Clark Aldrich is one of the best writers around on the use of simulations/games in education – I picked up two of his books over the break and am looking forward to diving into them soon.
He keeps a great blog which is organised into useful, practical sections focussing on different areas of simulation design and development.
His most recent post is particularly relevant to some work I’m doing at the moment with the Nursing folk here – it’s a list of 15 questions for subject matter experts.
These are the first three:
What situation that you experienced epitomized the subject matter? (This could be a real time meeting, or an event that took place over weeks, months, or years.) Were there multiple situations?
What were your available options? At each moment, what could you have done in that situation, and what might a naive or inexperienced person done? What did you end up doing?
Why would the naive approach fail? What would it not have taken into account?
It’s as close as I’ve been able to get to a hospital ward with the available furniture and objects. The ability to import your own models is on the list of features to come.
The boxes in the top image appear as the room is loading – rather cute really.
It’s in Beta at the moment and I haven’t taken a huge look around but it is incredibly easy to use and the list of features to come is really impressive. I’ve been in touch with the developers and they seem very switched on and friendly.
I’ll post more about it when I’ve had a chance to play more.
Marc Prensky is a significant figure in the games in learning field, with a substantial body of writing and consultant work behind him. He is a big advocate of using the concept of digital learners and digital immigrants to describe the changes that the information age is bringing and the need to reshape education to keep up with it.
His 2006 book, “Don’t bother me Mom – I’m learning” presents a series of well-thought out and accessible arguments for the benefits of computer and video games. It is aimed largely at non-gamer parents and seeks to counter some of the moral panic foofarah put forward in the media.
I had hoped for something focussed more on education, specifically relating to practical tips for game design and use in the classroom. There is some of this but ultimately the target of the book is parents and non-gamers.
This said, there are a number of worthwhile ideas in this book.
Playing games is a learning experience.
Games are motivating and engaging
Brain function is surprisingly plastic and gameplay can rewire and enhance our way of thinking
Digital Natives do things differently : communication, sharing, buying & selling, exchanging, creating, meeting, coordinating, evaluating, gaming, learning, evolving, searching, analysing, reporting, programming, socialising and growing up.
Games offer pleasure by providing a sense of progress, levelling up offers a “flow state”.
“A game is a series of interesting and important decisions, leading to a satisfying conclusion” – Bruce
Shelley
Games can teach ethics and encourage cooperation and communication
Modding culture stimulates creativity
Non-gamer parents need to educate themselves about games, talk to their chidren about them and learn the language. They can use the content of games to help their children learn more from the game than they might have on their own.
Game in the classroom can be a great source of stimulation for discussions
As I say, it’s more of an introduction/cheerleading session for games in general but this book offers a wealth of ideas and evidence for using games in an educational setting.
I’m not altogether sure what I was expecting – the program covered a broad spread of content from A.I, the use of space, mobile games, online media performance, robotics, storytelling and games-based education.
Keynote speakers included Caryl Shaw, who manages the Spore online community; Jeff Brand, a researcher at Bond University who recently published an extensive statistical overview of gaming in Australia (Interactive Australia 2009) and John Passfield from Krome Studios in Brisbane, a long time game designer.
While the majority of presentations were a little too academic for my taste (heavily technical and narrowly focussed), there was more than enough interesting and useful content to make the trip worthwhile.
At this juncture I have to issue an impassioned plea to academics making presentations about funky projects – show us the project/demo/game first and then bang on and on about the rationale, existing literature, underpinning conceptual frameworks and what not. This is most important when the project is something that is hard to understand without experiencing it. I promise I won’t leave once I’ve seen the goodies.
The attendees were a great bunch of people – a mixture of academics (primarily people undertaking doctorates in some gaming related field of I.T or another), game-design lecturers and QUT game-design students. After the initial “forming” period, it was surprisingly easy to have a chat to pretty well anyone. After the tenth time of being asked whether/what I was presenting, I realised that the point of these things really is to share information (not that I have a lot of first hand knowledge to share just yet) and I was taking on something of a passenger role. Maybe next time around.
There were a few things that I will follow up on – I’ll go into more detail about them in upcoming posts but I will mention one right now.
Auditorium – beautiful flash game about pushing beams of light around the screen to create music
Thanks to the conference organisers (Ruth Christie in particular) for putting on a great event and also to the presenters and fellow attendees. With luck, I’ll be back.
We’re working on a pretty cool project at CIT now – developing models, practices and standards for using virtual worlds in the classroom, with a particular focus on the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.
We are using Croquet, an open source platform which has been created with education in mind and hope to make effective use of the possibilities that game environments have to offer. We’ll be making a concerted push away from building 3D classrooms, which is a fine first step. I’m quite interested in drawing on the work of Fuchs and Eckermann, creators of Expositur (which I’ve mentioned here before) to make the most of the space that we will be developing.
This is the general Croquet promotional video which shows how awesome this can potentially be.
If you’re interested in finding out more or contributing, let me know and we’ll see what we can do.
Creating the First Person Learner: Educational Applications of the First Person Shooter game genre.
Abstract
Many students’ initial experiences of Vocational Education and Training (VET) involve spending large amounts of time methodically developing foundation skills and knowledge in their chosen discipline. They are often taught a specific skill, practise it for a period of time and when they have adequately demonstrated it, they are given the opportunity to develop more advanced skills.
This has echoes in the gameplay of First Person Shooter (FPS) games, which is generally highly structured, giving the player limited options in terms of the paths they can take and the decisions that they can make. It also involves developing skills in a scaffolded way.
This study investigates a potential use of First Person Shooter style games as a learning tools for students in the VET sector. It evaluates the elements of FPS game in terms of appropriate pedagogical strategies that might be applied to them and draws from a wide body of research into the use of games in learning.
Based on this evaluation, I have developed a game design statement for Mandarin Madness, an engaging and pedagogically sound FPS style game which can be used to support the teaching of characters to Mandarin language learners.
Introduction
Computer games have been used widely in education since the rise of the personal computer in the 1980s with popular titles such as The Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. Games can immerse learners in challenging and enjoyable activities in authentic environments, offer positive feedback and enchance the learning experience. (Paras, 2003)
As the medium has evolved and expanded, so too has the range of uses that have been found for games, with a particular emphasis in recent years on Virtual World environments such as Second Life. (Kay, 2007) Interestingly however, the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre, one of the most popular types of games among game players (Nelson, 2008), has been relatively ignored in terms of its educational potential.
FPS games are played in the first-person perspective, which means that rather than controlling a visible avatar in the game world, the player feels more like they are acting in this space. This enhanced sense of immersion in the game experience gives players a stronger emotional connection to their actions in the game (McMahan, 2003) and therefore can offer a richer and more authentic learning experience. (O’Regan, 2003)
This study focusses on the possible uses of FPS games in a VET context because the parallels between the scaffolded nature of knowledge/skill practice in FPS games and in VET suggest that this kind of game could be beneficial to these learners.
