Start Date

11-8-2016

Description

Many serious games and gamified applications for educational contexts continue to fail. How different game elements synergize to create simultaneously engaging and educational experiences remains unclear. Yet, the first highly effective educational games were created over forty years ago. By better understanding how game design elements align with a game’s emotional appeal and educational objectives, we can establish why effective games work so well and how to reduce failure rates among serious games and game-like systems. This process begins with an exploratory experiment examining the effect of narrative mechanics on an educational game’s appeal and effectiveness.

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Aug 11th, 12:00 AM

Designing the “Appeal” of Educational Games

Many serious games and gamified applications for educational contexts continue to fail. How different game elements synergize to create simultaneously engaging and educational experiences remains unclear. Yet, the first highly effective educational games were created over forty years ago. By better understanding how game design elements align with a game’s emotional appeal and educational objectives, we can establish why effective games work so well and how to reduce failure rates among serious games and game-like systems. This process begins with an exploratory experiment examining the effect of narrative mechanics on an educational game’s appeal and effectiveness.