Decisions, Rewards, Flow
What do we learn from games?
In research, games are associated with decision making, risks evaluation, and strategy. One of the founders of the mathematical theory of games, the American John Nash (1928-2015) has showed how the study of probability theory, along with specific topics, contributes to an analysis which was found to be very useful in economy.
The history of games is surprisingly old. Research has found artefacts related to the so-called Royal Game of Ur, dated around the third millennium BC, around Ancient Mesopotamia. Dice and other objects associated with games were found in the Ancient Egyptian area. Around the year 500 BC, the Chinese have invented the game of Go and in the first centuries AD, the Indians have introduced mankind to chess.
Presently, the gaming industry is one of the most challenging and diverse forms of entertainment. From casinos with gambling to international e-sports competitions — everybody who has access to technology can find at least one game for their pleasure.
At the same time, the vast development of this field has led to interest in its applications in other domains. In game development studios one finds talented and skilled teams who often exchange ideas with screenplay and cinema, medical imaging, industrial design, classical and digital art, or literature.
The intersections and unions that we are interested in here are those of games with education. We so often hear the term gamification, which refers to a mix of techniques and elements taken from (classical or digital) games used in education, training, team building or simply for one’s own life improvement. The pandemic period has also brought to more people’s attention various technologies and platforms such as Duolingo, Brilliant,org, Kahoot and more.
What do we learn from and through games and gaming? What concepts that are relevant in their development, design and mechanics could be used in satisfying one’s curiosity and knowledge, both individually, personally, and even at school?
Key Terms
The three words in the title are specific concepts that we find both in game theory, as well as in their development, design, and gameplay. Decision making and competitions are common occurrences in our everyday personal or professional lives; rewards are used in a different way in a game design environment.
If you’ve ever played a video game before or if you’re learning some foreign language using Duolingo, you’ve certainly noticed that there are many rewards they offer. From experience points (XP) to trophies (aka achievements) or levels of the player-character: you are rewarded with a higher and higher number of points the more effort you put into the tasks. Many studies argue that it’s not the score, the flood of numbers that are thrown at the player that creates loyalty and engagement to a game. Hence, rewards were divided into two categories:
Intrinsic rewards: these are the scores, the points that are awarded to the player or even trophies, ranks etc. A game which only offers such rewards, even if they are put into a competitive context, such as a ranking system, is not satisfying enough for most players to come back or engage in long sessions of play.
Extrinsic rewards are generally hard to define, but they answer the question “What have I gained other than points, scores, ranks?” For example, a game like those in the Age of Empires or Total War franchises offer intrinsic rewards when a player wins a battle, and they are even showed their strength in numbers. But the extrinsic rewards are also present, in that players can learn some basic history. To speak personally, I have looked up online certain cities that my civilizations founded when playing Civilizations 6 and I even read about the rulers that I impersonated and played against to find out about their specific traits that they had in history.
Therefore, intrinsic rewards are those which give the required momentary dopamine boost and sometimes that could be all we need (remember the short sessions of Minesweeper or Solitaire? Or the more recent Candy Crush?). But if a game wants to build a loyal player base, it has to offer extrinsic rewards: interaction with the community in the case of multiplayer games (main examples: EVE Online and World of Warcraft), some history (Age of Empires, Civilizations, Total War), captivating fiction (Final Fantasy), spectacular art (the Crysis, Doom, Star Wards franchises), a bit of fitness, coordination and exercise in the case of sports or dancing VR games, and more.
The reason we want to be rewarded in a game is itself a core psychology concept, highly relevant in any education process. In the 1970s, the Hungarian-born psychologist Michael Csikszentmihalyi (1934-2021) introduced the concept of flow: it is the state in which we have a maximum involvement in a certain activity. It is not mandatory for one to win to be in a flow state. But a balance is required between the difficulty of a task and a feeling of progress. Game designers know that they must maximize the period of the player’s flow and they have various strategies for that: they introduce the game with a story that sets the tone and background (Star Wars, Doom, Hellblade), they straight up throw the player in the middle of the action (Call of Duty, Battlefield) or focus on a character which we connect to and care for (Mario, Zelda).
