GAMIFICATION OF LEARNING AND EDUCATIONAL GAMES
Authors: Apostol Silviu , Zaharescu Loredana , Alexe Isabelle 
Published: February 2023

Studies have shown that game elements such as rewards and progress bars are generally associated with extrinsic motivation [Malone and Lepper, 1987], which may decrease the level of intrinsic motivation [Deci et al. 2001]. Extrinsic motivation may be useful for games aiming at acquiring declarative knowledge. These games usually involve labeling, drilling, matching or drag and drop. As the activity implies repetitive, routine actions, keeping score and offering rewards is an important part of keeping the player motivated to go through with the game [Kapp, 2012].
Extrinsic motivation seems to be less important when aiming to achieve educational objectives on a higher level (comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation). Malone and Lepper [1987] describe four factors that trigger intrinsic motivations: challenge, curiosity, control and fantasy.
a. Challenge. It appears that people prefer an optimal level of challenge, not too easy and not too difficult. The presence of an explicit goal seems to be important in increasing motivation, but having a goal alone is not enough to make an activity challenging. Some techniques to make outcomes uncertain for students are preferably to use, such as: levels of difficulty for an activity (this can be chosen by the user), scorekeeping systems (different for levels), and the use of random elements. For an activity to provide continued challenge, performance feedback is very important. It needs to be frequent, clear, constructive (providing useful information concerning the direction and nature of one's errors) and encouraging. If the learner's self-esteem is engaged, the challenge seems to be intrinsically motivating. For that, the performance feedback should be structured in such a way to promote perceptions of personal competence and effort.
b. Curiosity. Cognitive curiosity could be stimulated by designing digital content that makes students to be surprised and intrigued by paradoxes, incompleteness or potential simplifications. When activities deal with topics in which the pupil is already interested, the cognitive curiosity will be enhanced.
c. Control. It appears that a captivating game is one that seems to give the user a sense of control. The amount of control a person has in a particular environment depends on the range of the outcome that the environment provides and the extent to which the probability of each result can be influenced by responses available to the person in that environment. The game may be personalized by allowing the student to construct, select or name the characters, and the computer uses this information later, in feedback. In fantasy the user can experience the satisfactions of power, success, fame, and/or fortune or master situation unavailable in real life. When fantasies provide imaginary characters with whom the individual can identify, they are most likely to fulfill emotional needs. The identification with a character is determined by the similarity between the user and that personage, admiration for it or its perspective in the fantasy. There is also a cognitive component to involvement with fantasies, by offering analogies or metaphors that may provide the user better understanding new information by relating it to previous knowledge.