Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

For the development of serious gaming, it is necessary to articulate the specific features that lend themselves best to the creation of effective learning games. Given the limited resources of the typical serious games developer, time and money should be spent in a way such that features with the greatest return on investment take priority. Opening cinematics, a popular feature of games, was examined through the lens of three major theoretical perspectives that promote learning, specifically situated learning, emotional arousal, and goal orientation. A series of three experiments was conducted to determine if the inclusion of opening cinematics was able to change the goal orientation of players as well as improve the effectiveness of a serious game used to train U.S. Navy recruits shipboard damage control procedures. The data suggest that opening cinematics were not worth the immense development investment. Game design suggestions and potential topics for future research are provided.

Keywords

cost-effectiveness development cost development investment effectiveness emotional arousal game design gameplay feature goal orientation military training opening cinematics return on investment serious games situated learning skill acquisition training scenarios U.S. Navy

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

J. R.

Reder

L. M.

Simon

H. A.

(1996). Situated learning and education. Educational Researcher, 25(4), 5-11.

Bowers

C. A.

Serge

Blair

Cannon-Bowers

The effectiveness of narrative pre-experiences for creating context in military training. Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 44(4), 514-522.

Brave

Nass

(2003). Emotion in human-computer interaction. In Jacko

Sears

(Eds.), The human-computer interaction handbook (pp. 81-96). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Brett

J. F.

VandeWalle

(1999). Goal orientation and goal content as predictors of performance in a training program. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 863-873.

Cahill

Alkire

M. T.

(2003). Epinephrine enhancement of human memory consolidation: Interaction with arousal at encoding. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 79, 194-198.

Cahill

McGaugh

J. L.

(1998). Mechanisms of emotional arousal and lasting declarative memory. Trends in Neurosciences, 21, 294-299.

Cannon-Bowers

J. A.

Bowers

(2008). Synthetic learning environments: On developing a science of simulation, games, and virtual worlds for training. In Spector

J. M.

Merrill

M. D.

van Merrienboer

Driscoll

M. P.

(Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (3rd ed., pp. 317-327). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Carlson

C. R.

Collins

F. L.

Stewart

J. F.

Porzelius

Nitz

J. A.

Lind

C. O.

(1989). The assessment of emotional reactivity: A scale development and validation study. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 11, 313-325.

Carlson

N. R.

(2007). Physiology of behavior (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

10.

Cohen

(1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155-159.

11.

Corley

(2008). The role of emotion in computer skill acquisition (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Auburn University, Auburn, AL. Retrieved from http://etd.auburn.edu/etd/handle/10415/1566

12.

Crookall

(2010). Serious games, debriefing, and simulation/gaming as a discipline. Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 41, 898-920.

13.

DAMAGE CONTROL TRAINER. (2010). [Developed by Raytheon BBN Technologies.]. Cambridge, MA. Retrieved from http://www.bbn.com/vessel

14.

Dickey

M. D.

(2006). Game design narrative for learning: Appropriating adventure game design narrative devices and techniques for the design of interactive learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 54, 245-263.

15.

Elliot

A. J.

McGregor

H. A.

(2001). A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 501-519.

16.

Elsbach

K. D.

Barr

P. S.

Hargadon

A. B.

(2005). Identifying situated cognition in organizations. Organization Science, 16, 422-433.

17.

Evans

A. W.

(2009). Learning for the next generation: Predicting the usage of synthetic learning environments (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Central Florida, Orlando.

18.

Freeman

(2004). Creating emotion in games: The craft and art of Emotioneering™. ACM Computers in Entertainment, 2(3), Article 8a.

19.

Garris

Ahlers

Driskell

(2002). Games, motivation, and learning: A research and practice model. Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 33, 441-467.

20.

Gopher

Weil

Bareket

(1994). Transfer of skill from a computer game trainer to flight. Human Factors: The Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 36, 387-405.

21.

Hancock

P. A.

Warm

J. S.

(1989). A dynamic model of stress and sustained attention. Human Factors, 31, 519-537.

22.

