Johan Huizinga. "Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture."

Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element In Culture.

Of all the foundational texts in the study of game-based learning, playful learning and gamified instruction, surely Huizinga’s Homo Ludens is primus inter pares. Published originally in 1938, Huizinga’s seminal work has influenced scholars for generations and in particular was foundational in the work of Roger Caillois, whose Man, Play and Games will be considered in a future installment of this series.

The core argument of Huizinga’s work is simply: “the great archetypal activities of human society are all permeated from play from the start.” (4) Indeed, if as he argues “all play means something” (1), one might reasonably conclude that in fact everything is dependent on play as a primary source of energy and meaning. In its rejection of the “seriousness” of the real world 

(but not the seriousness of the rules, processes and engagement of play worlds themselves), play serves to show more about other core concepts in cultural history than might be suspected. Huizinga writes: “ The more we try to mark off the form we call ‘play’ from other forms apparently related to it, the more the absolute independence of the play-concept stands out….play lies outside the antithesis of wisdom and folly, and equally outside those of truth and falsehood, good and evil: (6). 

Huizinga offers four notions that might help us better understand structured play, games and why on a deep level, game-based learning and gamified instruction might themselves work.

First, he notes play is voluntary. Moreover, while noting that children play because they enjoy playing and adults only seem to do so when they are involved in some kind of ritual, he observes that adults actually enjoy playing as well, if only they would play more.

Second, he contrasts “real life” or the ordinary with the playful life, noting that the playful demands that the player separate himself from real life and enter a temporary sphere of activity with its own dispositions and rules. 

Third, play is bound in time and limited. It doesn’t just occur, rather “it plays itself to an end” (9). Once finished, however, it finds itself being understood by the players as a distinct and unique cultural experience that everyone shared, can describe, realize was special and meaningful. Indeed, it isn’t all that hard to find podcasts and YouTube videos of live play sessions of tabletop roleplaying games that demonstrate this. In my own experience, a game I ran more than thirty years ago could still trigger very clear responses from the players, as the deep meaning of the game generated equally deep roleplaying.

Fourth, play is bounded in space. From this notion comes the idea of the magic circle, one of the seminal notions in game studies, positing that there is an ordered and separate space in which the game or play occurs that has its own set of rules distinct from the real world. “All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart” (10)

Last of all, play has its rules. The rules of a game are binding and should leave no rule for doubt. Within the magic circle, the rules of the game hold. Outside the magic circle, they don’t. Failure to understand the rules leads inevitably to choices that break the rules, break the game and shatter the magic circle.

Huizinga’s book is a masterpiece of cultural history - worth reading by anyone interested in game studies who wants a sociological perspective and who is interested in the foundational concepts in the field.

Schools Should Learn From Ender's Game

Image from David Woo.

In Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game, a boy named Ender trains at a “battle school” to become the commander of a futuristic space fleet. This school downplays classes and assignments, instead focusing on simulations -- Ender and his schoolmates hone their strategies by engaging in pretend battles. At first these battles take place in the flesh, but as Ender advances he spends more time in a virtual world, commanding entire fleets to wage war against the fleets of other players.

Simulations are a brilliant way of doing school, because they give you the closest thing you can get to real experience besides real experience. Many real-world training programs make use of simulations -- for example, flight schools use virtual flight simulators to allow trainees to practice difficult maneuvers or in adverse weather conditions without putting themselves at risk.

But simulations can do so much more than this. For example, in the video game Overcooked a group of players work together in a restaurant kitchen to fulfill orders as quickly as possible. The game is limited in its culinary accuracy, but that’s not the point -- the point is that the players have to communicate in real time who should be doing what, divvy up subtasks, avoid burning things or messing up orders, and keep out of each other’s way. This turns out to be tremendously difficult. Every round is a comedy of errors, which is why the game is fun.

While Overcooked could not be used to teach people how to cook, it’s great for teaching teamwork and communication, and could reasonably be used as part of a training program for cooks and servers. But the real million dollar idea is the realization that most jobs require teamwork and communication, and that a video game like Overcooked could reasonably be used as part of children’s education in school.

The video game The Sims (popular among children today) has the player control a simulated family as they work to earn money, design and furnish a house, cultivate friendships, and raise children. Being a game, The Sims focuses more on fun than realism. But that’s not a problem. Players must figure out how to obtain money and then budget what they earn. The Sims can give children the closest thing there is to real experience operating a household, including financial planning and business arithmetic.

