Game designer and researcher Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) says that games are fun because they provide the player the positive experience of learning something new: mastering a new skill, solving a puzzle, recognizing a pattern.
Games create the optimal conditions to learn - notice and master rule patterns - because of the following seven characteristics -
#1: Games set specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timed (SMART) short- and long-term goals for us.
#2: Games offer us explicit actions, designed as a series of interesting decisions or challenges.
#3: Games draw a clear relationship between completing the challenges and reaching the goals.
#4: Games tell us where we stand in relation to our goals and in relation to other players.
#5: Games give us instant, unambiguous, excessively strong positive (and negative) feedback.
#6: Games create more complex challenges for us as our skills grow, so that we stay in a state of flow.
#7: Games create social comparison to motivate us to compete with and learn from our friends.
Designers are trying to use game mechanics to design social innovation games (Urgent Evoke), consumer applications (FourSquare) and even enterprise software (Office Ribbon Hero).
However, the bigger design challenge here is not "how to include game mechanics", but "how to create a playful context" that recognizes that gameplay is a voluntary activity, done at leisure, during free time, without serious consequences.
So, designers not only need to create the game mechanics based tool itself, but also the goals it seeks to achieve and the environment in which it will be used.
While I am excited about white label game mechanics platforms like Bunchball and Big Door Media, the applications that are built upon them will be only as meaningful as the goals they set out to achieve, and only as engaging as the storytelling they incorporate.
What do you think? What are your favorite "serious" social games? How have they addressed the challenge of striving towards a serious goal while retaining the sense of playfulness? Do share your insights in the comments.