I didn't have time to go over the empirical basis for this work in much detail during Friday’s talk, so for more background please feel free to check out the resources below. I think the resources from Thursday’s talk (which included a bit more detail) should be posted by Graham at some point too…
http://www.zombiedivision.co.uk (full Ph.D. thesis including research studies)
Habgood, M. P. J., Ainsworth, S. E., Benford, S. (2005). Endogenous Fantasy and Learning in Digital Games. Simulation and Gaming, 36(4) 483-498. (Theoretical research paper - google it).
http://www.gamelearning.co.uk/share/ZDGDC2007.pdf (GDC 2007 Slides).
(video footage of Zombie Division).
Any thoughts, comments or criticisms welcomed. I can't promise to reply, but I will be reading with interest...
Regards,
Jacob.