Learn how accessibility plays into gamification fundamentals, creating efficiency in business for everyone. See your favorite games like never before! Ever wondered why farming for a mighty sword in a fantasy game feels entertaining and fun while filling out reporting documents – a seemingly similar repetitive activity – is incredibly boring? If so, you are not alone!
Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see EdX's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.
The vast field of Gamification applies techniques and patterns from fundamental mechanics of game design to non-game contexts in order to make business tasks more fun for a user. This can lead to increased efficiency and accuracy and even facilitate better health by reducing exhaustion.
However, there is one particular requirement that often becomes a hurdle for Gamification efforts: meeting accessibility requirements.
In this computer science course, we will investigate this use case closer and derive a new set of patterns that are representation-agnostic. You will learn the fundamentals of Gamification and accessibility, as well as lessons in game development and game design. We will take a look at popular digital games and draw patterns from their game design and game mechanics.
By the end of this course, you will have gained a better grasp on the problem at hand and learn patterns and techniques to deploy gamification in a broader and more abstract scope.
But be warned: you might see your favorite digital games like you never saw them before – as a wired, but well-tailored, combination of reward, development, discover and challenge.
What you'll learn
- What Gamification is and how it relates to common business processes
- Basics of Digital Accessibility and how it interacts with Gamification
- How to derive Game Design Patterns from popular digital games
Syllabus
Week 1: Gamification
Games and fun
Gamification
Quest: real-world examples for motivation
Players: Bartle
Quest: genres & players; classification quiz
Beyond Bartle
Quest: Analyze some games you play! / What kind of player are you?
Week 2: Accessible Gamification
Gamification Concepts
Quest: Sample Business Process
Gamification Requirements
Quest: Picture Show: real world examples. Is there gamification involved?
Accessibility: personalisation vs accessibility; Universal Design; gamification and accessibility.
Quest: find collisions of accessibility & gamification
Week 3: Game Design Patterns
One Step Back
Quest: game design vs game mechanics
Reward
Quest: examples: Dungeon Crawler
Discovery
Quest: Examples: Space Sims
Challenge
Quest: examples: RTS
Development
Quest: Examples: MMOG
Action space
Quest: examples: FPS
Quest: pick a game of your choice and dissect it
Week 4: Examples: Reward & Challenge
Reward: immediate & measurable; designing reward (Skinner box, achievements, exclusivity)
Quest: showcase: RPG quest rewards
Challenge: business process vs gamification; designing challenge
Quest: showcase: Casual “Arkanoids”
Applications for the web
Quest: design a quest for an RPG
Week 5: Examples: Action Space & Development
Action space: action space models; action space pollution
Quest: TCG strategies
Development: characters and history; visuals; economy
Quest: MMOG characters
Applications for the web
Quest: take a look at your web browser and its action space
