These are public postings of my writings for the first course of the Graduate Certificate Program in Serious Game Design and Research at Michigan State University.
Please note: these posts are not intended as any kind of commentary on or assessment of the course I’m taking, or its instructor, OR of Michigan State University or the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, or the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media. They are solely my thoughts and reactions that stem from the readings.
Feel free to comment, disagree, or what have you.
Week 8
These are the readings for the week (Topics: Theories: Self-determination theory; Topics: Planning a research study; Budgeting)
- Barab, S., Dodge, T., Tuzun, H., Job-Sluder, K., Jackson, C., Arici, A., Job-Sluder, L., Carteaux, R., Jr., Gilbertson, J., & Heiselt, C. (2007). The Quest Atlantis Project: A socially-responsive play space for learning. In B. E. Shelton & D. Wiley (Eds.), The Educational Design and Use of Simulation Computer Games (pp. 159-186). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268
- Thompson, D. I., Baranowski, T., Buday, R., Baranowski, J., Thompson, V., Jago, R., et al. (2010). Serious video games for health: How behavioral science guided the development of a serious video game. Simulation & Gaming, 41, 587-606.
- Mount Olympus (video) http://www.gel.msu.edu/olympus-short-and-long-term-effectiveness-exergames-young-adults
- GAME: Quest Atlantis http://www.questatlantis.org
This week we are reading and thinking about motivational theories, in particular, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and intrinsic motivation. Curiously, this week I also came across Sebastian Deterding’s Microsoft Research Talk that was posted on Oct. 12. It was about gamification, but it is also about games more generally, and touched on the motivational theory from this week.
In his talk, Sebastian offers some answers to the question above, and gives quite a nice explanation for how self-determination theory is embodied in games. One of the things he says is that many people using “gamification”, as well as many serious game designers confuse extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. He says that the fun in games chiefly arises from intrinsic enjoyment, not extrinsic incentives. Gamification tends to focus on the reward structures in games, and I think there is a tendency to do that in serious games too.
Deci & Ryan outline 3 basic psychological needs that affect human motivation: namely, the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Sebastian connects them to the enjoyment of games by looking at play, and those elements of play that exist in games.
Competence:
This is an area where designers often get it right. The usual game mechanics and assessments already do a pretty good job of allowing players to experience a sense of competence. All we need to do is *not* mess it up. (Easier said than done for sure!)
Autonomy:
Play is voluntary (Huizinga) and autonomous (Deci & Ryan), therefore, we need to provide choice in goals & strategies concordant w/ values and needs.
Relatedness:
“It is the nature of a fun community to care more about the players than about the game … We are having fun. We are caring. We are safe with each other. This is what we want.” (DeKoven, 1978) Sebastian used this quote to make the point that play is attunement; it is the shared process of getting into a shared space. This attunement comes from a shared focus and attitude of exploration, mastery, benign transgression, and fun. This, he says, is Deci & Ryan’s relatedness.
This all means that we should focus on facilitating mastery, exploration, benign transgression, shared joy in our games.
I think that this may not always be possible in a serious game. It may even be possible to address them all only rarely. If we admit that, we stand a better chance of designing a game that still delivers on its message. It’s a mistake to pretend a game is something it’s not, and there is a tendency for serious games designers to over-sell their games. This can’t help but result in disappointment on the part of the player.
DeKoven, B. (1978). The well-played game : a player’s philosophy (1st Anchor books ed.). Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press.
Deterding, S. (2012). 9.5 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Gamification (Microsoft, Trans.) Microsoft Research Presentation. Redmond, WA. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=174677&l=i
