The Most Important Part
I was giving a talk at the Games & Learning Expo recently on what I hold as good game design. The Games & Learning Expo was focused around video games, and for this article I will diverge into their world for a moment.
The first thing I want to do here is pose a question to you: what is the most important part of any game?
I'll give you a moment.
I had a few responses to this, as you can imagine, and a lot of quiet reflection. And then one voice said, a little hesitantly, "The rules?"
Any game, video or traditional, has rules. Playing the game is a built-in reward mechanism for learning the rules.
Throughout our lives, we continually learn new rules. It might be a new job. It might be after a move, discovering where to find all the things you had where you used to live. Learning who's who in a social group you just joined. Our ability to cope with these changes is one of many things that define us as individuals (and leaders).
And so it follows that there is diminishing educational return from playing any one game for too long. Furthermore, any game that doesn't then corrolate into a real-life benefit is even less useful. Almost all table games have a built-in benefit to them in the form of social bonding; regardless of whether or not the game has its own inherent educational value, the simple activity of engaging in a game with others is a significant reward in itself. That isn't the case with many video games. In either case, the choices you make for your learners are very important.
Some games can provide educational benefits in unexpected ways. A couple of my favorites in this category come from PopCap games (http://www.popcap.com/):
- Bookworm Adventures: Using a Boggle-like mechanism, the player must battle their way through adventures of ever-increasing difficulty. Creating longer words gives you more power, and they can even be necessary for overcoming some challenges. Thus, the learner becomes more powerful by building their vocabulary and spelling skills to help them succeed. Better yet, the episodic format of the game helps you manage the activity time and set goals.
- The Wizard's Pen: This game would probably be best played when your learners are engaged with Harry Potter and/or Lord of the Rings in their book readings. The learner must uncover small portions of a picture to discover what object is being hidden, and then type in their response. In between major rounds, a "where's waldo" style game is played that has players looking for objects hidden in a complex picture. The most important skills being developed here are observation and attention to detail.
(NOTE: if you are interested in the games above, the first 100 educators to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. will receive a coupon for 50% off one PopCap game)
There are a few games that provide complex and wonderful "sandboxes" in which the learner can solve puzzles through manipulating objects on the screen.
- World of Goo: Manipulate small, sentient balls to create structures in order to reach point B from point A. Various obstacles are thrown in your way, and the structures created are also bound by the rules of their environment. Rewards are based on efficiency of design as well as effectiveness.
- Crayon Physics: Draw objects on the screen in order to convey a small red ball to a star. Lines have mass, but gravity is the only real force at work here. You can make catapults, pulley systems and more complex conveyances.
Regardless of what you're playing, diversity is important. Don't let someone dwell on a success for too long, or get stuck on the losing end of a game repeatedly. Exposing your learners to a broader range of challenges helps you identify where they need more help, gives more chances for everyone to succeed, and better equips them to deal with the changing rules of the world they live in.
