they find an increase in student knowledge and confidence when using simulation games. Peterson ( 2010 ) also performs a meta-analysis, examining the use of computerised games and simulations in language education from a psycholinguistic and socio-cultural viewpoint. Results show valuable opportunities for effective language learning, confirming that games are beneficial in helping students learn another language.

Sitzmann ( 2011 ), using interactive cognitive complexity theory, offers a comparative review on the instructional effectiveness of computer simulations. To perform the review, she examines three affective outcomes (motivation, effort, and self-efficacy), one behavioural (effort), two cognitive (declarative knowledge and retention), and two skill-based learning outcomes (procedural knowledge and transfer). She concludes that, post-training, simulation-trained learners demonstrate higher self-efficacy and procedural knowledge. Furthermore, she highlights the significance of using specific methods to improve simulation learning, namely, integration of game use within an instructional programme, high level of learner activity, no gaming time limit, and adopting the simulation game as a supplement to other methods, which is inconsistent with Wouters et al.’s survey ( 2013 ). Hsu et al. ( 2012 ) provide a cross-analysed content analysis agreeing with the previous researchers that topics such as “Motivation, Perceptions and Attitudes” are of utmost importance.

In a recent review of business literature, Carenys and Moya ( 2016 ) discuss the impact of digital game-based learning (DGBL) on students. They examine DGBL both from a theoretical point of view and on a practical basis through three stages: a) the evaluation of digital games in the preparatory stage, b) specifying which research has been deemed appropriate for DGBL deployment, and c) the learning outcomes (cognitive, behavioural, affective, and multi-dimensional) that can be attained through digital games. This study moved current research forward in understanding the effectiveness of digital games and advanced the use of digital games in the classroom.

A variety of meta-analyses and systematic reviews have examined the implementation of games and simulations in the learning process, either as a main course element or as a supplement to conventional lectures, illustrating the ever increasing interest of researchers in this promising field.

Synthesis of previous reviews/meta-analyses

After studying the previous reviews, it is evident that the most commonly referred games in past reviews are digital and computerized games (Sitzmann, 2011 ; Young et al., 2012 ; Smetana & Bell, 2012 ; Girard et al., 2013 ; Merchant et al., 2014 ; Clark et al., 2015 ; Carenys & Moya, 2016 ; Warren et al., 2016 ). The technological revolution and the invasion of Internet in Higher Education urge students to build digital and collaborative skills for the twenty-first century through gaming. Also, the emergence of a participatory culture in education spurs researchers to get involved with digital games and simulations. Other games mentioned are serious games and their impact on the learning process (Connolly et al., 2012 ; Bellotti et al., 2013 ; Backlund & Hendrix, 2013 ; Wouters et al., 2013 ; Tsekleves et al., 2014 ; Fu et al., 2016 ). The researchers refer to serious games since they are basically considered as games with educational orientation and not with just entertaining ones.

Another important element we have identified is whether games should be fully or partially integrated into the learning process. Most of the researchers agree that games should be treated mainly as supplementary elements (Sitzmann, 2011 ) since full integration requires high-quality mechanisms, students’ engagement, and instructors’ support. In other cases, the integration of games in the curriculum could either function as a supplement to existing teaching techniques or as a partial substitute for traditional teaching methods (Rutten et al., 2012 ). Moreover, games could even be fully integrated for achieving better learning outcomes (Lameras et al., 2016 ) because games add diversity in educational teaching modules. Nevertheless, the integration of games depends on instructors’ contribution and the way they design and incorporate games in their teaching. This means that instructors should be equipped with knowledge and experience, and be aware of providing guidance to students as regards the proper way of playing games.

The beneficial contribution of game-based learning is broadly identified by the majority of previous reviewers, especially regarding cognitive outcomes. Results indicate that games can be as effective as traditional learning modes, revealing their effectiveness in promoting knowledge acquisition (Smetana & Bell, 2012 ; Backlund & Hendrix, 2013 ; Clark et al., 2015 ; Warren et al., 2016 ), as well as content understanding and concept learning (Connoly et al., 2012 ; Li & Tsai, 2013 ; Fu et al., 2016 ). Additionally, students achieve their learning goals through playfulness and problem-based learning (Tsekleves et al., 2014 ), thus leading to self-efficacy and transfer of learning (Gegenfurtner et al., 2014 ).

Another substantial impact emerged is the effectiveness of games not only in the cognitive domain but also in the affective and behavioural domains (Ritzhaupt et al., 2014 ; Shin et al., 2015 ; Tsekleves et al., 2014 ; Fu et al., 2016 ; Carenys & Moya, 2016 ). The affective domain is thoroughly discussed by the reviewers. In particular, games influence students’ motivation, engagement, and satisfaction of the game-based learning. Regarding behavioural outcomes, few reviews have been conducted, showing that games offer a plethora of opportunities for collaborative learning, enhance interactivity and feedback among players, and develop social and soft skills as well. Some other studies contradict these findings, in a way that they do not reveal positive effects of games (Young et al., 2012 ; Girard et al., 2013 ; Merchant et al., 2014 ), or reveal a rather neutral effect (de Smale et al., 2015 ). In these reviews, games and simulations appear to have some or no positive effects on knowledge and skills acquisition when comparing with traditional instructional methods.

Research method

Research selection.

The authors developed a pre-defined review protocol to answer the research questions, specifically aimed at minimising researcher bias. The literature review was carried out between July and October 2016 and followed the design stages described below.

The reviewed papers are identified through keywords in referenced electronic databases, such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, ERIC, PsycInfo, PsycArticles Fulltext Search, InterDok, ProQuest, Scopus, BEI, and SearchPlus. The keywords for learning outcomes are a combination of the term games or simulations paired with the term higher education , employing the Boolean operator “AND”. Additional keywords for learning outcomes are learning objectives, learning goals, learning objectives and effects . Keywords for platform and delivery methods include computer-based, web-based, digital, virtual, online, and technology. Keywords for games and simulations are educational games, business simulations, role-playing simulations, game-based learning, video games, and serious games . Moreover, the Boolean operator “OR” is employed to combine all these keywords. The study sets the broadest range of keywords, so as not to limit the scope of related articles.

Furthermore, the researchers conducted a comprehensive database search in bibliographic indices for the data selection. The search is related to a variety of scientific fields of study, including Education, Psychology, Information Technology, Management, and other scientific areas (e.g., Engineering, STEM, Health, etc).

Assessment and extraction

The dataset consists of journal articles referring to games, simulations or learning in their title and/or abstract. The researchers piloted and evaluated their selection criteria based on prior studies. The study selection process was conducted in two separate phases: a) the researchers, working independently, initially, and, subsequently, together, screened the titles and abstracts for inclusion criteria, and b) in the event of disagreement or insufficient information, they carried out a thorough consideration of the body of the articles (i.e. methodology and results), again independently, first, and, then, together, resulting in consensus. Then, whether to include the text or not was discussed, based on pre-determined criteria. The inclusion criteria used are as follows:

Only empirical articles across a variety of study designs may be included, so as to achieve rich data.

The participants should be over the age of 18 (e.g., students in higher education, college students, instructors, etc.)

Articles that provide an evaluation of student learning outcomes (via the use of games for pedagogical purposes) may also be included.

The resources should, mainly, consist of journal articles and conference papers, which, due to the peer review process, ensure a high quality of material to examine. Existing meta-analysis and systematic literature reviews should be included as well, in order to cross-validate the review findings.

The articles should be available in either English or French.

The articles should adhere to the objective of the study and the definition of the terms games and simulations as pedagogical applications.

Studies containing samples from higher education institutions should also be included. Conversely, research on the effects of games in primary or secondary education should be discarded.

The review should include games and simulations used in traditional, as well as in online environments.

Only peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2010 and 2016 should be included, as the intention is to include the most current research.

Several exclusion criteria, listed below, were also applied in this study:

Non-empirical studies or studies which solely describe the design of a learning environment.

Participants who are younger than 18 years old.

Non-GBL tools and entertainment games.

Book chapters -not only are books difficult to search for on databases, they are, also, hard to access as full texts. Additionally, books are not always subject to the same peer review process as scientific articles. Dissertations, theses, editorials, book reviews and reports are also excluded for similar reasons.

Articles that cannot be accessed as full texts are excluded.

Articles that do not match the research objectives.

Research focused on types of education other than higher education.

As mentioned above, articles published before 2010.

The following figure illustrates the inclusion and exclusion criteria (Fig. 2 ):

The inclusion and exclusion criteria

Application of these criteria resulted in an initial dataset, yielding 8859 studies, published between 2010 and 2016. The selected papers are derived from 67 academic journals representing a variety of disciplines. Most papers come from the scientific journal “Computers & Education”, while “British Journal of Educational Technology”, and “Simulation & Gaming” were the next two journals appearing with the most frequency. In the final stage, several meetings were organized between researchers to discuss the findings, and to decide on presentation.

The results show a steady increase in published papers discussing games from 2012 onwards. After systematically reviewing their abstracts, a final shortlist of 628 potential full text articles emerged. Two hundred and seventeen out of the 628 were excluded, primarily, due to undesirable focus (e.g. theoretical scenarios for using simulations in education). For each of the remaining 411 studies, the researchers identified and recorded some basic themes, for example, types of learning outcomes, effect or impact of game and simulation methods on learning goals, participants and settings, research questions, research methodology and results. Of these, 123 papers, which are found to contribute data, are selected for the review, whereas the remaining 288 articles are excluded, due to the fact that they are written in a language that the researchers do not understand, or because they are focused on a field other than higher education. The majority of these articles are published in scientific journals or conference proceedings, whereas 25 studies are either meta-analyses and/or systematic reviews. An outline of the entire review is depicted in the following figure (Fig. 3 ):

Research review methodological scheme

Data analysis and synthesis

The identified articles are analysed using a qualitative content analysis technique, which leads to a coding scheme, including a main category, three sub-categories and several associated topics related to the main categories. The researchers unanimously agree upon the coding that emerged from the analysis of the reviewed papers. To ensure inter-rater reliability (p) with respect to the quality of article coding procedures, a small random sample ( n  = 20) of the selected articles is coded in duplicate. The calculated reliability exceeds 93%, which is a high quality of agreement across coding categories. Furthermore, a review of mixed-methodology studies provides high-quality evidence, due to a combination of quantitative and qualitative elements in terms of methodological triangulation.

The researchers examined the studies from varying viewpoints. Firstly, they analysed the data set characteristics, such as the continent on which the studies are conducted, the subject discipline, the methodological research design, the types of games and simulations identified, and the time period in which the majority of the studies took place. The emphasis is on the analysis, measures, and design of the quantitative methodology (experimental, quasi-experimental, pre-test, post-test surveys, etc.), as well as the qualitative methods used in the reviewed surveys.

To sum up, the review studies are selected through a systematic process with pre-arranged criteria. There is no intended bias applied to the selected studies, and although the majority of studies come from Europe, this is simply the result of the systematic selection process.

Data set characteristics

When analysing the data, the researchers came across some interesting characteristics. Other than the meta-analytic studies and review research, the locations of the remaining surveys are as follows: 33% conducted in Europe, 22% in Asia, and 18% in the USA, whereas 24% of the articles do not directly mention a location (Fig. 4 ). Most of the articles come from the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Continets where studies are conducted

With respect to genre, there is a diverse representation of games and simulations. The most prominent game genre identified in the relevant literature seems to be simulation games in general, that is to say, virtual/online games or simulations, computer-based learning, role-playing games, serious games, and business simulation games. This representation is illustrated below (Fig. 5 ):

Representation of the game genres

With respect to the busiest publication period, the majority of studies that meet the inclusion criteria were published between 2013 and 2016, as shown in the following bar chart (Fig. 6 ). This finding demonstrates a notable trend amongst researchers discussing the topic of games and simulations in recent years, due to increased awareness of the use of technological games in higher education.

Years of published articles

The data also represents a wide range of subject areas. Some cover multiple areas, for example Engineering, Management, Science, Law, Social Sciences and Humanities (Tao et al., 2015 ), or even just two areas, such as Biology and Computer Sciences (Yang & Chang, 2013 ), while others refer to only one academic discipline. The subject areas are sorted into larger categories, with the most common area being Business Management and Marketing. The results are shown in the figure below (Fig. 7 ):

Subject disciplene

The reviewed articles include data from 99 samples and 20,406 participants, which is a considerably large grouping. The population tested in the literature review ranges from 5 participants in small qualitative studies (Ke et al., 2015 ) to 5071 participants in extensive quantitative quasi-experimental research (Lu et al., 2014 ). Most of the participants are young undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate students, and faculty members. The studies consistently indicate a good gender balance in participants. In some studies, there is both student and faculty participation (Kapralos et al., 2011 ; Felicia, 2011 ; Hess & Gunter, 2013 ; Hämäläinen & Oksanen, 2014 ; Beuk, 2015 ; Crocco, 2016 ), whereas in others, only instructors are chosen as participants (Tanner, 2012 ; Badea, 2015 ; Franciosi, 2016 ). On the whole, most studies use students as participants.

Procedures and research methodologies

Most studies use either an experimental or a quasi-experimental design employing a pre-test and/or a post-test evaluation, with four using only a pre-test questionnaire, and six using only post-test evaluations. The effects of games and simulations on learning outcomes are measured through calculating the difference between pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental or quasi-experimental design. More specifically, the researchers compare the increases in scores between control and experimental groups to evaluate the effectiveness of using the tested games and simulations. The studies include longitudinal surveys (e.g. Hainey, 2011 ) conducted for a specified number of years, whereas others are comparative studies (e.g., Boeker, 2013 ; Poikela, 2015 ).

Researchers use quantitative methods in the majority of studies (68.6%), while13.1% use qualitative methodology. Some studies follow a mixed research methodology (nearly 18.2%), providing pragmatic perceptions and methodological triangulation of the results. The measures utilized in quantitative studies include knowledge questionnaires, as well as academic, evaluation, and cognitive tests, while in qualitative studies the methods used include interviews, case studies, observations and focus groups.

The studies portray a variety of time periods spent playing games and simulations: some of the participants interact with games over a single session, while others are involved in the gaming process for several weeks or even months (e.g., Yang & Chang, 2013 ; Woo, 2014 ). The studies include multi-player games (e.g., Silvia, 2012 ; Yin, 2013 ), as well as single-player games.

Learning outcomes of games and simulations

In the present review, keeping in mind the aforementioned research questions (p.3), the researchers break down their findings in relation to the learning outcomes of games and simulations into three categories, namely cognitive, behavioural, and affective outcomes. A map of the emerging concepts, which will be further discussed, is illustrated below (Fig. 8 ):

Learning outcomes of Games/Simulations

Cognitive outcomes

Many reviewed studies discuss the impact of GBL activities in learner knowledge acquisition and conceptual understanding (Hainey et al., 2011 ; Connolly et al., 2012 ; Fu et al., 2016 ; Geithner & Menzel, 2016 ). There has been an impact evaluation across subject disciplines, such as Computer Science (Strycker, 2016 ), Engineering (Chaves et al., 2015 ), Physics (Adams, 2016 ), Medicine (Dankbaar, 2016 ), Nursing (Sarabia-Cobo, 2016 ), Management (Geithner & Menzel, 2016 ), Political Sciences (Jones & Bursens, 2015 ), Education (Ke, 2015 ), Languages (Franciosi, 2016 ), and Social Sciences (Cózar-Gutiérrez & Sáez-López, 2016 ).

Knowledge acquisition

Cognitive outcomes refer “to the knowledge structures relevant to perceiving games as artefacts for linking knowledge-oriented activities with cognitive outcomes” (Lameras et al., 2016 , p. 10). Tasks framed as games and simulations are deployed to develop a diverse range of cognitive skills, such as deep learning (Vos & Brennan, 2010 ; Young et al., 2012 ; Erhel & Jamet, 2013 ; Crocco et al., 2016 ), critical thinking and scientific reasoning (Beckem & Watkins, 2012 ; Halpern et al., 2012 ; Ahmad, 2013 ), action-directed learning (Lu et al., 2014 ), transformative learning (Kleinheskel, 2014 ), decision-making (Tiwari, 2014 ), knowledge acquisition and content understanding (Terzidou, 2012 ; Elias, 2014 ; Fu et al., 2016 ), spatial abilities (Adams et al., 2016 ), and problem solving (Liu, 2011 ; Lancaster, 2014 ).

The effect of games and simulations on learning remains a controversial issue amongst researchers in the field, as it will be further confirmed in this article. Some reviewed studies indicate improved learning, while others show no positive effect on knowledge and skill acquisition compared to traditional learning methods. The value of simulations can be examined from the perspective of content change as discussed in Kovalic and Kuo’s study ( 2012 ). Simulations are directly linked to the course content and students are given the opportunity to apply and better understand theoretical concepts. Additionally, simulations provide an environment in which students can experiment with different strategies, adopt different roles, and take charge of their own decisions by assuming responsibility. The latter issue is discussed at length by Liu et al. ( 2011 ), who find that, when solving problems, students are more likely to learn via playing a game than via a traditional learning experience.

Serious gaming, especially given the context of enthusiastic students, has proved to be an effective training method in domains such as medical education, for example, in clinical decision-making and patient interaction (de Wit-Zuurendonk & Oei, 2011 ). Similarly, Kleinheskel ( 2014 ) illustrates the importance of designing self-reflective simulating activities for nursing students, and aligning such design with cognitive outcomes. When students self-reflect on simulated clinical experiences, they add to their existing knowledge, and apply new knowledge to transformative learning. Poikela et al. ( 2015 ), in a simulated nursing procedure, compare a computer-based simulation with a lecture to examine the meaningful learning students may achieve via the two teaching methods. They conclude that students who participate in the computer simulation are more likely to report meaningful learning outcomes than those taking the lecture, due to the strong presence of reflection-based activities and metacognitive themes. Similar results are present in Chen, ( 2015 ), survey in which both solitary players and collaborative groups achieve equally positive learning outcomes in a game. Students significantly improve judging by their pre- and post-test assessments, which indicates that the gaming experience affects their overall performance, and, most likely, promotes conceptual understanding. Moreover, collaborative GBL allows students to re-construct and co-construct knowledge, thus encouraging problem-solving through peer discussion.

Challenging games enhance participant performance (Wang & Chen, 2010 ; Gold, 2016 ). This finding is supported by von Wangenheim, ( 2012 ), who analyse the cognitive dimension of an educational game focusing on memory, understanding and conceptual application. The validity of micro-simulation games is identified by participants in Lukosch, ( 2016 ), research who evaluate a specific microgame as an excellent instrument for enhancing situated and experiential learning by transferring knowledge to an actual situation at the workplace. The results comply with those of Riemer and Schrader ( 2015 ), where the application of comprehension and transfer of knowledge are best achieved using simulations.

Furthermore, the impact of game-based learning on learning performance has been observed by numerous researchers across diverse subjects, as reported above (Zacharia & Olympiou, 2011 ; Rutten et al., 2012 ; Beckem & Watkins, 2012 ; Boeker et al., 2013 ; Shin et al., 2015 ; Hou, 2015 ; Chen et al., 2015 ; Tao et al., 2015 ). For instance, Divjak and Tomić ( 2011 ) provide evidence that computer games impact mathematical learning, revealing the positive effect of games on student learning outcomes. Reviews by Young et al. ( 2012 ) confirm the effectiveness of using videogames on History, Languages, and Physical Education. The analysis of four experimental virtual conditions in pre- and post-test assessments reveal that virtual experimentation promotes conceptual understanding in Physics students (Zacharia & Olympiou, 2011 ). A 3D visualisation and simulation laboratory activity on protein structure is more effective than traditional instruction modules, as described in White, ( 2010 ), research resulting in students preferring to work with visualized simulations.

Simulation games also positively affect clinical practice situations. “The Ward”, a simulation game in Stanley and Latimer’s ( 2011 ) research proves to be an enjoyable and valuable learning tool in addressing clinical skill practice, nursing practice knowledge, critical thinking and decision-making. Vos and Brennan ( 2010 ) highlight the effectiveness of marketing simulation games, where students perceive simulations as an enjoyable learning approach, contributing to decision-making, as well as other valuable knowledge and skills, a finding consistent with Tiwari et al. ( 2014 ) survey. Swanson et al. ( 2011 ) created a rubric to measure the effectiveness of teaching strategies in nursing education. The experimental post-test assessment survey aims to evaluate the effects of three teaching strategies on the outcome of performance and retention of intervention activities, student satisfaction, self-confidence and practical educational preferences. Results reveal significantly higher retention scores compared to the first assessment, indicating that high scores in the improved rubric are related to the interactivity of the simulation scenario.

Nevertheless, it should not be taken for granted that students consistently prefer virtual learning settings to more traditional face-to-face environments (Hummel et al., 2011 ). Serious games concerning cognitive perceptions show varying results. For example, simulations are shown to support the comprehension and application of knowledge, albeit less effectively than quizzes and adventures (Riemer & Schrader, 2015 ). In Fu et al. ( 2016 ) review, despite GBL providing a motivating and enjoyable experience, there is a lack of strong evidence to show that games lead to effective learning outcomes. In some cases, there is inconsistency in student views regarding the integration of online games as a positive learning method (Bolliger, 2015 ). Similar views are supported by some researchers, who acknowledge students’ and educators’ hesitation towards virtual simulations and serious games, but they insist on the inclusion of games into course material, and on instructors’ familiarization with their use (Kapralos et al., 2011 ).

Perceptual skills

Other studies confirm the power of games and simulations in developing cognition abilities, especially in the instances of virtual simulations enhancing complex cognitive skills (Helle et al., 2011 ; Siewiorek, 2013 ), such as self-assessment (Arias Aranda, 2010 ), or higher-order thinking (Crocco et al., 2016 ). These are meta-cognitive skills, regarded as essential elements of in-depth learning. The incorporation of game mechanisms into simulations is widely recognised by researchers as beneficial, especially regarding laboratory tasks, where simulation scenarios urge students towards problem-solving and, reflection, thus achieving metacognitive outcomes (Hou & Li, 2014 ; Hou, 2015 ). Kikot, ( 2013 ) concur with the above researchers, stating that students perceive simulation-based learning (SBL) environments positively when asked to achieve dynamic learning outcomes, including thinking, interpreting, and associative skills.

