Diane Watson from The Games Institute has been featured in UWaterloo's Alumni blog:
At the University, my research has led me to create a game, called Reading Garden, which motivates undergraduate students to read the textbook that is assigned with their course. In the game, players grow and harvest flowers. The game has social features where players can visit and water other players’ gardens. Like many casual games, there is a special currency, which unlocks advanced gameplay mechanics, such as levelling up faster. To earn this currency, players must complete reading challenges related directly to assigned course readings from the textbook. This game has been now deployed in several courses in two different departments (Management Sciences and Systems Design Engineering) at the University of Waterloo; results show that the social play in the game is useful in motivating real-world textbook reading.
To read the rest of Diane's blog post, click here.