Tom Chatfield: 7 ways video games engage the brain

The Power of Video Games

In this section, the speaker expresses their admiration for video games and highlights their ability to motivate and captivate players.

The Fascination with Video Games

• Video games are awe-inspiring due to their power in terms of imagination, technology, and concept.

• Above all, video games have a unique ability to motivate and compel players like nothing else before.

Learning from the Video Game Industry

This section discusses the rapid growth of the video game industry and its potential for learning about learning itself.

The Growth of the Video Game Industry

• The video game industry is the fastest-growing modern media sector.

• Its worth has increased from 10 billion dollars in 1990 to 50 billion dollars globally today.

• It is estimated that in four years' time, it will be worth over 80 billion dollars.

Real Money for Virtual Items

This section explores the phenomenon of people spending real money on virtual items within video games.

The Value of Virtual Items

• People spend approximately eight billion real dollars annually on virtual items that exist only within video games.

• Examples include a virtual asteroid selling for 330,000 real dollars and a Titan class ship taking significant time and effort to build.

• Popular games like Farmville have millions of players who engage with virtual items regularly.

Understanding the Intense Engagement in Games

This section addresses concerns about intense engagement in video games while highlighting its potential positive aspects.

Exploring Emotional Rewards in Games

• Emotional rewards play a crucial role in engaging players individually and collectively.

• Games offer both wanting processes (ambition, drive) and liking processes (fun, delight) to create intense emotional engagement.

• The combination of ambition and pleasure in games contributes to their appeal.

The Power of Rewards in Games

This section delves into the concept of rewards in video games and how they are carefully calibrated to keep players engaged.

Understanding Reward Processes

• Two distinct processes occur when players are engaged: wanting processes (ambition, drive) and liking processes (fun, affection).

• Games excel at providing both intense ambition satisfaction and great pleasure simultaneously.

• Virtuality allows for the measurement of every action taken by players, enabling precise calibration of reward schedules.

Measuring Everything in Virtuality

This section emphasizes the comprehensive measurement capabilities within virtual worlds and their impact on game design.

The Power of Measurement in Games

• Every action performed by every player can be measured within virtual worlds.

• Game developers collect vast amounts of data, surpassing what is typically available from websites.

• This data enables the creation of reward schedules that effectively engage players over extended periods.

Engaging Players through Probability and Data

This section explores how games use probability and data to make seemingly repetitive tasks compelling.

Opening Boxes for Rewards

• Games often involve tasks like opening boxes to obtain desired items.

• To engage players, the difficulty level must be balanced. It should neither be too easy nor too difficult to find rewards.

• By analyzing millions of players' actions, game developers calibrate the rate, nature, type, and intensity of rewards to maintain engagement.

A Box Opening Effort in Warcraft

This section uses a quest example from World of Warcraft to illustrate how games make repetitive tasks engaging.

Finding Pies by Killing Monsters

• In World of Warcraft, players are tasked with obtaining a specific number of items by killing monsters.

• The game's design revolves around the process of opening boxes (killing monsters) to acquire better rewards.

• Games employ a combination of probability and data to make this repetitive process highly compelling.

The Compelling Nature of Game Design

This section concludes by emphasizing the ability of games to transform seemingly mundane tasks into engaging experiences.

Probability and Data in Game Design

• Games ensure that finding rewards is neither too easy nor too difficult through careful analysis of player actions.

• By leveraging probability and data, games create an immersive experience that captivates players for extended periods.

The transcript provided does not specify the language. Therefore, the summary is written in English.

The Power of Rewards and Engagement

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of rewards in keeping people engaged and motivated. They explain how games use rewards to keep players progressing and excited.

Rewards and Engagement

• Games typically use in-game currency and experience as rewards to keep players engaged.

• Additionally, games offer various items with different qualities and levels of excitement as rewards.

• The rewards are carefully calibrated to match the difficulty level of the game.

• Having too many monsters or making the game too easy or difficult can affect engagement.

Shifting Perception and Adjusting Expectations

This section explores how perception can shift when engaging with virtual experiences. It also discusses how game designers can adjust the game world to meet player expectations.

