What common characteristics do engaging games have?
When I think of games that I like to play, they are engaging, take some skill, are fun and you can get better the more you practice. Why do people like to play cribbage, Scrabble, or Fortnight? Many people were not very good when they started, but there was something that kept them going and motivated them to get better. Through the whole process they were having fun. Wouldn’t it be great if we could bottle the “thing” that Fortnight has and put that into school?
This brings us to our essential question for the day which is, “What common characteristics do engaging games have?” Cecelia Ollero in her article The Power of Games states you need to following characteristics to have an engaging game:
- Reward the player
- Make it social
- Make it challenging
- Give feedback
- Design it for a target audience
(Ollero)
Reward is what casinos use to keep gamblers interested. If all you do is lose, you will find something else to do. That is why they give small wins or even half wins to make them think, “The jackpot is just around the corner.” You need to give positive rewards via points, stickers, etc. so students will keep going while they figure things out.
Make it social is just that. Let them share and experience the game with other people. We are social beings and it means more when you can celebrate or experience a game with someone else. Gábor IstvánBíró in his article, Didactics 2.0: A Pedagogical Analysis of Gamification Theory from a Comparative Perspective with a Special View to the Components of Learning, explains that Gamification theory takes advantage of the fact that Generation Z is used to social media which can be utilized especially in online games.
Another key design challenge for games is to make it challenging, but not so hard people won’t even try. As Cecelia says in her article, “Games that are too easy are boring, but those that are too difficult are frustrating” (Ollero) The key is to gear the game to the level of your student or audience.
Part of what makes games work is that they give feedback. This is the key element of video games. You are constantly getting points, losing points or lives and sometimes get audio feedback with, “Good Job!” or getting a burst of color or online animation. Learning new and difficult material can be hard, but with good feedback, students are more likely to do it.
Lastly, you need to know your audience to create a good game. If you tried to make a Chutes and Ladders or CandyLand style game for an AP Literature class, students probably won’t even try because it is too easy for them. In order to make it interesting and challenging, you have to know the level of your audience.
We are still not to the point that we can make our own game, but we are getting there a little at a time. By the time we are done with all these blog posts, we should be ready to design our own game.
Resources
Ollero, C. The Power of Engaging Games. Ennomotive. https://www.ennomotive.com/the-power-of-engaging-games/
IstvánBíró, G. (2014, May 27) Didactics 2.0: A Pedagogical Analysis of Gamification Theory from a Comparative Perspective with a Special View to the Components of Learning. National University of Public Service, Hungary. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281403451X?via%3Dihub
Matera, M. (2015). Explore Like a PIRATE: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
uas635 