When it comes to education, simulations can be much more valuable than lectures and worksheets. If you’re trying to teach a student computer programming 101, would you start by explaining the concepts of variables, loops, and functions? I hope not! It would be too abstract; the student would be bored, and if they’re bored they’ll be distracted, memorize in a shallow way, fail to integrate the information, and forget.

What if instead you had them play 7 Billion Humans, a fun video game that requires the player to use computer programming concepts to solve puzzles of increasing complexity? Then, when they get to a puzzle and can’t figure it out because they don’t understand how loops work, they can ask you to explain the concept, and then they’ll put that knowledge to immediate practical use, and as they continue to progress through the game they’ll integrate that knowledge into their permanent memory.

Are simulations only for training skills, or can they be used to impart knowledge as well? The popular computer game Civilization proves that they can. In Civilization, you play as an emperor trying to build a great empire that can stand the test of time. You undertake real historical achievements like the inventions of writing, currency, and steel; construct real-world cities like Beijing and Tenochtitlan; build world wonders like the Hanging Gardens and the Taj Mahal; and reenact historical wars by trampling enemy infantrymen with horses and air-bombing enemy naval bases. Not only is Civilization great fun and strategically challenging, it inspires players to research the fascinating people, places, and events they’ve witnessed in the game.

The key to creating effective simulations is to follow the fun. If you focus on conveying knowledge or skills, you’re no better than a sleep-inducing textbook. Fortunately, the video game industry is fueled by fun, which is why we have so many gems like Overcooked, The Sims, 7 Billion Humans, Civilization, and thousands more. People who want to use simulations for educational purposes should take a hint, because fun is the foundation of learning.

More content about the Open School can be found here.

Aaron Browder is a staff member at The Open School in Orange County, California, and co-author of an upcoming book on children's autonomy. He enjoys playing strategy games, writing software, and reading about science and philosophy.

Jesper Juul. "Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds"

From www.jesperjuul.net

Jesper Juul. Half-Real: Video Games Between Real rules and Fictional Worlds. (MIT Press, 2005).

As I set about to write my own book (Level Up Your Classroom) many years ago, I set my mind to finding as much as I could that had already been written about games, gaming and learning as I could. There weren’t a great many books about the topic, but there was a robust scholarship on what games were and what they were not. In my early reading, I found my way to Jesper Juul’s Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, which was published by MIT in 2005. Don’t let the fact that it was published 15 years ago dissuade you from reading this magisterial book. It was and remains seminal…for all practical purposes a great choice for the first book you might choose to read on games and game culture.

Juul is presently an Associate Professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - The School of Design in Copenhagen. He continues writing and teaching in the field (I’ve read his other work, and I might write about it as well in forthcoming posts). His work had a dramatic effect on me, shaping my own writing and my teaching practice.

The core thesis of the work is that video games are half-real and they create an understanding of fictional worlds and contexts by means of real rules. In the book, he spends a great deal of time explaining what rules are and how they work. He answers the question, “what is a game?” this way: “ a game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome and the consequences of the activity are negotiable” (36).  He writes about how rules create structure and enable the lusory attitude that ought to exist within the magic circle. He notes that the rules of a game tend to add up to more than the sum of their parts. He describes game rules as creating “state engines,” machines that respond to player actions regardless of whether the game is played using a computer or not. 

The first chapter, in which he offers different definitions of what games are and contrasts the differences between play (free-form and without a clear plan or intention) and games (rule-based and moving towards a clearly defined goal) is an extraordinary assessment of the state of game theory and understanding. It was transformative for me as a researcher in the earliest days of my own work. His assessment is that while everyone writing in this space argues that games are rule-based (formal systems), there are other ways in which defining games breaks into discrete camps. Do they have clear goals and conflicts? Are they voluntary? To what degree are they separate from the rest of the world or from reality? How essential is this? This chapter alone, having read it early in my own work, was essential to understanding what games are. You won’t go wrong reading this book, but if you are only going to read one chapter in this entire literature, read this chapter.

If you are a game-based educator interested in deepening your own understanding of how games work, what they are and what they aren’t and how their structure builds engagement, start here. You won’t regret it.

Andrzej Marczewski. "Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play."

