Relationship Between Motivational Strategies and Gamification User Types in VR Movement Games
Samuel E. R. Thompson, Burkhard Claus Wünsche, Dominik Cyrillus Lange-Nawka · 2023
Virtual Reality (VR) is a powerful tool for serious games and applications because it is immersive, engaging and enjoyable, can achieve dissociation from negative feelings and pain, and can be used to create personalised experiences. Serious games combined with VR have been used increasingly for contexts like stroke rehabilitation, where they can provide an engaging environment for task-based rehabilitation. Motivation is an important factor for physical rehabilitation, however, one-size-fits-all methods are not universally engaging as some patients lack motivation needed for rehabilitation. In this paper we focus on motivating movements that can be used for stroke rehabilitation. Gamification user typologies, such as the HEXAD model, allow aspects of serious games to be tailored to an individual’s personal needs, potentially enhancing user engagement and motivation. We conducted an experiment on healthy participants which investigated the correlation between personalised upper limb movement games in VR and user engagement. Our results show that for users who had their experiences personalised, engagement and motivation typically was higher (but not significantly) than for participants in the control group. We found statistically significant evidence that personalised VR experiences resulted in higher pressure for Socialisers and lower effort for Philanthropists.