Although most educators would agree that learning can and should be fun, our education system is not set up with fun in mind. Instead, we have boring worksheets, anxiety-ridden tests, and long periods of boredom, so many teachers find reward systems useful motivation to get students to complete the distasteful schoolwork. Common incentives are stickers, candy, pizza parties – anything that gets the students excited – if only temporarily.
Game designers do something similar. In essence, games ask players to do meaningless, repetitive, difficult tasks and then punishes them when they fail. (Yes, I am talking about Flappy Bird) What keeps us playing? Part of the reward of games is the triumph of beating a level, boss, or high score. However, many games also make use of a compelling storyline to keep players engaged. Read more ›