On Thursday, I reread Raph Koster’s A Theory of Fun for Game Design. The central premise of the book is that the fun that comes from playing a game is the result of the recognition and mastery of the game’s underlying patterns. In other words, games are fun when you are learning from them. Sometimes you are learning about the underlying system of the game. Sometimes you are learning about your opponents/teammates, with the game serving as a mediator. Sometimes it’s a bit of both. Although the book is written from the perspective of a game designer pondering the question of “why are games fun?”, there is some good insight there that can help us with the question of “how can games teach?”

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