SimCity ” has 16.3 million monthly active users. 

I asked him what the basic principles are for games and what he told me sounded much like our advice to new donors – young or old.

First” ” a game must be easy to play but hard to master.  To be successful – even addictive – it must be fun to get started but always stepping up the challenge.

The best games always draw you into a story.  They are not mechanical or technical” ” but they tell a story that keeps the gamer going further and further in.

There is ideally an emotional connection with the character.  You are not dispassionate but engaged with the person.

There is always something – like a bell or similar sound – that tells you how you are doing.  You don’t have to wait to know.  People love to hear from the game.

Finally” once you start getting good you want to get better.  The game not only draws you in ” but it draws you up a level at a time toward mastery.

I know most of us don’t think of giving as a game” per se.  However aren’t there some aspects of it that are not unlike these games?  Giving can have the same dynamics with challenges and excitement.  True it’s not always fun or even exciting.  Sometimes it is a discipline but in the end I like to think there is something about it that like a game makes us want to get good….and then get better.