Frustration

I'm afraid I've already been turned off by my Second Life experience. For some reason my computer (a fairly new iMac with the latest greatest OS on it) does not work and play well with Second LIfe.

Sounds like a technical support issue, right? I guess it is. But...

The bigger thing is that my motivation to play the game is flat. Instead of looking forward to going there, as I did when I first learned about Second Life, I now dread the thought. I'm sure I can probably go through the effort to troubleshoot the issue, or I could learn to live with the the difficulties of movement and staring at the 'beach ball' as my computer locks up for a while. But now it's not fun anymore. It's work.

I know what you're saying about now: "Wussbag!!!!!" Maybe I am one. But when designing games, you have to consider the wusses of the world. It takes a lot of motivation to overcome the hurdle of having things not work the way they're supposed to. Is the game valuable enough to the player to be willing to work first in order to play? Or are you designing for an audience that likes that kind of challenge? And does the game need to be bleeding edge, or will another, simpler design work?

So my experience with Second Life has made me think more of motivation than anything else. I don't know if I'll end up being able to use Second Life. I wish I could. It looks fun. But not THAT fun.

Ganache...Ivan Ganache

When I first downloaded and launched Second Life on my PC running Windows XP Home Edition, I got a message indicating that I needed to update the drivers for the Intel Extreme Graphics Card. Doing this made a huge difference and has prevented Second Life from crashing (thus far). For anyone else who gets a similar message, here is the link for the drivers: Intel Extreme Graphics Drivers Update


Once I got that squared away, I found myself walking and flying around Orientation Island. You'll notice that I am taller than normal and am wearing a red shirt and blue jeans.

At the top of the page on the left side, there are two photos: one of me talking with a guy from the UK who is also a Second Life newbie and another photo of me flying.

Second Life is truly amazing; I'm eager to find out more about this incredible new world.

Problem with Second Life & Mac

Their support even works on Sunday. They replied and said my computer needs a new life before I can use Second Life. It requires a minimum of 10.3.8. I have 10.2.8. Guess I'll have to upgrade afterall.

Is the Digital World Flat?

Although it was demonstrated many years ago that the real world is not flat, there are there are those that think the virtual world is flat, most notably up north at USC’s Institute of Creative Technologies. A five year $100 million dollar grant from the Dept. of Defense has funded the FlatWorld project, which is an immersive virtual reality environment designed to help train soldiers. When digital flats, or large-rear projection screens, are used along with physical props, FlatWorld becomes a “mixed reality” environment where users interact with both the physical and virtual worlds seamlessly.

Users can walk and run freely among simulated rooms, buildings, and streets. It differs from other immersive simulations because large-scale digital displays combined with full-size equipment and objects (e.g., tables, window frames, doors), and amazingly enough, it is modular and transportable.

Regardless of one’s political affiliation, most people (including the party in power) have come to the conclusion that the federal response to the recent hurricanes was lacking and in need of improvement. This makes me think that a really good use for an powerful immersive simulation environment like FlatWorld would be to train emergency responders.

Through this sort of environment, train derailments, plane crashes, fires, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc. could be simulated. If the technology was adaptive and used some sort of conditional branching, perhaps it could show responders in training the results of their actions, in an “if/then” manner. So if a responder reacts this way then X will occur, if the responder reacts differently then A, Y, or Z might occur. I would think disaster training simulations once developed in a system like FlatWorld could provide a healthy ROI for the government as the system is portable, allowing it to be used most anywhere. Most of all, a disaster training simulation if developed, could improve the federal response to disasters and save lives.

A stuttering start to a Second Life

I got an account and logged in during the 3d animation class I teach on Thursday to show my students another outlet for their 3D skills. I just briefly entered with the intention of going home and exploring over the weekend when I had more time. However that wasn't to be. Despite repeated (over 1o) attempts I couldn't get Second Life to open on my home mac. I downloaded everything, visited everywhere I could find beginner info, even set up a new account, but to no avail. I finally sent an email to support but have no answer yet since it's the weekend.

In any case, the brief time I explored during class was interesting and a bit frustrating. Getting around was kinda intuitive, but difficult at first. My students demanded I enter as a woman and wear the sexiest costume possible, so I obliged. They were disappointed with the nude version. This would lead me to believe most of the cute women running around in Second Life are actually guys. Can't trust any digital selves nowadays. When I did enter some cute guy tried to lead me around, but never said anything.

My students were very interested in how they could use their 3d and Photoshop skills to create outfits and objects and sell them. They guessed the real money was provided through eBay in a similar way people sell things for Everquest. Is that true?

