10. Fasted growing media site in history1
6 mio. UU/m. in first 12 months1
90 mio. UU/m. in first 18 months2
79th largest US site in traffic3
3rd most fb likes/shares of any news site4
... with 7.5 articles per day.4
(1) Forbes, 2013 (2) Quantcast, 2013 (3) Quantcast, 2014 (4) The Whip, 2013
2012
24. unpredictability
Can I not reliably anticipate
the future of this?
solvability
Am I able to resolve
that inability?
relevance
Is the ability to anticipate this
relevant to me?
curiosity
unpredictable, positively relevant,
solvable, safe
safety
Is resolving this inability
dangerous?
fear
unpredictable, (un)solvable,
negatively relevant, unsafe
curiosity: a motive to approach novel stimuli
invitation
Links in the online version
35. “Create a need to know by organising
learning around complex problems in
engaging contexts.”
katie salen-tekinbas
36. your mission: hack the election
Build a mathematical model to
explore and demonstrate how
changing voting methods can
elect different presidents
despite the same votes.
49. Young girl loses her dog in the forest.
Will she ever find it?
Dog is howling from a deep ditch, sitting
among a strange white thicket with roots.
What is this stuff?
Fast forward: Girl is now a scientist,
discovers that tree species don’t fight: if a
fir dies, the birches around also suffer.
Why is that?
We set up an experiment to see if this has
something to do with the roots.
Will food marked with radioactive
isotopes stay in tree?
Image: Marierodkjer
50. Trees share their food through a wood-
wide web!
But there’s something else …
We dig up roots: magnifying glass shows
seven miles of filaments in a pinch of dirt!
What is this stuff?
A fungus! The filaments are actually tubes.
But why is it there? Why do the fungi do
this? Why don’t the trees do it themselves?
Trees can’t draw minerals, fungi can’t
produce carbon: They enwrap each other
and exchange carbon and minerals.
But how do fungi get minerals?
51. Fungi mine tunnels through pebbles with
acid! They invade insects and suck out
their minerals!
But how important is that, really?
Up to 80% of sugers go to fungi, majority of
minerals go to trees!
And there’s more …
Trees communicate through fungi with other
trees via chemicals!
Are trees and fungi an intelligent
superorganism? A forest brain?
THE END.
55. Novelty
We are curious about novel experiences:
something potentially enjoyable we haven't
experienced yet has us wonder: "How does it
feel?" We follow a promise or surprise
signalling novelty if we feel we are able and
safe to do so.
▪ What experiences, interactions, content do
players know and expect in the given context?
▪ What haven't they experienced they might want to
know how it feels?
▪ How might you signal that the new experience
exists and is enjoyable without giving it away?
▪ Do players fear the experience might be
overwhelming, boring, or unpleasant? How might
you mitigate those fear?
Instantiations: Novel Content, Novel Interactions,
Novel Interfaces, Surprise.
CU
users
users
61. Surprise
We feel good when our expectations are
positively broken: something novel and good
happens that we did not foresee. Such
surprises stoke curiosity whether there might
be further surprises in store, wondering: "Is
there more like this?" A first surprise can thus
become the hint in a hide-and-hint.
▪ What do players expect in this context (genre, level,
interaction, situation, plot, menu, ...)?
▪ How might you positively break these expectations:
something vastly more, better, or different?
▪ How might you first create or affirm the
expectations – and then positively break them?
▪ How might you not reveal the existence of
something positive for the player in your game until
you surprise them with it? (Think level and interface
design, but also packaging, marketing).
Instantiations: Easter Eggs, Hidden Information,
Panoramic Opening, Plot Twist.
CU
users
user
66. Hide-and-hint
We are curious about potentially relevant
information and resources that are hinted at
but hidden. If we know about something, but
not its content, we wonder: "What is there?"
▪ What information or resources are relevant to
players at this point?
▪ How might you hide their specific content away?
▪ How might you hint at their existence?
▪ How might you signal their potential relevance?
▪ How might you help players feel that they can
follow that hint safely?
Instantiations: Cliffhanger, Fog of War, Hidden
Information, Locked Abilities, Locked Content,
Locked Items, Skill Tree, Tech Tree.
CU
users
users
Hint-and-hide
75. Unresolved Complexity
We are curious about unclear meanings or
paths to a positively relevant outcome,
wondering: "What's the solution?"
▪ How might you make a situation positively relevant?
How might you signal this to players?
▪ How might you create a complex, non-obvious path
to or symbol within that situation?
▪ Do players feel confident they can find the path or
meaning? If not, how might you instil that
confidence?
▪ How might you offer leads that spark multiple
hypotheses for paths or meanings that players want
to test?
▪ How might you help players feel that they can
safely test these hypotheses?
Instantiations: Puzzles, Whodunnits.
CU
78. Possibility Space
We are curious and feel autonomous in front
of an untested possibility space, wondering:
"What if …?" Possibility spaces arise from
recombinable items or actions with no
prescribed goals and emergent effects that
feel unpredictable but over time, guessable
and reliably learnable.
▪ What actions and/or items might you offer to
combine?
▪ Do they produce a combinatorial explosion of
effects that are logical but not foreseeable by you?
▪ How might you give players space, time, and
license to try their own combinations?
▪ How might you balance effects so that they are
neither unpredictably chaotic nor predictable?
▪ How might you give openings that suggest new
combinations to try: constraints, traces of others,
random suggestions, or half-begun things?
▪ How might you make testing an untried combination
relevant – e.g. with novelty, competence, or self-
expression?
▪ How might you help players feel that they can
safely test new combinations?
Instantiations: Building blocks, Editors.
CU/AU
93. unpredictability
Can I not reliably anticipate
the future of this?
solvability
Am I able to resolve
that inability?
relevance
Is the ability to anticipate this
relevant to me?
curiosity
novel, comprehensible, positively relevant,
safe
safety
Is resolving this inability
dangerous?
fear
novel, (in)comprehensible, negatively
relevant, unsafe
stoke it by inviting to a relevant, safe, solvable unpredictability
invitation
94. let me safely expose my lack of knowledge
“Don’t make me
feel dumb.”