Silvia ( 2012 ) also references cognitive and metacognitive outcomes derived from a multi-role simulation. The simulation helps students apply the concepts they learn in class by connecting the theoretical issues with real-world situations, thus developing their analytical skills, and through comparing different viewpoints, which leads to enhanced critical thinking. Students use the interactive nature of simulations to develop arguments, make judgements and evaluate situations. More importantly, simulations encourage students to develop self-awareness. Similarly, Cela-Ranilla, ( 2014 ) conducted a study in which students display a tendency to perform better in analytical work, such as monitoring, planning and assessment rather than in action-based work. Wouters et al. ( 2013 ), on the other hand, find serious games to be more effective in terms of learning and retention.

Learners can also actively participate in a web-based simulation to facilitate immersion and reflection, leading to deeper understanding of the content (Helle et al., 2011 ). A simulation framework can facilitate learning in terms of flow experience and learning strategies. Indeed, in a study conducted by Li, Cheng, and Liu ( 2013 ), the framework helps students lacking background knowledge to balance challenge and skill perceptions, while for students with average to advanced levels of knowledge, it facilitates the learning experience by either reducing the challenge perception or promoting the skill perception. Along the same lines, Pasin and Giroux ( 2011 ), analyse the mistakes students make in simulations using an empirical prototype. Results show that, although simple decision-making skills are easily acquired through conventional teaching methods, simulation games are useful tools for mastering managerial skills, such as complex and dynamic decision-making. Lin and Tu ( 2012 ) also confirm that simulations enable students to train themselves in decision-making.

Instructors’ engagement

Students are challenged to develop interpersonal, analytical and creative skills, discouraging absenteeism, feelings of boredom and reluctance, leading to academic achievement. However, simulations not only exhibit positive effects in the learning experience of the student, but, also, do so for instructors, as well, in the context of teaching experience. For academics, simulations raise the level of performance, encouraging students to be more alert and attentive during class activities (Navidad, 2013 ), and thus to achieve better learning outcomes. In this vein, instructors are urged to design simulations to be as challenging as possible to stimulate student interest in interacting with the simulation as well as with their peers. Felicia ( 2011 ) denotes that instructors agree with students in acknowledging the educational benefits of video games, such as an understanding of difficult concepts, improvement of spatial awareness and analytical skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving strategies. To enable them to do so, instructors emphasize the importance of clearly expressed learning goals to guide students when using simulations in an online instructional technology course (Kovalik & Kuo, 2012 ).

Even setting aside the potential learning benefits derived from participation in GBL, a stronger connection between games and curricula remains to be forged, as well as the application of more dynamic academic challenges, so as to better adapt to the knowledge of diverse learners (Pløhn, 2013 ). Following such reasoning, as indicated in the literature, faculty plays a key role in achieving learning goals via the use of games and simulations. The instructor role correlates with the demand for abstract learning concepts. In their meta-analysis, Wouters and Van Oostendorp ( 2013 ) show how instructors, acting in a facilitating and supporting role, can foster learning, particularly in selecting and discussing new information and where higher order skills are involved in the learning outcomes. Similarly, instructors can monitor student behaviour and evaluate not only the capabilities, but also the attitudes of tomorrow’s higher education managers during the decision-making process. Rutten et al. ( 2012 ) focus in their literature review on the level of instructional support in GBL, and suggest that a pedagogical framework for the application of computer simulations in education requires a corresponding integration of the educator’s role.

Behavioural outcomes

Behavioural objectives for higher education students refer to the enhancement of teamwork and improvement in relational abilities (Ranchhod, 2014 ), as well as stronger organisational skills, adaptability and the ability to resolve conflicts (Vos & Brennan, 2010 ).

Social skills/teamwork

Simulation games are often seen as powerful tools in promoting teamwork and team dynamics (Stanley & Latimer, 2011 ; Tiwari et al., 2014 ; Lin, 2016 ; Wang, 2016 ), collaboration (Hanning, 2012 ), social and emotional skills (Ahmad et al., 2013 ), and other soft skills, including project management, self-reflection, and leadership skills (Siewiorek, 2012 ; Wang et al., 2016 ), which are acquired through a reality-based scenarios with action-oriented activities (Geithner & Menzel, 2016 ).

In a Spanish management course, simulations enabled students to build pivotal capacities, such as management abilities and team working to enable the success of future managers (Arias Aranda et al., 2010 ). A computer simulation at a university in Taiwan led to comparatively higher learning gains against traditional teaching through collaborative laboratory activities (Shieh, 2010 ), by facilitating students to carry out more active learning and improving their conceptual understanding. Simulation scenarios provide improved social and communication skills, which lead to the enhancement of student knowledge (Sarabia-Cobo et al., 2016 ).

Additionally, collaboration is considered an essential element in the learning process (Elias, 2014 ). The findings of Hummel et al. ( 2011 ) reveal that serious online games improve the quality of learning when it comes to problem-based situations in the workplace by using active collaboration. For this reason, faculty members are urged to create learning environments to support active participation by students in the educational process. Moreover, according to the constructivist approach, the instructor’s role is a significant factor in empowering groups to construct knowledge in a collaborative manner (Hämäläinen & Oksanen, 2014 ). The instructors engage higher education students in the process of formulating hypotheses, interpreting context, providing explanations, and describing observations, by designing and implementing a collaborative and interactive GBL environment. In Yin et al.’s study ( 2013 ), students react positively to participatory simulations, due to the belief that the system helps them advance their conceptual understanding effectively through scaffolding, discussion, and reflection. Participants in Cózar-Gutiérrez and Sáez-López’s study ( 2016 ), while stating that video games are non-essential tools in an educational context, nevertheless, value GBL as an immersive environment that facilitates increased activity and student engagement.

Teamwork, however, seems to be a controversial issue in Costa, ( 2014 ) which evaluates improvement of knowledge sharing. Some learners consider teamwork as a means to facilitate decision making in a game, while others express dissatisfaction due to their peers, be it the latter’s reluctance to take on responsibility or poor negotiation capabilities. Research by Bolliger et al. ( 2015 ) similarly indicates that some learners remain hesitant, as they feel the use of games may actually decrease opportunities for communication with peers and instructors. Merchant et al. ( 2014 ) conclude that student performance is enhanced when playing individually rather than in a group.

Interaction and feedback

In GBL methods, meaningful feedback is a key factor in students achieving the objectives, as well as in being encouraged to reflect on misunderstandings and to transfer learning to new educational contexts (Swanson et al., 2011 ). In the current study, the scope is to investigate learner-learner interaction and social feedback through game mechanics. Higher education students evaluate games and simulations focusing on behavioural change and improvement of interactive abilities. The computer game DELIVER! for example, is evaluated very positively by students due to its focus on active student participation and overall positive impact on social interaction (von Wangenheim et al., 2012 ). Simulations provide visual feedback, encouraging active exploration of the student’s own understanding, enabling a move beyond knowing-in action and beginning to reflect-on and in-action during training, resulting in the contextual application of prior knowledge (Söderström, 2014 ). Real-time feedback in simulation games enables students to clearly define the objectives and expectations in the interactive environment, leading to a reduction in anxiety and uncertainty, thus encouraging better performance (Nkhoma et al., 2014 ).

The literature extensively documents the interaction between behavioural outcomes, learning performance and communication especially in Online Distance Learning (ODL). Indeed, regular feedback on student performance during DGBL facilitates deep learning (Erhel & Jamet, 2013 ). A survey conducted by Chen, ( 2010 ) shows that online games can be social and interactive technologies, helping students form friendships with their peers and providing multiple types of interaction.

Ke et al. ( 2015 ) stress the importance of player interaction, indicating that the inherent interaction between players and their gaming-situated learning environment supplies structured challenges and feedback. Huang, ( 2010 ) share the same view, confirming that, due to the necessity of receiving feedback from peers and the game itself, increased interaction opportunities arise in game-play, adding that interaction is a decisive factor in the construction of knowledge (Seng & Yatim, 2014 ). In a survey conducted by Denholm et al. ( 2012 ), students report improved team working through the use of serious games. They attribute this to receiving feedback, and stressing that even conflict is often considered valuable as it brings diverse views to the fore.

To conclude, the main body of literature explores the impact of games and simulations on learning outcomes on the behavioural level, especially when students are involved in interactive and participatory simulation tasks. The majority of studies reveal a positive effect on behavioural outcomes, concluding that students benefit from appropriate feedback, and reflection through game-based communication activities.

Affective outcomes

Many studies highlight the affective outcomes of using games and simulations in the learning process. The majority of them includes student engagement (Auman, 2011 ; Hainey et al., 2011 ; Lin & Tu, 2012 ; Kikot et al., 2013 ; Lu et al., 2014 ; Ke et al., 2015 ), motivation (Liu et al., 2011 ; Liao & Wang, 2011 ; Costa et al., 2014 ; Lukosch et al., 2016 ), and satisfaction (Cvetić et al., 2013 ; Dzeng, 2014 ; Lancaster, 2014 ; Sarabia-Cobo et al., 2016 ).

Motivation and engagement

Engagement and motivation are major factors in enhancing higher education learning objectives (Connolly et al., 2012 ; Erhel & Jamet, 2013 ; Ke et al., 2015 ; Nadolny & Halabi, 2015 ). Motivation is considered a central factor in the majority of reviewed studies (Felicia, 2011 ; Ljungkvist & Mozelius, 2012 ; von Wangenheim et al., 2012 ; Bellotti et al., 2013 ; Hannig et al., 2013 ; Ahmad et al., 2013 ; Pløhn, 2013 ; Li et al., 2013 ; Denholm et al., 2012 ; Dzeng et al., 2014 ; Lancaster, 2014 ; Ariffin et al., 2014 ; Bolliger et al., 2015 ; Cózar-Gutiérrez, & Sáez-López, 2016 ; Dankbaar et al., 2016 ; Fu et al., 2016 ). Some results suggest the effectiveness of GBL in motivating and achieving learning goals can be found at the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy (e.g. Connolly et al., 2012 ). In the context of digital SBL environments, other motivational dimensions are highlighted, such as self-efficacy (Sitzmann, 2011 ), in conjunction with the transfer of learning (Gegenfurtner et al., 2014 ).

Motivation is a combination of elements such as attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction, which can increase germane cognitive loads. Chang, ( 2010 ) examine the effects of motivation in an instructional simulation game, called SIMPLE. According to the post-game evaluation, student motivation comes from peer learning and user cooperation. Moreover, when instructors teach strategy, this enhances student motivation and engagement, encouraging acceptance of the game, and leading to stronger interest in course-directed learning. Thus, teachers should create a flexible learning environment, giving due consideration to peer interaction, learning motivation, pedagogical support and encouragement to help students develop their autonomy and retain an interest in learning.

Another important element contributing to affective outcomes is challenge. Hainey et al. ( 2011 ) find the presence of a challenge to be the top ranked motivation for online game players, while recognition is the lowest ranked motivation regardless of gender or amount of players in the game. Gamers in a multiplayer environment tend to report competition, cooperation, recognition, fantasy and curiosity when playing games, while online players experience challenge, cooperation, recognition and control. By contrast, fanatical computer game players experience disappointment and a lack of challenge, as they tend to value the technical aspect over the challenges presented by game play. In Hess and Gunter’s survey ( 2013 ), students in a game-based course are motivated, because of the positive social interaction they experience while playing the game; this intrinsic motivation is positively correlated to student performance. Computer games can thus be seen as a learning tool motivating players to acquire many competences. Connolly et al. ( 2012 ) share the same view, seeing the role of challenge as a predictive factor with respect to game engagement and achievement. Similarly, in Ke et al.’s study ( 2015 ), the game-play actions include optimal challenge expectation for the user. These results can also be seen in Badea ( 2015 ), who concludes that the majority of participants in her study acknowledge the highly motivating quality of games, which are complemented by the relaxed class atmosphere when games are used.

However, despite the benefits reaped from the implementation of games and simulations concerning affective outcomes, some researchers underline that motivation is not always related to GBL, emphasizing cases where students who use games in solitary or collaborative environments experience no significant difference in terms of learning motivation (Chen et al., 2015 ). There are indeed cases where serious games are no more motivating than conventional instructional methods (Wouters et al., 2013 ). In Cela-Ranilla et al.’s survey ( 2014 ), despite the suitability of the 3D simulation environment, students do not feel highly motivated or particularly engaged, mostly because they prefer analysis to actions in the particular learning process.

Faculty role

The benefits of a pedagogical shift from a teacher-focused and lecture-based classroom to a student-centred, active-learning environment through the adoption of simulation-based strategies to achieve engagement are relevant to both students and instructors (Auman, 2011 ). There is a progression in student emotion from uncertainty and nervousness to satisfaction and excitement within the gaming experience. Auman ( 2011 ), as an instructor, provides a positive description: she is drawn in by student enthusiasm, her interest in the material is reinvigorated, she feels empowered in her teaching, and ready to guide her class. In this context, it’s easy to see how instructors ought to play a significant role in motivating and engaging students to achieve learning goals. De Porres and Livingston ( 2016 ) concur with Auman ( 2011 ), as their study also indicates increased levels of excitement in doctoral students studying Computer Science, when evaluated in a post-test intervention.

Faculty acting as motivators are key in engaging students in the learning process, working to ensure focus on pre-existing knowledge, as well as to transfer knowledge to game settings (Lameras et al., 2016 ), to reward students for their effort, and support them by providing continuous guidance and pathways for further consideration. The quality of the teacher/facilitator has a strong influence on the learning satisfaction of the students. Also, instructors should facilitate and engage students via in-game discussion forums to help overcome misconceptions, and to lead the game-based learning. The way instructors interact, facilitate and motivate students to construct GBL experiences depends on the design stage, particularly on the way games are incorporated into the curriculum in a traditional course (Wouters et al., 2013 ). This is because motivation exhibits a significant correlation with cognitive and skill performance (Woo, 2014 ). In research conducted by Franciosi ( 2016 ), despite faculty acknowledging the beneficial impact of games on student motivation, they nevertheless, remain doubtful about the effectiveness of games in learning outcomes, thus resulting in neutral attitudes. Interestingly, although instructors perceive simulations as engaging learning technologies, they do not however consider them superior to traditional teaching methods (Tanner et al., 2012 ).

Another aspect, less frequently discussed in the relevant literature, is students’ performing self-assessments with regard to effective learning, as seen in Jones and Bursens study ( 2015 ). This ability is supported by constructivism, since simulations are developed in an active learning environment, where faculty act more as facilitators rather than as instructors and students are provided with feedback to carry out their self-assessments.

Attitudes and satisfaction

A vital element in achieving learning goals is the relationship between motivational processing and the outcome processing (satisfaction), especially in an online instructional game, as seen in the experiment carried out by Huang et al. ( 2010 ). There seems to be a significant relation between these two variables, which suggests that designers of DGBL need to consider extrinsic rewards to achieve motivational development and satisfaction. Learning satisfaction is strongly correlated with student motivation and attitude towards GBL before the game, with actual enjoyment and effort during the game, as well as with the quality of the teacher/facilitator (Mayer, 2013 ). Specifically, students with a higher level of inner motivation and positive attitude towards GBL are more likely to have higher learning expectations, and to experience more satisfaction in their GBL participation.

In general, most studies report that students develop a positive attitude toward the pedagogical adoption of games and simulations in education (Divjak & Tomić, 2011 ; Bekebrede, 2011 ; Ibrahim et al., 2011 ; Beckem & Watkins, 2012 ; Tanner et al., 2012 ; von Wangenheim et al., 2012 ; Halpern et al., 2012 ; Terzidou et al., 2012 ; Hanning et al., 2013 ; Giovanello, 2013 ; Cvetić et al., 2013 ; Kovalik & Kuo, 2012 ; Li & Tsai, 2013 ; Hainey et al., 2011 ; Boeker et al., 2013 ; Nkhoma et al., 2014 ; Costa et al., 2014 ; Chaves et al., 2015 ; Riemer & Schrader, 2015 ; Angelini, 2016 ; Geithner & Menzel, 2016 ). The participants in Dudzinski et al. ( 2013 ) respond positively towards a serious web-based game, describing the experience as interesting, stimulating and helpful, as well as a valuable addition to their pharmacy curriculum. Other students perceive simulation games as fun, but not particularly useful as an instructional method compared to lectures, and about equally useful as case discussions (Beuk, 2015 ). In another study, the majority of students show a positive attitude towards games, positing that they make subjects more fun and provide more opportunities for learning (Ibrahim et al., 2011 ). This finding is consistent with Bekebrede et al. ( 2011 ) on the perceptions of Dutch students belonging to the “net generation”, who have been raised with technology-based games. Data reveals student preference towards active, collaborative and technology-rich learning via digital games that bring added value to the educational process.

For students, satisfaction is a deciding factor in their decision to continue using such learning methods (Liao & Wang, 2011 ; Liao, 2015 ). Terzidou et al. ( 2012 ) discuss affective outcomes, especially the way interviewees feel before and after their participation in the game. Prior to participating, the interviewees report feelings of entertainment, fascination, and satisfaction before their participation in the game, which increase after use, indicating that participants find the use of 3D virtual game appealing.

Chen et al. ( 2010 ) reveal that the majority of students show negative feelings about online gaming. Shieh et al.’s ( 2010 ) mixed methodology research reveals that experimental groups show positive attitudes toward an innovative learning environment and outperform the control groups (in conventional classes). Some studies depict either neutral effects (Rajan et al., 2013 ; Beuk, 2015 ; Bolliger et al., 2015 ; Dankbaar et al., 2016 ; Strycker, 2016 ) or negative attitudes towards game use in the learning experience (Jiménez-Munguía & Luna-Reyes, 2012 ). Students experience more anxiety and boredom during conventional courses, which acts as an impediment to acquiring substantial problem-solving skills. The educational benefits of GBL are particularly apparent in subjects over which students report greater anxiety, where it can be proven that increased enjoyment levels correlate positively with improvements in deep learning and higher-order thinking (Crocco et al., 2016 ). Liarokapis, ( 2010 ) show Computer Science students evaluating a serious online game, and finding it a valuable pedagogical tool, which is both useful and entertaining.

Genre/familiarity issues

Students achieving high scores respond more positively to online games compared to low achieving students. Regarding genre perceptions, male students express more enthusiasm towards digital gaming than female students, or at least spend more time playing computer games compared to girls (Hainey et al., 2011 ). This may be due to the fact that boys tend to be more familiar with computers and web-based technologies. Girls may choose to avoid digital game-based learning methods, due to their negative preconceptions about gaming, preventing them from harnessing the positive aspects of online gaming (Chen et al., 2010 ). These studies indicate a difference in perception based on gender when engaging in DGBL environments. However, research by Riemer and Schrader ( 2015 ) concluded that female students reported a more positive attitude and perception of affective quality compared to the male students. Also, high assessment scores in web-based games depend on the professional experience of the players. Unexpectedly, in Dzeng et al.’s experimental survey ( 2014 ), despite the high test scores achieved in both web-based and paper-based games, students without work experience achieve the highest post-test scores, probably because they are more familiar with using technological tools. The experiments in Erhel and Jamet’s study ( 2013 ) indicate that serious games promote learning and motivation, provided they include features that prompt learners to actively process the educational content.

To sum up, games and simulations lead to improved affective outcomes for university students such as attitudes, motivation, emotional involvement, self-efficacy and satisfaction. A growing body of literature supports the positive attitude shown by students towards games and simulations, as they consider them essential instructional tools that provide motivation and engagement in an active learning environment.

Research interest in the incorporation of games and simulations in higher education is constantly developing (Girard et al., 2013 ). The pedagogical shift, from lecture-centred to student-centred environments and the increasing use of games as innovative learning technologies, calls for a transformation in higher education. In this respect, games and simulations are expected to play a significant role in the learning process. In the present study, the focus is on the positive effects of games and simulations on university students’ learning outcomes. The reviewed papers are diverse in terms of research objectives, theoretical background, methodological avenues adopted, game genres, scientific domain or delivery platform, and various perspectives concerning cognitive, behavioural and affective outcomes employed. Many articles ( n  = 123) are identified, providing either empirical results or offering meta-analytic evidence.

There seems to be a lack of shared definitions or taxonomy necessary for a common classification, which, therefore, results in terminological ambiguity (Klabbers, 2009 ). The majority of GBL researchers compare the effectiveness of implementing web-based learning games to conventional instructional options (Shin et al., 2015 ).

Mapping the results, empirical evidence is identified with respect to cognitive learning outcomes including knowledge acquisition, conceptual application, content understanding and action-directed learning. Games and simulations are educational interventions, which create a supportive environment in which students may acquire knowledge across subjects and disciplines. Students have the opportunity to better understand theoretical concepts, provided that games are used as a supplement in traditional lecture-based courses. Additionally, simulations are often perceived as enjoyable learning tools, which require active and collaborative participation and contribute to the improvement of critical thinking and reasoning, higher-order- and metacognitive thinking. Simulations provide students the opportunity to observe the outcomes of their actions, and take responsibility for decision-making via problem-solving competencies, thus leading to a more active, transformative and experiential reception of knowledge.

Another important finding is that simulations have positive effects on both students and instructors. Positive outcomes exist when instructors set achievable learning goals, interact with students promoting knowledge, support, facilitate, and motivate them to construct new game-based knowledge (Kovalik & Kuo, 2012 ; Lameras et al., 2016 ). Instructors are encouraged to design games and simulations in order to make students fully aware of game activities, providing all the while continuous instructional guidance. These results generally confirm the findings from prior systematic reviews and meta-analyses. However, findings diverge slightly in Young et al.’s survey ( 2012 ), who claim that there is limited or no evidence about the effective implementation of games in the lecture-based curriculum.

This review also covers behavioural outcomes, mainly the development of social, emotional, and collaborative skills, helping students to foster strong relationships with peers, empowering them to collaborate and work in groups more efficiently, become organised, adapt to new tasks, and resolve emerging conflicts. Furthermore, reality-based scenarios and action-oriented game activities promote fruitful interactions and meaningful feedback, which leads to collaborative construction of knowledge. Overall, digital games and simulations urge students to interact not only with the game, but with their instructors and co-players as well. These results have been extensively covered in the literature review, with the majority of researchers agreeing with the current study’s results, confirming the positive effects of games and simulations on the behavioural level of learning outcomes (Bellotti et al., 2013 ; Tsekleves et al., 2014 ; Fu et al., 2016 ; Carenys & Moya, 2016 ).

