title: Enjoyment: A Conceptual Exploration and Overview of Experimental Evidence in the Context of Games for Health.
abstract: Enjoyment is consistently noted as important for engaging audiences in games for health. However, as a term, enjoyment is often used interchangeably with a host of other terms, some of which overlap conceptually. This obscures what does and what does not constitute enjoyment, and in turn slows scientific progress by making the study of enjoyment and the synthesis of enjoyment-related research difficult. This article is aimed at improving our understanding of enjoyment by distinguishing enjoyment from other important constructs, such as fun and engagement, and by providing an overview of the experimental evidence on the determinants of enjoyment in videogames. Competence, narrative transportation, and relevance are identified as key factors related to enjoyment, and future studies examining these factors using games for health are recommended.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Health Promotion, Maastricht University/CAPHRI , Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crutzen
authors.affiliation: 2 Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University , Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van 't Riet
authors.affiliation: 3 Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men's Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide , Adelaide, Australia .
authors.forename: Camille E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Short
mesh_terms: D057181:Pleasure; D011998:Recreation; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*