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A Serious Study of Fun. Why do serious people become more playful when they are interviewed by a teddy-bear? Do some people have a stronger tendency towards engaging with narrative than others? If so can this be measured, and can it be used to predict how an individual might respond to an experience? This study investigates particular aspects of role- playing and narrative activities in online communication environments, looking particularly at individual predispositions, different communication environments, and individual responses to activities that encourage a level of playful engagement. It fits broadly into the engagement agenda, and in particular encompasses narrative and game-like activity which are of interest to many areas of the telecommunications and computer games industries.
About the author
After a 12 year career in the infancy of the computer games and educational software industries, Ken Newman joined the ranks of academia in 2002. He enjoys challenging traditional notions of research method with teddy-bears and motorbikes. He is currently the Chair of Creative Industries and IT at HCT in Abu Dhabi.
