Gamification of knowledge

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about a different approach of defining the term gamification.

Recently, I had a conversation about gamification and how to use it in a good way. Unfortunately, the term gamification suffers a bit under one of the main definitions of it: gamification is the use of game elements to enhance the engagement of users in a non-gaming environment[1].
Moreover, the implementation of gamification is often limited to a few game mechanics, which are used most of the time to enhance the engagement of users in a non-gaming environment. Users are able to gain experience points to level up their avatars, they might get rewarded with special badges after they have completed a certain task and they might be able to compare their performance by using a leaderboard feature.
If most of the platforms are using only these simple reward mechanisms, it is very likely that they will become boring and cease to increase the user’s engagement in using a certain platform. Furthermore, they can even become to a certain degree an obstacle and start to annoy the users, because they just like to use a simple and plain tool without all the gamification effect layers.
Additionally, gamification is often used in a business environment where users are required to use certain platforms and tools. This is causing a problem, because if someone is forced to play a game, the game would immediately stop being a game and just become a normal task[2]. In other words, the desired effect of adding a certain playfulness to a platform would just become a colorful feature without any positive effect. This feature could still enhance the motivation of the users, but it is not adding a certain playfulness to the system.

Luckily, gamification can be also approached in a different way. Playing is often also a way of learning or practicing new things. Trying to throw a stone as far as possible into a lake is just a playful competition, but at the same time, the players are practicing their agility. Playing a computer game is teaching the the players how to interact with the game using the keyboard. Moreover, the players are learning facts about the virtual world just by advancing through the game.

At this point, it is very important to understand that the learning outcome is just a side effect of the game. In this case, a good learning game should still have the normal purpose of a game: entertainment. However, the desired learning goal should still be a major part of the game.

The learning outcome of having more knowledge about the life in the 17th century could be achieved by letting the story take place in this age. While the players are exploring the environment, they are able to observe the daily life of the people in this age. The players could be even able to talk to virtual characters to learn more about their life. Moreover, those conversations could be used to introduce the player to major events.

The learning outcome of having more knowledge about chemistry could be achieved by making all the puzzles in the game solvable by performing chemical reactions. In order to do this, it is important, that the players are able to find the specific knowledge about chemistry inside the game. In case of an adventure game, the players could find some scrolls about a certain chemical reaction they need to perform in order to proceed through the game. By reading these scrolls and later on mixing the reagents, the players are automatically learning the results of this experiment.

From my point of view, this is a more promising way of gamification. It is the way of finding a method to create a game, which main purpose is to entertain the players. Howerver, while they are enjoying the game, they do get the opportunity to gain more knowledge about a certain topic. Gamification is then all about finding the right game mechanics to offer the knowledge to the players while they are persuing a completely different goal: experiencing the story presented in the game.

References:

[2]Caillois, Roger (2001): Man, Play and Games, Champaign Illinois.

Challenging creativity

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the creative process of realizing a project in a building game like Minecraft.

Lately, I was occasionally playing Minecraft and I decided to create a huge building in my Minecraft-world. However, the building is not finished yet, because I always came up with a new concept and so I needed to change the shape of my house several times. After each game-session I felt how I was still thinking in a creative way about my next steps.

Minecraft

Building games like Minecraft or The Sims can be a great way to express and train our own creativity. The players of these games can terraform the environment, create and change huge buildings and even decorate them.

The player’s creativity is mostly challenged because these building games do not have a clear end and the players almost have endless possibilities to construct something inside these virtual worlds. Moreover, the players are always able to change their own creations and can even improve finished parts.

At the beginning, the players are entering a more or less empty space, which they can change as they desire. From this point on they can develop their very first idea of their building project and finally start working on it. Over time, the creation is taking shape and the players are able to take a step back in order to look at their very own creations to decide whether they are on the right track or they have to change some parts.

This is a very crucial moment in the process of expressing the own creativity, because suddenly the players are able to see their ideas becoming reality. This transition can help the players to evaluate their own project idea and also enables them to develop even more creative ideas.
Moreover, throughout the whole building process the players are getting constant feedback about their progress. This feedback in return can inspire the players and help them developing new concepts for their building project.

In the end, the whole game becomes a creative environment where the players can express and train their creativity. Moreover, I think that players who play such a creative game on a frequent basis also also more likely to come up with new solutions to difficult problems in their daily life.

