Can Video Games Stimulate Learning?

I liked this article about learning and video games. Researchers used a teaching game with features similar to commercial video games. I saw a lot of similarities between the motivational elements discussed in this study and the Making Learning Fun and ARCS readings for class. This study found definite motivational benefits to learning via video game.

http://cognitivedaily.com/?p=43

Middle School Students Creating Games

As our group worked on the Gold Rush game, it has really gotten me thinking about the whole game development process. Creating a game would be a perfect project for a middle school set of students, especially if the steps were broken down even more for them. It would include cooperation, problem-solving, thinking outside the box, conceptual design – all elements that would challenge but provide valuable learning for middle-schoolers. For any of the school teachers out there, this might be a great way to incorporate multiple subjects and state standards into one series of lessons.

GenCon 2005 - November 17-20th

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned previously, but GenCon (http://www.gencon.com/) is coming up November 17-20th in Anaheim, California. This is the 38th or 39th year of it. It is kicking off National Games Week (http://www.nationalgamesweek.net/) Nov 20-26th. They cover every type of gaming from card games, board games, computer games to role playing games. Has anyone ever been and can give some feedback on what it is like to attend? I would be interested to know if anyone in the class who is a “gamer” can tell us anything about the Industry Guests of Honor. Are they well-known gurus in gaming?

Monopoly: Icon of Americana

Out of the department of American Studies at the University of Virginia comes a project using Monopoly as an example of how "A game is an extension of social man". This project, called Packaged Play, is a fascinating look at how games like Monopoly are a mirror of man as a social being. I wasn't even looking for something for the blog, but while helping my son do a search for Monopoly-related images for a chemistry project (don't ask), I happened upon this site and HAD to share it. I encourage you to visit the PackagedPlay site and see for yourself, but knowing how short we edtec students are on surfing time, here are a few of my favorite insights:
"Ever wonder why there were only 32 houses and 12 hotels? Well, the answer is provided under the section of frequently asked questions:
To maintain a balance in the game, there have always been exactly 32 houses and 12 hotels in the Monopoly game. If it were possible to improve all the properties, it would be difficult to force opponents into bankruptcy.
Building shortages are not merely a realistic aspect of the game, but also one intended to perpetuate the game's underlying, ruthless nature. A smart player will scramble to develop their properties, hiking up rents, and thus stripping their "opponents" of the capital needed to develop their own color group. Camaraderie among players is further discouraged by the prohibition of favors."
"Identity. Means. Nature. Layout. Leisure. These elements that made Monopoly can likewise be attributed to the value of game play in exporting and defining a culture. The success of Monopoly was due not only to its ingenious use of the game's underlying principles in marketing it, but also to the cultural mechanisms enacted by it (though not intentionally)."

"In plays, there are genres, stages, lines, actors, a hero, a villain, a climax, a conclusion, and most of all, a moral or lesson embedded in the plot. Now parallel this to game play. In games, there are types, boards, rules, players, a winner, a loser, chance, an outcome, and the values learned from playing the game, as ingrained by its objective.
An individual sits down to play a game. They are a "player." Their "stage" is the board, upon which they act out this newfound role. Their "lines" are framed by the rules they must follow in order to suit the objective, or "plot." At the rattle and roll of the dice (the climactic moment) the outcome is evidenced and the conclusion realized. And so the curtain falls as the "hero", the winner, conquers the "villain", the loser."

There is sooo much more to savor here...check it out if you can.

Peggy

Most Important Games Ever Made?

The “Most Important Games Ever Made,” is a list of fifty video/computer-based games from 1 UP.com . All fifty of the games listed, such as Pong, Zork, and Tetris, are linked to individual pages which describe game details, provide resource links, show a list of progeny descendant from the original game, and offer opinionated musings as to why each game on the list is historically important.

I don’t think that very many Apple customers would agree with this, but “The Macintosh” computer made the list as game number 22! Ironically, the linked page says that “creator Steve Jobs discouraged the development of Mac games for fear the machine would be seen as a toy.”

