Addictive LearningWhat we Can Learn from Addictive Games

Introduction Kids love video games. It’s estimated that 91% of children in the U.S. play video and/or mobile games.

Educators and parents have turned to “learning games” as a means to motivate and reach disengaged children.

If given a choice between doing traditional school work or playing a learning game, kids will typically choose the game.

Kids are typically not intrinsically motivated to play learning games, considering them an extension of “school work.”

At home, kids want nothing to do with “learning games” and consider them work, rather than fun.

Unless told to do so by a teacher or parent, most children will not engage in “learning games” on their own.

They will then go home and play a “fun” game for six hours straight before going to bed.

Why is this? What’s the difference between learning and fun games?

Is it possible to make learning games fun?

What Does it Mean to Play? According to author Johan Huizinga, play is defined as a free activitystanding quite consciously outside ordinary life as being not serious, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. (Huizinga, 1955).

According to psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, play is something that is, 1) desiredby the chld, 2) always involves an imaginary situation, and 3) always involves rules (Vygotsky, 1978).

Five Commonalities of PlayAuthor Peter Gray sums them all up into five five commonalities (Gray, 2011):

Gray says that play Is…. Things to think about...

Self-­Chosen and Self-­Directed Learning games are typically both “given” and “directed”

Intrinsically motivated Most games count on extrinsic motivators;; few will lead to intrinsic motivation

Guided by a set of rules Many games have “open worlds” allowing players full autonomy

Imaginative Most learning games are not “played”

Conducted in an alert, active, but non-­stressed frame of mind

Stress = kids expected & pressured by teacher/parent to “play” learning games

Are Learning Games Play or Work?Definitions of Play

Dictionary.com: “to exercise or employ oneself in diversion, amusement, or recreation;; to amuse oneself. (defines recreation as “a pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment.”

Merriam-­Webster: “recreational activity especially: the spontaneous activity of children (defines recreation: “something people do to relax or have fun)

Oxford: “Engage in activity for enjoymentand recreationrather than a serious or practical purpose.” (defines recreation as an “activity done for enjoyment when one is not working.”

Definitions of WorkDictionary.com: “Exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something;; labor;; toil.

Merriam-­Webster: “Sustained physical or mental effortto overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result.”

Oxford: “Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.”

Are we asking students to play or work?

Primary Motivations for GamingMaslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

A psychology theory proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” published in Psychological Review.

Self-­Determination Theory

A psychological theory of human motivation and personality regarding inherent choices that people make, breaking them down into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation types. Originating in the 1980s, it was popularized in 1991 by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Primary Needs Met with Online Gaming include:

1. Esteem2. Self-­Actualization3. Love/belonging

(Maslow, 1943)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Self-­Determination TheorySelf-­Determination Theory (diagram) Intrinsic Motivation (Ryan & Deci)

o Four Sources of Intrinsic Motivation

§ Challenge§ Curiosity

§ Control§ Fantasy

o Sample Items of Intrinsic Motivation

§ Interest/enjoyment§ Perceived competence§ Effort/importance§ Pressure/tension§ Perceived choice§ Value/usefulness

Some argue that extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci), while others

Most motivation theory involving games find the Self-­Determination Theory (SDT) to be the most accurate at predicting the enjoyment, happiness, and future likelihood of game play, both before playing, during play, and after having played. Primarily, the sense of perceived choice/autonomy, perceived competence, and perceived importance, and relatedness (Ryan, et al., 2006).

A subset of SDT, cognitive evaluation theory, deals specifically with the external consequences on intrinsic motivation (Reeve & Cole, 2001).

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation → Intrinsic MotivationMuch of the backlash on gaming as a means of learning comes from its obvious use of extrinsic rewards, such as points, levels, badges, etc. However, it is believed, by this author, that extrinsic motivators can lead to intrinsic motivation, especially in gaming. Not only can it lead to it, there may not be much of a difference in the first place.

Intrinsic or Extrinsic? Both?In some cases a motivation could be both intrinsic and extrinsic at the same time. Games are a case in point. For example, a player may be consciously aiming for an extrinsic reward (i.e. a new level, new virtual gear, etc.), but he/she is also doing this willingly, with full autonomy and choice, is having fun, and doing so may add to his sense of competence and relatedness.

