Both Malone papers provide excellent basic theories of Games Based Learning. Although written some thirty years ago, the principles remain the same for digital games today. This post is a summary of the mainpoints.
What Makes Things Fun to Learn? Heuristics for Designing Instructional Computer Games
Thomas Malone (1980)
In order for a computer game to be challenging it must provide a goal whose attainment is uncertain
In a sense, the very notion of “game” implies that there is an “object of the game”
Uncertain outcome- A game is usually boring if the player is either certain to win or certain to loose.
Four ways to make the game uncertain:
1. Variable difficulty level
2. Multiple level goals (score keeping and speeded responses)
3. Hidden information
4. Randomness
Extrinsic fantasies depend on whether or not the skill is used correctly (see diagram below)
Intrinsic fantasies- not only does that fantasy depend on the skill, but the skill also depends on the fantasy(see diagram below)
Heuristics for Designing Enjoyable User Interfaces: Lessons from Computer Games
Thomas Malone (1981)
This paper largely focusses on what makes computer games fun (intrinsic motivation) and the sysems behind the game.
Game- Darts: diesigned to teach elementary students about fractions
8 differnet versions of the game to find out which features made the game enjoyable.
Boys liked the fantasy of arrows popping ballons and girls appeared to dislike this fantasy
Fantasies can be important in creating intrinsically motivating enviroments
Implications for designing enjoyable user interface- the appeal of computer systems based on three categories: challenge, fantasy and curiosity (see below)
I thought I would use a post to list a few quotes from this week’s readings. Hopefully they will be useful when I come to writing the synoptic paper :-)
Greenfield (1984) This paper is somewhat dated. However it summarises the early research of video games. Many of it’s findings are still relevant today:
“Video games have been dubbed the marriage between television and computers”
“Popular arcade games involve tremendous amount of visual action, and is may be one source of their appeal”
“Video Games are the first medium to combine dynamism with active participatory role for the child”
“Another concern about video games is that they are merely sensorimotor games of eye-hand coordination and that they are therefore mindless”
“The motivating features of video games are beginning to be put to more explicit educational use”
Kane (2005) A General Theory of Play. Considers all the dimensions of play.
Caillois (2001) Classification of Games
Newman (2004) What is a video game?
“Elements of the video game table 2.1: Graphics, Sound, Interface, Gameplay and Story”
“What a video game is not: a bunch of cool features, a lot of fancy Graphics, a series of challenging puzzles, an intriguing setting and story” (Rollings and Morris, 2000)
Why do players play? “Rouse (2000) identifies a range of player motivations and expectations. Among them, three are particularly notable: Challenge, immersion and players expect to do, not to watch”.
“Video games may be understood as a form of ‘embodiment experience”
As mentioned in my last post, as a child, I was a huge fan of the Commodore 64. About four years ago, I decided to purchase an old C64 on eBay and relive my youth (not sure what happened to my original?). The C64 was released in August 1982. It was the best selling model of the 1980’s. It had a huge 64KB of RAM and a graphics chip with 16 colours! It really was state of the art. My parent’s bought a C64, in 1986, with the intention of using it to manage farm accounts. This was not to be so. It took my Father 4 hours to program the machine to play ‘Ba Ba Black Sheep’, let alone, create, calculate, manage and save any accounts. With so many failed attempts he gave up and passed the machine onto my brother and I. I don’t actually know anyone who used the C64 for anything other than gaming. This is where my passion for all things ICT initially began. I would spend hours working out how to programme the C64 to do very simple (and at the time, fascinating tasks) I managed to play small monophonic tunes, draw very basic pictures and of course there was the game playing. I find it incredible to think that 20 years later I am now able to do the same tasks and much more from my mobile phone! With regards to gaming I was an avid user. With 16 colours the C64 games were just fantastic! ‘Hungary Horace’, ‘Dizzy’, ‘Wheelies’ and ‘Road Blasters’ to name a few (others not the most PC in this day and age). It gives me a very nostalgic, yet strange, feeling when I set up this piece of computing history. Seeing the famous blue C64 screen, holding the ‘Run/Stop’ and 'shift' buttons simultaneously, waiting in anticipation for the game to load; will it load or willit come up with ‘system error’?
