Conceptual Development through Gameplay

This paper outlines a methodological approach for a study of the game playing process in an educational RPG (role playing game). Such a game was developed, based on the theme of the OSI model of computer networking, and used to teach this concept to university level computing students who usually find the topic difficult to understand. The overall aim was to examine how gameplay experiences could inform the process of learning: a grounded theory approach influenced the methodology of data collection and analysis and provided a framework for gameplay description and interpretation.