Methodology.
The first step taken in this study was to investigate existing research on games and their use in education, with a particular focus on the FPS genre, informed by a set of questions developed after an initial scan of research in the field. This information was used to produce a detailed examination of the FPS game genre including the elements of an FPS game and potential educational applications. The questions used were:
What is the anatomy of an FPS game?
How do FPS games differ from third person perspective and virtual world games and what advantages do they offer?
How can FPS games be educational?
What kind of educational approaches lend themselves to this type of games based learning?
What are the factors that might determine the most appropriate target audience for an FPS based learning game?
What impact might game violence or destruction of virtual objects have on the learning experience?
In what circumstances might game violence or destruction of objects be appropriate in a learning activity?
Do single player and multiplayer games support different educational approaches?
To what extent does the level of realistic representation of the learners’ environment affect their engagement with the game?
What makes a game enjoyable and what makes a player want to play a game repeatedly?
Following this, I discussed potential VET usage of games in education with teachers at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), the leading VET provider in the A.C.T. This was primarily to identify a suitable subject content area which an emphasis scaffolded development of knowledge and skills.
After speaking to teachers and education managers in the languages, automotive, horticulture, design and health sciences areas of CIT, I decided to try to design a game for language learners.
Learners of Mandarin at CIT are required to memorise five characters a week for a total of fifty for the semester which is currently done via an extensive drill and practice regime. This simple learning strategy seemed well suited to the Behaviourist oriented directed type of learning that I felt the FPS genre epitomised. I decided to give the game a working title of Mandarin Madness, partly because it’s self evident and also in tribute to the game Marble Madness.
My initial research into the use of FPS game environments also suggested it would be possible to add meaning to the experience by making use of cognitive learning strategies in the design of the learning space and activities. (Fuchs & Eckermann, 2001).
These discussions informed the next step of the process, which was the production of a game design statement. I applied the ADDIE (Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement, Evalutate) educational design process to my development of this statement in the interest of emphasising a “learner-centred approach” (O’Connell, 2008).
Findings:
Jarvinen (2007) identifies nine elements that all games must have at least seven of to be considered games.
Players – those who play
Game mechanics – actions players take to attain goals in the game
Components – resources for play
Environment – the space for play
Ruleset – the goals and constraints of play
Information – what the player needs to know
Theme – the subject matter of the game
Interface – a tool for accessing game elements
Context – when, where, why, how and by whom the game is played.
These elements can be found in any computer game and provide a structure for my analysis of the FPS games and their educational aspects.
McGrath and Hill (2004) provide a decent definition of FPS games in their paper about developing an emergency response simulator using the Unreal Tournament game engine.
“First person shooter games are organized
around “levels”, with the idea that a player
will complete the objectives of one level,
and then move on to another level with a
new environment and challenges. In each
level, players move through the
environment “picking up” weapons, health,
and ammunition. Multiple players can
move through levels, interacting with the
environment, objects, other players, and
non-player characters (NPCs).” (p.3)
As mentioned already, the key difference between an FPS game and Virtual Worlds lies in the fact that the FPS player experiences the game with a first-person perspective of the actions of their character/avatar. The use of third-person perspective in Virtual World game environments can be seen to enhance the range of actions that the player’s avatar can perform in the game but it can equally be argued that this reduces the player’s sense of immersion in the game by removing them from the actions by a degree and this lessens their emotional connection to the experiences. (McMahan, 2003)
From a technical standpoint, one of the reasons that Virtual Worlds may be more widely used in education is the ease with which user-designed spaces and simulations can be constructed in them, which is a large part of their purpose. (Kay, 2007). The FPS genre is much more restrictive, with a singular focus on shooting games. Repurposing the game development software for other purposes can be challenging. (McGrath & Hill, 2004)
While both types of game are set in 3D worlds in which the player can interact with objects and other characters, Virtual Worlds tend to be designed more for multiplayer use with an attendant focus on social interaction, simulation and roleplay. (Kafai, Fields & Cook, 2007) FPS games take relatively different forms depending on whether the game is designed for single-player or multiplayer gameplay. This has a significant impact on the pedagogical approaches needed when considering FPS games for educational application and is addressed in more depth in the Player segment of the FPS game analysis below.
The Anatomy of a First Person Shooter game.
Players:
Jarvinen (2007) describes players as “Those who play, in various formations and with various motivations, by performing game mechanics in order to attain goals.”(p.135)
It’s interesting that he uses the plural rather than the singlular form in this instance as there are significant differences between FPS games designed for one player (single-player) and those designed for groups of players (multiplayer).
A single-player FPS game sets the player against a series of computer controlled opponents while completing a series of increasingly difficult tasks. These tasks guide the player from one location to another in the game and are invariably linked to a narrative. (Guttler and Johansson, 2003). This takes a fairly linear and scaffolded form, with the player practicing a skill (generally using a certain weapon) or devising strategies and reaching a point where this skill or strategy is tested. If they pass this test, they are given a better weapon (or other skill) and the cycle starts over.
Some FPS games (e.g Army of Two, Halo) offer a limited multiplayer form of this, having two players simultaneously collaboratively work through the story against the computer controlled opponents to the same ends. The players still develop their essential gameplaying skills in the same way but playing collaboratively has been shown to be highly effective in immersing players in games. (Campanella Bracken, Lange and Denny, 2005).
Multiplayer FPS games on the other hand generally involve a minimum of four players and can expand to hundreds of players in Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooters (MMOFPS). These games aren’t driven by narrative and either take the form of free-for-all deathmatches or team games where both sides attempt to achieve a particular goal such as capturing a flag from the opponents base. (e.g Team Fortress 2)
Steinkuehler (2004) conducted extensive ethnographic studies in multiplayer gaming environments and found that players learn how to play the game and develop their skills and strategies in collaboration with other more experienced players. This form of learning is more in line with Vygotsky’s Social Development theory.
For Mandarin Madness, I felt that players could work either collaboratively or competitively to collect objects with the correct characters on them in a large space when they were told the character (in either English or Mandarin). It would also be worthwhile providing a single-player version enabling the player to practice in their own time.
Game Mechanics
Game mechanics are the actions taken by a player to achieve the goals of the game. These include interacting with objects (e.g crates, opponents, doors) in the game environment (or the environment itself) and changing them in some way. (Jarvinen, 2007)
This ability to act and make creative decisions within the game is at the heart of a game’s interactivity and its appeal. (Gee, 2004) Without actions, a game is just a movie.
Educationally, this has strong links to theories of Embodied Cognition and Situated Cognition, which according to Rambusch, Jakobsson & Pargman (2007) holds that “sensori-motor activity is inextricably intertwined with higher cognitive processes such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making” (p.158)
This is supported by research conducted by Kearney (2005) which measured improvements in cognitive activity – in this case multitasking – in two groups of study participants. Only the group that played the teamplay based FPS multiplayer game Counterstrike for two hours “showed a statistically significant improvement in their multitasking abilities”. (p.1)
This suggests that whatever is happening in Mandarin Madness, it is important that the players are able to be active and interact in some way. The main actions available in FPS games are moving (be that walking, running or jumping), shooting or hitting targets, opening doors and picking up game objects and moving them elsewhere. This suggests a shooting gallery level in which the player has to shoot only the nominated character as it appears on screen, scoring points for each hit and losing points for incorrect hits.
Components
Game components include all of the objects in the game environment that a player can interact with including furniture, other characters and in-game videos (i.e. displayed on a wall in the game rather than as a cut-scene).
By using components which accurately reflect the reality of a learning activity or context that we are trying to portray, we can set the stage for the learner/player to carry out what feels like more authentic actions.
Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989) observe that “the activity in which knowledge is developed and deployed, it is now argued, is not separable from nor ancillary to learning and cognition”(p.32). This is a core facet of Situated Learning.
Another way in which Situated Learning principles can be applied in a game environment is via Legitimate Peripheral Participation. (Galarneau, 2005) This would involve the player witnessing an in-game video or 3D animation of an “expert” performing a task. The learner may even be able to repeat this action in the game however this would be dependent on the capabilities of the game engine.
For a learner trying to memorise Mandarin characters in Mandarin Madness, the characters could appear as three dimensional objects which they can navigate freely around and manipulate. Ideally, they would be able to stack parts of the object to create the entire character.
These objects may be accompanied by other objects which illustrate the meaning of the character. (Fuchs & Eckermann, 2001) (E.g the character for chair could be located on a chair, by a chair or in a group surrounding a table as chairs might ordinarily be found.)
Game Environment
The game environment, the (virtual) physical space in which the player experiences the game is another element which can be used to shape and enhance learning.
As with the use of authentic game objects, it would be relatively easy to design an area which reflects the reality of the learning situation and supports the use of authentic learning experiences in line with the principles of Situated Learning,.
The game environment can also be used to enhance the learning materials and experiences within a slightly more symbolic manner. This is a Cogntivist technique explored in some depth by Fuchs and Eckermann (2001) in their Expositur – A Virtual Knowledge Space project and has its roots in ancient Greek mnemotechniques. They developed a virtual space which “housed” exhibits from ten different museums around Vienna and added meaning to them by changing their context. This meant that
“ the user of the virtual museum has to jump into a water zone in order to hear about the extinction of an ancient fish once populating the Danube River. The user has to operate triggers and barriers to learn about the dangers of machinery provided by the Technical Museum. Or he/she has to walk down a spiral staircase to reach the hall of Sigmund Freud’s subconsciousness
In addition to the manipulation of context, Fuchs and Eckermann (2001) considered “the freedom of the user to go his or her own way in the virtual environment as an important feature that allows for individually shaped relational networks inside a complex field of knowledge”(p.84), which ties in well with Ertmer and Newby’s description of knowledge acquisition under Cognitivism as “a mental activity that entails internal coding and structuring by the learner”. (1993, p.58).
The game environment also includes the ambient sounds of the game, which can serve to enhance the player’s sense of immersion in the game environment, add additional meaning to objects and events and enhance the three dimensionality of the space. (Grimshaw and Shott, 2007)
For Mandarin Madness, the use of the space to enhance and reinforce the meaning of the characters would be an obvious choice. The colours, shapes, sizes, light levels and forms of movement in the space could all be tied to the themes or meaning of the characters.
Rule Set
The rule set defines all that is possible in the game as well as goals and obstacles.
Jarvinen (2007) defines it as “ the procedures with which the game system constrains and moderates play, with goal hierarchy as an especially important subset” (p.135)
Practically, the rule set is determined by the boundaries of the game software and the decisions of the game designer. It can include things like how, when and where a player might save their game progress, whether they can fly in a space, what happens if they step in the lava pool and how many times they can be shot before their character dies.
The rule set is interesting educationally because with the introduction of limitations and decision making comes the possibility of failure.
Gee (2004) sees high educational value in failure, stating that “Expertise is formed in any area by repeated cyles of learners practicing skills until they are nearly automatic, then having those skills fail in ways that cause the learners to have to think again and learn anew”.
One of the strengths of games and simulations as a learning environment is that failure becomes much safer – the learner is able to take risks that they couldn’t normally take in a real world environment and they are able to try again and again until they can see why something doesn’t work and consider alternate strategies.
The research conducted by Oliver and Pelletier (2005) in the course of testing a methodology for analysing how learning occurs in computer games revealed that the ability to apply a trial and error approach to problem solving in the FPS game Deux Ex was greatly enhanced by the player knowing that she was able to save the game on demand. This enabled her to overcome an obstacle and save the game, meaning that if she failed the next obstacle, she wouldn’t have to repeat the previous one as well and thus the cost of failure was significantly lessened. This freed her to experiment more with the approaches that she took because the cost of failure was reduced.
The rule set also determines the goals of the game and thus the learners motivations for completing the activities. The rule set can also be used to control the difficulty of the game.
It makes it possible to have alternate levels of challenge, which can enhance replayability and give the learner more control of their learning experience.
Sophisticated gaming engines make use of “adaptive difficulty”, which is able to monitor the player’s progress through the game and make it easier or more challenging for them if they are progressing with ease or finding themselves stuck.
The rule set is probably the most complex element of the game as the goals and activities are the essence of the educational design and require the most consideration. This is the area where the most suitable pedagogical approach to the learning requirement is applied and will vary depending on game style and content.
One design focus identified for Mandarin Madness stems from concerns about other educational software used by the language department at CIT. The issue is that the player should not just be able to random click in the game to complete it. Strategies for countering this include making the game engaging enough that the learners want to play and ensuring there are clear failure states.
Interestingly, research from Ravaja, Saari, Laarni, Kallinen and Salminen (2005) shows that players in some instances actually derive more pleasure from failing in a game than succeeding. This is at least partly attributable to the game feedback that was received upon failure, which involved their monkey (in the game Monkey Bowling 2) being shot off into space in a comical manner.
Information
Information is classed by Jarvinen (2007) as “What the player needs to know and what the game system stores and presents in game states: Points, clues, time limits etc.”(P.135)
With the exception of direct instructions to the player on how to play the game, this includes score and health information persistently displayed on screen in the Heads Up Display (HUD) as well as visual and aural cues triggered by their actions. These cues might include pleasant or unpleasant sounds, flashes of light and colour and seeing the object physically moved. These can all be grouped under the umbrella term of feedback.
In terms of the learning, the feedback in a game is of equal importance to the actions that the player is able to apply to the objects in the game environment. If the player doesn’t receive any feedback when they act, there is no incentive for them to make that action. Feedback then can be seen as a strong Behaviourist element. (Gagne, Briggs & Wagner, 1992) By providing positive feedback when a player does something well, the designer hopes to encourage the player to repeat the action.
