Abstract
BackgroundSerious games have been increasingly used for motor rehabilitation. However, it is not well known how different game features can be used to impact specific skills properly. Here, we study how the mode (competitive, co-active, collaborative) in which a multi-user game is presented impacts engagement and social involvement.MethodsWe collected data from 20 pairs of community-dwelling older adults (71.5 ± 8.7 years) in a study following a within-persons design. The participants performed a two-player upper limb rehabilitation game with three conditions (Competitive, Co-active, and Collaborative modes). Engagement and social involvement were assessed through the Core Module and Social Presence Module, respectively, from the Game Experience Questionnaire. To infer the impact of personality and cognitive function, users answered the International Personality Item Pool (short version) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, respectively.ResultsResults show that the Collaborative game mode promotes more social involvement when compared to Competitive and Co-active modes. This result is mostly explained by those participants with higher cognitive skills, and those that are more extrovert. Extrovert participants feel more empathy and are behaviorally more involved when playing the Collaborative mode. Also, the Collaborative mode is shown to be appropriate to promote interaction with participants that previously had a distant relationship, while the Competitive mode seems to be more beneficial to promote empathy between players with a closer relationship.ConclusionsThe Collaborative game mode elicited significantly higher social involvement in terms of Empathy, Positive Affect, and Behavioral Involvement. Hence, this game mode seems to be the most adequate choice to be used in multiplayer rehabilitation settings, where social interaction is intended.
Highlights
Serious games have been increasingly used for motor rehabilitation
Social involvement Regarding the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) Social Presence Module, Empathy was relatively high on all conditions (Mdn = [2.33–2.83]), but with a lower median and higher dispersion in the Competitive mode (Fig. 3, Table 2)
Engagement Concerning the components of the GEQ Core Module, Flow was high for all the conditions (Mdn = 2.80–3.00) and so was Positive Affect (Mdn = 3.00) (Table 4)
Summary
Serious games have been increasingly used for motor rehabilitation. Serious games have been widely studied concerning their impact on improving physical and social skills with elderly [1], mostly because of their potential to increase motivation levels compared to conventional therapies [2, 3]. After analyzing data from a sample of 14 participants, the authors concluded that the levels of social activity were low even after improvements in the levels of independence and mood. These data highlight the need to explore alternative ways of social stimulation within rehabilitation environments [7]
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