Whether these are or are not the most important games ever made is something I am not qualified to venture an opinion on, and of course is certainly open to debate. However, by reading the historical background of the games presented on the site one can trace the evolution of video/computer-based games, from 1962 to the present.

Game Theory & Prisoner's Dilemma

I was recently reading and article that talked about game theory and Prisoner’s Dilemma (if both prisoners refuse to talk, they both win because the police have less proof. If one talks, the other one gets a harsher punishment. The dilemma is that neither can make a good decision without knowing what the other will do). Are there board games out there that put into play this type of dilemma where players can both win if they can figure out the other’s strategy? In cards, it seems like this is how bridge is played? Any thoughts on this?

Tivitz

If you aren’t familiar with Tivitz, it is a really interesting educational game. I went to a middle-school where one of our labs is located and observed a Tivitz tournament that was amazing. Students that are not exceptionally good student in Math were so involved in this game. What is really great is that each time the game is played it is completely different because the students are creating new math problems. Also, it can be played at any level depending on the roll of the dice and the game board. They have an online version as well, but the kids seem to really love the board game even more. I definitely want to go through and review it more to see how closely it fits all of the elements we have discussed for board games. Take a look at http://www.tivitz.com/. Robin O

NASA Games

I did a few of these activities. Very interesting. I did better with sound and pictures than with the written word when it came to short term recall. The literature on the NASA site said that short term recall is better when using sound. I believe that. I've also always heard that our strongest sense that invokes emotion is the sense of smell. I remember years ago hearing about how realtors were using the technique of having "freshly baked" cookie smells in homes that they were trying to sell. Maybe they don't use that strategy any longer. But then, I haven't been to any open houses recently!

5 Cognitive Psychology Games from NASA

Here are five games direct from the NASA Cognition Lab , located at NASA's Ames Research Center in Northern California. The lab conducts research which involves modeling the human operator in human-machine systems, and does basic and applied experiments on normal human perceptual and cognitive processes. Current modeling efforts focus on the task of the human operator in Air Traffic Control.

These five games explore recognition, mnemonics, recall, interference, and encoding areas of cognitive psychology.

Recognition,

The Mnemonicizer, (the mnemoic device device)

Human Memory:Recall,

Interference,

Short term Memory: Encoding and Rehearsal

Have You Hugged Your Kid Today?

Fascinating article, entitled LeapFrog's Game: The local toymaker wowed Wall Street, but the educational frenzy it spawned may not be in children's best interests.

Unlike the companies behind toy crazes that pried every lemonade-stand nickel from the palms of young consumers -- Beanie Babies come to mind -- LeapFrog has focused its marketing efforts on busy moms and dads. The strategy has paid off -- a playroom strewn with educational toys now has the same sort of social cachet as a Harvard sticker on a Volvo station wagon. "There is a certain fashion to toys," says Sandy Springer, director of merchandising for Imaginarium, an educational toy retailer operated by Toys R Us. "Parents today are more savvy about what's out there for their children. If you give too many generic toys and not enough educational [toys], you are not seen to be an intelligent, in-the-know parent." It's not just the parents. The learning frenzy is also fueled by pervasive marketing that tries to cast just about every plaything as educational. Manufacturers and retailers of children's products from mobiles to Matchbox cars are hyping the learning angle, and even the simplest toys have fallen victim: Rattles now "inspire confidence" in infants, and the red rubber playground balls we all know from elementary school are now said to foster an understanding of rules in toddlers. One Amazon.com teacher review of Baby's First Blocks from Fisher-Price claims, "The toy naturally introduces your child to important mathematical concepts," in addition to allowing the kid to "to practice visual discrimination." A wooden puppy-shaped xylophone from Babystyle isn't billed just for early music development, but also as "great for developing baby's hand/eye coordination." And at KBtoys.com, Crayola Sidewalk Chalk is peddled, not to draw hopscotch games or simply have fun, but to inspire your budding "little outdoor artist."

The last line of the article is priceless:
...parents can make it a priority to set aside some time on a regular basis, shut off the television and all the gadgets, and rather than seeking a leap, simply offer their kids a lap.

There is also a lot of great stuff in between warning against letting an electronic [or any other type] gizmo rear a child.

