Sometimes a good way to figure out which way to go, is to start with deciding where not to go. There are lots of people out there who already had their fair share of experiences with creating serious games and share their learnings. So I compiled a list of common mistakes or don’ts described in various blogs.
- Focus too much on Visuals
A beautifully designed game will not be of any use if the game mechanics are not well developed and thus not training the knowledge properly. Also gameplay can become very frustrating to players if the interactives look nice but do not work as they are supposed to (1). - Make it all about rewards
Badges, points and other rewards can help motivate the player to some extent but their implementation alone cannout ensure that the intended learning outcomes will be acchieved. It is important to find a way to appeal to the intrinsic motivation of the player for exmaple with tasks that are just the right amount of challenging for the player’s skill-level or interesting story the player wants to learn more about (1). - Shame Underperformers
Public leaderboards that include the lowest ranks can sometimes lead to alienation of those who don’t perform well in the game. Shaming players for low performance can damage their confidence, morale and motivation. If the motivation is gone, the people will definitely stop playing. So if leaderboards are part of the game they should only cover the top players. (1) - Develop the Game without considering the Player
All game mechanics should be tailored to the target players as they are the ones carrying them out. Most likely the target audience is different from the people developing it, so it is important to know and understand the people who should be engaged by the game. According to the Fogg’s behavior model there are essentially three underlying factors to behavior that should be considered:
Motivation – how can they be motivated to perform a certain behavior?
Trigger – what would be a suitable trigger to prompt them to action?
Ability – what are their abilities and resources to carry out the behavior? (2) - Long Intros
Too long introductions and explaining the learning obejctives too detailed in the beginning might bore the players and leads to a bad first impression – making them more critical about everything that follows and could even lead to them quiting before they even started. (3)
Sources:
- Little, Bob; The Do’s and Don’ts of Good Gamification, L&D Blog, 27.04.18, https://www.mindtools.com/blog/corporate/dos-donts-good-gamification/
- Wu, Michael; Incentive Research Foundation, Gamification Done Right—The Do’s and Don’ts, 2014
- Clark, Donald; 25 ways to make your e-learning totally suck, Plan B, 29.08.2016, https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/search?q=25+ways+to+make+your+e-learning+totally+suck
