Mission Profiles and Interaction Patterns in Gravitas: Evidence from a Simulation-Based Physics Learning Game

This study examines whether self-selected mission profiles in Gravitas, a simulation-based physics learning game, relate to how lower-secondary students interact with the game and perform on reflection tasks. Drawing on a quasi-experimental sample of 272 students who chose among four profiles (Adventurer, Researcher, Tactician, and Tinkerer), the authors test whether these self-chosen orientations produce meaningfully different learning behaviors and outcomes. The work is situated within the broader literature on physics simulations and serious games in science education.

The central finding is that profile membership explains little about student behavior. Across game progress, exploration time, use of conceptual support, reflection duration, and reflection scores, differences between profiles were not statistically significant and carried negligible effect sizes. The only near-threshold result was a marginal tendency (p = .055) for Researchers and Tacticians to reset the simulation more often, while reset frequency showed a weak but significant negative correlation with reflection performance (ρ = -.18, p = .006).

Taken together, these results suggest that self-selected mission profiles have limited explanatory and predictive value for interaction patterns or learning outcomes in this context. The authors conclude that adaptive design in physics learning games may be better served by dynamic, behavior-based indicators derived from in-game activity than by static, learner-declared categories. The findings are confined to one game, one age group, and one set of profile types, and the scope of generalization beyond this setting is therefore constrained.