Gamification is an innovative methodology to get people to participate and be motivated and help them achieve goals by applying game design elements and methods into a non-game environment. The library can provide an interesting experience to users by utilizing gamification, and gamification can make the library more fun and engaging.

Utilizing gamification in the library

• Educating library users: Gamification makes users feel entertained and engaged, and they learn about utilizing library resources. The library at North Carolina State University provided a gamified Scavenger Hunt, so students could learn how to use the library by interacting with librarians. Users can understand and utilize the library better through fun games.
• Participating in library resource management: To allow better access to large-scale library resources, users can actively participate in the work through gamification. In the National Library of Finland, the Digitalkoot service provided an interesting game to users. It asked players to edit the text errors input by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. Digitalization work that was previously done manually, by crowdsourced volunteers, could be done by more general users. This could contribute to helping more people access the library resources.
• Experiencing personalized information service: Gamification can be utilized to effectively support solutions to individual information problems. For reading activities, especially, gamification elements such as challenges, rewards, and competition, can lead to consistent reading habits and make accessing necessary information more effective. Through gamified reading support service, users can personalize their reading history and interests. They will get information about future reading opportunities. In addition, they can the right level of challenges to enhance the power and motivation to continue to read. For example, Lemontree is a social game-based learning system at the University of Huddersfield, U.K., is a gamification case to effectively increase the learning performance of students by using library data. (Walsh 2014).
• Services to enhance social relationships: Interesting gamified library programs can attract more people to the library. Also, it can effectively provide the experience of making social relationships based on library resources. New York Public Library developed the augmented reality game ‘Find the Future at NYPL’ as part of the celebration of its Centenary. It’s about solving quests related to one hundred historical artifacts hidden in a library building. In the process of solving quests, 500 participants could write down personal stories based on their inspiration from the library collections. Through that process, a co-created book which included future stories was made.

Gamification to increase the public interest in library

Gamification enhances the role of the library as a social place in which everybody can participate and meet. Through gamified programs, users can access library resources more effectively. Gamification can stimulate lively interactions between librarians and users, leading to strengthened social relationships. According to Koivisto & Malik(2021) whose article includes a meta-study of gamified research papers for the aged population, gamification was proven to effectively utilize in-person communication and increase relationship numbers in elderly people. According to this research (Koivisto & Hamari 2019), recognizing the self-efficacy of old people and positively increasing social emotions such as motivation and loneliness are possible through the program of enhancing social relationships by gamification.

How to apply the gamification to the library

The most important thing that gamification must focus on, is effectively increasing access to library resources. Rather than providing unconditional fun and flow, the library should emphasize the original vision and the purpose of the program. The library can be an amazing information environment for users by coordinating its resources and services with adequate gamification. To effectively apply gamification to the library, the following should be considered.

1. Clearly defining the objective and results of the gamified program in accordance with the mission and vision of the library
2. Applying the interesting gamified elements and forms by recognizing the participants’ demands, interests, and preferences
3. Increasing the participants’ motivation by providing feedback, recognition, and rewards in program operation.
4. Ensuring the system evaluates and measures the effects of gamification for library employees and participants
5. Periodically monitoring and improving the operation of gamified programs based on evaluation

The world is changing, and the demand of users is changing along with it. In this changing landscape, gamification can play an important role in revolutionizing and reinventing the library for a new sustainable way of working. I expect that innovation in gamification methods will continue to bring new power to efforts to attract library users, into the future.

The post Libraries and Gamification first appeared on Ludogogy.

And that’s why I like to try and come at it from a gameful perspective. The primary reason being that games can make scenarios less scary and allow us to be more curious and creative instead of overwhelmed. The secondary reason being that games can externalise our thought processes which makes the job at hand feel much more manageable. Thirdly it helps us to see things differently, something we often need to do with writing a CV and getting out of our own head!

I’m going to take you through a case study about how we used Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) to rewrite a CV in a coaching space.

Rob* was in a job that he hated. He worked in the IT department and after 8 years there, people still didn’t get his name right. He felt undervalued, dejected and frustrated that he wasn’t being seen. It was a tough environment and his outlook wasn’t overly positive about the ‘what next’. As a result, the idea of updating his CV felt demoralising and uninspiring; he didn’t resonate with having any achievements in his role and he couldn’t see how his work would be relevant to getting out of his company and to what he really wanted to do – journalism.

Rob hadn’t shared a lot of what was happening for him at work to his friends and family as he was embarrassed about how he was being treated. It also really affected his mood which meant that thinking about it caused him to shut down. However, he wanted to make a change and decided to try out coaching, a safe space where he could share and explore how to improve his work life. One day, off the back of a coaching session with me, we identified that Dungeons and Dragons was a favorite game of his, primarily for the character creation, story arc and quests. A somewhat random fact but one that suddenly triggered in motion a connection between games and identity and ultimately, writing his CV.

For those that don’t know, a character sheet in D&D is something every player creates in order to play the game. This character sheet is essentially a CV for the adventurer world – it informs you (and reminds you!) of what inspires your character, what has affected them in the past, what their strengths are and what they believe in. It brings to life all the things your character cares about and as a result, you understand them which in turn informs the way you respond and react in the game when it comes to decision making.

And so, when we started to apply a new language to Rob’s CVs and saw it with a lens of third person creativity, a whole new world opened up. We started to layer the terminology and the awareness of Rob’s experiences to his CV. In short, we created a character sheet.

This was powerful for a few reasons:

1. We named his character. This allowed him to step outside of himself.
2. The character was something he could draw and therefore visualise. They held artifacts and wore amour that represented his values and his strengths. He started to feel a connection to them which meant he was kinder to himself.
3. It gave space to acknowledge what he already had to take his next steps.
4. It clarified what his quest was and therefore what skills he either needed to add to his repertoire or where he needed to put his focus.
5. When things had creative names and title, it made it feel much more fun which meant that he felt much more compelled to take action
6. He could redefine his identity – he was no longer what people at work made him feel – he designed himself in his own world where he could start to understand himself and make positive change.

Once we started mapping out the character sheet, it opened a floodgate of realisations. From here, the resistance to writing and updating his CV was reduced – he had a whole host of notes about who he was and what he wanted and he felt confident about translating them into CV speak. Through games, we had found a new way for him to identify with himself. And not only that, he had fun doing that!

Whilst a D&D character sheet can sound very specific, the concept of externalising your experience is a common coaching concept. Take a look at this character sheet template and see what identity comes out for you!

*Not their real name

The post Rewriting a CV through games – a case study first appeared on Ludogogy.

Benefits of Games-Based Learning for languages

Games have the innate ability to make learning enjoyable and immersive. Not only that, but play is the way we all acquired our first language, and the ‘rewards’ we will have received for learning well -social (parental) approval, ‘winning’ over our peers (by having more capability), and increased agency (to communicate), are very similar to well-designed gamification.

By integrating games into language instruction, educators can tap into several benefits. Firstly, games increase student engagement by transforming the learning experience into a dynamic and interactive adventure. Learners become active participants, eagerly exploring linguistic challenges and developing their language skills. Furthermore, games promote motivation by providing clear goals, feedback loops, and a sense of achievement, spurring learners to persist and progress.

For instance, language learning apps like Duolingo and Memrise employ game mechanics to make the process fun and rewarding. These gamified platforms leverage points, levels, and rewards to motivate learners and track their progress. Duolingo’s ‘streak’ mechanic is particularly effective at keeping players on board. There are reported instances of people taking breaks from their own wedding receptions, to ensure they do not spoil their lengthy streak. You can read an analysis of Duolingo’s gamification (albeit from a few years ago) by Dirk van Diepen of Octalysis at https://ludogogy.co.uk/article/duolingo-review-how-to-apply-gamification-smarter/

Gamification Techniques in Language Learning

Platforms like FluentU and Rosetta Stone adopt gamification elements, but are sometimes criticised for relying too heavily on extrinsic motivation, and using simplistic mechanisms like points, badges and leaderboards.

So what does good gamification look like, and how could it be employed beyond digital apps, in say, face-to-face learning settings?  Here are some ideas.

