This document discusses how games can be used to transform players and induce meaningful change. It outlines seven ways games can make players care, including engaging curiosity, putting ego on the line, connecting to fantasies, and more. It also describes seven ways games can transform players, such as showing complex relationships, using repetition, breaking down barriers, and creating teachable moments. Finally, it notes three common pitfalls in designing transformational games, like having a flawed hypothesis of how players will change, fooling oneself about whether players care, and scope disconnects between developers and subject matter experts.

1. Secrets of amazing
Transformational Games
Jesse Schell
Serious Play 2013

8. Step One:
Admitting you
have a problem.

9. Game to teach Geography
Problems Potential Solutions

11. Lexica Goal Overview
Instill a love of reading
Break down barriers to reading
Exposure to books
and book characters
through quests
and a rich 3D world
Find the right gateway
book
Access to embedded
games that teach
reading skills of
syntax, vocabulary, a
nd spelling
Practice reading skills
Episodic content to get
players talking about
game + Content
creation and sharing
between players
Change how reading is
perceived

13. PlayForward: Goal Overview
1. Ability to look at a situation and see sources of potential
trouble
2. Ability to envision outcomes and consequences of a
situation
3. Ability to refuse others
4. Understanding of relationship between social dynamics &
risk taking
5. Exposure to some (limited) factual knowledge
6. Appreciation for delayed gratification (choosing long
term goals over short term gains)
7. Understanding of risk - 10% vs 20%; 1 time vs 10 times
8. Creation of a personal aspirational life plan

14. “Hafta” “Wanna”
Slavery Freedom
Work Play
Efficiency Pleasure

18. Seven ways games can make me care

19. 1) Make me care by engaging my
curiosity

20. 2) Make me care by putting my ego on
the line

22. 3) Make me care by connecting with
my fantasies

24. 4) Make me care by getting me to
make a plan
A plan is a real thing.

27. 5) Make me care through “completion
desire”

29. 6) Make me care through social
pressure

31. 7) Make me care by letting me break
the rules

32. Seven ways games can induce a
transformation

33. 1) Show a complex relationship

35. 2) Repetition / Drill

38. 3) Break down a barrier

40. 4) Introduce Incidental Material

42. 5) Put me in “real” contexts

43. 6) Induce a “teachable moment”

44. 7) “…the mind cannot ever be quite
what it was before.”

46. Three Common Pitfalls

47. 1) Bad Transformation Hypothesis
It doesn’t matter how
beautiful your theory
is, it doesn’t matter how
smart you are.
If it doesn’t agree with
experiment, it’s wrong.
-Richard Feynman

48. 2) Fooling yourself about whether
players care

49. 3) Disconnect between Devs and
Partner about scope
“minigame” “minigame”

50. Did it work?
1. “Feels Like It”
2. Anecdotes
3. SME’s say “yes”
4. Informal surveys say“yes”
5. Formal Testing verifies it

51. Ways To Make Me Care
1. Engage my Curiosity
2. Put My Ego on the Line
3. Connect with My Fantasies
4. Get Me to Make a Plan
5. Engage my Completion
Desire
6. Social Pressure
7. Let me Break the Rules
Ways to Transform Me
1. Show a Complex
Relationship
2. Repetition and Drill
3. Break Down a Barrier
4. Introduce Incidental Material
5. Put me in “Real” Contexts
6. Induce a Teachable Moment
7. Use the Slow Wedge
Things that can go wrong
1. Bad Transformation Hypothesis
2. Fooling Yourself About Whether the Players Care
3. Scope Disconnects Between Devs and SMEs

52. Thanks!
Slides: jesseschell.com
Twitter: @jesseschell
Email: jesse@schellgames.com