Games offer a variety of options for motivating, positive feedback. Rewards might range from the aforementioned pleasing sounds and visuals to accumulating collectible or better objects/powers as well as unlocking new areas of the game environment or progressing the narrative.
The capacity of the game to offer quantified feedback in the form of points scored or time taken to achieve a goal not only offers teachers concrete options for assessing learner progress but can also appeal to the competitive side of learners if a high score table is provided.
All of these elements would be incorporated into Mandarin Madness with a definite focus on quantifiable elements which would include such things as scores, time taken and number of attempts as useful information for teachers about learner progress.
Theme
Theme as it applies to computer games refers primarily to the narrative which underpins the events of the game and offers the player a context for their actions. It “functions as a metaphor for the system and the rule set”. (Jarvinen, 2007, p.135)
According to Ryan (1999):
Stories essentially come in three parts:
The thesis, which is the introduction to the setting, the characters and the hero
The antithesis, which is where the conflict and villains are introduced and is what amounts to the majority of the story
Synthesis, where there is some form of resolution, be it triumphant or tragic.
This structure can equally be applied to individual activies in the game, game levels or to the entire game itself.
Research conducted by Pinchbeck (2008) indicates that “there is evidence that story may have a direct influence upon cognitive operations. Specifically… games with highly visible, detailed stories may assist players in recalling and ordering their own experiences”(P.1)
Story provides players with an emotional connection to their actions within the game,(McMahan, 2003) which enhances their immersion and their learning. (O’Regan, 2003).
Given the more Behaviourist drill and practice orientation of Mandarin Madness, which consists largely of a series of basic gameplay oriented activities, narrative may not necessarily be all that useful in a competitive multiplayer environment. It would however provide a more immersive learning experience in a single player and even collaborative multiplayer game and I would be inclined to use some kind of collection quest in this case.
Interface
The interface is a tool which enables the player to access the game elements. (Jarvinen, 2007) In the case of computer games, this includes the mouse, keyboard and microphone.
In the broader video game world, it expands to game controllers (e.g. Xbox 360 and the motion sensitive Wii Remote), stylus and touchscreen (Nintendo DS), steering wheel controllers (for driving games), guitar controllers (Guitar Hero, Rockband), dance mats (Dance Dance Revolution) and in game arcades you might find scaled versions of motorcycles, horses or skateboards. The types of authentic activity that the latter of these devices offer has clear links to Situated Learning and Situated and Embodied Cognition and it is not surprising that they have also be found to enhance player immersion (Jonsson, 2005).
The type of controller being used determines the types of interactions that the player can have with the game. For Mandarin Madness, ideally the player would be able to use the mouse and keyboard to move through the game space, interact with objects and type responses to question – such as the English translations of the Mandarin characters.
The ability to use a microphone to practice pronounciation of the characters would also add significant depth to the learning experience.
An important issue in the use of games in learning arises when we consider the complexity of the interface. The controls of an FPS game generally involve using the mouse as the players eyes, the left mouse button to shoot, right mouse button for an alternate action, the space bar for jumping and the W,A,S & D keys to move in the game space.
If this control layout is considered overly complicated by non-gamers, this can present a major barrier to their engagement with of the learning game.
The Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA) considers this in their 2006 Casual Games White Paper. Casual games are simple games such as Solitaire, Tetris and Bejeweled which are favoured by people who don’t normally play other games.
The IGDA position on controls for casual games is that “where possible, should be limited to the left mouse button” (P.45)
This could work with the shooting gallery section of Mandarin Madness but other parts of the game would require the player to move in the space.
This does raise a serious question about using an FPS style game for education – that of who will be playing the game and whether complex controls presents a significant barrier to learning
Context
Jarvinen’s (2007) final element of games involves “where, when and why the gaming encounter takes place” (P.135). To this I would add “and who is playing?”
I would imagine that Mandarin Madness would be played by learners in the language labs at CIT. They would initially be oriented to the game in a class session where they would learn to play both the single player and multiplayer version of the game together.
In the case of non-gamer learners, this could involve several players gathered around one computer providing support to each other, well in keeping with Bandura’s concept of Social Learning. This states that “most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action ”(1977, p.22)
An additional application of this principle could involve the game itself being incorporated into class activity, with learners in small groups (or even as a whole class) watching as one learner at a time plays a level of a game. Given the initial support of fellow students and the teacher, I feel confident that learners at all levels of gaming competence would be able to master the controls of Mandarin Madness.
OTHER ISSUES
Violence
Video games in general and the FPS genre in particularly have been subject to controversy in recent years in relation to perceptions about the impact of interactive violence on players of the games.
Thompson (2005) has variously described games as “murder simulators” and “mental masturbation” and claimed that the dual shock controller of the Sony PlayStation 2 “gives you a pleasurable buzz back into your hands with each kill. This is operant conditioning, behavior modification right out of B.F Skinner’s laboratory” (2006, p.12)
Research conducted by Endestad and Torgersen (2003) indicates that “it is action games and not first person shooter games, that predict violent behaviour” (p.10).
Eastin and Griffiths (2006) examined possible links between game playing and violence by evaluating gamers perceptions of aggressive/hostile intent in others directly after they had spent time playing either an FPS game (Unreal Tournament), a boxing game (Knockout Kings) or a car racing game (Gran Tourismo). They found that hostile expectations were highest in those who had been playing the boxing game and hypothesised that this was because the act of punching was far more possible and authentic than shooting. They also speculated that it could be because gamers enjoyed the FPS game more and “presence increases game enjoyment. As game enjoyment increases, hostility decreases due to greater desensitization toward game violence”. (p.461)
Regardless of the possible causal links between gameplay and violence, it’s entirely reasonable that violent and particularly gory content could discourage many players. This is not to say however that there may not be solutions to this issue.
I have discovered two FPS games which apply drill and practice principles to educational purposes (touch-typing and learning English) and which have aspects that could be considered violent. Typing of the Dead and English of the Dead are spin-off games from a popular arcade shooter, House of the Dead.
Players used light guns in House of the Dead to kill oncoming attacking zombies and other monsters while attempting to stop an evil businessman from taking over the world. Typing of the Dead cleverly replaced the gun interface with a Qwerty keyboard and the player “shoots” the zombies by quickly typing the words that appear about their heads. English of the Dead works on a similar principle but makes use of the touchscreen and stylus interface of the dual-screen Nintendo DS to have the player write the missing letters of the English words that appear above the monsters and below the Japanese equivalent word.
While the games are violent, the developers have made it more abstract (and thus inauthentic) by making the zombie blood green. They also provide the option to turn blood off entirely so that when the zombies are shot, they simply run away.
These options may not allay the discomfort of all gamers but are worth considering.
