Understanding Gaming Addiction: A Project Based Learning Class

Do you grab for your phone every time it vibrates or dings? Have your grades or relationships suffered or have you lost sleep because of gaming?

Did you know that for game companies will do whatever it takes to get your money and keep your attention?

In this multi-day course we will explore the psychology of how companies purposely create addiction in their customers for profit and take that knowledge and put into practice by creating our own game concepts with as many addictive aspects as possible. This is called project based learning, where you take knowledge you've learned, and apply it. The goal of doing this is you'll develop a deep understanding and recognize when companies use these tactics to steal your time and your money. 

Day 1: The" In" Crowd: The psychology of "likes" and trends and the qualities that make social media and the internet so addictive.  How is addiction built into gaming?

Day 2: Let's Play A Game: The immersive world of gaming. What's a problem and what's not when it comes to gaming and the internet? 

Day 3: Create Your Games: This will be an activity started in class. Students will be put into break out rooms to work together on creating the most addictive and fun game possible to present to the class. 

Day 4: Student Game Presentations

Day 5: Student Game Presentations and Wrap UP

We realize that most students do not want to be in this class. They didn't choose this class and they will do whatever they can to get out of it. We try to make the content as engaging as possible but this isn't just a fun class. We also rely a lot on student participation. We can not make your student participate or apply the lessons taught.