In contemporary social interactions, both age and gender not only influence how leaders are perceived, but may also affect participants’ actual behavior. Age and gender bias often result in unfair evaluations of leaders. This study employs immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technology and uses task completion counts as a quantifiable indicator to examine the effects of age and gender on leadership and participant performance. Two controlled VR scenarios (office and supermarket) were designed to test whether leaders of different age and gender would significantly influence participants’ effort in a virtual environment. The study used a 2 (leader age: younger vs. older) × 2 (leader gender: female vs. male) between-subjects design. During the experiment, virtual leaders first delivered a speech, after which participants completed the assigned tasks and filled out questionnaires. The results (N = 30) indicate that leader age and gender did not have a significant overall effect on participants’ effort. Only in one scenario did the interaction of age and gender show some influence on effort, while no such effect was observed in the other scenario. This study introduces a novel approach to investigating leadership, offering new insights into leadership bias and opening new possibilities for future research.

Wayfinding techniques are a fundamental element in video games, as they affect how players navigate, comprehend, and emotionally engage with the game space. Game engineers and designers employ these techniques to guide player movement and regulate pacing. This paper presents the implementation of an adaptive wayfinding system designed to dynamically modulate player experience through the Space Foundation System (SFS). The SFS provides a graph-based representation of spatial relationships within the game world, enabling the retrieval of information about neighboring nodes, including associated events and wayfinding elements. By continuously analyzing the player’s current pacing, the system adaptively modifies wayfinding cues to maintain an optimal level of engagement and flow throughout gameplay.

Environmental cleaning is a critical aspect of infection prevention and control (IPC) in clinics and healthcare environments.
While conventional training methods such as lectures and reading materials provide the necessary theoretical foundations, serious games (SGs) can complement these methods by improving learner engagement, and supporting better long term knowledge retention.
This work presents Sanitopia, a SG developed to teach principles of environmental cleaning to medical students and healthcare trainees.
Two versions were developed: a standard mobile version and an augmented reality (AR) version. The implementation of Sanitopia} was guided by the SERES framework and grounded in established learning principles such as Bloom’s Taxonomy, retrieval practice, immediate feedback, dual coding, and the method of loci.
A pilot study with 8 medical students evaluated usability, acceptance, and learning outcomes through pre- and post-questionnaires, the System Usability Scale (SUS), and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).
Both versions achieved positive usability and acceptance scores, with mean SUS values of 81.88 (regular) and 73.13 (AR), and perceived usefulness ratings above 5.7.
The regular version resulted in higher normalized learning gains (0.55 vs. 0.32), suggesting that while AR may have provided better contextual realism, its added interaction complexity may have reduced ease of use and introduced a potential risk of cognitive overload.
Overall, Sanitopia further demonstrates the potential of SGs as engaging and effective complementary tools for IPC training, while highlighting the importance of careful AR design to improve usability and learning impact.

Exam anxiety affects a substantial proportion of university students. While cognitive behavioral therapy demonstrates effectiveness, traditional formats cannot scale to meet demand. Self-guided tools, while promising, suffer from poor engagement and lack social validation. Peer support communities offer social connection but lack structured therapeutic content. This thesis addresses these gaps by translating collegial case consultation, a structured peer support method, into a digital discussion game for exam anxiety. The intervention enables small groups of co-located students to collaboratively explore exam anxiety management strategies through a storytelling game that facilitates and prompts discussion. By combining anxiety management techniques with storytelling and peer support structures, the game seeks to deliver therapeutic value while remaining accessible and engaging.