Conclusions
In the course of this research I strongly believe that I have been able to develop a pedagogically sound and engaging design concept for an educational FPS style game.
The full design statement for Mandarin Madness can be found in Appendix A.
Mandarin Madness offers learners an enjoyable and stimulating environment in which they are able to interact with a range of virtual objects and have an impact on the game world.
It offers Behaviourist oriented skills practice and positive reinforcement and draws on Cognitivist strategies for making information more memorable by giving it richer meaning through symbolic and metaphoric contexts. Learners are able to share their knowledge and skills in the multiplayer environment and can draw emotional connections from the use of the narrative.
The proof of a game is of course in the playing but on paper, Mandarin Madness works.
This project is doing my head in a little – but in a good way.
The simple premise that I started with – that I want to see how it might be possible to use FPS style games for learning – has twisted and turned all over the place as I have tried to figure out how to accomodate learners who don’t normally play games, how to deal with the issue of violence in games (and what impact this has on learning), what kinds of learning activities might be suited to the FPS genre – initially I was thinking fairly straight forward drill and practice (although what form this might actually take is another matter) and what elements of games actually support learning.
I’ve taken side trips to the world of casual games in search of answers for making games easy and appealing to non-gamers – I think that casual games have a lot to offer but there are still a lot of key differences between them and an FPS style game – most notably in the controls. Casual games seem to work best with just the one controller – preferably the mouse while the FPS game controls may be overly complicated for novice gamers. I still haven’t resolved this issue in my mind yet.
Violence in games isn’t as cut and dried as you might have thought – some studies even go so far as to suggest that it can enhance learning for some gamers. (Not many but some). Action games are most closely linked to violent behaviour in gamers as well.
The application of learning theories to games is an incredibly rich and encouraging field – the more I read, the more it seems that games can do in terms of developing sensori-motor skills (which may be inextricably intertwined with higher cognitive skills like problem solving and decision making), motivation, emotional connection to the material, relevance and much more are all enhanced in a game environment.
Issues of story vs gameplay have been interesting – story appears to be important and separate (but equal) to gameplay elements in making a good game. How this relates to my initial leaning towards basic activities I’m still synthesising at the moment.
I definitely feel that I’m on the right track though and I’m a believer in the teaching power of activities and the rich worlds that games can offer.
The question of drill and practice is one that I’ve instinctively felt is important but I haven’t been able to properly solidify. I’m thinking about language learning here (although there are other scenarios where it could be useful) and the need for repetition.
This is what has drawn me to the world of casual games, the fact that the best of these games have high replayability (or addictive qualities if you prefer) and players are happy to come back to them even when they have finished. It’s not for the story then (most casual games don’t have one) but for the challenge and for the game play elements. The fun, the pretty graphics/sounds/etc, the rewards, the positive feedback and the sense of achievement and progress. I think a high score or fastest game table might also enhance this experience and encourage multiple replays.
This and the accessibility of casual games to non-gamers is why I’ve been floating around this area.
One of the limitations of the FPS that I’m feeling more and more is the general lack of ability to enter text. Typing of the Dead has it but that’s about it. Actually, scratch that – I’ve just done taken a look at this video for English of the Dead – an FPS based language game for the Nintendo DS that ingeniously uses the bottom interface of the DS for learners to write letters on. (Interesting that they don’t just have a keyboard displayed on the bottom screen for learners to use the stylus to “type” the letters with – forcing them to write the characters instead. Clever. (You can try a basic – and non-violent – version of the game here)
Another issue I’ve bumped up against a few times while thinking about this project has been the single-player/multiplayer divide. There are a number of different factors that come to play with these types of games and the multiplayer ones, while highly interesting, just bring too much to the table, so I’ve decided to focus on single-player games for now.
I’m interested in the possibilities of players being able to leave their mark on the game world – for example, someone playing the game on a Tuesday writes a message on a wall for a friend playing the game the next day. (Both separately) – I think this is more of a virtual world kind of thing though.
Galarneau, L. (2005) Authentic Learning Experiences Through Play: Games, Simulations and the Construction of Knowledge. Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views – Worlds in Play . Vancouver, BC: DiGRA
I think I might have me a little gamelearner crush here – Lisa Galarneau has managed to make coherent all of the little half-finished thoughts and ideas that I’ve had fluttering around my mind and make a compelling argument not only that games are good for learning but also that you need to apply a sensible pedagogical approach if you want to make them work.
(Yeah well duh perhaps I guess to the second part but she offers up a few pretty good ideas as to directions to take and gaming aspects to focus on in the process which gave me a few a-ha moments (a-ha eureka, not a-ha take on me)
The focus of the paper is slightly more skewed towards simulations than the FPS genre (though these aren’t mutually exclusive) but it still seems rather helpful, given that it “examines the design of authentic learning experiences as a way of thinking about the appropriateness and unique potential of games and simulations in a range of educational and training settings.”
She gets that “Games and simulations are only as effective as the pedagogical approach that is employed in their design and development. Furthermore, their effectiveness must be measured against their learning objectives and methods selected vis a vis the needs of the resources learners. Unfortunately, this is not often the case”.
Galarneau sees drill-and-practice type games as having their place – “Wrapping “boring” content in a trivia or shoot-em-up game format might make materials that need to be memorized a bit easier to “swallow”. Likewise, repeated engagement with interactive drill-and-practice environments provides the repetition that may be needed for learners to memorize and retain certain types of content. Just as I have argued previously, “the first step towards constructing one’s one knowledge is being open to the experience of learning. An unmotivated learner is simply incapable of taking enough interest in something to engage in the process of construction”
She does feel generally however that games taking a more constructivist or connectivist approach to learning by providing authentic game/simulations which offer richer emotional experiences.
“So while part of the motivation may stem from novelty effects, competitive enjoyment or the stimulation younger generations have grown accustomed to, the best types of engagement stem from the learner’s enjoyment of a more effective learning experience, one that puts them in control and encourages active participation, exploration, reflection and the individual construction of meaning.”
Galarneau recognises that forming knowledge consists of more than the simple ability to recall facts, it’s about being able to apply those facts to new situations.
I devised a slightly dorky formula to express my understanding of the knowledge creation process a while back – {context (information + relevance) activity} + (past experiences) => meaning + reflection => knowledge.
=> should be taken there to mean leads to.
“A learner who can recite every bone in the human body cannot necessarily diagnose a problem with a given bone, nor know how to splint one in an accident occurred. Even if taken through a number of steps necessary in splinting a bone, it’s unlikely that a person would do it correctly without having experienced it either first-hand or vicariously, by observing another person in the learning process Lave and Wenger refer to a ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ . “
I’m not 100% clear on whether seeing someone performing this task a few times on video would count or not – or perhaps even better as a 3d animation which they can rotate their view around – but this does suggest to me that using video cut scenes in a game (particularly the FPL could be an option – the 3d animation idea would be great but far beyond my current capabilities)
I’m also thinking (still) that an OHS game could be a good option for the second FPL prototype. (The first being based around language). It has simulation qualities including the ability to be hurt by workplace hazards although I’m not sure how to get the player to fix hazards (maybe they have an OHS magic wand?).
