Serious Game Element: Fantasy

When designing a "serious game" or a game where the desired outcome is learning related, an often overlooked but critical element to the learning process is the inclusion of fantasy.

Most learning professionals are unsure as to whether or not the inclusion of fantasy elements is a positive or negative in helping learners comprehend new information. 

Research on Fantasy and Learning

The dissertation work of Jaejin Lee titled Effects of Fantasy and Fantasy Proneness on Learning and Engagement in a 3D Educational Game points to positive outcomes with the incorporation of fantasy for learners of all ages. 

In a summary of one section of the paper, Lee writes:

To summarize, the findings of the studies discussed above indicates that the use of fantasy is positively related to the improvement of learning and motivation in the learning contexts when it triggers the personalization of experience based upon the relevance and sense of closeness of the fantasy.--Jaejin Lee

Lee also found that the literature revealed that games with fantasy components showed the benefits of declarative knowledge acquisition and knowledge organization. Lee writes that researchers "Belanich, Sibley, and Orvis (2004) concluded the use of military games had impacts on procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge as well as more relevant information recall. The research participants answered with more accuracy when they were in the graphic images category than text/audio-based information." But Lee is not the only researcher to indicate that fantasy is a powerful tool for learning. 

Recently, Deena Skolnick Weisberg,  a senior fellow in the department of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, participated in the writing of an interesting article titled Why kids can learn more from tales of fantasy than realism. The article indicated that fantasy can be a powerful learning tool. 

Weisberg performed a study involving teaching children vocabulary words and found that children gained more knowledge from fantastical stories than from the realistic stories. The problem with this finding, according to the article was that it seems to fly in the face of everything we know about learning and transfer (although fantasy research in games indicates that it really doesn't "fly in the face of everything we know about learning and transfer.

The article stated "A large body of literature in psychology has shown that the more similar the learning context is to the context where the information is eventually going to be applied, the better. This strongly suggests that the realistic books should have helped children learn the meanings of words better and report them more accurately on the post-test. But our study showed exactly the opposite: the fantasy books, the ones that were less similar to reality, allowed children to learn more."

This is not really surprising given the work of Malone and Lepper and others mentioned above but it does seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom which is to make learning as realistic as possible. But perhaps fantasy of children, and adults, plays a more powerful learning role than we know. One that helps us transition from unknown to known.

Fantasy as a Learning Element

As mentioned above, the use of fantasy can be a purposeful and meaningful design decision which can have a direct positive impact on learning. In fact, research indicates that fantasy provides cognitive emotional and motivational advantages for learning (Malone, 1981).

In terms of the cognitive benefits, the issues confronted and successfully resolved in the fantasy world provide the learners with natural constructive feedback in an uninhibited interaction. The learner is often more open to receiving feedback in a fantasy world because it is unfamiliar and they need feedback to understand the new environment. (Lepper, 1988)

With fantasy, feedback is conveyed in a safe environment with specific, but not catastrophic, consequences for failure. The fantasy of dealing with say a robot means that failure and experimentation are allowed and encouraged. Humans learn from failure more than instant success. The fantasy environment allows for failure and re-engagement with the content again and again which leads to mastery.

We also know that if a simulation provides the same cognitive activities as the real-life situation, the skills are transferable to the actual in-the-field situation. In a game with robots teaching a sales model, the exact sales model that is used in the field can be used in the game. The different environment (robot infested lab) actually helps with generalizing of the knowledge and creates, in the mind of the learner, a set of heuristics to deal with sales situation rather than creating a rigid set of algorithms that are difficult to generalize.

In terms of emotional impact, fantasy provokes vivid images related to the material being learned, thus improving the learner’s memory of the material. Emotionally, fantasy also helps to break down the defenses of a learner. When confronted with many sales situations, the learner may feel he or she is already well versed in their subject viewing the training process as a waste of time. Fantasy helps to break down that resistance because the environment is new, novel and different. The learner doesn’t know how to deal with zombies or the new environment; it makes them more open to exploring the learning environment and less defensive (Lepper, 1988; Malone, 1981).

Finally, fantasy in games can be highly motivational. While not everyone loves to play games, a large portion of most populations like to play games and enjoy the opportunity to gain mastery of the game environment. Fantasy in games provide an immersive learning environment because they require continual vigilance, provide constant feedback, correct incorrect activities and reinforce correct performance which eventually leads to mastery of content.

Conclusion

It seems that fantasy should not be overlooked in the context of creating games for adults.  Using fantasy in a game might do more than merely "hold a learner's attention" or "motivate them to participate." It seems from the growing body of research that the use of fantasy might help the learner to approach events and content with deeper processing due to the fact that they are dealing with unknown fantastical elements and they can't just dismiss those elements, instead they need to carefully process and then through that processing learning in enriched.  

References:

Belanich, J., Sibley, D. E., & Orvis, K. L. (2004). Instructional characteristics and motivational features of a PC-based game. DTIC Document.

Lee, J. (2015) Effects of Fantasy and Fantasy Proneness on Learning and Engagement in a 3D Educational Game. (unpublished dissertation) Located here.

Lepper, M. R. (1988) Motivational considerations in the study of instruction. Cognition and Instruction. 5(4), 289-309.

Malone, T. (1981) Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive Science, 4. pp. 333-369.

Weisberg, D. S., Ilgazb, H., Hirsh-Pasekc, K., Golinkoffd, R., Nicolopouloue, A., Dickinsonf, D. K., 2015) Shovels and swords: How realistic and fantastical themes affect children's word learning. Cognitive Development. Volume 35, July–September 2015, Pages 1–14.

About the Author:  

Karl Kapp: Professor, Bloomsburg University, Founder of The Wisdom Learning Group, LLC. 

A researcher, analyst, speaker, professor, consultant and designer of instructional games and gamification, Karl Kapp is author of six books on the convergence of learning and technology included the best selling gamification book "The Gamification of Learning and Instruction." He is the creator of the Lynda.com course "The Gamification of Learning" and a TEDx Speaker.  

Want to learn more about gamification and learning?  You can see Karl keynoting the 2016 Distance Teaching & Learning Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and presenting at Elliot Masie's Learning 2016 in Orlando. He is also co-conducting a LearnNow ATD Learning Game design workshop. If you are attending any of those events, stop by and say "Hi".

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Need insights, input, ideas, a gamification strategy or a energetic keynote speaker? Karl provides evidence-based guidance, design and advice for creating engaging, meaningful learning (as well as some awesome gamified workshops and learning events.)

Visit www.karlkapp.com for more information on gamification and learning.