With the development of both hardware and software, video games are evolving rapidly. Now that video games have achieved near-cinematic visuals, the market for video games is growing, and the number of players is increasing. In addition to the stunning features of video games, at the heart of serious games, they are used as a medium to spread knowledge and teach players something. The main teaching topic in this research is a piece of knowledge in the eight trigrams, one of the traditional cultural symbols of China. The focus is on the effectiveness of using games to convey cultural knowledge. There are cultural barriers between different countries because of different histories and languages, but the spread of cultural understanding can help people from different cultures better understand each other. However, the learning of different cultures is not compulsory, because cultural knowledge from other countries will not affect people's basic life, so in most countries in the world, cultural learning does not belong to the category of primary education. Due to their worldwide presence, video games, through incorporation of cultural themes and ideas into the game, can achieve promotion of this knowledge.

Throughout the last decade handheld tablet devices have become a common part of the lives of many people. While these tablets have been widely used for games, they have been rarely used as a medium for board games in which the tablet is the game board and players interact with it using physical game tokens. The main topic of this thesis is to research past attempts at creating tablet-based board games and to use the knowledge gained from this research to develop a new, more accessible way to develop games for this medium. The Minotauros JavaScript Library, which was created to allow developers to make tablet-based board games for most tablets. The library’s functionality was tested through users playing a simple game, Roll, that implemented the library. Through thorough testing, it was found that the library is fully functional and has been made publicly available. The research behind the functionality, testing, and results of the creation of this library are detailed in this thesis.

Inactivity and sedentary behavioural patterns among children contribute greatly to a wide range of diseases including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. It is also associated with other important health effects like mental health issues, anxiety, and depression. In order to reduce these trends, we need to focus on the highest contributing factor, which is lack of physical activity in children’s daily lives. 'Exergames' are believed to be a very good solution in promoting physical activity in children. Such games encourage children to engage in physical activity for long periods of time while enjoying their gaming experience. The purpose of this thesis is to provide means of directing child behaviour in a healthy direction by using gaming enhancements that encourage physical exertion. We believe that the combination of both exercising and learning modalities in an attractive gaming environment could be more beneficial for the child's well-being. In order to achieve this, we present an adaptive exergaming system, the "ExerLearn Bike", which combines physical, gaming, and educational features. The main idea of the system is to have children learn about new objects, new language, practice their math skills, and improve their cognitive ability through enticing games and effective exercise. Three games have been incorporated to provide children with various educational benefits. The system has personalized features that allow guardians to customize the learning content, skill level, and required physical activity to meet their child’s needs. A stationary bike is used as a gaming controller to encourage children to undertake daily aerobic exercise. A modular design approach was adopted so that it is possible to use any stationary bicycle as an input interface by simply attaching a number of devices to it. This thesis provides detailed information about the design requirements, the design model, the proposed system and its related hardware components, the design and development of the gaming software, and the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the system’s performance.

Persuasive attitude changing games are a growing genre and a powerful tool when wanting to reach out and affect the opinion and attitude of larger groups in society. But how well do persuasive games actually work and can they be improved further? This article studies persuasive computer games and comes up with the proposal of using the Multiple Identification Theory, an established model for attitude change as a foundation for designing persuasive games. By analyzing every step of the MIT and translating it into the field of digital games, key concepts have been identified and proposed as guidelines for future development of persuasive games. In addition an analysis of existing persuasive games have been made, with the aim to study how well they meet the criteria of the MIT and determinate whether they could have improved by using it or not.