However, although most reviews acknowledge the positive effects of games in behavioural outcomes, some reviewed studies contradict these positive findings, claiming that teamwork is a controversial issue when it comes to the improvement of knowledge sharing. The use of games seems to decrease opportunities for peer interaction and communication with instructors (Bolliger et al., 2015 ), whereas playing individually is sometimes considered better than working in a team (Merchant et al., 2014 ). Also, in some cases, games and simulations through collaborative activities distract students and hinder learning (Dankbaar et al., 2016 ).

The current review makes a significant contribution by investigating the affective outcomes when incorporating games and simulations in the curriculum, especially motivational and engagement outcomes, emotional development, satisfaction, attitude, emotion, self-assessment, and self-efficacy. Results show that games and simulations motivate, engage and promote effective learning goals by providing opportunities for learners to actively experience, practice, interact, and reflect in a collaborative, game-based, and learner-centred setting. The measures evaluating student attitudes reveal an increasingly positive trend towards games and simulations, especially in post-interventions (Bekebrede et al., 2011 ; Giovanello et al., 2013 ; Costa et al., 2014 ; Angelini, 2016 ; Geithner & Menzel, 2016 ).

To this end, there has been a purposeful highlighting of the instructor’s role as facilitator and motivator in this literature review. Through in-game activities and extended discussion, instructors promote student interaction and help them overcome the lack of understanding of content curriculum and achieve better learning outcomes. The literature also stresses the role of emotional development, which facilitates improvement of learning outcomes. Specifically, there seems to be a progression in student emotion, from negative feelings including uncertainty, anxiety, nervousness, and disappointment during pre-intervention, to positive feelings of satisfaction, confidence, excitement, enjoyment, effort, fascination, and enthusiasm during in-game and post-game interventions (Huang et al., 2010 ; Hummel et al., 2011 ; Liao & Wang, 2011 ; Terzidou et al., 2012 ; Woo, 2014 ; Liao et al., 2015 ).

Most of the pre-existing evidence is compatible with the findings of this systematic review (Sitzmann, 2011 ; Connolly et al., 2012 ; Wouters et al., 2013 ; Ritzhaupt et al., 2014 ; Gegenfurtner et al., 2014 ; Shin et al., 2015 ; Lameras et al., 2016 ; Carenys & Moya, 2016 ; Fu et al., 2016 ; Warren et al., 2016 ). Nevertheless, one study indicates that the overall positive perception of students depends on the different forms of games (Riemer & Schader, 2015 ), namely, simulations promote a less positive effect compared to quizzes and adventures. Some other studies diverge further in their findings, indicating either neutral (Rajan et al., 2013 ; Strycker, 2016 ; Franciosi, 2016 ) or negative student attitudes towards the use of games (Chen et al., 2010 ; Jiménez-Munguía & Luna-Reyes, 2012 ). Also, there are limited results on the effect of games on student self-efficacy, with one study demonstrating moderate post-training self-efficacy (Sitzmann, 2011 ).

Comparing the findings of the current study with the findings of previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses leads to an interesting discussion. The results of the present review illustrate that the majority of the revised articles focus on different genres of games and simulations. The mostly represented genres are virtual/online games and simulations since they can enhance learning in certain disciplines, such as Computer Studies. This finding is in agreement with most of the previous reviews (e.g. Clark et al., 2015 ; Carenys & Moya, 2016 ; Warren et al., 2016 ). Also, simulation games are found to be popular in this review, due to the fact that they are implemented in authentic learning environments, namely in Health Sciences and Biology. Also, in this study, a great representation of role - playing games and business simulation games are obviously resulted from the previous articles, due to the fact that they are implemented in specific academic disciplines, such as Business Management and Marketing. Nevertheless, in this review, serious games are not represented as much as in other reviews (e.g.Tsekleves et al., 2014 ; Fu et al., 2016 ).

Additionally, this study concentrates on the positive effects of games and simulations on learning outcomes, a finding that is compatible with previous reviews (e.g. Bellotti et al., 2013 ; Lameras et al., 2016 ; Clark et al., 2015 . This review confirms that games and simulations contribute to cognitive learning outcomes, including knowledge acquisition, conceptual application, content understanding, and action-directed learning. Other previous reviewers echoed these findings (Smetana & Bell, 2012 ; Shin et al., 2015 ; Wouters et al., 2013 ; Fu et al., 2016 ) emphasizing the important role of games in knowledge acquisition and content understanding. It has been illustrated that university students benefit from the incorporation of games into the learning process, if used as a supplement in traditional lectures, a finding that complies with other reviews (Sitzmann, 2011 ; Wouters et al., 2013 ). However, simulations’ implementation is influenced by instructors’ guidance and motivation, as these factors encourage faculty to design simulations to achieve learning outcomes.

This review also sheds light on behavioural outcomes of using games in instructional design. The emphasis is on the positive effects, namely the development of social and soft skills, emotional skills, the empowerment of collaboration with peers, and the promotion of interaction and feedback, findings that are in line with past reviews (Shin et al., 2015 ; Carenys & Moya, 2016 ). Despite the positive behavioural effects of utilizing games, some reviews find collaboration and teamwork as a hindrance for learning. The application of games seems to decrease peer interaction and communication with faculty, whereas in Merchant et al.’s review ( 2014 ), playing individually is more preferable than playing collaboratively. The current review concludes by highlighting the affective outcomes, and the emphasis is given on motivational and engaging factors that lead to emotional development, satisfaction, self-efficacy and self-assessment, findings that are also documented in other reviews (Sitzmann, 2011 ; Hsu et al., 2012 ; Tsekleves et al., 2014 ).

To conclude, this review discusses the multitude of surveys on the cognitive, behavioural, and affective outcomes related to the use of playing games and simulations in higher education. The multi-dimensional analysis of the empirical data provides a framework for understanding the major outcomes of GBL. Despite the significant benefits in learning outcomes highlighted in this paper, the high cost of designing games and simulations is still a significant challenge. To overcome this cost barrier, governments, researchers, instructors, and game designers should collaborate to find affordable solutions, for enabling the development of games and simulations. Since this review does not concern itself with advanced aspects of learning, the focus should next turn to a metacognitive-oriented survey, which will study the promotion of metacognitive skills in students, such as self-regulation, self-reflection, self-awareness, evaluation, planning, building on the ideas of others, debating, and so forth.

Future research

Considering the above discussion points, and the importance of games and simulations as derived from the relevant literature, some suggested avenues for future research are as follows:

Researchers should focus on applying the relevant theoretical frameworks, such as cognitivism, constructivism, and socio-cultural perspectives to cognitive, behavioural and affective outcomes, respectively.

More research should be conducted investigating gender issues with respect to the effectiveness of games on developmental aspects of behaviour, such as scaffolding and immersion, to counteract the present gap in the existing literature.

Comparative surveys should be included with a design focused on different target groups (adult students, or K-12 students in laboratory conditions).

Evaluation models via a mixed-method design are encouraged, especially to investigate how game designers could tailor game designs to applying different learning preferences and styles.

University instructors should take a more active role in the alignment of games with the curriculum ensuring that games and simulations are implemented in a blended learning module (face-to-face, online material, etc.), or even acting as games masters, scaffolding virtual experiences to university learners.

Faculty should design games with a view to multiplayer cooperation to achieve effectiveness in learning outcomes. Students should also be involved as co-designers, recommending innovative ideas and radical approaches in an effort to meet their own needs. An innovative approach is the adoption of metagames (Young et al., 2012 ), which consist of additional learning resources (blogs, wikis, etc.) encouraging collaboration between players.

This study makes a significant contribution to research, since no other literature review or meta-analysis has been conducted so far investigating educational and web-based games and simulations with such an extensive subject and discipline coverage in higher education. Today’s demand for student-centred teaching methods to develop highly qualified learners, capable of learning in an active and collaborative environment, calls for the deployment of game-based activities and simulations that will enable them to face the challenges of the dawning era.

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The research was sponsored by Laureate International Universities, through the “David Wilson Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning”, won by Dr. Dimitrios Vlachopoulos (2015-2017).

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Effect of internet use and electronic game-play on academic performance of Australian children

• Md Irteja Islam 1 , 2 ,
• Raaj Kishore Biswas 3 &
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Scientific Reports volume  10 , Article number:  21727 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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This study examined the association of internet use, and electronic game-play with academic performance respectively on weekdays and weekends in Australian children. It also assessed whether addiction tendency to internet and game-play is associated with academic performance. Overall, 1704 children of 11–17-year-olds from young minds matter (YMM), a cross-sectional nationwide survey, were analysed. The generalized linear regression models adjusted for survey weights were applied to investigate the association between internet use, and electronic-gaming with academic performance (measured by NAPLAN–National standard score). About 70% of the sample spent > 2 h/day using the internet and nearly 30% played electronic-games for > 2 h/day. Internet users during weekdays (> 4 h/day) were less likely to get higher scores in reading and numeracy, and internet use on weekends (> 2–4 h/day) was positively associated with academic performance. In contrast, 16% of electronic gamers were more likely to get better reading scores on weekdays compared to those who did not. Addiction tendency to internet and electronic-gaming is found to be adversely associated with academic achievement. Further, results indicated the need for parental monitoring and/or self-regulation to limit the timing and duration of internet use/electronic-gaming to overcome the detrimental effects of internet use and electronic game-play on academic achievement.

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Introduction.

Over the past two decades, with the proliferation of high-tech devices (e.g. Smartphone, tablets and computers), both the internet and electronic games have become increasingly popular with people of all ages, but particularly with children and adolescents 1 , 2 , 3 . Recent estimates have shown that one in three under-18-year-olds across the world uses the Internet, and 75% of adolescents play electronic games daily in developed countries 4 , 5 , 6 . Studies in the United States reported that adolescents are occupied with over 11 h a day with modern electronic media such as computer/Internet and electronic games, which is more than they spend in school or with friends 7 , 8 . In Australia, it is reported that about 98% of children aged 15–17 years are among Internet users and 98% of adolescents play electronic games, which is significantly higher than the USA and Europe 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 .

In recent times, the Internet and electronic games have been regarded as important, not just for better results at school, but also for self-expression, sociability, creativity and entertainment for children and adolescents 13 , 14 . For instance, 88% of 12–17 year-olds in the USA considered the Internet as a useful mechanism for making progress in school 15 , and similarly, electronic gaming in children and adolescents may assist in developing skills such as decision-making, smart-thinking and coordination 3 , 15 .

On the other hand, evidence points to the fact that the use of the Internet and electronic games is found to have detrimental effects such as reduced sleeping time, behavioural problems (e.g. low self-esteem, anxiety, depression), attention problems and poor academic performance in adolescents 1 , 5 , 12 , 16 . In addition, excessive Internet usage and increased electronic gaming are found to be addictive and may cause serious functional impairment in the daily life of children and adolescents 1 , 12 , 13 , 16 . For example, the AU Kids Online survey 17 reported that 50% of Australian children were more likely to experience behavioural problems associated with Internet use compared to children from 25 European countries (29%) surveyed in the EU Kids Online study 18 , which is alarming 12 . These mixed results require an urgent need of understanding the effect of the Internet use and electronic gaming on the development of children and adolescents, particularly on their academic performance.

Despite many international studies and a smaller number in Australia 12 , several systematic limitations remain in the existing literature, particularly regarding the association of academic performance with the use of Internet and electronic games in children and adolescents 13 , 16 , 19 . First, the majority of the earlier studies have either relied on school grades or children’s self assessments—which contain an innate subjectivity by the assessor; and have not considered the standardized tests of academic performance 16 , 20 , 21 , 22 . Second, most previous studies have tested the hypothesis in the school-based settings instead of canvassing the whole community, and cannot therefore adjust for sociodemographic confounders 9 , 16 . Third, most studies have been typically limited to smaller sample sizes, which might have reduced the reliability of the results 9 , 16 , 23 .

By considering these issues, this study aimed to investigate the association of internet usage and electronic gaming on a standardized test of academic performance—NAPLAN (The National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy) among Australian adolescents aged 11–17 years using nationally representative data from the Second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing—Young Minds Matter (YMM). It is hypothesized that the findings of this study will provide a population-wide, contextual view of excessive Internet use and electronic games played separately on weekdays and weekends by Australian adolescents, which may be beneficial for evidence-based policies.

Subject demographics

Respondents who attended gave NAPLAN in 2008 (N = 4) and 2009 (N = 29) were removed from the sample due to smaller sample size, as later years (2010–2015) had over 100 samples yearly. The NAPLAN scores from 2008 might not align with a survey conducted in 2013. Further missing cases were deleted with the assumption that data were missing at random for unbiased estimates, which is common for large-scale surveys 24 . From the initial survey of 2967 samples, 1704 adolescents were sampled for this study.

The sample characteristics were displayed in Table 1 . For example, distribution of daily average internet use was checked, showing that over 50% of the sampled adolescents spent 2–4 h on internet (Table 1 ). Although all respondents in the survey used internet, nearly 21% of them did not play any electronic games in a day and almost one in every three (33%) adolescents played electronic games beyond the recommended time of 2 h per day. Girls had more addictive tendency to internet/game-play in compare to boys.

The mean scores for the three NAPLAN tests scores (reading, writing and numeracy) ranged from 520 to 600. A gradual decline in average NAPLAN tests scores (reading, writing and numeracy) scores were observed for internet use over 4 h during weekdays, and over 3 h during weekends (Table 2 ). Table 2 also shows that adolescents who played no electronic games at all have better scores in writing compared to those who play electronic games. Moreover, Table 2 shows no particular pattern between time spent on gaming and NAPLAN reading and numeracy scores. Among the survey samples, 308 adolescents were below the national standard average.

Internet use and academic performance

Our results show that internet (non-academic use) use during weekdays, especially more than 4 h, is negatively associated with academic performance (Table 3 ). For internet use during weekdays, all three models showed a significant negative association between time spent on internet and NAPLAN reading and numeracy scores. For example, in Model 1, adolescents who spent over 4 h on internet during weekdays are 15% and 17% less likely to get higher reading and numeracy scores respectively compared to those who spend less than 2 h. Similar results were found in Model 2 and 3 (Table 3 ), when we adjusted other confounders. The variable addiction tendency to internet was found to be negatively associated with NAPLAN results. The adolescents who had internet addiction were 17% less and 14% less likely to score higher in reading and numeracy respectively than those without such problematic behaviour.

Internet use during weekends showed a positive association with academic performance (Table 4 ). For example, Model 1 in Table 4 shows that internet use during weekends was significant for reading, writing and national standard scores. Youths who spend around 2–4 h and over 4 h on the internet during weekends were 21% and 15% more likely to get a higher reading scores respectively compared to those who spend less than 2 h (Model 1, Table 4 ). Similarly, in model 3, where the internet addiction of adolescents was adjusted, adolescents who spent 2–4 h on internet were 1.59 times more likely to score above the national standard. All three models of Table 4 confirmed that adolescents who spent 2–4 h on the internet during weekends are more likely to achieve better reading and writing scores and be at or above national standard compared to those who used the internet for less than 2 h. Numeracy scores were unlikely to be affected by internet use. The results obtained from Model 3 should be treated as robust, as this is the most comprehensive model that accounts for unobserved characteristics. The addiction tendency to internet/game-play variable showed a negative association with academic performance, but this is only significant for numeracy scores.

Electronic gaming and academic performance

Time spent on electronic gaming during weekdays had no effect on the academic performance of writing and language but had significant association with reading scores (Model 2, Table 5 ). Model 2 of Table 5 shows that adolescents who spent 1–2 h on gaming during weekdays were 13% more likely to get higher reading scores compared to those who did not play at all. It was an interesting result that while electronic gaming during weekdays tended to show a positive effect on reading scores, internet use during weekdays showed a negative effect. Addiction tendency to internet/game-play had a negative effect; the adolescents who were addicted to the internet were 14% less likely to score more highly in reading than those without any such behaviour.

All three models from Table 6 confirm that time spent on electronic gaming over 2 h during weekends had a positive effect on readings scores. For example, the results of Model 3 (Table 6 ) showed that adolescents who spent more than 2 h on electronic gaming during weekdays were 16% more likely to have better reading scores compared to adolescents who did not play games at all. Playing electronic games during weekends was not found to be statistically significant for writing and numeracy scores and national standard scores, although the odds ratios were positive. The results from all tables confirm that addiction tendency to internet/gaming is negatively associated with academic performance, although the variable is not always statistically significant.

Building on past research on the effect of the internet use and electronic gaming in adolescents, this study examined whether Internet use and playing electronic games were associated with academic performance (i.e. reading, writing and numeracy) using a standardized test of academic performance (i.e. NAPLAN) in a nationally representative dataset in Australia. The findings of this study question the conventional belief 9 , 25 that academic performance is negatively associated with internet use and electronic games, particularly when the internet is used for non-academic purpose.

In the current hi-tech world, many developed countries (e.g. the USA, Canada and Australia) have recommended that 5–17 year-olds limit electronic media (e.g. internet, electronic games) to 2 h per day for entertainment purposes, with concerns about the possible negative consequences of excessive use of electronic media 14 , 26 . However, previous research has often reported that children and adolescents spent more than the recommended time 26 . The present study also found similar results, that is, that about 70% of the sampled adolescents aged 11–17 spent more than 2 h per day on the Internet and nearly 30% spent more than 2-h on electronic gaming in a day. This could be attributed to the increased availability of computers/smart-phones and the internet among under-18s 12 . For instance, 97% of Australian households with children aged less than 15 years accessed internet at home in 2016–2017 10 ; as a result, policymakers recommended that parents restrict access to screens (e.g. Internet and electronic games) in children’s bedrooms, monitor children using screens, share screen hours with their children, and to act as role models by reducing their own screen time 14 .

This research has drawn attention to the fact that the average time spent using the internet, which is often more than 4 h during weekdays tends to be negatively associated with academic performance, especially a lower reading and numeracy score, while internet use of more than 2 h during weekends is positively associated with academic performance, particularly having a better reading and writing score and above national standard score. By dividing internet use and gaming by weekdays and weekends, this study find an answer to the mixed evidence found in previous literature 9 . The results of this study clearly show that the non-academic use of internet during weekdays, particularly, spending more than 4 h on internet is harmful for academic performance, whereas, internet use on the weekends is likely to incur a positive effect on academic performance. This result is consistent with a USA study that reported that internet use is positively associated with improved reading skills and higher scores on standardized tests 13 , 27 . It is also reported in the literature that academic performance is better among moderate users of the internet compared to non-users or high level users 13 , 27 , which was in line with the findings of this study. This may be due to the fact that the internet is predominantly a text-based format in which the internet users need to type and read to access most websites effectively 13 . The results of this study indicated that internet use is not harmful to academic performance if it is used moderately, especially, if ensuring very limited use on weekdays. The results of this study further confirmed that timing (weekdays or weekends) of internet use is a factor that needs to be considered.

Regarding electronic gaming, interestingly, the study found that the average time of gaming either in weekdays or weekends is positively associated with academic performance especially for reading scores. These results contradicted previous literatures 1 , 13 , 19 , 27 that have reported negative correlation between electronic games and educational performance in high-school children. The results of this study were consistent with studies conducted in the USA, Europe and other countries that claimed a positive correlation between gaming and academic performance, especially in numeracy and reading skills 28 , 29 . This is may be due to the fact that the instructions for playing most of the electronic games are text-heavy and many electronic games require gamers to solve puzzles 9 , 30 . The literature also found that playing electronic games develops cognitive skills (e.g. mental rotation abilities, dexterity), which can be attributable to better academic achievement 31 , 32 .

Consistent with previous research findings 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , the study also found that adolescents who had addiction tendency to internet usage and/or electronic gaming were less likely to achieve higher scores in reading and numeracy compared to those who had not problematic behaviour. Addiction tendency to Internet/gaming among adolescents was found to be negatively associated with overall academic performance compared to those who were not having addiction tendency, although the variables were not always statistically significant. This is mainly because adolescents’ skipped school and missed classes and tuitions, and provide less effort to do homework due to addictive internet usage and electronic gaming 19 , 35 . The results of this study indicated that parental monitoring and/ or self-regulation (by the users) regarding the timing and intensity of internet use/gaming are essential to outweigh any negative effect of internet use and gaming on academic performance.

Although the present study uses a large nationally representative sample and advances prior research on the academic performance among adolescents who reported using the internet and playing electronic games, the findings of this study also have some limitations that need to be addressed. Firstly, adolescents who reported on the internet use and electronic games relied on self-reported child data without any screening tests or any external validation and thus, results may be overestimated or underestimated. Second, the study primarily addresses the internet use and electronic games as distinct behaviours, as the YMM survey gathered information only on the amount of time spent on internet use and electronic gaming, and included only a few questions related to addiction due to resources and time constraints and did not provide enough information to medically diagnose internet/gaming addiction. Finally, the cross-sectional research design of the data outlawed evaluation of causality and temporality of the observed association of internet use and electronic gaming with the academic performance in adolescents.

This study found that the average time spent on the internet on weekends and electronic gaming (both in weekdays and weekends) is positively associated with academic performance (measured by NAPLAN) of Australian adolescents. However, it confirmed a negative association between addiction tendency (internet use or electronic gaming) and academic performance; nonetheless, most of the adolescents used the internet and played electronic games more than the recommended 2-h limit per day. The study also revealed that further research is required on the development and implementation of interventions aimed at improving parental monitoring and fostering users’ self-regulation to restrict the daily usage of the internet and/or electronic games.

Data description

Young minds matter (YMM) was an Australian nationwide cross-sectional survey, on children aged 4–17 years conducted in 2013–2014 37 . Out of the initial 76,606 households approached, a total of 6,310 parents/caregivers (eligible household response rate 55%) of 4–17 year-old children completed a structured questionnaire via face to face interview and 2967 children aged 11–17 years (eligible children response rate 89%) completed a computer-based self-reported questionnaire privately at home 37 .

