Sanna: Starters for turning a social network into a GBL-environment

I recommend, though with some caveat because of its commercial tilt, the text from Bunchball (2010), “Gamification 101” (Dropbox); as well as a basic intro to the three well-known learning paradigms of the 20th century (Addendum: For a more scientific, structured approach see the text from Ertmer & Newby); and a peek into motivational theories, e.g. John Keller’s ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) at the same site.
All three aspects, games & play, learning and motivation, will be important for thinking about a game based learning approach in a social network.

„The universe is made of stories, not atoms.“
– Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)

“At its core, gamification is all about statistics.”
– Bunchball (2010)

One can argue on how to interpret these two quotes, but they may be describing the starting points for creating a social gaming environment.

To complement the game/play aspect, here are some quotes that may be helpful.

Formal criteria for play in general

“Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the difference from the common world by disguise or other means.”
– Johan Huizinga (1955), “Homo Ludens; A Study of the Play-Element in Culture.”

“(…) the preceeding analysy permits play to be defined as an activity which is essentially:
1. Free: in which playing is not obligatory; if it were, it would at once lose its attractice and joyous quality as diversion;
2. Separate: circumscribed within limits of space and time, defined and fixed in advance;
3. Uncertain: the course of which cannot be determined, nor the result attained beforehand, and some latitude for innovations being left to the player’s initiative;
4. Unproductive: creating neither goods, nor wealth, nor new elements of any kind; and, except for the exchange of property among the players, ending in a situation identical to that prevailing at the beginning of the game;
5. Governed by rules: under conventions that suspend ordinary laws, and for the moment establish new legislation, which alone Counts;
6. Make-believe: accompanied by a Special awareness of a second reality or of a free unreaiity, as against real life.”
– Roger Caillois (1958), “Man, Play and Games”

“Play is a subset of voluntary behaviour involving a selective mechanism which reverses the usual contingencies of power so as to permit the subject a controllable and dialectical simulation of the moderately unmastered arousals and regulations of everyday life, in a way that is alternatively vivifying and euphoric.”
– Brian Sutton-Smith: “Die Dialektik des Spiels”, 1977, S.64

“Play is that voluntary action which has a dialectical structure and which potentiates reversible operations.”
– Brian Sutton-Smith: “Die Dialektik des Spiels”, 1977, S.98

“Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.”
– Bernhard Suits (2005), “The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia”

Formal criteria for rule-based games

«A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.»
– Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (2004), “Rules of Play”

«A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.»
– Greg Costikyan (1994), “I have no words & I must design”

«A game is a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable.»
– Jesper Juul (2005), “Half-Real. Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds”, p.37

“When you strip away the genre differences and the technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.”
– Jane McGonigal (2011), “Reality is Broken”, p. 29

Joining game and play

 

“Playing is a complex sequence of anarchistic toying, innovative game creation and rule-complying gaming, of turning aspects of reality into virtuality.”

“Playing is about choices and the communication of these choices: What I choose to do within a game – and that I choose to be in a game in the first place.”

“Games themselves consist of two layers: a static regulative-narrative frame as a result of game creation, and the course of individual games performed within, as result of players playing the game.”

“If a given game represent a simplified version of a medium – including an (artificial) cultural background in the form of background story or base
metaphors – then a played game represents a unique expressive exchange within this medium: the rules may limit the choices available, but cannot foretell which trail of decisions will be made by the player, while narratives motivate the player and justify certain directions of this course.”

“While classic media deliver structured information, games provide a structure for the experimental formation of structured information.”

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About Wey

My name's Wey-Han Tan, I graduated 2007 as Diplompädagoge (educational scientist) in Hamburg, and 2009 as M.A. in ePedagogy Design. Currently I work at the project "Universitätskolleg" as scientific assistant at the Faculty for Educational Sciences, Psychology and Human Movement at the University of Hamburg. My research interests are game based learning, second order gaming, media theory and (radical) constructivist approaches. I like pen-and-paper-roleplaying, especially in contemporary horror settings like "KULT" or "Call of Cthulhu".
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