I told them the story of an ex-student who was running what some called an "Everquest Sweatshop" in Tijuana. It was a digital maquiladora where low paid Mexican employees were playing Everquest 24/7 to get credits to buy levels, objects and weapons for players who didn't want to put the sweat equity into playing Everquest themselves. It's a strange, strange new world we live in, eh?

In any case my goal is to harness these things for the sake of education. Instead of forcing students to learn to love things like math and science, I want to use the things they love to teach them math, science and literacy. The only problem, their educational antenae are pretty sensitive. They tend to reject out of hand anything that isn't pure fun or violent as a kid game. How do we get past this anti-education defense?

Bellow's Tale and the Origins of Linden

I was hoping in my second life as Pablo Bellow to avoid any hint of technical problems that I have sometimes besieged me in my first life. Much to my chagrin, so far this has not been the case. I can really see the learning potential in and for a simulation like Second Life, but that is assuming that one is able to have an active second life. Although I am sure that my experience is atypical, I feel compelled to describe some of the hurdles that I have encountered while trying to develop my second life.

First, when I attempted to register as a Second Life resident, I was thrown out of the process several times because my e-mail address has a hyphen in it. This prompted several phone calls to the Lindens, who were very helpful. They sent me several e-mails that I was to reply to that would “fix” the problem. All to no avail. This prompted additional calls to the Lindens, who said that my e-mail address was invalid, and couldn’t be real, to which I responded “Then how is that I am receiving your e-mails?” At this point, Michael Linden registered me manually, over the telephone. This finally worked and I was in. Out of curiosity, I asked Michael if the company was in Linden, N.J., and thus the origin of the company’s name. He replied no to both queries. Michael told me that the company is in San Francisco, and named after the Linden alley near their former location, which was down by the City Hall on Van Ness.

Second, after I downloaded and installed Second Life, the program would lock up, giving me an error message that my Intel motherboard’s AGP system software would not support Second Life. I was then asked if I wanted to go to Intel’s download site for an upgrade. I click ok, and found a whole page of AGP, etc. downloads to choose from. I had to read my computer manual to figure out what chipset my motherboard uses, which narrowed my choice to three downloads. Unfortunately, I had to try all three of them to see which one would work. Of course, this meant downloading, installing, rebooting, and then trying Second Life to see if it would accept it three times. Finally, the third time was the charm and I thought I was ok.

Next, I actually began my Second Life
as Pablo Bellow, and found that with my dial up connection, it is difficult and somewhat frustrating to be an active resident. Here’s why, Although I found that the A and D keys work fine (I can spin in circles with total abandon), the W and S keys do not work well, thus severely impacting my avatar’s mobility. There is an approximate 60—120 second delay between tapping a key and any action, although often no action occurs at all. At other times the avatar moves on it’s own, with out any keyboard input. The avatar frequently freezes, and the only solution I have found is to close the program and open it again.

Needless to say it took me an absolutely ridiculous amount of time to get off orientation island, but I finally did. Oddly, now that I am on the mainland I have been unable to do anything other than spin around, and I remain stuck in a welcome area for an area called Morris, that I have absolutely no idea how I got to. Even after rebooting multiple times, my avatar remains frozen. Oh well, at least I have made it to the mainland. Also, for some reason Second Life logs me out every ten-fifteen minutes or so. I can readily see that with out a fairly modern computer (such as a fast P4/G4/G5 with a fast video card and lots of RAM) and a broadband connection that it can be a real challenge for a user to partake fully in a media rich simulation experience like Second Life.

Games, Violence ... and Peace !

Games (especially video games are labeled as violent), but the words “games” and “violence” can work together in interesting ways. See this positive example:
“The Peace Games organization teaches conflict resolution skills that children can apply and believe in. Peace Games pairs college volunteers with elementary and junior high classrooms, where the volunteers teach one hour weekly lessons on conflict resolution. Though many volunteers do not have the firsthand experience with violence that the children do, they work to combat conflict through discussion, games, and projects. “

See more about this program at http://www.peacegames.org/ . The games seem to be live cooperative games, not video games. But still is interesting how through games teach about ‘peacemaking’ skills (communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and engagement).

How to Join Posse 670??

Apparently, we need an invitation to join the group, "Posse 670". I went there, but was not able to join. Did we get an invitation in our email? If so, I didn't get it.

My name is Scholten ... Silke Scholten ...

