The Tycoon Games and Csikszentmihalyi's Flow

Despina describes Zoo Tycoon and how it can provide hours of entertainment. This is very true! My children love it and like Rollercoaster Tycoon even better. In Rollercoaster Tycoon they build and run an amusement park, complete with rides, attractions, landscapes, and weather challenges. I enjoy listening to them plan business strategies and troubleshoot a poorly performing ride without even realizing they are learning! I have seen them so engaged in the game that "self-consciousness disappears," a true sign of Csikszentmihalyi's flow. One of the newer games in the Tycoon line is Mall Tycoon. My twelve-year-old daughter has been hounding me for this one. It is advertised as "every mall goer's ideal simulation." With the game, she'll learn basic retailing and marketing. The simulations are quite complex and difficult, but users find these games are gratifying in and of themselves - a great example of flow. These games also have online forums where users can discuss such things as strategies for beefing up security to get rid of the "punks" in the mall.

"Zoo Tycoon" - A simulation game

Zoo Tycoon is a simulation game developed by Blue Fang and Microsoft Games. In Zoo Tycoon you must build and maintain a zoo. To do that you have to take care of the animals, expand zoo’s operation, keep both animals and visitors happy and make money. You also have more than 40 different animals to choose from and you must be familiar with the types of animals you can adopt and their needs. The first expansion of the game, Dinosaur Dig, allows you to add dinosaurs to your zoo and the second expansion, Zoo Tycoon Expansion Pack Marine, allows you to add marine animals. Zoo Tycoon seems to be an interesting educational game that can provide hours of gaming entertainment. Download the free trial version and build your zoo!

The Mighty Palm

Handheld computers such as the Palm Pilot are becoming a common accessory almost everywhere, including the classroom. Some schools have even chosen to provide them to students. The small devices can be used to download additional software that includes programs for keeping class and assignment information as well as flashcards and some simulation games. Learners at every level will find programs to assist them. Sites such as PalmGear.com list thousands of add on programs.



There is no shortage of educational programs including games like High IQ and 7th Sense. These games and other helpful programs can be found at the General Education Listing

"Tutorial in Bad Behavior"?

So says Senator Joe Leiberman (D-Connecticut) about "Vice City", Rockstar Games' newest addition to their "Grand Theft Auto" series. Gratuitous crime, violence, prostitutes and profanity combined with the game's objective (find the guys who stole your cocaine and kill them) are some of the elements in Vice City that are contributing to its pre-release status as the groundbreaker in complete lack of morality/ethics in video games. The game is due to be released on Tuesday, and received unbiased front page coverage in today's Styles section of the New York Times.

How to Improve Learning Outcomes

We all know by now that creating a great e-learning environment takes more than converting traditional content and pedagogy into a technical format. But how do you create compelling e-learning content that gets learners interested and keeps them coming back? Well, the key is to make sure your learning environment embraces self-directive skills that are intrinsic to the learner. Translated into 670 speak this means motivation, self reliance, self confidence, and risk tolerance.

read the article

Games at a Higher Level

No less prestigious institution than Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is adopting the use of games and simulations in the highly complex world of scientific and engineering education. Games include Extreme Sports Tycoon, a statistics game using introductory algebra and physics as well as La Jungla de Optica, an adventure game teaching optical physics. This is, after all, MIT. Check the Games to Teach Project site to see others.

Famous Games

I was recently perusing the NETS (National Educational Technoloy Standards) for Teachers website
when I was pleasantly surprised to see Bernie Dodge acknowledged as the famous designer
of WebQuests (a learning activity which was further described as a motivational tool for use in integrating technology into
classrooms). This website is an excellent resource for teachers seeking knowledge about national standards
and links for technology lessons for both elementary and secondary education including games.

Making Lectures Fun

One of the biggest offenders for classroom boredom may be the lecture. Thiagi, in the October '02 edition of his Play for Performance newsletter, introduces his technique for Interactive Lecture or Lecture Games. This technique incorporates the advantages of lecture as an instructional format (efficiency) while attempting to remove or reduce its disadvantages (boring).

