Parisa Eslambolchilar edited Social games.tex  over 10 years ago

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\subsubsection{Social fun and games}  Playfulness and enjoyment are important for the achievement of changes in exercise levels because they stimulate positive emotional states that help to  motivate increased physical activity \cite{Blytheetal04}. Several physical activity games attempt to make use of this effect. In one such game, Fish’n’Steps \cite{Linetal06}, users are presented with a fish avatar whose growth, emotional state and behaviour reflects the participant’s recent physical activity. Moreover, Fish’n’Steps includes behavioural goals in a team-based game, with the team-members being responsible for the health and growth of their fish in a shared fish tank. Consistent with the findings in \cite{Blytheetal04}, the evaluation of Fish`n’Steps showed rather than provoking increased exercise, an unhappy avatar (sad or unhealthy looking fish in this example) could cause users to simply stop using an app. In Neat-O-Game \cite{Fujikietal07} a wearable accelerometer provides data that is used to control an avatar that represents the player in a virtual race. Multiple players can participate in Neat-O-Game. Winners are declared on a daily basis and players can use activity points that they have gained to receive hints in mental games such as Sudoku that are included in the app. In a different example, rather than trying to motivate individuals to reduce the time spent on sedentary activities, Berkovsky et al. \cite{Berkovskyetal09b} focus on integrating physical activity into the predominantly sedentary activity of computer gaming. Berkovsky et al. integrate a novel game design called “Play, Mate!” into an open source game called Neverball and raise players’ motivation by increasing the difficulty of the game and including elements of physical activity. Berkovsky et al. conducted an experimental evaluation of Neverball involving 180 users aged 9 to 12 unfamiliar with this game. They divided participants into two groups: 90 played the sedentary version of Neverball and 90 played the active version of Neverball. The experiment showed that children performed more physical activity and decreased sedentary playing time when they used the active version of Neverball. Furthermore, children did not report any reduction in their enjoyment of playing. Ahtinen et al. \cite{Ahtinenetal10} designed a team-based mobile wellness app called Into, which visualised the number of steps for its users with an analogy of a virtual trip from one place to another. As the team members took steps, the application combined the achievements of each team member and visualised the combined progress as a trip between the departure and destination places. Ahtinen et al. conducted a qualitative pilot study with 37 participants (a total of 12 people in four teams) over a period of one week. The more participants took steps, the quicker the line between the places turned to green (achieved goal). The line between the departure and destination places reflected the true distance between the places in the physical world, and respectively the users needed to take as many steps together as the real distance required. The findings from this study showed that setting departure and destination places and viewing up-to-date progress between them can motivate individuals. However, the study was short and Ahtinen et al. did not report on the impact of feedback and or goal-settings on physical activity.