Peggy

Games for Grandma

The following section was taken from a literature review entitled, "Social Effects of Electronic Interactive Games". It can be found in its entirety at http://www.mediascope.org/pubs/seeig.htm#research%20and%20literature%20review This was the part I found especially interesting:

Although the majority of the current research is focused on the impact of video games on adolescents and young children, the use of video games to help improve the perceptual motor skills and self-esteem of elderly adults merits these studies a separate section of their own. A few interesting findings of this area's eight studies include:

• Elderly adults who played video games responded faster on a reaction time task than those who did not play video games (Clark, J.E. et al.).

• Significant improvements in self-esteem were found in elderly adults exposed to video games for eight weeks (McGuire, F.A.).

• Video games were used to improve a variety of perceptual-motor skills in a group of senior citizens. Subjects also reported improved coordination, better driving habits and few minor mishaps in the home (Drew, B., & Waters, J.).

• In an evaluation of the adaptation and use of video games by elderly adults, the games were shown to encourage concentration and focus attention. Although the games created some anxiety and fear of failure, most subjects enjoyed the games and developed a feeling of mastery (Weisman, S.).

• Video games could be used as a non-threatening tool for the diagnosis of physical and mental problems (Weisman, S.).

I think it will be interesting to see what the generation that grew up playing video games and remembering nothing different will do. I read another article that said that video game creators are looking in to "going gray" with some of their titles to try to keep people playing well into their adult years and increase their market share. It might have a neat side effect of fewer instances of dimentia and Alzheimer's, possibly. I think I might give ol' Mario and Luigi a call...it's been years...

Peggy

Games, Learning & Society program officially launched at Wisconsin-Madison

Games, Learning & Society program officially launched at Wisconsin-Madison: "A small plug for the new Games, Learning & Society program offered through the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Details here:

http://website.education.wisc.edu/gls/index.htm

Areas of study include digital literacies, digital game-based learning environments, gender and gameplay, and MMOGs. "

Cool Web Site to Explore

Here's a really attractive web site that really leads to exploratory learning. If you look around, you can find information about serious games and using them for vaarious corporate educational purposes. I won't tell you how and where to find this info. That's part of the fun!

good resource for board game rules

Hi all,

Here is a good board games rules resource I came across.

http://www.everyrule.com/boardgames_az_list.html

Forty percent fewer failures through a game?

Have you ever wondered why you have not been able to attain your vision? Or why the changes you make never seem to last? If so, then perhaps The Manufacturing Game^® is for you!

The Manufacturing Game^® experience provokes participants into exploring their mental models and thinking systemically; it encourages collaboration through team learning and enhances communication.

This is done through an innovative "high-touch, high-tech" learning lab using accelerated learning technology. The goal of the game is to “create a profound change in beliefs and commitments about defect removal, and an immediate action plan for dramatically lowering defects in the participants' processes. This is the paradigm shift needed for an organizational change effort to work. Typical improvements have been forty percent fewer failures and a third lower costs within a short time frame.”

Further, the learning lab “incorporate a highly integrated system of learning technologies into a single experience that compresses time and space and allows participants to quickly see the consequences of their decisions and strategies without the fear of failure or reprisal.”

Believe it or not, all of the above gets accomplished through a 4' x 6' board game which takes six hours to play!

Participants have three roles to play: Operations, Maintenance, and Business Services. The object of the game is to satisfy customer demand by producing and shipping the finished product and returning a profit to the company. Over the course the game, players see a simulated year of plant operations.

Entertainment Technology Center, CMU

It's back again. The Experimental Gameplay Project at Carnegie Mellon aims to generate 50 games this semester. Four new ones every Wednesday. Each week has a theme, and this week's is Temperature. Seems appropriate as we bake under these Santa Ana winds.

Games … not just for fun … architects on board!

Browsing for topics to post, I found a link to some seminars called GameSetandMatch II.

