Incorporating farming feature into mega world for improving learning motivation

Although educational games have been proved to be useful to get students motivated in doing learning activities, one of the most attractive game feature – farming – has rarely taken into consideration while designing and assessing an educational game. In this research, we design and develop the farming feature, also known as player versus environment (PvE) subsystem, for an educational game platform MEGA World (Multiplayer Educational Game for All). We discuss the operation workflow that the PvE subsystem communicates with MEGA World main system and design correspondent mechanic and required modules to assist students’ learning. The subsystem has two game modes and the students can use the knowledge or skills they have learned in the course to fight with the monsters and earn the rewards. We expect this subsystem can improve students’ learning motivation and performance. In order to verify our expectation, we design a semester-long experiment that involves four groups of undergraduate students.