Talk at the University of Leicester on January 27, 2017.

1. would the real mary
poppins please stand up?approaches and method in gamification
Sebastian Deterding / @dingstweets
Digital Creativity Labs, University of York
January 27, 2017
c b

2. <1>
introduction

3. we are all
game designers

7. old idea: learn enjoyment design from games
Malone 1981, Carroll & Thomas 1983, Blythe et al. 2004

8. recent surge of interest
gamification
serious games
persuasive tech

9. gaMification
The use of game
design elements in
non-game contexts
Deterding et al. 2011

10. health & wellbeing

11. sustainability

12. education

13. the pursuit of happiness

14. the unwitting figureheard

15. two
conflicting
theories of fun

16. <2>
what is fun?
(baby don’t hurt me)

17. (a)

19. “just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”
aka fun as additive substance

20. some things are inherently fun

21. and some things are not

22. so: add funstuff™ to nonfunstuff™ for more fun

23. aka 1990’s edutainment

26. a
resounding
failure …
Squire 2006, Egenfeldt-Nielsen 2007

27. Bruckman 1999

28. gaMification
The use of game
design elements in
non-game contexts
Deterding et al. 2011
… which doesn’t bode well for this

29. (b)

31. “in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun”
aka fun as emergent systemic quality

34. Every activity can become fun, interesting

35. experience is a dynamic, emergent quality
Hassenzahl 2010

37. aestheticsmechanics dynamics
Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004

38. Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004
aesthetics
Frustrating
end game
mechanics dynamics
Slow
poverty gap
+$ !+
-$ !-

39. so how do you design that?*
Deterding et al. 2013
* obligatory visualisation of
ephemeral design work with
people pointing at post-its

40. <3>
gameful design
methods

41. lots of industry work, little research
Deterding et al. 2013

42. if you want to know more
• Conceptual development of
requirements from literature
• Review of existing methods
against requirements
• Iterative design-based
development and evaluation of
method through 19 projects &
workshops with teams of 2-6
(n=335)

43. guiding questions
1. What are the enjoyable, motivating experiences
characteristic for gameplay?
2. What game structures and processes afford
these experiences?
3. How does game design create these structures
and processes?
4. How can we integrate this into design methods
for non-game systems?

44. raph koster
»Fun is just another word
for learning.«
a theory of fun for game design (2004)
#1

45. raph koster
»Fun from games arises out of
mastery. It arises out of
comprehension. It is the act of solving
puzzles that makes games fun.«
a theory of fun for game design (2004)

48. edward deci, richard ryan
»An understanding of human motivation
requires a consideration of innate
psychological needs for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness.«
the what and why of goal pursuit (2000)

49. chief source of game enjoyment: overcoming challenges
Malone 1981, Csikszentmihalyi 1990, Koster 2005, Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2010, Klimmt & Blake 2012

50. Not fun Fun
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sulamith/1342528771/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonquantique/3364593945/sizes/l/
#2

51. raph koster
»Fun is just another word
for learning.«
a theory of fun for game design (2004)
through interesting challenges

52. goals …

53. + rules …

54. constraining actions …

55. = interesting challenges

56. + feedback …

57. = experiences of competence

58. formal structure of games: skill atoms/loops
Cook 2007, cf. Dormans 2012

59. aestheticsmechanics dynamics
Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004
#4
how the user experiences it

60. aestheticsmechanics dynamics
Hunicke, LeBlanc & Zubek 2004
how the designer creates it

61. Rainer Knizia
»The life blood of game design is testing. ...
Why are we playing games? Because it‘s
fun. You cannot calculate this. You cannot
test this out in an abstract manner. You
have to play it.«
shift run stop, episode 40 (2010)

62. iterative experiential prototyping & testing

63. central goal conflict of applied game design
Goal
conflict
game design
Enjoyable
inefficiency
interaction design
Usable
efficiency
#4

65. how do we make one support the other?
Goal
congruence
game design
Enjoyment
interaction design
Efficiency

66. intrinsic integration: core challenge = to be learned skill
Habgood & Ainsworth 2011, Echeverría et al. 2012

67. what about
real-world output,
not learning?

68. john M. Carroll & John C. Thomas
»Tacking on ad hoc complications
will not evoke fun.«
fun (1988: 21)

69. intrinsic integration: restructure inherent learnable challenge
For ticket, drag red
dot through labyrinth
Ticket

70. Level 2
For ticket, drag red
dot through labyrinth
Ticket

71. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
»Mowing the lawn or waiting in a dentist’s
office can become enjoyable provided one
restructures the activity by providing goals,
rules, and the other elements of enjoyment
to be reviewed below.«
flow (1990: 51)

72. create find and restructure already-inherent challenge

76. needs formative research to elicit challenges
Khaled & Ingram 2012

77. <4>
summary

78. gaMification
The use of game
design elements in
non-game contexts
Deterding et al. 2011
TO DESIGN FOR GAMEFUL EXPERIENCES …

79. Bruckman 1999
don’t sugarcoat nonfunstuff™

80. FIND AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE

81. STRUCTURE IT WELL

82. AND playtest and iterate ’TIL YOU GET IT RIGHT

83. sebastian@codingconduct.cc
@dingstweets
codingconduct.cc
thank you