Out of the video arcade, into the office: Where computer games can lead productivity software

The role of computer games in increasing the productivity of software is discussed. Computer games provide players with an appropriate level of game play by way of a number of distinct strategies. User skill selection, explicit and implicit staging, tool unlocking, hinting, and tutorial are used in computer games that allow games to meet the needs of both device and expert players. These strategies provide productivity-software designers with new approaches to deal with the conflicting goals of expanding software functionality for expert users while simultaneously keeping software easy to use for novice users. The games are also meant to provide creativity and new ways of thinking in productivity-software designers. They provide real examples of difficulty regulation and suggest how such strategies could work in productivity software.