Precision of Emotion: A New Kind of “Fun” Approach in Educational Games
Erin Hoffman @ GDC 2015
Raph Koster: “That’s what games are in the end. Teachers. Fun is just another word for learning”
- Understanding comes from research of the flow state
Glass Lab: Mars Generation 1: Argubot Academy
- RPG Pokemon that teaches argumentation
Lab founded in 2012
- 3 year grant by Gates Foundation and MacArthur Foundation
Surprise that kids in a school environment were really eager for learning
- Different than as studied when just playing for fun
Idea that “fun is learning” is the beginning, not the end
The Emotion Lens
Paul Ekman’s work on recognizing basic human emotions
- disgust, contempt, sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise
- said to be universal across all people in all cultures, even if expressed differently
But where is fun?
- Therefore fun isn’t one emotion, but a sequence or process
Game-learn emotion: the cognitive process by which we convert fear into happiness through surprise
- known as “sophia”
100 trillion microbes on your body; called the second genome, 10:1 to our own cells
- Audience felt creeped out at first, but as learned more about it felt better
- This is sophia!
Sophia Games
Most games like this have commonalities:
- connection to the real world
- mechanics often involve exploring and creating order
- “ordered state” once created gives insight about real world
- gives a feeling of understanding at the end
Meaningful games are able to connect to the real world
- Users can jump between the game model and the real world and keep insights
Emotional Hierarchy of Games
Other core emotions in games!
- fear genre: self explanatory
- together genre: evoke togetherness and knowing other people
- complicity genre: emotion of initial engagement, mastery over a system, then regret (ex. Papers, Please)
- fiero genre: lots of mastery, makes you feel “godlike”; ex. God of War, DOOM, etc
- and more!
but sophia is in all games to some extent
- big argument to make
sophia then will drive the core emotion of the game
Learning Games and Sophia
When we make learning games we know the effect we want but not necessarily the central emotion
Argues that the fear at the start of a game is always there, players just don’t realize
- so the purpose of games is to alleviate that inherent suffering
When Making Games…
Consider these questions:
- Is there a lack of clarity on the core emotion?
- Is there enough surprise before the satisfaction of mastery?
- Is there enough tension (fear) or too much?
