Gamified Workflow

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 how a traditional workflow can be optimized by following the game desing principles of well-defined goals and immediate feedback.

Computer games provide players with clear goals, constant feedback, and meaningful rewards thus achieving a flow-inducing gameplay. At the same time, these gameplay elements also provide players with information that rarely is available in the real world. As a result, playing computer games not only is an engaging activity, but often also more rewarding than most normal activities in the real life.

This is especially is a result of the clear game goals and immediate feedback that guides a player and helps to solve game tasks in a very efficient way. In the real world, we often are not sure what exactly we need to do to complete a task. In addition, while trying to complete a task, we rarely receive feedback indicating that we are on the right track. Instead, one is normally challenged to interpret a task and to subsequently try to solve it in a best possible way. Unfortunately, while progressing towards the task’s completion, an immediate feedback rarely is available. Also, sometimes tasks change without being propagated to everyone involved. As a result, one is constantly in some kind of limbo between doing the correct things or being on a wrong path.

In the end, our daily lifes feel boring in comparison to activities we can do inside of a computer game. However, by understanding these core principles, guidelines for an effective workflow can be generated.

1. Provide smaller and well defined sub-tasks for a complex main task. This results in a better understanding of the personal goals.
2. Provide immediate feedback after the completion of a sub-task. This allows for an early and constant assessment of the own performance and results in a higher self-confidence to be on the right way.
3. Communicate changes in a clear and immediate way. This results in a fast and easy adjustment of the own priorities.

By following these simple guidelines, a traditional workflow can be optimized. This optimized workflow potentially leads to a higher satisfaction as everyone is aware of the own progress and easily can fokus on the set out goals.

Completionist

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 specific player type: the completionist. This player type likes to complete or discover every aspect of a computer game.

Every computer game has a specific and limited amount of content. A player can only experience what has been encoded in a game’s game mechanics during the development. Once all information have been revealed during the gameplay, a player has completed the entire game. The content can be a linear story, a selection of race tracks, a variety of puzzles, or a vast open world. In addition, a game can provide an avatar for the player that can be improved by gathering certain currencies, such as experience points, reputation, and skills, or some agents a player can control and improve.

For example, role-playing games like Skyrim allow for the creation of a player’s avatar that gains experience and skill points by interacting with the game world. These points then can be invested in new abilities and general character statistics like strength and endurance. Strategy games like XCOM 2 have a different approach an implement controlable agents that follow a player’s orders. Similar to a player’s avatar, these agents also have properties and skills that can be improved during the gameplay.

Of course, there are also some exceptions to the limited amount of content. Some games implement procedurally generated content that automatically generates new terrain features when a player reaches a certain threshold during the own exploration. However, despite providing and endless stream of new terrain, the environment still consists of a limited amount of building blocks that are just arranged in a different composition.

As a result, a player can reach a status of having completed the entire game when the entire world is explored, every skill has reached the maximum level, all quests are solved, and all agents have reached the highest rank. There is a special feeling about this 100% moment when everything has been achieved. This completionist moment can inspire players to keep playing a game for a very long time just to achieve 100% in every aspect of the game.

However, this of course also depends on the type of the player. Some players just like to experience the core gameplay, others like to experience everything without pushing it to the limits, and then there are the completionists who aim at this 100% moment. With the emergence of achievements, game designers tried to reward those players with specific achievements being rewarded for exploring every part of a virtual world or reaching the highest level in every stat. This of course might have inspired more players to invest the time and hence play the game for an increased amount of time, but it does not provide the same rewarding feeling. The reason for this lies in the fact that achievements are targeting an extrinsic motivation whereas being a completionist is an intrinsic motivation.

Personally, I always enjoyed trying to complete entire games and seeing/maximizing everything. The moment of having finished everything can be compared to an epic win. Suddenly, after having invested a lot of work, a moment is reached that everything is done. It is a feeling of having achieved something very important one has worked for over a very long time.

The fascinating thing about computer games is that they can motivate, inspire, and reward us in so many different ways. At the same time, they also tell us what kind of personality we have.

Different Player Types but One Community

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 skewed view some viewers might have on the contents of Let’s Play videos: they like to see that the gameplay follows their own approach to the game.

Creating and publishing Let’s Play videos (LPs) not only is a creative activity, but also a way to share own gaming experiences with a world-wide community. Also, LPs allow a player to track the own gameplay and document decisions which can be very interesting for later evaluations in the case of a computer game that requires a lot of decision-making.

Aside from simply sharing the own gameplay with a large audience, LPs also provide the opportunity to discuss approaches and solutions with the audience. Depending on the genre of the game and the frequency with which new episodes are released, viewers can also provide suggestions thus actively helping the player or collaboratively developing vast builds.

However, the content creator also has to be very careful how to approach and treat the viewers and their suggestions, respectively. Vice-versa, viewers also need to understand that the content creators might have a different approach to the game and might not necessarily want to play it in the most efficient way. Instead, it is more about just playing the game as it is without optimizing everything like a player who is enjoying the game without recording it.

As a content creator, it is important to tell a good story with the gameplay which can also include a lot of wrong decisions. These wrong decisions can lead to a more entertaining LP series as things are suddenly way more complex or result in more funny moments. In addition, while the underlying idea of offering help is much appreciated, content creators might want to experience the game themselves without being guided by their viewers. Being guided can drastically reduce the entertaining aspects of a game when a player likes to make own experiences and learn form them.

In conclusion, the content creator is just a regular computer game player who likes to simultaneously entertain others with their gameplay. This, however, also includes that, unless they ask for it, they like to explore the game on their own without being directed by their viewers. Viewers, on the other hand, might already have a more in-depth experience with the game and like to provide help to the content creator to see them succeed. In this process, they might accidentally overlook the fact that it’s not necessarily about efficiency but simply fun.

Achieving the right mindset

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 how computer games can help us to recall acquired knowledge and to improve the mental models that store it.

When acquiring new knowledge, we compile mental models for it. These mental models are complex mental representations that allow for an internal visualization. Mental models are situation specific and, as a result of this, the knowledge training is especially effective when it creates similar requirements to the targeted application of the knowledge. This is important as mental models allow for a training transfer from the training environment to the actual application of the knowledge.

Computer games have a high potential to achieve such a knowledge training as they can simulate any learning content and create similar requirements to a real world application. However, the degree of realism also depends on the used input devices and the overall environment in which the simulation is experienced.

Aside from achieving an effective knowledge training, computer games can help us to retain acquired knowledge and to update the respective mental models. This is achieved by simulating the targeted knowledge in such a way that, despite not reaching a high degree realism, the mental models are still used to solve presented problems. In this way, users are required to apply their mental models for problem-solving thus recalling the stored information. In addition, computer games visualize the knowledge’s application thus improving the mental models by further visualizations.

For instance, a flight simulation computer game requires all principles of flight during the gameplay. Players can apply relevant knowledge by practicing flight maneuvers, radio navigation, and standardized approaches. As a result, although not being in a real cockpit, pilots can challenge themselves to apply their flight skills and to recall them. Thus, the gameplay results in a deliberate practice that ultimately leads to a completely automated or pattern-driven application of the knowledge, e.g., the flight skills.

In conclusion, computer games not only allow players to acquire and practice new knowledge, they also have the potential to require knowledge in a simplified way. This requirement still activates a player’s mental model thus improving it. As a result, although not being able to practice the knowledge in a real world application, users are able to automate their knowledge and gain expertise with its application. Hence, they are still prepared when they have to apply this knowledge in a real world context.