Highly Addictive GamesMost Addictive Online Games (numbers at peak)

Short Form (Mobile) Games Long Form Games

Candy Crush Saga 500 million downloads World of Warcraft 12 million subscribers

Minecraft 20 million buyers Everquest 500,000 subscribers

Angry Birds 2 billion downloads Call of Duty 100 million players

Clash of Clans 6 million daily players The Sims 110 million buyers

Plants vs Zombies 100 million downloads Farmville 80 million players

Puzzles and Dragons 40 million downloads Wizard 101 30 million players

Flappy Bird 50 million downloads

Big Five Addictive Game Targets

1. Incentives, Rewards, Reinforcement2. Self-­Confidence, Esteem, and Competency3. Autonomy4. Relatedness & Love/Belonging5. Self-­Actualization & Happiness

We get addicted to games when the game provides us things we’re missing in the “real world.”

Incentives / Rewards / Reinforcement (A) Intermittent Reinforcement via Variable Ratio Schedules (i.e. rare spawns/drops)

o “Stretching the ratio” -­ starts fixed, becomes more “variable” @ higher levelso Quests require random “drops”;; as time passes you can’t quit for fear of wasting it

what you’ve done Behavioral psychology and operant conditioning (Skinner) -­ reinforcement is a

consequence (good or bad);; intermittent is when one can sometimes get what they want, but not every time.

A specific form of intermittent reinforcement, which games tend to use is variable schedule means that the reinforcement comes typically at a specific interval, but not always.

Small quests, linked one after another, each building on the last to bigger reward Compulsion loops;; rewards and repetitive tasks (motivation/reward) Clear connections between effort & reward (appreciation) Play and you will win! Various levels of rewards for expertise and mastery (sub-­levels)

Incentives / Rewards / Reinforcement (B) Progress reminders

o Experience and status barso Graphs and chartso Email and social media communicationo Timer-­related consequences

Rare and collectible aspectso Reward “grinding” (fighting)o Reward “camping” (sitting)

Short form game mechanics – “just one more” addiction principle (Flappy Bird)o WoW: constant positive feedback and clear goal just minutes awayo Endless supply of monsters in sight

Minimization of logging out optiono WoW: Dungeons & raids -­ will lose hours of “work” if you quit;;o Peer-­pressure to stay: “If you leave we all die!”

Reward tied to sharing are particularly effective (Liu, 2011)

World of Warcraft’s Reward System(s) Achievement rewards Title rewards (name) Darkmoon Faire mini-­games (tickets) PVP gear rewards (two kinds) PVP rating level rewards (BG) PVP rating level rewards (Arena) PVP ranking level rewards (BG & Arena) Profession leveling takes raw “mats”

(material), dropped by mobs or quests. Each can be separately leveled and many have multiple paths:o Gathering professions (4): Fishing,

Herbalism, Mining, Skinning.o Crafting professions (11): Alchemy,

Archeology, Blacksmithing, Cooking, Enchanting, Engineering, First Aid, Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Tailoring

Endless supply of monsters in sight

Dozens of parallel reward paths Experience rewards Quest rewards Bonus quest rewards Triple exp rewards (Recruit-­a-­Friend) Normal loot rewards Tiered loot rewards (uncommon/rare/epic) No-­drop item rewards Crafting component rewards Faction/Reputation rewards Level rewards (after fixed exp) Mount rewards (rare) Pet rewards (two kinds) Garrison rewards (new to 2014) Game token rewards (new to 2015)

Self-­Confidence, Esteem (MHN), and Competency (SDT)

Respect by others (esteem) Make it matter (publicize gamer success

ala WoW “Ladders”) Illusion of control makes us think we’re

skilled players (Burger, 1986) Small wins via instant unlockables Progressive difficulty (adaptive) Competition (esteem) vs other RL players,

RPGs, timers, and oneself Conspicuous consumption (Bagwell and

Bernheim, 1996) -­ will pay big to look better than others

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Instant progress meters toward goals Short-­term and Long-­term goals clear Disproportionate feedback

o Candy Crush & Angry Birds Intuitiveness & Simplicity;; small learning

curve;; step-­by-­step walkthrougho Flappy Bird &

Scaffolded one-­at-­a-­time, on-­demand tips Avatar + identity Sense of achievement Expertise & Mastery (PVP) Strategic & challenging (PVP arena, High-­end

raids)

Autonomy (SDT) Escapism Open World (Minecraft, Everquest, World of Warcraft) Self-­governed world reduces or removes formal authority

o Rare to see GM’s in-­gameo Forums (in-­game and out) reduce need for IT dramatically

Personalization & Customizationo Pre-­game avatar selection (race, sex, face, skin tone, hair, etc)o In-­game “transmogrifications”

Fight or flight;; how will I earn enough money to… strategy Adaptive learning via “challenges w/NPCs and wise men” Alt Characters: if you don’t like your life just start another, referred to as “alternate characters,” your avatar’s avatar.

