Defining Fun
- The previous definition of Fun was “Fun is Learning.”
- But WTF is learning?
Lesson 1: Kids are smarter than you
- The “affective” state of learning is not the same as fun.
- “Fun is learning” is the beginning, not the end.
- Achieving this “affective” state is hard, and you need really good products to achieve it.
The Emotion Lens:
- Emotions don’t equal fun.
- Fun is a “process between multiple emotions.”
A New Definition of “Fun”
- Fun is “SOPHIA”
- the cognitive mechanical process by which we convert fear into happiness through surprise.
- Games that tend to have SOPHIA tend to involve some connection to/simulation of the real world.
- Yes, Sim City.
- No, Candy Crush.
Learning Games
- We want the player to be able to do something they couldn’t do before playing by the end of playing.
- A lot of these games, however, lack emotional content/progression.
- The emotion journey (SOPHIA) is what drives learning.
- It’s HARD to make things that are hard to learn fun (e.g., the quadratic equation)
- Reasons why learning games might not be fun:
- Lack of clarity of core emotion.
- Not enough surprise preceding satisfaction.
- Lack of tension
