Game Based Lifelong Learning - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 345

dious activities into a game, rewards programmed
into the game should not be valuable in the real
world, and if so only as a token. Increasing the
stakes too much will decrease the gaming factor.
Now we have established one aspect of
indicators, and one of their main functions: to
indicate a player's score. Additionally, the indica-
tors themselves may have reciprocal properties.
An important dimension of any indicator in a
technology-enhanced learning scenario is the
timing of display. When engaged in an interactive
activity which may or may not be competitive,
the factor of whether or not the performance may
be gauged in real time is an important one for the
overall experience: seeing a clear indicator of your
performance at each given time may encourage or
discourage depending on the person. This may be
viewed similarly to a speedometer or an odom-
eter, or both. Seeing the current speed and total
distance travelled while cycling, for example, is
very useful for cyclists who know they need to
cycle 20 kilometres in one hour, so as long as their
speed is 20km/h or more, they may feel secure
and motivated to keep their pace, if they are un-
able to keep such a pace however, this indicator
could affect their performance.

line of a respective game. The possibilities for
this are context dependent, relating to what is
the desired main educational outcome. A choice
derived from fundamental pedagogical theory as
described in Robinson's (1998) learning goals
can be subsumed as:

• The acquisition of information

• The practice of tangible skills

• Training of problem solving and

collaboration

Depending on this classification, one can
decide what kind of game should be used (Quest
type, real world simulation, highly reactive
multiplayer game, etc.) and what will be the re-
spective game elements. To do so, game design
patterns are chosen that form the actual game
design by being combined with each other, for
example resource patterns, stating the score of
players' attributes, being able to be traded, lost
or gained. The fundamental difference between
software design patterns used for building learn-
ing environments, such as suggested in (Retalis
et al., 2006), is that game design patterns are in
fact used for an earlier stage than the actual ap-
plication development. The patterns are meant
to help a conceptual game designer to spawn a
combination of game elements that works well
to achieve a learning objective.
On a whole scale, according to Björk and
Holopainen (2004), game design patterns are
grouped into the following classes:

5. GENERIC GAME
LEARNING PATTERNS

There is already in-depth research done on design
patterns for learning purposes, for example as con-
ducted in line with the EU Kaleidoscope project
(Mor et al., 2006). However, under the notion of
game patterns we understand game design patterns
(Björk & Holopainen, 2004) as used in conceptual
game design in its broader sense (theoretically also
including non-digital games). They are used for
matching learning scenarios with implementable
game elements to enhance the scenario. To con-
ceive this, we suggest a content based approach
that gives us the possibility to come up with an
instructional design in connection to the story

• Actions and Events Patterns: these patterns

describe the most granular level of game
elements, such as simple player actions
and reactions of the environment.

• Patterns for Narrative Structures,

Predictability and Immersion: these pat-
terns describe the storytelling of a game
and the identification factors of the play-
er's character enabling the users to identify
themselves with that role.