The Secret Power of Learning Games - Intrinsic Motivation

Given a choice between playing a challenging, intensive and immersive game on saving lives as a first responder in an earthquake zone and sitting through a classroom-based training on collaborative and problem-solving, most people (adults and children) would choose the former. The reasons are not hard to find. Games are fun, games are engaging.

The secret sauce? Good games provide the motivation to keep playing. Serious games with learning outcomes also motivate learning.

A game like AfterShock© can more effectively drive home how important collaboration is in solving complex problems and how teaming of diverse people and skills can work effectively in solving complex problems to achieve the desired outcomes, through experience and player choices and consequences, than the hours spent studying texts with its explanations, theoretical examples or repetitions. Learners learn about teamwork and negotiation through the contexts and scenarios in the game. When they make a decision or take an action, and see the consequence of the decision or action, there is a sense of agency and completion that spurs learning.

This learning is self-motivated, self-directed, intrinsic and deep. Since the learning is always set in a context, it is also transferable.

Games provide their own intrinsic motivation, the kind of motivation that keeps players playing. Games have visible goals, a purpose that is larger than the player. They provide player agency, engagement and flow. Multiplayer games also offer the opportunity for collaborative play, problem-solving, and connection.

They are intensive, integrative and immersive. As in the real world, they integrate behaviors and competencies, a critical, yet oft-neglected aspect of traditional leadership training.

Motivation is a core element of good game design. Using it intentionally and effectively in learning games is critical in helping learners meet the desired learning outcomes. Games satisfy the key Intrinsic Motivators, Autonomy, Competence (or Mastery), Relatedness, and Purpose.

Autonomy and agency: A game offers the player choices. A well-designed learning game with its multiple decision points, strategies, and levels, offers learner agency, the ability to choose the learning path for themselves rather than having to follow rigid, pre-decided learning paths.

Competence: Learning games inherently provide feedback to the learner via progression to higher levels in the game as well as in-game scores and recognitions. Unlike traditional training, they compress the time between task completion and feedback so the learner is immediately aware of her mastery over the task or learning outcome. The sense of achievement the learner gains fuels her intrinsic motivation towards engagement and accomplishment.

Relatedness: Games-based learning is often collaborative in nature where players reinforce and validate individual behaviors in the game. Since these behaviors are usually the player’s natural behaviors in similar situations, games offer an excellent yet safe space for peer-learning. The sense of achievement that social validation and learning offers is a strong intrinsic motivator for learners.

Purpose: Learning games and serious games usually include goals that are larger than they may be accustomed to. Often the gameplay and the narrative create the sense of purpose that immerses the learner in the experience of the outcomes.

The learner is an active participant in a story that is playing out. She is thereby, an active participant in her own learning process. The learning is, therefore, self-motivated, experiential and integrative and thus, can be easily called upon by the learner and applied to different situations as needed.

Learning games therefore, provide deep, transferable learning across competencies and contexts, a task that is very difficult through traditional online or offline learning formats that are more passive.

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