Internet Addiction (IA) constitutes an excessive Internet use behavior with a significant impact on the user’s well-being. Online flow describes the users’ level of being absorbed by their online activity. The present study investigated age-related, gender, and flow effects on IA in adolescence. The sample comprised 648 adolescents who were assessed twice at age 16 and 18 years. IA was assessed using the Internet Addiction Test and online flow was assessed using the Online Flow Questionnaire. A three-level hierarchical model estimated age-related, gender, and online flow effects on IA symptoms and controlled for clustered random effects. IA symptoms decreased over time (for both genders) with a slower rate in males. Online flow was associated with IA symptoms and this remained consistent over time. Findings expand upon the available literature suggesting that IA symptoms could function as a development-related manifestation at the age of 16 years, while IA-related gender differences gradually increase between 16 and 18 years. Finally, the association between online flow and IA symptoms remained stable independent of age-related effects. The study highlights individual differences and provides directions for more targeted prevention and intervention initiatives for IA.

Background: The number of older adult gamers who play mobile games is growing worldwide. Earlier studies have reported that digital games provide cognitive, physical, and socioemotional benefits for older adults. However, current mobile games that understand older adults’ gameplay experience and reflect their needs are very scarce. Furthermore, studies that have analyzed older adults’ game experience in a holistic manner are rare. Objective: The purpose of this study was to suggest mobile game design guidelines for adults older than 50 years from a holistic gaming experience perspective. Adopting a human-centric approach, this study analyzes middle-aged and older adults’ gameplay experience and suggests practical design guides to increase accessibility and satisfaction. Methods: We organized a living laboratory project called the “Intergenerational Play Workshop.” In this workshop, 40 middle-aged and older adults (mean age 66.75 years, age range 50-85 years) played commercial mobile games of various genres with young adult partners for 1 month (8 sessions). Using a convergent parallel mixed-method design, we conducted a qualitative analysis of dialogue, game diaries, and behavioral observations during the workshop and a quantitative analysis of the satisfaction level of the game elements for the mobile games that they played. Results: This project was active from April 2019 to December 2021, and the data were collected at the workshops from July 1 to August 28, 2019. Based on the identified themes of positive and negative experiences from the qualitative data, we proposed 45 design guides under 3 categories: (1) cognitive and physical elements, (2) psychological and socioemotional elements, and (3) consumption contextual elements. Our empirical research could reaffirm the proposals from previous studies and provide new guidelines for improving the game design. In addition, we demonstrate how existing commercial games can be evaluated quantitatively by using the satisfaction level of each game’s elements and overall satisfaction level. Conclusions: The final guidelines were presented to game designers to easily find related information and enhance the overall understanding of the game experience of middle-aged and older adults.

An increasing number of students are learning in digitalized education environments. For younger generations of students who have grown up participating in digital environments and virtual reality, E-learning is considered to be an appropriate educational platform. In particular, video lectures are regarded as key component of E-learning systems. However, online lecture systems have limitations in sustainability due to a lack of motivation on the part of the learner. To provide motivation for users, we focus on enhancing emotional engagement with 'gameful design.' By gameful design, we mean extending game thinking to non-game contexts. In this study, we apply gameful design to video lecturing systems, and we expect this design to enhancing emotional engagement in learning, thereby increasing educational achievement.

While player characters (PCs) are the key element in engaging players in narrative games, the experience and relationship of the player with the PC have received scarce attention from the perspective of the subjective player experience. The diversity of players and the importance of the PC in the game suggests meaningful connections between how players relate to their PC and the resulting satisfaction with the game. We, therefore, investigated in this study how the player-character relationship influences satisfaction of the player with the game. We performed semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 players ofThe Last of Us Part II, a game that has elicited highly polarized reactions in relation to how players responded to a switch of the PC in the game. Through thematic analysis, three themes were found, illustrating the connection between aspects of the player-character relationship and the overall game satisfaction. The themes are “Tolerance of forced character switch”, “Malleability of character image” and “Flexibility of character attachment”. We discuss how those findings should be taken into consideration when designing diverse and meaningful gaming experiences.