[game_edu] What is the name for this principle?

[Jim Parker]

Could be related, but I've seen relatively severe forms. There was an 
educational game that had a clown climbing a rope. The player had to 
type in the solution to a simple arithmetic expression (3+2) to have the 
clown climb a few feet. Get to the top and go to the next level!

... except that the rope was actually a lit fuse, and the clown would 
fall if the burning part reached him. His face would change expression 
and he'd fall. I saw young players panic and burst into tears when they 
saw the end of the fuse approaching. It was not motivating, to be sure.

Now, this is a pathological instance and the player's age is certainly a 
factor, but I think it's a bit more than a basic fear of losing. Still, 
I'm open to the thought.

Jim

On 6/5/2012 12:30 PM, Jose P. Zagal wrote:

> Sounds related to loss aversion? (can't stand to see the game "lose")

> (see wikipedia for a layman's explanation -

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion)

>

>

> Jose

>

> On 6/5/2012 1:17 PM, Jim Parker wrote:

>> Also posted to Serious Games

>>

>> A question that a grad student and I were discussing revolves around the

>> observation that there appears to be some kind of compulsion to complete

>> certain game tasks that have time constraints. For instance, think of

>> Dance Dance Revolution when there is a single step traveling down the

>> screen. The player knows what action must be taken, and feels some sort

>> of compulsion to not let that note go by.

>>

>> Furthermore, can this compulsion be described in terms of drawing a

>> player into a game as opposed to a player that is already playing a

>> game? For example, a DDR game is left running and someone is observing

>> the step traveling down the screen. Even though there were not playing

>> up to this point, they still feel the compulsion to not let that step go

>> by.

>>

>> Any papers that discuss this, or even the name of the compulsion would

>> be greatly appreciated.

>>

>> Thanks

>> Jim

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