Design of web intervention to influence youth behavior toward online gaming

PC or video games are an electronic game that has been made famous among teens way back in the 80´s era. It has been a source of entertainment and stress relief as an after school or holidays activity. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) were made possible with the growth of broadband Internet access in many developed countries, using the Internet to allow hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. However, if too much time is spent in playing online games and players show negative behavior sign or pathological, the player is categorized or known as an online game addict. Once addicted, it will affect the player´s psychological and physical well-being. The objective of this study is to propose the design of a web intervention to influence youth behavior towards online gaming using Cognitive Dissonance and Gagne´s Learning Theory. Based on our previous research work, we are using the same theories and applying it in a different type of behavioral issue which in this case is online gaming. In UTP (Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS), students are able to play online games among themselves via the local area network. A total of 30 students who plays online games more than 10 hours per day were chosen, ranging from the 18 to 22 age range. Players will be categorized according to a baseline survey. Each category of users will go through the web intervention of different content. It is hoped that by combining the abovementioned theories, players are able to reduce their number of hours in playing online games.