Factors in the Cognitive-Emotional Impact of Educational Environmental Narrative Videogames

This contribution describes an experiment carried out in 2020 with the goal of exploring factors affecting the cognitive-emotional impact of immersive VR Serious Games, and specifically of Educational Environmental Narrative Games. The experimental evaluation was aimed at better understanding three research questions: if passive or active interaction is preferable for users' factual and spatial knowledge acquisition; if meaningfulness could be considered as a relevant experience in a serious game (SG) context; and if distraction has an impact on knowledge acquisition and engagement in immersive VR educational games. Although the experiment involved only a limited number of participants, our results led to the identification of some relevant tendencies and factors which ought to be considered in the development of future SGs, and which reveal the need for further studies in HCI and game design.