A game focussed on fire drill / evacuation procedures might be another idea worth contemplating.
Galarneau takes a relatively connectivist view of learning, which is an area that I’ve been interested in but haven’t found a lot out to date. She makes a pretty good fist of defining it.
“Emerging ideas about learning are beginning to suggest that learning is the act of making knowledge tangible through action, or what George Siemens refers to as ‘forming connections’ between islands of knowledge
Given this definition of learning as connection-forming, then all learning must result from experience, for experience underlies the process of forming said connections. In this regard therefore, effective learning is a redundant statement. If one has learned, the experience has been effective. The question therefore becomes, how can we design experiences that allow learners to experiment with knowledge in context, encouraging them to form connections by experiencing a wide range of experiential possibilities around any given piece of information?”
I like virtually all of this but don’t accept that ALL learning would result from experience – if for no other reason than my personal dislike of blanket statements. There is no way that I can experience the First Fleet landing but I know they did it in 1788 (as far as it is possible to know these things)
I think that emphasising the importance of providing learners with experiences related to the content is a big thing though.
Galarneau suggests a general structure for such games:
“Place the learner firmly at the centre of the learning experience, encourage him or her to take an active role and make sure that the learning situation is not abstracted from reality, but is placed directly in a real-world context, either physically or virtually. This environment may or may not include other learners, or it may simulate the responses and behaviours of other individuals. Though some structure will be in place, the learner will not progress entirely linearly, as with traditional content, but will play in this environment, encountering both success and failure along the way. Failure may, in fact, be the most critical aspect of this play” (my emphasis)
The importance of failure is something I haven’t considered enough but I can see instantly how important it is – I hadn’t factored it into the Exploring the CEE game I’ve been designing (forever), which means that the the player’s options are limited to do it right or do nothing. I wonder how far we can take failure – in an FPL context it suggests that the character/player dies and has to begin again, if it was a third person perspective game this could be made quite spectacular but trickier perhaps for fpp – unless we used a cutscene animation which shifts to 3pp to show the player dying. (Or we could take a lighter, more humourous approach with a waaaap waaap waaaap waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah type sound effect. )
Galarneau discusses the value of failure further:
“Roger Schank, among others, has championed the idea that failure is a critical component of learning. This is an area where games and simulations shine, affording a wide range of possibilities, or failure-states, given a wide range of player actions… The simulation is only limited by its designer’s intent or resources to play out a wide range of possibilities that contribute to a learner’s ability to recognise the patterns that emerge from his or her actions. As Schank explains, these failures can offer unexpected benefits when it comes to learning. ‘Simulations that evoke real emotions become real memories. A failure is a failure and whether in a simulation or a work experience, if it feels real, it helps us learn’ “
She identifies three important elements to any learning game – pedagogical elements, simulation elements and game elements. “Pedagogical elements wrap the other elements in a directed learning context, providing a theoretical basis, assessment and opportunities for reflection. Simulation elements refer to the components that make the simulation executable, be it a simple branching simulation or more complex game-like simulation. Game elements, on the other hand, refer to the aspects that are simply there to make a game fun: competition, reward, discovery etc.” Finding the balance between these three elements is the key.
Galarneau values the simulation elements highly, believing that they offer learners opportunities to “flex their capabilities. And in the process, they may also learn to be more flexible, handle greater ambiguity, manage resources and solve problems, all difficult to measure but easily recognisable abilities afforded us by play in physical and virtual environments”.
The discussion about experience and authenticity has given me half a thought about another potential game subject – still only half a thought mind you – which is for the building materials subject within the building design area over here. Making use of different materials in the buildings (wood/concrete/steel/etc) and putting them in different environments – the students need to discuss which materials are best suited to which spaces, perhaps through a multiplayer representation of the teacher who acts as some sort of gatekeeper?. We could also make use of soundeffects to represent walking through the respective spaces.
Something to chat to the teacher about anyways.
Galarneau finishes with a brief discussion of two simulation products that she was involved in producing – one for building/carpentry students Christchurch Polytechnic (and it’s so good to see a paper that includes VET) and one for mental health professionals. Both emphasise relevance to the learners day to day activities and having them actively involved in the decision making process of the activity. Galarneau does appear to support video/animation as a means of “legitimate peripheral participation”.
She also developed a branching simulation for the mental health professionals providing feedback on the outcomes of different techniques for scenarios with patients. She took on board the thoughts of George Siemens in this instance:
“Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical [12]“
How to put that in a game I’m not so sure but I agree with the concept.
“One hugely significant benefit of both of these solutions is that they allow assessment to be built right into the experience. Educators and trainers can log learner progress though the resources in order to see what decisions they make, whether they improve over time and how long they take to achieve the tasks. This type of assessment is much more capable of evaluating learning than traditional summative assessment that generally only tests the ability to regurgitate information, often well out of context. “
She finishes with an observation that I feel is highly relevant to learning in a VET sector.
“Authentic learning experiences of the sort described in this paper are most relevant to situations where the learner needs not only to learn something, but also needs to learn to what contexts the information or knowledge is most relevant.”
Fuchs, M. (2001) Expositur – A Virtual Knowledge Space (Theory). Retrieved May 25, 2008 from Syl.Eckermann website http://syl-eckermann.net/expositur/theory.html
I came across some additional information written by Mathias Fuchs about this project that raised a few more ideas worth quickly sharing.
Fuchs discusses the power and nature of games and how they approached the purpose of the project.
“Umberto Eco proposed to investigate certain works of literature as ludic machines. These texts would work as structural units, whose purpose is, to get the reader involved in a game of words. The activity of reading would therefore resemble the process of playing a game – as opposed to the more teleological task of understanding a story. It seems that computer games, too, can be understood either as narrative devices or as ludic machines”
“Ludites state that the act of playing the game is an activity which is often driven by joyful improvisation. Especially when the elements of chance and vertigo… are predominant in a game, there is no need for a narration. Throwing the dices or going on a roundabout are such games. New media in general and computer games in particular inherited the twofold nature of games. They contain narrative aspects and ludic aspects at the same time.”
“When we started working on a computer game about Viennese museums we visited many museums and tried to find out what a museum-goer is actually doing. Does he learn about a scientific field? Is he led by a narration? Does he randomly drift through halls and have his eyes wonder around amongst miraculous objects? Does the visitor always want to keep a sense of orientation? What is the potential use of loosing orientation? Is predictability the death of the marvel?”
