Analysis of Strategy Games and RPG

Game Play:
I picked the game Ayiti: The Cost of Life. In this game, the player takes on the role of a five member family living in poverty in Haiti. The player gets the life story of each of the five family members and has to progress them though four years. Each year has four seasons for a total of sixteen sessions in one game. Before each season begins, the player has the opportunity to take jobs, attend school, or receive medical attention based on the family's levels of heath, happiness, money, and education. After each season begins, the game provides situations to react to, whether good or bad. The player can also buy supplies and change the level at which the family lives. The goal is to get an education so that each family member can get a higher paying job to provide better things for the rest of the family. This game really reminded me of the Real Lives game. It would be very eye opening for students and I think this game was more "kid friendly" with easy to use features and color graphics.

Analysis of Elements Through Flow Theory

1. Task that learners can complete
I think that this game provides a very doable task, as long as students understand how to play before the seasons begin. Teachers should take some time going over the game before allowing students to play on their own.
2. Ability to concentrate on task
The game world is very easy to see on one screen, which I think makes concentration easier, especially for young learners. Sometimes too many steps or different screens adds unnecessary complications, but this game is fun and easy to get drawn into.
3. Task has clear goals
Ayiti lays out the goals specifically in the beginning. The idea of the game is to get a good education. All of the other elements feed into that that idea. This is a great message to get across in schools, so this game would be great for teaching about how education can help students out of a life of poverty, here or in foreign countries.
4. Task provides immediate feedback
There are two types of feedback with Ayiti. Each decision made after a situation comes up during the season lists consequences for the actions and also the meters for each family member register changes in heath, money, etc. quickly. At the end of the season, the game also provides feedback that helps players in the next season.
5. Deep but effortless involvement
The involvement in the game is deep because the player controls the family's entire life and can even lead to their deaths. The game, while the timing isn't real, does provide students with a glimpse into the real lives of people living in poverty in Africa, which can be applied elsewhere. Yes, it is a simpler version of real life, but students get an idea about their culture, which would lead to more teachable moments as students and teachers explore further together.
6. Exercising a sense of control over their actions
Players have the majority of the power in this game. While there are limitations based on health and education as to what jobs or schooling is available, once the player earns enough money and education for the family, the possibilities are endless.
7. Concern for self disappears during flow
I found myself very wrapped up with the people in this game. I really tried to look at the situation as if it was as real as possible and I was sad for their situation. I think that students would also find themselves lost in the game world because the characters are easy to relate to for them. I must admit, I did kill off some of my family members and I was really sad.
8. Sense of duration of time is altered
In this game, the seasons go by quickly and at first I thought sixteen seems like too many, but once I was into the game, I lost track of time. It was fun and each season is busy making decisions, so time passes quickly. The problem would be playing with really young students because their sense of time isn't very developed yet, so they might get the wrong idea about how fast things happen. Teachers would have to explain that before play.

Analysis of Card and Board Games

I was so happy when I saw one of the games for this week was Mancala. This has long been one of my favorite games despite its simplicity. It is an age old game where there is a board with two large pits, one at each end, then two rows of smaller pits, six on each side. There are different variations of play, but I will describe the one with which I am most familiar. To begin, each of the twelve side pits gets four stones, or marbles. Each player has one of the larger pits, the Mancala cup, where their captures stones are placed. One player chooses a pit from their side of the board and places them one by one into all of the pits, including your own Mancala cup. When the last stone goes into an empty cup, it is the next person's turn. Each player alternates until all the stones are in one of the two Mancala cups. The player with the most stones wins. The game can also be played where after the last stone is placed in an empty pit, that player takes the stones of the opposite cup and puts them into his or her own Mancala cup. If playing that way, the game ends when one side of the board is clear and the person with the most stones in his or her own Mancala cup wins. This is the way the online version plays.

Comparison of Game Components:

My definition of games is: an organized social experience where players follow specific, predetermined rules to meet a common end goal. During the experience there can be teamwork or conflict as the participants play and entertain themselves. In both the online and board versions there are predetermined rules, despite which variation you play. The social aspect is different. In the online version, you can play against the computer or against another player. The social aspect is stronger in the board version where another person is very necessary to have fun, which brings me to the entertainment portion. I did not play the online version with another person (my husband couldn't understand why we just couldn't play with the game board that was right in front of us haha), so I don't know how entertaining that is, but I do find the board game version very entertaining with another person. Both games have the same common end goal of trying to get the most stones to be the winner, so that is the same.

Comparison of Interaction:

In both the online and board versions, another person is necessary to play the two player game, so the interaction is really the same. The physical interaction changes between the game pieces (stones) or the computer mouse, but that is the biggest difference. I think that the set up of playing on the computer instead of playing face to face changes the cooperation because you are no longer facing one another, but the computer screen, so it makes it less personal. I think distraction is more likely playing on the computer because it is so easy to move to a different website or start talking to someone on the computer, but that is not as likely to happen when players are facing one another playing with the board version. Motivation might be stronger to play online because it is easy to just get on the website and start playing. There is no set up time or equipment. I think that choosing a version depends on the mood or current needs of the players. There are advantages to both versions and I like to play Mancala however it come.

