Projects per year
Abstract
Aim. We present a narrative survey of documented and potential threats to validity in using games for quantitative data collection.
Method. We combined an unsystematic bottom-up literature review with a systematic top-down application of standard validity threat typologies to games to arrive at a systematisation of game-characteristic validity threats.
Results. We identify three game characteristics that potentially impact validity: Games are complex systems, impeding the predictable control and isolation of treatments. They are rich in unwanted variance and diversity. And their social framing can differ from and interact with the framing of research studies or non-game situations they are supposed to represent. The diversity of gamers and their differences to general populations bring further complications.
Discussion and Conclusions. The wealth of potential validity threats in game-based research is met by a dearth of systematic methodological studies, leading us to outline several future research directions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 302-328 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Simulation & Gaming |
Volume | 50 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 13 Oct 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2019 |
Bibliographical note
© The Author(s) 2018.Keywords
- Data Collection
- Game-based methods
- Gamification
- Games with a purpose
- Serious Games
- Validity
- Validity threat
- research gamification
- applied games
- data collection
- validity threats
- game-based methods
- games with a purpose
- validity
Profiles
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Christoph Sebastian Deterding
- Theatre, Film, TV and Interactive Media - Professor, Former employee
Person: Academic
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EPSRC IGGI CDT
Cairns, P. A. (Principal investigator) & Cowling, P. I. (Co-investigator)
1/04/14 → 31/07/25
Project: Research project (funded) › Studentship (central)
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The Digital Creativity Hub
Cowling, P. I. (Principal investigator), Austin, J. (Co-investigator), Cairns, P. A. (Co-investigator), Holliman, N. S. (Co-investigator), Hook, J. D. (Co-investigator), Marsden, E. (Co-investigator), Murphy, D. T. (Co-investigator), Petrie, H. (Co-investigator), Reed, D. J. (Co-investigator), Richards, J. D. (Co-investigator), Ursu, M. (Co-investigator), Wade, A. (Co-investigator), Baier, H. (Researcher), Beale, G. (Researcher), Block, F. O. (Researcher), Deterding, C. S. (Researcher), Devlin, S. (Researcher), Drachen, A. (Researcher), Kasprowicz, R. E. (Researcher), Smith, D. P. (Researcher) & Williams, D. A. H. (Researcher)
1/10/15 → 30/09/22
Project: Research project (funded) › Research