A few quick responses – I’d say that narration and play aren’t mutually exclusive and narration offers motivation to progress through the game by bringing greater emotional connection. (Not always of course)
I like the term “joyful improvisation” – it seems to embody the concept of “play”
“Even though the virtual museum “Expositur” tells about objects and processes, even though there is a semantic framework and an underlying logic structure our knowledge space leaves ample room for alternative readings, it encourages the user to define their private paths away from the main roads. It requires the visitor to set up his personal speed, pace and rhythm for the access to information, for contemplation and for sheer surprise”
Contemplation/reflection is also something I haven’t thought much about yet – this I guess slots well into constructivist approaches (as do large chunks of this project even though I choose to associate it more with cognitivist theory given the deliberate designing of information to be more processable. )
On the homepage of this section of this website is a nice summation of the intent of this project:
fuchs-eckermann: ‘We are looking for something which Friedrich Nietzsche labelled “Gay Science”, ["Fröhliche Wissenschaft"] a mode of experiencing knowledge in a joyful as well as thoughtful manner. Nietzsche thought that you can only come across important insights if you discover them when “dancing”. And that’s precisely what the users of our computer game have to do. They have to move in order to find out facts, they have to dive and swim to get deep into certain areas of knowledge and they have to dance around to discover unexpected aspects of a topic.’
Following this methodology, the user of the virtual museum has to jump into a water zone in order to hear about the extinction of an ancient fish once populating the Danube River. The user has to operate triggers and barriers to learn about the dangers of machinery provided by the Technical Museum. Or he/she has to walk to down a spiral staircase to reach the hall of Sigmund Freud’s subconsciousness ["Die Traumdeutung"]
Fuchs, M. & Eckermann, S. (2001) From “First Person Shooter” to Multi-User Knowledge Spaces. In F. Nack (Ed.) Proceedings COSIGN 2001 – 1st Conference on Computational Semiotics for Games and New Media (pp. 83-87). CWI, Amsterdam.
In 2001, Fuchs and Eckermann developed Expositur – ein virtueller Wissenraum, a game based collaborative project showcasing ten Viennese museums. This first person perspective knowledge space, built using the Unreal FPS game engine, made use of loci, a place based mnemotechnique dating back to the ancient Greeks, to enhance the meaning of its virtual museum exhibits by “connecting seemingly unrelated imagery to gain insight into visual similarities and connotations”(p.84).
They considered “the freedom of the user to go his or her own way in the virtual environment as an important feature that allows for individually shaped relational networks inside a complex field of knowledge”(p.84), which ties in well with Ertmer and Newby’s description of knowledge acquisition under Cognitivism as “a mental activity that entails internal coding and structuring by the learner”. (1993, p.58).
From the abstract:
The content provided by these museums had to be made accessible
and comprehensible to users of different ages, educational
backgrounds and computer literacy. We developed a system of
connotations amongst the objects, which then was translated into
a spatial structure of rooms, corridors and places of different
sizes, shapes, remotenesses or proximities. The viewer/listener
of our knowledge space explores a semantic structure by
navigating virtual spaces with the topics being contained in these
rooms. The connecting architecture between these rooms
resembles staircases, passages, elevators, hidden doors or
portals, each of them referring to the nature of the connotation.
Quite contrary to web-based databases and hypertext structures,
the links therefore possess a quality of their own, carrying much
more information than just “is connected with”.
There’s a lot about this project that I like – the scope, the imagination behind it, the issues that they faced and the fact that covers a number of ideas that I’ve been thinking about. (And also several that I hadn’t thought about but now realise that I should)
This paper discusses the ideas underpinning this project – the notion of using virtual spaces and interaction to add meaning to the experience of viewing objects in a museum. Essentially it is about reimagining and redesigning from scratch 10 museums.
“We developed a system of connotations amongst the objects, which then was translated into a spatial structure of rooms, corridors and places of different sizes, shapes, remotenesses and proximities… The connecting architecture between these rooms resembles staircases, passages, elevators, hidden doors or portals, each of them referring to the nature of the connotation.”
This process was influenced by the Mnemosynic techniques of ancient Greek philosophers and singers in attaching meaning to objects in spaces to assist learning. It also draws from research by Ady Warburg on visual codes in Renaissance art.
“Warburg’s scientific method consisted of connecting seemingly unrelated imagery to gain insight into visual similarities and connotations, which he called Pathosformeln. In our knowledge space, the multiple coding of meanings contained with the exhibited objects is made transparent by the spatial relation superimposed upon the objects. (A technical drawing of a prosthesis, e.g., is positioned close to Freud’s Prosthengott quote and therefore connected to Freud’s theory from “Das Unbehagen in der Kultur”. “
Fuchs and Eckermann go on to consider how the ways that the player actually moves through the virtual space affect their experience with in it.
“To navigate the spaces of different content the users have to keep moving. They can walk, run, climb, jump, crouch, swim or fly according to the spatial situation. The Frankfurt based cultural scientist Manfred Fassler has mentioned in his recent publication that the etymological root of the German word for experience (Erfahrung) stems from fahren, i.e. “to move”. “
I have to admit that part of me thinks that the impact of different kinds of movement through the space would probably be greater in a 3rd Person Perspective or Virtual world game, where a player controls an avatar. Issues of how obvious these differing forms of movement would actually be to the user come to mind. (Swimming and flying would be relatively obvious – though they would necessitate a different control system which extends the 2 dimensional movement patterns generally used in these games)
Freedom of movement also comes back very much to issues of the user/players freedom to choose the content that they are most interested in. (This is probably something I’m less interested in for this particular project, which is focussed more heavily on developing foundation skills and knowledge and thus necessitates learning everything in the space.)
“We also consider the freedom of the user to go his or her own way in the virtual environment an an important feature that allows for individually shaped relational networks inside a complex field of knowledge”.
Fuchs and Eckermann based their design around several questions which either mirror those I have mentioned in the previous post here or which I shamelessly borrowed for that post. They often dig down into semiotics and signs and meaning, which I have a general grasp of but don’t know a lot about. (Might be time to dip into that Roland Barthes book I was given in 92 but have never quite been able to face reading after cursory dippings.)
They also discuss having to work with the limitations of the game development software – in their case they used the Unreal Engine. This is certainly an issue that I have bumped up against before and not one to which there are any easy answers. Bearing these limitations in mind they decided to do what they could to make it work and emphasise game elements from a hypothetical base to begin with.
This included the appearance of the rooms – and they make an interesting point that I’m not entirely sure I support, although I haven’t put it into practice yet.
“It seems of extreme importance for the creation of meaning how the environment the information is contained in looks like and sounds… We recognised that the richness of the architectural forms decreases the stress a person feels confronted with when navigating through this space. Former versions of Unreal allowed for just a few hundred polygons and therefore favoured boxy levels creating a higher aggressiveness and a feeling of discomfort for certain users. On the other hand, we recognised that very complex environments often create a feeling of “being lost” and of nausea”
While they do recognise the contradictions of level design for different players, I wouldn’t have thought that complex levels (i.e visually “busy” levels) would reduce stress. I can also see though that the use of curved surfaces could create more peaceful or soothing spaces. I’d be interested to know whether playing such a level on a large, smart-board type screen would be more comfortable than on a standard computer monitor.
