Game Based Lifelong Learning - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 347

Figure 1. General structure of a game design pattern

information” pattern, a pattern which is described
as the goal of performing actions in the game in
order to be able to receive information or make
deductions. To foster collaboration, the “shared
rewards” ( The players who were involved in some
way in reaching a goal in the game share the re-
ward .) pattern may be of use, while the practice
of a tangible skill could be reflected back to the
learner in terms of progress and success indicators,
such as “score” or more specifically “high-score-
lists” as such introducing a competitive element.
While this procedure illustrates how one pat-
tern leads to another, it is important to balance
the game patterns in such a way that a residence
within the bandwidth between engagement and
on the other hand content is achieved: Learners
should be motivated and “drawn” into the game,
but not be overly distracted from the learning

goal. It is a matter of ongoing research to find out
which learning functions best profit from what
game design patterns calculated over the broad
range of suitable domains and contexts as well as
target audiences. A way to do this according to our
preliminary findings is to match game elements
with pedagogical processes, using pedagogical
taxonomies as intermediary step.
Figure 2 shows how such a mapping is carried
out. The pedagogical taxonomies mentioned are
largely based on the theories by Gagné (1965),
Keller (1983), and Kolb (1984). Additionally, the
classification of Heinich et al. (1999) (educational
design theory), and Robinson (1998) (pedagogical
goals) can be considered. Indeed, comparing these
taxonomies with above mentioned classification
of game patterns, a striking similarity becomes
obvious. Almost all game design patterns can be

Figure 2. The mapping between pedagogical functions, educational taxonomies, game design patterns
and finally the corresponding game element after implementation. Note that a game element can be
composed of a combination of game design patterns.