How Players Learn: Evaluating Interjected and Contextual Education in Interactive Entertainment
By: Tanya Short
Supervisor: Myque Ouellette
Master of Interactive Technology degree conferred July 12th, 2008
Thesis / Project completed July 7th, 2008

This thesis studies the education of players in video games. Facts and data are often presented separately from gameplay in educational games, but might players learn more effectively from a seamless integration? This study looks at adult and child gamers’ opinions on two games with different methods of presenting data to find which encourages better data retention and/or a better play experience. 

This study integrates facts from basic entymology into a two-dimensional maze game. The approach begins by producing two game designs and then testing each with a separate group of testers, with a third group acting as a control group. One version interrupts the gameplay experience by forcing the game to pause and using out-of-context verbiage. The second version presents the facts as an optional, in-context part of gameplay, rewarding the player in-game for finding them and presenting the data with in-game characters. The results show that players were certainly better-educated by interruptive, enforced data methods, but the overall play experience results were mixed and some players reported that the interruption irritated them.

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