• Quests and Missions: Designing language learning activities as quests or missions, where challenges are represented by milestones or levels, creates a sense of progress and achievement.
• Storytelling and Role-Playing: Integrating narrative elements into language learning, encourages the exercise of creativity, which in turn can give a sense of ownership and relevance to the content
• Collaborative Challenges: Foster collaboration and teamwork by introducing group challenges or competitions. This encourages students to work together, communicate in the target language, and support each other’s learning.
• Immersive Technology (or scenarios): Utilize interactive technology tools to enhance language learning. For instance, virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) can create immersive language environments, allowing students to virtually explore foreign cities or engage in language-specific scenarios.
• Story-based Progression: Frame language learning as a story-based progression, where students unlock new chapters or levels as they acquire new language skills. Each chapter can present them with challenges or tasks that require the application of their language knowledge. This approach adds a narrative element and keeps learners engaged and motivated.
• Time-based Challenges: Set time-based challenges or competitions where students race against the clock to complete language-related tasks or exercises. This injects an element of urgency and excitement into the learning process, motivating students to think quickly and apply their language skills under pressure.

Remember, when gamifying language learning in the classroom, it’s crucial to align the gamification elements with the curriculum objectives and ensure that they support language acquisition. The beating of ‘the game’ must not get in the way.

Speaking and Listening Skills through Interactive Scenarios

One powerful application of games-based learning is the improvement of speaking and listening skills. Immersive game scenarios provide learners with authentic contexts to practice their language skills. Through interactive dialogue options, voice recognition, and role-playing, learners can simulate real-life conversations. Language learning games like Lingua.ly (now defunct) and Tell Me More enable learners to engage in virtual conversations with virtual characters, enhancing their speaking and listening abilities. Such interactive game scenarios foster confidence, fluency, and cultural understanding. However, they can sometimes be let down by the technology they use, with some users reporting poor speech recognition among other problems.

Reinforcing Grammar and Vocabulary through Gamified Exercises

Games-based learning and gamification offer innovative ways to reinforce grammar and vocabulary acquisition. Language learners often find grammar exercises dull and monotonous. However, by transforming these exercises into gamified activities, learners can actively engage with language rules and structures. Platforms like Kahoot! employ interactive quizzes, timed challenges, and rewards to make grammar and vocabulary practice enjoyable. Gamified exercises not only consolidate language knowledge but also provide immediate feedback, allowing learners to identify areas for improvement and track their progress.

Cultural Understanding and Language Immersion – Virtual Worlds & Simulations

Language learning is not solely about vocabulary and grammar; it also involves understanding cultures and communities. Virtual worlds and simulations offer immersive environments where learners can explore different cultural contexts while practicing their language skills. Platforms like Second Life got on board early,although it is unclear whether this platform is still used much for language learning and Cambridge International (exam board) among others have designed immersive language learning environments in Minecraft Education Edition. These experiences promote cross-cultural awareness, enhance language comprehension, and facilitate authentic communication. CultureAlley, when it started, took a different approach to immersion, taking its cue for the vocabulary you want to learn from what was written on your Facebook wall. It’s offering now includes live classes, many different games, and is embracing the opportunities of AI.

AI is probably going to be revolutionary in the way it impacts learning in the next months and years.

Some more examples of language learning games

WordBrewery: This game focused (the project has, sadly, closed) on vocabulary acquisition by presenting learners with sentences from real-world sources, such as news articles or literature. Players must identify and understand the meaning of unfamiliar words in context, gradually expanding their vocabulary while enjoying the game’s immersive interface.

Muzzy BBC: Designed for young language learners, Muzzy BBC combines captivating, animated stories with interactive language learning activities. Children can engage with the characters, explore different language environments, and practice vocabulary, listening, and comprehension skills.

Language Guardians: a family card game for all ages, this can be played in whatever language is chosen for a particular session.  Playing a bit like Uno, it works to help language acquisition through repetition and practice and through challenge and social learning.

LingoBee: LingoBee is a mobile app that utilises crowdsourcing and social networking to gather material for ’situated’ language learning from its users. So learners are exposed to curated material, and can comment and rate that material, and learn from each other in relevant contexts.

Language Hunters: This interactive game combines language learning with cultural immersion. Language Hunters employ traditional games and activities to teach (and preserve) indigenous languages, emphasizing oral communication and community engagement. Players learn by actively engaging in conversations, imitating sounds, and playing language-based games.

Limitations and Challenges

While games-based learning and gamification offer exciting opportunities, it’s essential to be aware of potential limitations and challenges. Firstly, selecting appropriate games and gamified elements aligned with learning objectives can be a complex task. Educators must ensure that games facilitate language acquisition rather than distract from it. Additionally, technical limitations, such as the availability of devices or internet connectivity, can pose challenges for implementing games-based learning and gamification, especially in resource-constrained environments. Moreover, measuring the effectiveness of games-based learning can be challenging, as it requires robust assessment methods that go beyond traditional exams or quizzes. Assessing language proficiency and progress within game-based contexts may require innovative evaluation approaches.

Despite these challenges, the benefits of games-based learning and gamification in language teaching are undeniable. They have the potential to transform language learning experiences, engage learners on a deeper level, and foster a love for languages. By embracing these approaches, educators, learning designers, and workplace learning facilitators can create dynamic and interactive language learning environments that resonate with their students.

To Conclude

Games-based learning and gamification provide a fresh and effective approach to language teaching and learning. By harnessing the power of games, educators can captivate learners’ attention, enhance motivation, and promote active participation. Whether through dedicated language learning games or the gamification of traditional language exercises, games offer unique opportunities to reinforce grammar, vocabulary, speaking, listening, and cultural understanding.

The post Play, Learn, Speak: How Games Transform Language Learning first appeared on Ludogogy.

Most people know games as vehicles for fun, entertainment and socialization. Elements of games – through :gamification – can also be used to augment, change, and influence individuals behaviors. Those behaviors can affect the way that they interact, shop, and travel.

Games-based learning is the use and adaptation of games as a medium for learning. As such, educators are often called upon to adapt existing games as vehicles for teaching and learning.

But how do educators start with games? How can they approach the adaptation of games for teaching and learning?

This article will address the steps necessary for adapting games for learning. It’ll cover why educators should first adapt games for games-based learning. Challenges that educators often face with adaptation will be addressed as well as how a strategy can be outlined for game adaptation.

There are specific considerations to take into account prior to adapting a game for learning. Those will be outlined as well as how different approaches can be undertaken in order to smooth out challenges in the process.  Examples of game adaptations will be discussed as well as well as how learning can be supported in game adaptation through the use of assessments.

Why Adapt Games for Games-Based Learning?

Many games are fun. It’s the primary reason why people play them. Educators can use and capitalize on that fun through the adoption of games-based learning. Games can be used as an experiential framework in order to help learners achieve multiple different outcomes including the promotion of teamwork and the application of new concepts in practice.

Therefore, it is important to note that games-based learning often begins with a game adaptation as a medium for teaching and learning. Specifically, games are not meant as temporary adoptions; but rather as part of a more holistic pedagogical approach to teaching and learning.

This pedagogical approach in games-based learning is focused on learning through experience or experiential learning. Though game play, learners can apply concepts to practice in an environment where failure can be tolerated, scaffolded, and corrected. Likewise, this is done in an environment where, engagement, play, and interaction are achieved in a way that makes the activity intrinsically motivating and fun.

In addition, games can be applied in multiple different formats. Those include a solo approach to games that often includes puzzles and scenarios. Games can be also be applied in a socialized environment with other learners and/or the instructor. Such group efforts can be undertaken as either a cooperative or a competitive format in which the interaction with others can help reinforce learning outcomes or demonstrate difficult concepts.

Challenges with Adaptation

Any educator who is interested in adapting games for teaching and learning through games-based learning will run into challenges with the adaptation process. One of which is qualifying the game selected to make sure that it aligns with the desired learning outcome. Such a process can be difficult when examining games that are appropriate for specific learners as well as considering the time commitment and modality of the educational environment.