Analysis of puzzle, sports, and quiz games

In the kindergarten classroom, many of the students fall into the accomodator learning style. They love active learning and they are much more easily engaged in learning if it is hands on. Research shows that students that fall into this category benefit from technology in the classroom, so computer games would be an excellent method to use when teaching them valuable skills. Prensky also provides a scale on which student behaviors are ordered. Because modern students are so often exposed to technology at younger and younger ages, this can influence their learning behavior. Students are rated in 10 dimensions on a scale of 1-5. Scores of mostly ones more accurately describe most of my recent students. They often act before thinking about consequences, jump around to different steps while working, and are drawn to using several forms of technology in their everyday lives. For example, after a few weeks, I wanted to introduce computers as a literacy work station in my classroom. I spent quite awhile showing them how to navigate the website I had chosen for them to play on because I was worried they would not know what to do. All of them sat down and played like pros. It was the work station with the fewest behavior problems because they were actively engaged the entire time. They also like the lessons we do to flow smoothly and quickly. Activities cannot last too long before they lose attention. I have to work at a fast pace to keep them interested.
The two games I chose for analysis are the Sheppard Software geography games and the Zeeks bowling game. The geography game was developed for teachers to use to "make learning more fun and memorable (Sheppard website)." It is another tool teachers can use to get kids actively learning both US and world geography. There are several levels for each activity, which includes naming countries, states, capitols, and landscapes on various maps. Depending on the level, students can have as much or as little help as necessary identifying the correct element chosen by the game. Kaboose developed the bowling game for enjoyment. It is played by using the mouse to navigate a bowling bowl to the right position to get it to knock down the most pins.
In the bowling game, there is competition and amusement but it is not social. The idea of an end goal is strong and there are set rules. The game is organized and has a clear winner and loser. As far as the geography game, there are organized, set rules, and amusement. The only competition is against yourself so there isn't a clear winner or loser. The end goal might be to improve one's percentage of correct answers, but that would be up the player. If I was judging the games by which one most closely matched my personal definition of a game, then the bowling game would be better.
Teachers need to be flexible with their definitions when they find something that will meet the needs of the students, so the best fit game would be the geography game. Not only does the game offer more educational value, it also provides fast responses to keep the students engaged. It gives students the opportunity to play against themselves which helps them develop more intrinsic motivation verses external competition. The bowling game would help students develop more fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, but not much else. I think students would enjoy playing the geography game and would benefit academically.

Analysis of Simulation Games

I chose to analyze the game Real Lives. This is a simulation game created by Educational Simulations. Real Lives was developed to give people an understanding of life in less privileged nations. The game creates a life for the player by giving a name, age, and family history. The player progresses through life making decisions about school, jobs, family, relationships, and expenses. Each new year of life brings new information. Boxes pop up giving the player news and information about events and culture happening in that country. The game world consists of a map of the area the simulation person lives, graphs representing the other family members' health and well being which represents lives similar to those lived in the assigned country. The game world has examples of dwellings, charity, diet, and leisure activities which correspond to those elements in the real world.
Some of the elements of the game Real Lives overlap with the components I included in my definition of games. My personal definition of a game was an organized social experience where players follow specific, pre-determined rules to meet a common end goal. During the experience there can be teamwork or conflict as the players compete to find a winner. While Real Lives isn't really designed to be a social experience, it very well could be that. A group could work together to make the life decisions in order to have multiple viewpoints. There are pre-determined rules within the game like staying on top of monthly expenses and aging one year at a time. The common end goal would be healthy survival. There is not really conflict between players in the game, but conflict occurs in the simulation person's life. A clear winner or loser does not exist in this game.
I feel that Real Lives would be an excellent game for the converger type of student. This type of student enjoys thinking about and making decisions. One learning objective for this game would be to describe common problems encountered by people of the country the simulated person lives. This would help the student gain a greater understanding of difficult decisions made by the natives thus giving them a greater appreciate of the culture. Another learning objective would be to describe the basic housing and education systems of the country of play. This would require the students to read carefully and pay close attention to the information pop ups to piece together the context clues to arrive at a better understanding.
In order to implement this game in the classroom, a teacher would have computers with Internet access. A teacher might have a problem having students with limited background knowledge on the assigned country, so by having other websites, books, or brochures available, the students would have better resources to answer their questions. To implement the game, the teacher would have to share the purpose behind the play and walk the students though a sample life. This way, each student would feel comfortable playing alone. The teacher would need to introduce a method of evaluation of the game play. For example, one way to assess the students would be to have them print the diary provided throughout the game. They could use the diary to write a first person account of either the whole life or small portions as if they were the simulated person. The students could then share their diaries with one another so that each student would walk away knowing about more than just their played person. The teacher would create a rubric to share with the students to evalulate the diary on style, accuracy, and demonstrated understanding of the culture.