Area based sampling was used for the survey. A total of 225 Statistical Area 1 (defined by Australian Bureau of Statistics) areas were selected based on the 2011 Census of Population and Housing. They were stratified by state/territory and by metropolitan versus non-metropolitan (rural/regional) to ensure proportional representation of geographic areas across Australia 38 . However, a small number of samples were excluded, based on most remote areas, homeless children, institutional care and children living in households where interviews could not be conducted in English. The details of the survey and methodology used in the survey can be found in Lawrence et al. 37 .

Following informed consent (both written and verbal) from the primary carers (parents/caregivers), information on the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) of the children and adolescents were also added to the YMM dataset. The YMM survey is ethically approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Western Australia and by the Australian Government Department of Health. In addition, the authors of this study obtained a written approval from Australian Data Archive (ADA) Dataverse to access the YMM dataset. All the researches were done in accordance with relevant ADA Dataverse guidelines and policy/regulations in using YMM datasets.

Outcome variables

The NAPLAN, conducted annually since 2008, is a nationwide standardized test of academic performance for all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to assess their skills in reading, writing numeracy, grammar and spelling 39 , 40 . NAPLAN scores from 2010 to 2015, reported by YMM, were used as outcome variables in the models; while NAPLAN data of 2008 (N = 4) and 2009 (N = 29) were excluded for this study in order to reduce the time lag between YMM survey and the NAPLAN test. The NAPLAN gives point-in-time standardized scores, which provide the scope to compare children’s academic performance over time 40 , 41 . The NAPLAN tests are one component of the evaluation and grading phase of each school, and do not substitute for the comprehensive, consistent evaluations provided by teachers on the performance of each student 39 , 41 . All four domains—reading, writing, numeracy and language conventions (grammar and spelling) are in continuous scales in the dataset. The scores are given based on a series of tests; details can be found in 42 . The current study uses only reading, writing and numeracy scores to measure academic performance.

In this study, the National standard score is a combination of three variables: whether the student meets the national standard in reading, writing and numeracy. Based on national average score, a binary outcome variable is also generated. One category is ‘below standard’ if a child scores at least one standard deviation (one below scores) from the national standard in reading, writing and numeracy, and the rest is ‘at/above standard’.

Independent variables

Internet use and electronic gaming.

In the YMM survey, owing to the scope of the survey itself, an extensive set of questions about internet usage and electronic gaming could not be included. Internet usage omitted the time spent in academic purposes and/or related activities. Playing electronic games included playing games on a gaming console (e.g. PlayStation, Xbox, or similar console ) online or using a computer, or mobile phone, or a handled device 12 . The primary independent covariates were average internet use per day and average electronic game-play in hours per day. A combination of hours on weekdays and weekends was separately used in the models. These variables were based on a self-assessed questionnaire where the youths were asked questions regarding daily time spent on the Internet and electronic game-play, specifically on either weekends or weekdays. Since, internet use/game-play for a maximum of 2 h/day is recommended for children and adolescents aged between 5 and 17 years in many developed countries including Australia 14 , 26 ; therefore, to be consistent with the recommended time we preferred to categorize both the time variables of internet use and gaming into three groups with an interval of 2 h each. Internet use was categorized into three groups: (a) ≤ 2 h), (b) 2–4 h, and (c) > 4 h. Similar questions were asked for game-play h. The sample distribution for electronic game-play was skewed; therefore, this variable was categorized into three groups: (a) no game-play (0 h), (b) 1–2 h, and (c) > 2 h.

Other covariates

Family structure and several sociodemographic variables were used in the models to adjust for the differences in individual characteristics, parental inputs and tastes, household characteristics and place of residence. Individual characteristics included age (continuous) and sex of the child (boys, girls) and addiction tendency to internet use and/or game-play of the adolescent. Addiction tendency to internet/game-play was a binary independent variable. It was a combination of five behavioural questions relating to: whether the respondent avoided eating/sleeping due to internet use or game-play; feels bothered when s/he cannot access internet or play electronic games; keeps using internet or playing electronic games even when s/he is not really interested; spends less time with family/friends or on school works due to internet use or game-play; and unsuccessfully tries to spend less time on the internet or playing electronic games. There were four options for each question: never/almost never; not very often; fairly often; and very often. A binary covariate was simulated, where if any four out of five behaviours were reported as for example, fairly often or very often, then it was considered that the respondent had addictive tendency.

Household characteristics included household income (low, medium, high), family type (original, step, blended, sole parent/primary carer, other) 43 and remoteness (major cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote/very remote). Parental inputs and taste included education of primary carer (bachelor, diploma, year 10/11), primary carer’s likelihood of serious mental illness (K6 score -likely; not likely); primary carer’s smoking status (no, yes); and risk of alcoholic related harm by the primary carer (risky, none).

Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics of the sample and distributions of the outcome variables were initially assessed. Based on these distributions, the categorization of outcome variables was conducted, as mentioned above. For formal analysis, generalized linear regression models (GLMs) 44 were used, adjusting for the survey weights, which allowed for generalization of the findings. As NAPLAN scores of three areas—reading, writing and numeracy—were continuous variables, linear models were fitted to daily average internet time and electronic game play time. The scores were standardized (mean = 0, SD = 1) for model fitness. The binary logistic model was fitted for the dichotomized national standard outcome variable. Separate models were estimated for internet and electronic gaming on weekends and weekdays.

We estimated three different models, where models varied based on covariates used to adjust the GLMs. Model 1 was adjusted for common sociodemographic factors including age and sex of the child, household income, education of primary carer’s and family type 43 . However, the results of this model did not account for some unobserved household characteristics (e.g. taste, preferences) that are unobserved to the researcher and are arguably correlated with potential outcomes. The effects of unobserved characteristics were reduced by using a comprehensive set of observable characteristics 45 , 46 that were available in YMM data. The issue of unobserved characteristics was addressed by estimating two additional models that include variables by including household characteristics such as parental taste, preference and inputs, and child characteristics in the model. In addition to the variables in Model 1, Model 2 included remoteness, primary carer’s mental health status, smoking status and risk of alcoholic related harm by the primary carer. Model 3 further included internet/game addiction of the adolescent in addition to all the covariates in Model 2. Model 3 was expected to account for a child’s level of unobserved characteristics as the children who were addicted to internet/games were different from others. The model will further show how academic performance is affected by internet/game addiction. The correlation among the variables ‘internet/game addiction’ and ‘internet use’ and ‘gaming’ (during weekdays and weekends) were also assessed, and they were less than 0.5. Multicollinearity was assessed using the variance inflation factor (VIF), which was under 5 for all models, suggesting no multicollinearity 47 .

p value below the threshold of 0.05 was considered the threshold of significance. All analysis was conducted in R (version 3.6.1). R-package survey (version 3.37) was used for modelling which is suited for complex survey samples 48 .

Data availability

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the University of Western Australia, Roy Morgan Research, the Australian Government Department of Health for conducting the survey, and the Australian Data Archive for giving access to the YMM survey dataset. The authors also would like to thank Dr Barbara Harmes for proofreading the manuscript.

This research did not receive any specific Grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Islam, M.I., Biswas, R.K. & Khanam, R. Effect of internet use and electronic game-play on academic performance of Australian children. Sci Rep 10 , 21727 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78916-9

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Digital Game Enjoyment: A Literature Review

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• Xiaowen Fang 15  

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A review of the literature on digital game enjoyment or what makes digital games enjoyable is presented, organized by topic. A literature search resulted in 61 relevant peer-reviewed research articles or papers. No limits were put on the research methods used or date of publication. The reviewed literature spanned from 1980 to 2017. The research was organized into the following topics: Measuring and Understanding Digital Game Enjoyment, Uses and Benefits of Digital Game Enjoyment, Flow, Immersion and Engagement, Challenge and Competition, Player Experience of Need Satisfaction and Self Determination Theory, Motivations to Play Games, Games User Research Methods, Game Design, Game Player Demographics, Game Addiction, and Violence in Games.

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• Intrinsic motivation
• Digital games
• Computer games
• Video games
• Literature review

1 Introduction

Understanding digital game enjoyment and what leads to that enjoyment is critical for those who want to design interactive experiences for enjoyment, whether for Game Design, Serious Games, or Gamification.

IJsselsteijn et al. [ 1 ] presented a literature review and theory paper discussing how digital games are different from productivity applications. Mekler, Bopp, Tuch, and Opwis [ 2 ] summarized previous studies on digital game enjoyment, but their search was limited to quantitative studies from 2008 to 2012.

There has yet to be a sufficiently comprehensive summary of the literature on what makes games enjoyable. This paper aims to fill that gap in the literature. A review of the digital game enjoyment literature is presented without constraints on the date of publication or whether the research methods used were quantitative or qualitative.

A review of the literature was done by searching Web of Science, Science Direct, ACM’s digital library, ABI/Inform ProQuest, PsychArticles, EBSCO’s Academic Search Complete, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Business Source Complete, Education Research Complete, ERIC, Taylor & Francis Online, Sage Journals, and Google Scholar using the following keywords and phrases: game enjoyment, game and enjoyment, “Intrinsic motivation” AND games, gamification OR gamified, flow AND “video games”, flow AND “computer games”, games user research, game user research, “player experience”, game AND fun, systematic review computer games, determinants of enjoyment in games. Results with the most number of citations from each search were exported into a spreadsheet.

The first 100 results relevant to the topic of digital game enjoyment or what makes digital games enjoyable were manually selected. The number of citations for each result was checked with Google Scholar on September 1st, 2017 and included in the spreadsheet. 7 results were excluded because they were books or book chapters, not peer-reviewed academic research. Two results were excluded because they were considered duplicates with other articles already included.

From the remaining results, the 61 peer-reviewed journal articles or conference papers with more than 40 citations were reviewed. This cutoff was chosen to focus on the most influential peer reviewed research on the topic. No limits were put on the date of publication, and the reviewed papers spanned from 1980 to 2017.

The 61 articles or papers were summarized and sorted into categories to organize them by topic. What follows is that literature review, organized by topic. Two of the papers were literature reviews, and have been included in the introduction above.

3 Literature Review

Relevant research articles and papers were selected through the process described in the Method section above. This review of the literature has been organized into the following twelve sections: Measuring and Understanding Digital Game Enjoyment, Uses and Benefits of Digital Game Enjoyment, Flow, Immersion and Engagement, Challenge and Competition, Player Experience of Need Satisfaction and Self Determination Theory, Motivations to Play Games, Games User Research Methods, Game Design, Game Player Demographics, Game Addiction, and Violence in Games.

3.1 Measuring and Understanding Digital Game Enjoyment

Developing a measure of computer game enjoyment with card sorting and factor analysis..

Fang, Chan, Brzezinski, and Nair [ 3 ] created a measure of computer game enjoyment. Their questionnaire measure asks participants to report affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses that indicate enjoyment. Their initial items were derived from Nabi and Krcmar’s theory of media enjoyment [ 4 ]. The items were reviewed by 20 professional game designers and developers for feedback. Sixteen game players participated in an exploratory card sorting procedure, where items were sorted into groups and each group was labeled with a category name. Twenty-three game players then conducted a confirmatory card sort to sort the items into the categories. A follow-up online survey was completed by 508 game players, and factor analysis of the survey data confirmed the construct validity of the measure.

The measure that Fang et al. developed was based on a theory of media enjoyment, not specifically a theory of computer game enjoyment. For that reason, some of the items in their measure may have fit better with enjoyment of a passive viewing experience rather than an active game-playing experience. For example, the Behavior component of their measure focused on talking to oneself, making loud comments, or swearing while playing the game. These behaviors do not necessarily indicate enjoyment. A player speaking to themselves or swearing could be enjoying themselves or could just as easily be frustrated and not enjoying themselves.

Media Enjoyment as Affect, Behavior, and Cognition.

Nabi and Krcmar [ 4 ] presented a theoretical model of media enjoyment, with Affective Reactions, Cognitive Reactions, and Behavioral Reactions leading to Enjoyment. It seems they took a basic and broad idea from psychology, the ABC’s of psychology – Affect, Behavior, and Cognition – and applied it to the inputs and outputs of media enjoyment. So, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors lead to media enjoyment, which in turn have effects on the person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Nabi and Krcmar did not present any research to support their model. Also, their model is too broad to be useful for design, or to help make video games or other media more enjoyable.

Identifying with Video Game Characters.

Klimmt, Hefner, and Vorderer [ 5 ] presented a conceptual model of identification with video game characters focused on shifting player self-perceptions to take on the positive attributes of the video game characters they are playing in the game. However, they did not present any original research to support their theory.

Feeling Like Your Ideal Self in Games Makes the Games More Fun.

Przybylski et al. [ 6 ] conducted experiments showing video games were most intrinsically motivating and had the greatest positive emotional impact when players felt their game-self was congruent with their ideal-self.

For their ideal self, participants were asked to think about the type of person they wished, desired, or hoped to be and respond to a personality inventory about that type of person. For their game self, participants played three games and after each game they were asked to think about how they saw themselves when they were playing the game they had just played and respond to the same personality inventory. Hierarchal linear modeling showed that the convergence between game-self and ideal-self characteristics significantly predicted intrinsic motivation and positive affect, and was negatively related to negative affect. Playing digital games can make players feel closer to their desired personality characteristics, more like their ideal self. When it does, this tends to lead to more enjoyment.

Making Video Game Controls Not Work Makes the Game Less Fun.

Klimmt et al. [ 7 ] conducted an online experiment to test the impact of perceived effectance and control on video game enjoyment. They defined effectance as perceived influence on the game world. Players played three versions of a Breakout -style arcade game online. In the reduced effectance version, the controls would not work a third of the time the player pressed the arrow keys. In the reduced control version, the controls worked normally, but the ball moved much faster than in the standard version, making it harder for the players to keep the ball in play and thus to feel in control of the game situation.

Players of the reduced effectance version reported significantly less enjoyment than other groups. Making the controls not work a third of the time may have had unintended consequences they did not measure, such as decreasing the perceived ease of use or usability of the game’s controls. Making the ball move faster may have increased task difficulty, which may have increased enjoyment by making it more challenging. There may have been confounding variables impacting player enjoyment and their results.

It appears they did not successfully isolate and manipulate the variables they intended to manipulate. If the design differences they tested had unintended effects beyond effectance and control, all they showed was that making video game controls not work a third of the time players press buttons leads to less player enjoyment.

The Impact of Two Personality Factors (Sensation Seeking and Self-Forgetfulness) on Computer Game Enjoyment.

Fang and Zhao [ 8 ] investigated the impact of two personality factors, sensation seeking and self-forgetfulness, on computer game enjoyment. Sensation seeking is a need for varied, novel, and complex sensory experiences and being willing to take risks to have those experiences. Self-forgetfulness is a tendency to concentrate so much that one loses all sense of the passage of time and may forget where they are.

Fang and Zhao found that game players who were higher on these two personality traits were significantly more likely to report behavioral reactions indicating enjoyment when they played role-playing games. Game players who were higher on sensation seeking also reported significantly higher behavioral indicators of enjoyment of both action/adventure/shooting/fighting games and sport/racing games, and cognitive indicators of enjoyment of family and simulation games. The results from Fang and Zhao showed that individual differences such as these personality factors can have a systematic impact on computer game enjoyment.

3.2 Uses and Benefits of Digital Game Enjoyment

This section discusses research on the uses and benefits of digital game enjoyment, including for educational games, games to promote health-related behavior change, games as research tools, and games as therapeutic tools.

Benefits of Video Games.

Griffiths [ 9 ] discussed the many ways that video games can have a positive impact on those who play them. While Griffiths did not present original research, he gave an overview of the benefits of playing digital games and the literature supporting those benefits. Playing games reduces reaction times, improves hand-eye coordination, and raises the self-esteem of players. Video games have been used as research or measurement tools, to teach skills to autistic children or other special needs groups, to teach children with attention deficit disorders to focus their attention using brain-wave biofeedback, and to assist with physical rehabilitation.

Input-Process-Output Game Model for Educational Games.

Garris et al. [ 10 ] drew on previous research to develop their Input-Process-Outcome Game Model for educational games, and presented experimental research to support their model. This model shows the content to be learned and game characteristics are the inputs into the process. The process is an iterative, cyclical process of User Judgments, User Behavior, and System Feedback. This cyclical process is the Game Cycle. Then the Debriefing after the Game Cycle leads to Learning as an outcome of reflection on the process.

Garris et al. developed two versions of a navy training simulation of targeting enemy ships from a periscope. A treatment version of the training simulation was designed to incorporate the following game characteristics: Fantasy, Rules/Goals, Sensory Stimuli, Challenge, Mystery, and Control. They made a control version of the training simulation that was designed to provide the same opportunity to target ships but without the game characteristics. The simulation with the game characteristics was rated significantly higher than the control version on each game dimension and it provided significantly more effective training than the control version.

Digital Games as Therapeutic Tools.

Griffiths [ 11 ] suggested that digital games can be effective therapeutic tools because they motivate patients to succeed at the task, can distract from pain and discomfort, and can help develop social and communication skills among the learning disabled. Griffiths did not present original research on the topic, but provided an overview of the research using digital games as a therapeutic tool. For example, digital games were used along with brainwave biofeedback to help children with attention-deficit disorders learn to focus.

Video Games for Health-Related Behavior Change.

Baranowski et al. [ 12 ] did a literature review of studies about video games that persuaded players to make health-related behavior changes. They reviewed twenty-seven articles, and found that there were two main ways that these games affected player behavior: goal-setting and story. Some games made the goal of the game the intended behavior change. Others used the story in the game to have characters model the desired behavior, or have the lesson of the story promote the desired behavior change.

Intrinsically Motivating Educational Games.

Malone [ 13 ] presented research on educational games being used in the classroom. He found that Challenge, Fantasy, and Curiosity were important parts of designing educational computer games that made things fun to learn. Malone asked 65 children in a computer class to rate how much they liked 25 games that their teachers thought were most popular among the students. Malone then rated each game on many different dimensions and analyzed the correlations between these game features and the average ratings the children gave the games. These game features were significantly correlated with game preference: Goal, Computer keeps a score, Audio effects, Randomness involved in game, and Speed of answers counts.

Malone explored why two games are enjoyable using within-subjects experiments by creating multiple different versions of each game. He constructed six versions of the popular game Breakout and eight versions of an educational game called Darts , varying whether or not certain features were included in the game. Based on this research, Malone developed a framework for intrinsically motivated instruction around three main themes: Challenge, Fantasy, and Curiosity.

Malone emphasized that players should be able to choose their own difficulty level, have multiple levels of goals, be presented with an optimal level of complexity, and that feedback should be both surprising and constructive.

Malone’s Heuristics for Designing Educational Computer Games.

Malone [ 14 ] presented several heuristics for how to make educational computer games fun, or how to make learning fun more broadly. He describes these heuristics as a general taxonomy of intrinsic motivation, organized around Challenge, Fantasy, and Curiosity.

For a game to be challenging, it must provide a goal, and players must be uncertain whether or not they will attain that goal, Malone wrote. Multiple levels of goals allows players of different skill levels to enjoy the same game. For example, having both a basic goal and a meta-goal of reaching the basic goal efficiently. Keeping score and time pressure or speeded responses can help provide multiple levels of goals. Performance feedback must be clear enough to present a challenge but presented in a way that minimizes self-esteem damage.

Malone defines Fantasy as showing or evoking images of physical objects or social situation that are not actually present. Intrinsic fantasy is where the player’s actions and skills to take action are presented within the context of the fantasy world. Malone argued intrinsic fantasies are more interesting and educational than extrinsic fantasies.

Malone defined Curiosity as the motivation to learn. Games evoke curiosity by providing an optimal level of information complexity, so they are novel and surprising, but not completely incomprehensible. Sensory curiosity is a desire to experience changes or patterns of sensory stimuli. Cognitive curiosity is a desire to improve one’s knowledge. Malone recommended using incompleteness, inconsistency, or unparsimoniousness to increase curiosity and motivate learners to learn.

A Measure of Enjoyment for Educational Games.

Fu, Su, and Yu [ 15 ] extended Sweetser and Wyeth’s [ 16 ] model of flow in games to create a measure of enjoyment for educational games. They added a Knowledge Improvement factor to the model, but dropped the Player Skills factor. To validate their measure, they asked 166 college students to complete their questionnaire after they played one of four educational games. Results showed the measure had adequate construct validity and reliability.

It may have been better if Fu, Su, and Yu had said more about the process they used to develop the model underlying their scale and the rationale for the content validity of their scale. Knowledge Improvement may be a desirable outcome, but it was not made clear why it would lead to enjoyment. It was also unclear why they dropped the Player Skills factor, since it seems distinct from Knowledge Improvement.

Using Computer Games in Psychological Research.

Washburn [ 17 ] discussed the use of computer games as tools for psychological research. Washburn suggested that many of the cognitive tests that psychologists use are artificial, sterile, and too simple, and that game-like tasks can be more ecologically valid, complex, and enjoyable.

The drawbacks of game-based psychological research include programming demands, introducing unintended complexity, and appearing frivolous or less serious than other types of research. Washburn suggests using the term “game-like tasks” rather than computer games when applying for funding to describe serious cognitive and comparative research tests that use elements of computer games.

Washburn compared a cognitive task called the continuous performance task with the same task described as a star wars game to show that research using computer games leads to more motivation and better performance. Participants had significantly faster response times in the game-like condition than in the non-game condition, about 12% faster, with only 3% less accuracy (97% rather than 99% accuracy).

Flow is the psychological experience of overcoming optimally challenging obstacles for the sake of the enjoyment they provide.

User-System-Experience Model of Flow in Games.

Cowley et al. [ 18 ] adapted Finneran and Zhang’s [ 19 ] Person-Artefact-Task (PAT) model to understand entertainment and flow in games, proposing a User-System-Experience model. Basically, the User interacts with the System, and what results is the Experience. Cowley et al. did not present any original research to test the model they proposed, but reviewed how the existing literature fit with their proposed theory.

Flow in Media Enjoyment.

Sherry [ 20 ] suggested that media enjoyment could be understood through flow theory. Sherry suggested that interpreting a movie or TV show could be understood as a task with an optimal level of the difficulty of that interpretation driving enjoyment of the media. However, no evidence was presented to support the idea that people watching passive entertainment experience flow, or that the challenge of interpretation is what makes watching movies or TV enjoyable.

