We know games can change behavior.We know games can make arguments.We know games can promote learning.We know games can expose us to new ideas.We know games can share narrative.We know games can change our thinking. So take that all together, and here's my question. Can (and if yes—how can) we create games that are -specifically- designed to cultivate wisdom?
The past year and half has been a case study in how people react to unprecedented levels of uncertainty. Games, in all their forms, are fundamentally -about- reacting to uncertainty. Whether that comes from the systems of the game, information you are (or are not provided), other players, or your own skill level. One of my favorite games of all…
There's a variety of reasons I love Dungeons & Dragons. It's a shared narrative experience, its problem solving, creativity, and a social context. It's just all around great. But I never really stopped to think about just how much we as a society owe to D&D. Pretty much everything can be and is gamified these days. And the core of…
So, I’ve been struggling to stay motivated (and consequently have been writing extremely poorly) as I approach the end of my master’s program. This then translates into procrastination, as I literally see word counts shrinking from week to week as I edit, and it’s just frustrating. To the point where it’s become difficult to sit down and make myself work…
Well designed games have incredible potential—maybe more than most other art forms—to expose us to new perspectives and to reframe our thinking in meaningful ways. The combination of player agency (i.e. being put in a position to directly interact with ideas, rather than just passively consume them), relatively fast feedback cycles (you see what effects your actions and those of…
I’ve written a bit over on Model eLearning about some lessons that eLearning can learn from game design. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 if you’d like…let’s just say part 3 is in limbo until I figure out what I want to do with it. Today, I want to broaden that a bit and speak to how the experiences of…