The mascot of Marczewski’s work - beware the Ninja Monkey!

Andrzej Marczewski’s Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play: Gamification, Game Thinking and Motivational Design.

In my journey as a game-based educator, I’ve encountered dozens and dozens of books that have shaped my thinking. In this series, I am going to share my short perspectives on the books that had the greatest influence on my thinking and why.

Next up? The immanently helpful and practical “Ninja Monkeys,” from Andrzej Marczewski, a prolific author on gamification, host of Gamified UK (a fantastically useful site), gamification consultant and a designer at Motivait. There’s so much great stuff in this book (not his first, but quite possibly his best), particularly for a person just getting started thinking about game-based learning and gamification in the classroom. In particular, his work focuses on design for motivation, a critical but often under-leveraged theoretical approach in game-based learning and gamification. 

I took so much from this book, but four notions in particular stood out (for me - there’s a lot more in this great book than just what I’m going to reference below).

1. His brief but seriously cogent discussion of the relationship between play (a free-form activity undertaken because it brings joy), toys (objects or representations of objects with implicit rules, but not explicit rules) and games (play through the use of toys with explicit goals and system-based rules) was exactly what I needed when I was trying to think through these concepts in my own work.

2. His discussion of the Intrinsic Motivation RAMP - the relationship between the notions of relatedness (the desire to connect with others), autonomy (the desire for agency and independence), mastery (the desire to learn new skills) and purpose (the desire to feel a greater calling) was profoundly helpful to me.

3. His connection of these four qualities of the RAMP with four different user types (relatedness = socializers, autonomy = free spirits, mastery = achievers, greater calling = philanthropists) and then his connection of those user types with different kinds of design was so helpful to me.

4. The chapter on neurotransmitters in gamification will be of particular interest to those who are looking at the deeper science of motivation in this work. I hadn’t read any studies on this before reading this chapter - it opened my eyes.

He ends his book with a critical point. “As a gamifier, you are a problem solver. Your job is to solve an issue the client is having. The likelihood is you will favor a solution with a game like flavor, but I would hope that you would not reject a solution just because it is not what you would consider ‘proper’ gamification.” (199) True words for the gamifying educator, because not every learning objective is correctly solved by a game-based solution.

Marczewski’s 7 Top Tips (200) include:

• Ensure that gamification adds benefit and value to all.

• Define clear, measurable goals and provide feedback on progress towards them.

• Intrinsic motivation leads to longer term and quality engagement.

• Be open about what data is collected and why. Trust is essential.

• Extrinsic rewards can engage over short periods like onboarding/enroll.

• Define, collect and act upon appropriate metrics.

• Be flexible and adapt as user needs and behaviors change.

Don’t hesitate to get this book! You can find it here or at Amazon (either UK or US).

Aaron Dignan. "Game Frame."

Aaron Dignan speaking at an audience at USI. Click here to see this presentation (not about game-based learning)

In my journey as a game-based educator, I’ve encountered dozens and dozens of books that have shaped my thinking. In this series, I am going to share my short perspectives on the books that had the greatest influence on my thinking and why.

First up, the peerless Game Frame, from Aaron Dignan. 

I can remember being on a train between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington with this book as my constant company. It was so riveting, so lucid and so compelling in its argument that I dang near missed my stop in Seattle. It was that engrossing. Going forward, whenever I’m asked to recommend a book to start with (other than my own, natch), I turn people to this book. 

His thesis is simple enough: “One day I looked up and suddenly everything had become a bit boring….We live in a world with many unsatisfying experiences. At the same time, games like the ones I played as a kid seem to have the power to captivate us and make us feel alive.” (xii-xiii) From there he argues for two hundred pages about why games can be transformative. He writes: “This book is my attempt to compartmentalize the relevant information about games and play in everyday life into one quick but actionable read. The truth is, we are born knowing how to play and how to invent games where none exist. I’m convinced that there is a role for games and play in reshaping the world around us.” (xiii)

Key takeaways:

• Playing games is satisfying in and of itself.

• Our education system is exhausted and needs to be fundamentally realigned.

• “Most of the time when you’re hooked on a game what draws you in in an elemental form of desire: the desire to see the next thing.” (34)

• Games give feedback in real-time and as a result, they force us to face the facts of our learning in ways that few other systems do. We have to master our reality and us that reality to build a flow state where we are always being appropriately challenged.

