Video games can teach designers deeper lessons than ‘high score streaks’ and gamification

But Lee Shunman, chief product officer at education technology company Efekta Education Group and a former game designer, believes this is a simplistic way of thinking about how the video game industry helps other industries.

“Gameplay tends to come out as a series of high scores,” Schuenemann said Tuesday at Fortune’s Design Brainstorming Conference in Macau. “All of these things make sense for some social media products, but at the end of the day, if you’re there to learn, you have to put in the time and effort.”

Before moving to Efekta, Scheunemann spent years working at UK video game studio Rare, where he developed games such as 1997’s Diddy Kong Racing and 2002’s Star. Fox Adventure.

Today, even as he cautions organizations against adopting a simplistic form of play, he also makes clear that game design holds important lessons for teaching.

“[The key is] To keep you in the learning experience – just like keeping you in the gaming experience – and to find ways to keep you motivated as a student.

Schuneman said he is now exploring how to integrate agentic AI into Efekta’s educational service and “mix it with different gaming elements” to keep students engaged. He said a “major shortage” of English and STEM teachers in the so-called Global South means there is a great need for AI teachers.

Efekta has rolled out its AI-based learning assistant to 4 million students across Latin America.

“The future of gaming”

Other panelists shared how the gaming industry was exploring the use of AI.

AI can “spark imagination about the future of gaming,” said Haiyan Zhang, general manager and gaming AI partner at Xbox. “Creators all over the world [need] To think about new things they can do with games through the use of AI, and I think that will really help us push this new capability.

Zhang cited a hypothetical example: game preservation.

Researchers found that to bring classic arcade games like Pac-Man, Dig Dug, or Q*bert to new audiences, designers need to take the essence of each game and create new experiences.

“There is now the ability for AI to learn the catalog of old games, to allow new generations to experience these games in new ways,” Zhang said.

Beta Liu, AI lead at NetEase Games, shared how the Chinese company was using the new technology in one of its flagship products: Sword of Justice, an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) centered around wuxia, a genre of Chinese fantasy about martial artists in ancient China.

What sets the game apart is its AI engine, which generates countless non-player characters (NPCs) with unique stories and characteristics. NPCs don’t just do that Subsidy Perform tasks, but remember players’ decisions and act accordingly afterwards.

Since its launch in China in 2023, the game – set in the late Northern Song Dynasty and powered by DeepSeek technology – has attracted millions of players. On November 7, NetEase launched Sword of Justice in global markets.

“AI is not just a technology buzzword, but it is also a… [powers] they [players’] “The companion and their creation tools are in our game,” Liu explained. For example, he noted, players can move their characters to follow popular social media trends, such as dances or small dramas popular in China.

Ultimately, game designers hope that AI will help “elevate the player experience,” Xbox’s Zhang said.

A couple of months ago, Xbox introduced an AI-powered co-pilot on mobile and PC. Players can turn it on during gameplay, asking it questions about how to win a boss battle or existing active quests.

“This may seem like a very simple idea, but I think it brings life to the games, and [encapsulates] “What gaming is about. We want to make gaming more fun,” she added. [and] And more exciting.”