Using Narrative Game Design to Increase Children's Physical Activity: Exploratory Thematic Analysis.

JMIR Serious Games

Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, US Department of Agriculture, Houston, TX, United States.

Published: November 2019

Background: Physical activity is crucial for child obesity prevention and intervention. Narratives embedded in active games can increase children's physical activity.

Objective: Little is known about the narrative characteristics that would motivate children to exercise. We attempted to fill the gaps in understanding regarding narrative design for active video games.

Methods: In this exploratory study, four animated narratives of different genres were professionally generated. Children (N=41) between the ages of 8 and 12 years were interviewed to identify their preferences. Sessions were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using exploratory thematic analysis.

Results: Findings revealed that the children rated the dystopian science fiction story as their favorite across all weight, race, and gender groups. The physical activity-friendly narrative strategies included virtuous characters, extraordinary character actions, interesting plots, super powers, and engaging cliffhangers. Alternatively, information not related to physical activity, difficult-to-follow plot lines, passive protagonists, and repetitive narrative tropes were less appealing for physical activity.

Conclusions: This research provides preliminary evidence that narratives have characteristics that may increase child physical activity when playing active games. Future empirical studies should verify and test these design principles.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6895869PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/16031DOI Listing

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