Gamification Infographic

My life in games begins before this infographic picks up, and, like the example of Oregon Trail in Play This, Learn That! I learned a lot about choices and critical thinking in everything from early MUDs to SimCity and Civilization (still one of my favorite classics). I also recall playing Civil War, which included not only historically accurate battles, but the opportunity to upgrade various skills and weapons, in order to try to change history.

In a more recent experience with the link between gamification, few years ago, a colleague was showing a documentary about the Chernobyl disaster in her Energy and Environment classes. As the camera moved around the Chernobyl site, some of the students began talking excitedly. It turned out that they had detailed knowledge of the layout of Chernobyl - not because they had studied the disaster, or had travelled to the site - because the area was a map in Call of Duty 4. The game version of the map was so detailed that the students were calling out what was around the next corner in the documentary. This has always struck me as a perfect example of the connections that can be made between games and learning. The students were much more engaged du to their experience with the virtual Chernobyl.

There is also something to say about the statistic that 3 billion hours each week are spent gaming. This number is unlikely to decrease any time soon, especially as immersive VR continues to expand its reach. Since time is a finite resource, and given the choice between work and play, most of us would prefer play, means that effective gamification can bring some of that time back to learning.

Finally, I completely agree with the notion that the creativity and fun of gaming has largely been stripped from learning at an early age. In my own experience as a parent, there is no question that children become more stressed and have their personalities suppressed in the traditional model of education today. We ask children to sit still, be quite, and learn primarily in a passive role. It goes against the way we learn everything that we learn up until we start school. It reminds me of the book Einstein didn't use flashcards. The research with rats that started the movement toward bright colors and interesting shapes for babies came out of studies of rats. The rats who had bright, "stimulating" environments learned more quickly than the rats in the less stimulating environments. However, as the author points out, the "fast" learning rats would have learned even more quickly if they had simply been let out of their cages to roam and explore freely.

For the game that I hope to develop, I want to tap into the sense of exploration and challenge that some of my favorite games have always had. Games like Civilization offer multiple paths to victory, and there is not one strategy that will produce certain victory every time.