Have you wondered what makes something fun?Maybe you don't have to! There are some researchers, philosophers, and game designers who did that already and came up with a few ideas.The 8 kinds of fun theory was made by Marc Leblanc and used later in a larger theoretical model called MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics), which proposes a formal approach to game design and game research.

Fun is fun, right? Get to know the 8 kinds of fun

Marc Leblanc proposes that fun can be divided into:<ol><li>Sensation</li><li>Fantasy</li><li>Narrative</li><li>Challenge</li><li>Fellowship</li><li>Discovery</li><li>Expression</li><li>Submission</li></ol>Please notice that not only people may like multiple kinds of fun, but most of the activities have many of them in different scales.

8 Kinds of Fun - Overview

Having fun through sensation means that people like to feel things.This can be achieved by going on a rollercoaster, playing tag, or even playing digital games in easy or arcade modes.

8 Kinds of Fun - Sensation

People who like fantasy fun are usually excited about themes like magic, sci-fi, or other stories that are far from reality.This can be achieved through roleplay, wearing costumes, using accessories, or any other uncommon things.The universe where the activity plays is one of the most important things for fantasy lovers.

8 Kinds of Fun - Fantasy

When the story is the most important aspect to make something fun, you're having fun through narrative.This can be achieved through storytelling, interactive movies/books, or by playing games' story mode.

8 Kinds of Fun - Narrative

When you overcome an obstacle and find that fun, you're having Challenge fun.This can be achieved by playing in a competition, playing a game in hardcore mode, or even by trying to master everything in a complex game.Understand that some people may like to face some challenges, and that is even part of the flow theory, but others (people who play games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne) are interested in having really hard challenges — which may be frustrating to the average audience.

8 Kinds of Fun - Challenge

If the most fun activities are the ones you do with others, then you like Fellowship fun.This can be achieved through co-op games, going to parties, hanging out, or even by playing party games.

8 Kinds of Fun - Fellowship

Solving mysteries is your thing? So you like Discovery fun.This can be achieved by watching investigation shows/movies, playing hide-and-seek, or even with open-world games.

8 Kinds of Fun - Discovery

When you like to make the experience feel like it has a part of you, that's Expression fun.It can be achieved through customization of all sorts (clothes for a character, colors for an app, you name it), by allowing significant chat between participants, or even by supporting original content.

8 Kinds of Fun - Expression

Submission fun is about investing time and effort into something and getting a return on investment.This can be achieved through gardening, a celebration of a huge achievement, or even by playing building games.

8 Kinds of Fun - Submission

product

Product & Design

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

In general, game design concepts (ideas that you often see in games) may collaborate with any other experiences of our lives with 3 core benefits:<ul><li>Changing Behaviors</li><li>Developing Skills</li><li>Enabling Innovation</li></ul>

How game concepts can enhance your life and your business

Have you realized how once you've started playing a game while waiting for the bus, and now you simply can't wait for it doing anything else?That's the power of changing behaviors through games.By adding game elements that make activities challenging or rewarding, you can: create habits, enhance efficiency, or even making a system crowdsourced.Take the Waze app for example: by recognizing good deeds, people actually want to make maintenance of the app for the community!

Changing Behaviors

You're not the same person when you finish a game in comparison to when you've started.Through smooth tutorials, increasing challenges, and keeping you in the flow mindset, games will most certainly help you to master something, even if it is a game-related skill.By using these game elements, you can enhance other experiences and make them more effective while teaching something! It can be a presentation, a class, an app (like Duolingo), or pretty much anything.

Developing Skills

Have you noticed how making mistakes in a game is completely fine? You ofter get a second chance or, in worst case scenarios, this won't impact your life severily.That safe environment that allows you to fail may be the perfect scenario to enable people to innovate.While innovating with game elements, people won't be needing to worry about risks, resources, judgements.Take the game Fold It as an example: it allows people to play while helping researchers to innovate in the medicine field.

Enabling Innovation

Gamification can provide the structure to engage, motivate, and focus the innovation activities of the crowd, whether they are employees, customers, or communities of interest.

Organizations are facing an engagement crisis. Regardless if they are customers, employees, patients, students, citizens, stakeholders, organizations struggle to meaningfully engage their key constituent groups who have a precious and limited resource: their time. Not surprisingly, these stakeholders have developed deflector shields to protect themselves. Only a privileged few organizations are allowed to penetrate the shield, and even less will meaningfully engage. To penetrate the shield, and engage the audience, organizations need an edge. Gamification has emerged as a way to gain that edge and organizations are beginning to see it as a key tool in their digital engagement strategy. Gamify shows gamification in action: as a powerful approach to engaging and motivating people to achieving their goals, while at the same time achieving organizational objectives. It can be used to motivate people to change behaviors, develop skills, and drive innovation. The key to gamification success is to engage people on an emotional level and motivating them to achieve their goals.

books

Books

Organizations are facing an engagement crisis. Regardless if they are customers, employees, patients, students, citizens, stakeholders, organizations struggle to meaningfully engage their key constituent groups who have a precious and limited resource: their time. Not surprisingly, these stakeholders have developed deflector shields to protect themselves. Only a privileged few organizations are allowed to penetrate the shield, and even less will meaningfully engage. To penetrate the shield, and engage the audience, organizations need an edge. Gamification has emerged as a way to gain that edge and organizations are beginning to see it as a key tool in their digital engagement strategy. Gamify shows gamification in action: as a powerful approach to engaging and motivating people to achieving their goals, while at the same time achieving organizational objectives. It can be used to motivate people to change behaviors, develop skills, and drive innovation. The key to gamification success is to engage people on an emotional level and motivating them to achieve their goals.

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

Gamify

Kevin Talarico