Rules of Play
Design Elements of
Addictive Online Learning Games
Museums & the Web 2014
Dave Schaller
eduweb
Why Games?
“Why does learning have to be a
game?
Why can’t learning just be
learning?”
Museum Director of Education
1997
Why Games?
97%
of American teens play
computer games
Games are designed to be
highly compelling and
meaningful experiences
All games are educational—
to win, you must learn how to
play the game
Learning in Games
But it’s not always obvious what you’re learning!
Learning in Games
It’s good to match gameplay with game content
Learning in Games
"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
A Series of Interesting Decisions
Narrative
A series of events
(or decisions) with a
beginning and (possibly
multiple) ending(s)
Game
A series of actions
(or decisions) within
a rule-based system
Simple rules create complex situations
Making Meaning Within the Rules
For the player: “Games provide situated experiences in
which players are immersed in complex, problemsolving tasks.”*
To an observer: “He’s just doing the same thing over
and over again.”**
*Kurt Squire
**Mother of 10-year-old gamer
The core dynamic
(not the topic,
not the content)
is
the
single
thing
A Game is Defined by Core Dynamics
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)
Elements of a Game
The game dynamics are created by the
interplay of the elements of the game
• Space
• Components
• Rules
• Actions
• Skills
• Chance
Where the game
takes place
Space
• How do players move
through the space?
• What is the look and
feel of the space?
Rules define the goals
of the game and the
relationships between
components.
Rules
•
•
•
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
A few simple things
that players can do
Actions
• Actions should have clear
(and sometimes powerful)
effects.
• 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?
What the player must exercise
to play the game.
Skills
Games can exercise physical,
mental and social skills
• Elements of chance
encourage players
to take risks.
• Chance adds
uncertainty,
alleviating tedium.
Chance
• Randomness should
make players excited
and challenged, not
hopeless and out of
control.
• Asymmetric risk/
reward choices are
extremely engaging.
Balance Skill and Chance
Good games balance elements of skill and chance:
Skill
• Games can exercise
physical, mental and social
skills
• Skills can be innate,
learned, or virtual
• The game passes
judgment on player’s
actual abilities
• When the game’s
challenges match the
player’s skills, the player is
in flow
Chance
• Players should have
opportunities to take risks
• Elements of chance alleviate
tedium
• 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.
Small Groups: Skills and Chance
Add skills to a game of pure chance.
Physical Skills
Dexterity, coordination, endurance
Mental Skills
Memory, observation, puzzle-solving
Social Skills
Reading an opponent, fooling an opponent, teamwork
Presentation Slides
www.eduweb.com/mw2014.pdf
Core Dynamic Examples
• Race to the End (Cannon in the Cupola)
No chance
• Collection (American Pop)
Separation of gameplay and content
• Trading (London Factor)
Chance elements obscured
• Design (Rocketlab)
Shorten the learning curve
Designing Skill-Based Gameplay
Virtual Skills
Innate Skills
Learned Skills
Innate skills as analogs for learned skills
“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.
The Importance of Chance
Gameplay is more than
keeping the machinery going
No correct or
incorrect choices.
Everything is a judgment call—
based on the situation at that moment.
Risk & Reward Choices
That’s where the learning happens.
Choices affect progression toward goals, quantitatively rather than qualitatively
Risk & Reward Make Choices Interesting
Small Group: Interesting Choices
Add interesting choices to a skill-based game.
Choices
• Real choices, not a quiz
• Always a judgment call
Consequences
• Meaningful consequences affect future choices and options, but don’t
foreclose on any of them.
•
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
The core dynamic
(not the topic,
not the content)
is
the
single
thing
A Game About the Core Dynamics
the game is about.
It’s not about
the content
Game Mechanics and Museum Content
Extrinsic
Intrinsic
Game mechanics and content
operate on different levels.
A marriage of game mechanics
and content.
The game is populated with
museum content and collections
according to general attributes,
and the player never delves deep
into the details.
Inherent attributes of the
game objects (e.g. the content)
are integrated into the
gameplay, so the player must
consider those attributes to
succeed.
Extrinsic Game Mechanics
Advantages:
Goal: Rescue treasured objects and return them
Tried and true gameplay
•safely
to the local people.
Familiar game mechanics = Short learning curve
•Genre:
Adventure
Content “bins” simplify content development
•Gameplay:
Players collect historical artifacts
Scalable
•and
information, which “help the player climb
the scoreboard and rise through the curatorial
ranks: the more knowledge you get, the higher
up the promotional ladder you’ll go – to curator,
keeper and ultimately director” (Prudames,
2011).
Disadvantage:
• Content learning is optional
Time Explorer, The British Museum
Intrinsic Game Mechanics
The content is an active element in
the game, with functional attributes
that must be considered both by
players and by the game itself.
WolfQuest, Minnesota Zoo & eduweb
Designing the Game
Top-Down Development
Content & Audience
Goals
Outcomes
Components
Game Mechanics
Let the gameplay shape
the experience, for a
stronger match between
gameplay and learning
Find the fun!
Goals
Outcomes
Game Mechanics
Content & Audience
Bottom-Up Development
Recommended Reading
Recommended Playing
Contact me:
[email protected]
Twitter: @davidschaller
Dave’s Papers
www.eduweb.com/research.html
Workshop Evaluation
mwconf.com/mw2013-workshop-eval
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