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The USA is facing an obesity crisis so large that for the first time in history, this generation of children may have a life span that does not exceed that of its parents. Simultaneously, the gaming industry has introduced a form of video gaming (e.g. Nintendo Wii) that requires the participant to be physically involved in the game. For example, a live player will have a tennis racquet that he/she swings to compete with a virtual opponent on screen. This form of entertainment has been termed “exergaming.” People are buying these games for the purpose of entertainment. However, this paper aims to propose that there are possible unanticipated physical benefits of this new gaming technology.

A survey method is used to examine attitudes about exercise, video gaming and exergaming.

Results indicate a positive attitude toward exergaming, particularly with the more self‐identified sedentary respondents.

This topic would benefit from a longitudinal study examining the adoption rate of this technology by previously inactive individuals and how its use translates into increased physical activity both with the video game system and other outside fitness activities.

The findings support exergaming as one way to get children to exercise.

The exercise potential of new gaming technology, i.e. “exergaming” is researched.

Playing exergames may resemble doing conventional exercise and thus has the potential to enhance users’ health. However, no study has yet examined whether and how a need for exercise impacts users’ intention to continuously play exergames, i.e. continuance intention and its antecedents. We developed a model grounded in the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) to address this issue.

We recruited 583 participants to play exergames and collected their psychological responses and physical information. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

We found that health consciousness and perceived exercise benefits are positively related to a need for exercise, which is, in turn, positively related to continuance intention. Moreover, perceived exergame similarity with exercise strengthens the positive link between the need for exercise and continuance intention.

This is the first study using the UGT to explain the underlying mechanism linking health consciousness to continuance intention in the playing of exergames. In addition, we introduced the need for exercise as a novel construct in this study. Our findings provide insights to managers on incorporating health-related features into their exergame products to motivate users' engagement in playing exergames.

Building on the “needs–affordances–features” framework, the authors explored how users are motivated by their needs to actualize the feature-enabled affordances and engage in the metaverse.

The data were collected through semi-structured and in-depth interviews with 35 participants. The authors applied thematic analysis to summarize the key features and affordances, supplemented by frequency analysis to explore the significance of the features. Sentiment analysis was employed to explicate the relationship between user affordance sentiments and engagement.

The key features of the metaverse portal components—hardware, software and content—afford user behaviors. The features of mechanics and physics engines are important for user engagement in the metaverse. The affordances are related to needs satisfaction and user engagement. Mental immersion was frequently mentioned by the participants, implying that it is significant to afford mental immersion in the metaverse.

The findings of the study provide a rich understanding for practitioners in the metaverse on how to use the features to afford user behaviors and engage them. The authors identified the key elements of user engagement that can be used to guide metaverse game designers.

This study provides a rich and systematic understanding of features, affordances, needs satisfaction and engagement in the metaverse. Going beyond a fragmented view, the findings conclude a research framework that weaves features, affordances, needs and engagement together.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental condition with community prevalence globally of 2%–7% (M = 5%; Sayal et al., 2018). Clinicians are routinely encouraged to explain to children and young people the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, including exercise (NICE NG87, 2018). Exercise has been proposed as a safe and low-cost adjunctive approach for ADHD and is reported to be accompanied by positive effects on several aspects of executive functioning (EF). The purpose of this narrative review was to synthesise the contemporary randomised control trial (RCT) studies that examine the effect of sport, physical activity and movement on EF in children and adolescents with ADHD.

A narrative review approach with a systematic literature search using PRISMA guidelines for screening and selecting relevant systematic reviews was used. The final review included four peer-review systematic reviews (>2019).

The results identified four RCT meta-analyses and findings showed that children and adolescents with lower baseline cognitive performance demonstrated greater improvements in functioning after physical activity interventions, particularly for tasks with higher executive function demands, where baseline performance reaches an optimal level. Findings suggest that 10–20 min of acute moderate-high-intensity exercise interventions (cycling/running) appeared to have positive effects on indices of inhibitory control. Preliminary evidence suggests that as little as 5 min of jumping exercises improved inhibitory control. Sixty to eighty minutes of moderately intense, repeated (chronic) exercise appeared to demonstrate the greatest beneficial impact on selective attention.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this review is the first to present the extant literature on the effect of physical activity and sport on symptoms of young people with ADHD. It presents evidence to suggest that exercise with progressively increasing cognitive demands may have positive effects for children with ADHD, specifically in terms of improving cognitive flexibility. Further large-scale clinical trials are needed to confirm the positive effects of physical exercise on cognitive functioning in children with ADHD.

In the authors' experience, the biggest issue with pose‐based exergames is the difficulty in effectively communicating a three‐dimensional pose to a user to facilitate a thorough understanding for accurate pose replication. The purpose of this paper is to examine options for pose presentation.

The authors examine three methods of presentation and feedback to determine which provides the user with the greatest improvement in performance. An on‐body sensor network system was used to measure success rates, and address the challenges and issues that arise throughout the process.