Fun Brain's Curriculum Guide

Teachers in K-6 might find this interesting. Fun Brain has this curriculum guide for teachers and it allows teachers to select online games for their students, according to subject, grade level, and title. For example, I played Grammar Gorilla, one that reviews parts of speech, nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc..., which I think would be perfect for 2nd graders who are barely learning what each part of speech is. I found that most of the focus in these games is on language arts and math. The instructions are not too terribly difficult to read and understand. I can see myself using this web site with 2nd graders and above. It feels a little like "worksheets," but just on the computer. I can see the novelty of some of these games wearing off after a while.

Brain Pop Games

I was looking for an e-game for my after-school math class when they finish early. I found a Brain Pop games on Yahoolagins.com. Students can pick a any subject matter, then watch a Flash movie. Afterwards, they can take a quiz or review the movie. It seems like a review of content rather than an interactive game. However, students did not want to give up their seat to someone else.

Learn How to Run Your Own Bar or Brewery

A friend introduced me to beermogul.com, a highly entertaining and fairly educational site on how to open and run a business. Once you've logged in, you are given 1 million beerbucks to open your own virtual bar, pub, or brewery complete with features, amenities and advertising campaigns. You can then go on the BeerMarket to sell or acquire your beer. Overall, a great way to learn about fundamental business operations...and beer making. --t. thai

Blogging Talked About on KPBS

Dirk Sutro, The Lounge

BLOGGING IN THE LOUNGE
Dirk Sutro hosts KPBS's The Lounge weekdays from 6:30 to 7:30pm at our very own KPBS (FM 89.5). His topics and guests are as eclectic as any on the radio, and yesterday he talked about the relatively new internet pastime of Blogging. I tried to find the online archive to last night's show, but there doesn't seem to be an online archive. In fact, there were a number of broken links and The Lounge schedule hadn't been updated since August (Dirk, need some edtec help?).
Anyway, I only caught half of last nights show. A journalist/techie type named Mitch Wagner who started the blog, 24 Hour Drive-Thru, was a guest. The show brought up questions like how long has blogging been around (a: since the beginning), and why do people do it (a: individual not corporate owned/run and it's fun). It was cool to learn a little more about blogging.

High School Science Teacher Takes Fun and Excitement out of Science

okay, so the onion isn't exactly news, but this piece is funny and hits the mark for our boredom analysis
http://www.theonion.com/onion3839/science_teacher.html

The Phonics Game and The Math Game

I've used The Phonics Game many times with 1st and 2nd grade learners and it works really well, especially in small groups of about 4-5. I have never used The Math Game or The Vocabulary Game but I ssume they are similarly effective. In case you are unfamiliar, it The Phonics Game is described as "a total phonetic reading system, cleverly disguised as a series of fun, interactive games" and it truly works. It has a variety of difficulty levels and is useful at home as well as the classroom.

Virtually Real

Neil Stephenson ends his commentary with the thought-provoking statement “This time, gamers will also face the ultimate challenge: social interaction.” He’s talking about the up and coming online game, THE SIMS ONLINE. He adds, “The Sims promises to be one of the most interesting human experiments in the history of the Net.”
Maybe it’s about getting a chance to simulate our own truth, or have an opportunity to practice life’s lessons. Learning doesn’t always have to feel like learning.

Read the article
Go to THE SIMS ONLINE site

E-mail Learning Games

After some Web surfing, I came upon a great article about e-mail learning games. Wouldn't you know, Sivasailam Thiagarajan wrote it. He talks about the benefits and limitations. He gives some examples of different e-mail games. Something worth taking some time to read.

Flash Simulations

My friend Jonathan Kaye, author of Flash MX for Interactive Simulation, published a white paper called How to Build Product Simulations with Flash MX. This interesting paper describes the process for developing device simulations to be used for training. Jonathan's emphasis is on using simulations toward achieving performance objectives. There are many interesting learning applications for the practical methods described in this paper and in the book. There's more information at the Web site supporting his book.

