Enhancing learning of real-life skills with storyfication : in a video game context

Abstract

Storytelling has been an important part of human nature as long as humans have existed. The story is quite often one of the most important parts of any book, film, or video game. Storytelling, and more specifically, storyfication, can be used to elevate learning experience in different media.

This thesis aimed to inspect different elements of storyfication in video games and how they can be used to make learning more effective and fun for the target group. Literature reviews of education in games, storyfication, and player skills were done, as well as five different video games were studied for their educational and skill value.

The findings were analyzed and then prototyped for a notice board gameplay feature in the RPG game Hamina 1810 – Work Never Changes, which aims to teach the players about work-life and gaining work experience. A user survey for the players was conducted, and the results were analyzed.

The survey did not get as many respondents as first expected and none of the respondents were part of the game’s target group, as it would have been most beneficial. Despite this, the author received valuable information related to the game and its educational content.

Storyfication, as it is not much studied, has great potential for future research in educational contexts, as technology evolves and so do education environments in video games and online.