Mobile Game App Research Articles

Engaging Adolescents to Inform the Development of a Mobile Gaming App to Incentivize Physical Activity.

BackgroundInvolving youth in the development of a mobile game designed to increase physical activity may increase relevancy and adoption.ObjectiveTo share the development process used to create a gaming app aimed at incentivizing physical activity in high school students.MethodsFive focus groups were conducted with high school students (N=50) to understand gaming behaviors. A subset of students from the focus groups chose to complete a Web-based survey (N=10). Four different versions of gaming artwork and concept design based on student input were pilot tested (N=35), and group consensus building determined the direction of the game. The 4 game versions differed in their artwork style and gaming concept with some requiring competition versus cooperation, or being more individual versus team based. Group consensus building meant that all artwork and game concept options were displayed at the front of a classroom. Students could then vote for their top artwork and concept choices by putting stickers on the top 1 or 2 artwork and concept options that they liked best. Once all votes were cast, investigators discussed the voting results with students, and brainstormed ways to incorporate popular aspects of the 3 “losing” artwork and game concepts into the winning ideas.ResultsFocus group transcripts were analyzed for common themes. Artwork and gaming concept-voting data was tallied at the time of voting to share with students in real time. Focus groups and survey results revealed important themes for a successful gaming app: (1) competition, (2) balanced in-game rewards, (3) accessibility, and (4) aesthetic features. Consensus voting indicated the popularity of a collaborative competitive content design (35/66, 53%) and playful art (27/71, 38%).ConclusionsTo ensure saliency and effectiveness of game-based physical activity interventions, youth need to be included in design and implementation. Furthermore, the unique preferences and social constructs of high school students need to be considered during intervention development.

Freemium or Paid? The Impact of Firm Experience and App Data on the Revenue Streams of Mobile Gaming Apps

Mobile gaming accounts for approximately 40% of all revenues generated by apps. Although they thus constitute the primary driver of revenues, extant literature seldom examines the revenue models of gaming apps. In response, this study investigates if the mobile gaming revenue model influences revenues and whether other factors might explain higher or lower revenues for gaming apps, especially technological and market experience. The results reveal no influence of the revenue model on revenues, which instead depend on the users, their social recommendations, and the prices of in-game extras or of the app. Publishers can influence revenue generation positively or negatively though, by using their market experience, e.g. a previously published brand. Technological Experience has no influence so far.

Portals and Pokémon: Geolocation Augmented-Reality Games for Physical Activity, Social Health and Community Awareness

Background: The newest generation of active games are location specific, augmented-reality (AR) apps including Niantic Lab’s Ingress and Pokémon Go. Little is known about their effects on physical activity or the potential for social support and community awareness. Purpose: This study qualitatively explores physical activity, social interaction, and community awareness for players of a geolocation augmented-reality game. Methods: Twenty U.S. college students ages 18 to 21 learned the geo AR mobile game app, Ingress. Interviews about their experiences were recorded, transcribed and analyzed for themes using a phenomenological approach. Results: Frequent players were predominantly female and three of the seven were overweight or obese. Participants who already exercised felt the game did not increase their physical activity. Half of the participants mentioned adding a small amount of activity with a few being much more active. Only three reported any effect on their social health, but almost all mentioned increasing their community knowledge. Discussion: Geo AR games are promising to encourage activity for some who might otherwise be inactive. Translation to Public Health Practice: Mobile app games are a free, fun, and readily available tool for improving the health of college populations who may not be drawn to traditional programming.

Neural bases of recommendations differ according to social network structure.

Ideas spread across social networks, but not everyone is equally positioned to be a successful recommender. Do individuals with more opportunities to connect otherwise unconnected others—high information brokers—use their brains differently than low information brokers when making recommendations? We test the hypothesis that those with more opportunities for information brokerage may use brain systems implicated in considering the thoughts, perspectives, and mental states of others (i.e. ‘mentalizing’) more when spreading ideas. We used social network analysis to quantify individuals’ opportunities for information brokerage. This served as a predictor of activity within meta-analytically defined neural regions associated with mentalizing (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporal parietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, /posterior cingulate cortex, middle temporal gyrus) as participants received feedback about peer opinions of mobile game apps. Higher information brokers exhibited more activity in this mentalizing network when receiving divergent peer feedback and updating their recommendation. These data support the idea that those in different network positions may use their brains differently to perform social tasks. Different social network positions might provide more opportunities to engage specific psychological processes. Or those who tend to engage such processes more may place themselves in systematically different network positions. These data highlight the value of integrating levels of analysis, from brain networks to social networks.

Measuring and Analyzing Third-Party Mobile Game App Stores in China

In the era of mobile Internet, mobile game apps (i.e., applications) enable users to play games on mobile devices anywhere at any time. Such a change has brought a dramatic revolution to the traditional gaming industry. In this paper, we aim at having a comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem of mobile game apps. To this purpose, we conduct a large-scale measurement study over all game apps hosted by four leading app stores in China, which cover both Android and iOS platforms. We collect information of over 75000 mobile game apps in a period of three months (October 2014–January 2015). With obtained datasets, we study the scale, evolution, and overlap of game apps in different app stores from a macroscopic level. We find that none of major app stores can provide a complete set of all game apps. We also investigate download patterns of mobile game apps and the impacts brought by user comments and ratings. We observe clear Pareto effect and power-law effect for game app downloads, and there is no strong positive correlation between app score and the number of its downloads. Last, we characterize the features of popular and unpopular game apps and confirm the negative impacts of embedded ads and paid items. We believe our measurement results can provide useful insights and advice for users, developers, and app store operators.

