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Beauty or the Beast: Importance of the Attraction of Educational Games

Beauty or the Beast: Importance of the Attraction of Educational Games

Geertje Bekebrede, Casper Harteveld, Harald Warmelink, Sebastiaan Meijer
Copyright: © 2013 |Pages: 23
ISBN13: 9781466619876|ISBN10: 1466619872|EISBN13: 9781466619883
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1987-6.ch006
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MLA

Bekebrede, Geertje, et al. "Beauty or the Beast: Importance of the Attraction of Educational Games." Student Usability in Educational Software and Games: Improving Experiences, edited by Carina Gonzalez, IGI Global, 2013, pp. 138-160. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1987-6.ch006

APA

Bekebrede, G., Harteveld, C., Warmelink, H., & Meijer, S. (2013). Beauty or the Beast: Importance of the Attraction of Educational Games. In C. Gonzalez (Ed.), Student Usability in Educational Software and Games: Improving Experiences (pp. 138-160). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1987-6.ch006

Chicago

Bekebrede, Geertje, et al. "Beauty or the Beast: Importance of the Attraction of Educational Games." In Student Usability in Educational Software and Games: Improving Experiences, edited by Carina Gonzalez, 138-160. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1987-6.ch006

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Abstract

Educational games are often less attractive than entertainment games in visuals, gameplay, and other aspects, but do we need entertainment-level beauties in our education or are beasts sufficient? To identify the importance of attraction for educational games, the authors offer the results of a comparative analysis of five educational games used and evaluated from 2005-2010 (N=754). They operationalized attraction through statements in which players were asked to rate the games’ visual, gameplay, and user interface attractiveness. While some scholars argue that for game-based education to become successful, educational games need to be visually more attractive, the results of the analysis show the opposite. For educational games, attraction is of relatively low importance. The authors further found that gameplay is the most important aspect of attraction and visuals the least. These results contribute to the debate amongst designers and educators on what priorities to set when considering game-based education.

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