• Eight themes about what motivates players are in tension with each other and they are:

  • Achievement of goals v. Enjoyment of experience

  • Structure and guidance v. Freedom to explore

  • Control of others v. Acceptance of others

  • Self-interest in actions v. Social-interest in actions.

The “Game Frame,” which you see below, provides ten notions (all elaborately described in the book) to create what he calls a behavioral game - “a real world activity modified by a system of skills-based play.” (81) I have used this frame to understand the construction of gamified learning ever since I read this book in 2011. Use it yourself and you will be able to create deeply meaningful experiences for learners of all ages.

I can’t overstate how important this book was to me. I hope you find it equally powerful.

Ludography - A Bibliography on Games, Game-Based Learning and Gamification

GAMIFICATION IN EDUCATION BIBLIOGRAPHY

Classroom Practice and Learning

Carnes, Mark C. Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College. (Cambridge, MA, 2014).

Dignan, Aaron. Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success. (New York, 2011).

Gee, James Paul. Good Video Games + Good Learning. (New York, 2007).

Isaacs, S. “The Difference Between Gamification and Game-Based Learning.” Retrieved January 22, 2015 from http://inservice.ascd.org/the-difference-between-gamification-and-game-based-learning/.

Kapp, Karl M. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. (San Francisco, 2012).

Niecikowski, David M. Game Design in the Classroom. (Tucson, 2011).

Prensky, Marc. Digital Game-Based Learning. (St. Paul, MN, 2001).

Sheldon, Lee. The Multiplayer Classroom. (Boston, 2012).

Video Games Transforming Education Infographic - e-Learning Infographics. (2013, December 17). Retrieved January 16, 2015, from http://elearninginfographics.com/video-games-transforming-education-infographic/.

Game Design

Annetta, Leonard A. Serious Educational Games: From Theory to Practice. (Rotterdam, 2008).

Bateman, Chris / Boon, Richard. 21st Century Game Design. (Boston, 2006).

Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. (Cambridge, MA, 2007).

Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. (Cambridge, MA, 2009).

Flanagan, Mary and Nissenbaum, Helen. Values At Play In Digital Video Games. (Cambridge, MA, 2014).

Juul, Jesper. half-real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. (Cambridge, MA, 2005).

Ritterfeld, Ute, Michael, Cody and Vorderer, Peter. Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects. (New York, 2009).

Schell, Jesse. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. (Burlington, MA, 2008).

Sicart, Miguel. Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical Gameplay. (Cambridge, MA, 2013).

Sylvester, Tynan. Designing Games. (Sebastapol, CA, 2013).

Gamer Cultures

Corneliussen, Hilde G. and Rettberg, Jill Walker. Digital Culture, Play and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader. (Cambridge, MA, 2008).

Nardi, Bonnie A. My Life As a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft. (Ann Arbor, MI, 2010).

Pearce, Celia and Artemesia. Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. (Cambridge, MA, 2011).

Taylor, T.L. Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. (Cambridge, MA, 2009).

Games and Culture

The Benefits of Board Games. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2013, from http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/creativity-play/benefits-board-games

Bissell, Tom. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. (New York, 2011).

Dyer-Witheford, Nicka and de Peuter, Greig. Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. (Minneapolis, 2009).

Curry, A. (2009, March 23). Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre. Retrieved June 15, 2013, from http://archive.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-04/mf_settlers

Dietrich, David R (2013). “Avatars of Whiteness: Racial Expression in Video Game Characters. Sociological Inquiry, 83 (1), 82-105

Elias, George Skaff, Garfield, Richard and Gutschera, K. Robert. Characteristics of Games. (Cambridge, MA, 2012).

Ladley, S. (2013, February 1). Games Develop Social Bonds and Communication Skills. Retrieved March 29, 2013, from http://www.games-based-learning.com/2013/02/games-develop-social-bonds-and.html

Pajot, Lisanne. Indie game: [Motion picture]. (2012).

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change The World. (New York, 2011).

Rogeau, Mike. How I realized my Dragon Age: Inquisition character is gay. Retrieved June 5, 2015 from http://kotaku.com/how-i-realized-my-dragon-age-inquisition-character-is-1678673801.

New Media Theory

Selfe, Cynthia L. and Hawser, Gail E. Gaming Lives In The Twenty-First Century: Liberate Connections. (New York, 2007).

Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Harrigan, Pat, eds. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game. (Cambridge, MA, 2004).

Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Harrigan, Pat, eds. Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. (Cambridge, MA, 2007)

Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Harrigan, Pat, eds. Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives. (Cambridge, MA, 2009).

Philosophy of Games, Gaming and Experience

Carse, James P. Finite And Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. (New York, 1986).

Costikyan, Greg. Uncertainty In Games. (Cambridge, MA, 2013).

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow. (New York, 1990).

Juul, Jesper. The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games. (Cambridge, MA, 2013).

Reeves, Byron and Read, J. Leighton. Total Engagement. (Boston, 2009).

Wark, McKenzie. Gamer Theory. (Cambridge, MA, 2007).

Philosophy of Play

Caillois, Roger. Man, Play and Games. (Chicago, 2001).

Huizenga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. (Boston, 1950).

Sutton-Smith, Brian. The Ambiguity of Play. (Cambridge, MA, 1997).

Philosophy of Learning

Friere, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York, 1970).

hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress. (XXX, 1984).

Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984).

"Learn?" = Digging Deeper on The Theory of GBL and Gamified Instruction

In Praise of Procedural Rhetoric

I am a scientist, educator, game designer, and lifelong gamer - in that order, and yes, that order is important. Having come to game design through science, I see games from a scientist’s perspective, and it turns out that this perspective is incredibly useful for designing serious games. How so?

Well, science is all about models. The idea that planets orbit the sun - that idea is a conceptual model of our solar system. The idea that electrons in an atom orbit a core of protons and neutrons - that idea is a conceptual model of an atom. Now, a model is not a mandate. A model does not tell the world what it must be. Rather, a model is an attempt to describe the processes and systems that produce the patterns that we see in the world. As a scientist, it was my job to understand the state-of-the-art models in my field, work to make them better, and then use them for the good of humanity.

(Yes, I’m an idealist.)

Oddly enough, while science is all about models, most non-scientists believe that science is all about facts. This pains me. At the most idealistic level, I know from personal experience that conceptual models can be be beautiful, surprising, and inspiring. It pains me to think that so many people walk through life oblivious to the complex beauty of the world around them. So many missed opportunities for joy.

On a more practical level, models afford material power over the systems that they represent. While facts are great, if all you have are facts, you are essentially abdicating responsibility for your life, and leaving everything up to chance and fate. On the other hand, if you use your facts to create models, or if you adopt conceptual models created by others, you suddenly have the power to make educated guesses about the consequences of your actions. Chance and fate will still play important roles in your life, but with the help of these fact-based systems models, you will be able to stand beside fate and chance and play an equally important role in your life.

As both scientist and gamer, I see games as models. Some games are models of abstract mathematical systems (checkers), some are models of concrete fictional places (WoW), and some are models of real systems (Civ). At the same time, I have always wanted to be a force for positive change in the world. Probably because I read too many adventure stories as a kid. At any rate, I felt a growing desire to help curious folks learn about the things that we-as-a-people have learned through science - because these things are beautiful, surprising, and useful.  So, I started designing games based on real-world models, and I’ve become pretty good at it.

Recently, while looking for a textbook for a critical studies class, I came across Ian Bogost’s Persuasive Games. It’s a little pedantic in places, but brilliantly insightful in others, and it’s especially brilliant in the way it introduces and makes use of the concept of procedural rhetoric.

As Bogost explains, rhetoric is the art of expression and persuasion. Verbal rhetoric, as a recognized art and skill, has been around at least since ancient Greece. However, the concept of rhetoric has slowly evolved to become more inclusive, and it now recognizes the persuasive and expressive ability of all media.

Procedural rhetoric, specifically, is the art of persuasion and expression using the medium of processes. At first, this sounds rather vague, but it is in fact the very thing that I’d been doing for years. I just didn’t have a name for it. Rather than expressing my ideas through spoken words, written words, images, or music (nod to TMBG), I was communicating through game mechanics - and game mechanics are processes. After reading this book, a whole bunch of ideas all fell into place.

GlassLab, among others, advocates the idea that an educational game must require students to enact the skills that you wish them to learn. This position is an implicit recognition of the fact that procedural rhetoric is powerful and engaging. A skill is a flexible process. To learn a process, you must practice that process (or a simulation thereof). To practice a process, you must engage with that process, and listen to it. If you listen, the process will tell you when you succeed or fail, and (hopefully) why you succeed or fail. That process is speaking to you using procedural rhetoric.

