Amplification of Input
The blurring of boundaries between the three identities that occur in games is an effect commonly used by video game designers called the suspension of disbelief. By using this effect, players momentarily suspend the questioning of premises of the game and allow themselves to be "taken" into the virtual world.
This state, however, is fragile, as making the game too easy or too frustrating inevitably leads the player back into a state of self-awareness. For novice gamers, designers balance the game by inserting mechanisms that scaffold mastering of the game by making the pattern behind those mechanisms overt.
One way designers create scaffolding mechanism is through the amplification of input. This concept means any action taken early in the game by the novice player translates into big outcomes later in the game when the player has more experience.
For example, in the game Warcraft III by Blizzard, a player takes the role of the commander of the armies of a nation. In each level, the goal is to build an army and a strategy that will help him or her defeat all other armies, cities and camps present in the map.
In the easier early levels of the game, the resources that the player must collect in order to build the army are placed very near his or her camp. This has a tremendous impact since the peons used to gather resources must cover a much smaller distance and the pace of troop production is tremendously accelerated in comparison to the enemy. This is an advantage that will gradually be reduced in later levels as the resources become less abundant and further away.
Games as "Safe Spaces"
In the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the main character is a boy enrolled in a military academy where games are used for everything from learning strategy to training for battle and ultimately determining whether one is suitable to stay in the Army.
Fortunately, most games are not of this nature and one of the greatest advantages of games as spaces for learning is that they tend to be low stakes. This means that the general attitude of the game towards the player and vice-versa tends to be one of playful exploration where making mistakes is not only ok, but usually encouraged by the game mechanisms.
Games encourage trial and error by providing the player with mechanisms that will allow him or her to retry those trials he or she has not succeeded at. As a consequence, an attitude of playfulness and exploration of knowledge is fostered, something which has been observed in innovators over the years.