Motivational strategies and approaches for single and multi-player exergames: a social perspective

Motivational strategies and approaches for single and multi-player exergames: a social perspective Gerry Chan1, Ali Arya1, Rita Orji2 and Zhao Zhao3 1 Carleton School of Information Technology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada 3 Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada 2 ABSTRACT Submitted 10 June 2019 Accepted 2 October 2019 Published 4 November 2019 Corresponding author Gerry Chan, Academic editor Adriana Iamnitchi Additional Information and Declarations can be found on page 25 DOI 10.7717/peerj-cs.230 Copyright 2019 Chan et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 Background: Exergames have attracted the interest of academics, practitioners, and designers, in domains as diverse as health, human-computer interaction, psychology, and information technology. This is primarily because exergames can make the exercise experience more enjoyable and entertaining, and in turn, can increase exercise levels. Despite the many benefits of exergames, they suffer from retention problems. Thus, the objective of this article was to review theories and game elements that have been empirically examined or employed in an attempt to make exergames more motivating so people engage in sustained physical activity (duration of physical activity) in a repeating pattern over time (frequency of physical activity). Methodology: A literature search and narrative review were conducted. Results: Five major theories and elements were prevalent in the exergaming literature: (1) self-determination theory, (2) gamification, (3) competition and cooperation, (4) situational interest, and (5) social interaction. These theories and elements are important for encouraging long-term play and show promise for designing exergames to promote sustained engagement and motivate physical activity. We discuss their strengths and weaknesses throughout the paper. Conclusions: The long-term effectiveness of exergame interventions is unclear mainly because of the limited amount of long-term studies. Better metrics are also needed to evaluate this effectiveness. We also identified particular attention to social factors and group dynamics, such as multi-player exergames and more effective player matchmaking strategies for increasing social connectedness, as a key area of future research. Subjects Human-Computer Interaction, Emerging Technologies, Social Computing Keywords Exergames, Social games, Physical activity, Motivation, Active video games, Social interaction, Gamification, Situational interest INTRODUCTION A sedentary lifestyle is linked to many health concerns. Research suggests that sedentary behavior—activities that involve extensive amounts of sitting such as television viewing and desk-bound work, are associated with an increased risk of developing metabolic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and lower levels of psychosocial health and well-being (Tremblay et al., 2010). In contrast, living an active lifestyle through engaging in regular exercise and physical activity is associated with many health benefits (Alpert, 2009). How to cite this article Chan G, Arya A, Orji R, Zhao Z. 2019. Motivational strategies and approaches for single and multi-player exergames: a social perspective. PeerJ Comput. Sci. 5:e230 DOI 10.7717/peerj-cs.230 1 Exergames are also commonly referred to as active video games, active gaming, movement-controlled video games, or exertion games, in which interaction of the interface requires physical effort (Yim & Graham, 2007; Mueller, Gibbs & Vetere, 2010). However, common complaints associated with participation in exercise include factors such as lack of social support, perceived feelings of exhaustion, and inconvenience of environmental conditions (Myers & Roth, 1997). As a result, research has increased focused on how to harness the power of technology to support people to be physically active. These efforts have led to the emergence of videogames that require players use a range of active body motions and hence encouraging physical activity in a fun and engaging way. Such games are commonly referred to as “exergames.” Exergames1, which are a combination of exercise and videogames (Yim & Graham, 2007), can make doing exercise more enjoyable, and offer a safe, entertaining, and engaging environment to motivate people to participate in physical activity (Altamimi & Skinner, 2012). In this paper, we use the term exergame as a gamified experience that combines physical activity (traditional exercise which involves “planned, structured, repetitive” movements (Caspersen, Powell & Christenson, 1985) or other types of practice that makes the player physically active) using game elements. Despite the numerous benefits of exergames, they suffer from retention problems (Graves et al., 2016; Rhodes et al., 2019; Sun, 2012). While some games entice players to crave more play-time, other games dissuade players before they reach the next level or the end-goal of a game. The problem of maintaining players’ motivation and keeping them actively engaged is commonly referred to as player retention or game sustainability, and has been an important and long-running investigation in the gaming community (Debeauvais et al., 2010; Weber, Mateas & Jhala, 2011). In this paper, the term “retention” is used interchangeably to describe a player’s continued participation in an activity (such as exercise activity, videogame play, or exergame play) over time. While players’ participation is the primary goal in this regard, keeping them motivated can be the strongest tool the designers have, although participation is a function of many other parameters. Also, it is possible that players may discontinue playing a game, but continue being active through playing other exergames or participating in other physical activities/sports. Since the designer of any particular game may not know about what happens after the player leaves, the word participation in the context of this paper refers to continued play in the same game. The duration of sustainability would continue until the player reaches the end of the game; but ideally, to keep living an active lifestyle, the player would move onto a new game, repeat play of the same game, until they are able to maintain their exercise routine without needing any motivation eventually, hence forming habitual health behaviours (Aarts, Paulussen & Schaalma, 1997). The purpose of this review is to study the strategies, theories, principles, and practices that are considered by the existing research when designing exergames to increase players’ motivation as a means of increasing participation and as such improving retention/ sustainability. This includes the approaches that researchers have employed in an attempt to create a more engaging and enjoyable play experience. Although much research on exergames exists and is ongoing, there remain op (...truncated)