
454 | CHAPTER 25 Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds for Educators
virtual worlds. Try looking up some definitions online. Write down your thoughts,
and come up with some justifications that back your decision.
EDUCATIONAL GAMES
People voluntarily play games because they are fun, and embody many motiva-
tional aspects (Mastrian, McGonigle, Mahan, & Bixler, 2011). Great games provide
an optimally challenging state between boredom and frustration (Csikszentmihalyi,
1990). Games exist within a set of rules (Kelley, 1988; Salen and Zimmerman, 2003),
and players receive feedback from their interactions in the game and rule space.
An educational game,