Even though I thought the opposite, I enjoyed a lot the experience of be in the virtual world. In general (with a small amount of frustration and thanks to the Jim tip), I found the way to change my appearance. I chose look quite regular ... as you can see in the picture at the left.
I liked all the features. Some were really girly, change the make up, nail polish color, etc. You can add or remove even freckles and wrinkles !
I also liked choose your body features (so finally I can have the body I want without dieting and exercising :-) ... The programmers did a great job !


I could fly pretty easily, but took me a while discover how to land gently. Most of the time, I just crashed !! (thanks God I do not have osteoporosis). Finally I learnt that 'pressing AND holding PageDown' I can land as gentle as a feather. I also drowned myself several times.
I took this picture when I was flying with my original white jacket. Beautiful view at the sunset.
Other feature that took me a while to get, was how to see my own face. It is done with the camera angle. (>View > Camera Controls ... in the circle of the left, you can control be at the eye level of your own character).

And once I mastered the camara angle, I took this nice picture of myself with the moon.
Peggy & me were exploring the virtual word at the same time. We met virtually and we showed tricks to each other.
The sandbox was really cool, even though I am quite bad when building things is required (ey ! I did not choose be an architect, or engineer in real life either ;-P ... ) I kept playing around, building some cubes, and other shapes, like cilinders, learning how to move objects, etc.

My First Shot at a Second Life

I have entered Second Life and experienced the joys and frustrations that await therein. Here is a pic of me flying over the welcome pavilion in my not-so-chic outfit that it took two computer crashes (and my computer is new and supposedly pretty powerful) to create. I like that I can be skinny in my Second Life. It's a big plus to not be plus. Anyway, Mercedes and I experienced the initiation to this new world together -- she on one computer and I on the other, but in the same room. She was definitely the quicker starter, so I got a lot of pointers that would have taken me more time to work my way through if she hadn't been there. Here is a snap of the two of us in the sandbox region, which is a training ground for creating things -- a training I flunked, I am afraid. I created a cylinder, but couldn't figure out what to do to make it actually BE something. I will try again soon, but I feel ok about this first entry into the fray.

Jim's post inspired me to dig deeper and go further. I know we are supposed to think of some sort of educational game that could be realized in this virtual world. Now that I have a little (very little, but other homework calls) knowledge about the concept itself and the means of movement, communication and creation, I will move away to let an idea incubate of what I could do.

If you want to put me on your list of friends, I am Marguerite Benmergui.

I am wondering what the name is of the group that we are supposed to join.

Games factory ... the secret ? Templates

I visited the website of QUIA and I found that they have a section to create activities, which are based in simple games (i.e. hangman). The website (http://www.quia.com/servlets/quia.web.QuiaWebManager) do several things, from administration, to create quizes.
(In fact I remember have taken some quizz in the early courses of Edtec made in QUIA in 540 or 541).

What I liked about the activities section, is that the template to create activities (games) are simple to use, seems technologically robust (i.e. display a flash version and a html version, based in the same content).

Their possibilities to create games are: flashcards, matching, concentration (memory), word search, battleship, challenge board, columns, close exercises, hangman, jumbled words, ordered list, patterns, picture perfect, pop-ups, rags to riches (a quiz-show style trivia game), and scavenger hunt.

The templates are very flexible with the use of languages (Activities in 30 languages, from Spanish, French, and German to Japanese, Hebrew, and Latin ) and signs that cannot be create with the keyboard (i.e. square root sign)

They already have a big “library” of games that can be customized, and even you can customizes your own past creations. The cool thing is .... if you choose to, the site creates automatically a copy to edit and customize.

The advanced option includes for instance choose the Number of questions per game (NQ) that you want to use based on your pool of created questions.

I created an activity with the template of hangman and is well though. For me was a good model of templates to facilitate the easy creation of games. Kudos to QUIA ! :-)

You can have a free 30-day trial. I encourage you to explore the site.

Free Gaming Magazine Available Online

For any of you with an interest in electronic gaming, a free new online magazine called Portable Gaming and Entertainment has just been introduced by Enoble Media Group. If you want to subscribe, click on new user in the upper left corner of the screen, and create an account.

According to Enoble General Manager Andrew Eisenberg, this magazine will be only offered digitally because “we didn’t think a print magazine could do justice to the video game market. Print works, but gaming is digital; it’s all about moving.” I guess time will tell if this digital publication is moving in the right direction.

