{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,3]],"date-time":"2026-07-03T23:16:36Z","timestamp":1783120596542,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]],"date-time":"2025-07-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752278400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"The Shanghai Art and Science Planning Research Project","award":["YB2024-G-069"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["YB2024-G-069"]}]},{"name":"The Shanghai Art and Science Planning Research Project","award":["2232023E-06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2232023E-06"]}]},{"name":"The Shanghai Art and Science Planning Research Project","award":["2232024D-42"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2232024D-42"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012226","name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["YB2024-G-069"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["YB2024-G-069"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012226","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012226","name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2232023E-06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2232023E-06"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012226","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012226","name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2232024D-42"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2232024D-42"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012226","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Longfor-Palace Museum Cultural Foundation and Beijing Palace Museum Cultural Protection Foundation","award":["YB2024-G-069"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["YB2024-G-069"]}]},{"name":"Longfor-Palace Museum Cultural Foundation and Beijing Palace Museum Cultural Protection Foundation","award":["2232023E-06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2232023E-06"]}]},{"name":"Longfor-Palace Museum Cultural Foundation and Beijing Palace Museum Cultural Protection Foundation","award":["2232024D-42"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2232024D-42"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Systems"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)-assisted Virtual Reality (VR) heritage serious game design constitutes a complex adaptive socio-technical system in which natural language prompts act as control levers shaping designers\u2019 cognition and action. However, the systemic effects of prompt type on agency construction, decision boundaries, and process strategy remain unclear. Treating the design setting as adaptive, we captured real-time interactions by collecting think-aloud data from 48 novice designers. Nine prompt categories were extracted and their cognitive effects were systematically analyzed through the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), principal component analysis (PCA), and Ward clustering. These analyses revealed three perception profiles: tool-based, collaborative, and mentor-like. Strategy coding of 321 prompt-aligned utterances showed cluster-specific differences in path length, first moves, looping, and branching. Tool-based prompts reinforced boundary control through short linear refinements; collaborative prompts sustained moderate iterative enquiry cycles; mentor-like prompts triggered divergent exploration via self-loops and frequent jumps. We therefore propose a stage-adaptive framework that deploys mentor-like prompts for ideation, collaborative prompts for mid-phase iteration, and tool-based prompts for final verification. This approach balances creativity with procedural efficiency and offers a reusable blueprint for integrating prompt-driven agency modelling into GenAI design workflows.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/systems13070576","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,14]],"date-time":"2025-07-14T10:55:41Z","timestamp":1752490541000},"page":"576","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Guiding the Unseen: A Systems Model of Prompt-Driven Agency Dynamics in Generative AI-Enabled VR Serious Game Design"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Chenhan","family":"Jiang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Fashion and Design, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-4376-4977","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shengyu","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"},{"name":"Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1906","DOI":"10.1038\/s41562-024-01953-1","article-title":"An empirical investigation of the impact of ChatGPT on creativity","volume":"8","author":"Lee","year":"2024","journal-title":"Nat. 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