The idea of procedural rhetoric also connects to the metaphor of chocolate-covered broccoli. For example, The Legend of Geomethor (short gameplay video here) is a multiple-choice geometry quiz bookended by luscious faux-80’s cartoon adventures. In this, it is analogous to a piece of limp broccoli slathered in top-notch chocolate. Maybe some people will play the game. Maybe some of those people will learn something - but if they do learn anything, they won’t learn it from the game. This is because the game has terrible procedural rhetoric - and because it has terrible procedural rhetoric, the producers had to layer on top-notch audiovisual rhetoric (those cartoon adventures) to provide both a motivation for player engagement and the necessary bits of mathematical content.

In contrast, Molleindustria is a modern master of procedural rhetoric. Each one of their games is built on a model of a piece of the real world, but those pieces are so masterfully designed that they are simultaneously engaging, persuasive, and informative. If Geomethor is chocolate-covered broccoli, Molleindustria’s games are like the finest sushi-licious broccoli: raw, real, beautiful, powerful, engaging, and authentic.

But this is not the time or place to be analyzing specific games. That will come later. Among other things, I aim to highlight interesting and thoughtful games, games that have made good use of procedural rhetoric to engage, persuade, and create opportunities for learning.

The point here is to lay a foundation for further discussion and future work. To make the case that procedural rhetoric is a wonderfully useful concept for game design, for curriculum design, and for critical studies. By considering the connections between games, game mechanics, models, and expressive or persuasive speech - you can create engaging and effective games and activities for learning, and you can engage with media in ways that better maintain and assert your own values and beliefs.

Links and Ladders 7

Turning one form of content into another is a great experience for students and one they're naturally inclined to do in this mash-up culture. Here's a great story about novels that would make great video games. Could not agree more with these choices, particularly the suggestion about Iain Banks' "Culture" books.

When you're planning gamified learning experiences, what is the nature of the opposition? What do your players/learners have to do to overcome that opposition? Here's a story about the nature of opposition in certain contemporary video games and why they need to improve.

A fascinating article about virtual realism. When thinking about creating simulations in classrooms, the depth of the realism of the experience matters. This is why many games built specifically for classrooms don't ultimately work.

Links and Ladders 6

From Flickr.

Ultima IV and Ultima V are among the most intriguing of RPG designs ever offered. Centering gameplay in the development of one's moral character (or responding to the ways such moral systems can actually become perverted), they push players in unexpected and intriguing ways. This great essay on these games is a reminder of their power.

Played Journey yet? It's free in September!

A succinct article from Alice Leung on Makerspaces and play, because it never hurts to remember that gasified learning is playful learning.

Links and Ladders 5

Journey / From Alphacoders

Aesthetics form the basis of so many game experiences. The best board games have equipment that enhances the experience of gameplay because of something neat about the design (like the red train cars with the giraffes in the 10th anniversary Ticket to Ride or the art in Machi Koro or the ship in Riff Raff). In video games, one of the most important aesthetic qualities is music. When you think about great games, great music should pop right into your head. I've played a lot of World of Warcraft, and the music of Northrend is one of the reasons I liked that expansion the best. Here's a list of the Top 100 game soundtracks. My only complaint? Journey is better than #18!

Are you playing "Super Mario Maker?" You ought to be. From the perspective of a gamifying teacher, it is a powerful tool that can help you understand some of the nuances of experience design. I know that its lessons are one's that I can bring back to the classroom. Check it out!

And now for what NOT to do if you're doing gamified teaching. A fun story on the infamous backstab from Dark Souls...a game I've been too chicken to even try to this point!

Links and Ladders 4

From www.gamescape.com

Achievement systems are a major part of gamification for a big reason - they help the user/player/learner chart his or her progress through their journey with concrete milestones tailored to their personal experiences. They're critical...and wickedly difficult to construct. Some thoughts on the X-Box's system and problems it experienced.

Are you a gamer AND a data nerd? Join the club! Here's a great study of the chess board and the survivability of chess pieces on that board. I've never looked at the game quite this way before.

Anyone out there playing Elite: Dangerous and using its play engines to create gamified experiences? I understand that this wildly huge open sandbox is bigger than anything in our past experience as players, but don't know how difficult it is just yet. Still, I'm looking forward to playing it and learning from it.

