The motivation of gameplay

TLDR

Education is often treated as work rather than fun, leading to low intrinsic motivation, and game designers’ gameplay techniques are proposed as a way to keep learners engaged. The author argues that the new generation will merge fun and learning, and proposes ways to embed gameplay motivation into education, predicting it will become the primary factor students use to choose courses. The author uses the game world itself as an example of a motivating process for users. The author suggests ways to integrate gameplay motivation into education and predicts that gameplay will become the main criterion students use to select courses.

Abstract

Many academics prefer to think of education as "work" rather than "fun". As a result, motivation in higher education rarely comes from the process itself. The author predicts this will change as the generation raised on the engagement of games no longer accepts the historical but unnecessary separation of fun and learning. The author offers the games world as an example of the process itself being motivating to the user. He ascribes this to "gameplay", the techniques used by game designers to keep players engaged. The author suggests several ways to bring the motivation of gameplay into education, and predicts that gameplay will eventually become the criterion by which students choose their courses.