Would the real Mary Poppins please stand up?

would the real mary poppins please stand up? Sebastian Deterding Northeastern University June 11, 2015

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gaMification Lets learn from games how to make things fun!

the unwitting figurehead

two conflicting theories of fun

<1>

“just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

“spoonful of sugar”

aka fun as additive substance

some things are inherently fun …

… and some things aren’t.

»School is like medicine: It must taste bitter, else it’s of no use.«

in the punchbowl (1944)Professor Crey

so: add funstuff to nonfunstuff for more fun

aka 1990’s edutainment

a resounding

failure …

gaMification Lets learn from games how to make things fun!

… which doesn’t bode well for this

<2>

“in everything that can be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun, and snap, the job’s a game.”

“find the fun”

aka fun as systemic-emergent quality

everything can be(come) fun, interesting

»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)Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“intrinsic integration”

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/oem2002006062/PP/

Donald F. Roy

»De Man cites the case of one worker who wrapped 13,000 incandescent bulbs a day; she found her outlet for creative impulse, her self-determination, her meaning in work by varying her wrapping movements a little from time to time. ... (L)ike the light bulb wrapper, I did find a ›certain scope for initiative,‹ and out of this slight freedom to vary activity, I developed a game of work.«

»banana time« (1960)

fun as systemic-emergent qualityhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/2084853203

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8147452@N05/2913356030/sizes/o/

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)

one recipe for one kind of fun

1. Identify the inherent learnable challenge

2. Restructure it optimally with clear goals, rules, feedback

3. Playtest and iterate

j.mp/skillatoms

summary

to be A real mary poppins …

don’t sugarcoat nonfunstuff ™

find an interesting challenge …

… structure it well …

test it ‘til you get it righthttps://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/2084853203

invite us to find the fun in it …

“… and snap, the job’s a game.”

[email protected]@dingstweets

http://j.mp/skillatoms

Thank you.