Breaking the Game

Breaking the Game: Spotting and Solving Gamification Pitfalls

Presentator:   Meggy Pepelanova

Organisatie:    Drin Drin

Doelgroep:      PO; VO; MBO; HBO; WO

Description: 

This hands-on, advanced workshop is for educators and designers already experienced with game-based learning.

Gamification mechanics like countdown timers, leaderboards, trivia quizzes, and streaks are powerful — but they’re not perfect. In fact, popular game mechanics can sometimes backfire or come with unintended sideeffects. Through real-world examples, cognitive and behavioral insights, and lively design critique, we’ll dig into these weaknesesses! We’ll explore when to embrace these mechanics, when to avoid them, and how to design around their pitfalls.

This interactive session invites your experience in order to collaboratively dive deeper into building better learning tools.

What you will take away: 

  • A sharper critical lens when selecting educational games/tools for your learners
  • An understanding of the common ways game mechanics can produce unintended outcomes
  • Practical strategies to mitigate this in your own designs
  • Confidence: when we don’t shy away from admitting that games have weaknesses, are we more empowered to advocate for them!