This initiative of a dutch professor (Ir Kas Oosterhuis) – “ …discusses current and future transformations within digitally driven architectural practices through innovative cross-disciplinary collaborations in general and real-time collaborative design, engineering and prototyping processes in particular”

I visited the link of the Prof Oosterhuis (http://www.oosterhuis.nl/gsm2/flash/), and one of the goals of the seminars is “ … to discuss the interplay between architecture and computer game design”.
Further in the page is pointed that both computer game design and architecture organize spatial relations.

In my case, even though I consider myself a visual person, when it comes to understand space, and re-interpret in 3D something in 2-D is really a challenge. I found interesting the approach to use the gaming simulation, to do not exactly to compete against others but to have your own sand play to practice skills.

One of the sentences I read just kept bouncing in the back of my mind …
“Computer game designers are thereby stretching the boundaries of what is possible in the virtual world” …

Can then people with any background at all in building, design (based in out of the box propositions) my house in the future ? …

Sounds as an interesting mix … computer game designers & architects.

Earth Contest

Games and geography... two of my favorite things are combined in Earth Contest.

"A new online reality game where players face extreme challenges and face their worst fears all while trying to beat the GameMaster. Using Google Earth placemarks and web pages, we've created the world's biggest interactive game.

In order to beat the GameMaster, you must follow the clues and utilize the Checkpoint feature to move ahead. Once you've beaten the first GameMaster, you'll advance to the BIG GAME of EARTH CONTEST where you'll compete with other self proclaimed super sleuths for BIG REWARDS!"

Google Earth, you probably already know, is the coolest new application to arrive in a long time. Once they release a Mac version, I expect to be losing a lot of time there exploring the globe and probably playing EARTH CONTEST.

The Online Guide to Traditional Games

This week while you're getting your game ready for playtesting, take a break and scan The Online Guide to Traditional Games. It's a nice overview of the oldest board games and their variants. Might give you some fresh ideas.

My favorite image comes from this description of Pachisi.

"The Indian Emperor Akbar I of the 16th century Mogul Empire, apparently played Chaupar on great courts constructed of inlaid marble. He would sit on a Dias four feet high in the centre of the court and throw the cowry shells. On the red and white squares around him, 16 beautiful women from the harem, appropriately coloured, would move around according to his directions. Remains of these boards can be seen today in Agra and Allahabad."

Imagine that.

COTS Games in Education

Here's an interesting email just posted to one of the lists I'm on:

From: John Kirriemuir

Hello,

My first posting, so a short bit about myself. I am an independent
researcher, who is also part of GERN (Games and Education Research Network) at the University of Bristol in the UK:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/gern/

I study the use of COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) games in education, learning and teaching.

The use of COTS games in curriculum-based education is a subject that's increasingly arisen in the games and education research overlap in the last few years. By COTS games, we mean those that you get from a computer and video game shop, and are designed purely for fun/entertainment - not for learning.

The most popular types of these games, being used in education, seem to be:

• Business and economic simulations, such as Sim City, Zoo Tycoon, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Some of these have a cross-curricular role; for example, Zoo Tycoon encourages economic skill development, while at the same time educating about animals and their habitat.
• Dance mat-based games, used in physical education.
• Historical re-enactment games, such as the Civilization and Age of Empires series.

There is a small blog that points to some examples here:

http://silversprite.blogspot.com/

More detailed examples, with descriptions from teachers of how the games were used, are available in this 4Mb Powerpoint presentation:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/research/networks/gern/gdc05.ppt

It's a fluid and fast-moving field, with a number of game developers and publishers looking to see if they can use their products "out of the tin", or whether modification and substantial teacher support materials are required. Various hook-ups between the games sector, academic research sector, and education sector, are popping up. For example, NESTA FutureLab (a UK research unit) and EA games are collaborating to find ways in which games can be used effectively in the classroom:

http://www.nestafuturelab.org/about_us/press_releases/pr8.htm

Do EDTECH mailing list subscribers use such games (or different "pure" computer games), and if so how do you use them to assist in delivering curriculum-based education? Or, would you consider using such games, but don't due to some impediment?

John Kirriemuir

survey05@silversprite.com

University of Bristol / Silversprite

eschools News Online article on game design major/minor

Here is a recent article on new gaming curricula. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offers a minor in game design and will be soon offering it as a major. Apparently, there are about 50 institutions that offer gaming curricula. I am sure that number will be exploding within a short amount of time.

