Behaviour Changethrough Videogames

Michele Bianchi

07 April 2015

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Michele Bianchi

Born 1986/04/29, Trento - ItalyHometown Trento

Degrees B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science - Universityof Trento

Teaching 2 years teaching assistant - ComputerArchitectures

Abroad Copenhagen, Budapest, IstanbulSkills C/C++, OpenGL, Game Design, Real Time

Operating Systems, Creative and TechnicalWriting

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Interests

• Videogames• Manga, Anime• Writing• Jazz, Rock, Electronic music• Walking, exploring

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Games for Behavioural Change

Videogames are pervasive in the population:

• 50% of the Europeans plays regularly videogames, with aneven distribution between sexes.

• The percentage rises to almost 75% of the people aged16-34

Videogames may have potential for behaviour changingtechnologies:

• Socially Pervasive• Long Term enjoyment

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Objective

Assess the impact that games can have on behaviour change.

Applied on walking for the first project, City Spirits, on takingpictures for the second, Magnum Opus

Theoretical ground:

• Persuasive technologies• Behaviour change• Game Design• Urbanism

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Persuasive Technologies

Fogg’s Behavioural Theory:

Three factors are needed at thesame time to activate abehaviour in a person:

• Motivation• Ability• Triggers

Ability

Easier to do

Mo

tiva

tio

n

Hig

her

mo

tiva

tio

n

ActivationThreshold

Triggers heresucceed in activating

a behaviour

It is not clear how this model can help changing a person’sbehaviour.

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Organismic Integration Theory (OIT)

Three motivationalstages:

• Amotivated• Extrinsic

Motivation• Intrinsic

Motivation

Amotivated Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation

Externalregulation

Introjection

Identification

Integration

Motivation Internalisation

In order for a person to gain a specificbehaviour she or he has to internalisethe motivation to do it.

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Integrated Behavioural Model (IBM)

The likelihood of a behaviour is heavily influenced by theintention to do it, based on three elements:

• Attitude in engaging in a behaviour• Perceived social norm• Personal agency

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IBM: requirements and evaluation

Requirements

Assessed using IBMelicitation interviews aimedat discovering outcomes,referents and environmentalfacilitators and barriers

Evaluation

Direct and indirectmeasurement of constructsusing Teory of PlannedBehaviour (TPB)questionnaires

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Ego DepletionWillpower is not an infinite resource and once it is depleted aperson cannot exert self-regulation

Self-restoration is facilitated by positive experiences

Games can help behaviour change thanks to their entertainingnature

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Theoretical Framework

Intention

Ego-Depletion

IntrinsicMotivation

ExtrinsicMotivation

Attitude

Experiential

Instrumental

PerceivedNormInjunctive

Norm

DescriptiveNorm

PerceivedControl

Self-efficacy

PersonalAgency

Behaviour

Knowledge and SkillsSalience

Environmental ConstraintsHabit

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Elemental TetradVisib

ility

Story Mechanics

Technology

Aesthetics

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Magic Circle

Games are normally played in confined spaces:

• Locally by limiting the game on a table or in front of a PC• Temporally by limiting the game session to a fixed quantity

of time• Socially by giving a clear definition of who is playing and

who is not

This confined space is called Magic Circle

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Pervasive game

Expand the magic circle.

It is not required for a game to be pervasive, to expand everyspace:

• Metal Gear Solid - Portable OPs (local)• Animal Crossing (time)• Dance Dance Revolution (social)

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Metal Gear Solid - Portable OPs

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Animal Crossing

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Dance Dance Revolution

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Pervasive Games and the City

A pervasive game to help people move should take the city intoaccount in the design. Some examples are:

• City map• City as a practical experience• Urban layout• City culture• City events and flux

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City SpiritsUnderstanding intention determinants

• Open-ended elicitation interviews (following IBMconstructs)

• 12 participants: 6 males, 6 females, age 26-46• Interviews transcribed and thematically analised• Codes extracted placed in IBM constructs

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Interview Results

• Experiential attitude and normative influence have almostno negative impact

• Weather and time are the most frequent obstacles• Along with good weather, walking as a collateral activity,

the location and the social dimension are the mostfrequent facilitators

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Participatory game ideas

• Two Brainstormingsessions to generate moregameplay ideas

• Use of Code Cardsdesigned to presentelicitation results

If you walk not forwalking then going

out is easier

Walk to the supermarketWalking not as a workout

If the place whereyou walk is nice

then you arehappier

to go walking

Flat tracksNice environments

Walking in shortintervals

(10 minutes at least)can help peoplein walking more

Walking togetherwith someonemakes walking

easier

Walking alonegives you timeto be alone

Having more freetime helps peoplein walking more

Walking is easier ifyou are already

out of home

A bad place towalk into makeswalking harder

Bad, ugly neighbourhoodToo many vehicles

Bad weather canbe an obstacle

to walking

Both rain or hot weathermake you want to stay at home

Example of Code Cards

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Brainstorming Results• Use minigames to fight

enemies• Leave persistant

messages in AR space• Use comparative data

to inform the gamer

• Show players and NPCproximity through AR

• Zone exploration opensup new quests

• Guilds, playersassociations

• Writing a story thatappeals both sexes

• Use real elements intoquests

• Greater in-game effectsduring the first 30minutes of walking

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Game Jams

• Focused workshop• Aims at creating a game in two days• Participants receive a theme and then propose game ideas

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DAT Game Jam - October 2014

• Participants select themselves• Enlarge the game developer community• Impossible to test interventions without developing games• Proposing the right theme results in prototypal games

based on a single intervention

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DAT Game Jam - Results

Ubiquitous tower defense

• Players have to movefast

• Aligned to streets• Designed to gradually

train players

Location-based investigationgame

• Investigation makesuse of the city

• Engages the playerswith a story

• Episodic story

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Proposed Game mechanics

Story-Driven Role-Playing Game (RPG)

• Division of the urbantissue in in-game zones

• Time-based zonechange

• Weather influencedquests

• Zones change basedon answers by players

• No levelling up• Automatic in-game

party forming• Context-based quest

generation• No explicit behaviour

intervention

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OHR & Radiant2

• Tangible Game• Controller created with

low-cost componentsand materials

• Fully hand drawn• No explicit tutorial• Story-based mechanics• Game Designed in

parallel with thetangible controller

• Won Jury Prize atCHIPlay 2014 StudentGame DesignCompetition

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OHR & Radiant2 - Responsibilities

• Lead Game Designer• Level Designer• Narrative Designer• Technical Writer• Driver Developer

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Magnum Opus - GraphiTech• Game to push people

into taking pictures ofcities

• Taking pictures becomea secondary mechanic

• Uses narrative and F2Pmechanics

• Split cities into smallzones and pit playerson the control of zones

• Use picture density anddirection in order tospread out pictures inan even way

a

b

c

d

ID Counter

a 0

b 0

c 1

d 2

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OHR, City Spirits and Magnum Opus

The three games have required a different approach in theirdesign.This might lead to hints on how games are designed for apurely entertaining aim and how they are designed for aspecific, additional, purpose.

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Future work

• Evaluation of creature generation formula• Implementation of the game in Cocos2dx (Or another

game engine specific for Android)• Comparative evaluation (e.g. Magnum Opus vs.

Pointification)

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Questions?

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