Gamification: Sneaking Fitness Game Mechanics Into AAA Games

Andreas Leibetseder Gamification: Sneaking Fitness Game Mechanics into AAA Games Masterarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Diplom-Ingenieur Studium Masterstudium Informatik ALPEN-ADRIA UNIVERSITAT¨ KLAGENFURT FakultätfürTechnische Wissenschaften (TEWI) Begutachter: Assoc. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Mathias Lux Institut fürInformationstechnologie (ITEC) March 2016 Eidesstattliche Erklärung{ Affidavit Ich versichere an Eides statt, dass ich die eingereichte wissenschaftliche Arbeit selbstständigverfasst und andere als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel nicht benutzt habe, die währenddes Arbeitsvorganges von dritter Seite erfahrene Unterstützung,ein- schließlich signifikanter Betreuungshinweise, vollständig offengelegt habe, die Inhalte, die ich aus Werken Dritter oder eigenen Werken wortwörtlich oder sinngemäßübernommen habe, in geeigneter Form gekennzeichnet und den Ur- sprung der Information durch möglichst exakte Quellenangaben (z.B. in Fußnoten) ersichtlich gemacht habe, die Arbeit bisher weder im Inland noch im Ausland einer Prüfungsbehördevorgelegt habe und zur Plagiatskontrolle eine digitale Version der Arbeit eingereicht habe, die mit der gedruckten Version übereinstimmt. Ich bin mir bewusst, dass eine tatsachenwidrige Erklärungrechtliche Folgen haben wird. I hereby declare in lieu of an oath that the submitted academic paper is entirely my own work and that no auxiliary materials have been used other than those indicated, I have fully disclosed all assistance received from third parties during the process of writing the paper, including any significant advice from supervisors, any contents taken from the works of third parties or my own works that have been included either literally or in spirit have been appropriately marked and the respective source of the information has been clearly identified with precise bibliographical references (e.g. in footnotes), to date, I have not submitted this paper to an examining authority either in Austria or abroad and that the digital version of the paper submitted for the purpose of plagiarism assessment is fully consistent with the printed version. I am aware that a declaration contrary to the facts will have legal consequences. (Andreas Leibetseder) (Klagenfurt, March 21 2016) i \Every man and woman should play the noblest games and be of another mind from what they are at present." Plato ALPEN-ADRIA UNIVERSITAT¨ KLAGENFURT Abstract FakultätfürTechnische Wissenschaften (TEWI) Institut fürInformationstechnologie (ITEC) Master of Science by Andreas Leibetseder \Life is a journey, not a destination" { a fairly old metaphor reminding humankind to evolve and enjoy its existence rather than getting lost in boring, repetitive routines. Yet, many tiresome tasks we ought to undertake can not be avoided easily. Wouldn't it be great if those activities instead were things to look forward to? Gamification is a recently trending attempt to build upon this notion, rendering mundane endeavors fun and engaging by appealing to our ludic drive. Its techniques can be utilized for enhancing almost any situation: standing at a bus stop, recycling plastic bottles or tedious physical exercise, the lack of which being a major shortcoming in many peoples lives. Recently, fitness apps and games have tried to improve upon people's unhealthy lifestyle, but often are poorly designed, include expensive additional equipment and get boring quickly, thus, failing to maintain their users' long-term engagement. In order to advance in that area, this thesis takes a novel approach by investigating the user effects of integrating fitness-related activities into a big budget (AAA) as well as a casual game, creating two exergames. For this cause two studies were conducted evaluating experience and feedback of altogether 67 voluntary participants. Results indicate strong tendencies of players preferring the newly introduced AAA approach over the casual fitness game. Surprisingly only 5 persons state that they play exergames, but the majority of them would consider playing games similar to the ones presented at home. Unexpectedly, no significant evidence for a relation between people's workout habits and their conveyed exergaming preferences could be identified. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my project advisor Mathias Lux for taking me on, always making time for discussions and supporting me in every way. Also it is particularly important to mention Olvier Vitouch, who came up with the idea for this thesis' studies that Mathias and I could subsequently elaborate on. For their continuous efforts helping me to complete all user studies, Martina Steinbacher and Rudolf Messner have been invaluable colleagues of mine at the ITEC institute. Furthermore I would also like to thank several other colleagues for providing me with very helpful suggestions, advice and pre-studies feedback: Florian Bacher, Christian Kreuzberger, Stefan Petscharnig, Daniel Posch, Benjamin Rainer and Sebastian Theuermann. Finally, a collective 'thank you' goes out to my many student colleagues, who likewise supported me during my thesis but as well throughout my studies at the Alpen-Adria university of Klagenfurt. iv Contents Eidesstattliche Erklärung{ Affidaviti Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv List of Figures viii List of Tables ix List of Program Code xi Abbreviations xii Formulas xv Symbols xvi 1 Introduction1 2 Gamification6 2.1 Target Group: Players............................. 7 2.1.1 Motivation ............................... 7 2.1.2 Preferences ............................... 12 2.1.3 Progression............................... 16 2.2 Gamification Elements............................. 20 2.2.1 MDA Framework............................ 20 2.2.2 Pyramid of Gamification Elements.................. 22 2.3 Gamification Types, Principles and Techniques............... 26 2.3.1 Preparations .............................. 28 2.3.2 The Perfect Game Design....................... 29 2.3.3 Lifetime Loops and Cycles....................... 31 2.3.4 Development and Deployment..................... 33 2.4 Summary .................................... 34 3 Related Work 35 v Contents vi 3.1 General Strategies ............................... 35 3.2 Internal Gamification.............................. 37 3.3 External Gamification ............................. 38 3.4 Behavior Change Gamification ........................ 40 3.5 Gamification and Fitness ........................... 41 3.5.1 Fitness Applications.......................... 41 3.5.2 Fitness Games ............................. 43 3.6 Summary .................................... 47 4 Formulation of Objectives 48 4.1 General Idea .................................. 49 4.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses ..................... 50 5 User Studies: Overview and Implementation 51 5.1 Overview .................................... 51 5.2 Game Prototype: Flappy Cycling....................... 53 5.2.1 Preliminary Study ........................... 54 5.2.2 Refinements............................... 58 5.2.3 Implementation............................. 60 5.2.4 Study Setup............................... 78 5.3 AAA Game Integration: Quake 3 Arena Fitness Edition.......... 79 5.3.1 Pre-study Tests and Refinements................... 86 5.3.2 Implementation............................. 87 5.3.3 Study Setup...............................110 5.4 Summary ....................................111 6 Evaluations 112 6.1 Qualitative Analysis ..............................112 6.2 Quantitative Analysis .............................115 6.2.1 Relevant Variables...........................116 6.2.2 Premises and Assumptions ......................118 6.2.3 Hypotheses Evaluations ........................119 6.2.4 Correlations and Further Hypothesis Development . 124 6.3 Summary ....................................134 7 Conclusion 136 7.1 Research Questions Answered.........................137 7.2 Limitations ...................................138 7.3 Future Work ..................................138 Appendices 139 Appendix A Games and Game Elements 139 A.1 History of social Games ............................139 A.2 Steven Reiss' Basic Human Desires......................140 A.3 Jon Radoff's 42 Fun Factors..........................141 Contents vii Appendix B Studies 144 B.1 Common Elements...............................144 B.1.1 Shared Questionnaires.........................144 B.2 Individual Elements ..............................151 B.2.1 Individual Questionnaires.......................151 B.2.2 Quake 3 Mod Configuration......................155 B.3 Statistics and Responses............................156 B.3.1 Preliminary Flappy Cycling......................156 B.3.2 Main Flappy Cycling VS Quake 3 Arena Mod . 166 B.4 Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon Tables .......................183 Appendix C Assets 189 Bibliography 191 List of Figures Figure 2.1 Response Patterns under Different Partial Reinforcement Schedules9 Figure 2.2 Concept of Flow............................. 11 Figure 2.3 Bartle's basic player types....................... 13 Figure 2.4 Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics with their relationships . 21 Figure 2.5 Pyramid of Gamification Elements .................. 23 Figure 2.6 Gamification types and their relationships .............. 27 Figure 2.7 Engagement cycle............................ 31 Figure 2.8 Progression Stairs............................ 32 Figure 5.1 General Study Architecture ...................... 52 Figure 5.2 Hardware used for studies ....................... 52 Figure 5.3 Original Flappy Bird game......................

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