Engagement in Serious Games and Impact of Game Design Choices:Systematic Review (Preprint)

Serious games have attracted substantial attention in recent years due to their potential to stimulate and to engage players in education, healthcare and training. Player engagement is an essential factor in the effectiveness of serious games. The impact of serious game mechanisms (such as narrative, reward, interaction, feedback and challenge) on player engagement needs to be comprehensively reviewed. Identifying key factors that facilitate or hinder player engagement helps designers create more engaging and immersive gaming experiences. This study intends to conduct a comprehensive review of empirical studies concerning engagement within the realm of serious games. Our primary objective is to assess thoroughly the effectiveness of various game design factors in enhancing player engagement, focusing on three distinct dimensions: game mechanics, game incentives, and game connections. Furthermore, we aim to provide a concise overview of the methodologies and tools employed for evaluating engagement in the experiments conducted. We conducted a search on the Web of Science Core Collection online database for meticulously crafted academic papers published from June 2013 to June 2023, concentrating on the nexus of player engagement and game design. Our search encompassed research keywords like "serious games," "experience," and "engagement," among others, which yielded a substantial repository of 4,228 relevant articles. Following a meticulous screening process, we pinpointed a cohort of 68 quantitative studies that conformed to our review criteria. These articles underwent categorization using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) method. Game design elements were categorized into game mechanics (31%), game incentives (38%), and game connections (31%). The measures employed encompassed standardized scales (22%), non-standardized scales (34%), mixed scales (6%), and multidimensional scales (38%). Notably, the predominant focus of research was directed towards narrative, virtual rewards, cooperation, and competition as the most frequently examined game elements. Within this paper, we conduct an in-depth examination and explication of the relationship between these elements and participant engagement within meta-analysis section. Results consistently affirm the positive influence of game narrative on engagement. Badges reign supreme in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) systems, outperforming rankings and points. However, PBL systems display initial success but grapple with sustaining long-term motivation, partially due to the "novelty" effect. Cooperation strongly correlates with elevated player engagement. The review underscores the absence of standardized engagement measurement methods in serious games research, often relying on observational data and custom scales. The conclusion of this paper can help designers to create more engaging and context-relevant serious game content.