Learning like a game

Think of a game you just couldn't stop playing. It was never too easy and never impossible. Each level was a little bit harder than the one before, and every success came with a reward. Learning like a game means using these same ingredients for learning.

The American language researcher James Paul Gee got the idea because his six-year-old son Sam was playing the game Pajama Sam. Gee wanted to help him and played along. He was amazed at how long and hard games like that are, and how happily kids learn them anyway. In 2003 he wrote a book about it: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. In it he collects 36 learning rules that good games follow.

Three of them matter most. First: tasks sit right at the edge of what you can already do. That is pleasantly hard, but doable. Second: rewards are given for real skill, right from the start. Third: you learn better in a group of people who share the same passion. That way you keep going, because you feel progress and you are not alone.

In Mnemorya the Atlas is built like this. A topic builds up level by level, and the next level opens when the previous one is done. You collect XP for every review, and extra XP when a card moves up a stage. In communities you meet people who are excited about the same topic. To be honest: the levels don't adjust to your skill by themselves. You set the pace.