Introduction:
My research topic will be focusing on freemium mobile gaming and its impacts on children and teenagers (specifically on how the game developers/ studios design these games to ‘lure’ players to pay a premium in a freemium game, e.g. buy virtual goods & additional functionalities; as well as most mobile multi-player game matching mechanism tend to covertly manipulate player win rates to extend player play time). My focus now is to design an intervention that could reduce negative impacts on the above mentioned minor users or prevent this phenomena from happening.
During my researches in the past month, I have also found that many multiplayer games would promote in-game social features (e.g. multi-player, in game voice chat, rewards for teaming up, etc.) to take advantage of the immaturity of the underage mind with social comparison, and exacerbates the negative drawbacks mentioned above. Which brings deep concern to me as why most gaming companies design games in such ways and how to prevent children from age 8-16 to fall into the unhealthy gaming habit.
Intervention Aspects:
After consideration, I realized that I will need to create valid intervention methods that actualize the following points in order to achieve my goals:
* Emphasize balanced and healthy gaming: through education and promotion, emphasize balanced gaming time and social activities. Remind players to use gaming as a form of entertainment and not as an over-reliance and replacement for real-life social interactions. Encourage them to maintain a balance between gaming time and social time to ensure a healthy lifestyle.
* Encourage real-life social interactions: Encourage players to actively participate in social interactions in real life through education and guidance. Provide them with opportunities to participate in sports, art activities, volunteer work or other social gatherings to enrich their social circles and develop healthy social skills.
* Emphasize teamwork and mutual support: game developers can design game mechanics that emphasize teamwork and mutual support rather than relying solely on individual competition and rewards. Encourage players to achieve game objectives through teamwork and mutual assistance, and provide fair and meaningful team reward mechanisms to encourage social interaction and teamwork.
* Promote parent-child interaction and family time: Encourage parents to participate in games and social interactions with their children to promote parent-child relationships and family unity. This can include family playtime, joint participation in multi-player games, family activities and parent-child conversations. Through active participation and supervision, parents can guide their children in the proper use of play and social functions.
Intervention Concepts:
As for the form of my intervention, I plan to utilize virtual reality and augmented technology in order to show the potential risks of freemium games. With VR/AR technology, I will be able to demonstrate the potential risks and negative impacts of freemium gaming, while at the same time creating a sense of novelty and a sense of crisis in the participants, in order to change their bad gaming habits. Below are two of my intervention concepts.
-Immersive Simulation Experiences: Use virtual reality technology to create an immersive simulated environment that allows participants to personally experience the potential risks and manipulative tactics used in freemium gaming. For example, design a virtual gaming scenario that showcases typical manipulative tactics like reward encouragement, time pressure, and frequent purchase prompts. Through this immersive experience, participants can have a more intuitive understanding of the potential risks and manipulative tactics used in freemium gaming. Through this immersive experience, participants can have a more intuitive understanding of the impact of these manipulative tactics on them.
-Social Interaction and Shared Experiences: Incorporate social interaction and shared experiences into your demonstrations or events to enhance Social Interaction and Shared Experiences: Incorporate social interaction and shared experiences into your demonstrations or events to enhance participant engagement and resonance. For example, set up an experiential area where participants can try out freemium games and engage in conversations and knowledge sharing with other participants. For example, set up an experiential area where participants can try out freemium games and engage in conversations and knowledge sharing with other participants. For example, set up an experiential area where participants can try out freemium games and engage in conversations and knowledge sharing with other participants.