EPISODE 07: GAMEFULNESS, PLAYFULNESS, AND FUN

Episode 07: Gamefulness, Playfulness, and Fun | 5 January 2026

Trent and Stephen reveal The Worldbuilding Workshop’s secret cut chapter titled “Gamefulness, Playfulness, and Fun,” including:

• The co-writing process and rationale for which content was kept or cut;

• Defining “gamification,” “edutainment,” “serious games,” “instructional games,” and “playful learning”;

• How players, researchers, and educators compare and contrast different kinds of “games”;

• The relationship between playful learning and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of “flow”;

• The Gamefulness, Playfulness, and Fun (GPF) Scale and its potential applications;

• The Worldbuilding Card Deck and how its corresponding structures/substructures fit within the GPF model;

• “Fun” as a misleading design objective;

• Exemplars of gamefulness, playfulness, and fun (role-play, professional athletics, and “work”);

• Differentiation of simulations from role-play and other playful activities; and

• Why it matters that words actually mean things.

Episode References:

• Deterding, S. & Zagal, J. (2018). Role-playing game studies: A transmedia approach. Routledge.

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper and Row.

• Young, M. F., Slota, S. T., Cutter, A., Jalette, G., Mullin, G., Lai, B., Simeoni, Z., Tran, M., & Yukhymenko, M. (2012). Our princess is in another castle: A review of trends in serious gaming for education. Review of Educational Research, 82(1), 61-89. doi: 10.3102/0034654312436980