« Werewolf, online. | Main | Epic Mount tee »

March 14, 2009

Comments

Liz Lawley

Jane McGonigal talked about this a lot last year at GDC in her "games as happiness engines" talk.

Jason Puckett

Have you seen this example of a professor who designed an online course using the RPG model?

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3490/professor-turns-his-online-course-into-a-role-playing-game

Sean Ness

Here's a link to her post and slides of her presentation - http://blog.avantgame.com/2008/02/is-broken-my-gdc-rant.html

Foe

The Scouts and Girl Guides do it offline, with their badges and the like, but it would be great to see the same approach in more formal learning contexts.

k

Hmn. I am... wary of this thought. I think you're suggesting grafting a game mechanic based on reward over real life, in order to motivate people to do things they would otherwise not be motivated to do.

Suppose this system works, and we have a large subset of people motivated to engage with 'boring things' / chores / biology gcse only through the medium of a game overlay. This reward structure de facto encourages engagement only to the level necessary to gain the achievement. Does providing an external motivation structure (which is necessarily impermanent) put them at a disadvantage compared to their conventionally motivated peers, who will be better able to operate in the absence of this game-framework?

Would tend to stop people learning to self-motivate, and take responsibility for setting their own goals?
How valuable a life-skill is this? Is it worth de-emphasising the learning of self-determination and drive in order to get people engaging with topics with the game overlay?

To what extend does conventional schooling already set an achievement framework around skill aquisition?

Also... broadening this out: could conventional religion be considered an attempt to put a framework of reward for appropriate behaviour around everyday life?

Jen

As a person who both loves the achievement rush and has a zillion chores and errands to get done, I think about this *a lot*, and posted a ramble about it a little while ago.

I'd like a game that involves engaging with whatever the task is and optimizing my proficiency -- finding out what doesn't work, getting tips from others, learning to integrate it better into my routine. It'd be great if the really dreadful chores could be made more exciting than they are, through storytelling, props, some kind of multi-player...?

Assuming that tasks can include all sorts of missions and experiences (not just the boring ones), I think the levelling and achievements potential could be really cool.

Alice

Kim raises an excellent point about whether self-motivation could wither and die. What a thought.

The comments to this entry are closed.

Recent links