Gamification & Applied Games
Hoorcollege 2 – Gamification 101
Typical goals of applied games/gamification:
• Learning.
• Creating awareness.
• Influencing a person’s beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations or behaviors. I.e. persuasion.
Hedonic entertainment:
• Hedonic entertainment experiences are generally associated with positive mood and arousal
regulation (i.e., feeling delighted, joy).
• In other words: the consumption of media for fun and pleasurable reasons.
Eudaimonic entertainment:
• Eudaimonic entertainment experiences tend to stimulate contemplation, meaning and
connectedness.
• Often mixed affective responses (e.g., being moved), a fulfilment of intrinsic needs (e.g.,
competence or relatedness), and a cognitive component where individuals are stimulated to
think and reflect.
What is gamification:
• Gamification is using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage
people, motivate action, promote learning and solve problems.
• Game-based:
o Create a system in which learners, players, consumers, and employees engage in an
abstract challenge, defined by rules, interactivity, and feedback that results in a
quantifiable outcome ideally eliciting and emotional reaction.
o The goal is to create a game in which people want to invest time and energy.
• Mechanics:
o The mechanics of playing a game may include point systems, scores, earning badges,
time constraints, etc.
o Important: such mechanics alone are insufficient to turn a boring experience into a
game-like engaging experience – but they are crucial building blocks used during the
gamification process.
• Aesthetics:
o Gamification will typically not be successful without a well-designed experience –
often leveraging engaging visuals, audio, etc.
• Game thinking:
o Perhaps the most important element of gamification.
o Thinking about an everyday experience (e.g., running) and converting it into an
activity and storytelling.
• Engage:
o Often underestimated: attract people’s attention and subsequently keep involving
them in the process that you have created.
• People:
o Often highly diverse: learners, consumers, game players, etc.
• Motivate action:
o Motivation is an essential element of gamification: it energizes and gives direction,
purpose or meaning to behaviour and actions.
, • Promote learning:
o Gamification can promote learning because many elements are based on educational
psychology.
o But presents these elements in an engaging game space that ideally both motivates
and educates learners.
• Solve problems:
o The competitive nature of many games often encourages players to do their best and
solve problems encountered in the process.
o The cooperative nature of other games often encourages players to solve problems
together.
Abstractions of concepts and reality:
• Suppose you want to base a game on the complexities of running a rollercoaster theme park,
a major city, or a military assault.
• These games are rather common and often work not because they include all complexities,
but because they reduce the complexity.
• The player is involved in an abstraction of events, ideas and reality.
• A game may be regarded as a dynamic model of reality in which the model provides a
representation of reality at a particular period of time.
• Abstracted reality has a number of advantages.
o 1st advantage: It helps the player manage the conceptual space being experienced.
▪ It helps the player understand what is going on within the game.
▪ It minimizes the complexity.
▪ It is now possible to manage the concepts easily within the abstracted space.
o 2nd advantage: Cause and effect can be more clearly identified.
o 3rd advantage: Allows us to remove everyday occurrences that would make for
uninteresting game play.
o 4th advantage: Reduces the time required to grasp the concepts.
Goals:
• What is the difference between play and a game.
• Game scholars often say that a game is more goal directed.
• Goals add purpose, focus and measurable outcome.
• Typically, in a game it is clear if you achieved the goal and often it is also clear how far from
achieving the goal you are, via visual feedback.
• Visually understanding how far you are from a goal provides incentive, feedback and an
indication of progress.
• The goal of the game is the primary device for a player to determine the required effort at a
certain point in time (as well as for determining strategies, moves), and ultimately, who wins.
• A goal often gives the player the freedom and autonomy to pursue, ideally in a way that feels
good to the player.
o This is good, it allows for creative thought and motivation for problem solving.
• But, achieving the goal of the game means the game is over. And we need to make sure that
a player has the skills necessary to complete the game.
Rules:
• At its core, a game is often just a set of defined rules.
o E.g., the maximum number of players.
o How to score points.
o What is (not) allowed.