An additional challenge is managing and meeting pre-conceived notions of applied games. Learners may come to expect something from a game dependent on their backgrounds and experiences despite the fact that educators are not prepared to deliver.  Likewise; educators can also be challenged by their expectations of games-based learning that doesn’t meet the outcomes achieved by peers and other colleagues.

Often the case for adaptation of existing games is such that it’s easier and more focused to create a new game from scratch that better meets the needs of the educator and learners. However, this process can be expensive, time consuming, and involved.  Despite those shortcomings; often that route is more preferable than adapting an existing game for educational purposes due to the limitations included with commercially available games.

These challenges can be further exacerbated by teachers in the elementary, intermediate, and secondary schools as logistical problems ranging from limited classroom lectures, facility access, and overall lack of time pose real and present challenges to adapting existing games for teaching and learning. This is further compounded by the additional role that educators must play in supervising and monitoring play: activities that they may not be comfortable implementing and adhering to in addition to other educational responsibilities.

Finally, one of the most challenging aspects due to games adaptation is the requirement that both educators and learners remain flexible throughout the process. Games are not linear tools for teaching and education. Rather, games provide an open ended process through which students create meaning through interaction, experimentation, and engagement. As such, flexibility could be required from all parties at times when patience or resources are in short supply.

Strategy for Adaptation

Despite these challenges, there remain some viable strategies for adapting games for games-based learning. One of which is to curate and select games that are appropriate from a mechanical and emotional standpoint for the learners served.  This has more to do with the individual educator who can best interpret and judge the needs and capabilities of their students and select games that serve, and don’t undermine or exceed their means or capabilities.

Likewise, educators can also use games as means to augment traditional forms of instruction and to break up and punctuate existing lesson plans. Primary and intermediate school educators may choose to use more physical, visual, or kinesthetic games that better impact and serve younger learners. This is compared to those learning and development professionals working in adult learning environments where application of abstract and theoretical concepts to practice are much more welcome and  relevant use of applied games.

Furthermore, educators can adapt and apply games in concert with different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. Exploratory learning focuses on learning where individuals learns by exploring environments. These can be physical as well as virtual environments that are experienced with peers as either a competitive or cooperative activity. Many massive multiplayer online games (MMOs) fulfill this type of approach. However, certain and specific table top game such as role-playing games can be applied to meet this end.

Additionally, specific game dynamics such as competition and cooperation can provide an engaging classroom experience that changes and augments the relationships between learners, the content, and instructor. Such change could be jarring for some learners who are used to and have only experienced orthodox approaches to teaching and learning.  However, this can be mitigated through low-stakes activities which explore the modality of games-based learning in greater depth prior to attempting more challenging activities.

Educators can better integrate their application of games for their learning environments through the use of story and narrative which links game activities to learning outcomes and course structure. Such an approach provides a different – albeit familiar – aspect of communication and education through allegory.

No matter how educators adapt games for teaching and learning, they should continually rely on the malleability of games for their purposes. Games used in this respect do not need to necessarily entertain individuals. Rather, different forms and aspects of applied games can be used in concert with more traditional teaching practices that best meets the outcomes of learners. Such adaptation of games for these purposes ensures that the outcomes of play align with the learning outcomes defined by the educator.

Adaptation Considerations

There are certain factors to take into consideration when examining games for learning. One of the most important things to note is that games alone cannot completely replace traditional learning. Of course, there are some outcomes in which games are used to augment more orthodox approaches for learning. However, games by themselves (without structural learning support and scaffolding) are poor replacements for entire learning programs.

Furthermore, the use of games doesn’t necessarily entail better outcomes for learners. This is particularly true if learner populations aren’t ready or don’t see the use and benefit of applied games for learning.  Fun, enjoyment, and entertainment are positive benefits for using games for learner interaction – but alone they do not constitute a learning program.

Additionally, educators should consider the drawbacks of poor game adaptation. Specifically negative impacts could be encountered if adaptation activities for different educational outcomes, linguistic considerations, language, cultural, and societal aspects aren’t taken into account.

Furthermore, educators can often overextend themselves with their adaptation procedures. Often, a common mistake made is adapting the entirely of a class, course, or program to games-based learning. A more approachable strategy would be to start small and incrementally convert learning content, structure, and materials to games-based learning.

These small steps for adaptation should first consider how games, game elements, game :dynamics, and game mechanics can serve as complementary aspects to different learns and learning models.  Such an approach prioritizes the learner’s experience as part of the holistic outcome of their education and engagement.

Learner engagement should take a priority in this process as examining how individuals receive, interpret, and act within a games-based learning environment could provide insightful advice on how an educator should proceed with an adaptation initiative. An example of this is how primary, intermediate, and secondary school educators can use games as means of breaking up a static lesson plan with different games and activities which require involvement through different modalities. Some of which can involve physical movement while others require more cognitive applications.

Adaptation Approaches

Game adaptations are often undertaken from an educator’s standpoint. That individual could be someone who has both much game playing and teaching experience whereas others could be attempting an adaptation for the first time. Despite this, individual educators should note that players require a reflective period in concert with game play in order to gain the most from the experience.

This reflection period serves two purposes. The first is to reinforce and promote metacognitive behaviors in experiential and games-based learning. The second one is for the educator to evaluate the scale, scope, and impact of the games-based learning application and determine how it be changed, augmented, or adjusted to better fit their outcomes and goals.

This is perhaps an area were games-based learning has an advantage over digitally applied and experienced gamification. Such gamified applications can be inflexible with their use and application for learner populations. Conversely, analog applications and adaptations of table top games and other non-digital games provide the educator with agency, malleability, and the ability to personalize the experience to fit the needs of their learners.

While gamification alone relies on the implementation of individual elements of games in non-game settings; games-based learning and applied games utilize the entirety of the game for the purposes of teaching and learning. In this vein, educators can more wholly apply games for their long term educational outcomes rather than short term entertainment and engagement of learners.

Examples of Adaptations

The number of games that educators can adapt for teaching and learning are only limited by the number of games that are published and available. Despite this, it’s often easiest to approach games-based learning adaptation through familiar game :mechanics that players might already know. For early childhood education using games with familiar themes such as  Go Fish and memory components can be easiest to adapt.

Likewise, most players can identify with the visceral and excitement involved with randomization and rolling dice. Therefore, games that include some sort of entropy with physical components such as dice and cubes could serve as attractive components for learners.  In this vein, digital games such as Minecraft capitalize on the sourcing and building aspect of games that empower players to construct n various environments.

Game adaptation often revolves around familiarity with game structures, components and aesthetics. This can make adaptation for complicated, lengthy, or complex games more difficult compared to simpler ones. Therefore, common components such as playing cards can be introduced to learners as an application of both a game component and a :mechanic. This is because they can serve as both components to store information as well as serve as a means to randomize it.

However, not all games require components for implementation. Argumentation, debate, or negotiation games can be implemented in the classroom with minimal investment into physical components. Such applications of games with structures like FunEmployed, Taboo, and Bohnanza, capitalize on these mechanics with a minimum number of physical components.

FunEmployed is available on Amazon

Taboo is available on Amazon

Bohnanza is available on Amazon

Following this, reenactments, role-playing, and other forms of situational narratives could be used with minimal components in order to better connect learning content with students’ own interoperations and applications. These can be further developed into other learning activities such as reflection exercises or writing prompts such as StorySlam which give students a means for further exploring content more viscerally.

Word games such as Boggle and Scrabble embody some of the most well known properties in gaming. As such, word games make students’ inclusion, adaptation, and utilization of letters, words, and vocabularies more engaging. Put out the Fire is such a game where teams of students work with each other to name something within different categories based on the same letter.

While many of the games discussed here can only be implemented in a traditional and physical classroom environment due to their component limitations; there often exists digital adaptations of them that can be used in a distributed and online environment.  Such applications of games like Just One, Codenames, and Wordle make it so that these games can transcend the digital boundaries included by hosting classes via web conferencing.

JustOne is available on Amazon

Codenames is available on Amazon

Lastly, there also exist specific platforms aimed at digital student engagement both online and in person via different devices. Kahoot!, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, Gimkit, and Blooket, exist to provide educators with different gamified applications of quizzing and assessment that can be applied in different modalities.

