Learning Things - Learn to Play: Designing Tutorials for Video Games - page 48

something wrong. Screw up later, and Jayden ends up crushed to death
in a compactor, wailing in agony while my wife and I scream at each
other about how to get him out of the car. At any point in the game,
however, the rewards are always awesome. You flick the controller
slightly to the left, and it causes Ethan to be a badass architectural
genius within the first few seconds of the game. Even at the end of the
game, a few wiggled analog sticks and you are a kung fu master. The
moral is, it is always a joy to succeed.
Behaviorism tells us a great deal about motivation in video games.
As long as players are able to easily perform successful tasks, and
those tasks are met with either positive or negative reinforcement,
the result is lots of motivation! If the players can't figure out how
to succeed quickly, and are instead met with tons of punishment or
extinction, the result is very little motivation. Consequently, I present
another key point of this topic: it is of paramount importance that all
players reach skilled play very quickly. If it means you have to sacri-
fice complexity or put in an auto-aim feature until players learn that
they can turn it off, do it. The level playing field is one that makes us
all motivated. It is no fun to play a game of football with one person
on the team who has no idea what's going on. It is no fun to box
with someone who has never boxed; essentially you are just beating
someone up, you bully. This leads me to the last bit of why people are
motivated—they are included.
Almost nothing feels as good, welcoming, and downright heart-
warming as being included. I remember the first time I was actu-
ally picked for a team in gym class; my heart almost exploded. The
idea that I was worthy, desirable, and capable released endorphins in
my animal brain and provided positive reinforcement. On the other
hand, being excluded feels horrible. When the two teams have to
argue about who has to be stuck with you, the worthless bag of skin,
you feel like human garbage. The question then becomes, why in the
name of all that is holy would we ever want a game to be like that?
Aren't they supposed to be fun? In my research, I have found through
case study that many new players don't approach games like League
of Legends ™ or Call of Duty because the other players make them feel
worthless when they are at the keys. This is called a club or clique
behavior, and in fostering learning, is to be absolutely avoided. If your