Incorporating digital games into anti-drug material: non-drug-addicted learners vs. drug-addicted learners

Drug abuse causes serious problems around the world. Thus, anti-drug material has been increasingly developed and used. However, conventional anti-drug material has until today shown insufficient effects on preventing drug abuse, especially for drug-addicted users. To this end, this study proposes a game-based anti-drug material and examines how drug-addicted people and non-drug-addicted people interact with the game-based anti-drug material. A lag sequential analysis approach was applied to analyze their different behavior patterns. The results revealed that the experience of drug addiction influenced the way individuals access drug information, complete tasks and reach goals during their gaming process. Based on the findings, some suggestions are proposed for the development of adaptive game-based anti-drug material that can accommodate the needs of drug-addicted and non-drug-addicted people to achieve the goal of universal access.