Gamification Of Learning And Instruction XReality: Digital Transformation

“Nonsense,” says the sensible Bernard Suits: “playing a game is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” — Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia*
In the quote above, Bernard defines that playing a game can be a waste of time. And yes, *insert guilty face here* I’ll have to agree on this myself!
But why do we still want to play games? What makes a game motivate us? What’s the relationship between game, gamification, and learning? I’d like to discuss these interesting questions based on a recent gamification book I read called The Gamification of Learning and Instruction by Karl M. Kapp.*
In The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, Karl defines the term “game” as follows:
“A player gets caught up in playing a game because the instant feedback and constant interaction are related to the challenge of the game, which is defined by the rules, which all work within the system to provoke an emotional reaction and, finally, result in a quantifiable outcome within an abstract version of a larger system.” — Karl Knapp*