The "Game Show" Episode

The LDA Podcast: An Exploration of Evidence-Informed Approaches to Learning and Development

In this episode, Matt and Clark are joined by the great Karl Kapp. We dive into a favorite topic… using commercial games for learning.

Shameless plug… The Commercial Games Workshop with Karl Kapp and Matt on December 11-12, 2024 in Philadelphia.

We talk about how to utilize games and activities for team building and ensure they become both domain specific and transfer back to the workplace. We also distinguish between cooperative and competitive gaming experiences, as well as their respective pros and cons. We discuss tips, constraints, and applications for using games— specifically commercial games.

The game itself is never the goal… we talk about how to leverage the game to reach an instructional purpose. We talk about balancing fun and the objective. We talk about debriefing game play. Karl refers to war gaming. Learning is a system. A game is a system that is a part of that greater learning system.

Clark refers to Kurt Squire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Squire

Game of Phones— Kris Rockwell: https://briandusablon.com/2011/07/01/a-game-of-phones/

Matt references Board Game Geek. https://boardgamegeek.com

Wil Wheaton's Tabletop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THjo1hjtz0g&list=PL7atuZxmT956cWFGxqSyRdn6GWhBxiAwE

Games mentioned:

• Civilization
• Escape Rooms
• Timeline
• Forbidden Island
• New York Times’ Flashback
• Fluxx
• Break the Safe
• ‎Monopoly
• ‎Oregon Trail
• ‎Lost Dutchman Goldmine (by Scott Simmerman)
• ‎Risk
• ‎Stratego
• ‎Ticket to Ride
• ‎Age of Empires
• ‎Pandemic
• ‎Barnga
• ‎War
• ‎Gin Rummy
• ‎Ninety-Nine
• ‎Cards Against Humanity
• ‎Titan Quest
• ‎Firefly
• ‎‎Code Names
• NYT Connections
• ‎Reigns
• ‎Candy Crush
• ‎Plants vs. Zombies
• ‎Murder by Choice
• ‎JJ Abrams’ S.
• Temple Run
• ‎The Dwarf King
• ‎Hanabi
• ‎‎Guillotine
• ‎Hearts
• ‎Pitch
• ‎Cassino
• ‎NYT Strands

A bit about Karl… He has over 27 years of experience as a professor of instructional technology and 15 years as the Director of the Institute for Interactive Technologies at Bloomsburg University— now Commonwealth University, He helps people understand the convergence of learning, technology, games and game-thinking through fun, laughter and insight. As the founder of the Learning and Development Mentor Academy, he provides seasoned L&D professionals with access to a library of on-demand, self-paced workshops, monthly live sessions, and a vibrant community of peers and experts. Karl also co-founded Enterprise Game Stack, a company that designs, develops and delivers online, digital card activities and games that keep participants focused, engaged, and collaborative, while reinforcing learning both in the moment and over time.

You can find Karl on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlkapp/

Or on his website, https://karlkapp.com