Flow is only one route to enjoyment, but flow is distinct from relaxation because flow requires a high level of concentration on overcoming a series of challenging tasks [ 21 ]. Perhaps an expert interpreting a complex experimental film could be an optimally challenging task and therefore a source of flow. But passively watching film or television without trying to achieve a challenging goal is by definition a relaxing experience not a flow experience.

GameFlow Model of Player Enjoyment.

Sweetser and Wyeth [ 16 ] proposed a model of player enjoyment built on flow theory, made up of 8 elements: concentration, challenge, skills, control, clear goals, feedback, immersion, and social interaction. They created a list of criteria for each element and used these criteria for expert evaluation of two games, one game with high ratings and one with low ratings from game reviewers.

Because these expert evaluations were conducted only once and by the researchers themselves, no measures of inter-rater agreement could be presented. Sweetser and Wyeth did not empirically validate either these criteria or their model of game enjoyment. Sweetser and Wyeth suggested that because the higher rated game was evaluated more highly on their list of criteria that was a meaningful method to validate their criteria. But since the two games being evaluated were chosen such that one was rated higher than the other by game reviewers, it seems like the researchers knew before they conducted the evaluations which game was rated higher. This lack of a blind evaluation by an independent rater may have biased their results.

As Sweetser and Wyeth pointed out, social interaction is an element of game enjoyment but is not a part of flow theory. They said they included it in their model because “it was highly featured in the literature on user-experience in games.” They did not have a sound theoretical or empirical reason to include social interaction in a model of flow in games. It may have been more accurate to call it their model of game enjoyment.

Focus Group Explores Social Processes Leading to Group Flow in Social Gaming.

Kaye and Bryce [ 22 ] conducted four focus group sessions with four or five people each to understand how playing video games with other people and the social interactions around that lead to group flow. Kaye and Bryce asked the groups about their motivations for playing games, their experience playing games in the presence of other players, and asked probing follow-up questions.

Kaye and Bryce identified several social processes that led to group flow during social gaming: collective competence, collaboration, task-relevant knowledge/skills, complimentary participation, being seen, social connectedness/belonging, social integration, and social networking.

While focus groups are often shunned as research methods that suffer from group-think and social desirability bias, Kaye and Bryce’s study shows that focus groups can be an effective tool for exploratory studies and group brainstorming to identify issues for further research. However, this kind of qualitative research only identifies, discovers, and describes phenomena. Further research is needed that would operationalize and measure the factors they identified and group flow to say with any certainty how these factors relate to group flow.

3.4 Immersion and Engagement

Immersion and Engagement may be thought of as synonymous with Flow, different theories about the same experience, or similar experiences with nuanced differences.

A Grounded Theory Study of Immersion.

Brown and Cairns [ 23 ] did a grounded theory study of game immersion. They asked seven people who regularly play games to play their favorite game for thirty minutes and then participate in a semi-structured interview. They focused on what immersion and presence mean to the gamers, in their own words.

Brown and Cairns found three levels of immersion: engagement, engrossment, and total immersion. Each level of immersion had different barriers that needed to be overcome to achieve that level of immersion. The barriers to engagement were access to the game, time, effort, and attention. They defined attention as “willingness to concentrate” (p. 1299).

While engagement was about being willing to play the game at all, engrossment was about being emotionally invested in continuing to play the game. The barriers to engrossment were about “game construction”, or the quality of the game. Game construction included the visuals, tasks, and plot of the game.

Each lower level of immersion must be reached before the next can be attempted. The next and final level of immersion Brown and Cairns found was total immersion, which they said was the same as presence. Their participants described total immersion as “being cut off from reality”, being so detached from reality that “the game was all that mattered” (p. 1299). The barriers to presence were empathizing with the main character or team in the game and atmosphere, which they defined as having game features that were “relevant to the actions and location of the game characters” ( ibid. ).

Quantitative Experiments on Immersion.

Jennett et al. [ 24 ] took a more quantitative approach to immersion in digital games. Through three experiments, they found that immersion could be measured subjectively through questionnaires and objectively through task completion time or eye movements. They also suggested that immersion was not always a positive experience, but could be accompanied by negative emotions as well. The dimensions of their questionnaire measure of immersion were basic attention, temporal dissociation, transportation, challenge, emotional involvement, and enjoyment.

Immersion in Video Game Stories.

Qin et al. [ 25 ] developed a measure of the factors of computer game narrative that contribute to immersion in the story of the game. Drawing on previous research to generate items, they developed their questionnaire measure through exploratory and then confirmatory factor analysis. The dimensions in the final version of their measure were: Curiosity, Concentration, Challenge and Skills, Control, Comprehension, Empathy, and Familiarity.

While they attempted to sort these factors into antecedents to immersion, experience of immersion, and effects of immersion, it may have been useful for them to separate the factors by whether they are determined by the design of the game (artifact), the personality traits of the person playing the game (person), or the activity that the person is doing in the game (task). In other words, it may have been better if they had applied the Person-Artifact-Task model [ 19 ]. This may have made their work more useful for practitioners.

Literature Review on Engagement in Digital Games.

Boyle, Connolly, Hainey, and Boyle [ 26 ] conducted a literature search on engagement in digital entertainment games. Their initial search captured 19,776 papers, but their review focused on fifty-five papers that were about engagement in digital games. Boyle et al. categorized the papers they reviewed by what aspect of engagement they focused on, such as the subjective experience or motives for playing, and the study design used, such as quasi-experimental, survey, or qualitative approaches.

The Game Engagement Questionnaire.

Brockmyer et al. [ 27 ] used Rasch analysis to develop a measure how much individuals typically experience engagement when they play video games. This kind of measure uses items that ask whether the statement applies to their experience and allows participants to answer “Yes”, “Sort of”, or “No”. After pilot studies with 17 children and then 213 middle school students to develop the content of the measure, they surveyed 153 junior high school students. The Rasch rating scale analysis they did sorted the items from most to least “difficult”, with more difficult meaning participants were less likely to agree with the statements.

In their second study, Brockmyer et al. had 107 male undergraduate students fill out the questionnaire they developed and then play a game. After 25 min of gameplay, they played a recorded voice for 16 s asking three times if they dropped their keys, each time with increasing volume. The researchers videotaped how participants responded to the recording and coded how participants responded. Regression analysis showed that participants whose Game Engagement Questionnaire scores indicated they tend to get more engaged when they play video games were more likely to ignore the first time the recording asked if they dropped their keys than those whose scores indicated they tend to get less engaged when they play games. But these relationships were not found for the second or third time the recording asked if they dropped their keys. They wrote that how game players respond to hearing an initial statement may be most reflective of engagement. This was an interesting behavioral measure of player engagement, taking as an assumption that the more a person is experiencing engagement, the harder it will be to draw their attention away from the task at hand.

3.5 Challenge and Competition

An optimal level of challenge is one factor that leads to flow. When two players compete against each other, the skill-level of each player becomes the level of challenge for the other player. How do challenge and competition impact enjoyment?

Intrinsically Motivated Players Enjoy Challenges, Extrinsically Motivated Players Enjoy Winning.

Abuhamdeh and Csikszentmihalyi [ 28 ] used hierarchical linear modeling with survey data from online chess players to show that people who had an intrinsic motivation orientation, meaning they were more motivated by intrinsic motivation, enjoyed more challenging games more than people who were more extrinsically motivated. People who are more extrinsically motivated are more driven by wanting to win the game than by enjoying overcoming challenges, so the easier the game is, the more they enjoyed it. The top quartile of intrinsically motivated people most enjoyed playing against more skilled players, while the bottom quartile on intrinsic motivation most enjoyed playing against less skilled players. Abuhamdeh and Csikszentmihalyi used chess rating as an objective measure of skill at playing chess based on the player’s record of previous wins and losses. Relative chess rating was used as an objective measure of challenge or task difficulty, subtracting the player’s chess rating from their opponent’s chess rating for that game.

Playing Well Against Skilled Opponents Leads to Peak Enjoyment in Online Chess.

Abuhamdeh and Csikszentmihalyi [ 29 ] studied the effect of optimal challenge on enjoyment in internet chess. Optimal challenge is a level of task difficulty that is not so high that it is overwhelming and not so low that it is boring. By looking at opponents’ chess rankings, which are objective records of their past performance, they showed that an optimal level of challenge or task difficulty led to the highest ratings of enjoyment. Specifically, enjoyment was highest when players had a 20% chance of winning based on their opponents’ higher chess ranking. They also found that enjoyment was highest when players performed about equally to their opponents. This suggests that playing against more skilled opponents and stretching your abilities to meet the challenge leads to the highest levels of enjoyment. This finding supports flow theory’s notion that an optimal level of challenge leads to flow, and enjoyment is a part of the flow experience.

Balancing Outcome Uncertainty with Perceived Competence Maximizes Suspense and Enjoyment in Digital Games.

Abuhamdeh, Csikszentmihalyi, and Jalal [ 30 ] investigated the impact of suspense and relative score on video game enjoyment. They found an inverted U-shaped relationship between relative score and enjoyment, with enjoyment being highest when participants were ahead of their opponent by 1.5 points. A similar relationship was found between relative score and suspense, with suspense being highest when players were behind their opponent by about 1 point.

Suspense mediated about 36% of the relationship between relative score and enjoyment. A linear relationship was found between relative score and perceived competence. So, a higher score led to higher perceived competence, but scoring higher than one’s opponent lowered suspense. Combining these two sources of enjoyment, perceived competence and suspense, accounted for the relationship they found between relative score and enjoyment. Having a slightly higher score than one’s opponent makes players feel skilled or competent while maintaining enough uncertainty about the outcome of the game to experience suspense.

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment to Maintain Optimal Challenge in Video Games.

Hunicke [ 31 ] created a dynamic difficulty algorithm to dynamically adjust the difficulty of a shooter game based on player performance. The algorithm looks at player health, expected player health based on a cumulative Gaussian distribution, and enemy damage to calculate how likely players are to die in the game. Then, the algorithm uses this information to adjust the difficulty of the game, such as by changing how much damage enemies do, changing enemy health points, or spawning health packs, ammunition, and weapons players can pick up in the game.

The algorithm Hunicke used attempted to keep player health at a mean of 60 with a standard deviation of 15. About every 3 s, the algorithm would decide whether or not to give players 15 health points. Participants were randomly assigned to play a version of the game with or without this adjustment. In the first 15 min of gameplay, players of the unadjusted version of the game died an average of 6.4 times, while players in the adjusted version died an average of 4 times. Perhaps because there were only had 20 participants, these results were not quite statistically significant ( t  = 2.09; p  = 0.0508).

Hunicke measured player performance (deaths in the game), but did not measure player enjoyment or flow. It would have been interesting to find out if the dynamic difficulty adjustment version of the game led to higher ratings of player enjoyment.

Optimal Challenge Does Not Mean Medium Difficulty Settings.

Klimmt et al. [ 32 ] conducted an experiment where participants were randomly assigned to play a First-Person Shooter game on either easy, medium, or very hard difficulty settings. Seventy-four participants played for 10 min and filled out a questionnaire.

Participants who played the game on easier difficulty settings reported significantly more enjoyment. Klimmt et al. claimed that these results were not in line with flow theory and attribution theory, which they interpreted as suggesting a medium level of difficulty would lead to the most enjoyment. However, flow theory does not suggest a medium difficulty setting on a game leads to the most enjoyment. Flow theory suggests that an optimal level of challenge will lead to the most enjoyment, a level of challenge that stretches player skills without overwhelming them. Another way to interpret these results is that participants tended to find the easy mode of this game’s three difficulty settings to be closest to their optimal level of difficulty, so as the difficulty increased above that optimal level, their enjoyment decreased. So, their results are fully in line with flow theory’s notion of optimal challenge.

In their discussion, Klimmt et al. admit that their results may have been “a misinterpretation of objective difficulty levels”, and that players may have found the easy setting “actually challenging”. Optimal challenge is about subjective perceptions of challenge and skill being balanced and high, not objective difficulty. If someone is first learning to play the game or considers themselves not very skilled, they will find a low challenge level optimally challenging. As perceived skills improve with practice, the optimal difficulty level may increase. This study highlights the difference between optimal challenge in flow theory and a medium difficulty setting on a game.

Competition and Its Impact on Video Game Enjoyment.

Vorderer, Hartmann, and Klimmt [ 33 ] investigated the impact of competition on video game enjoyment. They defined competition as having an opportunity and necessity to act that affects the subsequent situation. This definition included competing with challenges presented in single-player games and controlled with artificial intelligence. It seems they conflated competition with challenge or task difficulty. In their methods section they called this construct “many possibilities to act and a strong necessity to act (i.e., a challenging/competitive element)” (p. 3).

In a field experiment, one of four hypothetical scenarios were presented to each participant. In the scenarios, the character either had many or few weapons, which manipulated the possibilities to act, and either there were monsters suddenly attacking or no monsters were mentioned, which manipulated the necessity to act. Participants rated the hypothetical situation on a measure of expected enjoyment using Likert scales. Participants rated their expected enjoyment higher when there was a high possibility to act and a necessity to act. However, expected enjoyment of hypothetical scenarios may not generalize at all to actual player experiences and behavior while playing actual video games. Asking about recent past experiences would have been better than asking for speculation about their future expected enjoyment.

3.6 Player Experience of Need Satisfaction and Self Determination Theory

Player experience of need satisfaction (pens)..

Ryan, Rigby, and Przybylski [ 34 ] developed a model of what motivates people to play digital games and leads to digital game enjoyment based on Deci and Ryan’s [ 35 , 36 ] Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT says fulfilling psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness leads to intrinsic motivation. Autonomy is feeling in control or feeling your actions are freely chosen. Competence is feeling skilled at what you are doing. Relatedness is social belonging and social connectedness.

The Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) model Ryan et al. proposed includes the three needs of SDT but adds Intuitive Controls and Presence. Intuitive Controls are how user-friendly the controls of the game are, or how easy the controls the player uses to interact with the game are to learn, make sense of, and master. Presence is about feeling like you are actually there in the game, physically, emotionally, and within the narrative of the game.

Ryan et al. presented four studies showing empirical support for the PENS model. The first three studies asked participants to play games from different genres and then fill out a questionnaire. The four study surveyed previous experiences playing massively-multiplayer online games. Results from analyses including repeated measures ANOVA and Hierarchical Linear Modeling supported the PENS model.

Motivational Model of Video Game Engagement.

Przybylski et al. [ 37 ] described the theory behind the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) model. As with Ryan et al. [ 34 ], they suggested that fulfilling psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness motivated people to play video games.

Przybylski et al. discussed research they have conducted suggesting that fulfilling these psychological needs was a better predictor of game enjoyment than violent content. They also discussed their studies distinguishing between having to play versus wanting to play. Their research suggested that people who had their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfied in their daily life tend to experience more choice about their engagement in video games. They called this distinction between having to play versus wanting to play “harmonious passion” versus “obsessive passion”.

Media Enjoyment as Need Satisfaction.

Tamborini et al. [ 38 ] validated and extended the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) model [ 34 ]. They conducted a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with a bowling game varying whether players used a traditional controller or a Nintendo Wii motion controller and varying whether they were playing against a human or a computer.

Their proposed model explained 51% of the variance they found in their results. They extended PENS by including Perceived Game Skill as a factor contributing to Autonomy. They argued that players with high game skill would feel more volition in the game, giving them more opportunity to satisfy their autonomy needs. They could have made it more clear how Perceived Game Skill was distinct from Competence, since Competence is basically the experience of feeling skilled.

Experiment Shows Impact of Autonomy and Competence in Exercise Games.

Peng et al. [ 39 ] conducted a 2 × 2 experiment manipulating the presence or absence of game features to support autonomy and competence in an exercise game.

The autonomy-supportive features allowed players to customize character appearance, to choose how their character becomes more powerful (hit points, speed, or damage) as they progress through the game, and to choose between a variety of dialog options when speaking with non-player characters. The competence-supportive features included dynamic difficulty adjustment that makes the game easier or harder based on player performance, a heroism meter to give players feedback, and being able to earn achievement badges viewable in an achievement menu.

Each participant played one of the four versions of the game. Participants played the game for 15 min in a lab and then filled out an online questionnaire.

Participant ratings of enjoyment, motivation to play the game in the future, likelihood to recommend the game to others, and their rating of the game were significantly higher when the autonomy-supportive and competence-supportive features were present than when they were absent. They tested these differences with a two-way ANCOVA, controlling for gender and hours of gaming per month.

3.7 Motivations to Play Games

Motivations to play online role-playing games..

Yee [ 40 ] created a model of what motivates people to play online role-playing games. The model had 10 sub-components sorted into 3 main components: Achievement, Social, and Immersion. Achievement was made up of Advancement, Mechanics, and Competition. Social consisted of Socializing, Relationship, and Teamwork. Immersion was made up of Discovery, Role-Playing, Customization, and Escapism.

To develop this model, Yee created a 40-question survey using 5-point Likert-type scales based on Bartle’s [ 41 ] four player types of achiever, socializer, killer, and explorer. Yee’s survey was also based on qualitative information from earlier surveys of online role-playing game players. The results of this 40-item survey were analyzed with exploratory factor analysis using oblique rotation to develop Yee’s ten-component model. Running exploratory factor analysis a second time on these ten components was done to group the components together, resulting in the three main components of Achievement, Social, and Immersion.

Bartle’s model of player motivations, which he called player types, was generated by dividing up what players do in online games into acting and interacting on other players and the world. Achievers act on the world, socializers interact with other players, etc. This was a purely theoretical construction, not based on research with actual game players. Because Yee started with Bartle’s model, and Bartle’s model was theoretical and not based on research, Yee’s model may be incomplete, lacking in content validity, or not as conceptually comprehensive as it could have been. Yee noted that earlier qualitative surveys influenced the development of this survey, but did not explain how this earlier research influenced survey item generation.

Demographics and Motivations to Play Online Games.

Yee [ 42 ] used an online survey of 30,000 online game players to explore the demographics, motivations and experience of players of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Yee found a wide range of ages play these games, and that motivation to play was strong across ages (hours of play per week correlated with age at r  = −.04).

Yee created a questionnaire of motivations to play MMORPGs based on qualitative data from open-ended online survey items, from online forum discussions, and from Bartle’s [ 41 ] player types. Exploratory Factor Analysis of online survey responses to this questionnaire found eight factors: Relationship, Manipulation, Immersion, Escapism, Achievement, Lead, Learn, and Solo/Group.

As with Yee’s [ 40 ] other article published the same year, the items that went into this analysis may not have captured the full range of motivations to play games. Bartle’s [ 41 ] player types were theoretical and not based on research with actual game players. Yee’s findings about MMORPGs may not generalize beyond MMORPGs.

Motivations to Play Predict Actual Behavior in World of Warcraft.

Billieux et al. [ 43 ] surveyed 690 World of Warcraft players, focusing on their motivations for playing the game, and then tracked their in-game behavior for 8 months through the game’s official database. To measure motivations to play the MMORPG, they used Yee’s [ 40 ] measure developed for that purpose. Billieux et al. found that several motivations predicted actual in-game behaviors. For example, the more players were motivated by Advancement, Mechanics, Competition, Escapism, Relationship, or Customization, the more hours per week they played the game, with each showing a statistically significant correlation ( r ranging from .18 to .37; p  < 0.00028).

Understanding Why People Play Online Games with the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Lee [ 44 ] used structural equation modeling with survey data to compare two competing theories of what makes people want to play online games: the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Using multi-group causal analysis, Lee found that the TPB model better explained the data that they collected than the TAM model.

Their results showed that Perceived Usefulness (PU) in the TAM model did not significantly predict Perceived Ease of Use, Attitude, or Intention. This seems like a fairly obvious result, that people do not play online games because playing them is useful.

What was more interesting about this study was how Lee integrated flow theory, enjoyment, usability (which they called Human-Computer Interaction), and the Theory of Planned Behavior to make sense of and predict what makes people want to play online games. To summarize some of the paths in Lee’s research model, Human-Computer Interaction and Social Interaction contribute to Flow Experience, which in turn contributes to Attitude and Intention, Attitude contributes to Intention, and Intention contributes to Behavior. Each path in the model was statistically significant.

Motivations to Continue Playing Online Games in Korea.

Choi and Kim [ 45 ] proposed and tested a model of why people continue to play 16 online games in the Korean market. They proposed that interaction with the system (Personal Interaction) and interaction with other players (Social Interaction) lead to optimal experience or flow, which in turn leads to customer loyalty, or an intention to play the game again in the future. They said three elements of the system design contribute to personal interaction: goal, operation, and feedback. The operation is about the instruments that players can use to help them achieve their goal. Communication Place and Communication Tools contribute to Social Interaction. Communication Place refers to the virtual world where players can gather together. The results of their SEM analysis using LISREL supported their proposed model that Personal and Social Interaction contribute to Optimal Experience or Flow, and that Optimal Experience or Flow in turn contributes to Customer Loyalty.

Motivations to Play Arcade Games in 1985: Mastery and Competition.

Morlock, Yando, and Nigolean [ 46 ] surveyed 117 university students, asking them about what motivated them to play arcade video games. They found that those who played games frequently were motivated to compete with others and to master the games.

Top 3 Reasons Scottish University Students Play Games: Challenge, Curiosity, and Fantasy.

Hainey et al. [ 47 ] surveyed 2226 Scottish university students about their computer game playing habits and their reasons for playing games. To assess their reasons for playing games, participants were given descriptions of each part of Malone and Lepper’s [ 48 ] framework and asked to rate how important each part was for them. The framework included challenge, fantasy, curiosity, control, cooperation, competition, and recognition. Challenge, Curiosity, and Fantasy were the three most important reasons participants gave for why they played computer games, while Competition and Recognition were least important.

Hainey et al. also asked participants, “If you had the opportunity to use computer games for learning in your programme at University, how would you rate each of the following reasons in terms of importance in learning?” Challenge, curiosity, and cooperation were the most important reasons to play computer games in higher education to those surveyed, while recognition and fantasy were least important.

Limiting the reasons for playing games to Malone and Lepper’s framework may have limited the range of responses participants were able to express in this study. It may have been better to ask an open-ended question to elicit other reasons participants play games.

The Playful Experience (PLEX) Framework Supported by Interview Data.