Supporting Learning in Game Adaptations

An emphasis always has to be placed on learning, no matter what games educators choose to use and adapt for their students. This support can come in multiple different formats. The most common of which is the use of debriefing and reflection of learning activities. Games don’t need to be the only activity in which metacognition is emphasized; but they are a very powerful medium for examining the “learning of learning.”

Additionally, the use and application of simulations for teaching and learning have the added benefit of utilizing theme to connect learning content to specific learning outcomes. The Model United Nations makes it so that students embody the politics, motivations, goals, and collective needs of the planet in a microcosm of the actual organization. As such, learners can more viscerally empathize with nation states as they act and interact with classmates who serve as their counterparts.

Finally, educators can best support learners engaging in games-based learning by helping utilize and apply their agency within the game in their pursuit of different actions and strategies. Such options don’t necessarily exist with more traditional forms of learning through orthodox means.  Therefore it’s most useful for educators to prioritize and emphasize the unique approach that games offer.

Incorporating Assessment into Game Adaptations

Possibly one of the most important and critical things to incorporate into the application and adaptation of games for games-based learning are assessments. These assessments can be summative or formative. No matter what the educator chooses to use, it’s critical to make sure that the game is applied to ensure that learners are meeting the desired outcomes.

Such assessments should be implemented in order to meet the needs of both the educator and learners. Some assessments are easier to implement compared to others. This includes smaller more traditional ones such as test and quizzes which challenges learners to apply their learned skills in practice. Other content areas may require students to pass “quests” or “challenges” that are in line with the game’s theme that require learners to apply their new knowledge. No matter how these assessments are implemented, educators should examine how learners are making cognitive sense of their new learner behaviors. This metacognition (learning about learning) helps individuals  shift their own behaviors and adapt to change from games-based learning.

Games-based learning is more challenging to implement assessments because the educator must usually adapt a commercially available game for teaching and learning. Games are usually excellent at challenging players throughout play with different objectives, missions, and “boss fights” which demand players to put their skills to the test. However, educators using games-based learning must take appropriate and incisive measures in order to relate game content to their own learning objectives.

Educator intervention is especially important when it comes to supporting learners’ overall engagement and progression. That’s because it can very easy (especially for younger learners) to become despondent and demoralized from difficult game progression – especially as it relates to their own realization of self-determination and competency. This could be realized when a player gets “stuck” at a certain point in the game and is unsure how to progress or how the activity relates to a particular outcome.

Instructors can make use of these teachable moments in order to connect game content and activities with the specific learning outcomes from the material. Ideally, such connections encourage the player to apply different approaches with the objective of learning from their own shortcomings and failures. Such behavioral changes stem from the experiential learning cycle applied in games-based learning and the effect that active experimentation has on developing new approaches and strategies.

Lastly, the future of serious games and educational learning game development centers on the dynamic adaptation and change of the game to meet the learners’ needs and shortcomings. This is most likely achieved through the use of digital games-based learning which can detect and adapt to players’ behaviors and match their skill level with appropriate challenges to that helps them maximize learning while also assessing their outcomes.

Takeaways

This article covered the adaptation of games for games-based learning. It began with determining the reasoning behind the adaptation of games. Challenges with game adaptation were discussed as well as strategies that educators can undertake in order to help them with their process.

Specific game adaptation considerations were explained as well as some strategies that could be adopted when selecting and adapting games for teaching and learning. Special considerations for adaptations were covered as well as how educators can approach the game adaptation process. Finally, this article closed with examples of game adaptations as well how the adaptive practice can be accomplished in ways that best support student learning and assessment.

This article was about how to adapt games for learning.  To learn more about

gamification, check out the free course on Gamification Explained.

If you have enjoyed this article – consider getting yourself lifetime access to Dave’s Games-Based Learning Digital Library containing all of the content from the past two Games-Based Learning Virtual Conferences; past webinars and courses he’s created; as well as his complete back catalogue of articles; podcast episodes; and videos. And more content is being added all the time.

Readers of Ludogogy can get a $50 discount on this valuable resource by using this link.

The post How do I Adapt Games for Learning? first appeared on Ludogogy.

The number of tools available is growing at an amazing rate, but this article will focus on real-life prompt examples in two popular tools – ChatGPT for text output and Midjourney for image creation.  These prompt examples should provide you with some ideas for using AI at every stage of game design and production, but the only real limit in how you can prompt these tools is your own imagination.

The below also assumes, for the most part, that we are looking at designing and creating an analogue, tabletop game. A broader overview of tools and capabilities will follow soon, as well as details about how AI can be used in digital games.

AI for Developing Game Concepts

During the concept phase, AI can help designers generate new ideas by analysing existing games and user preferences, and by rapidly trying out different tweaks to prompts.

Existing games – ChatGPT is very ‘well-read’, so you will probably discover that it ’knows’ about well-known games. If you want to draw on an existing game you could simply prompt “Create a description for a game, based on Terraforming Mars, but with a theme of building a new town”

But prompts like this are generally less likely to achieve what you want, because they have little guidance from you.  The result is really just a description of Terraforming Mars with the word ‘Town’ substituted.

:Click here for Terraforming Mars prompt – click again to close

Successful prompts are generally longer, and contain carefully chosen detail. Create a description of what it is you want to bring from ’Terraforming Mars’ (and omit what you don’t). Add your own needs and ideas. Be very specific.

:Click here for better prompt

Take advantage of ChatGPT’s ‘memory’ for what has gone before in the Chat to build on ideas, or ask for more detail on a specific piece of output. Here I have asked for new ideas on the game, based on who will be playing it. I have prompted with Bartle’s Player Types, but could have just as well in put job titles, demographic information such as age or location.

:Click here for Player Types prompt

It’s never too early to start working on game visuals, and if you get compelling images from Midjourney, they may well inspire your text prompts too. Try creating some concept art. Two useful prompts here are ‘character design sheet’ and ‘multiple item sprite sheet’.  Although these two things are usually generated for digital games, they are also great for producing small images to be used on things like counters and tiles.

For larger, more ‘complete’ images, if you want to be able to (potentially) separate them from their backgrounds later, make sure to include ‘concept art’ and ‘plain white background’ (or whatever colour is appropriate) in your prompts – the ‘character design sheet’ and ‘spritesheet’ prompts do this as a matter of course.

The prompts for these were

• “character design sheet, woman in her forties, short grey hair, jeans, long sleeved teeshirt, slim, different poses and expressions, full colour, flat colour, childrens book illustration style, –no text –v 5”
• ” multiple item spritesheet, household and office items, full colour, flat colour, childrens book illustration style, –no text –v 5″
• “multiple items sprite sheet, isometric view, tiles for a game, landscape, trees, flowers, grass –v 5”

From scratch – although I recommend being lengthy and specific with prompts to get anything really useful, if you just want to do some low-level brainstorming (at very early concept stage) feel free to play with shorter prompts to get ChatGPT to produce large numbers of ideas around single concepts.

Such prompts will inevitably produce generic and derivative responses, but they can form the basis for further explorations.

:Click here for generic prompt

One very useful technique is to take one suggestion, and ask ChatGPT to elaborate.  It is a good idea to give it more input in the form of your own ideas. This approach can be iterated as many times as you like until you get useful responses.

:Click here for extended German Games prompt

In a similar way you could try out different styles for the same idea in Midjourney. This might also be a good time to experiment with what prompts give you and refine your prompting so that when you come to the design stage you have a good idea of how to prompt to get the images you need.

Generic prompts will get generic output, and it is best to be specific about what the image should look like rather than what it represents conceptually. Midjourney will get less out of the idea of ‘Settlers of Diversity’ than it will out of a clear description of the desired image.

Using AI in Game Design

During the design phase, AI can help designers generate new game content, such as levels, puzzles, and characters. Remember that if you are developing the same concept from the concept stage into the design stage, it is a good idea to remain in the same chat, to take advantage of what ChatGPT will ’remember’ of what has gone before.

You can prompt using well known game mechanisms and components, confident that ChatGPT will ‘know’ about them.