Using a mobile gaming app to enhance accounting education

ABSTRACTThe authors describe the first mobile gaming app for learning accounting, Accounting Challenge (ACE). On September 30, 2016, ACE had been downloaded 23,230 times, spanning 90 countries, and had won three international teaching awards. The app was motivated by the aim to empower students to learn accounting in a fun way, outside of the classroom. ACE combines mobile learning and game-based learning to generate interest and motivation for the digital-native students and is freely available in iPhone/iPad and Android version. Based on a voluntary students’ survey, the majority rated ACE favorably, indicating that they were satisfied with the app. ACE was presented at several international and local events and received positive feedback.

What drives in-app purchase intention for mobile games? An examination of perceived values and loyalty

Despite the huge growth potential that has been predicted for in-app purchases and the mobile game market, little is known about what motivates game players to make such purchases. The purpose of this paper is to build a research model based on the loyalty literature and studies of value theory to identify the antecedents of in-app purchase intention in the context of mobile games. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using a web survey of 3309 mobile game players: 813 nonpaying players and 2496 paying players. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the research model. The results reveal that loyalty to the mobile game has significant influence on a player’s intention to make an in-app purchase. The perceived values of the game (playfulness, connectedness, access flexibility, and reward) have direct influence on the loyalty of all players but appear to have relatively little impact on the purchase intentions of nonpaying players. Two values (loyalty and good price) were found to have a direct impact on a player’s intention to make an in-app purchase. Specifically, our study revealed differences between paying users and nonpaying users. This study provides a better understanding of how the values influence loyalty among all players of the game, and the purchase intentions of paying and nonpaying players. Further insights into mobile game app marketing strategies are provided as well.

Digital games for type 1 and type 2 diabetes: underpinning theory with three illustrative examples.

Digital games are an important class of eHealth interventions in diabetes, made possible by the Internet and a good range of affordable mobile devices (eg, mobile phones and tablets) available to consumers these days. Gamifying disease management can help children, adolescents, and adults with diabetes to better cope with their lifelong condition. Gamification and social in-game components are used to motivate players/patients and positively change their behavior and lifestyle. In this paper, we start by presenting the main challenges facing people with diabetes—children/adolescents and adults—from a clinical perspective, followed by three short illustrative examples of mobile and desktop game apps and platforms designed by Ayogo Health, Inc. (Vancouver, BC, Canada) for type 1 diabetes (one example) and type 2 diabetes (two examples). The games target different age groups with different needs—children with type 1 diabetes versus adults with type 2 diabetes. The paper is not meant to be an exhaustive review of all digital game offerings available for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but rather to serve as a taster of a few of the game genres on offer today for both types of diabetes, with a brief discussion of (1) some of the underpinning psychological mechanisms of gamified digital interventions and platforms as self-management adherence tools, and more, in diabetes, and (2) some of the hypothesized potential benefits that might be gained from their routine use by people with diabetes. More research evidence from full-scale evaluation studies is needed and expected in the near future that will quantify, qualify, and establish the evidence base concerning this gamification potential, such as what works in each age group/patient type, what does not, and under which settings and criteria.

A Study of the Relationship Analysis between Mobile Application by Using An Association Rules

In accordance with the advent of smartphone and the growth of the Mobile App market, the Mobile game industry is being reorganized. So, This study is to be know the association rules between mobile game apps and mobile apps. Accordingly, To promote the Mobile Game App based on advertisement effectiveness that can be obtained from the characteristics of the game by finding out what to investigate.

The Potential of Building High School Students’ Vocabulary Using an iPod Touch and Gaming App

This study focused on the potential for building 25 high-school students’ word knowledge by using a mobile learning device and gaming app. Using a game as an instructional tool is a portable way for students to engage with content. The amount of vocabulary mastered after using the app on the mobile device was examined in relation to a pre-test and a post-test, completed 3 weeks apart. The aspects investigated were the transfer potential of learning on a mobile device, and the variation in performance levels. The results indicated a direct correlation between the pre-test score as a predictor for the post-test score. Also, the choice of techniques used to play the app indicated that participants called upon the ‘process of elimination’ and ‘roots/word parts’ as tools to help them master the vocabulary. These findings point to the potential for incorporating a game as an instructional tool for vocabulary development.

Design of Wi-Fi based Mobile Game App for a Smart Phone

With the rapid growth of recent smart phone technology, the interests for the design of online game in mobile computing environment are highly focussed on with great attention. Smart phone as a mobile terminal device, however, has many restrictions for implementing online mobile game since the limitation of relatively low performance of a processor, low resolution of GUI, small memory spaces, and short battery power. Therefore, most of games are very restricted on online and multi-play functions. In this paper, we design and implement mobile online game app in component based smart phone environment in order to take over these restrictions in mobile environment. Especially, the implemented mobile game is able to play online game among Wi-Fi based game server and another smart phone.