Simulation & Gaming

Gamification is widely used to enhance engagement, motivation, and performance across domains such as education, health, and business. However, one-size-fits-all designs often fail to address the multidimensional nature of user characteristics, resulting in inconsistent outcomes. Most personalization strategies focus on single traits (e.g., player type) and neglect personality, cultural, and persuasive factors. This study proposes a machine learning–based framework that integrates a comprehensive user model to predict and personalize eight categories of gamification elements.

Survey data from 260 participants were collected via questionnaires measuring demographics, personality traits (NERIS), cultural dimensions (Hofstede), persuasive strategies (Cialdini), and player types (HEXAD), along with preferences for eight gamification element categories. Preprocessing steps included discretization, SMOTE balancing, and ANOVA F-value feature selection. Six classifiers, Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, SVM, Naïve Bayes, and XGBoost, were trained and evaluated with 10-fold cross-validation. A gamified image-labeling application was implemented in two versions: a generic design and a personalized design based on model predictions. A between-subject experimental evaluation with 80 participants compared both versions on six engagement and satisfaction metrics.

In the two-class prediction setting, Random Forest achieved the highest performance (accuracy = 0.852, F1-score = 0.855), while SVM slightly outperformed in the three-class setting (accuracy = 0.768, F1-score = 0.764). Gender consistently emerged as a top predictor, followed by personality traits, cultural dimentions, persuasive strategies, and player types. Experimental evaluation showed significant improvements for the personalized version across all six metrics, with gains of 41% (performance satisfaction), 40% (impact on satisfaction), 30% (appeal), 41% (enjoyment of personalization), 43% (encouragement for additional activities), and 31% (motivation).

Integrating multidimensional user characteristics with machine learning enables accurate prediction of gamification preferences and significantly improves user experience. This approach addresses the limitations of one-size-fits-all gamification, providing a scalable, data-driven framework for delivering personalized, impactful designs.

Virtual simulations (VSs) are increasingly utilized to train nursing students for clinical practice, yet few tools to evaluate VS quality, and little research has examined specific design elements that impact user experience across different modalities. Comparative evidence between screen-based VS and headset virtual reality (VR) within the same VS scenario is especially limited.

The primary goal of this study is to identify challenging/bothersome events in a VS, compare how these events manifest in screen-based versus headset VR, and examine their impact on electrodermal activity (EDA; physiological arousal), performance, usability, and cognitive load.

A mixed-methods approach was applied to analyze audio-video and EDA data from 20 third-year nursing students during a VS. Objective performance scores were generated by the OMS software, while self-reported data on usability and cognitive load were collected through post-simulation surveys.

Six challenging/bothersome event categories were identified: software-related restrictions and bugs, confusion/lack of success, negative affect, technical errors, neglect of instruction, and other. Results revealed that encountering challenging/bothersome events significantly increased students’ EDA (an indicator of physiological arousal), possibly reflecting frustration/confusion. Furthermore, while no single challenging/bothersome event category predicted performance or usability relative to others, we found that software-related restrictions and bugs were particularly critical, significantly increasing extrinsic cognitive load compared to technical errors.

Our findings highlight specific VS elements that hinder students’ experience, directly pointing to areas for future improvements. We also provide valuable insights for educators and developers to enhance virtual learning environments in nursing education by addressing how to reduce cognitive load and improve performance and usability. Future research should develop VS-specific usability tools and replicate this study in diverse contexts to further refine virtual learning experiences.

Air Transport Systems (ATS) are complex sociotechnical systems with dynamic stakeholder interactions and non-linear relationships. Traditional analytical planning methods often oversimplify these complexities, limiting decision-makers’ ability to understand system dynamics. This study introduces a wargaming framework, adapted from military practices, to help aircraft manufacturers align product development and business strategies with airline competition.

Developed collaboratively by Cranfield University and Airbus UK, the framework consists of seven elements: objectives, players, game components, game mechanics, scenarios, facilitation and feedback. Its development followed structured engineering project stages design, preparation, testing and evaluation allowing for iterative refinements.

The wargaming provides an interactive platform to simulate airline competition and stakeholder interactions, enhancing strategic decision-making. Validation exercises demonstrated its ability to model ATS dynamics, revealing insights into stakeholder behaviour, decision processes and competitive influences on aircraft development. The framework offers both epistemological benefits (deeper system understanding) and pedagogical benefits (improved strategic thinking and decision-making skills).

The framework serves as an analytical and educational tool, enabling aircraft manufacturers to assess market dynamics, stakeholder behaviours and competitive strategies in a structured environment.