When I bought the computer some four years ago, I asked for my purchase to be delivered to the school where I was teaching. I couldn’t resist setting it up and letting my pupils see my new toy. At the time, my Intermediate 1 Biology class were working on the subject of ‘Alcohol and Its Effects’. Under the umbrella of this subtopic is ‘Reaction Time’. What better a way to demonstrate reaction time than with a good old 10 minute game of ‘Crazy Cars’ (This is a game where you have to race around a circuit avoiding other cars and potential hazards, ideal for testing reaction time!). After overcoming the basic graphics (one boy asking me, ‘but where is the car?’) the pupils surprisingly got really into the game. They were also very inquisitive as to how the machine worked (i.e. loading of cassettes and the general setup). You can now play many of the C64 games on the iPhone ,however nothing beats the real thing ;-)
The Commodore 64, such a fabulous computer of the past, they have even commissioned a classical orchestra to play the music from the games!
Pac Man was a game that I was first introduced to as a child in the late 1980s. I can't remember which computer I played the game on, but Amstrad springs to mind. The Pac-Man movements are controlled by the game player. The object of Pac-Man is to eat as many Pac-dots as you can without getting eaten by the different colored ghosts that roam around the pac maze. If you eat a large Pac-dot it will turn all the ghosts blue. When the ghosts are blue, you (Pac-Man) can in turn eat them. Fruit also appears at random points in the maze. If you eat these fruits you will gain more points.
For the purpose of the course, I downloaded Pac-Man "lite" (the free version) for my iPad.
I think this is a great little game for testing reaction time and small scale problem solving. However in terms of learning, I am not sure exactly what the player *is* learning? I guess there is a certain amount of physical finger coordination to be learned and perhaps the Thinking Correctly Under Pressure (TCUP) theory, but how could this be applied in another context? Perhaps when playing sport and choosing your tactics?
As Greenfield (1984) states video games are "merely sensory motor games of hand-eye coordination"; quite a sweeping statement but applicable in the context of Pac-Man and many of the basic games of the era. Other similar games of the 1980s that spring to mind Hungry Horrace (the first computer game I owned for the Commodore 64) and the Dizzy Game series (more in another post)
How things have changed with touch-screen technology and augmented reality just some of the things that I am looking forward to investigating further during this course :-)
I thought I would use my first post to (re) introduce myself. Sorry if you have already read my introduction on the discussion board!
The Games Based Learning module is my fourth course. I am also studying the Research Methods course this semester. After these modules I am hoping to go on to the dissertation. I was a teacher of Biology and Science for 7 years. For the last three years I have worked in project management (ICT classroom based initiatives and VLEs). My current role is elearning community facilitator for the Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP). My current project is called eLearning and Traveller Education Scotland (eLATES) I am supporting, coordinating and managing the deployment of Glow (the Scottish Schools Digital Network and VLE) for mobile and Travelling Children. I would class myself as a *casual* gamer. As a child I was a huge fan of the Commodore 64 computer. More recently I was involved in a number of games based learning trials in the Primary Classroom (2008). These included the use of Sony PSPs as tools for learning and also using Desktop PC software such as Media Stage and CrazyTalk.
I am looking forward to exploring the potential that digital games have to enhance learning experiences for all ages and sharing practice, knowledge and experiences with others on the course :-)
More information about my online life can be found on my website: www.tessawatson.com
Please feel free to leave me and comments or questions (positive or negative!)... They are what makes blogging so worth while :-)
Experiential learning by means of playing games either in real life with other participants or virtually in an online gaming environment according to Gee (1) draws on the experience, beliefs and moral values of the player’s real world identity. In turn the player gains knowledge by experimenting safely in a learning environment, knowledge which then blends into and transforms his real identity that as a result promotes change to a new identity. The centre of learning therefore is based on own subjective experience and it is experience that guides what the person learns and when it is learned according to David Kolb (2). The desired outcome is a transfer of emotions, notions, capabilities that derive from a safe learning experience where the learner has had an active part in the evolution of the learning environment and the events that have lead to the learning experience. Thiagi (3) and many other use games regularly as a means to destructure and restructure learning.
