Ludic Effectus

The Ludic Effectus is what a Ludic Process leaves with a Ludic Agent - what remains afterwards: knowledge, ability, a changed attitude, closer relationships, a good memory, the urge for the next match. It arises in the process, is borne by the agent and shows afterwards - immediately or only over many matches.

It comes from lived experience through reflection, alone, in conversation or guided; not every lived experience becomes experience gained. It includes the intended and the unintended, frustration too, or a pull that does no good. And it acts back: whoever has played comes to the next match with changed capacitas, changed habitus, changed motivation.

Who has it is said by the definition: in humans it is change, in animals partly, in the Ludic Robot a change of state - what it takes away from matches.

In everyday language

• “experience” (largely): what remains afterwards (“gain experience”, “a learning experience”). Does not distinguish what is lived through during the match from what remains afterwards, nor either from what someone already brings. The term Ludic Experience reads like the everyday word in English; prefix and italics keep the two apart.

Place and design access

Place on the axis: AGENT–PROCESS - the effectus arises in the process and is borne by the agent, like Ludic Fabula, Ludic Experience and Ludic Ductus; unlike them it shows afterwards.

Design access: targetable - it cannot be set, but it can be missed. One names what is to remain (a desideratum; the message of a game is an effectus aimed at), aligns the determinations with it and afterwards collects what has remained - with rubric and follow-up interview, after a delay.

Relations on the axis:

• CORPUS: Ludic Activities, Ludic Mechanisms, Ludic Organisational Structures and Ludic Objectives contribute to it - what a task demands and whether it is fulfilled reaches beyond the match; Ludic Argumentum and Ludic Narrational Structure convey content that can remain.
• AGENT: Human Agent Capacitas, Human Agent Habitus and Human Agent Motivation receive feedback from it - the agent of the next match is a different one.
• AGENT–PROCESS: Ludic Experience passes into it through reflection; Ludic Fabula and Ludic Ductus contribute to it; the Ludic Agent Situation modulates what remains.
• INTENT: the Ludic Desiderata evaluate it - they are the yardstick by which it is measured.

Delimitations

Delimitation from Ludic Experience

Against the Ludic Experience: experience is the lived experience during play; the effectus is what remains afterwards - the experience gained, what was learned, the change. Experience ends with the match; through reflection it passes into the effectus. Tension is experience, the memory of that one evening an effectus.

Delimitation from Ludic Desiderata

Against the Ludic Desiderata: what is aimed at and what is brought about. What is to remain - “the players understand how an ecosystem tips over” - is a desideratum; what actually remained is the effectus. Together they form the bracket of every evaluation: the desiderata say what was intended, the effectus what happened - including the unintended that no desideratum foresaw.

Delimitation from Human Agent Capacitas

Against capacitas, habitus and motivation: the change and the state. The three are what an agent brings - what they can do, how they tend to play, why they play. The effectus is what a match changes in them. Whoever negotiates better after a tournament has an effectus; that they can do so next time is their capacitas.

Delimitation from Ludic Appearance

Against the Ludic Appearance: no immediate effect. What appears does not remain of itself - it acts through lived experience: appearance modulates experience, and experience passes into the effectus. That an image lingers is an effectus; that it was shown, appearance.

Examples

What remains after the game? Football, three players:

• The professional after a win: a larger tactical repertoire (competentiae), a team grown closer (relatio), a lasting memory (voluptas), the urge for the next game (inclinatio). After a defeat: the same extension of ability, perhaps resilience (maturatio) - or frustration and self-doubt, unintended.
• The youth player after the tournament: new tricks (competentiae), more understanding of tactics (notiones), new friendships (relatio), an appetite for more (inclinatio). After a year she is a different player - the feedback over many matches.
• The amateur after the weekend kickabout: a good memory (voluptas), a closer circle (relatio).

Further games:

• Pandemic at school: how outbreaks escalate is known afterwards (notiones) - an effectus aimed at.
• This War of Mine: a different view of war from the perspective of civilians (maturatio).
• Hanabi: a group that has learned to understand each other with few hints (relatio, competentiae).
• A game with endless rewards: the pull to log in again (inclinatio) - an effectus not every design wants.

Explanation

What remains after playing? A school class plays Pandemic and afterwards knows how outbreaks escalate. A group has been playing Hanabi for months and understands each other with few hints. Whoever has played This War of Mine may see war with different eyes. The professional goes home after the semi-final: her tactical repertoire has grown, her team has come through something together. After a defeat the same ability would remain - defeats teach too -, but perhaps also frustration and a sleepless night. What remains is not always good: a game with endless rewards leaves above all the pull to log in again. That is why it pays to think about effects, the unintended ones too.

Some things show at once, some only over many matches: whoever plays tournaments for a year goes into the next match with different abilities and habits. And sometimes all that remains is a smile: “that was nice.” That too is effectus - more modest, but no less real.

In education the effectus is the central aim. If a game is to show how ecosystems work, it aims at knowledge and perhaps a changed attitude. Whether it succeeds shows only afterwards. “Did playing have an effect?” is a question about the effectus.

Usage context

Dimension	Classification
Phase	Ideation (what is to remain, as a desideratum - for example in the agent persona: “what should this person take away?”); development (checking whether the determinations work towards it); evaluation (primary: what has remained, aimed at and unintended, with rubric and follow-up interview, after a delay)
Tool type	reflective - six cards of the effect categories (EFF-01 to EFF-06) and two cross-cutting cards, temporal differentiation (EFF-07) and feedback (EFF-08), in the stack stacks/process/effectus/; reference: tabulae/worksheet/effectus-worksheet.md

Theoretical foundation

• Gadamer, experience: experience as a change of horizon - the boundary between experience and effectus.
• Kolb, experiential learning: experiencing, reflecting, learning - the path from lived experience to effect.
• Mezirow, transformative learning: attitudes change through critical reflection - the basis of maturatio.
• Bloom, taxonomy of learning objectives: knowledge and process dimensions as background for notiones and competentiae.
• Biggs, constructive alignment: desiderata, activities, experience, effectus - the bracket of intention and effect, like learning objective and assessment.
• Sutton-Smith, The Ambiguity of Play: play always has side effects; even a pure entertainment game leaves something behind.
• Granic, Lobel, Engels, “The Benefits of Playing Video Games” (2014): effects depend on context and dose; they are not determined.

Effect categories

Category	Effect	Example
Notiones (EFF-01)	knowledge - facts, concepts, connections	”I now know how an epidemic spreads.”
Competentiae (EFF-02)	ability - skills, competences	”I can negotiate better now.”
Maturatio (EFF-03)	attitude - views, values, perspectives, self-image	”I see environmental protection differently now.”
Relatio (EFF-04)	relationship - groups, belonging	”We understand each other better as a team now.”
Voluptas (EFF-05)	pleasure - memory, joy of play, afterglow	”That was a great evening.”
Inclinatio (EFF-06)	inclination - preferences, interests, the appeal of playing again	”I absolutely want to play again.”

The first three are the triad of education - knowledge, ability, attitude -, the last three the further effects. The list is not closed; what remains is often mixed.

Across them (EFF-07, EFF-08): time - immediate, medium-term, long-term - and feedback on capacitas, habitus and motivation. Both hold for every category. The intended and the unintended belong to it, frustration or a pull too.