The Buttkicker

The Buttkicker is a computer gaming add-on designed to add more realism to video games. It's a metal device that attaches to office-type chairs and rumbles when a game emits low bass frequencies.

At first glance it doesn't seem to have much relation to the world of education, but if we remember that training simulations are usually better to the extent that they can mimick real world situations, this device may have a place.

I remember watching a video about flying airplanes where there was a similar set up. The seats actually shook a bit in coordination with appropriate moments in the movie, and it did add to the experience.

MSNBC has a report on the Buttkicker here.

ROP readings

The authors talk about the three types of rules:

Operational: Rules of Play

Constituative: Rules that exist below the surface (logical and mathematical)

Implicit: Unwritten rules (etiquette, good sportsmanship, etc.)

In Stephen Sniderman's article titled "Unwritten Rules", he makes interesting analogies about games and the "real world". He talks about the unwritten (implicit) rules that underlie the written rules that tend to be dependent on culture. Probably the biggest unstatable rule that is universal is being a good sport and having good etiquette. This would be a good example of one of his statements, which is "the most powerful rules, the ones least likely to be violated, are those that are not stated explicitly, those that people have to infer or intuit. To state a rule is to invite players to break it, but to leave a rule unstated is to make its violation almost literally "unthinkable.

In conclusion, he makes the case that games serve one very important social function, which is as abstractions of "real-world" situations. The article is here.

don'tclickit

This was interesting. Although they said that the interface was different, to me, it is still a navigational structure where you make the decisions on what part of the site you want to check out. You just aren't clicking. It is a more elegant design, however.

Something that was said in class the other night make me think of an idea which may already exist. What if (in a game or a website), instead of the player navigating around the board or website, the board moves around you. I'm not sure if the player would have control within the game or be at the mercy of everything moving around them. Does anyone know if there is anything like this?

Games Help Kids Pay Attention

Here's an interesting article about a scientific study evaluating the use of a computer game to help 4-6 year-old-children focus their attention: Computer games help train kids to pay attention

Although the article says that the study is inconclusive (what scientific study isn't?), initial indications seem to be that the game did help the children pay better attention and ignore distractions.

The game involved is described as follows:

For five days, the youngsters progressed from a game that moved a cat in and out of grass to more complex tasks, such as choosing the largest number amid deliberate distractions.

Blast off to the Planet Power!

Gee I was trying to teach kids the food pyramid with a low tech card game! My humble efforts have been totally eclipsed by the mighty United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Check out the “My Pyramid Blast Off” interactive game available free from the USDA. It is designed to inform 6-11 year olds about the government’s new guide to eating right called the food pyramid for kids. The game premise is that players must load a rocket ship with the right combination of healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, low fat milk, whole grains, etc., to serve as fuel for the ship. If the ship is loaded with too much fuel or the wrong mix of fuel, it will be unable to blast off to Planet Power. It will be interesting to find out how effective this approach turns out to be. I am trying to imagine a 6 year old demanding broccoli for his or her rocket ship!

Games and Federal & State Agencies

Do you work for an organization or agency that's just a bit hesitant to use games in training? If so, you might benefit from the following URL put out by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.
Titled "Public Involvement Techniques For Transportation Decision-Making", this page lists several valid reasons why games-based training makes good sense. Real-life examples in transportation, mediation and business back up major points.
This is a clear, easy read and might just help you "sell" your educational game idea to a reluctant employer.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/pittd/games.htm

Csikszentmihalyi is Coming to Town!

The Learning Annex is offering Finding Flow with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the evening of November 15. You'll be reading about his flow theory in a few weeks, so this is extremely relevant. Thanks to 670 alum Jolie Kennedy for letting us know.

Shadows Over Camelot

Someone in class asked whether a game always had to have a winner. Coincidentally, today I ran across this review of a cooperative game, Shadows Over Camelot, written by the always witty defective yeti. Players compete agains the game itself. Either they all win or they all lose. Check it out!