Unlike Boellsdorf virtual identities in SL Gee’s players enter a set framework given by the game design with a choice of “unique backgrounds” and features. The creation of the virtual identity is framed by design and not as in SL a free choice and construction of the person. Consequently a game seems to be a more structured way of learning than an identity in a SL environment. Throughout the game the decisions made and the development of the game add to and develop the gamer’s virtual identity as foreseen by the game design, whereas in SL the rules and rewards are defined by the social conventions created and implemented by each individual group (assuming that we don’t enter a preset domain but that we meet on ‘neutral’ grounds’). The choices made according to Gee are filtered by a projected identity that acts an intermediary between the real and the virtual identity. While in both cases the environment provides anonymity the mandatory gap between the virtual and the real world Boellsdorf stressed as being foundational in Gee’s version seems to be bridged by the projected identity that serves as a ‘transmitter’ or ‘synapsis’ between both worlds. In my previous post I pointed out that in my view even in SL there is a reciprocal ‘contamination’ between the experiences in the real and the virtual world. Gee’s view on using games to transfer and enhance learning seems to confirm this impression. The express purpose for playing online in Gee is to learn. So why and how can playing be an effective learning tool?
Experiential learning expert David Kolb proposes a model of learning cycle with four learning styles: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active, experimentation, which all engage the learner at some stage of the game. Kolb suggests that a learner enters the game with his own personal style and moves along the cycle during the game experiencing and interacting with all four styles. By playing the game the person is actively involved in the choices and decisions, thinks before and after about the alternative choices and their consequences, is able to take the experience out of context and to a meta level of understanding where it will enhance what the person already knows and will support with ‘tangible’ activities that promote learning-by-doing.
To have a successful learning transfer Gee sees three basic requirements that need to be fulfilled:
1-The learner must be enticed to try (…)
2-The learner must be enticed to put in lots of effort even if he or she begins with little motivation to do so
3-The learner must achieve some meaningful success (…)
How can that be achieved? Gee admits that video games are good for some type of learners, so that would confirm Kolb’s different learning styles and different approaches to learning. How can games be used effectively in education, higher, professional or any other education to provide an interesting entry point for all learners?
Based on my experience as an experiential outdoor facilitator games have first to be designed carefully and then briefed and de-briefed well. The briefing serves to set down the framework, similar to a game design in an online environment with its basic rules, choices, characters and roles. The de-briefing serves to transfer the findings of the game (the virtual world and the identity the learner assumed there) into the real world, they need to answer to the question of “how can I apply this in my daily life/work?” and serve as a bridge between both worlds and both identities.
Briefing and debriefing should aim at enticing the learner to try, to offer a safe environment to learn detached from his real life and the identity he or she is required to have in a specific semiotic domain. A feeling of safety is important as well as willingness to commit which might be achieved by showing first that there are no repercussions in real life and second ‘what is in for me/him/her’ or expressed differently “what will I get out of it?, what will my success look like?” And it must be clear that success is closely related to how much effort is put in the task. It should be clear to the learner that the responsibility for success and reward are in his own hands.
Is that enough to motivate people to risk doing something which might make them look stupid, inept or clumsy? Indeed, this is a major obstacle in the real experiential world which requires a lot of ‘pedagogical care’ (Barnett, 2007) or as Gee phrases it, to learn actively and critically. Personally I quite like the idea of identities as an ongoing development program where knowledge is used as a catalyst for developing a new identity and to form bridges from the one’s old identity to the new one. The virtual world has the advantage of offering anonymity which provides a feeling of safety that in turn reduces risk and increases the risk readiness for the learner to allow himself to get involved in the game. How can we ensure that the real world identity will profit from the virtual world identity?
