Towards a structural model for intention to play a digital educational game

Abstract

Computer games are very popular among children. There is increasing interest to apply computer game in education to render learning more attractive and motivating. However, it remains to be explored what factors drive children to play educational games. In this paper, we investigate impacts of game narrative and player's characteristics (e.g. gender, personality) on children's intention to play a digital education game. The results revealed that effect of game narrative, gender, and sensation seeking personality are significant factors in predicting children's gameplay intention. Implications of this study are discussed from perspectives of academic research as well as educational game design. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.