Relatedness (SDT) / Love & Belonging (MHN)

Collaboration is a fundamental part of nearly all addictive long form gameso WoW = 2/3/5/10-­player teams for arena pvp, 5/10/15 player groups (dungeons), and guilds that raid (10/25 player) elite quests & bosses;;

o 95% of the WoW population never makes it to highest level raids Progression (pve and pvp) requires collaboration, in-­game communication, and (at high level) audio communication via voice chat (i.e. Skype)

Special short cut language makes insiders feel like part of the club Social aspects highly rewarded (sharing via social media, invites) Peer-­pressure at high level & consequences of logging off

Self-­Actualization (MHN) / Happiness Game life has a reset button (redos, alts, etc.) Creativity (Minecraft, Sims, and various parts of all long form addictive games) Hedonic Adaptation -­ tendency for people to want to return to a stable, happy environment, regardless

of serious changes (good or bad) in their life (Lyubomirski, 2010). Rosy Retrospection -­ the tendency for people to remember and recollect events they experience more

fondly and positively than they evaluated them to be at the time of their occurrence (Mitchell and Thompson, 1994).

Gambler’s Fallacy -­ The classic “hot hand” superstition where people believe that the onset of a random event is more likely following that same event happening (Sun and Wang, 2010).

Flow -­ The psychological concept of being in “a zone,” where a person is fully engaged and immersed in an activity (Csikzentmihaly, 2000). It has been extensively studied the realm of gaming by Jenova Chen (Chen, 2007). Some question whether flow is conducive to learning or not.

What Learning Games Can Learn Reframe the Game: Stop referring to them as

“learning” games, just call them games. Mixed Motivation Design: Design for extrinsic

and intrinsic motivation together. Optional, Not Mandatory: If you make them play

for a grade, test, etc. then it won’t work. Instead, make them want to play.

Design for Fun First: Add learning into entertainment/fun games, rather than trying to make learning games more fun and entertaining.

Embedded Learning: Embed the subject matter into the mechanics of the game itself. Don’t try and stuff math equations into WoW

Embedded Sharing: Embed social media sharing into the game itself, making it a critical part of play. Don’t think players will abandon their current social identities to use your custom built sharing infrastructure. Studies show that learning games can be made fun, especially when tied directly to social media (Klopfer, et. al., 2009).

Progression & Feedback: Start the game veryeasy with one-­at-­a-­time walkthrough instructions and on-­demand informative feedbackmechanisms (Shapiro, 2012).

Collaborative Design: Build collaboration and group/team play into the design, not as afterthought.

Get Rewards Right: Multiple levels of rewards and incentives should be built into the game. Don’t wait for kids to be intrinsically motivated to play a learning game.

Blend with RL: Tie in real-­life with game life as much as possible to ensure the learning is relevant. Real life, tangible rewards work good.

Blend Reinforcements: Add a mixture of stable and variable reinforcements. Start stable and gradually move to intermittent.

R&R Design: Design with a nice mix of randomand rare game aspects. The more special the rewards feel the more kids will want them.

Learning Game ExamplesOregon Trail: Choose your own path edu game from 1980s. Takes the most extreme diseases and makes them the most common ailments. You will die! You must spend limited funds and choose constant paths to take. Goal is to make it to the end of the trail. Included leader board, but the default #1 was “Stephen Meck”. At every point you choose between 2 things;; sometimes can ask for help-­-­ lifelines.UrgentEVOKE: A game developed by World Bank Institute that puts together partnerships to create innovative solutions to key social problems.Quest to Learn (Q2L) is a public school in NYC that bills itself as “the institute of play” and has its entire curriculum designed around gaming. A formative evaluation was done on Q2L results in 2013 and found that their students significantly improved systems thinking skills, and to a lesser degree time management and teamwork (Shute, et al., 2013).

Lexica -­ players free classic characters that have been trapped in an imaginary library by an evil empire. By reading the books, students learn what kind of powers the characters can offer them. They are motivated to save the characters and to do so they need to read the books. There are even mini-­games, which also require familiarity with the characters and plots of classic books.SportsNetwork 2: Players must do offline research on solutions they could use within the game. (same w/Miles and WoW)The Secret World: Players must real-­world browser searches to help solve puzzles.More Research Needed: There have been empirical studies done on MMORPG’s in the learning context, including a study of learning skill and expertise in World of Warcraft (Schrader and McCreery, 2007)(Dickey, 2006), but more are needed to determine best practices.

