Suite of eight selected commercial video games played in supervised drop-in game labs¶
Design · All designs
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 causal),q3· 1 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study
Description¶
The intervention material was a suite of commercial entertainment titles (Borderlands 2, Minecraft, Portal 2, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Warcraft III, Team Fortress 2, Gone Home, Papers, Please) played on twelve Windows PCs in university game labs. Selection required that "no game with a Metacritic score of less than 80 out of 100 was considered", and all but Gone Home and Papers, Please included a substantial multiplayer component. Participants logged about 120 minutes per game (60 minutes each for Gone Home and Papers, Please).
Design Implications¶
Context¶
Requirements¶
- Games must run on modestly-specified Windows PCs and be relatively inexpensive
- A local network setup supporting multiplayer play without an internet connection
Constraints¶
- MMORPG titles were excluded because network ports could not be opened and their learning curve exceeded the 2 h allocated per game
Target Learners¶
- year one and year two undergraduate students in the College of Arts
Learning Goals¶
- communication skill
- adaptability
- resourcefulness
Claims¶
- Game Intervention Gains All Three Graduate Skills [+M]
- Playing commercial video games for eight weeks improved self-reported resourcefulness more than control conditions in a randomised trial of undergraduates [+W]
- Playing commercial video games for eight weeks improved self-reported communication skill more than control conditions in a randomised trial of undergraduates [+W]
Related Designs¶
Examples¶
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Key Sources¶
- Matthew Barr. (2017). Video games can develop graduate skills in higher education students: A randomised trial. Computers & Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.05.016
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
design |
id |
commercial-game-suite-graduate-attributes-intervention |
title |
Suite of eight selected commercial video games played in supervised drop-in game labs |
description |
The intervention material was a suite of commercial entertainment titles (Borderlands 2, Minecraft, Portal 2, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Warcraft III, Team Fortress 2, Gone Home, Papers, Please) played on t... |
status |
review |
generated |
by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — matthew-barr-2017 |
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