Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning, 2nd Edition

Chapter 17Learning Games, Serious or Not?

Although games are defined by their rules and depend on players learning the rules, not all games provide an optimal framework for learning and building performance skills useful outside the game. For instructional games, we want to use fun, engagement, and focus to achieve learning outcomes transferable to performance in real-world situations.

Sometimes game mechanisms that provide great entertainment actually get in the way of learning targeted skills. We don't want player/learners focusing on aspects of games that don't provide useful skills outside the game. Some games throw in random complexity just to keep learners from getting too comfortable. Some games intentionally make it difficult to determine Outcome Rules, even changing them without notice. Discovering hidden rules can be rewarding, but can also take a lot of time and effort. There is even a chance some players will never figure them out properly.

However, if players deduce cause-and-effect relationships in context, the discovery can be very rewarding and memorable. Sometimes even random rule changes are exactly what are needed, as it can reflect what happens in real performance contexts. Done right, obfuscation can actually enhance motivation and engagement, but it has to be done carefully and with safeguards, such as providing hint and help buttons when the player/learner ...