This study presents a novel adaptation of wargaming approach that captures ATS complexities, supporting strategic planning for aircraft manufacturers. By positioning military-inspired wargaming within the broader game science literature, the study provides a methodological bridge between Design-in-the-Large (high level strategy) and Design-in-the-Small (specific game design elements), supporting future advancements in product and business strategy within ATS.

This study explores how educational design can achieve a sustainable balance between challenge and support by synthesizing insights from multiple knowledge domains. Drawing on evolutionary game theory (EGT), learning theories such as flow and cognitive load, and the design principles of educational games and simulations, we investigate how learners, teachers, and digital platforms co-evolve their strategies in digital educational escape rooms (DEERs).

A tripartite evolutionary game model is developed to capture the interactions among learners, teachers, and platforms. The model uses payoff matrices and replicator dynamics to represent how strategic behaviors adapt over time, while stability analysis identifies which patterns of engagement are sustainable. Sensitivity analysis further examines the role of teacher feedback, gamification intensity, and learner participation costs.

Results demonstrate that stable learning environments emerge when challenge and support are carefully balanced. High teacher feedback sustains engagement under cognitively demanding tasks, while moderate combinations of teacher involvement and adaptive gamification yield evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS) that promote cooperation and persistence. Over-reliance on gamification increases cognitive load, whereas insufficient feedback diminishes learner motivation.

By positioning simulation as both a data generator and a research instrument, this work bridges game theory, educational psychology, and instructional design. It offers a theoretical framework for understanding how equilibrium strategies evolve in educational games and simulations more broadly, not only in digital escape rooms.

The study provides actionable design insights for educators and platform developers. Specifically, it highlights how to calibrate difficulty, feedback, and gamification features to maintain flow, reduce cognitive overload, and foster long-term learner engagement.

This article contributes a cross-domain synthesis by applying EGT and ESS to educational contexts, illustrating how mathematical modeling can inform practical design decisions. It introduces evolutionary stability as a guiding concept for structuring engaging and effective educational game environments across digital, hybrid, and face-to-face modalities.

This study examines the transnational reception of Black Myth: Wukong in German media, exploring whether China’s first AAA game has truly disseminated Chinese culture abroad as widely expected by various sectors in China. By analysing media discourse, the study investigates how gaming functions as a vehicle for cultural representation and soft power.

A discourse analysis was conducted on 269 German media articles, including reports from mainstream media, mass media, and gaming media. The study finds that while the game has been highly anticipated in China and widely praised for its production quality, its reception in Germany presents a more complex picture: German media discourse questions its narrative depth and cultural accessibility, reflecting broader challenges in the international reception of gaming the culture.

The case of Black Myth: Wukong reveals that soft power is not simply the outcome of state planning, but rather a product of dynamic interaction among independent developers, public discourse, and national narratives. While Chinese media and scholarship widely frame the game as a cultural milestone, the developers’ original intent was grounded in creative ambition, the game’s symbolic elevation into a soft power asset occurred post hoc, driven by media enthusiasm and public sentiment. At the same time, limited localization and self-regulatory caution—common in China’s highly censored media environment—contributed to a reception in Germany that was curious yet critical.

Simulation tasks have become an increasingly popular pedagogical tool across various educational contexts, since they replicate real-world scenarios that foster active learning. Simulations encourage students to apply theoretical knowledge, make decisions, and develop skills that are directly transferable to academic and professional settings. In second language education, simulations are particularly valuable for developing higher-order skills, such as critical thinking, communication, and argumentation.

This study investigated whether a mock trial simulation contributes to the enhancement of argumentative skills among advanced L2 learners.

The simulation, conducted in the context of an advanced language development course, provided student teachers with a platform to practice constructing, presenting, and defending arguments. Nineteen students participated, using The Handmaid’s Tale as the basis for their legal case. Data were gathered through a post-simulation questionnaire, which included both quantitative and qualitative components.

The quantitative results indicated significant improvements in students’ use of evidence, logical reasoning, and ability to respond to counterarguments. Qualitative feedback revealed that students desired clearer guidelines, more preparation time, and more balanced participation.

Overall, the findings highlighted the value of simulation tasks as effective pedagogical tools that foster critical thinking, language proficiency, and argumentation skills. While the mock trial yielded positive outcomes, future studies should explore the use of such simulations with different populations and in varied educational contexts to further refine and extend this pedagogical tool. The study demonstrated the potential of simulations like mock trials as innovative methods for advancing both linguistic and cognitive skills in language learning environments.