How games engage the brain

In a TED video released today, Tom Chatfield presents seven ways in which games engage the brain. Chatfield is a game theorist and author of the new book, Fun, Inc., about the gaming industry and how it is altering our society.

Chatfield’s seven talking points are

1. Experience bars measuring progress
2. Multiple long and short-term aims
3. Rewards for effort
4. Rapid, frequent, clear feedback
5. An element of uncertainty
6. Windows of enhanced engagement
7. Other people

Of course, that list doesn’t mean much unless you watch the video.

I haven’t seen Chatfield’s book, but a group of us have been reading Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design, and excellent work that echoes a number of Chatfield’s ideas.