Korhonen et al. [ 49 ] interviewed 13 video game players to develop an initial framework of playful experiences. They drew on previous research to generate a pool of experiences, pleasures, emotions, elements of play, and reasons people play games. Then they interviewed players of three games: Grand Theft Auto IV, The Sims 2, and Spore . They coded the transcripts from the interviews with their playful experiences framework. They found that all of the categories in their framework were mentioned by players of at least two of the three games that were played. The categories in their framework were: Captivation, Challenge, Competition, Completion, Control, Discovery, Eroticism, Exploration, Expression, Fantasy, Fellowship, Nurture, Relaxation, Sadism, Sensation, Simulation, Subversion, Sympathy, and Thrill.

Korhonen et al. pointed out that their framework is not fully comprehensive and suggested some additional categories they had under consideration: disgust, humor, cuteness, identification, and tragedy. There is some subjectivity in the coding of interview data, and a risk of confirmation bias if the interviewers know the categories. It may have been better if they had used a more bottom-up approach to generate their initial categories and had used more than one coder so they could present inter-rater reliability statistics for the coding of the interview transcripts.

Children’s Motivations to Play Video Games.

Olson [ 50 ] surveyed 1,254 middle school children to evaluate what motivates them to play video games. The top three reasons female students agreed with for why they play electronic games were “it’s just fun”, “like to compete w/others & win”, and “challenge of figuring things out”. The top three reasons male students agreed with were “it’s just fun”, “something to do when bored”, and “challenge of figuring things out”.

Olson could have said more about how they came up with the reasons they used in their survey. In particular, “it’s just fun” does not tell us much about why it is fun. It creates circular logic: it is fun because it is fun.

Motivations to Play First-Person Shooter Games.

Jansz and Tanis [ 51 ] did an online survey of 751 Dutch people on what motivates them to play First-Person Shooter (FPS) games. Respondents were asked whether or not they were part of an online group that play together, and if they were in an amateur or professional group. Professional players were significantly more likely to be motivated by Competition and Challenge than the other groups. Players who were a part of a group were significantly more likely to be motivated by Social Interaction than non-group members.

Jansz and Tanis could have said more about how they chose the motivations they measured. In particular, Enjoyment seems too broad to be included as a motivation.

Motivations to Play Social Network Games.

Lee, Lee, and Choi [ 52 ] surveyed 324 US college students about why they play social network games. Factor analysis of the survey data revealed six motivations: passing time/escapism, entertainment, challenge/competition, self-presentation, fantasy/role playing, and social interaction.

Lee, Lee, and Choi explored the relationship between these motivations and behavioral intentions such as an intention to play social network games, to visit friends to play the games, to send friends gifts in the games, and to purchase virtual goods. Different motives predicted different behavioral intentions. For example, being motivated by Self-Presentation significantly predicted intention to purchase virtual currencies or goods in social networking games.

Hedonic Motivation Systems Model.

Lowry et al. [ 53 ] proposed a model of hedonic-motivation systems (HMS), systems used for pleasure rather than productivity. The final structural equation model they presented shows Perceived Ease of Use contributing to Perceived Usefulness, Curiosity, Joy, and Control; Perceived Usefulness, Curiosity, and Joy in turn predict Behavioral Intention to Use, while Curiosity, Joy, and Control predict Immersion.

Usefulness is a holdover from the study of productivity applications. This part of the Technology Acceptance Model may not generalize to games for entertainment. The constructs in the HMS model were not specific enough to be useful for design. It is unclear how one would design for usefulness or if usefulness is important to game players. Curiosity was defined as experiences that arouse sensory and cognitive curiosity, but it was not made clear what those experiences were.

3.8 Games User Research Methods

Heuristics to evaluate the playability of games..

Desurvire et al. [ 54 ] did a heuristic evaluation of a game prototype and a user study of the same prototype with 4 participants, and compared the results from the two methods. They found that the heuristic evaluation found more issues than the user study, but that the issues found in the user study were more specific to the game being studied, its interface, terminology, characters, and wording.

Desurvire et al. suggested that heuristic evaluation may be most useful in the early stages of game development before the prototype allows much interactivity. They suggested heuristic evaluation be used along with rather than instead of user testing.

Playtest Method for Assessing Player Perceptions.

Davis, Steury, and Pagulayan [ 55 ] introduced the playtest method for assessing player perceptions of digital games as a formative research method to improve game designs. The playtest method combines surveys with playing the game in a controlled lab environment. Participants play the first hour of the game and then fill out a questionnaire to rate the overall fun, graphics, controls, sound, story (if the game has a story), and other elements of the game. These questionnaires include not only Likert-type rating scales, but also open-ended questions to understand the reasons participants have for the ratings they gave.

They recommend 25–35 participants for the playtest method. This sample size was based on a power analysis of the statistical tests used in their previous research. Having a larger sample size than typical usability tests allows for comparisons between groups, such as between different versions of the same game or between their game and a similar game from a competing company. Playtests allow for statistically significant comparisons of player perceptions across groups, perceptions informed by the first-hand experience of playing the game in a controlled lab environment.

Intrinsic Skill Atoms as a Lens for Gameful Design.

Deterding [ 56 ] presented a method for gameful design or gamification he called the lens of intrinsic skill atoms. This involves identifying the inherent, skill-based challenges of the activity, removing extraneous challenges through automation or improving usability, and then restructuring the remaining inherent challenges into nested, interlinked feedback loops of goals, actions, objects, rules, and feedback that create motivating experiences.

The skill atom is a feedback loop between user and system that users engage in to overcome a challenge using their skills. Deterding defined the rules of the system to mean the actions that users can take and how those actions affect the system state.

Deterding then presented these steps for gameful design: (1) strategy, (2) research, (3) synthesis, (4) ideation, and (5) iterative prototyping. Deterding described two case studies applying the lens of intrinsic skill atoms method. For each case study, Deterding described how each of the five steps of gameful design were done. The first case study was a project for a European online dating platform focused more on ideation, and the second was for an online social network that focused more on evaluation.

3.9 Game Design

The mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics (mda) framework..

Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek [ 57 ] presented a conceptual framework for understanding games they called the MDA framework, standing for Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics.

Mechanics are all actions players can take within the game and all components of the game, such as algorithms and data. The Mechanics along with the content of the game such as the levels and assets support gameplay Dynamics. The Dynamics are how the Mechanics respond to player actions and other events over time. The Aesthetics are the desirable emotional responses players have when interacting with the game. Hunicke et al. presented the following taxonomy of 8 game aesthetics: Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression, and Submission. They emphasized that Aesthetics includes but is not limited to this taxonomy.

MDA is a conceptual model to bridge the gap between the mechanics and interactive systems of games and the emotional experience of players. Hunicke et al. did not present empirical research to support this model. Instead, they gave an example of how the MDA model could be applied to game design. They discussed three iterations of a game design, each with different target audiences. For each iteration, they described the Aesthetics, Dynamics, and Mechanics they would consider.

3.10 Game Player Demographics

Griffiths et al. [ 58 ], Williams et al. [ 59 ], and Griffiths and Hunt [ 60 ] surveyed game players, and found that people who play games are diverse along dimensions such as age and gender. Williams et al. found a median average age of 31 years-old compared to a median age of 35.4 years-old among the general population. 42% of those Griffiths and Hunt surveyed were female. The Entertainment Software Association releases annual reports showing a similar trend towards diversity among players [ 61 ].

3.11 Game Addiction

Wanting to play versus having to play video games..

Przybylski et al. [ 62 ] integrated Self-Determination Theory and a two-factor model of passion. The two-factor model of passion distinguishes between harmonious passion, which is wanting to play the game, and obsessive passion, which is feeling like you have to play. Participants were surveyed about a favorite video game they had played for at least one month.

Hierarchical regression modeling of the survey data showed that trait need satisfaction – people feeling that their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were met – was positively associated with harmonious passion, and negatively associated with obsessive passion. So, players whose basic psychological needs were already met were more likely to play games because they wanted to rather than because they felt that they had to or were compelled to play.

Harmonious passion was associated with enjoyment, but not hours per week of play. Obsessive passion was associated with more hours per week of play, higher tension, and less game enjoyment. This study demonstrated that video game enjoyment driven by intrinsic motivation and wanting to play is a distinct phenomenon from compulsive or disordered video game play driven by feeling like one has to play.

Designing Digital Gambling Machines to Maximize Profit.

Schull [ 63 ] describes an ethnographic study in Las Vegas of people playing digital gambling machines, and the designers of those games. Schull discussed how changes in the design of these games has led to more rapid extraction of money from players and led to players feeling a deeper sense of immersion or flow. For example, changing from a pull-handle to push-button machines allows players to rest their hand on the button, doubling the rate of play from 300 to 600 games per hour. The core of what makes gambling machines effective are random number generators that determine wins and losses, using a pattern B.F. Skinner called a variable intermittent ratio reinforcement schedule.

Several elements of digital gambling machines get players “in the zone”: being alone, not being interrupted, speed, choice, and tempo. Schull used quotes from player interviews as evidence for each of these elements.

It would have been better if Schull had differentiated between gambling and gameplay. Perhaps having money at stake makes the game more addictive, while an engaging game design leads to flow and enjoyment even without gambling money.

User-Experience Design Factors That Predict Addiction to MMORPGs.

Hsu, Wen, and Wu [ 64 ] developed a questionnaire measure of user-experience design factors they hypothesized would predict addiction to MMORPGs. 418 Taiwanese college students responded to the measure online along with a previously-validated questionnaire measure of game addiction. Regression analysis showed that Role-Playing, Belonging, Reward, Obligation, and Curiosity predicted addiction to MMORPGs.

3.12 Violence in Games

Autonomy and competence predict enjoyment better than violent content..

Przybylski et al. [ 65 ] conducted an online survey and two lab studies. Multiple linear regression analysis of the survey data showed that how much the games fulfilled players’ psychological needs for autonomy and competence explained more of the variance in enjoyment, presence, interest in playing a sequel to the game, and recommending the game to others than how violent the games were.

In their third study, participants were randomly assigned to play either a violent or non-violent game for twenty minutes and fill out a questionnaire. In-game autonomy and competence explained much of the variance in enjoyment, presence, and desire to play the game in the future. Players with high trait aggression who played the violent game were more likely to want to play the game again in the future.

The Impact of Moral Disengagement Cues on the Emotional Experience of Violent Video Gameplay.

Hartmann and Vorderer [ 66 ] conducted experiments on how moral justification and consequences impact the emotional experience of playing a first-person shooter game. In the morally justified condition, players were UN soldiers attacking a torture camp to restore humanity, while in the morally unjustified condition players were paramilitary forces in the torture camp continuing to torture and defend the torture camp. When players shot opponents in the consequences condition, blood was shed and dying characters screamed and fell to the ground. In the lack-of-consequences condition, a “ping” sound played and characters vanished.

Fighting for a just cause led to significantly less guilt and negative affect, but not significantly more enjoyment, than fighting for a morally unjustified cause. Enjoyment was higher when consequences were shown in the just condition, but higher when consequences were not shown in the unjust condition. Players who thought it was “just a game” reported significantly less guilt.

Technological Advancement in Video Games Increases Player Involvement, Arousal, and Presence.

Ivory and Kalyanaraman [ 67 ] conducted a an experiment on the impact of technological advancement and violent content on physiological arousal and questionnaire measures of arousal, presence, involvement, and aggression. Playing newer games resulted in more presence, involvement, physiological arousal, and excitement than playing older games. No significant differences were found between the experience of players of the violent and non-violent games.

4 Conclusion

For those who wish to design interactive systems for user enjoyment and intrinsic motivation, the literature reviewed above is a good starting point. More empirical research must be done on the sources, uses, and benefits of digital game enjoyment.

Qualitative research is needed to discover design differences and other factors that lead to enjoyment. For example, a recent card sorting study identified 32 sources of enjoyment in digital games [ 68 ]. Quantitative research is needed to understand how these factors influence and relate to each other. Controlled experiments are needed to operationalize the sources of enjoyment into concrete design differences and to establish causal links between factors. For example, controlled experiments can test the causal links between sources of enjoyment and enjoyment, and between enjoyment and the benefits of enjoyment or the desired outcomes associated with serious games such as learning, persuasion, or behavioral outcomes.

There is much research to be done to build a science of digital game enjoyment that can be used to reliably engineer enjoyable experiences.

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Schaffer, O., Fang, X. (2019). Digital Game Enjoyment: A Literature Review. In: Fang, X. (eds) HCI in Games. HCII 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11595. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22602-2_16

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A Literature Review on the Impact of Online Games in Learning Vocabulary

• K. A. Yassawi
• Published 2018
• Education, Computer Science, Linguistics

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Positive effects of online games on the growth of college students: a qualitative study from china.

• 1 School of Nursing, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
• 2 School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the positive effects of online games on college students’ psychological demands and individual growth.

Methods: A qualitative study design was carried out in September 2021. Semi-structured, in-depth, and individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 20 undergraduates who played the online game “Glory of Kings” from six universities. Thematic analysis was employed to explore the positive features caused by “Glory of Kings”.

Results: College students reported three positive effects of online games, namely, satisfying the need for personal growth, meeting the requirement of social life and promoting academic performance.

Conclusion: College educators and families should take advantage of the positive effect of online games to guide college students to use online games reasonably.

1. Introduction

According to the survey data of the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by the end of December 2021, the number of netizens in China reached 1.032 billion, of which the number of online game users reached 554 million ( CNNIC, 2022 ). The number of game apps reached 709,000, accounting for 28.2% of all apps ( CNNIC, 2022 ). Online games include massive, multiplayer, online role-playing games (MMORPGs), first-person shooter (FPS), real-time strategy (RTS) games, and other games ( Park et al., 2016 ). MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game, a subgenre of RTS games where two teams of five players usually play against each other ( Mora-Cantallops and Sicilia, 2018b ), is one of the most popular online games in China because of its competitive, interactive, and simple operating characteristics. Specifically, “Glory of Kings,” as a MOBA game, is listed at the top of the Chinese mobile game charts for contemporary college students ( Huang, 2021 ).

Online games are criticized by educators because many students invest a lot of time, money, and energy into games, which seriously affects their academic studies, social interaction, and physical and mental health, and ultimately leads to the tragedy of online game addiction ( Freeman, 2008 ; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012 ; Blinka and Mikuška, 2014 ; Xu et al., 2017 ). Online game addiction, as one of the most serious behavioral addictions ( Lopez-Fernandez, 2018 ), could cause a series of physical and mental problems, such as poor sleep, depression, anxiety, or even death ( Ferguson et al., 2011 ; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012 ; Wei et al., 2012 ). Meanwhile, parents’ opposition to online games can also be observed in family education. Studies have shown that the more addicted adolescents are to online games, the worse their parents’ attitude toward online games ( Jeong and Kim, 2011 ). Many adolescents who love playing online games face restrictions or prohibitions from their parents over the time spent on the Internet or other ways. For example, in a study of 2,021 adolescents, parental restrictions were 1.9 times higher among adolescents who were overly addicted to online games than among other adolescents ( Wu et al., 2016 ). Parents who do not show enough attention to their children promptly can lead to children using online games to divert negative family-related emotions ( Xu et al., 2021 ).

However, it is worth noting that the majority of studies focus on the negative effects of online games ( Lo et al., 2005 ; Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, 2005 ; Yc, 2006 ; Smyth, 2007 ; Li and Wang, 2013 ), while positive effects are neglected. In fact, playing online games at a moderate level could be beneficial to players’ personal psychological growth and interpersonal relationships ( Ko et al., 2005 ; Yee, 2006b ; Granic et al., 2014 ). In terms of emotional experience, existing research on the emotional impact of online games suggests that they have the potential to reduce depression, stress and obtain happiness ( Wu and Liu, 2007 ; Ari et al., 2020 ; Pine et al., 2020 ). In the process of psychological development, college students’ cognitive, memory, and other mental skills are proved to be enhanced by online games ( Boot et al., 2008 ; Glass et al., 2013 ; Oei and Patterson, 2013 ). There is evidence that games have the potential to provoke thought about the player’s personal development and ideals and increase the sense of self-realization if the players have strong ability in online games ( Nuangjumnong, 2014 ; Bopp et al., 2016 ; Mora-Cantallops and Sicilia, 2018a ). In social life, online games also establish the value of social connectedness and enhance the sense of interaction ( McClelland et al., 2011 ; Snodgrass et al., 2011 ; Oliver et al., 2016 ). Sublette and Mullan (2010 , p. 20) argue that through online games “socialization may just shift in focus: while real-world relationships eroded for some players.” It is further proposed that intimacy in games will also extend to offline real life, and shared game experience will reinforce offline communication ( Kim and Kim, 2017 ; Lai and Fung, 2019 ). MOBA games focus on personality development and teamwork in battle ( Yang et al., 2014 ; Mora-Cantallops and Sicilia, 2018b ). In other words, electronic space expands social communication to the virtual field ( Yee, 2006a ) and increases the team cooperation consciousness, leading to diverse communication ways. Besides, in terms of learning, online games are proven to help students engage in learning activities ( Iaremenko, 2017 ; Schenk et al., 2017 ; Calvo-Ferrer and Belda-Medina, 2021 ).

Existing research confirms that the academic performance and satisfaction of Chinese college students positively impact on the continued use of the “Glory of Kings” and promote the reconstruction of the player’s social image ( Chen and Chang, 2020 ). As mentioned above, previous studies have examined various positive aspects of online games, but the studies are based on foreign cultural contexts. Research subjects from different cultural backgrounds may have different perceptions and influences on online games, so it is culturally significant to study the positive influence of online games on Chinese college students. In other words, whether they can apply to the Chinese culture and environment or whether similar conclusions can be drawn among the Chinese college gamer population, has not been verified. Moreover, although “Glory of Kings” is widely concerned and popular among college students, few scholars in China try to evaluate the positive impact of “Glory of Kings” on college students. The design and development of “Glory of Kings” have distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics, therefore, the choice of “Glory of Kings” as a carrier for the study has cultural significance. Secondly, the widespread usage of “Glory of Kings” among college students provides universality for the study. Third, since most of the existing studies are quantitative, qualitative research can enrich the existing research results, explore new experiences, and make relevant suggestions for higher education and family education. In conclusion, given the current popularity and influence of “Glory of Kings” in China, an in-depth study of Chinese college student players was conducted using it as a medium for qualitative research.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. participants.

A purposive sampling method was adopted to select college students who were “Glory of Kings” players from six universities or colleges in Zhejiang Province. Inclusion criteria: (1) college students; (2) playing the “Glory of Kings” game for more than 1 year; (3) have participated in the “Glory of Kings” game in the ranking tournament; and (4) informed consent and voluntary participation. Exclusion criteria: (1) college students suspended from school due to physical problems; (2) students who have a medical history of mental illness or psychiatric disorders and who were screened as having mental problems in the students’ general psychological test. The sample size was determined based on the principle of theoretical saturation. Interviews were conducted until reached theoretical saturation—that is, when the 18th participants did not provide new insights, and two more interviews were conducted to verify if new information would emerge. In the end, no new ideas were found to emerge making the sample size appropriate for this study. Among 23 students who were invited to participate, one student refused to participate due to lack of interest, and two persons were unable to participate due to time conflicts. Eventually, 20 college students (13 males and 7 females) were interviewed. Their ages ranged from 18 to 21 years, and their experience in playing the “Glory of Kings” game ranged from 2 to 6 years. The detailed information of participants is shown in Table 1 .

Table 1. The basic information of the “Glory of Kings” player interviewees.

2.2. Data collection

Participants were recruited in September 2021 with the assistance of the university’s gaming societies. The gaming societies presented the study recruitment information to members via social media. Participation was voluntary, and no incentive was offered for participation. The demographic information was collected before the interview, and the GPA information was collected at the beginning and end of the semester. The pilot-tested, semi-structured interviews were conducted using pre-determined, open-ended questions. The interviewers were conducted by two senior undergraduate students who had acquired knowledge of psychology, interpersonal communication, and qualitative research through relevant training prior to conducting this study. When conducting the interviews, they would follow a unified syllabus and agree on the follow-up questions. The interviews were conducted in a combination of online and offline formats. For participants located in Wenzhou City, interviews were conducted face-to-face in a meeting room at Wenzhou Medical University, where the environment was quiet and undisturbed. For participants located outside of Wenzhou City, online video interviews were conducted using social media. In addition to questions on demographic information, the interview syllabus was as follows:

1. Why do you play games?

2. How do you feel about being a player in the game of “Glory of Kings?”

3. What do you expect to gain from playing the game of “Glory of Kings?” And what do you actually gain from the game?

4. What is your experience with playing the game? And what experiences do you find enjoyable?

5. What are the best and worst things you think happen in the game?

6. What personal changes do you think have occurred after playing the game?

7. Is there anything else you would like to talk about on this topic?

All interviews were conducted at the time most convenient to the participants, and the interview schedule was determined 1 day in advance. Before the interview, participants were told about the procedures, such as how long the interview would last, the topics to be discussed, and permission to record the interview. Each interviewee lasted for approximately 30–40 min. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed within 24 h after the interview. Two researchers independently completed and checked transcription to reduce personal biases.

2.3. Data analysis

Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ) and data were analyzed using qualitative analysis software NVivo 10. The steps were as follows: (1) transcript reading, preliminary coding, and note-taking; (2) developing final codes by reading and rereading the transcripts to identify patterns and themes; (3) developing a thematic mind map; (4) defining and naming themes and sub-themes, and (5) preparing the final report with an analysis of the selected fragments. Data were analyzed by two researchers to ensure reliability, when other researchers examined and validated the data, codes, and analyses by holding regular research team meetings. Textual information was discussed by the researchers several times until a consensus was reached. In addition, the results of the preliminary analysis were shared with the participants for their reviews and comments. The analysis was done in Chinese and the quotes were then translated into English and checked by a native translator who was not involved with the data collection (see Table 2 for an example of the process).

Table 2. Thematic analysis of transcribed data from interviews with 20 people with the online game “Glory of Kings”.

2.4. Ethical considerations

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Wenzhou Medical University (2022-028). This study complies with the Helsinki Declaration’s guidelines. After obtaining both verbal and written information about the study, the participants signed informed consent. Written informed consent was obtained from the individuals for the participation in this study and the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article, and the data was password-protected and encrypted. Each participant was assigned a coding reference, which referred to the participant’s number and gender (i.e., M3 refers to respondent 3, Male gender). During the interviews, the researchers treated the participants with respect, listened intently, and responded to their questions.

Three themes were identified from the data material, namely, meeting the college student’s personal growth, satisfying the social needs of college students, and promoting academic performance.

3.1. Meeting the need for personal growth

3.1.1. relieve stress and achieve happiness.

Online games, because of the characteristics of confrontation, entertainment and challenge, make it a way for college students to vent their emotions. Most interviewees believe that the fast pace of university brings them great study pressure. Also, college students of different grades report different sources of stress, such as pressure from parents, peers, academics, etc. However, no matter what kind of stress leads to negative emotions, they can be relieved through entertainment games. Following are typical quotes from gamers who said that the game can relieve negative emotions and bring positive feelings.

Game is not a necessity, but I would occasionally indulge in it. I like to live happily in virtual games (M5, 20-year-old).

When encounter troubles, I choose to play a few rounds of games. Although the pleasure brought by the game is temporary, it could fade away the troubles (M1, 20-year-old).

I went through a particularly bad period last semester… Later, I fell in love with “Glory of Kings,” and sometimes I even stayed up late to play games… However, when I was addicted to games temporarily, my pressure was released, which provides enough energy and enthusiasm to face difficulties (F7, 19-year-old).

3.1.2. Overcome the shortcomings and gain self-awareness

Due to the nature of “Glory of Kings,” it provides a platform for college students to fully enhance their consciousness. The characteristics of the five different roles in this game can also further prompt players to recognize their shortcomings and provide a reference for players to understand themselves. Players whose self-awareness is not clear enough get a clearer understanding through the game, and players whose self-perception is vague or even sometimes wrong get a chance to correct it. Following are typical quotes from gamers who have better self-awareness.

Gradually, I started to think about the reason, until I realized that I lacked a sense of the big picture and cooperation. Since then, I’ve made a conscious effort to work with my team on offense, which provides me with a better chance of victory. In life, I also recognized similar shortcomings and corrected them (F1, 19-year-old).

I prefer to play the role as an assassin, but I’m always not good at it. Later, my teammates suggested that I should be bolder and more adventurous. Under the guidance and practice, I gradually became proficient (M12, 18-year-old).

I am an untalkative person in life, but through playing games, I try to actively communicate with my teammates and gradually become more cheerful and good at communication (F4, 19-year-old).

3.1.3. Gain achievement and self-realization

Contrary to the harsh real society, the virtual game world demonstrates a new relatively equal social environment in its unique way and rich content. College students can explore multiple identities by experiencing multiple avatars or changing the appearance of avatars, thereby creating a virtual self-image that is sometimes compensatory and even restorative. Following are typical quotes from gamers who said that the game can bring them positive feelings.

I may be an ordinary person in life, but being a core character in games brings confidence (M1, 20-year-old).

In the virtual world of online games, college students can present themselves without the constraints of the single evaluation system of academic performance in real life. It provides the best arena for college students to gain achievement and fulfill their needs.

Sometimes I feel inferior because of my poor academic performance, and my classmates often treat me with colored glasses… Ranking as a king in the game, many players are willing to team up with me, which gives me a sense of accomplishment and brings back the confidence I lost in real life.

3.2. Satisfying the need for social life

3.2.1. broaden the social network.

College students can make friends around the world with common interests in the virtual world. The game’s forum provides the means to initiate a chat or team invitations to skilled players, as well as the option to team up with players in the same city. Through this avenue, strangers can converse with each other across geographical distances and blur cultural boundaries. Following are typical quotes from gamers who widened the breadth of interpersonal communication.

I spend most of my time playing games with my real friends, sometimes accepting game invitations from strangers and meeting skilled friends (F4, 19-year-old).

Because of the game, I met people of different ages and professions who taught me about game operations (M6, 19-year-old).

3.2.2. Increase social interaction

Online games offer everyone a convenient way to socialize and reduce social costs. The majority of participants reported that they would choose “Glory of Kings” as a common hobby to better integrate into the surrounding circle of friends. And some students will consciously take some compensatory actions against their friends who do not play games to maintain their friendship. Following are typical quotes from gamers who widened the breadth of interpersonal communication.

Playing games with unfamiliar individuals could quickly promote mutual understanding (F7, 19-year-old; M4, 21-year-old).

Playing games together can promote communication between roommates and increase common language (F2, 19-year-old).

I have a friend who does not play games and I tried to teach her to play but she refused. So I would study or eat with her after finishing the game time, and our relationship has always been tight (F5, 19-year-old).

3.2.3. Value teamwork

In the game “Glory of Kings,” college students work as a team to promote friendship and learn from each other’s strengths. Cooperation is necessary for the progress of this game, and there is also a respondent who says he has transformed from a solitary player to a competent collaborator. Every interviewee agreed that they preferred to work with the team and were willing to do their best to cooperate with their teammates when playing the game and even sacrifice for teammates when necessary. Following are typical quotes from gamers who enjoyed teamwork.

Sometimes I could not figure it out on my own, but a team could succeed (M1, 20-year-old).

I used to fight alone when I think that just be happy with myself. But gradually I fell in love with playing in team battles and was happy to cooperate with the team. Meanwhile, if I do not focus on team cooperation, there will be no communication in the game, and the road to promotion will be bumpy (M3, 19-year-old).

3.3. Promoting academic performance

3.3.1. improve learning ability.

The topic of academics was constantly mentioned and excavated in the interviews. The interviewees mentioned that online games helped them to master some transferable skills, such as problem-solving ability, quick thinking ability, etc. These abilities are usually trained unconsciously in games, and the player is able to experience the corresponding ability improvements in the real world when the match is over. Following are typical quotes from gamers who improved their ability to learn.

By studying the characters’ skill matching and line-ups in the game, my mind seemed to be more flexible and my problem-solving efficiency improved (M8, 18-year-old).

In order to improve my game skills, I watched the live video of the game host and learned their skills. As time passed, I found it easier to follow the teacher’s explanation in class while I could not keep up with the teacher’s quick thinking before (F2, 19-year-old).

3.3.2. Increase interest in learning

The combination of abstract and complex knowledge with online games can change the current passive input education model and make students more interested and effective in learning. Following are typical quotes from gamers who said that they could accept the teaching content more effectively in the process of playing games.

The teacher introduced the historical relationships between different characters using the heroic characters from “Glory of Kings,” which suddenly made a sleepy history lesson come to life (F2, 19-year-old).

Some interviewees also proposed that combining the virtual currency obtained in the game with the correct rate of answering questions in the virtual classroom of college students can improve students’ classroom performance. Following are typical quotes from gamers who proposed that the mechanics of the game can be realized in the real world.

Using this way of learning can motivate me to arrange my online game time rationally, reduce my dependence on online games and enjoy studying more (F6, 20-year-old).

4. Discussion

This study examines whether “Glory of Kings” has a positive impact on college students. The qualitative nature of this study allows players to fully articulate specific aspects of their perspectives and allows researchers to analyze their views and attitudes in depth.

4.1. The impact on personal growth

Most participants in our study believe that the pressure in their university life can be relieved through online games which are consistent with the findings of Ari et al. (2020) . The pressure from various aspects, such as academics, family, and social lives, as well as the confusion about the future, bring contemporary college students under more psychological pressure. Online games make it a way for college students to escape from reality and vent their suppressed emotions, and some students also accompany the relief method of verbal catharsis in the process. These findings are similar to those of Pine et al. (2020) that college students enjoy the happiness that accompanies the release of stress when gaming.

College students are in an important period of strengthening their self-consciousness system. As a medium, “Glory of Kings” provides players with a competitive platform whose ultimate goal is victory. In order to continue to win, players need to constantly reflect and summarize ( Kow, 2017 ). Larsen (2020) proposed seven aspects of the skill theory framework to guide players to improve their skill level in the game. Therefore, players can correspond to the theoretical framework and reflect on their shortcomings and deficiencies. By having the opportunity to overcome shortcomings and reflect on themselves in the game world, ultimately a clearer self-awareness can be projected and benefit the player in the real world.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the ultimate human need is self-actualization. Likewise, college students need to be respected and expect to gain achievement ( Zhong and Yao, 2013 ). Liao et al. (2017) proposed that people will form virtual personalities on the Internet through self-remodeling, while virtual personalities are often different from the real world. In real life, the differences in economic conditions, living areas, material conditions, status, and the increasingly fierce competition environment often limit college students’ achievement experience. In online games, the boundary between physical reality and virtual reality will be blurred by more personalized and immersive environments ( Young, 2009 ; Soutter and Hitchens, 2016 ; Kuo et al., 2017 ), resulting in a convenient way for college students to get achievements. Like the ordinary student M8, he was appreciated by others for his superb gaming skills. In conclusion, achieving self-worth and reaching potential are the goals to meet the need for self-actualization ( Liao et al., 2017 ).

4.2. The impact on interpersonal communication

In the case of “Glory of Kings,” which is a confrontation that unfolds by grouping, the system offers both the opportunity to form teams on one’s own and the option of random matching. Online games try to expand player interactivity and social friendships in the setting of game rules to attract more players, which coincides with the needs of college students to interact with people ( Ducheneaut and Moore, 2004 ). Linked to the trait of awakened autonomy among college students, they will establish emotional communication with like-minded friends they meet in “Glory of Kings,” and will also subjectively choose whom to team up with, which may be teammates they meet through the game or friends in the real world. The game provides a more comfortable communication platform for strangers in real life, thus widening the breadth of interpersonal communication.

Most of the participants in this research also tend to play “Glory of Kings” with their friends. According to the study by Croes and Antheunis (2021) , people’s intimacy is directly proportional to the frequency of interaction. Consistent with the conclusion of Lai and Fung (2019) , college students will not alienate their friends and feel lonely because of excessive investment in playing games. On the contrary, the emotions and experiences shared in the virtual game world can strengthen the bond between them ( Granic et al., 2014 ). College students can fight side by side with their friends in the gaming world, and discuss gaming skills together offline. The game does not destroy or isolate their relationships. On the contrary, the tacit cooperation and communication between players in the game make the relationship closer.

Most of our participants recognize that they liked the teamwork model of “Glory of Kings.” Consist to the study by Chen and Chang (2020) , a MOBA mobile game, it simulates a real-world situation in which temporary teams of strangers complete complex tasks in a short period. It can provide players with a unique platform for teamwork in such scenarios where social relationships need to be established quickly. It is further suggested in the study of Ewoldsen et al. (2012) that this can increase pro-social behaviors outside of the game environment, such as social and civic activities. It follows that teams derive satisfaction from existence, which is part of the meaning of collective effort. Choosing the group and cooperating to reach the same goals is precisely what is essential in real life as well.

4.3. The impact on academic performance

Contrary to conventional beliefs that playing games is intellectually lazy and sedating, playing games is shown to promote a wide range of cognitive skills ( Granic et al., 2014 ). Compared with non-gamers, gamers show faster and more accurate attention allocation, and higher spatial resolution enhanced mental rotation in visual processing, these skills are transferred to other spatial tasks outside the game context ( Green and Bavelier, 2012 ). In addition, scholars speculate that problem-solving skills can also be developed. On the whole, there are many good principles of learning built into good online games ( Adachi and Willoughby, 2013 ), which could be applied to school learning tomorrow.

For this generation that grows up with the Internet, online games are an integral medium of communication and learning and have great potential for schools and workplaces to increase engagement, creativity and lifelong learning skills ( Gee, 2003 ; Turkay and Adinolf, 2012 ; Granic et al., 2014 ). From the existing overall analysis results, the condition of the online games has more positive learning effect than traditional teaching condition. In addition to improving learning and memory ( Sitzmann, 2011 ; Wouters et al., 2013 ), online gameplay has the potential to motivate individuals to participate in educational settings to improve students’ interest in learning ( Clark et al., 2016 ).

4.4. Suggestions for parents and college management

By considering both the negative effects and potential benefits of the existence of games, many scholars proposed some balanced perspectives on the use of games for real-world personal growth with the intervention and supervision of a third party. The influence of the family is a pivotal factor, as it contributes significantly to the socialization of adolescents ( Liu et al., 2015 ). Parental regulation through restrictive mediation or conversational mediation in adolescents’ gaming is one important factor that may limit adolescents’ gaming behavior ( Colasante et al., 2022 ).

On the other hand, it is unscientific for parents to blindly prohibit their children from online games ( Chen et al., 2020 ). More and more parents accept the Internet and games as valuable learning tools ( Willoughby, 2008 ). Those parents help children become consumers to judge the advantages of games, plan a variety of leisure activities, mediate violent temptation games, and help children find the meaning of online games through positive communication ( Chiu et al., 2004 ). Indeed, co-playing games with parents are associated with heightened prosocial behavior for girls ( Coyne et al., 2011 ). In addition, researchers suggest that adolescents who receive the correct family education for the online game may learn ways to meet basic needs and self-control ( Griffiths and Meredith, 2009 ; Liu et al., 2015 ; Chen et al., 2020 ). Parents should create a harmonious family atmosphere by continuously improving their parenting skills and building close relationships with their children, which is in line with the suggestions of Chiu et al. (2004) . Meanwhile, parents should keep in touch with teachers to understand their children’s confusion as well as their use of the Internet at school to actively cooperate with the school’s policies.

Schools are digital education providers and prevention centers. Our results suggested that educators can take advantage of game-based education to facilitate problem-solving ability and to increase the study interests of college students ( Whitton and MacLure, 2017 ). Moreover, universities or colleges can use online games as a potentially useful and beneficial educational tool to promote students’ positive emotions. For example, a school in Seoul, South Korea, set up an online game course that covers the humanities of games, game terminology, game manipulation, Q&A with professional players, and game science to positively impact students at different grades and schools in public education sites ( Choi and Bang, 2021 ).

Many colleges and universities in China nowadays create electronic competitive social organizations and used network games in their daily teaching, not only to enrich students’ extracurricular life, but also to provide a platform for college students to find like-minded friends to play online games reasonably. Furthermore, some universities or colleges combine health education of online games with ideological and political work and try to establish college students’ mental profiles to understand their overall psychological conditions when they are playing online games. More strategies are needed to maximize the positive impact of online games on college students and help them grow healthily.

5. Implication

Despite the negative perception of online games in the Chinese cultural context, our study re-examines the impact of online games from the gamer’s perspective. To a certain extent, online games meet the personalized requirements of college students’ personal growth in Chinese collectivist culture, realize the need for the social interaction satisfaction, and enhance creativity in learning ( Chen and Chang, 2020 ). The higher education nowadays should more scientifically guide teachers and parents to change their attitudes toward online games and recognize the benefits of online games ( Whitton and MacLure, 2017 ). Meanwhile, the advantages of online games can be exploited to benefit more students by promoting their problem-solving ability through game-based education, contributing to more productive physical and mental health and learning ( Granic et al., 2014 ).

6. Limitation

Although this study shows that “Glory of Kings” has a positive impact on contemporary college students, it should be noted that the data are cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are still needed to confirm the long-term impact of “Glory of Kings” on college students. Secondly, the data is only derived from the feedback that respondents actively self-reported, which means that there may be some hidden part of the self-reflection content of respondents. Thirdly, relevant quantitative studies can be carried out to further verify and analyze the results of this study.

7. Conclusion

In this study, it is found that meeting the need for personal growth, satisfying the need for social life and promoting academic performance are the main positive effects of playing online games. Some suggestions that enhance the supportive role of online games are structured for family and college education.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

Ethics statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Wenzhou Medical University (2022-028). Written informed consent was obtained from the individual for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author contributions

FL and DZ contributed to the conceptualization and writing—original draft. SW was in charge of the data collection and analysis. RZ assisted in data collation and analysis as well as literature search. CD and JZ contributed to the writing, reviewing, and editing. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.

This research was supported by the Wenzhou Science and Technology Bureau Project (R20220086) and Zhejiang Province Curriculum Ideological and Political Education Research Project.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express gratitude to the colleagues who offered constructive and illuminating feedback, and to Guohua Zhang and Bingling Xia, who helped shape earlier versions of this article with their comments.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : college students, online games, Glory of Kings, personal growth, social life, academic performance, qualitative study

Citation: Li F, Zhang D, Wu S, Zhou R, Dong C and Zhang J (2023) Positive effects of online games on the growth of college students: A qualitative study from China. Front. Psychol. 14:1008211. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1008211

Received: 31 July 2022; Accepted: 13 February 2023; Published: 24 February 2023.

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Copyright © 2023 Li, Zhang, Wu, Zhou, Dong and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

† These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship

‡ These authors have contributed equally to this work and share last authorship

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Positive effects of online games on the growth of college students: A qualitative study from China

1 School of Nursing, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China

2 School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China

Chaoqun Dong

Jingjing zhang, associated data.

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

This study aimed to explore the positive effects of online games on college students’ psychological demands and individual growth.

A qualitative study design was carried out in September 2021. Semi-structured, in-depth, and individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 20 undergraduates who played the online game “Glory of Kings” from six universities. Thematic analysis was employed to explore the positive features caused by “Glory of Kings”.

College students reported three positive effects of online games, namely, satisfying the need for personal growth, meeting the requirement of social life and promoting academic performance.

College educators and families should take advantage of the positive effect of online games to guide college students to use online games reasonably.

1. Introduction

According to the survey data of the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by the end of December 2021, the number of netizens in China reached 1.032 billion, of which the number of online game users reached 554 million ( CNNIC, 2022 ). The number of game apps reached 709,000, accounting for 28.2% of all apps ( CNNIC, 2022 ). Online games include massive, multiplayer, online role-playing games (MMORPGs), first-person shooter (FPS), real-time strategy (RTS) games, and other games ( Park et al., 2016 ). MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game, a subgenre of RTS games where two teams of five players usually play against each other ( Mora-Cantallops and Sicilia, 2018b ), is one of the most popular online games in China because of its competitive, interactive, and simple operating characteristics. Specifically, “Glory of Kings,” as a MOBA game, is listed at the top of the Chinese mobile game charts for contemporary college students ( Huang, 2021 ).

Online games are criticized by educators because many students invest a lot of time, money, and energy into games, which seriously affects their academic studies, social interaction, and physical and mental health, and ultimately leads to the tragedy of online game addiction ( Freeman, 2008 ; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012 ; Blinka and Mikuška, 2014 ; Xu et al., 2017 ). Online game addiction, as one of the most serious behavioral addictions ( Lopez-Fernandez, 2018 ), could cause a series of physical and mental problems, such as poor sleep, depression, anxiety, or even death ( Ferguson et al., 2011 ; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012 ; Wei et al., 2012 ). Meanwhile, parents’ opposition to online games can also be observed in family education. Studies have shown that the more addicted adolescents are to online games, the worse their parents’ attitude toward online games ( Jeong and Kim, 2011 ). Many adolescents who love playing online games face restrictions or prohibitions from their parents over the time spent on the Internet or other ways. For example, in a study of 2,021 adolescents, parental restrictions were 1.9 times higher among adolescents who were overly addicted to online games than among other adolescents ( Wu et al., 2016 ). Parents who do not show enough attention to their children promptly can lead to children using online games to divert negative family-related emotions ( Xu et al., 2021 ).

However, it is worth noting that the majority of studies focus on the negative effects of online games ( Lo et al., 2005 ; Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, 2005 ; Yc, 2006 ; Smyth, 2007 ; Li and Wang, 2013 ), while positive effects are neglected. In fact, playing online games at a moderate level could be beneficial to players’ personal psychological growth and interpersonal relationships ( Ko et al., 2005 ; Yee, 2006b ; Granic et al., 2014 ). In terms of emotional experience, existing research on the emotional impact of online games suggests that they have the potential to reduce depression, stress and obtain happiness ( Wu and Liu, 2007 ; Ari et al., 2020 ; Pine et al., 2020 ). In the process of psychological development, college students’ cognitive, memory, and other mental skills are proved to be enhanced by online games ( Boot et al., 2008 ; Glass et al., 2013 ; Oei and Patterson, 2013 ). There is evidence that games have the potential to provoke thought about the player’s personal development and ideals and increase the sense of self-realization if the players have strong ability in online games ( Nuangjumnong, 2014 ; Bopp et al., 2016 ; Mora-Cantallops and Sicilia, 2018a ). In social life, online games also establish the value of social connectedness and enhance the sense of interaction ( McClelland et al., 2011 ; Snodgrass et al., 2011 ; Oliver et al., 2016 ). Sublette and Mullan (2010 , p. 20) argue that through online games “socialization may just shift in focus: while real-world relationships eroded for some players.” It is further proposed that intimacy in games will also extend to offline real life, and shared game experience will reinforce offline communication ( Kim and Kim, 2017 ; Lai and Fung, 2019 ). MOBA games focus on personality development and teamwork in battle ( Yang et al., 2014 ; Mora-Cantallops and Sicilia, 2018b ). In other words, electronic space expands social communication to the virtual field ( Yee, 2006a ) and increases the team cooperation consciousness, leading to diverse communication ways. Besides, in terms of learning, online games are proven to help students engage in learning activities ( Iaremenko, 2017 ; Schenk et al., 2017 ; Calvo-Ferrer and Belda-Medina, 2021 ).

Existing research confirms that the academic performance and satisfaction of Chinese college students positively impact on the continued use of the “Glory of Kings” and promote the reconstruction of the player’s social image ( Chen and Chang, 2020 ). As mentioned above, previous studies have examined various positive aspects of online games, but the studies are based on foreign cultural contexts. Research subjects from different cultural backgrounds may have different perceptions and influences on online games, so it is culturally significant to study the positive influence of online games on Chinese college students. In other words, whether they can apply to the Chinese culture and environment or whether similar conclusions can be drawn among the Chinese college gamer population, has not been verified. Moreover, although “Glory of Kings” is widely concerned and popular among college students, few scholars in China try to evaluate the positive impact of “Glory of Kings” on college students. The design and development of “Glory of Kings” have distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics, therefore, the choice of “Glory of Kings” as a carrier for the study has cultural significance. Secondly, the widespread usage of “Glory of Kings” among college students provides universality for the study. Third, since most of the existing studies are quantitative, qualitative research can enrich the existing research results, explore new experiences, and make relevant suggestions for higher education and family education. In conclusion, given the current popularity and influence of “Glory of Kings” in China, an in-depth study of Chinese college student players was conducted using it as a medium for qualitative research.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. participants.