Finally, a specific term is that of game mechanics. They consist of all the actions that we are allowed to in a game. Sports games have clear mechanics (shots, passes, dribbles etc.), shooter games as well, whereas Mario pioneered a family of games aptly named sidescrollers. But mechanics are much more than simple actions. Indeed, they could be more complex and sophisticated. For example, in a game of cards, a mechanic could be a certain action which triggers when the player uses a specific card combination. Stealth is also a mechanic in games such as Thief, Limbo or A Plague Tale. Therefore, a game mechanic is either an action or combinations of rules that trigger something else. The set of mechanics the player uses makes the gameplay loop. Match-training session-match is something you do in FIFA, walk-jump-walk in Mario, draw a card-play a card in a simple card game.
What and Why Are We Playing?
We could continue with the history of games or a mathematical presentation of game theory or even more elements of game design, mathematics, physics that are applied in game programming. However, we will tell you about some… let’s call them case studies. Two years ago, I said to myself that I will not buy any game, except for some short bursts of dopamine, unless I have something to learn from it: arts, aesthetics, history, literature, and more. The short bursts of dopamine are something we all need, and, in this respect, I echo what a fellow mathematician once said: one imagines that all scientists do is… scientific: they relax playing chess, they only listen to classical music and read SF novels etc. Things don’t usually work this way: relaxation is essential to everybody, and a very important role is precisely that of activities outside one’s profession. To speak for myself, I can’t play chess, but I relax with a couple of Call of Duty matches, Brotato or Dead Cells runs. It would be hard to explain what I learn from such games, but they are precisely the quick dose of dopamine and mindless fun that I sometimes need.
Now, the games I learned and still learn a lot from are, in no specific order:
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice: In the article about symmetry, I wrote how this game was designed such that the player feels a small part of what a psychotic person experiences. That’s why the mechanics are special (e.g., those used for puzzles). Furthermore, the story is very emotional and full of historic and mythologic references. The game also contains a making of documentary, wherein the interactions between the designers and neuroscience specialists are presented, as well as Celtic and Scandinavian history and mythology.
Hunt: Showdown. I am not a fan of horror games, although I do understand their appeal; fright, thrills and suspense are important in entertainment. I did make an exception for this game, which attracted me with its art first. I’m a fan of engraving and woodcuts and especially of Albrecht Dürer, so I was immediately attracted by the art of Ina Koos, the lead artist of this game. Then the mechanics and the actual gameplay are also notable. I find it rewards tactical approaches and teamwork, especially since the weapons are not overly powerful and the pace of the game is not very fast. Furthermore, it took me a while to notice that the game uses the Voynich alphabet in some inscriptions, which is another element I’m interested in, with quite a history.
Superhot: The basic idea of the game is innovative. The player character is armed and has some enemies scattered here and there. Here’s the catch, though: time only flows when the player character (PC) moves. Therefore, one could carefully plan their next move while standing still so they could act accordingly afterwards.
Control: Apart from the visual elements — I am a fan of the red and black combination —, the game represents the principle of synchronicity, which is a complex concept of Jungian psychology that I don’t intend to detail here and instead recommend this video. Furthermore, the décor of the game was praised for representing Brutalist architecture. Again, there’s a video to explain this.
The Talos Principle: The game is full of references to mythology, which is obvious from the name itself. At the same time, it explores with some philosophical depth various interactions between humanity, automata, and robots. There are many video essays which present it and among those, I could recommend this one and this one.
All lists one tries to make are incomplete. Hence the above barely opens some topics of discussion and doesn’t even mention many essential keywords and masterpiece titles. Hence, it is my pleasure to invite you to continue this talk either during our live meeting on May 13th or in our custom course. The descriptions are currently available in Romanian, but both could be offered in English as well, so do get in touch for further details.