What Makes a Good Learning Game?
Going beyond edutainment

By Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen / February 2011

The preference article

This article discusses the factors to make games good games. The three msin factors are integration, motivation, and focus. 

When teachers are playing games in the class, they need to make sure that learning and playing are integrated into the games. 

Moreover, it is teachers’ responsibility to design the learning games intriguing and engaging. 

Furthermore, the games are required to be challenging to learners. These elements in learning games are good motivation to trigger the learners to involve the games more. 

The final component of a good learning game is focus. Players can focus on learning experience by collecting, discovering, and performing the games together.

Teachers can apply those factors as a reminder to exam their own designing games and also evaluate learners’ reaction and interaction in the class to check up how success the games are. In addition, the article states the ways to distinguish games and learning by substantives and verbs. Other facets of good games include a systematic rules for learners to follow. “When we design learning games we should therefore be very focused on how the rules in the games works, because they define the core of the game experience, and ultimately the primary learning results.” (Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen)