 US Statistics US Statistics  155 million people (50%)  42% at least 3 hrs/wk  Average age 35 (women 43)  56% male  2214 $22.4B

PLAY GOAL RULES

 What’s the difference?  Games: restrictive rules, limit-testing strategies  Toys: fantasy and free play.  Children  captivated by versatility of toys  Adults  lose interest in toys  Create games around toys  tactics, strategies, results (Schiesel 2008)

are an activity have rules have conflict have goals involve decision making are artificial are safe are outside ordinary life provide no material gain are voluntary have uncertain outcome are a representation are make believe are inefficient have closed systems are a form of art

 Play  “work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and … play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” Adventures of Tom Sawyer  Pretend  The Magic Circle (Huizinga)  Goal  Challenges  Win, Loss, Termination  Rules  Meanings, gameplay, sequence of play, goals, metarules

 What is it?  What could it be? “What we're currently terming gamification is in fact the process of taking the thing that is least essential to games and representing it as the core of the experience.” Margaret Robertson

 What kinds of games do young children play?  Role modeling!  How do young animals learn skills?  Playing!  What do you learn from Hide and Seek?  Hunting, tracking, hiding, observation

 Visual selective attention: focus on what’s important  Situational awareness: absorb what’s happening around you  Are those contradictary?  Mental mapping: create a mental picture of what you have learned  Inductive discovery: learn by trial and error  Multitasking  Collaborating Marc Prensky

 Improve visual attention  Over space (useful field of view)  Over time  Number of objects  University of Rochester study of action games  Unreal Tournament  Medal of Honor  Call of Duty

 games with a serious purpose beyond entertainment  built for serious purpose  used for serious purpose

 Education  Training  Social change  Health education  Pain control  Rehabilitation  Business (marketing)