Taking Fun Seriously

You can tell that people are taking something seriously when they start holding conferences in Washington, D.C., and charging hundreds of dollars to attend.

There is an upcoming conference there on October 31 and November 1 called the Serious Games Summit. Early birds can attend for $595 plus travel expenses. They have quite a lineup of speakers.

It's interesting to note the various tracks that you can go to. One of the tracks is Learning and Instructional Theory, which they highlight as follows:

At the heart of any serious game is a combination of exciting new ideas about learning and well-defined existing instructional methodologies. This track illustrates how the worlds of cognitive science, instructional design, and game development can work in unison to build better learning environments, applications, and methods. It also analyzes the inherent learning in games and the many metagame aspects to learning that inhabit the field.

Virtual Soldiering

This is a link to an article from Computer Edge magazine titled “Virtual Soldiering: Training, Recruiting, and Entertainment.” The article describes that the U.S. Army has created a free downloadable game called “America’s Army,” that has nearly 6 million registered players. The game takes players through boot camp, and then on to Ranger and Airborne training.

The game is described as being realistic in terms of weapons, tactics, rules of engagement, laws of war, lifesaving, and Army values.

This quote from the article got me thinking. “While war is violent, America’s Army provides entertainment and information without resorting to graphic violence and gore.” If the Army, who is in the business of war, can provide a war game without graphic violence, why don’t game designers for consumers follow the Army's lead?

After reading this article, my mind rapidly shifted to thinking about the possibilities of how many resources, in terms of dollars and lives, could be saved and repurposed if those who are compelled to engage in war could do so virtually through a game, rather than physically.

Can Bad be Good and The Free Multiplayer Online Games

Regarding Everything Bad is Good for You, I think the author is correct. I think my son's education has been greatly enhanced by the computer games and simulations that he has been exposed to since being a young child. A much richer educational experience than I had growing up, for sure.

My son and I visited a few of the games this weekend on the The Free Multiplayer Online Games site. The first one I looked at reminded me of the global use of some of these games. Air Attack, a flight simulator game, was only in the Korean language and we had to download a data file to convert it to English. This game included a forum for participant communication. Apparently many games have these forums for getting feedback about the quality, strategies, etc. of the games. As most of you probably know, simulations have become an extremely important and necessary instructional tools for learning skills whereby making mistakes can cause injury, death, and other catastrophes.

Get Tiffany was another game I looked at. Its the one about the four "dudes" trying to pick up a hot "chick" named Tiffany. This game uses Shockwave and you can make certain selections about how the guys look (hair color, eye color, clothing, shoes, etc) but they all had the same angry face! Maybe they could never get the girl! The mojo point cards were clever. This game only offered two choices for installation, AOL and Linux. Not sure why.

We played around with Sims2 as well. That is a pretty interesting game. I like the way you can create your environment and select moods, attitudes, etc.

We also looked at one of the recent Mario Brothers games. My son has been playing this game for years, so they must be doing a good job enhancing the game and creating more challenging levels to keep the kids interested over such a long time period.

We talked a little about Role Playing Games (RPG's) and tried to load the TerraWorld Online but we weren't successful.

With constantly advancing technology, there seems no end to the opportunities for online learning through games.

Can Bad Be Good?

When people of my generation see kids glued to the tube or attached like an umbilical cord to their Sony PS2s, we assume that IQs are dropping and neurons are stopping.

Not so, argues Steven Johnson in Everything Bad Is Good for You. Here's a quote from the dust jacket:
A video game will never be a book--nor should it aspire to be--and in fact, video games from Tetris to the Sims to Grand Theft Auto have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books.

Here's a quote from p. 117-118:

The rise of the Internet has challenged our minds in three fundamental and related ways: by virtue of being participatory, by forcing users to learn new interfaces, and by creating new channels for social interaction.

This is an interesting book and an easy read.

Need help from my son

I am asking (making!) my son (who is an avid gamer) go through some of these online games with me this weekend. I am pretty game deficient and need help navigating. I'll report back after I try a few. I did look at Professor Fizwizzle. Really cute but I still didn't know what to do. It looks a lot like the Mario Brothers games.