(1)James Paul Gee, (2004) “Learning and Identity: what does it mean to be a half-elf?” from What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy”, pp51-71, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
After our Second Life Session I found myself comparing my perceptions of what had happened in that hour with the interaction during our Twitter and Skypechat tutorial. While the basic text-based exchange is common to all three the addition of visual information, such as seeing a person type on the keyboard, has had a regulatory effect on the communication flow. Our exchanges were more structured and there was a certain flow in the development of the discussion, which allowed to express and elaborate on a thought while it still was on the radar of all.
The impression of having an embodied entity in a dedicated environment contributed to my perception of a more ‘personal’ interaction between the various members of the course. It was interesting to see that the real life behaviours, such not more than two people sitting on a bench or keeping a certain distance to each other was the same in this virtual environment.
One aspect that distinguished us from other users seems to be that the main attractiveness for SL, its anonymity and freedom of behaviour and role choice, is not our main goal. We still seem to struggle with the anonymity of our bodily selves.
From a learning and teaching perspective I can see and think of a number of potential uses for SL, if the participants will buy into the technology part of it. I am still disoriented by the level of complexity of SL and if I were to use it, I would need more confidence and experience to support my learners in this environment. For me SL is not intuitive enough for a quick spin in and out of it.
Skypechatting was really interesting last night. Fast, fun and a little unstructured it felt like being in a classroom, where everyone finally gets a chance to talk and being listened to and answered immediately. By skyping the perceived isolation and asynchronous communication and interaction was finally broken and it felt like a community.
As a teaching tool I would see it as an opportunity to let people vent their ideas, emotions and opinions in a collaborative environment with immediate response. It could also serve as a channel to collect ideas, make provocative statements and brainstorm on them. If we compare it to a real classroom, it is more like a moment of liberation, where everyone has a voice that is heard and reacted to in real time.
The risk is that at the end there is no real listening and it is a little hard to follow the flow and the understanding of each other. On the other hand coming up with many different ideas concurrently it is an excellent stepping stone for further discussion and thought.
As you can see from my very first blog, I was a complete novice when it came to video and digital games. Also within my immediate family there is a feeling that games are frivolous.What seemed incongruous to them was this up-to-now serious academic suddenly playing games.
However, I was curious as to what games could offer education and I have not been disappointed.I particularly liked Nicola Whitton’s approach – focusing on what educators can learn from good game design and also her concentration on higher education which is where my own teaching is located. As a sociologist I am fascinated by the evolution of digital game play which somehow passed me by – from the very public context of arcade gaming, to early console games, to initially textual multi-player online games in MOOs and MUDs, to fully 3D immersive MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, to ARGs and multi-modal games and mobile and wii games. These developments have occurred in a relatively short time frame of about 30 years.Being in my mid-fifties I can see how these developments have passed me by although I am not arguing strongly for a generational difference as I was never ‘into’ games that much. I can see someone of my generation who was a game enthusiast would have been enthralled by these developments.
I had a very simplistic notion of what is ‘play’ and what is a ‘game’.The distinction between paedia (spontaneous, unstructured play) and ludic (structured play) (Caillois,2001) was illuminating particularly as I could apply it to my practice of qualitative analysis – where I can see a phase of ‘playing with the data’ in the paedia sense when experimenting with ideas, immersing oneself in the data and a more ‘ludic’ phase i.e a structured, methodical approach to managing and analysing data.The problematic nature of ‘what is a game’ was brought home to me when we had to design in our own groups a game using Google Earth as the back drop.After constructing our game, I was suddenly not sure whether it was a game or not (see blog).I had to think hard about what differentiated a game from a learning activity.This was not something I had expected – having read the literature on the characteristics of a game. It was in the practice of trying to design a game that the issues the literature discussed became meaningful.
