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Digital Divide: Comparing the Impact of Digital and Non-Digital Platforms on Player Behaviors and Game Impact

Digital Divide: Comparing the Impact of Digital and Non-Digital Platforms on Player Behaviors and Game Impact
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Author(s): Geoff Kaufman (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)and Mary Flanagan (Dartmouth College, USA)
Copyright: 2017
Pages: 8
Source title: Transforming Gaming and Computer Simulation Technologies across Industries
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Brock Dubbels (McMaster University, Canada)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1817-4.ch005

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Abstract

With a growing body of work demonstrating the power of games to transform players' attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions, it is crucial to understand the potentially divergent experiences and outcomes afforded by digital and non-digital platforms. In a recent study, we found that transferring a public health game from a non-digital to a digital format profoundly impacted players' behaviors and the game's impact. Specifically, players of the digital version of the game, despite it being a nearly identical translation, exhibited a more rapid play pace and discussed strategies and consequences less frequently and with less depth. As a result of this discrepancy, players of the non-digital version of the game exhibited significantly higher post-game systems thinking performance and more positive valuations of vaccination, whereas players of the digital game did not. We propose several explanations for this finding, including follow-up work demonstrating the impact of platform on basic cognitive processes, that elucidate critical distinctions between digital and non-digital experiences.

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