Exhibitions and virtual worlds

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about an interesting conversation with a curator I met during my vacation in Iceland. He was really open minded and saw a great potential in the use of virtual reality and virtual worlds in order to enhance the exhibition of his museum.

Over the last two and a half weeks I was exploring Iceland. Apart from the discoveries of interesting geothermal activities, I also met a nice curator of a historic museum due to a lucky coincidence. As we were driving along one of the many gravel roads on Iceland, we saw a sign for a café and so we decided to have a short break there.

Upon arriving at the café, we discovered that the café is located at a Jón Sigurðsson museum and the only person we met there was the curator of it. After a good coffee break, we asked him a few questions about Jón Sigurðsson and about the political history of Iceland. After I revealed that I am researching the educational use of computer games, he got very excited and he immediately demonstrated us the multi-media part of the exhibition.

It was very interesting to talk to him about these multi-media features, because he was very open minded. Moreover, he saw the great potential of virtual reality and even wished to have access to more attractive ways to enhance the presentation of historical facts in a museum.

As an example, he was talking about the findings of an archaeological excavation next to the museum and that it would be really beneficial, if these old ruines could be enhanced with some virtual reality. Currently, the ruins of the first settlers on Iceland are only old stones explained with descriptive texts. In this case, it would be hard to imagine the life of the settlers over 1000 years ago. However, using virtual reality could reanimate the ruins and allow the visitors to really experience the history.

Additionally, he was also talking about the great potential of the internet these days. The current multi-media part is also accessible via the official website of the museum. However, it would be even more beneficial, if the whole museum could be made accessible from all over the world. According to the curator, it would be a huge leap ahead, if the visitors could explore and experience the knowledge presented in the museum in a more engaging way than just reading texts or listening to spoken words.

Skyrim

It was really refreshing to talk to someone from a completely different scientific branch and seeing the intersections of our different research fields. Moreover, the technology to recreate the history is already available. Computer games like Skyrim allow the players to explore beautiful landscapes and settlements. Additionally, the players are introduced to the background story of the gameworld by talking to Non-player-characters. It would be really interesting to reanimate an old settlement in such a Role-Playing-Game and to finally observe the learning outcome of the played history compared to a visit at a local archaeological excavation exhibition.

Geothermal energy

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, geothermal energy is just a great energy source and also useful for relaxing activities!

Energy source:

Geothermal power plant

Geothermal power plant

Relaxing activity:

Geothermal swimming pool

Geothermal swimming pool

Geothermal energy

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, geothermal energy is just powerful!

to be continued …

Geothermal energy

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, geothermal energy is just great!

Geothermal activity on Iceland

to be continued …

Go out, go running!

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the way how computer games could help the players to engage more in sportive activities.

Recently, I was playing the action-adventure game „Mirror’s Edge“[1]. In Mirror’s Edge the player is experiencing the story from the point of view of the female Runner „Faith“, who earns her money by delivering „hot“ packages by running and jumping across the rooftops of a fictive city in order to circumvent the police. During the story, Faith gets entangled into a conspiracy and is also trying to save her sister.

I was mostly hooked up by the game because of the innovative way of moving through the scenery. Faith is not only able to run and jump, but can also perform wall jumps and run across walls. In general, the whole gameplay is like a virtual version of the discipline of parkour[2].
This was especially engaging to me because running is one of my favorite outdoor activities. However, I mostly go out running through the forests and I am not jumping from the rooftops of high buildings, but still, being able to run in a computer game was really inspiring. Moreover, the immersive effect of being such a parkour runner was increased, because I was able to see Faith’s arms and legs when she was sliding down a slope or was grabbing onto the edge of a rooftop while I was controlling her through the levels.

I believe that running games like Mirror’s Edge can help the players to create a positive connection between running (or better doing sports) and experiencing exciting situations or beautiful views from special locations as a reward for their efforts. Additionally, the computer games can enhance the flow experience of running by changing the appearance of the environment. The visualization of the environment could become more beautiful, if the player manages to keep running over a certain amount of time.
After playing such an energizing game, the players might get inspired to try to improve their body control and their endurance. The only challenge the players have to come by is just to step outside and to go exploring. By adressing the players directly and inspiring them to step outside, they could get the incentive to try it out.

However, the transition from the virtual activity to the real world activity can unfortunately cause some disappointing situations or even result in situations where the players might injure themselves because they have not developed their body control yet.

