Who Learns from City Games? Examining the Role of Motivation, Personality, and Experience

This study examines who learns from city-based escape games, using a sustainability-themed game in Stockholm's Royal Seaport district played by 23 female undergraduate study-abroad students. Drawing on pre- and post-game surveys that measured personality, motivation, and prior experience, the authors frame city games as an outgrowth of escape rooms with potential for situated learning, while acknowledging that evidence on their learning outcomes remains thin. The research design is quasi-experimental and the sample is small and homogeneous, which the authors explicitly identify as limiting generalizability.

The central findings concern how motivational and personality traits relate to the experience and its outcomes. Intrinsic motivation was positively associated with openness to experience and with enjoyment of the escape room, but it was negatively correlated with teamwork, suggesting that players who are self-driven may prefer independent exploration over collaborative problem-solving. Extrinsic motivational styles, particularly introjected regulation, were linked to greater time spent reading informational content, and reading engagement varied significantly by what participants reported learning. Participants who reported learning also reported higher participation. Notably, several of the authors' initial predictions were only partly supported, with prior gaming experience and engagement with "Did You Know" content emerging as stronger predictors of learning than motivation or personality.

Interpreted through Self-Determination Theory, the results suggest that city games should cultivate intrinsic motivation to sustain enjoyment, while recognizing that extrinsic motivators can drive specific learning behaviors. The authors conclude that designs should accommodate both independent and collaborative learners. They call for future work on long-term retention, transfer of learning, and the optimization of debriefing and scaffolding strategies to determine how city games can most effectively support durable learning.