Background: Educational games have been proven to support the teaching of various concepts across disciplines. Plagiarism is a major problem among undergraduate and postgraduate students at universities.
Objective: In this paper, we propose a game called Plagi-Warfare that attempts to teach students about plagiarism.
Methods: To do this at a level that is beyond quizzes, we proposed a game storyline and mechanics that allow the player (or student) to play as a mafia member or a detective. This either demonstrated their knowledge by plagiarizing within the game as a mafia member or catching plagiarists within the game as a detective. The game plays out in a 3D environment representing the major libraries of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. In total, 30 students were selected to evaluate the game.
Results: Evaluation of the game mechanics and storyline showed that the student gamers enjoyed the game and learned about plagiarism.
Conclusions: In this paper, we presented a new educational game that teaches students about plagiarism by using a new crime story and an immersive 3D gaming environment representing the libraries of the University of Johannesburg.
Keywords: education; educational games; game mechanics; library games; plagiarism; serious games; teaching.
©Abejide Ade-Ibijola, Keagan Young, Nashik Sivparsad, Mpho Seforo, Suhail Ally, Adebola Olowolafe, Maria Frahm-Arp. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (https://games.jmir.org), 16.02.2022.