I feel like games have always been a big part of my life, from childhood through adult years. I remember when my older brother and I got an NES and played through Mario Bros and Duck Hunt, constantly wanting to do better and get past the level we were stuck on. Shortly after that, games begin to show up in the classroom with floppy disk math practice and everyone’s favorite Oregon Trail. As we got older, new consoles came out, with my older brother getting a Nintendo 64, and even more countless afternoons were spent playing GoldenEye and seeing how far we could get in Zelda. As with the home consoles, games in the classroom also evolved, with more and more games we were allowed to play focused on building targeted skills. Eventually, I had my first console with a Playstation and got lost in RPG’s storytelling with the Final Fantasy series. It seems this was around the time for me that games disappeared from the classroom in a digital sense but were replaced with more competitive competitions as a fun way to demonstrate mastery and prepare for exams. I eventually got into the computer side of things, finally building my PC towards the end of college and discovering the more social aspects of playing with people anywhere in the world. Looking back at my experiences, the one thing that stands out to me as a difference between games of learning and games for entertainment was the motivation to move forward and achieve with games for entertainment.

With games for learning and later ones that I tried to use with teaching, there always seemed to be a missing element of how to go further or win at the game. I cannot recall when my students or I were rushing to get back to a game for learning because we had to know what happened next. These games all seemed to be so focused on a skill or being better than the other students in the class. By the time the session was over, so was the motivation to play the game. I think that this is an area that is difficult to crack because the creation of the game and, subsequently, the research that goes with it is usually focused on improving a specific skill or process. While in an ideal world, the elements that make games for entertainment so captivating and sometimes addictive would also be found in games for learning, the ability or motivation from creators is lacking. I think we are motivated by stories like Ready Player One, Enders Game, or other novels where games are an essential part of the student’s learning process and driven to learn all that they can. The reality is that we are very far away from that possibility. I wish I knew how to bridge the gap between the gaming segments. Still, I feel that the current standards of research that influence institutions to adopt games for learning make it challenging to build a game that could be genuinely transformative for learning.

Research standards are essential for designing experiments that protect the subjects and provide significant results that encourage future research. These standards make it difficult to look at games for teaching and learning that could have a broader and more profound impact outside of single-subject areas. Current research is narrowly focused on demonstrating the effectiveness of a game in a specific area. I believe that one thing that will have to change for us to see more research in the broader use of games is the ease of creation for a novice audience to create these experiences. Current entertainment games have dedicated teams of artists, coders, designers, and storytellers, to create a cohesive game that keeps bringing players back. On the learning front, researchers are lucky to have a small team to support them but are usually working with the support of a grant that limits where the project can go and focus. This process is even more difficult for educators, as they are generally trying to create their game on top of their other assigned duties. For games to become transformative for learning, there has to be a platform where almost anyone can create on as well as the ability for learners to access all of the experiences in a singular place. I think platforms like Minecraft and Roblox are starting to create this environment, but some limitations exist. The continued development of these platforms will open up possibilities for future research that can begin to explore learner motivation and look at applications to broader concepts and topics.