Spy Games

The training games this organization offers sound like a lot of fun! I like the idea of taking people out of their normal surroundings and situations - field trip games? Dr. Dodge's comment that not too long ago sudden changes meant something was about to eat us - therefore any change will get our attention during training - made me think that doing extreme things with games would really make the learning fun and permanent.

Check out the Spy Games web page

Learning Theory and Student Motivation

Interested in reading more about the difference between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation? The Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University publishes this bibliography of articles on Learning Theory and Student Motivation. Mark Lepper's work is included in the list.

Some inspiration for us all...

The Fortress of infinitude: a random repository of interests and information has some random thoughts "published" from game designers. Though the folks quoted are a wee more prominent than us Ed Techies, their thoughts are somewhat similar...

Enjoy.

Play Anywhere

Over the next few years, cell phones are going to become more versatile as they take over the functions of your Palm Pilot and your GameBoy. Wireless Gaming Review covers all the latest in this realm.

Yet Another Way to Make a Game

In Netscape's last days as a viable company, they gave away the source code of their once cutting edge browser to the open source movement. The hope was that volunteer hackers everywhere would upgrade the code dazzlingly for the sheer satisfaction of it. And in fact they did, though it took several years. The history and results of all this are described in a new book Creating Applications with Mozilla. Mozilla is at least as good a browser as Internet Explorer. But, as indicated by the book's title, Mozilla isn't just a browser, it's a platform for doing all kinds of communication tasks. Here's something new to me: they're using Mozilla to develop games.

"Mozilla is an excellent platform for building classic arcade and console - style games. It provides the developer with many of the features that these games rely upon, such as images, sound, network connectivity, application logic (scripting) and UI (via XUL)."

Ignorance Is No Excuse for the Law

Ian Parberry, author of several books on gaming and a professor at the University of North Texas, lists his Laws of Game Programming. He also lists the Laws of Combat.

Scenario-Based E-Learning

Somewhere in between simulation and boring e-page-turning instruction is where the category of "scenario-based e-learning" fits in. It is an method we are aggressively trying to employ at my military training organization, and one I suspect many private organizations will soon pursue as they discover (as we did) that page turners, even when you put them online so they reach lots and lots of people, aren't that effective, really. This is an excellent and well-written article by Randall Kindley- and he's not trying to sell you a piece of software or his consulting services (rare), it's just good solid "why" and "how-to" information.

read the article

Veni, Vidi, Ludi

If you needed any evidence that board games have a long history....

Here you will find descriptions and images of game boards and playing stones for nine Roman board games. Directions for playing each game also are provided. Kowalski describes the context in which each game was played and notes which games were the favorites of regular folks and famous Romans, such as the Roman emperor Augustus.

Maya in IGDA

I went to the IGDA meeting and it was really interesting. They had a presentation on Maya (you can download a free personal learning edition that's good for one year) and also on DFC Intelligence, a marketing research company that specializes in games research.

Toys for girls

Sally Ride Toys With Engineering

The first American woman in space has a new mission: Get more girls interested in science and engineering. To that end, Sally Ride is sponsoring a toy design competition for middle schoolers. By Katie Dean.

Scenario-Based E-Learning

Somewhere in between simulation and boring e-page-turning instruction is where the category of "scenario-based e-learning" fits in. It is an method we are aggressively trying to employ at my military training organization, and one I suspect many private organizations will soon pursue as they discover (as we did) that page turners, even when you put them online so they reach lots and lots of people, aren't that effective, really. This is an excellent and well-written article by Randall Kindley- and he's not trying to sell you a piece of software or his consulting services (rare), it's just good solid "why" and "how-to" information.
Read the article

Fads as Symptoms of Fun

The Bad Fads Museum is primarily a page to plug a book, but it's an interesting way to examine what people do for no extrinsic rewards. Hula hoops, mood rings, streaking, Pez dispensers... these are a few of our favorite things. Is there an explanation for these things to be found in the theories and models of Keller, Csikszentmihalyi, Malone, and Lepper? Could we, if we sat down and thought about it for awhile, predict the next big collectible?