Links and Ladders 3

Yar's Revenge! From: http://metopal.com/2013/08/08/yars-revenge-as-microsport/

D&D

Dungeons&Dragons remains the Giant Ape (level 16) of the roleplaying world for a reason. Its popularity undiminished by the strange side quest that I believe 4th edition will ultimately be seen as, its current edition is bringing all sorts of new players into the hobby. As an educator, D&D is probably too complex as a starting point, but it’s useful to know how the game is structured, how it thinks of itself and why it matters. This article is so helpful in understanding its impact.

http://boingboing.net/2014/01/31/at-40-years-old-dungeons-dr.html

DEPRESSION QUEST

An elegant design that can help you as an educator understand the difference between games that are “fun” and games that have other intentions. If you aren’t sure about how video games can have a positive social impact, play this just once and let me know what you think.

http://www.depressionquest.com

AESTHETICS

Games can and should be beautiful. Their beauty can help one understand how it’s played and how it works, certainly, but at the end of the day, the best thing about a beautifully designed game is its aesthetics.

 http://www.artofthetitle.com/news/a-brief-history-of-video-game-title-design/

VINTAGE GAMES

Anyone up for some Yar’s Revenge? Venture? Xybots?

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-vintage-videogames-that-you-still-want-to-play-1612309137

Links And Ladders 2

MINECRAFT

Minecraft is one of those game experiences that die-hards totally get (and are rabidly committed to) but which non-players struggle to understand. I’ve been asked “what’s the point?” by more parents/friends/family than I could probably count at this point. The simple answer is this - Minecraft gives young people an opportunity to build something (digital building, I know, but don’t denigrate that) that they can come back to over and over again to rebuild, augment or transform. Building in the physical environment can be quite restrictive in terms of space; anyone who has built with blocks knows this. Anyone who has built a sandcastle knows that building in the “real world” can be a fleeting experience. Minecraft is one of the great “open platforms.” Not really a game, more like a toy, but a powerful stimulant to creativity and flow. Here’s a neat story on just how big the Minecraft environment is.

SOCRATIC SMACKDOWN

Ooh…now this is something I could get behind. One teacher’s approach to gamified instruction is this creative discussion-based game that gives students an opportunity to develop their speaking skills in a rich, content-centered context.

SUPER MARIO BROTHERS

Level design is a fundamental component of contemporary game design. It’s also, on a very real level, what we do in teaching and curriculum development. No teacher starts with the final exam as the first experience! Great lessons build subtly, inevitably, towards that “boss-level” goal. Just the same as Super Mario Brothers. Here’s a fascinating story about the design of the very first Mario game.

Links and Ladders 1

Gamified practice is at the heart of what this community of learners is about and every day there are more and more sources of wisdom to help us, inspire us and give us something new to think about.

A recent article published at ISTE makes a case for five different kinds of virtual worlds that you might use to engage your students. I am a big fan of digital social spaces for all sorts of reasons. The best use, I think, for some of these virtual worlds is to establish and nurture a 24/7 environment for your classroom. Having said that, this is something you'd have to actually want. Moreover, it would have to be in the interests of your students, your curriculum and your longer-term learning objectives. Virtual worlds in-and-of themselves are great as game-like spaces, but I don't know how helpful they are for learning.

On his personal blog, Mark Danger Chen discusses tools that you can use to actually make digital games in your classroom. He writes: "Games are about two things: agency and empathy." He's an engaging writer and the resources he's offering here are brilliant!

My argument is that gamification is more important than games themselves. Maybe you've had the experience of trying a game in class and it didn't quite work? Perhaps all you need to do is remix that game! Here's some tools to make that work with some old school classics.

What are you going to play this weekend?

Teaming Up to Slay Bosses

KNITWIT, a great game to use as a model for learning.

This site is a community for gamers, teachers and students to learn from each other and to make games and game-based methods a bigger part of their learning and their work. This section of the site is devoted to learning from the giants in the field, thinking about theory, discovering great new books, videos and blogs to help us out in our journey as gamers, teachers, students and learners.

What are some theoretical ideas you'd like this site to explore? Who would you like to hear from in a future podcast? What's on your mind? What questions are you grappling with in your own gamified practice? Drop your thoughts in the comments section.