:Click here for Terraforming Card prompt

ChatGPT can also use well-known ‘content’, although you should always check carefully that what it produces is correct, as Large Language Models (LLMs) can be prone to ’hallucination’. The following was a follow-on prompt after ChatGTP had ideated a set-collection game called ‘Dickensian Tales’.

:Click here for Dickensian Tales Locations prompt

It is highly recommended that you create and use ‘templates’ to get the output you want from ChatGPT. This is done by creating prompts which have ‘placeholders’ for content that will be populated by ChatGPT. Such prompts are usually quite generic, and you instruct ChatGPT to process them with specific content or subject requests. For example, here is what it produced when given part of a template for ‘Wretched and Alone’ games

(This work is based on The Wretched, product of Chris Bissette and Loot The Room, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.)

It was given the description of how cards work in Wretched and Alone games, having been asked to populate the Hearts suit, in a game about being a shelf stacker in a supermarket.

:Click here for ‘Wretched and Alone’ prompt

Prototyping using AI

During the prototyping phase, AI can rapidly try out widely, or narrowly, differing ideas for games, and producing new content and materials based on those models.

As well as refining ChatGPT’s output, by further prompting and feeding it additional ideas, or asking it to amend or delete aspects of its responses, it is also useful to feed its own input back in.

:Click here for Sustainable Towns Cards prompt

Once you have working ‘templates’ of a game, for example, card formats, it is pretty simple to generate new versions for different entities in the game and / or indeed, different subject matter to create as similar game on a different topic. Here it was prompted create part ofa ‘Orwell’ version of the Dickensian Tales game.

:Click here for 1984 prompt

In Midjourney, a really useful feature to create new images with the same characteristics but with some differing topic, focus or style is the Remix functionality, which can be turned on in Settings. This means that prompts can be edited when using the Variation buttons.

The greatest power that AI has as these stages of design, is the ability to ‘try out’ many different concepts or different versions of materials. This is a way of working that previously would not have been feasible without a great deal of time and a large team of people. Now this capability is available to small teams and individuals, and many of the tasks involved in ideation, design and prototyping can be carried out in a fraction of the time it took previously.

If you are interested in exploring how the above can be used for you to achieve a functional design for a learning game in under two hours – please sign up for my course – and don’t forget to use the code GPT10 for a 10% discount if booking before 19^th April.

The post Create Games Faster and Smarter with Generative AI first appeared on Ludogogy.

I often spend ages tweaking the stats and using them to create a backstory in my imagination of how this character has become who they have, how they have pitched up in the location they are in, what drives them to adventure.

I favour magic users (at least when I am playing Dungeons and Dragons style games), so I will usually find that the stats profile of my characters are quite similar. They are low on Strength and Constitution usually, because all the available points have been allocated heavily towards Intelligence, to ensure a healthy number of spell points. A low-level magic user will need some strong allies who are willing to front the party and shield him or her, to ensure some chance of survival to be a higher-level magic user.

We roleplay in real life

And so it is in real life, we have our strengths and weaknesses, our specific skillsets, allies and competencies, which taken together, paint a picture of someone who is fit (or not so fit) to act in specific roles, or to carry out particular pieces of work. In life, this idea is often expressed as a ‘job description’.

The Job Description is actually a pretty one-dimensional way of describing what somebody is, as it only captures a narrow set of characteristics, which are usually (unless you are very lucky), desired by a third party to execute specific tasks.

As a (whole) person, you have many more characteristics and skills which are not relevant to this ‘job description’. In (the game of) real life you may often play with your ‘Project Manager’ avatar or character, but at other times you play your ‘Parent’ character or your ‘Drummer in a Ska Band’ character. Each of them prioritise different characteristics, skills, allies and activities. And you can ‘grow’ in each of those roles at different rates.

There is often friction because of the demands of the different characters on your time and energy. For example, the ‘Parent’ might not be able to develop as she wishes because the ‘Project Manager’ is impinging on her time.

The featured image of this article shows part of a character sheet from ‘The Game of You’ compiled by a 15 year old. The Character she wants to play is ‘In-demand Babysitter’. She is currently at Level 7 in her progress towards becoming the fully-realised babysitter she wants to become over the summer holidays – Level 20 in this game represents ‘the best you can be’.

It should not be assumed from this that the  ‘Game of You’ is only suitable for young people – just that I tend to use my nearest and dearest for trying out game ideas!!

The different characters which make up ‘You’

In an RPG, a player can have as many characters playing in different games and campaigns as s/he pleases

The ‘Game of You’ encourages you to play a game of personal and professional development, in which you can also play any of the characters that are significant to you, track their progress towards important development goals and (which is not usually a feature of ‘for fun’ RPGs), use what you discover about these ‘characters’ to explore balance and priorities in your life and growth.

The Character Sheet is the basis of ‘The Game of You’, as it allows players to create their own ‘character’ (or set of characters) in the style of an RPG. A pen and paper version is available, and a fully-functioning automatically calculating version will be posted on itch.io soon.

Today, I started to add the functionality of the ‘Quest’ sheet. The idea behind Quests is to reflect on the value of ‘learning’ activities to the development of your characters.

In an RPG we can experience from all sorts of activities, quests, combat, even ‘grinding’. From each of these we will gain experience points (XP), which are recorded for your character, and contribute to their levelling up.

RPGs (objectively) measure experience

In life, we similarly learn from everything we do, each project, each social interaction, every win (or failure) and yes – even the grinding. Learning does not only happen from ‘special purpose’ learning activities. The only difference between real life and an RPG, in this respect, is the enumeration. We do not, usually and habitually, enumerate our learning from experience.

Sometimes however, we are called upon to do so. When applying for a job, one of the purposes of a CV (resume), is to inform others about what we have learned from the experiences we have had, and how it might match to a potential role. Often that is expressed through length of experience, or through qualifications.

Roleplaying your CV

If you’re anything like me, updating your CV can be a bit of a feat of memory, and what you end up with never really describes all the nuances of how you have developed. Also, given that CVs need to be customised to each new opportunity, they are far from representative of your ‘whole self’

If real life were more like an RPG, each new experience would reflect in your ‘stats’, AND you would gather a ’quest log’ along the way, which would be a permanent record of the ‘value’ of any given experience to your permanent and professional development.

Quest Sheet attached to Character Sheet ‘In-demand Babysitter’ – by a 15 year old girlThe ‘Game of You’ Quest sheet links with the Character Sheet and updates your stats on the completion of your quest. It writes the ‘story’ of your quest to a quest log, and then clears itself, so that you can use it to record your next quest.

And because we never only have one quest on the go, or indeed, only have one character’s game underway, you can have multiple quest sheets attached to each ‘character’, and indeed multiple characters in play in the ‘Game of You’.

Your ‘Whole Self’ is more than your CV

But what about your ‘whole self’? In an RPG I can be playing several different characters in different games, and they can all have very different ‘levels’. In life, my experience in my different roles, works in much the same way.  I am a high-level Learning Professional, but a low level (at the moment) Plasterer and Bridge Player. Ongoing house renovation will ensure I level up pretty quickly in plastering (I may take a course to speed up that process), and I am hoping that I will soon get the chance to play at the Bridge club I have joined to polish up skills including ‘bidding’ and ‘finessing’, as well as adding some new allies to my ‘Socialiser’ character sheet.

Just like the variety of CVs you have to produce to satisfy the requirement of different job applications, your different character sheets will reflect ‘how well’ you are doing in developing growing in different important ‘character’ areas of your life.

The Future of the Game of You

The ‘Game of You’ is a work in progress, and is developing as an idea as each new component is added.

At the moment, there is an MVP (minimum viable product) of the Character Sheet. This will soon be joined by an auto-calculating version of the character sheet and linked Quest Sheet and Quest Log.

In time, it is envisaged that the full game will include:

• Spells /power ups – strategies and hacks that may not actually be magic, but feel like they might be as they impact your resilience, productivity and well-being
• Player dashboard – a summary of your characters, which can be used as an overview of balance in different life areas
• Quests which update more than one character
• CV (resume) templates based on character sheets
• Pre-loaded quests – pre-populated quests sheets, that for example, represent the XP and skills value of undertaking an accredited learning programme.
• Aspirational character sheets – representing the ‘gap’ between the ‘stats’ of a person you would like to model, and your own character, so you can work on that gap.

