Reflection on Love of Video Games

Interesting article, "The Seduction Secrets of Video Game Designers," on what's important to players and game designers.

We want to learn, to find answers or solve problems, to find the way through. This reminds me of the games children might play when they have wide open spaces, army or war games, or, I remember one beautiful summer evening when I heard my nine-year old daughter say (several years ago), as she and her friends were running in a frenzy to make the most of the waning sunlight, "Let's play 'Last of the Mohicans.' I confess, I'd been watching the movie but I didn't think the kids were paying attention. Something about it as they went through the house must have caught their imagination. Later I asked her how one played such a game. She didn't really know - the thrill was the chase and eluding capture. You run and run from the bad guys. It seems that children get the concept video gamers convey - keep going, you can come out ahead!

The article refers to game lovers being attracted to ideas such as anonymity - they can be someone else, weapons or magic which make players stronger, better, possibly invincible, and the thrill of the learning. The writer mentioned game designer Ralph Koster who proposed a theory that "learning is the drug." I love to learn, so I can't dispute that!

Another concept that stands out to me from this article is around curiosity, the act of wanting something without even knowing what it is we want, the challenge of the game that keeps us seeking, surging ahead. What is in the Pandora's box if we go through this portal? Can I stop here or do I want to peek through into the next level?

Just last week I read a review in USA Today of Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One." Briefly, in a supposedly miserable dystopian society, people can play a game in pursuit of a desirable prize. But part of the appeal, I think, is that games can be an escape. Some people play games to win. Some play for the sense of control, they can manipulate and create their virtual reality and escape the real world for awhile.

My last thoughts are around the sense of story, how players progress through a good story and are rewarded in increments. The article says gaming seems to have become an acceptable venue for people to interact with their social peers in environments such as Facebook. All weekend people tweeted and we watched news stories and videos about East Coast Hurricane Irene. It made for good stories. If the power went out and there were no more video games, I think people would still gather round the campfire or fireplace to tell stories and create games. That's what we do.

GameLab Assignment: 7 Ways to Reward the Brain

Clearly I haven't posted on this blog for some time. Today I'm commenting on a TED Talk Video with Tom Chatfield talking about "7 Ways to Reward the Brain" through gaming. Since I'm not a big gamer I'm still processing some of the seven points, but one that connected to my prior knowledge about learning is the importance of using multiple long and short term aims by creating game quests in chunks or slices. Learners need to be able to experience small successes as well as the satisfaction of completing larger challenges as they build upon their learning piece by piece.

Also interesting was Chatfield's reference to how players in Everquest learned to self-organize collectively and develop their own currency to accomplish the larger task. I've heard others refer to how gaming promotes self-organization but I appreciate having this real example to mull over and think about how this might be incorporated in future quest design.