Beta Testing

My husband and I enjoy online games, also known as MMO's. We had the opportunity to beta test a new game that was launched to a limited audience last Friday night and to the public on Nov. 1st. I was not able to post regarding the testing prior to the launch because of the non-disclosure agreements all beta testers must agree to.

The game we tested is called City of Villains (CoV). It is the counter-part to City of Heroes (CoH), launched about a year and a half ago. CoH allows you to play a superhero character and CoV allows you to play a super villain. A big change with the release of the CoV game is the addition of player vs player capability for both games. One of the main draws to both games is the ability to customize the look of your characters. In the pictures above you can see one character, Renegade Army, dressed as a mercenary, and another with a robotic body. When CoH was first launched many players spent hours creating different characters, exploring all the various options, before spending any time in the actual game.

I found the experience interesting (this is not my first beta test experience). I first started as a beta tester after the product had been in the testing phase for a few months already. Many of the features of the game were disabled. There were two goals that we were given:

1. provide feadback as new features were enabled.
2. all logon at the same time to test the load capability of the game.

Addressing the second first, we managed to crash the game frequently. At times movement within the game was like moving through quicksand as the server struggled to keep up. The game developers were sneaky about getting us to all log on at the same time. The game was only available for two hours each day, so we all dutifully dropped everything at 4:00pm to logon each day (or as soon as we got home).

Providing feedback was important to help the developers perform their final tweaking and adjustments. Many of the beta testers only complained about what they didn't like. Then when the programmers would make a change, more people would complain about the change saying that they liked it the old way. As beta testers we were constantly reminded that we needed to provide complete feedback, what we liked, what we didn't like, what worked well and what was broken. They were also interested in game balance. They monitored what type of characters players chose to play and added or modified abilities to better balance the character types.

Just a month before the game launch we (us testers) were concerned that the game would not be ready. A huge amount of changes adn additions were implemented in the last two weeks before launch. It makes me wonder how many programmers went without sleep that last week.

Games & Nobel Prizes

The Nobel prize official website have a section with small games and simulations, based on Prize-winning achievements (http://nobelprize.org/games_simulations.html)

The games are simple, I like the design. The instructions are - in general clear -, I only have some comments about the navigation buttons in some of them.
I like the concept too ... make the "... work of the Nobel Prize winners" accessible to the general audience.

You can find games in any of the categories of Nobel prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace and economics). You can play just the game, or have access to a brief explanation. If you choose do not read, the feedbacks from the game will give you clues anyways about the right way to do it.

Here are some examples about what to expect:




Category: Medicine
Blood Typing In this game you have to blood type each patient and give them a blood transfusion.

The Immune System Defender Game is intended to learn how to defeat a bacterial infection by using a range of different immune cells.

Category: Physics
The Transistor One of the games allow you to learn about how a transistor functions and what it is made up of.

Category: Peace
The Prisoners of War Game As commander of a prisoners of war camp, are you a "humanitarian champion" or a "sadistic swine?"

And my favorite game, is the Pavlov's Dog (http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/pavlov/index.html)


Enjoy !

Motivations and Unintended Outcomes

When my son was about 11, my boyfriend introduced him to the relatively new game of Sim City. My boyfriend was very into the game, and spent a great deal of time setting up and maintaining his city. My son, however, always followed the same pattern: every city he set up was soon destroyed by fire, tornado, or mechanical monsters. This frustrated my boyfriend to no end. He saw it as a failure on the part of my son to master the game. He was wrong.

My son was perfectly capable of playing the game correctly. He just didn't want to. Watching the city be destroyed was far more intrinsically motivating to him than maintaining a city.

The creators of the game had seen destruction of your city as a bad thing: an event to be avoided and contained with skillful maintenance and reaction. The excitement of watching the city burn had not at that time been considered as a motivating factor in the game. Ten years later, I notice that this motivation is addressed front and center on the Sim City Overview page on the EA Games Web site.

When designing games, it's important to think about motivations that could come into play, other than the ones the designer intends. Imagine the designer of the 'perfect' educational driving game realizing only after the game was finished that teenagers were playing the game by running lights and hitting pedestrians on purpose. Points, schmoints.

Games within Games

Yesterday, talking with one of my ‘class after Bernie’s class’ teammates about our next assignment, he came up with something I would like to explore.
[Note: My teammate recognizes himself as an Everquest and ‘game-geek’ type of person.]

When I shared with him that we need to do a game within a bigger game (Role Player Game), he commented me that in the game F A B L E (playable in Xbox) they have something similar [ :-( I thought that we will be original .. well at least our, will be an educational game ... not just any game].