Humor and Game Appeal

After posting up 40,000 jokes and analyzing 2 million ratings, scientists have revealed the world's funniest joke And here it is...

"Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his phone and calls the emergency services.

"He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

"We find jokes funny for lots of different reasons. They sometimes make us feel superior to others, reduce the emotional impact of anxiety-provoking situations or surprise us because of some kind of incongruity. The hunters joke contained all three elements."

Here are the top jokes in several selected countries, and there are more details at LaughLab, the UK organization that conducted the study.

I wonder if these same three elements come into play in a really enjoyable game?

MIT Games to Teach

I'm an addict. OK, now I've said it. I'm addicted to role playing games (RPGs) like Diablo, StarCraft, and Dungeon Siege. What if a player were to put the amount of hours, thought, and money into learning that people put into RPGs?

The Games-to-Teach Project at MIT created several prototype games that they hope will "lay the foundation for next-generation educational gaming." One game, Hephaestus, is a "massively multiplayer role playing game" where players design robots to colonize a planet. This game teaches physics concepts that the players must consider in their robot design. You can view a movie online [Quicktime][AVI]. Warning: big files!

Loops R Us

From Forbes.com: Welcome to Feedback Universe:

"We are starting to rethink science in light of feedback. It is at the heart of the most compelling new inventions. And now we are seeing the first signs that it is beginning to reorganize both corporations and national economies.

"We don't even have the words yet to describe this," says Grand. "We don't yet have the names. Before this is over, we're going to need a new mathematics, a new physics, and a new ontology of the world."

As we get into simulation a bit later in the semester, we're going to be talking about modeling dynamic systems in terms of feedback loops. This article provides an interesting preview.

Dr. Roadmap's LA Freeway Game on NPR's All Things Considered

This afternoon, National Public Radio included a short report on a new board game called Dr. Roadmap's LA Freeway Game. The idea is to learn alternative routes through the LA freeway maze using a roadmap, while beating your opponents to City Hall. Dr. Roadmap is Dr. David Rizzo, a podiatrist by day and former L.A. traffic reporter (read SME). He contends, everyone in L.A. talks about the traffic but no one does anything about it. You can check out the game (or buy it) at Dr. Roadmap's web site.

Homework Can Be Fun

From CNN.com: Kids use PlayStation for high-tech homework - Sep. 21, 2002.

The software described was developed by Lightspan here in San Diego, and an Ed Tech alumna, Liz Herrick, is quoted in the story. Most of Lightspan's software focuses on development of the sort of skills that standardized tests tend to measure. Schools with low scores often have Title 1 funds to spend on technology, and I think principals like the idea of attacking the problem with a single purchase order. In this era of high stakes testing, it could be that Lightspan is destined for great success.

So Anarchists Do Have a Sense of Humor...

Here's a game to watch for on the nightly news: The Infoshop.org Anti-Capitalist Scavenger Hunt to be held at next week's World Bank and IMF Protests in Washington, DC

The Infoshop.org Anti-Capitalist Scavenger Hunt

For entertainment purposes only!

World Globe in World Bank Headquarters - 1000 points
Organize tenant's association or rent strike - 1000 points
Do childcare while others are protesting - 1000 points
Set up community pirate radio station - 500 points
Trash inside of retail chain store - 500 points
Organize workplace to strike - 500 points
Occupy offices of K Street PR firm - 500 points
Demolish government surveillance camera - 500 points each
Cook food for the homeless - 500 points
Occupy abandoned building - 400 points each
Plant trees in middle of street - 400 points each tree
... and so on.

They won't actually award points for any of this, of course, since that would open them up to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.

Thickening the Plot

Just came upon The Big List of RPG Plots, by S. John Ross .