My own experience with playing games during this course began with a lot of frustration.I had never played arcade-style games so my attempts with PacMan (I had never even heard of PacMan!! – which seems amazing to me now), Donkey Kong etc. were fraught.It was like entering a new world, learning a new language for me.I did not enjoy the early weeks of game playing.Ironically, I now play on my iPhone two arcade-style games – DoodleJump and Ragdoll 2. I play them when I want some down time to relax and empty my mind – something I never thought possible during my first attempt at playing these games. And I get satisfaction in getting better – improving my score. As I tried different types of games, I became more involved in them and started to look at them from a meta-level perspective – learning their design grammars or understanding their semiotic domain (Gee 2003).This level of understanding was reinforced in searching for a game to review that would somehow be related to my practice.At this point in the course, we had not looked at ARGs. I first looked at educational games but as most were aimed at the K-12 level, I did not find anything that I thought could be translated to post-graduates. I then looked at commercial games and the ones that I thought had relevance to qualitative analysis were detective games.The one I ultimately chose (Missing: Since January AKA In Memoriam) I discovered retrospectively had elements of an ARG – playing as oneself, having an ongoing storyline, moving between the game and the real world (real fact-based sites, emails), a ‘this is not a game’ attitude and a simulation of collaboration.The blending of the real and game worlds I particularly liked as it engendered a sense of the uncanny (Bayne 2008) – an uncomfortable feeling, a disorientation which mirrors the ‘troublesome’ nature of the qualitative analysis process and links to Meyer and Land’s (2005) notion of students’ needing to grapple with troublesome areas before being able to assimilate the ‘threshold concepts’ relevant to their subject area.
Missing: Since January was the first ‘long’ game that I played and I had to grapple with the variety of puzzles, arcade-style games as well as internet searches in order to proceed. I also discovered a number of cheats on the internet and thus connected with the affinity group associated with this game. At this mid-point of the course, I felt that I was getting a deeper understanding of games.
My biggest surprise was how much I enjoyed the MMORPGs.I was slightly apprehensive about playing these games and I welcomed the fact that we would be playing them as a group.I doubt whether I would have ventured into them alone. I enjoyed developing my avatar and learning about the role my type of character plays in the game.I have blogged about the ethical issues I think these games raise but I like, in general, the notion of completing quests.World of Warcraft and Everquest II reminded me a bit of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (with the idea of travelling through unknown lands to complete a quest).Not surprisingly, I recently discovered that there is a Lord of the Rings MMORPG.I enjoy the richness of inhabiting these simulated environments.
I am still absorbing how I can apply what I have learned about games to the way I design workshops supporting learning about the qualitative analysis process and the use of CAQDAS (Computer-Aided Qualitative Data AnalysiS).I can see how each software package (such as ATLAS.ti, MAXqda or NVivo) can be used as a platform for a game.Using an existing software package as platform for a game (in the way we used Google Earth as a platform) has the benefits of being efficient in terms of cost (not having to design from scratch a game environment) and being authentic – playing in the environment that you are learning about.However, I am reluctant to explore this route as these software packages are complex as it as and adding learning how to play a game on top of these packages would be adding an additional layer of complexity.Students may feel they are wasting time learning how to play the game.In addition, all these packages are in a phase of rabid development with new versions coming out every 18 months or so – any game I develop for a particular platform will be quickly out of date.
More importantly, I need to consider whether a game is an appropriate vehicle for the kind of teaching I do. I can see the relevance of the collaborative nature of games and the development of affinity groups to develop a researcher identity. Many of the people who attend my courses are new not only to the software tools but to qualitative data analysis itself – so I see the potential of creating something that addresses that need.Whether that something is a game or a series of learning activities is something I need to consider. In fact, I should not think of my choice simply as an ‘either-or’ between a game or a learning activity. Jackson (2009) gives an example of game-based teaching where she used principles from gaming – levelling, “well-ordered problems”, immediate feedback, resubmission and discovery learning – in designing learning activities. What I need to steer clear of is what Papert (1998) calls – shavian reversals – combining the worst from the education and the gaming worlds. This is something I will be working out in my final assignment on designing a game.
References
Bayne, S. (2008) Uncanny spaces for higher education: teaching and learning in virtual worlds, ALT-J, 16:3, pp.197-205
Caillois, R. (2001) Chapter 2, 'The Classification of Games'. In Man, Play and Games. Illinois: University of illinois Press.
Gee, J.P. (2003) What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy, New York: Palgrave
Jackson, J. (2009) Game-based teaching: what educators learn from videogames, Teaching Education, vol. 20. No. 3, September 2009, pp. 291-304
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2006) Threshold concepts: An introduction in Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Papert, S. (1998) Does easy do it? Children, games and learning, Game Developer, June: 88
Whitton, N. (2010) Learning with Digital Games: A practical guide to engaging students in higher education, London: Routledge.
