Now that I've got your attention...<p>I watched a very interesting talk on the future of gaming [1] where the topic of games like Farmville and Mafia Wars comes up later in the discussion.<p>The speaker, who's also a notable game designer himself, makes an interesting observation. At a meta-level, Farmville is also a game where the developers/designers at Zynga are "farming" the players to attempt to get them to play more, be more sucked into the game, etc.<p>--<p>I'd like to learn more about game mechanics and see if I can use them in more productive ways as well. The traditional method appears to be books:<p>http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-books-articles-and-or-blogposts-that-discuss-game-mechanics<p>I was interested in doing something more interactive, like a workshop or a discussion group or building a prototype. Suggestions? Ideas?<p>[1]
http://edtech.rice.edu/cms/?option=com_iwebcast&task=webcast&action=details&event=2349