A three‐dimensional interface allows for full control of the camera, and after conducting all of the experiments, the importance of this feature became exceedingly apparent. Though other elements of feedback were able to illustrate specific problem areas, the camera rotation improved some success rates by more than double.

Refinements of visual feedback methods during training could include determining the ideal position for the camera to view the avatar after the rotation to maximize pose comprehension. Future research could also include working towards providing the participant with more specific instructions, verbally or symbolically.

In a traditional setting, such as a yoga class, a physically present moderator would provide coaching to participants who struggled with pose reproduction. However, for obvious reasons, this cannot be implemented in a computer‐based training setting. This research begins to examine what is the necessary user interface for activities that are traditionally very closely monitored.

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to introduce a conceptual model to investigate e-learning persuasion through gamification elements using the social psychology theory of elaboration likelihood model (ELM).

The author systematically reviewed several theoretical and empirical papers which applied the ELM in various settings. Based on the literature, the author identified six research prepositions which facilitate to investigate e-learning persuasion through gamification.

This study contributes to the existing literature by identifying an ELM-based conceptual model which can be used to empirically investigate the e-learning persuasion using gamification elements. Accordingly, the central route persuasion could be conducted through argument quality, demographic differences and technology context facilitated through gamification elements. The peripheral route persuasion could be conducted through variables such as source credibility, social presence and message content.

This study contributes important findings to the e-learning research by introducing a conceptual model–based on the social psychology theory of ELM. Thereby, this study introduces a method for the future researchers, to investigate the e-learning persuasion using gamification elements. Further, future researchers can use this model to investigate the e-learning persuasion through gamification in different contexts including primary, secondary and tertiary educational levels.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study can be considered as the first theoretical paper which developed an ELM-based conceptual model to investigate the e-learning persuasion through gamification in education context.

Active computer gaming (ACG) is a way for older people to participate in strength and balance exercise. Involving older adults in the development of a bespoke ACG system may optimise its usability and acceptability. The purpose of this paper is to employ user-centred design to develop an ACG system to deliver strength and balance exercises, and to explore its safety, usability and acceptability in older adults.

This paper describes user involvement from an early stage, and its influence on the development of the system to deliver strength and balance exercise suitable for display on a flat screen or using an Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset. It describes user testing of this ACG system in older adults.

Service users were involved at two points in the development process. Their feedback was used to modify the ACG system prior to user testing of a prototype of the ACG system by n=9 older adults. Results indicated the safety, usability and acceptability of the system, with a strong preference for the screen display.

The sample size for user testing was small; however, it is considered to have provided sufficient information to inform the further development of the system.

Findings from user testing were used to modify the ACG system. This paper identified that future research could explore the influence of repeated use on the usability and acceptability of ACG in older adults.

There is limited information on the usability and acceptability VR headsets in this population.

The aim of the research is to emphasise the role of material culture, and especially the role of objects related to physical activities, in children's socialization. It involves children's bodies but also symbolic meanings and values which introduce children to the universe of sport's consumption.

The research is grounded on the construction of a system of objects related to children's physical activities in France. The production of a corpus of objects involves a methodological circle where the choice of the objects goes together with a reflexive analysis about the operations of categorization of objects. The analysis of objects require both technological and semiotical approaches.

In the context of globalization and commodification of childhood, but also of the globalization and mediatization of sports, the research shows that objects for children's physical activities are inscribed in a double transformation: sportification of children's games and childification of sports.

The research focuses on material culture and does not investigate children's uses of the objects for physical activity and does not determine the process of their conception and design.

The paper emphasises the difference between two faces of children's physical activities: spending calories and the development of motor skills and interpretative competences linked to sports' culture and children's mass culture.

In contrast to the work done on food and digital culture, the field of children's physical activities and sports is not as well researched. This is especially the case for the objects designed for children and this research is one of the first in the field in international literature. It constitutes also the first attempt for including this topic in the worlds of children's consumption.

This study employed self-determination theory (SDT) and the “Motivational affordance–Psychological outcomes–Behavioral outcomes” framework to investigate the relationship between gamification features and knowledge-sharing behavior in online communities.

A theoretical model was tested with 281 Chinese users from an online social question and answer (Q&A) community. Partial least square structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the data.

The empirical results revealed that competence mediated the effects of immersion and achievement-related gamification features on knowledge sharing. Moreover, relatedness mediated the effects of immersion, achievement and social-related gamification features on knowledge sharing.

This study was conducted on a Chinese Q&A platform, and the results may not be generalizable to other cultures or service providers with different goals.

The study's findings indicate that gamification could serve as an effective toolkit for incentivizing and promoting knowledge sharing in online communities. The findings thus provide strategic insights for administrators of online communities seeking to leverage gamification designs to encourage user participation in knowledge-sharing activities.

Research on the role of gamification in promoting knowledge sharing has been limited in scope and has focused on tourism comment communities. Little evidence exists on the effect of gamification within social Q&A communities. Further, the finding of gamification's positive role in motivating knowledge sharing indicates the need for the knowledge-sharing field to focus on contextual factors.