Variable Ratio Schedule for Getting Kids Addicted to Boar...

In light of the above, here’s a solid Variable Ratio Schedule for playing board games with your kid: the first time you play a particular game, let the kid win. thereafter, let the kid win some of the time. 60% of the time is good to start (you can dial it down slowly as the kid improves if you want). make the sequence of wins and losses as random as possible. critically, make the outcome as close as you can every time, especially when the kid loses. She should always feel like she bare...

 Arcade Games in Game-Based Education

Arcade games such as Pac-Man, Asteroids, Tempest, Gauntlet, and the like are not useless to the gamifying teacher. Rather, their use is limited . . . and their usefulness makes them more akin to board games than contemporary video games. What is Pac-Man but a game of pattern management? Gauntlet is as much about resource management as anything else. These are notions that were discussed in the previous level. So, don’t exclude the value of the old-school video game . . . but don’t equate ...

 Gamification Pickup and Deliver Mechanic

Dr. Boxer decides to create a game board that depicts a cell and pieces for 12 different materials that might be transported into or out of the cell. Students are assigned to teams and given the opportunity to place certain materials either in the cell or in the bloodstream (which surrounds the cell and through which these materials move around the board). He then adds a small role-playing element to the game by giving each team an identity (such as a moving company) and an objective separate...