A purposive sampling method was adopted to select college students who were “Glory of Kings” players from six universities or colleges in Zhejiang Province. Inclusion criteria: (1) college students; (2) playing the “Glory of Kings” game for more than 1 year; (3) have participated in the “Glory of Kings” game in the ranking tournament; and (4) informed consent and voluntary participation. Exclusion criteria: (1) college students suspended from school due to physical problems; (2) students who have a medical history of mental illness or psychiatric disorders and who were screened as having mental problems in the students’ general psychological test. The sample size was determined based on the principle of theoretical saturation. Interviews were conducted until reached theoretical saturation—that is, when the 18th participants did not provide new insights, and two more interviews were conducted to verify if new information would emerge. In the end, no new ideas were found to emerge making the sample size appropriate for this study. Among 23 students who were invited to participate, one student refused to participate due to lack of interest, and two persons were unable to participate due to time conflicts. Eventually, 20 college students (13 males and 7 females) were interviewed. Their ages ranged from 18 to 21 years, and their experience in playing the “Glory of Kings” game ranged from 2 to 6 years. The detailed information of participants is shown in Table 1 .

The basic information of the “Glory of Kings” player interviewees.

M, male; F, female. Years of playing “Glory of Kings” is calculated from the first time start playing the game.

2.2. Data collection

Participants were recruited in September 2021 with the assistance of the university’s gaming societies. The gaming societies presented the study recruitment information to members via social media. Participation was voluntary, and no incentive was offered for participation. The demographic information was collected before the interview, and the GPA information was collected at the beginning and end of the semester. The pilot-tested, semi-structured interviews were conducted using pre-determined, open-ended questions. The interviewers were conducted by two senior undergraduate students who had acquired knowledge of psychology, interpersonal communication, and qualitative research through relevant training prior to conducting this study. When conducting the interviews, they would follow a unified syllabus and agree on the follow-up questions. The interviews were conducted in a combination of online and offline formats. For participants located in Wenzhou City, interviews were conducted face-to-face in a meeting room at Wenzhou Medical University, where the environment was quiet and undisturbed. For participants located outside of Wenzhou City, online video interviews were conducted using social media. In addition to questions on demographic information, the interview syllabus was as follows:

• 1. Why do you play games?
• 2. How do you feel about being a player in the game of “Glory of Kings?”
• 3. What do you expect to gain from playing the game of “Glory of Kings?” And what do you actually gain from the game?
• 4. What is your experience with playing the game? And what experiences do you find enjoyable?
• 5. What are the best and worst things you think happen in the game?
• 6. What personal changes do you think have occurred after playing the game?
• 7. Is there anything else you would like to talk about on this topic?

All interviews were conducted at the time most convenient to the participants, and the interview schedule was determined 1 day in advance. Before the interview, participants were told about the procedures, such as how long the interview would last, the topics to be discussed, and permission to record the interview. Each interviewee lasted for approximately 30–40 min. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed within 24 h after the interview. Two researchers independently completed and checked transcription to reduce personal biases.

2.3. Data analysis

Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ) and data were analyzed using qualitative analysis software NVivo 10. The steps were as follows: (1) transcript reading, preliminary coding, and note-taking; (2) developing final codes by reading and rereading the transcripts to identify patterns and themes; (3) developing a thematic mind map; (4) defining and naming themes and sub-themes, and (5) preparing the final report with an analysis of the selected fragments. Data were analyzed by two researchers to ensure reliability, when other researchers examined and validated the data, codes, and analyses by holding regular research team meetings. Textual information was discussed by the researchers several times until a consensus was reached. In addition, the results of the preliminary analysis were shared with the participants for their reviews and comments. The analysis was done in Chinese and the quotes were then translated into English and checked by a native translator who was not involved with the data collection (see Table 2 for an example of the process).

Thematic analysis of transcribed data from interviews with 20 people with the online game “Glory of Kings”.

Examples of meaning units, condensed meaning units, and subthemes and theme.

2.4. Ethical considerations

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Wenzhou Medical University (2022-028). This study complies with the Helsinki Declaration’s guidelines. After obtaining both verbal and written information about the study, the participants signed informed consent. Written informed consent was obtained from the individuals for the participation in this study and the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article, and the data was password-protected and encrypted. Each participant was assigned a coding reference, which referred to the participant’s number and gender (i.e., M3 refers to respondent 3, Male gender). During the interviews, the researchers treated the participants with respect, listened intently, and responded to their questions.

Three themes were identified from the data material, namely, meeting the college student’s personal growth, satisfying the social needs of college students, and promoting academic performance.

3.1. Meeting the need for personal growth

3.1.1. relieve stress and achieve happiness.

Online games, because of the characteristics of confrontation, entertainment and challenge, make it a way for college students to vent their emotions. Most interviewees believe that the fast pace of university brings them great study pressure. Also, college students of different grades report different sources of stress, such as pressure from parents, peers, academics, etc. However, no matter what kind of stress leads to negative emotions, they can be relieved through entertainment games. Following are typical quotes from gamers who said that the game can relieve negative emotions and bring positive feelings.

Game is not a necessity, but I would occasionally indulge in it. I like to live happily in virtual games (M5, 20-year-old).

When encounter troubles, I choose to play a few rounds of games. Although the pleasure brought by the game is temporary, it could fade away the troubles (M1, 20-year-old).

I went through a particularly bad period last semester… Later, I fell in love with “Glory of Kings,” and sometimes I even stayed up late to play games… However, when I was addicted to games temporarily, my pressure was released, which provides enough energy and enthusiasm to face difficulties (F7, 19-year-old).

3.1.2. Overcome the shortcomings and gain self-awareness

Due to the nature of “Glory of Kings,” it provides a platform for college students to fully enhance their consciousness. The characteristics of the five different roles in this game can also further prompt players to recognize their shortcomings and provide a reference for players to understand themselves. Players whose self-awareness is not clear enough get a clearer understanding through the game, and players whose self-perception is vague or even sometimes wrong get a chance to correct it. Following are typical quotes from gamers who have better self-awareness.

Gradually, I started to think about the reason, until I realized that I lacked a sense of the big picture and cooperation. Since then, I’ve made a conscious effort to work with my team on offense, which provides me with a better chance of victory. In life, I also recognized similar shortcomings and corrected them (F1, 19-year-old).

I prefer to play the role as an assassin, but I’m always not good at it. Later, my teammates suggested that I should be bolder and more adventurous. Under the guidance and practice, I gradually became proficient (M12, 18-year-old).

I am an untalkative person in life, but through playing games, I try to actively communicate with my teammates and gradually become more cheerful and good at communication (F4, 19-year-old).

3.1.3. Gain achievement and self-realization

Contrary to the harsh real society, the virtual game world demonstrates a new relatively equal social environment in its unique way and rich content. College students can explore multiple identities by experiencing multiple avatars or changing the appearance of avatars, thereby creating a virtual self-image that is sometimes compensatory and even restorative. Following are typical quotes from gamers who said that the game can bring them positive feelings.

I may be an ordinary person in life, but being a core character in games brings confidence (M1, 20-year-old).

In the virtual world of online games, college students can present themselves without the constraints of the single evaluation system of academic performance in real life. It provides the best arena for college students to gain achievement and fulfill their needs.

Sometimes I feel inferior because of my poor academic performance, and my classmates often treat me with colored glasses… Ranking as a king in the game, many players are willing to team up with me, which gives me a sense of accomplishment and brings back the confidence I lost in real life.

3.2. Satisfying the need for social life

3.2.1. broaden the social network.

College students can make friends around the world with common interests in the virtual world. The game’s forum provides the means to initiate a chat or team invitations to skilled players, as well as the option to team up with players in the same city. Through this avenue, strangers can converse with each other across geographical distances and blur cultural boundaries. Following are typical quotes from gamers who widened the breadth of interpersonal communication.

I spend most of my time playing games with my real friends, sometimes accepting game invitations from strangers and meeting skilled friends (F4, 19-year-old).

Because of the game, I met people of different ages and professions who taught me about game operations (M6, 19-year-old).

3.2.2. Increase social interaction

Online games offer everyone a convenient way to socialize and reduce social costs. The majority of participants reported that they would choose “Glory of Kings” as a common hobby to better integrate into the surrounding circle of friends. And some students will consciously take some compensatory actions against their friends who do not play games to maintain their friendship. Following are typical quotes from gamers who widened the breadth of interpersonal communication.

Playing games with unfamiliar individuals could quickly promote mutual understanding (F7, 19-year-old; M4, 21-year-old).

Playing games together can promote communication between roommates and increase common language (F2, 19-year-old).

I have a friend who does not play games and I tried to teach her to play but she refused. So I would study or eat with her after finishing the game time, and our relationship has always been tight (F5, 19-year-old).

3.2.3. Value teamwork

In the game “Glory of Kings,” college students work as a team to promote friendship and learn from each other’s strengths. Cooperation is necessary for the progress of this game, and there is also a respondent who says he has transformed from a solitary player to a competent collaborator. Every interviewee agreed that they preferred to work with the team and were willing to do their best to cooperate with their teammates when playing the game and even sacrifice for teammates when necessary. Following are typical quotes from gamers who enjoyed teamwork.

Sometimes I could not figure it out on my own, but a team could succeed (M1, 20-year-old).

I used to fight alone when I think that just be happy with myself. But gradually I fell in love with playing in team battles and was happy to cooperate with the team. Meanwhile, if I do not focus on team cooperation, there will be no communication in the game, and the road to promotion will be bumpy (M3, 19-year-old).

3.3. Promoting academic performance

3.3.1. improve learning ability.

The topic of academics was constantly mentioned and excavated in the interviews. The interviewees mentioned that online games helped them to master some transferable skills, such as problem-solving ability, quick thinking ability, etc. These abilities are usually trained unconsciously in games, and the player is able to experience the corresponding ability improvements in the real world when the match is over. Following are typical quotes from gamers who improved their ability to learn.

By studying the characters’ skill matching and line-ups in the game, my mind seemed to be more flexible and my problem-solving efficiency improved (M8, 18-year-old).

In order to improve my game skills, I watched the live video of the game host and learned their skills. As time passed, I found it easier to follow the teacher’s explanation in class while I could not keep up with the teacher’s quick thinking before (F2, 19-year-old).

3.3.2. Increase interest in learning

The combination of abstract and complex knowledge with online games can change the current passive input education model and make students more interested and effective in learning. Following are typical quotes from gamers who said that they could accept the teaching content more effectively in the process of playing games.

The teacher introduced the historical relationships between different characters using the heroic characters from “Glory of Kings,” which suddenly made a sleepy history lesson come to life (F2, 19-year-old).

Some interviewees also proposed that combining the virtual currency obtained in the game with the correct rate of answering questions in the virtual classroom of college students can improve students’ classroom performance. Following are typical quotes from gamers who proposed that the mechanics of the game can be realized in the real world.

Using this way of learning can motivate me to arrange my online game time rationally, reduce my dependence on online games and enjoy studying more (F6, 20-year-old).

4. Discussion

This study examines whether “Glory of Kings” has a positive impact on college students. The qualitative nature of this study allows players to fully articulate specific aspects of their perspectives and allows researchers to analyze their views and attitudes in depth.

4.1. The impact on personal growth

Most participants in our study believe that the pressure in their university life can be relieved through online games which are consistent with the findings of Ari et al. (2020) . The pressure from various aspects, such as academics, family, and social lives, as well as the confusion about the future, bring contemporary college students under more psychological pressure. Online games make it a way for college students to escape from reality and vent their suppressed emotions, and some students also accompany the relief method of verbal catharsis in the process. These findings are similar to those of Pine et al. (2020) that college students enjoy the happiness that accompanies the release of stress when gaming.

College students are in an important period of strengthening their self-consciousness system. As a medium, “Glory of Kings” provides players with a competitive platform whose ultimate goal is victory. In order to continue to win, players need to constantly reflect and summarize ( Kow, 2017 ). Larsen (2020) proposed seven aspects of the skill theory framework to guide players to improve their skill level in the game. Therefore, players can correspond to the theoretical framework and reflect on their shortcomings and deficiencies. By having the opportunity to overcome shortcomings and reflect on themselves in the game world, ultimately a clearer self-awareness can be projected and benefit the player in the real world.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the ultimate human need is self-actualization. Likewise, college students need to be respected and expect to gain achievement ( Zhong and Yao, 2013 ). Liao et al. (2017) proposed that people will form virtual personalities on the Internet through self-remodeling, while virtual personalities are often different from the real world. In real life, the differences in economic conditions, living areas, material conditions, status, and the increasingly fierce competition environment often limit college students’ achievement experience. In online games, the boundary between physical reality and virtual reality will be blurred by more personalized and immersive environments ( Young, 2009 ; Soutter and Hitchens, 2016 ; Kuo et al., 2017 ), resulting in a convenient way for college students to get achievements. Like the ordinary student M8, he was appreciated by others for his superb gaming skills. In conclusion, achieving self-worth and reaching potential are the goals to meet the need for self-actualization ( Liao et al., 2017 ).

4.2. The impact on interpersonal communication

In the case of “Glory of Kings,” which is a confrontation that unfolds by grouping, the system offers both the opportunity to form teams on one’s own and the option of random matching. Online games try to expand player interactivity and social friendships in the setting of game rules to attract more players, which coincides with the needs of college students to interact with people ( Ducheneaut and Moore, 2004 ). Linked to the trait of awakened autonomy among college students, they will establish emotional communication with like-minded friends they meet in “Glory of Kings,” and will also subjectively choose whom to team up with, which may be teammates they meet through the game or friends in the real world. The game provides a more comfortable communication platform for strangers in real life, thus widening the breadth of interpersonal communication.

Most of the participants in this research also tend to play “Glory of Kings” with their friends. According to the study by Croes and Antheunis (2021) , people’s intimacy is directly proportional to the frequency of interaction. Consistent with the conclusion of Lai and Fung (2019) , college students will not alienate their friends and feel lonely because of excessive investment in playing games. On the contrary, the emotions and experiences shared in the virtual game world can strengthen the bond between them ( Granic et al., 2014 ). College students can fight side by side with their friends in the gaming world, and discuss gaming skills together offline. The game does not destroy or isolate their relationships. On the contrary, the tacit cooperation and communication between players in the game make the relationship closer.

Most of our participants recognize that they liked the teamwork model of “Glory of Kings.” Consist to the study by Chen and Chang (2020) , a MOBA mobile game, it simulates a real-world situation in which temporary teams of strangers complete complex tasks in a short period. It can provide players with a unique platform for teamwork in such scenarios where social relationships need to be established quickly. It is further suggested in the study of Ewoldsen et al. (2012) that this can increase pro-social behaviors outside of the game environment, such as social and civic activities. It follows that teams derive satisfaction from existence, which is part of the meaning of collective effort. Choosing the group and cooperating to reach the same goals is precisely what is essential in real life as well.

4.3. The impact on academic performance

Contrary to conventional beliefs that playing games is intellectually lazy and sedating, playing games is shown to promote a wide range of cognitive skills ( Granic et al., 2014 ). Compared with non-gamers, gamers show faster and more accurate attention allocation, and higher spatial resolution enhanced mental rotation in visual processing, these skills are transferred to other spatial tasks outside the game context ( Green and Bavelier, 2012 ). In addition, scholars speculate that problem-solving skills can also be developed. On the whole, there are many good principles of learning built into good online games ( Adachi and Willoughby, 2013 ), which could be applied to school learning tomorrow.

For this generation that grows up with the Internet, online games are an integral medium of communication and learning and have great potential for schools and workplaces to increase engagement, creativity and lifelong learning skills ( Gee, 2003 ; Turkay and Adinolf, 2012 ; Granic et al., 2014 ). From the existing overall analysis results, the condition of the online games has more positive learning effect than traditional teaching condition. In addition to improving learning and memory ( Sitzmann, 2011 ; Wouters et al., 2013 ), online gameplay has the potential to motivate individuals to participate in educational settings to improve students’ interest in learning ( Clark et al., 2016 ).

4.4. Suggestions for parents and college management

By considering both the negative effects and potential benefits of the existence of games, many scholars proposed some balanced perspectives on the use of games for real-world personal growth with the intervention and supervision of a third party. The influence of the family is a pivotal factor, as it contributes significantly to the socialization of adolescents ( Liu et al., 2015 ). Parental regulation through restrictive mediation or conversational mediation in adolescents’ gaming is one important factor that may limit adolescents’ gaming behavior ( Colasante et al., 2022 ).

On the other hand, it is unscientific for parents to blindly prohibit their children from online games ( Chen et al., 2020 ). More and more parents accept the Internet and games as valuable learning tools ( Willoughby, 2008 ). Those parents help children become consumers to judge the advantages of games, plan a variety of leisure activities, mediate violent temptation games, and help children find the meaning of online games through positive communication ( Chiu et al., 2004 ). Indeed, co-playing games with parents are associated with heightened prosocial behavior for girls ( Coyne et al., 2011 ). In addition, researchers suggest that adolescents who receive the correct family education for the online game may learn ways to meet basic needs and self-control ( Griffiths and Meredith, 2009 ; Liu et al., 2015 ; Chen et al., 2020 ). Parents should create a harmonious family atmosphere by continuously improving their parenting skills and building close relationships with their children, which is in line with the suggestions of Chiu et al. (2004) . Meanwhile, parents should keep in touch with teachers to understand their children’s confusion as well as their use of the Internet at school to actively cooperate with the school’s policies.

Schools are digital education providers and prevention centers. Our results suggested that educators can take advantage of game-based education to facilitate problem-solving ability and to increase the study interests of college students ( Whitton and MacLure, 2017 ). Moreover, universities or colleges can use online games as a potentially useful and beneficial educational tool to promote students’ positive emotions. For example, a school in Seoul, South Korea, set up an online game course that covers the humanities of games, game terminology, game manipulation, Q&A with professional players, and game science to positively impact students at different grades and schools in public education sites ( Choi and Bang, 2021 ).

Many colleges and universities in China nowadays create electronic competitive social organizations and used network games in their daily teaching, not only to enrich students’ extracurricular life, but also to provide a platform for college students to find like-minded friends to play online games reasonably. Furthermore, some universities or colleges combine health education of online games with ideological and political work and try to establish college students’ mental profiles to understand their overall psychological conditions when they are playing online games. More strategies are needed to maximize the positive impact of online games on college students and help them grow healthily.

5. Implication

Despite the negative perception of online games in the Chinese cultural context, our study re-examines the impact of online games from the gamer’s perspective. To a certain extent, online games meet the personalized requirements of college students’ personal growth in Chinese collectivist culture, realize the need for the social interaction satisfaction, and enhance creativity in learning ( Chen and Chang, 2020 ). The higher education nowadays should more scientifically guide teachers and parents to change their attitudes toward online games and recognize the benefits of online games ( Whitton and MacLure, 2017 ). Meanwhile, the advantages of online games can be exploited to benefit more students by promoting their problem-solving ability through game-based education, contributing to more productive physical and mental health and learning ( Granic et al., 2014 ).

6. Limitation

Although this study shows that “Glory of Kings” has a positive impact on contemporary college students, it should be noted that the data are cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are still needed to confirm the long-term impact of “Glory of Kings” on college students. Secondly, the data is only derived from the feedback that respondents actively self-reported, which means that there may be some hidden part of the self-reflection content of respondents. Thirdly, relevant quantitative studies can be carried out to further verify and analyze the results of this study.

7. Conclusion

In this study, it is found that meeting the need for personal growth, satisfying the need for social life and promoting academic performance are the main positive effects of playing online games. Some suggestions that enhance the supportive role of online games are structured for family and college education.

Data availability statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Wenzhou Medical University (2022-028). Written informed consent was obtained from the individual for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author contributions

FL and DZ contributed to the conceptualization and writing—original draft. SW was in charge of the data collection and analysis. RZ assisted in data collation and analysis as well as literature search. CD and JZ contributed to the writing, reviewing, and editing. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express gratitude to the colleagues who offered constructive and illuminating feedback, and to Guohua Zhang and Bingling Xia, who helped shape earlier versions of this article with their comments.

Funding Statement

This research was supported by the Wenzhou Science and Technology Bureau Project (R20220086) and Zhejiang Province Curriculum Ideological and Political Education Research Project.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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A Literature Review on the Impact of Online Games in Learning Vocabulary

This study has been prepared with the aim of to find out the (a) relationship between online games and vocabulary learning and (b) whether gender effects vocabulary learning through the online games. As one of the outcomes of technology, computer assisted language learning (CALL) increased the popularity of using computers in the classroom environments as a tool for learning languages. Along with the development of internet, the games started to appear in the form of online games. Correlatively this paper investigated five international articles related to online games and vocabulary learning from Iran, Turkey and China in which different methods have been employed including quantitative and qualitative measurements. The evaluation of the articles showed that adopting online games in language teaching for vocabulary learning is more efficient than rote learning; however the success depends on the gender. Male students do better in gaining vocabulary through online games comparing to...

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A Literature Review on the Impact of Games on Learning English Vocabulary to Children

International Journal of Language and Literary Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019

7 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2019

Lina Lafta Jassim

Thiqar University - College of Art

Hisham Dzakiria

Affiliation not provided to ssrn.

Date Written: July 9, 2019

Digital games play a significant role in the life of the new generation. Although there are many criticisms, many studies focus on the importance of digital games in improving learner’s vocabulary in the target language. Researchers have begun conducting several researches on how using games in the class can foster vocabulary learning. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impacts of digital games on children’s vocabulary learning depending on a literature review. Many studies focus on the impacts of digital games on different aspects of education. This conceptual paper aims to shed light on some games' benefits, and challenges which educators and children face in the use of digital games. The findings of this paper show that Games are used not only for making children successful in EFL classes but more importantly, for motivating them and increasing the cooperation among children. In addition, the findings state that there are advantages as well as disadvantages in using games for learning English vocabulary.

Keywords: Digital Games, Effects, Benefits, Challenges

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Lina Lafta Jassim (Contact Author)

Thiqar university - college of art ( email ), do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on ssrn, paper statistics, related ejournals, pedagogy ejournal.

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