Games and Simulations Reading Notes: Narrative November 12, 2008
Posted by mvalia in Gaming and Simulations.Tags: gaming narrative, TED
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Ted Talks:It was interesting to finally see Spore in action. I have been meaning to check it out. I wonder how Spore Origins differs for the iPhone and the DS – my two gaming systems. Besides the originality of the game, I like how evolution servers as a narrative that holds that game together and is representational of the narrative humans are a part of throughout history. The game has lots of elements of a simulation, but there are definite rules.
Discussing games and narratives and Spore further, Charles Onyett reviews a talk Will Wright gave at GDC 2008. Charles reviews Wrights thoughts on branding and narrative in games and toys and how Spore will play out. Charles quotes Wright often, but one that struck me was, “For Wright the best games, and presumably Spore, exemplify these qualities. “The whole point of this process is model‐building. In some sense…all these different worlds that I’m experiencing I’m pulling into this model‐building process and from them I’m pulling out of these toy worlds the schema, patterns and strategies that I can apply back to the real world. I’m learning lessons in an entertaining way.” This really brings gaming, narrative and transfer together.
Chapter 25-26 of Rules of play offered an outline of meaning and representation in games. It also fused some of the cognitive elements we have discussed the past year. As with any design, games create meaning through the experience they provide for the player. This meaning is created through representation of objects in reality as well as in a player’s imagination. Chapter 26 defines narratives of games with the same elements stories have: Character, situation/plot, plot, conflict and smaller elements of narrative that players create as they move through the game.
Jenkins details in “Games Design as Narrative Architecture,” that games have narrative qualities but tell and are intertwined with stories in different ways. Game designers create worlds – settings – and players can write the narrative through gameplay inside these evocative spaces. Narrative also creates broadly defined goals. Narratives are also left embedded for the gamer to discover.
R&I Reading Notes: Engagement November 11, 2008
Posted by mvalia in Representation and Interaction Design.Tags: engagement
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Every teacher who has ever written a lesson plan or stood in front of a group of students or adults for that matter, must worry about engagement. This week’s readings all touch on engagement and experience both in interaction design and in real life.
From Sherdoff’s Elements of Experience Design:
I like the way Sherdoff breaks experience into three concrete steps: attraction, engagement and conclusions. A lesson planner or instructional designer would find this a useful outline. It is missing the meat of the lesson – perhaps that is the engagement part – but overall, it is a useful framework. The rest of the elements that fit into this framework are helpful–interactivity, creativity, style and presentation make this article a useful principled article.
From Pogrow’s SuperMath:
This concept revolves around the idea of narrative, contextual learning, anchored instruction and situated learning environments. The SuperMath niche is that students aren’t attracted to adult or real-life contextual environments and they must be engaged at their own level about things that interest them and their imagination. Interesting idea. I think it lends a hand, but if we want transfer, I think we need to bridge both learning situations.
From Michele Dickey’s Engaging by Design:
My favorite quote in this long literature review about how video and computer games can inform instruction:
“Prensky (2001) similarly argued that computer and video games model and promote cognitive traits that are consistent with children raised with technology. According to Prensky, electronic games require active engagement in environments, which supports discovery, observation, trial and error, and problem solving. Additionally, computer games are graphical environments that require players to read the visual environment and interpret symbols. These skills are becoming increasingly important to foster learning.”
A Look at Panwapa November 11, 2008
Posted by mvalia in Representation and Interaction Design.Tags: children's websites, critiques, interactivity, panwapa, Sesame street
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Venturing into Panwapa without having seen the TV show, I was a little unsure about where I was. It looked like a zoo or carnival outside of a tropical rainforest. My initial exploration took me around to see what characters I could interact with and what activities I could explore.
After playing the hide and seek game in Mandarin and watching a movie about Navajo Indian children getting water, I got the sense that this site has something to do with exposing children to different cultures.
After exploring the outside or first page of the site, I still got the sense that the site was just a place where you could go and explore a few activities that seemed loosely tied together but it took a while to get the concept of the site or where I should begin.
After exploring for a while, I clicked on the globe and saw how you could make your own place and travel around.
This site does a good job of exposing students to the idea that there are different countries and different cultures all around the world. Many students may never leave their city block or neighborhood. They have an undeveloped sense of geography and how their culture compares to others around the world. I also like how the site is multilingual and has activities for different types of learners and incorporates educational gaming.
If the goal is to introduce children to the concept that there are different people all over the globe, then it hits its mark.
I think the site doesn’t create even a make-believe environment that is concrete. It seems that the activities are just thrown into this zoo-like area. They don’t really scaffold or relate to each other. The characters know when you complete an exercise but besides that, they aren’t tied together. It doesn’t seem rich enough. Without having read Wikipedia or the seen the show, I didn’t get the concept that I was on a floating island that could travel around the world.
However, the site does touch on the following problem solving skills:
Scanning for clues - students explore the site and look for interaction
Ability to explore - students explore the interface and the globe
Interpret graphical information - chart at the end of the water movie
The movie game – not the videos which are on a TV – teaches students to pay attention while exposing them to different cultural concepts. Students watched the movie once to get a general idea and then were asked to watch the movie again and click on the button when they saw water. It also ended by asking students where they got most of their drinking water. This made the student reflect on their own lifestyle and think about how it is different then their own. It was a clever way to introduce interactivity to a normally passive learning experience.
R&I Reading Notes: animation and interactivity November 4, 2008
Posted by mvalia in Representation and Interaction Design.Tags: animation, design, interaction
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Alas, the wise old Richard Mayer … As an interaction designer, we must consider the heart of Mayer’s Multimedia principles, dual coding, text/picture integration etc.. etc..
The chapter 18 article introduced a few new design principles:
Apprehension principle: The graphic design of the animation should follow the design of the representation. The animation should be readily understood by the audience.
Congruency principle: The animation should represent the conceptual model, not the behavior.
Interactivity principle: information is better understood if learner has some control over the animation
The information interaction design offered a solid look at design principles based on creating an experience for a user and how to leverage sensory elements to ensure clear communication.
