Mood and learning in navigation-based serious games

Abstract

Games are played for entertainment and have the ability to stimulate a variety of moods during gameplay, including happiness. Serious or applied games are created and used to serve a specific purpose rather than for pure entertainment. The relationship between mood and task efficiency has been investigated in psychology with contrasting results, and it also appears that there is a relationship between mood and learning. Players' mood and learning efficiency as a consequence of playing two serious games involving navigation in a virtual environment as the main action of gameplay, but with different learning objectives, have been investigated. The first game taught the route to a real world destination, while the second trained players to perform a religious ritual. The pre- and post-gameplay mood of 52 players were noted. It was found that both serious games helped the players developing a pleasant overall mood and significantly increased the self-reported happiness score in the post-questionnaire. It was also discovered that players who felt happier spent more time learning and that women performed better when they were happier. Besides, younger learners tend to obtain a higher learning performance score than other age categories.