References (A)Berridge, & Kringelbach. (2015). Pleasure systems in the brain.Neuron, Neuron. Retrieved fromhttp://wings.buffalo.edu/aru/ARUreport01.htm (May 2015).Burger, J. (1986). Desire for control and the illusion of control: The effects of familiarity and sequence of outcomes. Journal of Research in Personality, 20(1), 66-­76.Camp, J. (2011). 91 Percent of Kids Play Video Games, Says Study. DigitalTrends.com. Retrieved fromhttp://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/91-­percent-­of-­kids-­play-­video-­games-­says-­study/ (May 2015)Chen, J. (2007). Chen, Jenova. Flow in games (and everything else). Association for Computing Machinery. Communications of the ACM, Apr 2007, Vol.50(4), pp.31-­34Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow : The psychology of optimal experience (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row.Deci, E., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. (2001). Extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation in education: Reconsidered once again. Review Of Educational Research, 71(1), 1-­27.Dickey, M. (2007). Game design and learning: A conjectural analysis of how massively multiple online role-­playing games (MMORPGs) foster intrinsic motivation. Etr&D-­Educational Technology Research And Development, 55(3), 253-­273.Eisenberger, R., Pierce, W., & Cameron, J. (1999). Effects of reward on intrinsic motivation -­ Negative, neutral, and positive: Comment on Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999). Psychological Bulletin,125(6), 677-­691.

References (B)Fraley, L. (2011). Social Implications of the Variable Ratio Schedule. Behaviorology Today, Volume 14, Number I, Spring 2011, pg. 15-­18.Gray, Peter. (2011). The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents. American Journal of Play, 3(4), 443-­463.Haw, J. (2008). Random-­ratio schedules of reinforcement: The role of early wins and unreinforced trials.Journal of Gambling Issues, 21, 56-­67.Haw, J. (2008). Random-­ratio schedules of reinforcement: The role of early wins and unreinforced trials.Journal of Gambling Issues, 21, 56-­67.Hogarth, R., & Villeval, M. (2010).Intermittent Reinforcement and the Persistence of Behavior: Experimental Evidence.Hopson, J. (2001). Behavioral Game Design. Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games website. Retrieved fromhttp://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3085/behavioral_game_design.php?page=1. (May 2015).Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo ludens;; a study of the play-­element in culture.(Humanitas (Beacon Press)). Boston: Beacon Press.Kivetz, R. (2005). Promotion Reactance: The Role of Effort-­‐Reward Congruity. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 725-­736.Klopfer, E. Osterwell, S., Salen, K. (2009). Moving Learning Games Forward. The Education Arcade. Retrieved fromhttp://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf (May 2015)Liu, Y., Sutanto, J. (2011). Social Sharing Behavior Under E-­Commerce Context. Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library. Published July 9, 2011.

References (D)Lyubomirsky, S. (2010). Hedonic Adaptation to Positive and Negative Experiences. The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping, The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping.Maslow, A. (2013). Theory of Human Motivation. S.l: Start Publishing LLC. Retrieved fromhttp://downloads.joomlacode.org/trackeritem/5/8/7/58799/AbrahamH.Maslow-­ATheoryOfHumanMotivation.pdf (May 2015).Mitchell, T., Thompson, L. (1994). A Theory of Temporal Adjustments of the Evaluation of Events: Rosy Prospection & Rosy Retrospection. Advances in Managerial Cognition and Organizational Information Processing, Volume 5, pages 85-­114.Reeve, J., & Cole, S. (1987). Integration of Affect and Cognition in Intrinsic Motivation. The Journal of Psychology, 121(5), 441-­449.Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-­67.Ryan, R., Rigby, M., & Przybylski, C. (2006). The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-­Determination Theory Approach. Motivation and Emotion, 30(4), 344-­360.Schrader, P., & Mccreery, M. (2008). The acquisition of skill and expertise in massively multiplayer online games. Etr&D-­Educational Technology Research And Development, 56(5-­6), 557-­574.Shapiro, J. (2012). Mario Brothers and Level-­up Leadership: Social Entrepreneurship, Gamification, and Religion. Forbes MagazineOnline. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2012/11/23/mario-­brothers-­and-­level-­up-­leadership-­social-­entrepreneurship-­gamification-­and-­religion/ (May 2015)

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