UXP_FB_Logo copy.jpg

News

FarmVille for agrivoltaics? Illinois team aims to teach solar concept with game

An educational game designed to teach kids the emerging concept of agrivoltaics will get a test run this fall at two kid-friendly Midwest museums. A team led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers is developing an educational game it hopes can inspire future farmers to think differently about solar power.

Read More
Feeling Clever: Thematic Design in Sid Sackson’s Games Studies

Sackson participated in multiple gaming groups throughout his life, but Bernice and Sackson also seemed to delight in inviting fellow gamers over to the house for a more intimate evening of dinner and games. 14 The collection was thus auctioned off in parts soon after the resolution of Sackson's estate, with many of the games stamped with the mark "From the Personal Collection of Sid Sackson - signature".

Read More
Analysis of the Player Experience Across Digital and Physical Worlds

The aim of this research is, following the example of Litherland,23 to analyze the quality of the player experience while accounting for a range of factors: the emotions of the players; the agents involved; the institutions like the rules of the game or the framing of game context which indicates the process in which the participants negotiate a shared understanding and conventions in interpreting said rules;25 and lastly the contexts which may refer to the physical medium in which the game in played.

Read More
Tabletop RPGs as Environmental Text

While scholarly analysis of TTRPGs often focuses on player's experiences of role playing as human-like agents, scholars of TTRPGs recognize that role-playing games simulate "Worlds" or "Places"7 - or, alternately, though TTRPG scholars rarely use this language, "Nature" or "Environments." Tabletop RPGs may not be "Virtual" worlds in the sense of a highly-realistic, highly visual, high-polygon representation of the natural world.

Read More
Game-based learning Vs Textbook learning: Which is better?

Game-based learning is built on the idea of teaching through repetition, failure, and goal achievement which incorporates game features and concepts into the learning activities themselves. Students learning Economics, for example, can compete in a virtual stock-trading competition; difficult science concepts can also be made easier to understand using several games.

Read More
Chaos Theory wants to transform the world of ‘serious games’

For Sydney-based game developer Chaos Theory Games, this transformation is what truly defines the 'serious games' industry. 'I definitely prefer the term "Transformational games" because I think it's more descriptive of the sorts of experiences that we build,' Nico King, Executive Creative Director at Chaos Theory told GamesHub of the team's approach to serious games.

Read More
Thanks to them, your next Assassin’s Creed mission is … learning history?

If history is the only true teacher, then Assassin's Creed could soon be the best school to learn about life in Ancient Egypt and how the crusaders crushed the enemies of the Latin Church. With the Discovery Tour series, history is now front and centre. Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour series: How it came about.

Read More
Why We Should All Think About The Gamification of Education

Gamification, as defined in the dictionary, is "The application of typical elements of game playing to other areas of activity." This article will explore why gamifying education is essential, especially since we are now living in a time of remote learning and educating. Gamification - an Overview The turning point for gamification in education came with the development and creation of Foldit, a highly-popular online puzzle video game.

Read More
What Do Video Gamers Think About Global Warming?

About three in four video gamers think global warming is happening, and the majority of video gamers understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. Most video gamers think global warming will harm plant and animal species, future generations of people, people in developing countries, the world's poor, people in the U.S., people in their community, their family, and themselves personally.

Read More
Best Brain Stimulating Games for Dementia and Why They Work

People often discuss the idea of using memory games for dementia that can help stimulate the brain. In this article, we explore how brain games might help with cognitive functions, and the best games to play. A more recent analysis on the research surrounding brain games and cognitive impairment found that brain games weren't more effective for improving cognitive function than control interventions.

Read More
Could AI-powered gamification change the way we work?

Even where employee involvement is necessary, AI is there again to drive decision-based or predictive-routing algorithms of customer interactions, expediting the engagement journey for customers. This is why gamification has come to the forefront not just as a gimmick, but as a way to ensure that regardless of the business objective, employees engage with it.

Read More
VR finds new home in the classroom thanks to 'gamification' of education

"We are interested in making students immerse themselves into learning, and I think that VR technology is a nice tool to help implement the gamification method in teaching." During the press briefing, reporters had a chance to try on the Meta Quest 2 headsets and experience VR education programs firsthand.

Read More