"What follows is a scrap of trivia . . . my collection of RPG plots, in abstract form. I built this by examining the premises of hundreds of published adventures for all systems (including those systems dear and departed from print), trying to boil them down to common denominators. The results are presented here: arbitrary, and sometimes redundant. Nevertheless, I turn to this list when I'm stuck for a fresh premise for next week's session of my campaign, whatever that campaign might happen to be about at the time. It helps me keep from falling into thematic ruts (my least favorite kind). With any luck, it might serve a similar function for you."

If we have any RPGish e-game final projects, this could come in handy.

X-Box Consoles out, Online gaming In

Thought you might interested. It seems that the costs of developing software titles are rising as consoles have become highly advanced, armed with powerful chips that offer faster games and dazzling graphics. Microsoft is set to start an online gaming service called XBox Live around October in Japan.

Online Gaming

What Do Women Want?

From Michael Rogers MSNBC column: Girls Just Want to Have Games

"What do Barbie and Nancy Drew have in common? Besides apparent genes for agelessness, the two characters may someday be seen as crucial turning points in the evolution of interactive games for girls. Or perhaps even the evolution of interactive games for everyone."

The article contains a short version of the rise, fall and re-rise of girl games. It raises some interesting questions about gender differences and commonalities.

Pong 2002

Some of us are old enough to remember PONG. It never looked quite like this, though.

From another blog: SOS: A Card Game. It's kind of an anti-game, I think. Vague rules, no clear winner. What's interesting about this article, though, is the blizzard of comments from readers that it spawned. I was particularly interested in the mention of Spit and Bailing Wire, a Yahoo group devoted to those interested in forming a game company on a shoestring.

From ZDNet: Simulation may be the e-learning "killer app"

"Simulation-enabled content can revolutionize learning and accelerate the transfer and application of knowledge. Enterprises should leverage the scalability and immersion characteristics of simulations to accelerate time to competency and depth of competency. By 2006, 70 percent of all off-the-shelf and custom e-learning content will include some application of simulations (0.8 probability)."

After a long (and expensive) review, I've picked Game Design Perspectives as one of the course texts. If you're already registered for the course, feel free to go ahead and order it from Amazon. It will not be coming to the Bookstore. We'll also continue to use Prensky's book Digital Game-Based Learning.

ABCNEWS.com : U.S. Military Pursues Computer War Games

"Last month, the Army released its first official video game ever designed for civilians called "America's Army: Operations." Taking over two years -- and nearly $8 million -- to develop, the game is similar to popular first-person shooting games such as Doom, Quake and Counter-Strike.

But unlike many other commercial combat games, where players are rewarded for racking up tons of "virtual kills," the official Army game is designed to portray a soldier's life in a bit more realistic light, say officials."

Salon.com Technology | Coming up next: Ambushed on "Donahue"!

"Even though I am sometimes disappointed with their content, I refuse to give up on games. White kept harping on the fact that GTA3 was the top-selling game in the country, as if it were representative of the industry as a whole. If we went only a few more notches down the charts, we would have found games like Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Sims, Civilization 3, Spiderman, and Rollercoaster Tycoon. M-rated games make only about 9 percent of the gross revenue from the American games industry. The game industry is more diverse than it was a decade ago, the technology and storytelling more sophisticated, the market more far-reaching, but the reformers keep beating the same dead horses. White and her allies describe games as commodities no more valuable and every bit as dangerous as cigarettes. I call games an art, and challenge game designers to live up to their responsibilities as artists and storytellers.

Only after the fact does it occur to me that most of the research dollars our program has accepted to look at games and education come from Microsoft, the same company that partially owns MSNBC and cuts Phil Donahue's paycheck. You got to love living in an age of media concentration!

By this point, however, I am caught looking like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar, trying to explain to someone who really couldn't care less how contemporary universities get funded. "

World's most thrilling games you can play involving your search engine

This might make an interesting assignment for the course, too. Can we design a new search engine game that's good enough to make this list? What are the elements of motivation that make these gamey?