Intro
Doggo fail vids will ALWAYS have me at "Hello"...seriously, though? Great technique to provide some cerebral respite.
Serious Games
Purpose of today's talk is to not only discuss best practices of serious games, but really hunker down into the what to/not to do in the serious game landscape.
So, why did they become so popular? Andrew performs a quick social experiment: "We no longer live in the age of information, we live in the age of instant gratification/feedback." How do we know that? "How many of you get mad when someone doesn't text you back immediately?"
Fair.
"I'm 37 years old - WE are the first generation that video games was the primary means of entertainment. I want to know where the information is, not WHAT the information is. This fundamental shift is why Serious Games are such a big deal."
What is an Actual Game?
In L&D, one of the critical things you hear when working with Fortune 500 companies is that "We need to train people, but they can't fail". That is WRONG. Absolutely, completely WRONG.
Compliance training is not performance training - You're not creating change, you're simply checking off the box. Andrew can run a mile, but he's not a marathon runner. Just because you take a compliance course doesn't make you compliant.
*Cue the Are Our Lives A Game video*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWIi6Pytde8
We fail all the time and should fail in learning. Think about it - You don't start playing Call of Duty and it says "Welcome to Call of Duty! This is X, Y, Z...and, btw, you can't die!"
Memory, Fine Motor Skills, and Strategic Planning can be enhanced by playing video games - Andrew shows a video where the name of a color and color of the word are in contrast and the audience needs to yell out the color of the word. Funny thing - If you play 5-10 hours of video games a week, you're able to do it MUCH more easily...
(...and I was. Wow. Get out of my head, Hughes.)
Fun Produces Engagement
Video games won't necessarily make your brain better, but your brain will adapt to the challenges presented to them. Think - How many kids can honestly say when their parents said to not touch something that you didn't? You don't truly learn until you EXPERIENCE. And EXPERIENCE is actual LEARNING...and you're experiencing it in video games.
News has even changed - We've stepped away from "News must be accurate" to "News must be out the fastest".
Video games DO NOT have an age limit. Andrew shows a video of a 71 year old world ranked CS:GO player.
So, What Are Serious Games?
Serious games are not video games. Serious games are not leaderboards, badges, and achievements. Most people on your achievement leaderboard are your high performers already - Of course they're going to complete it. But what about everyone else? There's really no substance to this.
If you do leaderboards, make them relevant to the people looking at them. If you have someone ranked 55th, you should be able to see 52-54 and 56-58. If it stops being a competition (like, by only showing the Top 10), you have NO reason to achieve...no reason to strive. RELATIVE LEADERBOARDS are a must.
Badges are somewhat the same - Video of a 4 year old trying to explain his motivation. Here's the science behind badges: We signal status every day. Andrew references what he's wearing to present (suit) and the fact that he's going up to his room after the session and changing into shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops. "Ladies - You don't put on makeup for us, do you?" (<-- interesting="" p="" point="">
"Our challenge is the people who don't give a crap."
What is Engagement and How Do We Do It?
Andrew shows his kiddo playing with a VR headset. "This is your future audience."
"You should be building serious games as a part of your curriculum."
Andrew played D1 rugby. "We never went out, practiced once, and played a game" Your brain is a muscle which can have its thought patterns reshaped, the way you think changed - Neuroplasticity is REAL.
Games with a purpose can entertain, engage, and educate people on a topic they want to learn. Why do we need to do all 3? Experiment - How many of us can recall our worst teacher? Lots. How many of you remember the curriculum from that teacher? Not a lot, if any. How many of you remember your BEST teacher? Lots. How many of you can remember curriculum from your best? Lots.
Vision vs Goals
Exercise: Draw a banana, hat, triangle, rectangle, and a stick figure. Compare with your neighbor. Similar...all separate items. Andrew then draws a man in a sailboat with a hat on...THAT'S what he wanted. He didn't provide parameters...he didn't provide the vision.
An example of a serious game, one of the best, is Domino's pizza maker. It's free and available to everyone. You MAKE PIZZAS...you make Domino's pizza. And, guess what? Domino's uses the registration data to RECRUIT 17 to 23 YEAR OLDS TO WORK FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE ALREADY PRE-TRAINED!!!
DD created a serious game to work with stroke victims. When they asked the target audience, they didn't want to play a game...they wanted to cook breakfast, they wanted to tie their shoes, they wanted to open a door. THAT'S what they wanted to do, and that's what was placed in their serious game. (Heavy.) Listen to your audience.
On To The Best Practices
Just like life, a video game gets harder and harder until the end. In a serious game, you want to have the same thing. If you have a new salesperson, the first scenario might involve an easy sale, but later on you start to implement objections, etc. THEY SHOULD FAIL - People learn from failure because your ego starts to get involved. If it's too easy, it's not fun.
The days of problem solving have come and gone...Johnny and Sally have 7 apples each. NO. Cue The Walking Dead story game. Deep, engaging, real. But, at the end of the day, scenarios create a multiple choice game. That's it.
Parallel Branching
Branching is impossible to do in its actual terminology. 156 different outcomes? NO. Parallel branching is where you may have only two or three actual endings to a game.
The Call of Duty Model
Kids who play CoD know every single modern weapon used by our modern military - But we don't consider it learning. Its' not relevant to us. But, do you know who does? The US Military, who recruit top players to be drone pilots (and more).
Immediate Feedback
If you played Oregon Trail, you didn't get "You don't feel so great", "You're vomiting", "You have gagrene"...no. You just got "You have died of typhoid". Instant fail, instant reset, instant re-engagement. Again, feeds into that learner ego.
Tangible Results
NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BADGES - As soon as you leave your company, they're gone...they're done. What works really well? "Lunch with Charles Barkley" - Experiences, swag, etc...this works. You've got to be able to walk away with something.
Fun Is A Metric (remember that)
In Conclusion
A WHOLE lot to consider - And an amazing topic. Failure is truly the best teacher, so we should allow it to be in the 'classroom'. These games can be developed in whatever authoring platform you're already proficient in, using the MC game example above. Be aware of your target demographic/audience and design for that very group.
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