, • In rules of play: games design fundamentals, four types are defined:
o Operational rules: how the game is played.
o Foundational rules: what is happening in the background (e.g. mathematics affecting
win probabilities).
o Behavioural rules: etiquette or implied social rules that defined what is fair play-
behaviour.
o Instructional rules: the insight/knowledge/rules/behaviour that you wish a player to
learn internalize after a games has been played --> typical for applied games.
Conflict, Competition, or Cooperation:
• Three typical game formats.
• Conflict is when a challenge is provided by a meaningful opponent.
o E.g., defeat human opponent, defeat NPCs that thwart player progress.
• Competition is where opponents are constrained from impeding each other and instead
devote the entirety of their attention to optimizing their own performance.
o E.g., setting the fastest lap-time in a racing game, without interfering with the
opponents.
• Cooperation is working with others to achieve a mutually desirable outcome.
o E.g., co-op mode.
• Often more than one format adopted within the same game.
Time:
• Time can have many functions in game design:
o Time limit can serve are a motivator/raise stress levels.
o Similarly, time can be a resource that needs to be allocated within the game world.
o Compressed time (or other forms of time manipulation) allows a game designer to
show the player the effects of their actions.
Reward Structures:
• Reward structures are not unique to gamification, but are often an integral part of gaming.
• Classic example is the Leaderboard, popular already in arcade halls.
o Adds social dimension to what used to be a solitary endeavor.
o Powerful motivator for replayability.
• Also: instant rewards are possible during gameplay (points, etc.).
o Often not necessary for achieving game goals, but can still steer player behaviour.
• Rewards in the form of prizes, upgrades, weapons, abilities, etc.
• Rewards may have both a positive and negative effect on player motivation.
Feedback:
• Traditional (class-room) learning: only occasionally feedback.
• Video games: constant, typically real-time feedback.
o Progress towards goal, how many lives left, time remaining, items collected, etc.
• Games provide so-called informational feedback designed to indicate the rightness (or
wrongness) of behaviour.
• Important: this type of feedback does not teel the player how to correct the action.
• Second form of feedback provides information to the learner to guide her toward the correct
outcome.
o I.e., being prompted toward a more appropriate action.
Hoorcollege 2 – Gamification 101
Typical goals of applied games/gamification:
• Learning.
• Creating awareness.
• Influencing a person’s beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations or behaviors. I.e. persuasion.
Hedonic entertainment:
• Hedonic entertainment experiences are generally associated with positive mood and arousal
regulation (i.e., feeling delighted, joy).
• In other words: the consumption of media for fun and pleasurable reasons.
Eudaimonic entertainment:
• Eudaimonic entertainment experiences tend to stimulate contemplation, meaning and
connectedness.
• Often mixed affective responses (e.g., being moved), a fulfilment of intrinsic needs (e.g.,
competence or relatedness), and a cognitive component where individuals are stimulated to
think and reflect.
What is gamification:
• Gamification is using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage
people, motivate action, promote learning and solve problems.
• Game-based:
o Create a system in which learners, players, consumers, and employees engage in an
abstract challenge, defined by rules, interactivity, and feedback that results in a
quantifiable outcome ideally eliciting and emotional reaction.
o The goal is to create a game in which people want to invest time and energy.
• Mechanics:
o The mechanics of playing a game may include point systems, scores, earning badges,
time constraints, etc.
o Important: such mechanics alone are insufficient to turn a boring experience into a
game-like engaging experience – but they are crucial building blocks used during the
gamification process.
• Aesthetics:
o Gamification will typically not be successful without a well-designed experience –
often leveraging engaging visuals, audio, etc.
• Game thinking:
o Perhaps the most important element of gamification.
o Thinking about an everyday experience (e.g., running) and converting it into an
activity and storytelling.
• Engage:
o Often underestimated: attract people’s attention and subsequently keep involving
them in the process that you have created.
• People:
o Often highly diverse: learners, consumers, game players, etc.
• Motivate action:
o Motivation is an essential element of gamification: it energizes and gives direction,
purpose or meaning to behaviour and actions.
, • Promote learning:
o Gamification can promote learning because many elements are based on educational
psychology.
o But presents these elements in an engaging game space that ideally both motivates
and educates learners.
