96. Increasing adoption of precision agriculture via gamification: the farming simulator case

Pavlenko, T.; Paraforos, Dimitrios S.; Fenrich, D.; Braun, S.; Murdoch, A. J.; Tranter, Richard; Gadanakis, Yiorgos; Arnoult, Matthieu H.; Engel, Thomas

doi:10.3920/978-90-8686-916-9_96

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…This understanding motivated a recent study that used the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, which exploited the game’s established popularity, realism and entertainment value to successfully demonstrate the educational value of games in learning natural history (Crowley, Silk, and Crowley 2021). The hyper-real popular video game Farming Simulator, which is already played by farmers (Lane 2018), might serve a similar role in future studies of games in agriculture, and indeed Pavlenko et al (2021) have already had some success building a ‘mod’ for this game to encourage the adoption of precision agriculture technologies. Alternatively, future projects might do better to use real-life imagery rather than 2/3D models to simulate agricultural environments; this ethos is already being successfully deployed by the ‘3D farms’ project centered around virtual reality to overcome logistically and accessibility challenges in agricultural training (Barber 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hyper-real popular video game Farming Simulator - which is already played by farmers (Lane 2018) - might serve a similar role in future studies of games in agriculture. Indeed, Pavlenko et al (2021) have already had some success building a ‘mod’ (a ‘modification’ - new game content/software created by someone other than the primary game development team) for this game to encourage the adoption of precision agriculture technologies. Alternatively, future projects might do better to use real-life imagery rather than 2/3D models to simulate agricultural environments; this ethos is already being successfully deployed by the ‘3D farms’ project centered around virtual reality to overcome logistically and accessibility challenges in agricultural training (Barber 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several projects have developed and explored the potential of games of this sort - including small projects developing games for teaching crop cultivation and livestock breeding skills (Yoo and Kim 2014; Szilágyi et al 2017), a large international project to develop a more all-encompassing agricultural training game (GATES 2019; Fountas, Spyros et al 2019), and a project exploring the potential of virtual reality-assisted agricultural training (Barber 2016). Virtual agricultural environments may also serve less obvious knowledge exchange purposes; for example, to encourage the adoption of precision agriculture technologies (Pavlenko et al 2021); to exchange knowledge and perspectives on farm design among farmers, researchers and advisors (Moojen et al 2022); to facilitate information sharing among farmers and with non-farmer stakeholders dealing with agricultural issues (Hernandez-Aguilera et al 2020; Nuritha, Widartha, and Bukhori 2017). The idea of using virtual environments as tools for engaging with farmers is thus being taken increasingly seriously; representing a new, innovative, participatory, and even fun approach to understanding and addressing the real-world challenges of modern agriculture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the potential of using simulation games for engaging with sheep farmers about lameness recognition

Jones

Barnish

Hughes

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Computer simulation games are increasingly being used in agriculture as a promising tool to study, support and influence real-life farming practices - especially when other alternatives can be costly, restrictive, or impractical. Here, we explored the potential of using simulation games to engage with UK sheep farmers on the ongoing challenge of reducing the lameness burden in the UK sheep industry. Using a human-centered design approach, we developed with UK stakeholders a game that tests players ability to recognise the early signs of lameness in sheep. In an online evaluation study, we then evaluated how those with real-life farming experience felt about the game, and whether their performance playing it was related to their real-life experience and skills. Several participants thought the game was an interesting idea, and the game provided a conduit for participants to share interesting reflections on lameness recognition. However, our study also revealed that this medium was technically challenging to implement on a small budget, impacting participants engagement with the game. In particular, the intricacies of real-life farming practices such as lameness recognition demand high levels of realism from such simulation video games, which is not only hard to achieve but hard to balance with the entertainment-factor required to keep players engaged, as well as budgetary constraints. We conclude that future studies exploring the potential of game-based tools for engaging with farmers on aspects of livestock health might need considerably more resources and/or to benefit from using existing, hyper-real simulation games that have an established (agricultural) audience and entertainment value.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%