Perception Shifts

• When people reach a certain point in a game (e.g., 13 out of 15 pies), their perception may shift, leading to boredom or frustration.

• In real-life situations, there may not be much that can be done. However, in games, designers have the ability to make adjustments.

• For example, when players reach a certain milestone, they can be given a higher chance of obtaining a reward to maintain engagement.

Adjusting Expectations

• Game designers ensure that rare items remain special by controlling their appearance frequency over time.

• By understanding human psychology and evolutionary tendencies, game designers can create worlds that satisfy our innate desires for problem-solving and learning.

Applying Lessons from Games Outside of Gaming

This section presents seven practical applications of lessons learned from games that can be used outside of gaming contexts.

Experience Bars for Progress Measurement

• Instead of incremental grading, using experience bars allows individuals to see their progress visually as one profile character avatar constantly progresses.

Multiple Long and Short-Term Aims

• Breaking tasks into multiple aims, both long and short-term, keeps individuals engaged.

• Offering a variety of tasks and goals allows people to choose what they find most interesting.

Rewarding Effort

• Games excel at rewarding effort by providing credit for trying and not punishing failure.

• Even small efforts are acknowledged with rewards such as gold or credits.

Feedback for Learning

• Feedback is crucial for learning, and virtual environments excel at delivering immediate feedback.

• By linking consequences to actions, individuals can better understand the impact of their choices.

Embracing Uncertainty

• Uncertain rewards excite the brain more than known rewards.

• Incorporating controlled elements of randomness in testing and training can increase engagement.

Harnessing the Power of Imperfect Predictions

This section highlights the neurological impact of uncertain predictions and how it can be utilized to enhance engagement.

Neurological Response to Uncertainty

• The brain is highly stimulated by uncertain rewards pitched at the right level of uncertainty.

• Introducing controlled randomness in testing and training taps into this powerful evolutionary mechanism.

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Dopamine and Engagement

In this section, the speaker discusses how mathematical modeling of dopamine levels in the brain can predict learning and enhanced engagement. They also explore the impact of game-playing and reward structures on confidence and risk-taking behavior.

Modeling Dopamine Levels

• Mathematical models of dopamine levels in the brain allow for predicting learning and enhanced engagement.

• These models help identify windows of time when learning occurs at an enhanced level.

Memory and Confidence

• Moments when individuals are more likely to remember can be identified using these models.

• Providing information or nuggets during these windows can enhance memory retention.

• Game-playing and reward structures increase confidence, making individuals braver and more willing to take risks.

The Power of Social Interaction

• The most significant neurological motivator for people is other people.

• Collaborating with peers, watching others, and engaging in activities together excite us more than monetary rewards.

Player-developed Reward Systems

This section explores a player-developed reward system that emerged in a video game called EverQuest, highlighting its success and widespread adoption across various video games.

Dragon Kill Points System

• In the video game EverQuest, players faced challenges in killing big dragons due to limited drops of valuable items.

• Players created a system called "dragon kill points" where they paid each other virtual currency for participating in missions.

• This player-developed reward system became incredibly successful, leading to its adoption by millions of players across different video games today.

Applying Gaming Principles

This section discusses how gaming principles can be applied to various domains such as business, education, and government to enhance engagement and motivation.

Business Applications

• Gaming principles can be used in business to address challenges like recycling and energy conservation.

• Technologies like real-time energy meters can be combined with calibrated targets, uncertainty elements, and underlying reward systems to increase engagement.

Education Transformation

• Gaming principles can transform education by offering a continuous and personally invested learning experience.

• Breaking down tasks into smaller, calibrated units, using calculated randomness, and consistently rewarding effort can enhance engagement in education.

Government Initiatives

• Governments could leverage gaming systems' expertise to tackle issues like obesity by calibrating financial rewards for weight loss.

• Observing millions of human hours spent on gaming could provide valuable insights for increasing engagement in government initiatives.

Engagement and Lessons from Games

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the transformative power of individual and collective engagement inspired by psychological and neurological lessons learned from games.

• Individual engagement can be transformed using lessons from observing people playing games.

• Collective engagement provides an unprecedented laboratory for understanding what motivates people on a grand scale.