To first understand the relationship between gameplay and learning, we have to define what gameplay is exactly. In my understanding, gameplay is the way players interact with the game, the mechanics of the game, where there are certain rules and direction that the player must follow in order to reach the end goal of the game. In most games, the end result to win something or resolve a conflict. When playing games, there’s often a process of learning involved, especially when it is a new game. The initial learning stage is getting the controls right and understanding the rules of the game. Depending on the type of video game, I think that learning goes beyond just understanding the mechanics of the game. Games with a story allows players to also learn more about the characters and form connections with them. I feel like this process is also another aspect of the relationship between gameplay and learning.
Take the game It Takes Two for example. It is a co-op game where the two characters are on the verge of divorce and they magically get turned into dolls, so the goal is for the players to go through different challenges and tasks in order to return the characters to their human form. The gameplay in this is so vast; there are so many different mechanics within this one game that you have to learn along the way. There are different chapters in the game and each chapter has a theme to it. But even in these chapters there’s more than one way you can interact with the game. There’s also hidden mini-games within each chapter. So each time there’s a new skill, players have to learn the mechanics and slowly get better at it.
Besides the actual game mechanics, you also get to learn more about the character and the story through the gameplay. For instance, the final two chapters of the game are about the characters’ passions. For Cody, it was his love for gardening, while May (the other character) it was singing. The gameplay correlates with the passion of the players, so for May she could use her singing as an ability to defeat and solve challenges in that chapter.
One of the most notable books about game and play is Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga. This book isn’t necessarily on video games, but on how play is a part of human culture. Many books about video games reference Huizinga.
However, the book I want to talk about is called Reality is broken : why games make us better and how they can change the world. Actually, my first semester capstone research was on video games, but particularly around the idea of escapism and social connectivity through playing video games. I didn’t really research about the fundamentals of video games such as gameplay, but through some of the readings I concluded that video games can be used as a experience and way of learning. In the book I mentioned, it raises the point of how games can be used to improve reality. In particular, the things we learn through games can be applied in real life. To connect back to gameplay, the actions done in games are things we learn and can apply to real life.
The main idea in chapter 5, “Stronger Social Connectivity” is about how games that involve cooperation can strengthen relationships in real life, which also goes back to the game I mentioned before. So gameplay involving teamwork and coordinating with other players can improve people’s abilities to work together to solve a problem. Therefore, players not only learn how to collaborate in game, but also in reality, which is a necessarily skill to have.
To conclude, gameplay and learning go hand in hand. For some games, the learning process isn’t necessarily continuous, but it is still a process. Additionally, the learning aspect is not just about the mechanics of the game, but also learning about the characters and narrative of the game.