Video Game Assignment
'Managing a Game'  

Students will work in groups on this assignment, taking the role of consultants (or Product Managers) for a gaming venture, whereby they will play any game of their choice available in the marketplace, to observe and map practices there to content discussed in class related to topics of Persuasion, Prospect Theory, Mental Accounting, Pricing, Social Norms and Nudges. They will then offer a critique and develop actionable recommendations for the gaming venture for which they are consulting. 

The idea behind this assignment is to create an opportunity for immersive learning while having fun and being engaged with real world material. Games utilise a plethora of choice architecture, persuasion, nudging and mental accounting principles; particularly at a volume and frequency higher than what is observable in other product categories or marketplaces which are limited by time and resource constraints in comparison. 

This was formally utilised as an assessed assignment from Fall 2023 onwards (with early trial as a fun in-class exercise in Fall 2022). 

Note 1: The specific questions and inherent details will be updated each year. If you are a student, please check the module's Brightspace VLE for updated questions specific to your cohort.
If you are a fellow academic who wants to use this in your teaching as a learning exercise, or if you want to collaborate to develop this further, please contact me. This exercise has been positively received by students and colleagues. 

Note 2: This Class Exercise / Assignment Material was developed by Dr. Suhas Vijayakumar (Assistant Professor in Marketing at UCD, Dublin, Ireland) for use in his ‘Consumer Behavior’ post-graduate modules. Please do not share or distribute this document without express permission from Dr. Vijayakumar.
Dr. Vijayakumar would like to thank Mr. Rahul Daga (Ex Director of Products, Zynga, India; and currently a Co-Founder at Giga Fun Studios, Bengaluru, India) for valuable inputs about the Gaming industry and the nuances of managing a game, which helped to create the initial draft of this exercise.