If you would like to get involved in developing this idea, maybe as a resource you could use with Coaching Clients, learning cohorts or for your own personal / professional development-get in touch at sarah@ludogogy.co.uk

The post The Game of You – Quests first appeared on Ludogogy.

The result, I hope, will not only be a whole load more fun than traditional goal planning, but will also be just as, or possibly even more effective, encouraging reflection on what really matters, in terms of skills, allies and resources, to achieve a medium to long term development aspiration, and providing an accurate (although subject to player biases about their own capabilities and effort), measurement of progress towards a valued goal.

More gameplay on the way

This is also just a starting point. This character sheet can be used on its own to track progress, but the logical next step is to link it with other sheets which will evaluate ‘Quests’ (think projects, training or other forms of experience) and allow them to update the characters vital stats and progress.

And because its an RPG style experience it also makes sense to include a ‘Spellbook’. This will contain all those pieces of ‘magic’ that work for you, focusing on aspects such as self-care, life (and work) hacks and learning from books/videos etc.

Finally, (for the moment), I think it will also be possible to create another template which will take information from all the above to create a ‘cv’ type character sheet which will allow you to display your experience and achievements in an easy-to-read format.

So for the moment, here is the Character Sheet, and only in a print format, for filling in with a good old-fashioned pen or pencil. It should be enough for you to do your initial character creation and calculate your current level and experience with regard to that all-important purpose. I’ll be honest, it’ll probably be tough to keep doing the calculations manually, on an ongoing basis, so you’ll probably want the spreadsheet pretty soonish, if the initial try out makes you think you might want to use this long-term.

The fully functioning spreadsheet version will follow in due time, and will be available on itch.io

Formulas for the pen and paper version

You might have noticed that the thing works slightly differently from an RPG character sheet – instead of adding to your stats when you level up, you update your stats, and your level and experience update accordingly. Think of your level as being a progress bar (going from 0 to 20) which shows how close you are to achieving what you want. With the character sheet alone that won’t reflect how close you are to achieving a task or project (you’d need ‘Quests’ for that), but it will show how prepared your character (ie You) is with all they need (skills, allies, equipment) for the tasks and projects you have in mind

With a spreadsheet, you will obviously be able to get much more complex calculations, not to mention fancier outputs, but for the pen and paper exercise, the following calculations will give you a good approximation to see your character’s current level.

Here is a typical D&D levels/experience table.

To discover your current level, simply take an average of all the populated yellow boxes. If you want to see your current XP, use the following formula.

xp of current level + (xp of next level - xp of current level) * (average - current level)

So for example, if the average you calculated was 6.75, you would be Level 6, but you would have achieved 75% (0.75) of the XP needed to get to the next level. This formula would calculate 75% of the difference in XP between Level 6 and 7 and add it to the XP for Level 6.

The spreadsheet will be a deal more complex than this but these simple calculations will give you a good enough idea to test out the concept of this character sheet.

The Quest sheet will follow in quick order, and the Spell sheet should be up and running by end July, early August – also on itch.

Happy Role(Real)playing.

The post The Game of You – Character Sheet first appeared on Ludogogy.

I love everything about this show, from the storylines, through the uncompromising female characters (especially the totally wonderful Erica), to the game that we who were there (in the 80s) can play, spotting the numerous visual references to films and TV from the era. School corridors shot from the same angle and with the same lighting as Nightmare on Elm Street, Teen Wolf basketball moments etc.

But what I love most of all is reliving my early monster-slaying days – not in the Upside Down, but on numerous kitchen tables and student bedsit floors. I even remember playing a few adventures featuring a Demogorgon, which as any schoolchild knows (if they have a copy of the Monster Manual, or the Deities and Demigods cyclopedia), is a Demon Lord from the Abyss, worshipped by the Ixitxachitl.

The Deities and Demigods cyclopedia is available on Amazon

And the stats mattered… so much. Even when not playing, there were deep discussions about all the numbers. Adventures were remembered and analysed not just as pieces of narrative, but as mathematical representations of an experience. Did this encounter yield too many (or too few) XP? Is that piece of equipment or spell over-powered? Should I distribute points to my character attributes differently to get the best from my character?

I still play, we I can find the time myself, and more importantly, when I can find others who also have the time (and inclination) to play a campaign. Like many adults who have an RPG past, I’ve tried the (easier) option of joining MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, but it’s not the same. Someone else has created the experience for me, and I am more a consumer than a creator. I want to feel the D20 in my hand, and experience the thrill of creating a story with others around a table while quaffing mead (or Thunderbird – being the closest proxy which the local beer-off could provide).

While D&D is not a Quantified Self (QS) game as such – you’re not playing yourself, for one thing – the mechanisms and experiences within RPGs have definitely informed the QS movement. This has not gone unnoticed and there are many RPG-flavoured QS and self-improvement apps and games out there.

Here are a selected few:

Chore Wars

Gain experience points for housework. This was a firm favourite in our house when my girls were a bit younger, and having just sparked it up after a few years away (for the purposes of writing this article), my younger daughter is showing every sign of wanting to start playing again.

This game allows you to create character with all the stats of a D&D character – strength, constitution, charisma etc., who can gain experience points (XP) and level up (at every 200 XP) through carrying out domestic chores. A Dungeon Master (DM) account allows you to create adventures and quests. Adventures are recurring tasks which can be claimed by a character each time they are performed, while quests disappear after being claimed once.

When creating an adventure / quest, a DM can name and describe it, as well as applying XP (usually the no. of minutes it takes to perform the task), the gold and treasure that may be found (and %age chance), and monsters that may need to be battled. They also specify which of the character stats is used in the task and at what level (low, medium, high).

Gold, treasure and monsters are largely window dressing that add to the RPG feel, although you could ‘spend’ gold on real-world treats, once you have accumulated enough – likewise with treasure effects. The character stats feature is the most interesting. On levelling up, your characters stats will be adjusted up, and, unusually for an RPG, down, depending on the adventures you have undertaken. This, to me, is the most QS aspect of this game, because it helps you to see how well you are balancing different types of activities.

I’m now chuckling at some of the treasure and monsters we came up with creating adventures back in 2011. For doing guitar practice, for example, my elder daughter had a 60% chance of discovering a Map of Carnegie Hall, and a 33% chance of encountering a Plectrum-spitting Tuna

Not to be confused with….

BBC Women’s Hour Chore Wars

Which was a survey carried out to discover the split between men and women in terms of who does the most household chores. The survey is no longer available, but you can still see a broadbrush overview of its findings.

SuperBetter

Jane McGonigal sustained a concussion in 2009, after hitting her head at work. Recovery was slow, and Jane suffered from suicidal thoughts during this time. As a game designer, she decided to create a game which would help her to recover and build resilience, and ‘Jane the Concussion Slayer’ was born.

This was later renamed Superbetter, and now exists as an app and website which uses evidence-based approaches to building resilience and aiding recovery from challenges.

Players are encouraged to specify their Epic Win and the Goal that win will help them to achieve. There is plenty of help to get you there, and the app presents you with daily challenges which will slowly but surely move you towards your Epic Win. You can enlist the help of Allies – people who will support you during your journey, and use Power-ups – quick and easy actions which will give you an instant boost. There is recognition that it won’t all be plain sailing, as Bad Guys, like persistent thought, or bad habits are there to get in your way. Superbetter also encourages you to list your Future Boosts – things that you have to look forward to.

Like Chore Wars, you are able to select predetermined ‘programmes’, or, more usefully, to create and edit your own entries for all elements of your Superbetter journey.

Jane McGonigal’s second book, also called Superbetter, details the creation of this game. It is available from Amazon.

Habitica

Back in 2012, I was busy working on the design of Habitochi, a habit-breaking / forming app based on Tamagotchi. Sadly, it never got beyond the design stage, ironically, probably, because of my own inability to maintain the habit of working slowly and steadily towards raising the funds to build it. It’s still a possibility, if anyone is interested, but, several people have beat me to it – including Blobby, MOTi, DailyPet, and indeed Habitica, to a certain extent. I’m not one for sour grapes, though, even though all of these post-date the Habitochi concept – that’s entirely my fault.

