Browsing by Author "Flores, Fernanda"

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    Promoting Positive Attitudes Through Narrative-Driven Digital Heritage Games
    (The Eurographics Association, 2025) Kolek, Lukáš; Šosvald, David; Flores, Fernanda; Halilovic, Jasminko; Campana, Stefano; Ferdani, Daniele; Graf, Holger; Guidi, Gabriele; Hegarty, Zackary; Pescarin, Sofia; Remondino, Fabio
    Video games offer new ways to engage audiences with cultural heritage beyond traditional museum settings. However, can video games authentically replicate the narrative depth of museum experiences while promoting the positive attitudinal impacts museums seek to achieve? This study investigates whether a narrative-driven video game, We Grew Up in War, inspired by historical research and curatorial practice can positively influence players' attitudes towards the depicted topics. The game employs complementary multiperspectivity, a storytelling strategy that presents different but thematically aligned perspectives focused on the topics of refugees and migration. Using a pretest-posttest design with experimental and control groups (n = 116), we measured both explicit and implicit attitude changes. Results show that players who played the game exhibited significantly more positive explicit attitudes than those in the control group (d = 0.33, p = .037). Implicit attitudes did not significantly differ between groups. A more detailed analysis showed that there was a statistically significant change in players' affective responses between the pretest and posttest, whereas no such significant change was observed in the cognitive or behavioral components of explicit attitudes. Despite using a short prototype of the game (approx. 23 minutes), these findings suggest that video games can be effectively employed in promoting cultural heritage and attitude change to wide audiences across geographical boundaries.
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    Understanding User Experience in Serious Games: The Role of Narratives, Game Design and Player Background
    (The Eurographics Association, 2025) Ntoa, Stavroula; Ntagianta, Anastasia; Flores, Fernanda; Halilovic, Jasminko; Kolek, Lukáš; Formánková, Lucie; Viraphong, Lisley; Divoy, Emilie; Cernoušková, Petra; Selekos, Petros; Apostolakis, Konstantinos C.; Stamou, Stefania; Stephanidis, Constantine; Campana, Stefano; Ferdani, Daniele; Graf, Holger; Guidi, Gabriele; Hegarty, Zackary; Pescarin, Sofia; Remondino, Fabio
    This paper presents findings from three user studies conducted on digital heritage games designed to foster historical understanding and emotional engagement through immersive experiences. The evaluated games - We Grew Up in War, Those From Below, and Gulag Diaries - explore historical narratives related to conflict, migration, and forced labor. The studies involved small-scale participant groups from culturally relevant backgrounds, utilizing a mixed-methods approach comprising established game experience questionnaires, structured interviews, and facilitator observations. The results indicate that participants generally responded positively to the games, particularly appreciating their narrative depth, audiovisual design, and emotional impact. However, the studies also identified areas for improvement in terms of usability, navigation, and onboarding, especially given that the games tested were in their alpha stages. Notably, individual differences in prior gaming experience, familiarity with the technology used, and prior knowledge of the historical subject matter significantly influenced how participants engaged with and interpreted the content, while gender was also found to be a moderating factor of game experience. The findings presented in this paper offer useful insights and recommendations for digital heritage games, with an emphasis on improving user experience while maintaining historical authenticity, engaging narratives, and interactive storytelling.