Video Game Seduction Secrets

Keith Stuart's article in the Guardian, The Seduction Secrets of Video Game Designers, provides some insights into the ways video games pull players in.  Stuart points out that video games get players to eagerly and enthusiastically learn without thinking of it as learning.  Some of the ways video game designers manage to pull this off can have implications for how we encourage learning in the classroom.

Failure is Welcomed

Successful video games attach a low stakes to failure, ensuring that failure is not only allowed, but often encouraged.  For example, Stuart mentions Burnout, a driving game with such spectacular animations of crashes that many players would look forward to crashing.  In these games, failure is viewed simply as part of the process of mastering the skills necessary to pay the game.  As a result, players experiment with new tools or skills in the game in order to find out what they can do.

Too often in education, we attach penalties to early failures, discouraging experimentation and play with our content.  In addition, placing a permanent low score in the gradebook creates barriers for students who don't master content or skills immediately.  By borrowing from video games and limiting the stakes, especially early on, we can open up the door for students to explore academic content in the same way that many of them explore video games.

Acquire, Test, Master

Many video games introduce new tools in three stages.  Stuart uses one of my favorite games, Portal, as an excellent example of this cycle.  The levels in Portal are filled with opportunities to use the portal gun, the player's main tool, and elements of the environment in endlessly interesting ways.  Each new item is introduced separately.  In Portal, players are typically given some very simple pictographs to explain a new skill or tool.  That skill is then central to solving the level, giving players the opportunity to play around and see what they can do.  The next levels will often require players to apply the new skill in increasingly complex ways, giving players the chance to master it before the next skill is introduced.

The same cycle can be incredibly powerful in the classroom.  It is not enough to give students a new equation or a new concept, they need a chance to apply it and play with it.  Traditionally, this is done through lecture and examples, followed by practice exercises for students, but this structure discourages students from experimenting and testing the limits of their new knowledge.  Part of what makes new skills in Portal interesting is the limited instruction players are given regarding a new skill, requiring players to experiment to understand something new.  Students deserve the same opportunity in our classrooms.

The third phase is also all too often left out of traditional classroom instruction.  In Portal, you must complete a level before you are able to move on to the next one.  In order to complete a given level, you must master the skills included in the level.  In the classroom, we feel the pressure of days ticking away or more advanced students ready to move on and often force students to move on to the next topic before they've demonstrated mastery of the last one.  If we are truly building on previous skills, mastering one skill should absolutely be a prerequisite for moving on to the next skill, even if that means our students move through the course at different paces.

Player is in Control

More and more, video games put players in control of what is happening.  For example, I like to blow off steam by playing zombie-themed first-person shooter called Left 4 Dead with my husband.  As players, we control the pace at which we move through each level, as well as the path we take.  This allows us to carefully scout ahead and make a plan for challenging areas.  Periodically during a level, we encounter events where a horde of zombies will attack us.  These events are always triggered by the players, allowing us to make a plan, move items around to give us an advantage, and chose a strategic spot for the attack.  This control over how and when we face the most challenging portions of the game adds to much of the fun.

In school, students are frequently taken out of the driver's seat.  Their schedule tells them where they need to be and when they need to be there.  Teachers tell them where to sit and what to do during our classes.  We even tell them how to do their work and who to do it with.  Given the level of control schools and teachers exert, its no wonder we struggle to get students to feel a sense of ownership over their learning.  Video games are fun in part because we get to control so much.  Why not find ways to bring some of that to education?

Plot Twists

The story that games tell can be just as important as the gameplay.  Games like Heavy Rain and LA Noir are known as much for their surprising plot twists as their mechanics.  These surprises keep players on the edge of their seat, eager for what comes next.

In science education, we have some very natural opportunities for "plot twists" that are too often neglected.  Many teachers use discrepant events, demos or labs that have a surprising result, to create a need for students to learn something new.  If the science content is treated as a story, the discrepant events become plot twists, with the story suddenly taking an unexpected turn.  This kind of thinking about science content could help to create the kind of curiosity gaps that would have students eager for what will come next in school, and not just in their favorite narrative game.