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Inactivity and sedentary behavioural patterns among children contribute greatly to a wide range of diseases including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. It is also associated with other important health effects like mental health issues, anxiety, and depression. In order to reduce these trends, we need to focus on the highest contributing factor, which is lack of physical activity in children’s daily lives. 'Exergames' are believed to be a very good solution in promoting physical activity in children. Such games encourage children to engage in physical activity for long periods of time while enjoying their gaming experience. The purpose of this thesis is to provide means of directing child behaviour in a healthy direction by using gaming enhancements that encourage physical exertion. We believe that the combination of both exercising and learning modalities in an attractive gaming environment could be more beneficial for the child's well-being. In order to achieve this, we present an adaptive exergaming system, the "ExerLearn Bike", which combines physical, gaming, and educational features. The main idea of the system is to have children learn about new objects, new language, practice their math skills, and improve their cognitive ability through enticing games and effective exercise. Three games have been incorporated to provide children with various educational benefits. The system has personalized features that allow guardians to customize the learning content, skill level, and required physical activity to meet their child’s needs. A stationary bike is used as a gaming controller to encourage children to undertake daily aerobic exercise. A modular design approach was adopted so that it is possible to use any stationary bicycle as an input interface by simply attaching a number of devices to it. This thesis provides detailed information about the design requirements, the design model, the proposed system and its related hardware components, the design and development of the gaming software, and the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the system’s performance.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-371) Also available via the World Wide Web.

CREATING DIGITAL GAMES AS INTERACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: FACTORS THAT AFFECT PALESTINIAN TEACHERS' SUCCESS IN MODIFYING VIDEO GAMES FOR INSTRUCTION The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that might predict Palestinian teachers' success in modding games for instruction. An instructional game design model named Game Modding for Non-Professionals (GMNP) was created specifically for the training of Palestinian teachers during this study. This study addressed the question: To what extent do the variables gender, age, teaching experience, experience in playing video games, and adherence to the GMNP model predict teachers' success in modding video games for instruction when using the GMNP model? Gaining an understanding of teachers' performance in modding video games for instructional use may identify potential interventions that can be utilized to increase the use of this technology in the classroom. This investigation is useful in pointing out the need for teacher training to administrators and policy makers. The data for this study was collected from teachers at two Palestine Technical Colleges. All the teachers at the two Colleges were invited to participate, and 79 teachers agreed. Three teachers withdrew from the study before finishing it; hence, only 76 completed the study, and their data was used in the regression analysis. A workshop was conducted to train the teachers in using the GMNP model as a guide to game modding to modify video games for instructional use. During the workshop, the participants were asked to complete a worksheet. The participants were directed to use this worksheet to modify Neverwinter Nights 2 to teach a given instructional objective. At the end of the workshop, the completed GMNP model worksheet and the game mod created were collected from each participant as research data. The GMNP Model Rubric and the Educational Games Rubric were used to assess respectively the worksheets (for adherence to the GMNP model) and the game mods (for success in modifying a video game for instruction). Multiple linear regression was conducted to answer the research question. Tests to verify that the data met the various conditions required for multiple regression analysis were conducted and no violations of these conditions were detected. Findings indicated that gender was not a significant predictor of teachers' success in modding video games for instruction when the variance attributed to the other predictor variables was controlled, and the variables age, experience in playing video games, and adherence to the GMNP model were significant predictors of teachers' success in modding video games for instruction. The study suggested some implications and recommendations for policy makers and for future researchers who are interested in conducting similar studies about video game integration.

Inactivity and sedentary behavioural patterns among children contribute greatly to a wide range of diseases including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. It is also associated with other important health effects like mental health issues, anxiety, and depression. In order to reduce these trends, we need to focus on the highest contributing factor, which is lack of physical activity in children’s daily lives. 'Exergames' are believed to be a very good solution in promoting physical activity in children. Such games encourage children to engage in physical activity for long periods of time while enjoying their gaming experience. The purpose of this thesis is to provide means of directing child behaviour in a healthy direction by using gaming enhancements that encourage physical exertion. We believe that the combination of both exercising and learning modalities in an attractive gaming environment could be more beneficial for the child's well-being. In order to achieve this, we present an adaptive exergaming system, the "ExerLearn Bike", which combines physical, gaming, and educational features. The main idea of the system is to have children learn about new objects, new language, practice their math skills, and improve their cognitive ability through enticing games and effective exercise. Three games have been incorporated to provide children with various educational benefits. The system has personalized features that allow guardians to customize the learning content, skill level, and required physical activity to meet their child’s needs. A stationary bike is used as a gaming controller to encourage children to undertake daily aerobic exercise. A modular design approach was adopted so that it is possible to use any stationary bicycle as an input interface by simply attaching a number of devices to it. This thesis provides detailed information about the design requirements, the design model, the proposed system and its related hardware components, the design and development of the gaming software, and the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the system’s performance.