Computers can be programmed to play all sorts of games, but these machines don’t enjoy playing — or even winning. It’ll be quite the feat to create artificial intelligence that actually understands which games are fun to play… and what games are boring. Game designers aren’t guaranteed to create fun games, so it’s not exactly an easy task for humans to figure out. But when a game is fun, people seem to naturally know it. That’s not to say that every popular game is fun for everyone, but there seems to be some quality of good games that can’t just be replicated easily. Here are a few quick links on games designed just for us humans.

• Gamification should make tasks challenging, so that humans actually feel a sense of accomplishment when they finish them. On the other hand, a bot doesn’t feel accomplishment. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever… [url]
• Humans can try to come up with simple tasks that computers can’t do — and the history of the CAPTCHA apparently starts in 1997. If only CAPTCHAs were more fun to do… [url]
• Game designers are always trying to get into the “flow zone” to make their games more addictive. Hmm. “The famous GRE test is a good example of design based on the concept of the Flow Zone.” [url]
• To find some cool online games, check out what StumbleUpon has found to play. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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