I am blogging at this point in the course about ARGS because my ‘flow’ in this course was seriously disrupted at the end of Week 7 because the hard drive of my main laptop got corrupted.While I had some things backed up on my back up computer, I did not have everything – including all the work I had done for this course.I was able to complete the first assignment having been granted a few days extension.During those extension days I was completely focused and immersed in my chosen game and the review write up.However, after I completed my review, I had to go back to re-building my laptop, prioritising the training material that I had lined up over the next few weeks and a presentation I had to give at a conference.While I continued to do the reading for the course, I was not able to play games as I had to spend what time I had to try to reconstruct all my lost data for my business – contacts, engagements, accounts (I haven’t even started on that!).
With my ‘flow’ interrupted, I had been finding it difficult to get back into the course. I had been thrown into what Czkiszentmihalyi describes as an anxiety state – I had too many challenges to handle at once. However, I had been completely immersed in the course before my IT disaster. I started trying to get back into the course by looking at some Alternative Reality Games.I was particularly interested in this type of game as it seemed to be most suited to the kind of game which would be relevant to my work. In fact, I reviewed Missing: Since January for my first assignment because while it is not a true ARG it has elements of an ARG: an ongoing storyline, moving between the game and the real world (real fact-based sites, emails),a ‘this is not a game’ attitude and a simulation of collaboration among different people trying to solve the clues that the Phoenix gives as to the whereabouts of the journalist he kidnapped. (It is a single player game but collaboration is simulated by receiving real emails with ideas on how to interpret the Phoenix’s messages from what appears to be real people also looking for the journalist.) I enjoyed Missing: Since January despite being sometimes frustrated by the difficultness of some of the puzzles.
However, I was disappointed in the ARG games I first looked at – Darfur is Dying and the Viola Quest.Darfur is Dying is simply depressing – it is incredibly difficult to get to the well to bring water back to the village without being picked up by the patrols.One by one you watch your little avatars – representing villagers - disappear.The link to the real world is made by asking you every time an avatar is picked up to contribute something for the people of the Darfur. I found it too simplistic and appealing only to the converted. I also felt uncomfortable of the situation in Darfur being represented by a cartoon-style game.I also could not get engaged in the Viola Quest – the storyline did not appeal to me, and I did not have any need to be inducted in the Manchester Metropolitan University community.
My re-engagement in this course occurred when we explored MMOGs through playing World of Warcraft and Everquest II. It may have been a combination of the immersive nature of these games and re-connecting with my fellow students that re-generated my ‘flow’ in this course.But it could also be something about how these games can generate flow in players.
Entering flow is largely a function of how attention has been focused in the past and how it is focused in the present by the activity’s structural conditions….Clear proximal goals, immediate feedback, and just-manageable levels of challenge orient the organism, in a unified and coordinated way, so that attention becomes completely absorbed into the stimulus field defined by the activity.” Nakamura, J. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002:92)
I found that I was able to develop my character, learn how my type of character fits into the wider frame of the game world and was able to successfully proceed through several levels.I have blogged about my experiences of MMOGs and issues they raise – particularly about ethics.
Having successfully explored MMOGs I decided to revisit ARGs.I read Kim et al.’s (2009) evolution of ARGs.I found it interesting that the first ARG – The Beast (2001) – was designed as a promotional tool for the film – A.I.This idea that ARGs can be used as a viral marketing tool was developed further by other games – I love Bees (2004) for the video game Halo 2, Last Call Poker (2005) for the video game – Gun, Year Zero(2007) for Nine Inch Nails’ CD of the same name, and Free Fall (2008) to promote the film – Eagle Eye.All these games benefitted by a large marketing budget which is obvious by the quality of the various artefacts of the games.(I explored in particular – I love Bees and Year Zero.) While I don’t believe that top production values of videos, web-sites, posters etc alone make a game exciting, the combination of a good game design AND top production values are winners.