College majors in game design

Here's an interesting article on how more colleges and universities are offering minors and even majors in computer games: More colleges offering game theory courses, from the MSNBC web site.

Courses have titles such as Animation 1 and Cognition and Gaming.

The article compares the computer gaming world of today to the rock world of yesterday. Yesterday everyone wanted to be a rock star. Today everyone wants to be a game developer.

Logic Puzzle Learning Fun

Some of the best fun I've ever had learning a subject was with the books of Raymond Smullyan. He uses puzzles to make learning logic fun. He starts with puzzles about knights that always tell the truth and knaves that always lie and then leads you to puzzles with combinatory logic and even to puzzles that give you an idea of what Godel's incompleteness theorem is all about.

To give you an idea of the fun this can be, one of his books has the title,
What is the Name of This Book?

Here's an example puzzle. There are two rooms, each with one door. The doors are labeled:

1. In this room there is a lady, and in the other room there is a tiger.
2. In one of these rooms there is a lady, and in one of these rooms there is a tiger.

If one sign is true, and the other false, which door should you pick (assuming you want the lady and not the tiger)?

I'll let you ponder that.

Good Experience Games

Seeing Bernie's post reminded me about a site I came across this last summer that features online games (mostly Flash-based) that center around a good user experience.

Good Experience Games - it has an RSS feed, too.

I think you'll find some inspiration there as you work on your projects this semester. Have fun - I'm sure you'll get as much out of it as I did.

Robin Martin (Class of '04)

Free Multiplayer Online Games

The course hasn't really heated up yet, so you probably have lots of spare time on your hands. The Free Multiplayer Online Games site might provide an excellent way to blot up those pesky extra minutes in your day. And because they're multiplayer games, you can drag your friends and family down the road of non-productivity along with you.

Check it out and let the rest of us know which ones are good.

Interesting Online Board Game Site

Hello all,

I just came across this site which is a repository of all things related to board games. The URL is http://www.boardgamegeek.com/

Enjoy!

KartOO site

Thanks Paul.

This KartOO site is pretty incredible. I did a search on Dressage and got this map of sites from all over the world. Its amazing how they link the various categories together. The little genie that pops up is cute.

SagePage

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging.

I was introduced to blogging when I joined the EdGames blog two years ago. It remains on my blogger dashboard along with 3 other blogs I've started. Even though my class ended two years ago, I still enjoy reading the EdGames posts for the class.

I enjoy it so much that I'm copying the same format for a SAGE blog that I call the SagePage.

Good luck and enjoy 670,
Karl Richter

Visual Search Engine

The discussion yesterday on branches in the path, and choices and decisions as they relate to board game content and structures got me thinking about a meta search engine called KartOO that uses a visual display interface. Search queries are sent to a set of search engines; gathered results are compiled and represented by KartOO as a series of interactive maps.

The visual map display shows several different results represented as page icons. By highlighting or moving your mouse over one of the page icons, the different relationships between the various search results will be shown. In addition to the visual map display, there is always a hierarchical outline displayed that is interactive with the map display.

As I tend to be a highly visual person, I find this type of display useful. This is especially so when I am not familiar with how some content or information new to me relates to content with which I am more familiar. Possibly this search tool might be useful for identifying the content structure relationships in terms of branches and obstacles for reality based board games. Examples might be how to fill out a tax form, or how to remodel a home.

New to Blogging sites but gotta share the sunset!

This post is related to the class only because I was leaving the building after today's class to find the sky populated with clouds and the nicest red-hued sunset I've seen in a while. Bursting upward, over the tops of the nearby buildings, the rays of the setting sun brightly tinted the closest clouds. As I prepared to cross the street, being the cautious person I am, I looked to the right and found a rainbow arching over the parking structure. The rainbow also sported the red hues to their fullest extent, overshadowing the others still there but unable to match the exuberance of the reds. WOW.

We're Baaaaaaack!

The EdGames blog goes dormant from December to September in between class offerings. But now it's yawning, stretching, scratching the crud out of its eyes and getting ready to be a useful source of information sharing for this class and others.

It's good to be back.