24. Learning and Constructivism
Teaching is an act of persuasion.
—DANIEL T. WILLINGHAM
Games are largely about learning. That is not to say that games are essentially edutainment, but that most games involve learning new concepts, mechanics, tactics, or strategies. A designer’s job is to make new games or update existing games with new parts. To understand how players will play a new game or new parts of a game, you need to understand how players will interact with that new information. Thus, a designer needs to know how people learn.
Edutainment is a marketing portmanteau for educational entertainment. Although games involve learning in general, edutainment games aim to teach the player something that is applicable outside the space of the ...
Get Players Making Decisions: Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your Players now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
