Motivation, Learning, and Game Design

Abstract

While there are thousands of educational computer and video games in the market today, few are as engaging and compelling as entertainment games. Some entertainment games have also been used in classrooms and have proven to produce incidental learning (e.g., Civilization III, SimCity). This has demonstrated that learning can occur through playing computer and video games, although it does not address the question of how to design engaging games for learning that incorporate specific learning objectives. As educators, we generally design instruction by specifying our learning objectives and then developing our learning materials to address these objectives. The authors of this chapter argue that there are a number of elements used in entertainment games that motivate players, and using these elements in the design process for educational games based on learning objectives would create motivational and engaging educational games. This chapter outlines the elements needed to develop such games.