2022-02-16, Zahn, Carmen, Leisner, David, Niederhauser, Mario, Roos, Anna-Lena, Iseli, Tabea, Soldati, Marco

Maintaining social relationships is a basic human need and particularly essential in old age, including when living in a retirement home. Multiplayer video games can promote positive social interactions among players from different generations while playing. Yet, such facilitation of positive social interactions depends on specific game design. To systematically investigate the effects of game design on social interaction between seniors and their coplayers, the game Myosotis FoodPlanet was developed in this study, and the impacts of 3 different game modes on social interaction were compared in a controlled field trial. This study aims to compare the effects of 3 different game modes (competitive, cooperative, and creative) on social interactions (verbal and nonverbal communication) between seniors and their younger coplayers. The results show that game mode can be an important factor for shaping the social interactions of players playing together. Compared with other modes, creative game modes can increase verbal communication. In contrast, competitive modes may stimulate more laughing together. This has important implications for game design and the use of computer games to promote social interaction between seniors and their coplayers in practice.

2021, Ruf, Alessia, Jäger, Joscha, Niederhauser, Mario, Zahn, Carmen, Opwis, Klaus, Wichmann, Astrid, Hoppe, H. Ulrich, Rummel, Nikol

Logible is a highly sensitive web-based interactive tool that automatically detects behavior sequences from raw log files. It further analyzes and visualizes sequences and allows for comparisons of behavior data between different experimental conditions without the use of other software. Logible was developed based on an iterative, exploratory, and rule-based method devised to find meaningful sequences from 92 data sets of students who learned individually or collaboratively with an enhanced video-based environment. The tool is customizable and thus enables researchers to investigate learning behavior with various kinds of sequentially logged interaction data (from web-based video environments, online learning platforms etc.).

2022, Zahn, Carmen, Leisner, David, Niederhauser, Mario, Roos, Anna-Lena, Iseli, Tabea, Soldati, Marco

Maintaining social relationships is a basic human need and particularly essential in old age, including when living in a retirement home. Multiplayer video games can promote the establishment and maintenance of social relationships, due to facilitating positive social interactions between players, even from different generations. Such facilitation of positive social interactions depends, however, on specific game design. The present study investigates the impacts of three different game modes on social interaction in a controlled field trial. Results reveal significant differences. Important implications on game design and the use of computer games for seniors in practice are discussed.

2020-07-10, Soldati, Marco, Zahn, Carmen, Bildibay, Doruk, Iseli, Tabea, Leisner, David, Niederhauser, Mario, Gao, Qin, Zhou, Jia

This paper presents a selection of game design concepts to promote social interaction between older people and players from other generations. Hardware-related interaction channels, game mechanics and game content can be used to trigger positive communication between several players. The proposed concepts are based on the experience of 32 game prototypes developed with and for the oldest seniors living in several Swiss nursing and retirement homes. The games are directed at the relatives to make their visits a pleasant and positively perceived experience, with the aim of increasing well-being of all involved.

2021, Ruf, Alessia, Niederhauser, Mario, Jäger, Joscha, Zahn, Carmen, Opwis, Klaus, Hmelo-Silver, Cindy, de Wever, Bram, Oshima, Jun

The potential of learners’ video interactions to understand learning behavior has been recognized in previous research. However, little research has yet been conducted on enhanced video-based environments using behavior sequence analyses. Hence, we developed Logible, a sensitive, web-based tool to detect and analyze meaningful behavior sequences of learners interacting with such environments. The tool is based on an iterative method. With Logible we were able to visualize learning behavior and emphasize differences in experimental conditions.