Habitochi is still a better name than any of these, though, right?

Habitica allows you personify (monsterify?) all your tasks, which can be habits, regular e.g. daily task, or to-dos into monsters which you have to fight.

It includes many of the features of RPGs which are the things which keep us playing. Doing what you should – regular maintenance of your habit, ticking of your to-dos will enable you to upgrade your avatar with cool new armour and other stuff. Not doing so will mean that you start to move backwards, and in particular it will start to damage your health. There is also the (highly) rewarding feature of random reward – the psychological strategy which underlies gambling addiction, and keeps up killing monsters in RPGs because we never know whether the next looted body will turn up some knackered leather boots or a mithril broadsword (yeah, right!).

There are also pets, and social challenges (*mumbles sub-audibly about Habitochi*)

But what is really interesting about Habitica, in terms of presenting a variety of ideas in this article, is that it is an open-source project, which means that it has a dazzling array of integrations with 3^rd party tools, some of which measure and track (the usual thing that people think of when hearing ‘Quantified Self’). Habitica can be integrated with e.g. Trello, Cloudflare Workers, Zapier etc.

Fill your (seven-league) boots!

Life RPG

I have become (sometimes, painfully) aware throughout life that not everyone is as interested in Dungeons (or, indeed, Dragons), as I am. If you have been reading this, and thinking, ‘I can see how this might work, but I can’t be doing with all the sword ‘n’ sorcery shizzle’, then LifeRPG is probably more up your (non-magical) street. It strips away a lot of the narrative while retaining the basic mechanics that help you to get (mundane) stuff done.

It is also, arguably, the most customisable of the solutions presented here. I would say that this has most in common with productivity apps, and co-opts the idea of XP to add that extra bit of motivation to ticking off the tasks and projects.

Some of the game-like features included in this app are:

Categorising projects by difficulty, importance, and by assigning a Skill to each one, enabling you to further ‘gamify’ your prioritisation. ‘Eat that Frog’, anyone?

Levelling up. Like any other RPG, XP allows you to level up. In LifeRPG there is not cap on the level you can achieve, you can enter your own title to go with your level.

Skill Stats. If you (optionally) assign skills to tasks and projects, those skills will be improved when you complete tasks. This allows you to see life areas (Stats) where you are performing well, and others which are lagging, indicating that you could do with more practice.

Momentum Bar – measuring your ‘stick-at-itness’. Your momentum bar will drop each day unless you recharge it by completing tasks.

Aside the game mechanics, LifeRPG also contains some useful features for a productivity app, including different databases for different contexts, e.g. work projects and home projects, and a project log.

Do-It-Yourself

These are the solutions which others have created for you, and which in many cases, have stood the test of time, and have thousands of raving fans. But what if you want to really customise your game of life. Several Game designers and productivity experts have proposed that you design your own games to do this. I have already written one article this month about Yu-kai Chou’s Real-life RPG ideas, now known as 10,000 Hours of Play.

In addition, here is a great resource from Reddit detailing a simple ‘Player Guide’, to create your fully-customised life game.

I am also working on Character and Quest design templates – owing a lot to Steve Jackson’s GURPS system, which will be posted here in Ludogogy as soon as they are done. These are geared towards achieving medium and long-term goals by focusing on attributes and skills (and mini-quests) needed to achieve them.

What Next?

Many of the apps and games mentioned here have been around a while, as RPGs themselves have been, so will we be seeing anything new from the genre. Well, yes. At least I think so. RPGs have been undergoing some changes recently, as I wrote about in Learning Powered by the Apocalypse.

These are RPGs without the stats and numbers, so perhaps the next step is the ‘Qualified Self’ (not to be confused with the ideas in the book of the same name by Lee Humphrys, which is about social media sharing of mundane everyday life details). Maybe the new kinds of RPGs can help us to learn about the qualities of our lives, rather than the quantities, relying more on creating narrative and eliciting emotions, than creating measurable data.

A game to play to explore this idea would be Logan, where the player gets to experience their own version of a series of events that actually happened in the game designer’s life – a game play experience that is at once empathetic and self-reflective.

The post RPGs to Level Up in Life first appeared on Ludogogy.

Actionable Gamification by Yu-kai Chou is available from Amazon

In RPG game worlds, success and progress are usually measured in two ways – money and other ‘stuff’ and, more importantly, experience. Unlike real life, ‘experience’ is mostly a quantitative not qualitative measure, and is at the heart of the game dynamic. Through ‘experience’ you gain status and capability. Experience points allow you to level up, which often comes with new titles reflecting your game reputation. Additionally, levelling up increases your competence. As (usually) a magic user, this meant that my character would have more (and more powerful) spells, with each new level.

Numbers which drive narrative

So, ‘Level’ is one part of how a character can be described. There are many others, including race (human, elf, halfling etc.) and class (fighter, mage, cleric etc.). Another main quantitative part of a character is their ‘stats’ – numeric measures of characteristics such as Strength or Wisdom – which also usually improve with level, and which work within the game to inform how well a character will perform in situations which require them to use that characteristic, for example, trying to pick a lock in the game, would require a test of one’s Dexterity.

Picking a lock is an ability or skill, and another numeric measure applied to characters is their level of skill. In some games you can list very specific skills (e.g. Archery), which can be improved by experience or training, and in any given situation, can be ‘modified’ up or down by one’s stats.

Outside of characters, other beings and even objects also have numeric measures – stats, modifiers and so on. Effectively, within a game, these are mechanisms which resolve narrative. There are lots of calculations in, a game of, say Dungeons and Dragons, (which is often a criticism levelled against these kinds of games), but they are only there to decide what happens, narratively, in a given game situation.

RPGs for Learning Games

I have returned to this idea, of real-life RPGs, in earnest, more recently, for designing learning games in organisational settings. In the meantime, RPGs themselves have moved on, and there are many games now which are much more qualitative in nature, which do not contain the ideas of levels, or stats or experience at all. But that is the topic of another article. In this one, I shall concentrate on those links that I see between the quantitative measures in more traditional RPGs and what has come to be known as the ‘Quantified Self’.

Yu-kai Chou suggested that these features of RPGs could be usefully applied to your real life in four steps (later refined to six).

Determine the game you are playing

What do you want to achieve? What are the goals and milestones along the way? In games, I love collecting gold, mainly because of the cool magic artifacts I can get with it, but in life, money is not a key motivator for me. Make sure that your goal is congruent with your values and that you are motivated to move towards it, or you will not enjoy your game of life, or you may achieve something you do not truly want. You might express the game as the industry you want to work in.

Determine your role in the game

..by understanding your stats and style. In your ‘Initial Stats’ you should explore what you are good at. This is a non-trivial step and may take lots of time to get right. Maybe you could enlist the help of friends, colleagues or even a coach. What you want to do is to find a role that you could play that would see you ‘winning’ at the game you identified in step one. The Initial Stats are different from Skills (comes later). Maybe you could view them more as ‘talents’ – “I’m good at making new connections with people”, “I’m very spatially aware” etc. You may already have decided your role “I want to be a learning designer”, but you also might find that when you have established your initial stats, that you revisit this role too.

Plan out a character skills growth road map

Yu-kai recommends mapping both the skills you have now, and the skills you will need to gain (or develop) in order to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. At what level do you need these? You could (like I did) literally apply numbers to establish the level you already have in these skills and the level you need to have, but that is up to you.

Find Teammates and conquer easy quests together to level up

You can find people who will help you to level up, but don’t forget that it is also important to help others to level up. Your skills levels will help you to see what quests you need to carry out in order to improve your skills to achieve your goals, and they will also help you to see where you have greater skills or more experience than someone else, and can thus help them on their own quest. For, example if you have identified that you need to improve your ‘video editing’ skill, you could attend a course, or you could volunteer to help someone who knows more than you with a video project they have in hand. Watch out for requests for help from your networks and offer mentorship where you can.

If you work through these steps you will have worked out the game you are wanting to play (the field you want to be in and your ultimate goal), your role in achieving that goal and your underlying characteristics that make that goal a good fit for you, a clear picture of the skills you need to achieve, and where you are with those skills currently. You will know who are your allies, who will help you and that you will help along the way and the quests you will need to carry out to ‘win’ at the game you have designed.

