The second modality, Mitspielen or: Cooperating and Competing, focuses on the relations and mutual adaptations between the different actors. Central questions include the specific possibilities and conditions of playing with particular digital and analogue game materials and of playing together, of cooperating, and/or competing within specific gaming environments. We ask which advantages and effects result in an increase or decrease in (self-)adaptation, personalisation and tailoring, and how different degrees of sensory engagement, immersion, self-reflection, and media awareness can impact gaming processes and outcomes. Playing together also comes along with playful (or gamified) learning programmes to encourage responsible behaviour that can be measured, controlled, and predicted. Thus, it is not only about human players, but also about measuring devices, control systems, knowledge and skills, and about spectators or researchers who potentially become players and workers.
Subprojects
B01: Serious Math Gaming in Early Childhood: A Multi-Method Analysis of Numerical Play in Natural Settings
Ass.Prof. Dr Manuel Ninaus, Institute of Psychology, Digital Psychology Lab, Universität Graz (AU)
The project focuses on three aspects of serious math gaming: 1) the mechanisms that increase/reduce the acquisition of numerical competencies; 2) the contextual factors under which numerical play takes place in early childhood; and 3) the motivational and emotional experiences of children during the gaming situation. We will conduct a meta-analysis to examine these aspects. The results will inform the design of subsequent empirical studies, which will mostly involve parent and educator questionnaires and observational studies in natural learning situations.
B02: The Dynamics Between Gamification and Workification in Parent-Child Interactions
Prof. Dr Bettina Braun, Dept of Linguistics, Universität Konstanz/Junior Prof. Dr Katharina Zahner-Ritter, Dept II Phonetics, Universität Trier
This experimental project examines the phonetic features in the speech of parents to their 1–2-year-old children (gamification), and manipulates the seriousness (workification) of these parent-child interactions in two different situations: a word recognition task (eye-tracking, 12 and 18 months) that addresses children's linguistic skills and a tower-building task (24 months) which focuses on easily observable motor-cognitive aspects of child development. Thus, in the project, we manipulate the purposefulness of gamification in a longitudinal perspective and "measure" the degree of gamification across the time of the experiment and in terms of child development (12-24 months) as well as the success of parental gamification. The project explores the tension between gamification and workification at the intersection of phonetics and developmental psychology and provides insights for the (perceived) increased societal interest in early childhood development.
B03: The Fun of Digital Cuts and Virtual Bodies: Haptic Knowledge and Serious Gaming in Anatomical Learning and Minimally invasive Surgery Training
Junior Prof. Dr Robert Stock, Dept of Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt-Universität Berlin
Much research regarding the digitization of medical education focuses on the efficiency of learning/teaching scenarios. Yet it is important to engage the ways in which digitized medical education contributes to further blurring the distinction between learning and gaming. Drawing on media-ethnographic methods, this project aims to better understandthe crumbling dichotomy of work and play by thinking through the socio-material assemblages of digital media and sensory practicesinvolving touch and vision. By focusing on ludic teaching-learning scenarios of (digital) anatomy and training in minimally invasive surgery, the project analyzes knowledge building as embodied, and multisensory experience shaped by material entities and digital media, as well as the norms and epistemes they inscribe.
B04: Serious Literary Gaming: The Cultural Work of Reading and Writing Games in 20th- and 21st-century Experimental Literature
Prof. Dr Heike Schäfer, Institute of English and American Studies, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
The subproject examines writing and reading games in contemporary experimental literature and inquires which literary and cultural work writers and readers perform by playing these games. We conceptualize Serious literary Gaming as a creative practice that, on the one hand, drives literary innovation and ensures the continued cultural relevance of literature in an increasingly gamified culture, and that enables forms of collaborative play for writers and readers that may expand their sense of creative and social agency and facilitate cultural critique, but that, on the other hand, may also subject their interactions to neoliberal logic and make literary practices available for instrumental use.
B05: Effectivity Gain via Individualisation: Recursive Dynamic Adaptation
Prof. Dr Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Dept of Psychology, Universität Konstanz
Subproject B05 aims at investigating the influences of personalizing adaptations in the game environment and game mechanics on practices, behaviors, and experiences in Serious Gaming. This so-called tailoring is usually based on sociodemographic characteristics like age or gender, we propose to base it on psychological variables, for example personality of the participants/players, their presence, their perspective, their expectations, or their behavior. The tailoring creates a stronger individualized fit and greater relevance of the content and environment for the playing person. In the subproject we will investigate experimentally if tailoring increases effectivity regarding the aim of the Serious Game and subjective aspects of the gaming, both in Internet-based and VR game environments.
B06: Game Elements for Health Apps: Essential or Superfluous?
Prof. Dr Martina Kanning, Dept of History, Sociology, Sport Science and Empirical, Universität Konstanz/Junior Prof. Dr Laura König , Educational Research, Life Science, Universität Bayreuth
Mobile health interventions, such as smartphone apps and wearables, have been shown to promote healthy lifestyles but are currently underutilized. Gamified elements may promote engagement with and enhance the positive effects of mobile health interventions. However, little is known about which gamified elements are most effective and for which user groups, and whether they might cause more harm than good under certain circumstances. This subproject aims to investigate these questions in the context of engagement with and health outcomes of using mobile interventions for physical activity promotion. The project will develop a comprehensive, transdisciplinary taxonomy of gamified elements in mobile health interventions, identify successful gamified elements through meta-regression, investigate interindividual differences in an online survey, and finally integrate the results into a factorial trial.
B07: Group Adaptation in Exergames
Junior Prof. Dr Tiare Feuchtner, Dept of Computer Science, Universität Konstanz
This project will explore Serious Gaming in the context of promoting physical fitness and health through so-called “exergames” played by multiple people in immersive Virtual Reality (VR). Exergames can make physical exertion more attractive through gamification, but also integrate(serious) health-promoting measures in already popular games (workification).We will study mechanisms for balancing the exergame based on the individual skill, ability, and training goals of individual players in a group. Such group adaptation shall enhance the experience of flow, reduce dropout, and ultimately increase the health benefits achieved through the exergame.
B08: Investigating Effects of Person-Gamefit in Virtual Cycling on Participation, Performance, and Gaming Experience
Prof. Dr Julia Schüler/Dr habil. Wanja Wolf, Dept of History, Sociology, Sport Science and Empirical Educational Research, Universität Konstanz
Through the lens of virtual cycling, our subproject investigates the gamification of sports and training in virtual environments. We aim to investigate how personal and social factors affect how individuals choose between different modes of gamified sports, and how this choice (and restricting this choice) affects various markers of performance and engagement. Part one utilizes “field labs”, to assess the relationship between experienced cyclists' personality profiles, preferred modes of gameplay, and performance. Part two uses a comprehensive within*between subjects experimental design to test the effects of different gameplay modes on novice cyclists' performance, as well as on sport-specific psychological and physiological variables. With this subproject, we aim to provide insights into how people gamify their sports, how the fit between parameters of the game and the person affects performance and engagement, and how restricting the autonomy of playing the game according to one’s own preferences (i.e., if specific types of exercise are externally prescribed) might prove detrimental.