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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