Examples of Feedback

There are several good examples of feedback in games that teach strategy. The most common are the in-game hints players get at appropriate moments, such as after a death. The Call of Duty series has been doing this for a while, leaving a message for players when a they die from a grenade in Modern Combat, for example, or are stabbed in World at War.

These messages ask players to focus on developing strategies to avoid dying in similar situations in the future. (Although in practice, these indicators can be frustrating as well, if the player sees a grenade death but feels it was unfair -- the message then becomes insult to injury.)

Less common are feedback systems that inform players about their improvement at the game. One great example happens in Team Fortress 2. When players die, a message informs them about how they did relative to previous attempts, for example: "On the bright side... You came close to your record for time alive as a Scout in that round." The message goes on to indicate how long the player lived that round and what his previous personal best was. This is excellent feedback.

We also may want to shift our thinking about tutorials. Tutorials should not be considered the 10 minutes of instruction players get when they first start playing, or the part of the game we develop at the last minute after we finish making the "real" game.

Tutorials (perhaps we should stop using that word, too, as instruction needn't simply be text-based information) are the game and should occur over the course of the entire experience. Players are constantly learning to play, right until the end, and we need to provide relevant and informative feedback to them.

When we think about the game this way, we force ourselves to think about what players need to know at each point in the game, when to deliver that information, and how to track the data we need to provide this feedback. Sure, the bulk of what the player needs to know to get up and running happens early, but most good games require players to learn and adapt throughout. We should be doing our part to feed players the information and encouragement they need to keep up with these changes (though the "how" of this could take up an entire article on its own).

Creating Goals

The second thing we need to get better at is creating goals for players. Research has shown that the goals created for people -- by teachers, bosses, parents, and game designers -- go a long way toward shaping their mindsets about prospects for success and how they respond to setbacks. Most relevant to game developers are two types of goals: performance goals and learning goals.

Performance goals. Performance goals (or outcome goals) represent the most prevalent goal type in video games. There are three defining characteristics of performance goals. 

First, either people achieve the goal or they don't. There is no middle ground. Examples of performance goals include finishing a level in a platformer, getting the "Overkill" achievement in Halo 3, or finishing a race in Forza Motorsport in under two minutes. Examples of performance goals outside games are grades in school, or medals at the Olympics. There is no reward for progress toward the goal; you don't get half a driver's license for denting only one side of the car.

Second, the criteria for success are typically not defined by the goal-seekers.

Third, performance goals are usually complex activities that encompass a variety of smaller component skills. Passing a driver's license test requires many different skills, such as understanding the rules of the road, parallel parking, and braking safely.

What's wrong with performance goals? While performance goals are pervasive in school, work, and games, research on learning and motivation has shown that they often produce perceptions of lack of ability as well as decreased motivation. This is particularly true in cases where rewards or praise are contingent on successful completion. Further, negative feelings resulting from failed performance goals are more likely when a person's perception of their ability is already low, as may be the case with novice game players.

Consider this example. A child gets an A on his math test (a performance goal) and his parents tell him how smart he is. Maybe he even gets a reward. These are good parents. It is a popular belief that rewarding and praising abilities in situations like this is good parenting.

However, this kind of feedback can also have negative results. If the child's parents have consistently rewarded him for his ability, and because his parents made their praise contingent on a performance outcome (success on tests), it may backfire in situations where performance is poor. He will view his failures, like his successes, as a measure or indicator of ability, and failure equals lack of ability.

Now consider a player who believes he has low game-playing ability. A performance goal, such as completing a level in a shooter, will lower his motivation to continue trying, if he fails repeatedly.

When the goal focuses on ability, and the individual believes he does not have that ability, motivation and performance suffer. To extrapolate from the research further, he is less likely to focus on strategies for improvement if he views success as being contingent on a skill or ability he doesn't have. 

I don't think we should remove performance goals from games. A lot of players enjoy these types of challenges, and most games are structured around activities such as levels, rounds, races, and so on. However, we should consider incorporating other types of goals into games, too, specifically those focused on learning.

Learning goals. In many ways, learning goals are the opposite of performance goals. While performance goals focus on ability, learning goals focus on effort. It's not so much about doing as it is about trying. Improvement and progress toward the goal is as important as success.

It's important to explain that learning goals are not simply smaller or more frequent performance goals. Rather, they involve a philosophical shift in thinking about how we reward player progress.

To illustrate the differences between these goals, consider the performance goal of finishing a level in a FPS. At a low level, a player typically has to cross some boundary that triggers the level completion event, or maybe has to reduce a boss' hit points to zero. These events either happen or they don't. Additionally, the player is usually rewarded -- the story advances, the player gets a new weapon, and so on.

However, despite whether they complete the level, most players will improve their abilities over the course of playing. Some will finish faster and experience fewer frustrations, some will take longer, and some will eventually give up, but most will show signs of improvement.

This is good stuff to call out. It stands to reason that adding learning goals -- which focus on the skills and abilities that, when improved, make it possible for players to achieve performance goals -- would enhance players' appreciation of their own abilities. All this takes is a little more time focusing on the journey, versus the destination.

Learning goals make people try harder, take more risks, spend more time on a task, become less discouraged when facing setbacks, and, in the end, succeed more frequently (also see the sidebar, above). Doesn't that sound like the kind of player we should be cultivating?