Kim et al. (2009) make the point that ARGs they discussed used participatory mechanisms ‘to build and strengthen affinity groups. A set of problems aligns the interest and attention of a group and pulls them into the story’s action’. This development and use of affinity groups is key attraction for educators. In my case, I think ARGs can be used to develop qualitative data analysts - creating a group environment where novice researchers can learn from each other, given an interesting area to research.Kim et al. (2009) point to the decline of professional journalists and the domination of information by a few media sources.They see ARGs as a way ‘to make sense of amateur data and provide structure and interactive experiences. The role of the storymaster will likely evolve to become more flexible and open...’ They seem to be promoting ARGs as a structure for everyday folk to make sense of the mass of information about the world.This seems similar to the analysis process in research.Of course, who frames the stories will have a lot of power in what they are proposing.
Jane McGonigal who was involved in designing some of the viral marketing ARGs (including I love Bees) has now moved to using ARGs to promote social action.
She designed World without Oil – a game where participants from all over the world had to imagine a real world potential problem – how would they manage when the oil ran out.Her current game is Evokewhich is focused on youth in Africa although anyone can play. It is described as a ‘crash course for changing the world’ – teaching you collaboration, creativity, entrepreneurship and sustainability. The World Bank is one of the sponsors. As can be seen from the promotional video, the production values are high but so is the design. (It cost $500,000 to design.)
However, even though at the time of writing this blog Evoke is live as a game, it has already inspired a parody game – called Invoke – a crash course in saving capitalism – inspired by the World Bank and their game Evoke.
Christy Dena (a game design consultant) has blogged about the implications of this parody.The first point she makes is that the fact that Evoke has been parodied is evidence that the ARG genre (a game form that has confused many up until now) is a recognized form – particularly as the parody ARG was designed by people outside of the ARG community.
It wouldn’t be a parody of form if there was no recognisable form to parody. This means the mechanics and missions have become somewhat standardised. They are not part of experimental fringe culture, but have moved into mainstream creative forms if you like. (Dena, 2010).
The second point Dena makes is that Invoke is also a parody of McGonigal’s claim that games can save or change the world.Adrian Hon (a cross-media entertainment designer – a term he prefers to ARG designer) has blogged about the misleading claims that have been made for ARGs. He cites that while World without Oil had 2176 registered players over 32 weeks, only 276 were active (i.e. submitted at least one piece of work) and only 170 submitted more than one piece of work. Superstruct is another ARG where players fast forward to 2019 and try to find solutions for multiple threats to human survival. Hon reports that of 8901 registered players only 554 superstuctures were created. Hon’s point is that while these games may attract a large number of players initially, they are impacting on only a small percentage of them. He says it is overstating the case that games can change the world. However, he acknowledges that in its first week Evoke had over 8000 registered users and these users had submitted 3000 pieces of content. It is also truly international and has succeeded in attracting players from Africa. Hon feels that games like Evoke and World without Oil can be inspirational but it is misleading to say that they can change the world.
My preference for the ARG game genre in relation to my own work is that the game is enmeshed within the real world rather than entering a fictional game world and that it uses multiple media and communication tools.The players are playing as themselves but they are linked together to form a community of novice researchers. My goal is that they learn to be qualitative analysts. I notice that the game Evoke also has a role for mentors in the game which is an idea I can use when constructing my game. My concern is that while it is possible to construct an ARG with basic Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, emails etc. (as Whitton suggests), the ARGs that I found that worked were the commercial ones, the ones that had a lot of money to produce them. Also even in these, they needed a critical mass of several thousand players in order to get enough interaction going among players. Despite this, I feel optimistic that it is possible to use as a model these successful ARGs to produce a scaled down version for educational purposes.
Kim, J., Lee, E., Thomas, T. and Dombrowski, C. (2009) Storytelling in New Media: The case of alternative reality games – 2001-2009, New Monday, vol. 14, issue 6.
Nakamura, J. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002) (2002) Ch. 7 The concept of flow in Snyder, C.R. et al Handbook of Positive Psychology, Oxford University Press
Whitton, N. (2010) Learning with Digital Games, Routledge.