Designing your own Game of Life

So how does this gel with ‘Quantified Self’? Well it doesn’t necessarily. Yu-kai never specifically mentioned applying the kind of character design you would see in an RPG, with a sheet listing numeric values for stats. But for me, and maybe for others who see the world similarly to me, it was the next logical step. It gave me a way of assessing where I am in relation to where I want to be, and I thus applied the RPG analogy a little bit more literally than this idea necessarily needs. I give myself actual experience points, and I update my stats and skills as I see fit. When you come to undertake this exercise, how you apply the ideas is entirely up to you. And that is surely the point when designing your own game of life.

In games, goals are very clear. You know exactly what experience points you need to get to the next level, and you have a very good idea of what activities will get you to that milestone. This exercise puts you in a similar situation, with a major life goal.

This has just been a very brief introduction to designing your own game of life, as per the ‘Real-Life RPG’ from Yu-Kai Chou. He has since developed this idea in ‘10,000 Hours of Play’, and I would highly recommend that you get more details straight from the horse’s mouth. In particular, you can join Octalysis Prime to access 100s of hours of videos about this, and other aspects and applications of Octalysis.

You may also want to explore other ‘Self-Gamification’ ideas as developed by Ludogogy author, Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

The post The Game of You – A Real-life RPG first appeared on Ludogogy.

The Expansion of Mobile Game Genres

Until now, many game companies have focused on PC and console platforms, but they have gradually increased the proportion of mobile games. Because almost everyone can easily access mobile games, it makes sense for game development companies to develop or convert games for mobile platforms.

Mobile games must be approached in a different way than PC and console games. Mobile games require a unique and different play style. This means that game companies have to plan to utilize the unique characteristics of mobile games, which is more than simply ‘translating’ an existing PC or console game to a different platform.

One genre of game which works well on mobile platforms is CCGs (Collectible Card Games). Players collect cards representing characters and actions, and compose their own decks from the possible choices. This kind of Collectible RPG comprises different game mechanisms such as quests, rewards, and motivation, etc.

The Core of Storytelling – Character

The Seven Knights 2 game, which I helped to develop, is played using characters. Each character brings different elements to the narrative, and the process of creating the character itself motivates the player. The core of this game is ‘character’, so each character is highly individual and comes with lots of backstory. Play expands from flat characters with simple and direct relationship to more complexity. Heroes don’t necessarily need to be ‘good’, and there are several villains who cannot exactly be hated.

Generally, in MMORPGs, quests are specified by Non-Player Characters (NPCs) and the player moves around the gameworld to attain that purpose and get rewarded. This process includes various quest types such as main, sub, breakout. However, there is only one quest in Seven Knights 2, the ‘Main quest’. So, it looks like a Collectible Card Game, but is more related to MMORPG. The game will come as a bit of a surprise, however, if the player is expecting the complex quest structure of MMORPGs.

Seven Knights 2 is a linear scenario game. The player doesn’t need to interact with several NPCs to accept various styles of quests. By just clicking ‘Auto Play’, the character accepts and performs quests and gets rewards. The purpose of this is so that the player doesn’t have to spend time finding their next quest but can focus instead on the stories in the game.

I tried to develop the Seven Knights 2 by introducing various quests, but I didn’t want to interrupt the player’s immersion. I wanted to make sure that the player does not become distracted by unexpected extra sub-quests and breakout quests once the player is immersed in the flow of the main scenario.

Reward in Collectible RPGs

The reward in mobile games does not mean just simple and physical rewards like items or goods. The player can experience both ‘material reward’ and ‘psychological reward’, both of which are currently used in the game.

For example, NPCs offers no rewards or just a reward of small value when the player finishes certain quests. Instead of a small reward, the gamer can save the character’s current play state to a public ranking.

Therefore, although there is no direct reward or just a trivial one, the player gains the ‘psychological reward’ of gaining recognition and appreciation from others.

The gamer can check his or her own combat power, but rewards such as ‘power-ups’ which can be used in-game are not gained. Instead, the player can get psychological reward such as ‘Self-satisfaction’.

Try first

Seven Knight 2 offers opportunities for players to experience deeper stories. Because the heroes cover many stories, the main quest is provided to access these stories and collect them as play proceeds.

The ‘sneak peek’ content, ‘The Memory of the Hero’, includes aspects which are usually used as sub-quests in MMORPGs. ‘The Memory of the Hero’ is content which covers the individual stories of heroes which are not addressed in the main scenario. And even though the player hasn’t collected the specified hero in their own deck yet, it can be freely used without any restrictions.

Pleasure through randomness

The concept of ‘collectible’, being fairly new in mobile platform, introduces another form of pleasure in play – the scarcity of certain characters and the uncertainty about obtaining them. ‘Things which cannot be easily taken’ is the core motivation in mobile collectible RPG.

The original game on PC and console platforms has the same story and character relationship, but the collectible RPG shows different areas of experience, depending on what kind of characters the player has. The process of getting the skills and growing through quests is condensed into each character card. The player gets experience of these all processes and efforts, simply by gaining one character.

And of course, the player wants to get more characters, and to get the rarer ones, and accepts the randomized gamble as sort of play and fun to test his or her luck. So, scarcity and testing one’s luck are applied as forms of motivation.

Player Participation – ‘Black hat’ and ‘White hat’

To attract, and keep, the player’s participation, I used the concepts of ‘Black Hat’ and ‘White Hat’ from Yu-kai Chou’s Octalysis Framework. These motivation factors help to explain how the player’s motivation is changed in mobile platforms and how collectible RPGs utilize this.

At first, ‘White Hat’ motivation encourages the player to participate to ‘get better’. It’s the original purpose in the PC and console games. Strengthening their character, mastering skills, and exercising creativity by making their own deck leads the player to feel directly involved in the game. Like ‘Elden Ring’, it stimulates a sense of challenge, nature or calling, etc. It’s a often-used way to make the player feel like a hero, and to want to participate in overcoming adversity and challenge.

Seven Knight 2 requires time to set up the deck or make different compositions of characters in every stage beyond the simplest quests. And to achieve growth of their character, the player needs to find entrance tickets and various items to access content. Usually, in game or gamification design, there may be some expected characteristics such as side quests. However, I concentrated on the scenario of the main quest, to help the player keep the flow. Also, the content not included in the main quest were covered by other content. ‘The Memory of the Hero’ above and content for repetitive quests are examples of this. Through this, other types of ‘White Hat’ motivation can be derived.

‘Black Hat’ motivation attracts the gamer’s participation in a more manipulative way. Because of different motivation, it is hard for gamer to recognize and control. Also, the duration is short.

For example, to collect desired character cards, the player collects items and good, and uses them as fees in cahllenges involving uncertainty like randomized gambling. But, ‘Black Hat’ does not necessarily mean ’bad’ or necessarily mean that that player is negatively affected. This short process of testing luck leads to strong (but usually short-lasting) motivation. They may experience feelings of failure, disappointment and loss, but the mobile RPG player enjoys this and relishes scarcity because they accept it as part of the ‘necessary process’ to collect the game story and get the character they want in their own deck.

‘White Hat’ motivation will be effective in the long term, but it can be felt as ‘bothersome’ or ‘boring’ in a mobile game with relatively short period of play time. So, the mobile game uses strong stimulus, such as urgency or luck which can be ‘Black Hat’. There is an expectation that there will be urgency, with new characters being released, restriction in time periods and availability, the necessity of having a specific character in order to be able to use certain effects, and the partial frustration of being able to use but not being able to possess. This is why the life cycle of a mobile game is not that long, and new characters and events need to be constantly added.

In the future, mobile game developers will find new and potentially more complex ways to keep player’s involved. The content and mechanics in which gamers find immersion and pleasure will be varied by ‘material’ or ‘psychological’ factors, etc. It is a trend which will constantly move forward, and we can expect new mechanics to be invented all the time for our pleasure.

The post Storytelling and Motivation in Mobile Games first appeared on Ludogogy.