• Solve problems:
o The competitive nature of many games often encourages players to do their best and
solve problems encountered in the process.
o The cooperative nature of other games often encourages players to solve problems
together.
Abstractions of concepts and reality:
• Suppose you want to base a game on the complexities of running a rollercoaster theme park,
a major city, or a military assault.
• These games are rather common and often work not because they include all complexities,
but because they reduce the complexity.
• The player is involved in an abstraction of events, ideas and reality.
• A game may be regarded as a dynamic model of reality in which the model provides a
representation of reality at a particular period of time.
• Abstracted reality has a number of advantages.
o 1st advantage: It helps the player manage the conceptual space being experienced.
▪ It helps the player understand what is going on within the game.
▪ It minimizes the complexity.
▪ It is now possible to manage the concepts easily within the abstracted space.
o 2nd advantage: Cause and effect can be more clearly identified.
o 3rd advantage: Allows us to remove everyday occurrences that would make for
uninteresting game play.
o 4th advantage: Reduces the time required to grasp the concepts.
Goals:
• What is the difference between play and a game.
• Game scholars often say that a game is more goal directed.
• Goals add purpose, focus and measurable outcome.
• Typically, in a game it is clear if you achieved the goal and often it is also clear how far from
achieving the goal you are, via visual feedback.
• Visually understanding how far you are from a goal provides incentive, feedback and an
indication of progress.
• The goal of the game is the primary device for a player to determine the required effort at a
certain point in time (as well as for determining strategies, moves), and ultimately, who wins.
• A goal often gives the player the freedom and autonomy to pursue, ideally in a way that feels
good to the player.
o This is good, it allows for creative thought and motivation for problem solving.
• But, achieving the goal of the game means the game is over. And we need to make sure that
a player has the skills necessary to complete the game.
Rules:
• At its core, a game is often just a set of defined rules.
o E.g., the maximum number of players.
o How to score points.
o What is (not) allowed.
, • In rules of play: games design fundamentals, four types are defined:
o Operational rules: how the game is played.
o Foundational rules: what is happening in the background (e.g. mathematics affecting
win probabilities).
o Behavioural rules: etiquette or implied social rules that defined what is fair play-
behaviour.
o Instructional rules: the insight/knowledge/rules/behaviour that you wish a player to
learn internalize after a games has been played --> typical for applied games.
Conflict, Competition, or Cooperation:
• Three typical game formats.
• Conflict is when a challenge is provided by a meaningful opponent.
o E.g., defeat human opponent, defeat NPCs that thwart player progress.
• Competition is where opponents are constrained from impeding each other and instead
devote the entirety of their attention to optimizing their own performance.
o E.g., setting the fastest lap-time in a racing game, without interfering with the
opponents.
• Cooperation is working with others to achieve a mutually desirable outcome.
o E.g., co-op mode.
• Often more than one format adopted within the same game.
Time:
• Time can have many functions in game design:
o Time limit can serve are a motivator/raise stress levels.
o Similarly, time can be a resource that needs to be allocated within the game world.
o Compressed time (or other forms of time manipulation) allows a game designer to
show the player the effects of their actions.
Reward Structures:
• Reward structures are not unique to gamification, but are often an integral part of gaming.
• Classic example is the Leaderboard, popular already in arcade halls.
o Adds social dimension to what used to be a solitary endeavor.
o Powerful motivator for replayability.
• Also: instant rewards are possible during gameplay (points, etc.).
o Often not necessary for achieving game goals, but can still steer player behaviour.
• Rewards in the form of prizes, upgrades, weapons, abilities, etc.
• Rewards may have both a positive and negative effect on player motivation.
Feedback:
• Traditional (class-room) learning: only occasionally feedback.
• Video games: constant, typically real-time feedback.
o Progress towards goal, how many lives left, time remaining, items collected, etc.
• Games provide so-called informational feedback designed to indicate the rightness (or
wrongness) of behaviour.
• Important: this type of feedback does not teel the player how to correct the action.
• Second form of feedback provides information to the learner to guide her toward the correct
outcome.
o I.e., being prompted toward a more appropriate action.