This results in an additional requirement for an inspiring computer game: the gameplay should not only point out the positive and rewarding effects of running, but should also demonstrate how the players can safely start their running career. Furthermore, it is necessary to demonstrate the players how they could improve over time and that they need to start with small challenges in order to gain some first experience they can rely on while they are trying higher challenges.

As a conclusion, I think that computer games can inspire the players to engage in sportive hobbies by allowing them to see the beautiful rewards of running. However, such an inspiring computer game also needs to teach the players how they can approach these activities in their real life. Finally, the game should also help the players to regain motivation after a disappointing outcome after the first real world runs.

Games as educational tools: Is ultra realism really required?

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance and the requirement of ultra realism in simulation computer games in order to use them as a learning tool.

The simulation computer game genre can have a lot of different shapes. The range of the realism for such a game can be from ultra realistic to a simplistic implementation of the core features. The ultra realistic game version is often very hard to understand and hard to play successfully at the beginning unless there are a lot of tutorials explaining all the different functions of the game. The arcade simulation on the other hand is much easier to access and the players can experience successes on a much faster rate. However, the challenges of an arcade style simulation game then can be exhausted quite rapidly, because it is too easy to master all the game mechanics.

Apart from these two extremes, there are a lot of games which can be placed somewhere in between. Some games are more on the arcade side, but feature more realistic features. On the flipside, some realistic games increase the accessibility by neglecting or simplifying some core elements. Finally, some games allow their players to change the realism of the simulation in order to adjust the difficulty of the game to match their very own skills.

Simulation computer games are not only entertaining but also educating. It can be much easier to understand certain facts by testing them in a simulation then just reading about them. The immediate and often also visual representation of the outcome can help the learners to develop a deeper understanding of the presented facts. Moreover, a simulation game can be even used to demonstrate some facts in class to make the learning content more interesting.

A good example for such an approach would be the education of basic principles of spaceflight and orbital mechanics using Kerbal Space Program (KSP)[1]. KSP is taking advantage of a realistic physics engine thus allowing even to calculate possible outcomes before playing the game[2]. On the other hand, KSP is also a game and does not use the ultra realistic approach in order to simulate spaceflight. In this case, it is much easier for new players to achieve successful outcomes and the visual representation is even exaggerated compared to the reality.

As an example, launching a rocket into orbit is much easier compared to real world spaceflight. KSP players do not need to take precise ascent profiles into account to reach an orbit. As long as the rocket has enough power and some kind of gravity turn is carried out, the rocket will mostly reach space without too many issues. Once in a low orbit, the view looks much more dramatic than the view from the International Space Station, because the KSP homeplanet as a much smaller radius than the Earth.

This approach makes KSP very special for educational purposes. On the one hand, it is possible to use this game to demonstrate several principles of spaceflight and orbital mechanics. On the other hand, it is not too realistic and allows the players to quickly achieve successful results. Furthermore, it also reduces the possibility of getting frustrated because of an unforgiving ultra realistic simulation.

Although KSP is using a realistic physics engine, the results can not be directly compared to real world spaceflight. This important fact can have two different dimension based on the viewer’s standpoint.
It is possible to argue that it helps to develop an understanding that the orbital mechanic principles are always valid. The learners can calculate the orbital velocity for a circular orbit in KSP and for a circular orbit around the Earth. Of couse, the results of both calculations will be different, but it can help to understand every variable of the vis-viva equation[3], because the learners need to think more about the specific numbers.
However, it is also possible to argue that this simplified approach is distorting the learning outcome, because it can not directly be applied to real world outcomes. Furthermore, it can be problematic if real world facts (like a rocket ascent profile) can not be directly simulated in the game.

Both dimensions are valid, but I think, that it is much more important to make the simulation more accessible in order to increase the motivation of the learners to use a game. Additionally, I think it is much more rewarding to compare important equations between KSP and the real world, because it deminishes the problem of just using some constants without really thinking about the values of the constants. Finally, it can be much more productive to foster the basic understanding in a motivative environment before getting really deep into the real world theories.

FInally, KSP allows the users to install some modifications which can even enhance the realism of the game. Unfortunately, this will also reduce the accessibility of the game. In this case, a good use of this feature would be to start playing the game without these modifications and adding them later on after a basic understanding has been developed.

Playing history

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about a way how computer games can be used to educate the players in working with historic texts and allowing them to extend their historic knowledge.