He mentioned, that at some point in the game, the characters have to go to a kind of tavern and play cards (poker), and in other place the have to flip a coin to make it get into a can (small town fair type of game).

I searched Internet, but I did not find it. Does someone have access to the game [Fable] or to any kid (son, nephew, neighbor…) who play it, to confirm or not the comment?

So, My Friend, The Chain-Smoking Black Fox, Said...

So, there I was, after a hard day of flying and making wooden cubes, minding my own business, standing by my usual nighttime park bench with my good friend - who just happens to be a resident starving artist. You know the type .. chain-smoking, bleached hair, camo vest. Looks good on the little black fox he is. Anyway, as we're talking, some jock had the audacity to bonk me on the head and then just stand there. Just what I get for standing smack dab in the middle of the Victoria Waterfalls telehub. It's one of my favorite places. You can visit me there in Second Life. I'll give you a tour. Just look up Mari Asturias :-)

EDTEC 670 - Exploratory Learning Through Simulation and Games

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Show me the money ... Videogamers geeks go Hollywood

Browsing a Fortune magazine, I found an interesting article titled: “Videogame geeks go to Hollywood” by Evelyn Nussenbaum. I transcribed some paragraphs below:

"The game developers’ conference is typically a low-key geek fest … The power structure used to be clear: Video gamers bowed before Hollywood grateful for any chance to make movie-based games.

But that’s all changing. With global reach of their own and a taste of the big time, the game makers are learning the movie game well enough to play it themselves. … It’s now common for videogame designers like Jordan Mechner, who created Prince of Persia , to have agents that scout out lucrative studio development deals."

What surprised me, was the comment about Microsoft (yeah … sometimes I am a little naïve)
"Microsoft’s Xbox division has made the most aggressive move into studio territory. It’s commissioned a screen player for its hit game Halo from novelist Alex Garland and tapped former Columbia Pictures president Peter Schlessel to try to ignite a bidding war for it."

In the article, even though the author doesn’t mention the source, she presents some figures about the income in different categories of entertainment. Among movies, DVD/videos and online games, the games still do not have enough market share compared with the other categories:
"…. While consumers in the US spent $7.3 billion on gaming software last year [2004], they brought $9.5 billion of movie tickets and spent $15.7 billion renting and buying DVDs and videos". How close the figures of video and movies are, captured my attention.

The last part of the article … “Will Hollywood makes room at the table? Facing the triple threats of slowing growth, piracy, and the mounting influence of DVD retailers, they certainly should.” Make me thing that the synergy between Hollywood and the games industry definitely will raise the bar for the type of sophistication that the educational e-games will have to have.

Source: Fortune Magazine – April 18, 2005. Vol 151- No. 8. Page 40

Use of commercial games in education, teaching, and learning

Hello everyone,

Here is another excellent link which should come in handy for the research project portion of the course.

http://www.ceangal.com/games-and-learning/resources/

Game Research and Technology

Hello again,

This interesting link explores the symbiotic relationship which can exist between video game design and production and research by providing lots of useful links!!

http://www.red3d.com/cwr/games/

Enjoy!

Digital Games Research Association

Hello all,

I found the following link quite interesting.

http://www.digra.org

See you in class.

John

Game articles that Paul posted

I've read all four of these articles and they are very interesting and hot off the press. The Performance before Competence principle (opposite of what you usually get in school) in the Good Video Games and Good Learning article seems so important to learning. By interacting with what you are trying to learn, it has to make it more real and relevant.

In the Game Design and Game-Development Education article, the authors speak of the necessity of an interdisciplinary team to develop a good program curriculum. Sounds like universities could use advice from the game professionals, although academia probably couldn't afford to pay them as consultants anywhere near what they are making in private industry. It does looks like Southern Methodist University collaborated with game industry experts to create their 18 month certificate in digital game development.

I have included the link to the The Game Design Initiative at Cornell University here.

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/projects/game/

The “I still don’t quite get it” article was interesting in that it pointed out many skills that gamers acquire that are advantageous for other types of learning and communication. The author helps to dispel the myth that playing games is just a waste of time.

Usability

While this is not game-specific, I believe we are about to enter (or will at some point) into a web-authoring experience of some type. Even if we don't, I got this link from Dr. Bober in our 795A class, and wow, is it fab! The site is
www.useit.com, which is the property of Jakob Nielsen, who has been dubbed "The Guru of Web Page Usability" by The New York Times. I read a few of his periodic blurbs he calls "Alertboxes". Great stuff. Even if it isn't about games, per se, it is very valuable for instructional design and web design, which are the building blocks of a lot of what we are doing, and will be doing with games in the future.

