Yuting Chen Outline

Introduction 

Hook:  People are always wondering if they can just play forever instead of learning things they are not interested in at all. If there is a chance of learning while playing, would you accept or decline it?

Statement of the Problem/Debate: Virtual traveling and gamification are the newly founded topics that draw attention to the public and increase debate. Virtual traveling is a way that allows people to travel abroad at any time and anywhere. Gamification involves elements of games mechanics to capture public attention and apply the concepts in different products. The benefits of both virtual traveling and gamification are more than people expected to be. Some people still doubt the advantages of virtual traveling and gamification because they believe in traditional learning. Meanwhile, holding back new technologies and thoughts could stop the world from growing.

Thesis Statement: As a result, virtual traveling and gamification are very conducive tools to improve efficiency by rediscovering and recovering people during Covid, succeeding in real world applications, building a sense of accomplishment, and developing the tourism industry. 

 

Body Paragraphs

Subargument # 1: Virtual traveling and gamification become another way to rediscover and recover all kinds of people during COVID by reducing their stresses. 

Support 1: “Almost 80% of Americans say they will not be traveling by airplane this holiday season, and 29% believe they won’t book their next international trip until 2022. 70% of Americans report that their anxiety around traveling has increased somewhere since the pandemic began, and 40% admit that it has increased substantially. 30% of respondents say flying is the facet of traveling that makes them unsafe ( PR Newswire Association LLC, 2020, page 2 ). 

Support 2:  “ 40 million- plus Americans” are restricted traveling to another country due to COVID, sickness, age, mental illness, and physical disabilities. The needs of virtual traveling grow significantly. At the same time, it encourages everyone who has limited opportunities to travel and they should also enjoy the rights to view good scenes and leave good memories in their lives (PR Newswire Association LLC, 2020). 

Support 3:  Overall, this research highlights the important roles of virtual learning and gamification in studying chemistry by attracting students in a virtual format, but similar classroom community. The research shows that students’ confidence in learning chemistry stays positive in the pandemic and rediscovers their potentials in adapting to a new virtual environment ( Fontana, 2020). 

Subargument # 2: The elements of gamification assist people to succeed in real world applications and improve learning experiences.

Support 1:  One example is Nike plus Nike Fuelband. More people start to worry about their health and well-being. Nike plus Nike Fuelband introduces new characters to celebrate when people meet the goal. It can easily track the amount of miles that people finish and see who ranks the highest, which makes everyone healthier and growing ( Chou, Y. 2014).

Support 2: The third core drive is “empowerment of creativity”(Chou, Y. 2014). The example is the game called foldit. The AIDS virus protein structure, which is not being solved for 15 years by scientists, has been solved by a person who is interested in gamification in 10 days.( Chou, Y. 2014).

Support 3: “ A sample of 250 students who used PierSim was surveyed in regard to their learning experience. The students valued the integration of concepts, the learning and the level of engagement above the ‘fun’ experience. This article suggests the success of gamification by attracting students to learn while playing” ( Craven, 2014). 

Subargument # 3: Gamification and virtual traveling allow customers to build a sense of accomplishment and interaction with others.

Support 1: The first core drive is “ epic meaning and calling”, which means people feel like they are involved in something important to fight against fate.The second core drive is “development and accomplishment”. People feel proud of themselves when achieving certain goals. ( Chou, Y. 2014)

Support 2: TripAdvisor’s funware, which travellers are encouraged to upload online travel reviews (a play task) in order to get points and badges. Travelers’ are also awarded with high quality reviews and compliments by other users when their travel reviews are found useful ( Sigala 2015).

Support3 :  People use a game app called Stray Boots to establish a virtual city tour. When the users answer the question correctly, they gain points and win prizes. The app also has its GPS feature to discover sites. In addition, this article also includes how this game assists people to engage and solve puzzles ( Rosenbloom, 2013).

 

Subargument # 4:  Virtual traveling and elements of gamification develop the growth of tourism. 

Support 1: “ Tourism Australia, through the campaign “Best Jobs in the World”, launched a gamification solution to attract young people. The participants were selected based on images or videos sent and shared on social networks and the winners were rewarded with offers of trips to Australian destinations. Therefore, 330,000 persons from 196 countries are actively seeking information about working in Australia” (Negruşa, A, 2015).

Support 2: “ One of the biggest areas in tourism gamification and virtual traveling is destination marketing. Games can contribute to advertising: (1) Specifically designed advergames. They are created to promote the brand and places, aiming at the association and recall of the brand” ( Xu, 2016)

Support 3: “ In the tourism literature, emotionally attached to the environment/destination can be part of the tour experiences. Tourists’ immersion within the destination contributes to their memorable experiences through the surrounding environment, the virtual sound, the imaginative stories, and the challenges brought by the game tasks/missions, players could immerse themselves in sensory, challenge-based and imaginative immersion, which all contribute to a deeper level of personal experiences”  ( Xu, 2016)

Conclusion

  To sum up, virtual traveling and gamification improve the world’s effectiveness by benefiting people during Covid, solving problems in real world applications, establishing confidence, and growing the economy of the tourism industry. When there are new reliable technologies and new ideas coming in, people need to embrace them instead of rejecting them right away without considering. Even though virtual traveling and gamification are very new concepts, they help many people through tough times and give them chances to explore the world. 

 

Reference: 

Chou, Y. (2014, February 26). Gamification to improve our World: YU-KAI Chou at tedxlausanne. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://youtu.be/v5Qjuegtiyc

Craven, D. (2014). Gamification in Virtual Worlds for Learning: A Case Study of PIERSiM for Business Education. Gamification in Education and Business, 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10208-5_19

Fontana, M. T. (2020). Gamification of ChemDraw during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating How a Serious, Educational-Game Tournament (Molecule Madness) Impacts Student Wellness and Organic Chemistry Skills while Distance Learning. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 3358–3368. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00722

Negruşa, A., Toader, V., Sofică, A., Tutunea, M., & Rus, R. (2015). Exploring Gamification Techniques and Applications for Sustainable Tourism. Sustainability, 7(8), 11160–11189. https://doi.org/10.3390/su70811160

PR Newswire (2020, December 17). Beeyonder Releases 2020 Holiday and Virtual Travel Report as the Pandemic Brings Travel to a Halt; 29% of Americans Don’t Anticipate Booking International Travel Until 2022, and 60% Have Tried or Are Considering Virtual Travel Alternatives. Retrieved March15, 2021, from https://advance-lexis-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn%3AcontentItem%3A61J5-B4D1-DXP3-R1XK-00000-00&context=1516831.

Rosenbloom, S. (2013, May 31). Let’s play: Making travel a game. Retrieved March 04, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/travel/lets-play-making-travel-a-game.html?searchResultPosition=3

Sigala, M. (2015). The application and impact of Gamification funware on trip planning and EXPERIENCES: The case OF tripadvisor’s funware. Electronic Markets, 25(3), 189-209. doi:10.1007/s12525-014-0179-1

Xu, F., Buhalis, D., & Weber, J. (2016, December 18). Serious games and the gamification of tourism. Tourism Management. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261517716302369.