ABSTRACT
Governments and health agencies around the world have been at the forefront of managing the COVID-19 pandemic. To control the spread of the outbreak, mandatory safety protocols have been put into effect. Despite the continuous development and strict enforcement of these preventive guidelines, non-compliance with these mandatory safety protocols has been reported. Getting the message to the public is one of the key challenges in convincing people to follow mitigation policies. In this study, we employed the media of video games to advocate for COVID-19 safety protocols. We developed a video game called "Corona Larona"that features microgames with action gameplay playable on a mobile platform. Our video game concentrated on several preventive measures such as physical distancing, hand washing, wearing face masks as well as basic knowledge about the virus using in-game multiple choice questions. To our knowledge, this is the first video game dedicated to the COVID-19 outbreak and the mandatory safety protocols. In a time when many people play video games to survive their current situation, the Corona Larona game is a strategic example of using and maximizing this form of media for a more noble purpose. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Background and Study Aim Material and Methods College students' activity levels are considerably affected by mobile gaming, according to multiple studies. There have, however, been no studies done to date comparing gamers and non-gamers in terms of their levels of endurance. This present study employed beep and 3-minute step tests to compare mobile gamers' and non-gamers endurance levels. In addition, the difference between demographic variables such as age, gender, and BMI and participants' aerobic capacity is a major area of study. Students at the City College of Angeles in the Philippines were selected using the Judgement Sampling Technique to take part in the research. Students who participated in the study are enrolled in the 1st Semester of the Academic year 2022-2023. A survey questionnaire consisting of four sections were utilized to obtain information from the respondents. Age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and an endurance test are all part of the personal profile. Both the beep test and the 3-minute step test were administered to the participants. Results from the participants' personal profiles, BMIs, and endurance tests were summarized using descriptive statistics like frequency (f) and percentage (%). The Paired T-Test was also used to find out if there was a significant difference in the participants' endurance between mobile gamers and non-gamers. Finally, the individuals' age, gender, and Body Mass Index (BMI) were validated with their endurance levels by performing Independent Samples T-Test and One-way ANOVA. Results Beep and 3-minute step tests showed that gamers and non-gamers have very different levels of endurance, with the latter group displaying much more stamina than the former. It was also shown that among the three factors studied, gender was the only one with a relationship to endurance. Conclusions The study did not take into account factors like health history including nutrition, diet, sleep pattern, lifestyle, health issues, and endurance level on other types of measures. Conducting an inquiry similar to the one that was done, but also taking into account the other variables indicated, is a highly suggested course. Several findings are established, and numerous suggestions for further research, as well as policy and educational applications, are provided.
ABSTRACT
Pokémon GO is a popular location-based mobile game that seeks to inspire players to be more active, socialize physically and virtually, and spend more time outside. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several game mechanics of Pokémon GO were changed to accommodate socially-distanced play. This research aims to understand the impacts of the pandemic and subsequent game adjustments on user perceptions of the game. We used an exploratory mixed-method approach, a machine learning technique (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) for topic modeling, and thematic analysis for qualitative coding of top-level Reddit comments to identify whether and how the social distancing approach changes the players' behaviors. The results demonstrate that players were less physically active, less eager to discover, and more interested in remote social practices. We discuss which players leverage social distancing changes and reflect on key game features that provide a better gaming experience in the age of remote play. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
With the insurgence of cryptocurrency and the thriving business of mobile games, games related to cryptocurrency have gained enormous interests in recent years. This paper presents a real time online multiplayer board game, Cryptocoinopoly, which is a hybrid of the existing Cryptocoinopoly board game and Monopoly. Unity (a cross-platform game engine) has been used in the development process together with Photon Unity Networking (PUN), which is a Unity package for creating online multiplayer games. At the level, Cryptocoinopoly is represented by Remote Database, Game Server, Network, Application (Game), Local Database and Client components. Notable functions such as allowing users to play the game with multiple people and for no matter how many rounds they desire;allowing users to invest into the cryptocurrency market at any time and allowing users to trade their assets with other players have been successfully implemented. Functionality testing and debugging have been conducted under constrained conditions with limited resources due to the on-going Covid-19 situation. Despite the challenges, all functional and non-functional requirements of the prototype have been fulfilled. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
As the COVID-19 storms the globe, there are many efforts to battle it. This paper looks at the development of one such an effort in a form of a mobile game. The game is a 2D arcade game called Unus Terra. It is intended to be entertaining but aims to influence people to partake in social distancing through several mechanics. An early version of the game is evaluated by five usability and user experience experts using heuristics and a few other selected methods. In this paper, we present the results from these evaluations along with our findings from using this type of evaluation method. The use of heuristics is considered from the perspectives of academics and practitioners. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The teenager community is the most affected community by cybercrime in the COVID-19 era. Increasing social networks and facilitating teenager access to the Internet have increased the probability of cybercrimes. On the other hand, entertainment such as mobile and computer games is top-rated among teenagers. Teenagers' tendency to cybercrime may be influenced by individual, parent, social, economic and political factors. Studying the impact of social networks, mobile games and parents' religious attitudes on teenagers' tendency to cybercrimes in the COVID-19 era is the primary goal of this paper. Design/methodology/approach: The outbreak of COVID-19 caused a considerable change in the world and the lifestyle of all people. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was also affected by the special conditions of this virus. Changes in ICT and rapid access to it have empowered individuals and organizations, and people have increased civic participation and interaction through ICT. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has created new challenges for the government and citizens and may cause new crimes. Cybercrime is a type of crime that occurs in a cyber environment. These crimes range from invasions of privacy to crimes in which the offender vaguely paralyzes the macroeconomic. In this research, 265 students of high schools and universities are used for collecting data by utilizing a survey. Measuring actions have been done in all surveys employing a Likert scale. The causal pattern is assessed through a constructional equation modeling procedure to study the scheme's validity and reliability. Findings: The outcomes have indicated that social networks have no significant relationship with teenagers' tendency to cybercrimes in the COVID-19 era. Mobile games have a mild effect on teenagers' tendency to cybercrimes in the COVID-19 era, and parents' religious attitudes significantly impact teenagers' tendency to cybercrimes in the COVID-19 era. Research limitations/implications: Current research also has some restrictions that must be noticed in assessing the outcomes. First, sample research was selected from high schools and universities in one city. So, the size of the model is small, and the generalization of results is limited. Second, this research may have ignored other variables that affect the tendency of teenagers' to cybercrime. Future researchers intend to investigate the parents' upbringing system's impact on teenager's trend to cybercrime in the COVID-19 era. Future research can also examine practical factors such as parental upbringing, attitudes toward technology development and virtual addiction in the COVID-19 era. Originality/value: In this study, teenagers' tendency to cybercrimes in the COVID-19 era is investigated, and a procedure is applied depending on a practical occasion. This article's offered sample provides a perfect framework for influencing parents' social networks, mobile games and religious attitudes on teenagers' tendency to cybercrimes in the COVID-19 era. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Purchase intention and behavioural use of UTAUT model has been used widely but still limited to be tested during the Covid-19 in Indonesia. This study presents UTAUT Model for the freemium mobile games in Indonesia during the pandemic. A survey of SEM-PLS toward 100 Indonesian mobile game players was conducted to analyze Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, and Social Influence as the antecedents of purchase intention and behavioural use for the freemium business model in Indonesia. Surprisingly, the social effect does not significantly influence the Purchase Intention, but others have shown their significant effects on purchase intention and behavioural use.