A progression chain is just a map of all the capabilities (and sometime dispositions and motivations) an experience needs in order to be engaging (or to even progress in the experience if it is interactive). The map is structured to make clear what any needed capabilities are dependent on (i.e., previously obtained capabilities). While progression chains can be used for any type of experience, they are most useful for interactive experiences and the learning of skills. If the proper skills are not learned in an interactive experience, the entire experience can come to a halt, where in a non-interactive experience, at least it will continue even if the audience is somewhat confused.  More advanced skills and knowledge are dependent on more basic skills or knowledge and cannot be learned until the more basic skills are mastered or the more basic knowledge is acquired. This creates a chain of skills and knowledge that can be mapped out to help determine the order in which they need to be taught, which can greatly affect the macro composition of the game. Note that this simple diagram does not include any dispositions or motivations, but those can be added if a particular skill or piece of knowledge is dependent on them. Progression chains must be prototyped and tested. You cannot be sure a chain works the way you think it does until it has been tested with a real audience. Progression States
Any given skill or piece of knowledge can be in one of the seven states listed below. Different signifiers and affordances may be needed to take a skill from unknown to known than the ones needed to go from known to mastered, although in some cases they are the same and the only difference is the amount of practice. The stunted and abandoned states can happen when a signifier goes wrong and someone is "taught" that a particular skill is not actually useful. Even if they are taught properly, if the capability is not used for a long period of time, it can become dormant and they won't remember to use it when it is needed. Any of these states make the skill/knowledge non-functional, even if it is technically known.
The audience often has pre-existing skills and knowledge that need to be accounted for ("people in masks cannot be trusted", “pressing buttons does things”, “rockets can be used for jumping”, etc.). Testing is required to determine if the audience has the pre-existing skills and knowledge necessary to learn the basic skills needed. They can also already have skills that they have mastered. While this means they can easily learn dependent skills, they can also easily become bored when they are being "taught" skills they already know. This makes dynamic teaching and optional teaching important for most interactive experiences. What skills are pre-existing or pre-mastered are important things consider when creating personas.
Games often have skills that can be used to cause something interesting to happen, or are just engaging to use, but aren’t necessary and don’t lead to other skills. These “reward” skills are still part of the progression chain, but don’t have dependent skills. Obtaining reward skills can be extremely engaging to players and are often one of the most powerful motivators a player has to learn new skills. Knowledge can be used in the same way if the knowledge itself is interesting to the player.
Learning Failures Players in games often fail to learn needed skills due to poor design. A huge amount of effort must go in to making sure players don't lose engagement or even stop playing due to design problems. Extensive playtesting is required to ensure this, but avoiding the four most common reasons for learning failure will help immensely.
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Engagement Theory >
