would the real mary poppins please stand up? approaches and methods in gameful design

would the real mary poppins please stand up? approaches and method in gamification Sebastian Deterding / @dingstweets Digital Creativity Labs, University of York January 27, 2017

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<1> introduction

we are all game designers

old idea: learn enjoyment design from gamesMalone 1981, Carroll & Thomas 1983, Blythe et al. 2004

recent surge of interest

gamification

serious games

persuasive tech

gaMification The use of game design elements in non-game contexts

Deterding et al. 2011

health & wellbeing

sustainability

education

the pursuit of happiness

the unwitting figureheard

two conflicting theories of fun

<2> what is fun?

(baby don’t hurt me)

(a)

“just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”

aka fun as additive substance

some things are inherently fun

and some things are not

so: add funstuff™ to nonfunstuff™ for more fun

aka 1990’s edutainment

a resounding

failure …Squire 2006, Egenfeldt-Nielsen 2007

Bruckman 1999

gaMification The use of game design elements in non-game contexts

Deterding et al. 2011

… which doesn’t bode well for this

(b)

“in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun”

aka fun as emergent systemic quality

Every activity can become fun, interesting

experience is a dynamic, emergent qualityHassenzahl 2010

aestheticsmechanics dynamics

Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004

Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004

aesthetics

Frustrating end game

mechanics dynamics

Slow poverty gap

+$ !+-$ !-

so how do you design that?*Deterding et al. 2013

* obligatory visualisation of ephemeral design work with people pointing at post-its

<3> gameful design

methods

lots of industry work, little researchDeterding et al. 2013

if you want to know more

• Conceptual development of requirements from literature

• Review of existing methods against requirements

• Iterative design-based development and evaluation of method through 19 projects & workshops with teams of 2-6 (n=335)

guiding questions 1. What are the enjoyable, motivating experiences

characteristic for gameplay? 2. What game structures and processes afford

these experiences? 3. How does game design create these structures

and processes? 4. How can we integrate this into design methods

for non-game systems?

raph koster

»Fun is just another word for learning.«

a theory of fun for game design (2004)

#1

raph koster

»Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun.«

a theory of fun for game design (2004)

edward deci, richard ryan

»An understanding of human motivation requires a consideration of innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.«

the what and why of goal pursuit (2000)

chief source of game enjoyment: overcoming challengesMalone 1981, Csikszentmihalyi 1990, Koster 2005, Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2010, Klimmt & Blake 2012

Not fun Funhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sulamith/1342528771/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonquantique/3364593945/sizes/l/

#2

raph koster

»Fun is just another word for learning.«

a theory of fun for game design (2004)

through interesting challenges

goals …

+ rules …

constraining actions …

= interesting challenges

+ feedback …

= experiences of competence

formal structure of games: skill atoms/loops Cook 2007, cf. Dormans 2012

aestheticsmechanics dynamics

Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004

#4

how the user experiences it

aestheticsmechanics dynamics

Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004

how the designer creates it

Rainer Knizia

»The life blood of game design is testing. ... Why are we playing games? Because it‘s fun. You cannot calculate this. You cannot test this out in an abstract manner. You have to play it.«

shift run stop, episode 40 (2010)

iterative experiential prototyping & testing

central goal conflict of applied game design

Goal conflict

game design Enjoyable

inefficiency

interaction design Usable

efficiency

#4

how do we make one support the other?

Goal congruence

game design Enjoyment

interaction design Efficiency

intrinsic integration: core challenge = to be learned skillHabgood & Ainsworth 2011, Echeverría et al. 2012

what about real-world output,

not learning?

john M. Carroll & John C. Thomas

»Tacking on ad hoc complications will not evoke fun.«

fun (1988: 21)

intrinsic integration: restructure inherent learnable challenge

For ticket, drag red dot through labyrinth

Ticket

Level 2For ticket, drag red dot through labyrinth

Ticket

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

»Mowing the lawn or waiting in a dentist’s office can become enjoyable provided one restructures the activity by providing goals, rules, and the other elements of enjoyment to be reviewed below.«

flow (1990: 51)

create find and restructure already-inherent challenge

needs formative research to elicit challengesKhaled & Ingram 2012

<4> summary

gaMification The use of game design elements in non-game contexts

Deterding et al. 2011

TO DESIGN FOR GAMEFUL EXPERIENCES …

Bruckman 1999

don’t sugarcoat nonfunstuff™

FIND AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE

STRUCTURE IT WELL

AND playtest and iterate ’TIL YOU GET IT RIGHT

sebastian@codingconduct.cc

@dingstweets

codingconduct.cc

thank you