Reflection
I walked away from Erin’s video with a lot of new insights and perspectives on designing learning and educational games. As a learning scientist, I especially enjoyed the connection she made from building the idea of ‘Sophia’ (this idea of a game-learn emotion) on the basis of prior learning frameworks like Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. This prompted me to see the importance of incorporating ‘Sophia’ in game design as a way to scaffold the ’emotional build up/development’ that a player undergoes. I appreciated her emphasis on identifying and evoking specific emotions, while highlighting the need for there to be connection to the real world for the game experience to be truly meaningful and authentic. I do have some lingering questions though. Hoffman’s ‘fun’ approach theory mentions how many game worlds that incorporate ‘Sophia’ involve mechanics that encourage players to discover and explore confusing spaces and bringing order to these spaces. Given the prototype nature of her theory, and that assuming the players enter the educational game already with a state of confusion, uncertainty, and fear (about a specific learning problem/skill for instance), I wonder if there is a threshold for how long players can remain in that state before losing motivation or interest. In other words, what is the optimal moment for ‘Sophia’, or this realization or emotional insight, to occur before players disengage and exit the game due to prolonged confusion and uncertainty?
