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Computer games are now becoming ways to communicate, teach, and influence attitudes and behavior. In this article, we address the role of humor in computer games, especially in support of serious purposes. We begin with a review of the main theories of humor, including superiority, incongruity, and relief. These theories and their interrelationships do well in helping us understand the humor process, but they have been developed in the context of traditional human activity. To explore how they relate to computer games, we present the findings of a qualitative study of player experience of humor and show how it relates to the theoretical perspectives. We then review the main functions of humor, especially its effects on social, emotional, and cognitive behavior. We show how each of these functions can be used in game design to support the specific experiences and outcomes of game-play. Finally, we address the issue of serious games and make suggestions on how humor can inform and support the design of those games. We suggest that humor can support design by smoothing and sustaining the game mechanics. Moreover, games can draw on the functions of humor in the real world for enhancing communication, learning, and social presence. Using humor makes games richer and more powerful, as well as fun.

We are interested in how digital games can be designed for learning in the affective domain. Our studies of how emotions are embedded in games and how games sustain affective learning involve observing gameplay and identifying recurring elements that we identify as design patterns. Design patterns help us think about the role of affect in play, what affect in games looks like, and the different ways affective learning might be achieved in educational and serious games. In this article, we describe and discuss several patterns related to understanding emotions, affective representation, and socioemotional interactions, which are essential components of affective learning. These patterns provide a language to conceptualize how affective learning might be designed into future game projects. To conclude, we discuss the development of a taxonomy of affective patterns to sustain socioemotional learning. We thus hope to stimulate the development of more human-oriented educational games in this domain.

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Affective learning is an important aspect of education that can be supported through games. This paper focuses on how games can and do address affective learning, especially in light of the growing trend of educational and serious games aiming at changing behavior and attitudes. To support affective learning though games, player emotions need to be recognized and interpreted, and an emotional experience needs to be created that motivates players and deepens learning. Moreover, there is also a need to understand affective representations and mechanisms that games support. The paper begins with a presentation of the different perspectives on affective learning, and then takes a focus on the socio-emotional component of the affective domain. An "affective walkthrough" technique is then introduced to understand and analyze affective strategies in games. This technique is then applied to the game Ico, showing its affective strategies and how these strategies can be leveraged for designing socio-emotional learning. The paper is concluded with an outline of an approach to designing games especially for affective learning, by identifying the key principles, creating a repertory of affective learning game patterns, and using methods to contextualize gameplay and facilitate learning.