Getting up at 6am every morning, farming for days on end, repeatedly foraging for Cactus fruit to present to your boyfriend Sam so that he will marry you. I am of course talking about cosy farming simulator Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley has captured the hearts of gamers worldwide since its release in 2016. With its charming pixel art, engaging gameplay, and wholesome narrative, it has become a beloved staple in the category of ‘cosy games’.
Like many other ‘cosy games’, routine and repetition are a large part of the gameplay. Everyday, your little character wakes up at 6am (talk about bragging rights), water the parsnips, hit the mines to collect some ores, visit the town to give gifts to the NPCs you like and then head to bed back on the farm. The next day, rinse and repeat. Yet this daily grind never feels like a grind and only seems to add to its appeal.
Just as in the game, where daily tasks lead to progress and success, repetition is a key component in learning and the mastery of new skills and concepts. Whether it’s practising multiplication tables, memorising Shakespearean quotes, or balancing chemical equations, repeated actions pave the way for educational success.
So the question arises…what drives us to continue these repetitive actions day after day to the point of addiction (Steam tells me I’ve spent upwards of 150 hours on the game and I think that’s on the lower end – many avid gamers have easily put in 400 hours and going)? The even bigger question for me as a teacher is: how can we harness the power of games to make learning addictive, engaging and worthwhile to learners?
Gamification, the integration of game elements (such as leaderboards, points systems and narratives) into non-game contexts, presents a promising avenue for education. With a slew of touted benefits from aiding cognitive development to increasing classroom engagement, gamification is here to stay if market predictions of $37 billion by 2027 are to be believed.
Gamification enthusiasts tout the following reasons for the supposed success of gamified learning:
- connection to the real world (eg. Assassin’s Creed Discovery Tour)
- the ability to tap into humans’ social need through competition and the social elements of games
- the ability to build a sense of competence
- extrinsic motivation through rewards and points
Admittedly, these reasons are what drew me to gamified education in the first place. After all, which teacher wouldn’t want to emulate the magnetic pull of Fortnite in their classroom?
The Flow State
Another reason for the success of gamification lies in the “flow state”. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines the flow state as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter”. This occurs when the level of challenge is in balance with an individual’s skill level. In other words, when the task at hand matches the person’s abilities, they are more likely to enter into the flow state. When the challenge is too low for their skill level, they may become bored. Conversely, if the challenge exceeds their skill level, they may feel anxious or overwhelmed. Achieving this delicate equilibrium between challenge and skill allows people to enter the Goldilocks Zone which allows individuals to fully engage in the activity, leading to heightened focus, enjoyment, and a sense of fulfilment. This is a thin line that game developers are familiar with treading.
Think Super Mario. In the early levels, you are introduced to basic platforming mechanics such as jumping and navigating simple obstacles. As you progress, you encounter more complex challenges such as moving platforms, enemy encounters, and intricate level layouts.
The enduring popularity of Super Mario lies in its ability to strike the perfect balance between challenge and skill. The game gradually ramps up the difficulty, ensuring that players are constantly challenged but never overwhelmed. Too easy and the player gets bored, too difficult and the player becomes overwhelmed and gives up. Players are motivated to continue playing, striving to overcome each new challenge while experiencing a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with each level completed.
The argument by gamification enthusiasts is that through gamification we can tap into the advantages of the flow state. By designing game systems which introduce learning concepts at a pace which matches the level of challenge to the learners’ skill, we can help students enter the Goldilocks Zone. And voila, thirty engaged students eagerly absorbing the knowledge in front of them as if they were playing Super Mario and not comparing the differences between animal and plant cells.
But of course, classrooms are not such simple places. They are dynamic environments where factors including time constraints, and external pressures such as standardised testing come into play. The very personal Goldilocks Zone that matches every student may or may not keep up with the external pressures of “covering the syllabus”. Further, considerations about whether gamifying learning adds to unnecessary cognitive load are crucial to the discussion. A critical lens on whether students are really learning what we think we are teaching is required.
Finally, to paint gamification as a universally effective or ineffective educational strategy is to paint with a very broad brush. As with any teaching strategy, subtlety and nuance are required.
We must ponder…
- What are the contexts in which gamification flourishes?
- In what situations can gamification actually serve to disempower the students we want to empower?
- What individual gamification elements are most effective?
- Which gamification elements work in tandem to produce optimal engagement and learning outcomes?
- What are the long-term effects of gamification on student attitudes towards learning and academic achievement?
To bring things full circle, I started my trip in a town reminiscent of winter in Stardew Valley. It’s a town called Kuusamo in Northern Finland. For the past week, amidst the serene, snowy setting of Ruka, I’ve delved into the world of gamification at GamiFIN 2024, an international conference for gamification research. I’ve been absorbing and gaining insights about gamification, Finnish culture and the Finns’ unique relationship to nature.
Tomorrow, I embark on a new chapter, visiting the schools of Finland to learn about the world famous Finnish school system and how gamification fits into the education puzzle. Hopefully, I will also get some answers to my questions too.
Until next time…hei hei.
