rules of play: design elements of addictive online learning games
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Rules of PlayDesigning Addictive Gameplay
for Online Learning
Museums & the Web 2012
Dave Schallerdavid@eduweb.com
Why Games?
“Why does learning have to be a game?
Why can’t learning just be learning?”
Museum Director of Education1997
Why Games?
97%of American teens play
computer games
Games are designed to be highly compelling and
meaningful experiences
Learning in Games
All games are educational—to win, you must learn how to play the game
America’s Army
But it’s not always obvious what you’re learning!
Learning in Games
It’s good to match gameplay with game content
"Know" is a verb before it is a noun, "knowledge."
And something very interesting happens when one treats knowledge first and foremost as activity and experience, not as facts and information—the facts come to life. Facts become easier to assimilate if learners are immersed in activities and experiences that use these facts for plans, goals, and purposes within a coherent knowledge domain.
-James Paul Gee
Learning in Games
A Series of Interesting Decisions
NarrativeA series of events
(or decisions) with a beginning and (possibly
multiple) ending(s)
GameA series of actions
(or decisions) within a rule-based system
Simple rules create complex situations
Making Meaning Within the Rules
To an observer: “He’s just doing the same thing over and over again.”**
*Kurt Squire
For the player: “Games provide situated experiences in which players are immersed in complex, problem-
solving tasks.”*
**Mother of 10-year-old gamer
What Makes Games Fun
Some of the pleasures that games offer:
• Fantasy: The pleasure of an imaginary world
• Narrative: Dramatic unfolding of events
• Challenge: A problem to be solved
• Discovery: Exploration and secret features
• Anticipation: Knowing something is coming
• Possibility: Having many choices
• Purification: Making something clean
• Surprise: Finding the unexpected
• Thrill: Fear minus death equals fun
• Pride in Accomplishment
• Triumph over Adversity
Designing the Game
Top-Down DevelopmentContent & Audience Goals Outcomes Components Game Mechanics
Goals Outcomes
Game MechanicsContent & Audience
Bottom-Up Development
Let the gameplay shape the experience, for a
stronger match between gameplay and learning
Find the fun!
A Game is Defined by Core Dynamics
The core dynamic (not the topic, not the content) is the single thing the game is about.
It’s what the player spends most of their time doing—while thinking about how to do it well.
A Game is Defined by Core Dynamics
The core dynamic must be interesting enough to do over and over and over again.
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)• Destruction (Boom Blox)• Building (SimCity)• Collection (Pokeman)• Chasing or Evading (PacMan)• Trading (Pit)• Race to the End (Candyland)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)• Destruction (Boom Blox)• Building (SimCity)• Collection (Pokeman)• Chasing or Evading (PacMan)• Trading (Pit)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)• Destruction (Boom Blox)• Building (SimCity)• Collection (Pokeman)• Chasing or Evading (PacMan)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)• Destruction (Boom Blox)• Building (SimCity)• Collection (Pokeman)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)• Destruction (Boom Blox)• Building (SimCity)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)• Destruction (Boom Blox)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)• Survival (Stay Alive)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Spatial Reasoning (Tetris)
• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)• Prediction (Roulette)• Territorial Acquisition (Risk)
Elements of a Game
• Space
• Components
• Rules
• Actions
• Skills
• Chance
The game dynamics are created by the interplay of the elements of the game
Space: Where the game takes place• How do players move through the space?• What is the look and feel of the space?
Elements of a Game
www.wolfquest.org
RulesDefine the goals of the game and the relationships between components.• Need a mix of short-term and long-term goals• A few simple rules can create emergent gameplay• Rules must be easy to learn and remember
Games can have multiple modes (with different gameplay), but too many will confuse and frustrate players.
Elements of a Game
ComponentsActive pieces of the game: player-character, non-player characters, and other objects in the game world.
The game rules defines the relationships between the components
Elements of a Game
ActionsWhat players can do (verbs), and what happens as a result.
Actions should have clear (and sometimes powerful) effects.
Elements of a Game
ActionsWhat players can do (verbs), and what happens as a result.
•The more objects that a verb can act on, the better the gameplay•What would players like to do in the game, and can we enable that?
Elements of a Game
Skills What the player must exercise to play the game.
• Games can exercise physical, mental and social skills• When the game’s challenges match the player’s skills, the player is in flow
Elements of a Game
ChanceProbability, uncertainty, and human psychology • Players should have opportunities to take risks• Randomness should make players excited and challenged,
not hopeless and out of control• Hidden information (including what other players know or
intend to do) feels like chance.
Elements of a Game
Good games balance elements of skill and chance:• Elements of skill judge the player’s skill
• Elements of chance encourage players to take risks
• Adding elements of chance alleviates tedium
• Replacing elements of chance with skill gives players greater feeling of control
Skill and Chance
Examples
sea.sheddaquarium.org/sea/buildafish/flash.html
www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal208/pioneers/military06.cfm
buildingdetroit.detroithistorical.org
Balance Skill and Chance
Chance•Players should have opportunities to take risks
•Randomness should make players excited and challenged, not hopeless and out of control
•Hidden information (including what other players know or intend to do) feels like chance.
Skill •Games can exercise physical, mental and social skills
•When the game’s challenges match the player’s skills, the player is in flow
•Skills can be either real or virtual
Add skills to a game of pure chance.
Small Groups: Skills and Chance
Physical SkillsDexterity, coordination, endurance
Mental SkillsMemory, observation, puzzle-solving
Social Skills Reading an opponent, fooling an opponent, teamwork
Designing Skill-Based Gameplay
Innate SkillsInnate Skills
Designing Skill-Based Gameplay
Innate Skills Learned SkillsLearned Skills
Designing Skill-Based Gameplay
Innate Skills Learned SkillsVirtual Skills Innate skills as analogs for learned skills
www.asailorslife.org
“A Series of Interesting Choices”
What makes choices interesting? Consequences:
• Must be a real choice, not a quiz with a correct answer• Dominant strategies (clearly better choices) negate the value of
other choices*• Must have meaningful consequences in the game
Context:• Game rules and gameworld complicate choices• Current situation in game affects assessment of choices
Savvy Appeals to Human Psychology
• Gambler’s Fallacy and Loss Aversion
• Choices involving low risk/low reward vs. high risk/high reward outcomes are highly engaging
* A puzzle is a game with a dominant strategy; once found, there’s no reason to play it again.
Interesting Choices
Choices affect progression toward goals— quantitatively rather than qualitatively
Interesting Consequences
Rewards• Praise• Points• Prolonged play• A gateway• Spectacle• Powers• Resources• Completion
Punishments• Shaming• Loss of points• Terminated play• Setback• Removal of
powers• Resource
depletion
Small Group: Skills and Choices
Add virtual skills and interesting choices to a skill-based game.
Virtual Skills• Use innate skills as analogs for learned skills
Consequences• Real choices, not a quiz• Meaningful consequences• No dominant strategies
Context:• Game rules and gameworld complicate choices• Current situation in game affects assessment of choices
Human Psychology• Gambler’s Fallacy and Loss Aversion• Low risk/low reward vs. high risk/high reward choices
Designing the Game
Top-Down DevelopmentContent & Audience Goals Outcomes Components Game Mechanics
Goals Outcomes
Game MechanicsContent & Audience
Bottom-Up Development
Let the gameplay shape the experience, for a
stronger match between gameplay and learning
Find the fun!
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