Hockey

Hamilton

(1983). The cognitive patterning of stress states. In Hockey

G. R. J.

(Ed.), Stress and fatigue in human performance (pp. 331-362). Chichester, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

23.

Hussain

T. S.

Roberts

Menaker

E. S.

Coleman

S. L.

Pounds

Bowers

. . . Lee

(2012, Spring). Designing and developing effective training games for the US Navy. M&S Journal, 27-40.

24.

Kenny

R. F.

Gunter

G. A.

(2007). Endogenous fantasy-based serious games: Intrinsic motivation and learning. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 8-13.

25.

Kim

(2012). The effect of situated learning on knowledge transfer of students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms: A meta-analysis (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2152/16763

26.

Kulik

J. A.

Kulik

C. C.

(1988). Timing of feedback and verbal learning. Review of Educational Research, 58, 79-97.

27.

Lave

Wenger

(1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press.

28.

Lederman

L. C.

(1992). Debriefing: Toward a systematic assessment of theory and practice. Simulation & Gaming: An International Journal, 23, 145-160.

29.

Lieberman

D. A.

(2006). What can we learn from playing interactive games? In Vorderer

Bryant

(Eds.), Playing video games: Motives, responses, and consequences (pp. 379-397). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

30.

Lunce

L. M.

(2006). Simulations: Bringing the benefits of situated learning to the traditional classroom. Journal of Applied Educational Technology, 3(1), 37-45.

31.

McGaugh

J. L.

(2006). Make mild moments memorable: Add a little arousal. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 345-347.

32.

Morris

Hancock

Shirkey

(2004). Motivational effects of adding context relevant stress in PC-based game training. Military Psychology, 16, 135-147.

33.

Nakatsu

Rauterberg

Vorderer

(2005). A new framework for entertainment computing: From passive to active experience. Entertainment Computing-ICEC 2005, 3711, 1-12.

34.

Newman

(2002). The myth of the ergodic video game: Some thoughts on player-character relationships in videogames. Game Studies, 2(1). Available from http://gamestudies.org

35.

Park

(2007). The effect of media interactivity on mood regulation: An experimental study (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Florida State University’s DigiNole Commons Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. (Paper 2249)

36.

Peters

V. A. M.

Vissers

G. A. N.

(2004). A simple classification model for debriefing simulation games. Simulation & Gaming: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 35, 70-84.

37.

Ricci

Salas

Cannon-Bowers

(1996). Do computer-based games facilitate knowledge acquisition and retention. Military Psychology, 8, 295-307.

38.

Rieber

L. P.

(1996). Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games. Educational Technology Research and Development, 44, 43-58.

39.

Spielberger

C. D.

Gorsuch

R. L.

Edward

L. R.

(1970). STAI manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

40.

Stevens

Gist

M. E.

(1997). Effects of self-efficacy and goal-orientation training on negotiation skill maintenance: What are the mechanisms. Personnel Psychology, 50, 955-978.

41.

Susi

Johannesson

Backlund

(2007). Serious games: An overview (HS-IKI-TR-07-001). Skövde, Sweden: School of Humanities and Informatics, University of Skövde.

42.

Sweetser

Johnson

Wyeth

Ozdowska

(2012). GameFlow heuristics for designing and evaluating real-time strategy games. In Proceedings of the 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System (Article no. 1). New York, NY: ACM.

43.

Thayer

R. E.

(1967). Measurement of activation through self-report. Psychological Reports, 20, 663-678.

44.

Tobias

Fletcher

J. D.

(2007). What research has to say about designing computer games for learning. Educational Technology, 47(5), 20-29.

45.

Van Eck

(2006). Digital game based learning: It’s not just the digital natives who are restless. Educause Review, 41(2), 17-30.

46.

W. H.

Hsiao

H. C.

P. L.

Lin

C. H.

Huang

S. H.

(2011). Investigating the learning-theory foundations of game-based learning: A meta-analysis. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28, 265-279.

47.

Y. M.

Hwang

(2003). Predicting the use of web-based information systems: Self-efficacy, enjoyment, learning goal orientation, and the technology acceptance model. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 59, 431-449.