Achievements in Exergames for Parkinson s Patients

Abstract

While playing good games should be intrinsically rewarding, additional extrinsic rewards such as achievements if applied with care can further enhance the game experience and foster player motivation. However, if applied in an uninformed way, extrinsically induced motivation can also devalue the intrinsic rewards in the player s perception. The impact of achievements on the game experience of special target groups like older people suffering from Parkinson s disease is still largely unexplored. In this paper, two types of achievements are evaluated for the exergame Sterntaler . Sterntaler was specifically developed for patients suffering from Parkinson s disease to motivate them to do physical exercises. Our results show that the majority of the participants prefer achievements to no achievements, with a near equal split between the different types of achievements included in this study.