My personal favorites were The Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 (yes, they are still making many of the very same old basic blunders in 2005) and R.I.P. WYSIWYG. (Stay on the lookout for Office 12 and the WYGIWYS.) It is so interesting. Exciting times are ahead.

Just had to pass it on...

Peggy

Four Recent Game Articles

Here are the titles of four recent articles on games that I found interesting, and you might also. All four articles appeared originally in the Summer 2005 issue of the Phi Kappa Phi Forum magazine, Vol. 85, No. 2. These articles are all available as full text PDF files through the SDSU Lirbrary’s Public Access Catalog (PAC), using the Academic Search Elite (EBSCO) Database. Simply choose "publications" under "advanced search" and type in Phi Kappa Phi Forum.

Unfortunately, one cannot directly link to the full text files because the PAC is password protected. This is probably just as well, as now I will not have to worry about any midnight visits from the copyright police.

“Good Video Games and Good Learning,” by James Paul Gee.

"Game Design and Game-Development Education,” by Mohan Rajagopalan and David Schwartz.

“The Layperson's Guide to Creating a Computer Game,” by Jon Skinner.

“I Still Don't Quite Get It: Video Games and New Realities,” by Donald Marinelli.

Homeland Security Comes to Second Life

At Bernie's suggestion, I've been exploring Second Life, a vast, online, multi-player simulation developed almost entirely by members across the globe. Recently, I came across a Real World blog by an "embedded" journalist in Second Life. (Yes, a real person, blogging as an avatar in an online simulation - wild).
The blog, New World Notes, by Wagner James Au, broke a story dated October 19, 2005, concerning (real) United States Homeland Security and other disaster relief organizations using Second Life to simulate and model emergency response behavior.
With a free Second Life membership, you too can visit "Response", a virtual community "owned" by a top East Coast University designed for organizations to safely practice and refine emergency procedures. An amazing real world/virtual world crossover.

Open Directory Project (Games section)

This website says that it is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. And, that it is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. While I don’t know if this is true, they do have a good web of links to items about games. Take a look at the following part of the website: http://dmoz.org/Games/. I specifically went to Games: Board Games: Resources. They do have a great list of sites that you can visit. The Board Game Geek forum is listed, as is the Board Game Designer’s Forum (for beginners). I thought that was an interesting concept. Anyway, it is worth a good look, especially if you have gotten more interested in the gaming industry now that you are taking this class.

Musings on Motivation, Toys, and Flow

After last Monday’s class Motivational Analysis Exercise in which I observed as a “Mike” or Csikszentmihalyologist, I have been thinking a lot about motivation in general. More specifically, I have been reflecting about what I find motivating in terms of playing a game. As I grew up (at least chronologically) before the age of computers, the internet, and video based games, I started thinking about some of the toys and games I played with as a youth. This led me to locate the National Toy Hall of Fame, which has links for thirty one different toys. I played with most of them, with personal favorites being the Tinkertoy construction set, and Gilbert’s Erector Set. I was definitely in a state of flow as kid playing with these toys, letting my imagination run wild. These toys were just basically pieces that you could fit together anyway you wanted to, along the likes of wooden blocks or LEGO bricks. Like any toy, play occured while one was in flow, and typically quit when when boredom led to an out of flow condition.

The side of the Tinkertoy container encouraged users to submit unusual model constructions to the game manufacturer for evaluation. To wit, my Mom took a picture of something I made out of Tinkertoys and sent it in. A few weeks later, the company sent me a “Junior Tinkertoy Engineer” certificate “in recognition of creative imagination, ingenuity, and skill.”

This was really quite motivating to me back in 1963, and probably helps explain why I still enjoy building things.

An experiment using an educational multiplayer web game

Here's a blurb I found describing an educational game that is actually being used as an experiment in educational psychology. It may be something along the lines of geosense.net. You have to create a login and wait for someone to play. No one was there when I looked at it, but it sounded interesting.

Develop Problem-Solving and Creative-Thinking Skills
Created in the Department of Computer Science at Brandeis University, PatternBEE.org is an educational multiplayer environment where two players challenge each other with geometric puzzles using a rare version of Tangrams. The game is fun and challenging and builds skills in geometry, spatial rotation, problem solving and creativity. Also check out SpellBee and MoneyBee and, coming soon, GeograBee and CalcuBee.

Here's the site.

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.