| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 理學院科技與數位學習學程 === 100 === In digital games, scaffolding is often used to help players to achieve goals instead of getting stuck. Scaffolding either prevents players from a long period of frustration in playing games, or helps them finding the problem-solving strategies in order to gain a sense of achievement. In this research we used the digital version of “Sudoku” as the game environment, which supported various scaffolding tools. According to Wood, Bruner and Ross’s (1976) classification, the tools were divided into three types of scaffolding which were “revealing key characteristics”, “controlling frustrations” and “providing demonstrations”. The tools were presented in an active, a passive, and a hidden way, respectively, for comparison of their scaffolding capability. The players had the option to use scaffoldings when they got stuck in the game so as to prevent the players from depending much on auxiliary aids and depriving their chances of learning. In addition, this study also added a reward mechanism (getting points and losing points) as an external incentive to further explore whether it affects the players’ behavioral performances while playing the game.
Twenty-four players were selected as participants in the pilot study in which we identified their differences in gaming behaviors. In the formal study, the players were divided into groups with combinations of active/passive/hidden scaffolding and reward/penalty. The Sudoku game was played under such various scaffolding presentments and different reward. Then, we compared the differences among the game behavior performances and gaming modes.
The principal findings of this research are as follows:
（1）Passive and hidden scaffolding groups showed lower frequency in using controlling frustration and providing demonstration tools than the active scaffolding group.
（2）The reward groups used less tools of revealing key haracteristics and controlling frustration tools than the penalty groups.
（3）Players without previous Sudoku gaming experiences relied more on the scaffolding tools, and they tended to use more controlling frustration tools.
（4） Groups of hidden scaffolding with Sudoku game experiences tended to play with rules in an attempt to pass the game.
Keywords： Digital games, Scaffolding, Reward and penalty mechanisms,
Gaming Behavior
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