During my time as a student in the master program „Media culture and media economics“[1] I was also required to visit some history courses. The most interesting course was about reading historic texts. I even increased the challenge by taking a course about the letters from a French nun who was one of the first settlers in Canada. Apart from the challenge to translate the letters from ancient French to German, it was pretty interesting to learn more about the different meanings of some words in this age.

The course’s learning outcome of having a basic idea on how to handle historic texts and on how to put the messages into the context of their age was really interesting to me. It was fun not only to read words written hundreds of years ago, but also to decrypt the real message of those words. All in all, it was a bit like a treasure hunt or a puzzle with the reward of an in-depth understanding. Additionally, I was even able to learn more historic facts about this age and to develop a better understanding of it.

However, developing the ability to work with historic texts and learning more about our own past should not only be possible in such courses. Moreover, the whole approach of reading a text and trying to decrypt its message is almost like a small adventure. The process of reading those texts could even have a great potential to be the basis of an adventure computer game.

Adventure computer games mostly challenge the players with small puzzles they need to solve in order to proceed through the game. This can be done with simple „use item“ tasks and can end with complex quizzes requiring the user to decrypt a message to find the correct code. Additionally, adventure computer games are offering interesting background stories to the players and can also take adventage of neat visual representations of the content.

The result of this short adventure computer game genre analysis is indicating that these games might be ideal to present historic facts to the players. The setting of the game can allow the players to experience a historic age by simply exploring the environment and maybe being able to talk to Non-Player-Characters (NPCs), who will provide the players with additional insights about the presented age.

Finally, like in any other adventure game, the players need to be challenged with some puzzles in order to proceed through the game. These puzzles then can be solved by reading and understanding original historic texts. The combination of historic texts and the historic background story can help the players to relate the written information to the historic age. Furthermore, the players can unlock some questions they can ask the NPCs by reading those historic texts. They might be even able to start a conversation with an NPC and click on parts of a text to ask the NPC for their opinion. This approach would allow the players to gather enough additional historic context and to finally solve the puzzle.

After playing such a history adventure, the players could have gained additional information about the historic age and they might even have developed a certain understanding on how to connect historic texts to their age. Additionally, due to the highly immersive and motivating environment of a computer game, the players could have even learned more about the presented topic than by just reading a history book.

What keeps you playing?

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the ambiguity of still playing World of Warcraft. The core of the game has not really changed since its release, but players are still vested users of this virtual world.

Once in a while I start to think about the fact that I am still playing World of Warcraft (WoW). I started playing this game just after the release of it and I really never made a very long break or stepped away from it. This is especially strange to me, because the basic game concept has not changed since the release. Normally, once I have beaten a game and exhausted all the ways of playing it, I step away from it and stop playing it completely. However, this is completely different with WoW.

As a MMORPG, WoW is designed to last over a very long period. In this case, the developers are releasing new content on a regular basis to keep the players busy. Additionally, WoW allows the players to progress through the game with their own avatar and even when the current content is finished, the player can still continue exploring the world with the own avatar. WoW players are even developing a strong attachment to their characters and the avatars become to a certain degree a virtual replica of the players. Furthermore, the players can even become friends inside the virtual world of WoW and start to have a social bondings inside this game. This creates an additional retention mechanism, because the players like to stay connected with their friends as they would do in their real life.

This social bonding and the personal attachment to the own avatar are possibly also my very own reasons to still play this game. Apart from these two features, the challenge of completing the raid instance content is also keeping me interested in the game. However, as I already noted at the beginning of this article, the core gameplay has not been changed since the release. This results in the fact that the fun of participating in raids or even playing the game is diminished over time because the gameplay starts to get redundant.

During my time of playing WoW I saw many people quit the game. Some of them stopped playing because they were not able anymore to participate as much in the game as they desired. Their jobs or their complete real lifes have changed and so they decided to quit the game.
Others stopped because their friends also stopped playing. These players lost their social bondings inside the game and thus lost one of the most important reasons to continue playing.
The last fraction stopped playing because of the lack of innovation. These players were still integrated into a social group and were to my knowledge also happy with their virtual appearances. However, they lost interest in playing the game because it has not changed since the release.

As I was thinking about this topic, I came up the following question: „Where is the turning point at which the personal bindings towards the own virtual life are not strong enough anymore to compensate the lack of innovation?“