Alert Hockey: An Endogenous Learning Game

Abstract

We describe a video game designed with a subtle and implicit learning mechanism that tracks aggressive and negligent play then uses this data to reduce players abilities and their chance of winning against the computer. By converging the goals of game play with learning we argue the experience produced is both endogenous and outcome oriented. Sixty two participants between 12 and 14 years old played the game at least 15 times each. Both aggressive play and negligence measures were reduced during the study (F(2, 40) = 10.589, p = 0.0002). Implicit learning mechanisms like this have potential to provide specific learning outcomes at little expense to the enjoyment of interactive gameplay.