The role of sound is really something I hadn’t given enough weight to in my thinking about game design – which is a little embarrassing as a wannabe film maker who routinely bangs on about the way that sound is treated as a second class citizen in the film production process. Fuchs and Eckermann draw analogies to the use of sound in film and identify 4 different types of use in their “game” space. :
Emotional Support – “The sounds can deliberately be used to value objects as dangerous, hilarious, important, historically significant or other. We use sound in this respect to add ethical standpoints to objects we have to show, like armour, prostheses and extinct animals”
Additional information about visible objects – “We use recorded sound material to tell about the material qualities of objects”
Continuity music – “We recognised that turning off the background music of the rooms in a computer game results often in a much shorter playing time. Also the speed of the investigation, the restlessness and the carefulness of exploring a specific room can be manipulated via music playing in the background:
Subtext – “This is an important function for content creation of an ambiguous character or for the creation of content which can be interpreted in different ways… For our game we used the method of acoustical subtext in the room showing the collection of technical prostheses… The soundtrack accompanying the prostheses hints that capitalist production and warfare can result in the same sad results for the victims of either. This information when put forward as text would sound quite banal and not lead to an intensive experience for most of the users. However, the soundscapes of heavy machinery mixed with heavy artillery and superimposed with composed rhythmical patterns does”
Sound hey. Got to factor that in better.
They also considered the use of linking sections/structures between topics/museums/objects and what added meaning these might bring.
“…there are “contour” features of visual objects and of acoustic objects, which are connoted with emotions. A rising line is usually considered to be positive or optimistic; a falling line to be negative, disappointing or dangerous.”
This made me think about the use of corridors, stairs, elevators and even having players jump down into pits to progress through a game level and what subtextual messages these convey. Great stuff.
They go on to discuss the use of avatars for the player – something I don’t entirely understand if this is an FPS based game (although it is possible to see another player’s avatar in a multiplayer game I guess) and expand upon the impact different forms and speed of movement have on the players experience of the exhibition. (Which largely comes down to learner choice and learner control – something which is less relevant to the project I’m considering at the moment).
The matter of how multiple players might interact in a game space like this comes up and they identified “the possibility for one knowledge seeker to show others their way by guiding them through the rooms. Another useful features is the possibility to exchange messages via written or spoken word… It is essential however to implement individual sets of voices and not to rely on the default voices provided by the manufacturer”
While I appreciate the intention here, the practicality of using your own voice sets seems a little tricky and understandably skirted over. Developments in the sophistication of game building systems since this project however suggest to me that in game voice communication isn’t so uncommon any more (and text based has been around for a long time) and could be relatively easily achievable. It did make me think about the options for asynchronous communication between players, with the capacity to leave messages (such as “the cake is a lie”? for those who follow. Difficult in this kind of game building environment but more doable in virtual worlds such as Croquet.
I also thought more about other options for learner collaboration in these kinds of spaces and thought that you could create a scenario where different players have to explore different spaces to collect different information about a central topic. Only by collaborating and sharing all of the information would the learners be able to progress through the game. Making some of the information contradictory so the learners had to reason out the truth could add a layer of interest to the experience. You might need to add a time-pressure constraint to the exercise to emphasise that the players need to explore their own spaces before coming together rather than collectively exploring all of the passageways/rooms/whatever.
This paper ends with some general observations which tie it all together and offer an optimistic view of the future of games in learning.
“We think that there games – however simple they still might appear at present – contain possibilities for knowledge spaces of a delicate nature – if they are thoughtfully conceived, carefully designed and joyfully experienced.”
I’ve spent a good part of the day exploring the fascinating Fuchs-Eckermann project (more on this soon) and I know it’s been good because it’s brought up a number of questions that I think are going to be important to address in the First Person Learner (FPL) project.
Some of these can already be found in the project proposal I posted here the other day but it’s good to have all of these in the one place. (By the way, if you have a good answer to any of these questions, your input is most welcome
What are the possible users of FPS/FPP games in VET learning? (Or rather, training based on developing foundation skills – including language learning)
How can different educational approaches be applied to FPS learning games? – primarily behaviourist, cognitivist and constructivist
Do I want to develop games for gamers or for people who don’t normally play these games?
If it is the latter, how do I ensure that these games are accessible to these people?
What is the end purpose of these games? (Depends on the educational approach being applied to some extent):
Reinforcing material covered elsewhere (in class or online)
Presenting new content in a fun or engaging way
Developing problem solving skills
Using scenarios to illustrate concepts/knowledge
Presenting information in a more memorable/understandable way
Where is the point where the knowledge/skill require to play the game is secondary and 100% of the player’s attention is on the activity? (Depends on the player?)
Can the games be broken up into 5min (or less) digestible chunks like web/casual games?
A series of puzzles which increase in complexity and have high replayability (and the capability to drop in to the level that you left the game at previously)
How can the space, appearance, sound, movement through and emotion (e.g joy or fear) of the game environment be used to enhance the meaning of the content and experiences?
(Like a big bright space with grassy floor vs a dark narrow trail bordered by lava pits)
What do we lose by making the playing experience fairly directive and linear – rather than having a broad info space that the learner can choose their own path in and focus mostly (or only) on the content that they are interested in. [This may be another project entirely - I probably just want to focus for now on the directed, scaffolding type VET learning]
Is decision making/collaboration still possible in a more directed style FP Learner?
Should this be targetted (initially at least) at learners who are already comfortable with the conventions and controls of FPS gaming?
Who are these people and what are they (generally) studying?
(Can I get CURVE – our research unit – to include some questions about gaming habits in their next student survey?)
What kind of structured tasks or knowledge are appropriate to development into an FPL game?
ESL (consider English of the Dead)? Business and I.T? Spraypainting? AIE? Media? Flex.Ed?
What is the anatomy of an FPS game? How does it differ from 3rd PP and virtual world games and what are the relative advantages?
(How) can FPS games be educational?
What impact might game violence or destruction of objects have on the learning experience?
In what circumstances might game violence or object destruction be appropriate in a learning activity?
Do single player and multiplayer games support different educational approaches?
To what extent does the level of realistic representation of the learners environment affect their engagement with the game? (Uncanny valley + Understanding Comics)
What makes a game enjoyable and what makes a player want to play a game repeatedly?
What kinds of interactions can there be between multiplayer users exploring the same knowledge space?
Can players in a multiplayer environment communicate asynchronously as well as synchronously – leaving notes or tips for those who follow?
How do the limitations of the game building software/environment impact on design decisions?
Does the size of the screen that the game is played on affect the user’s sense of being lost/nauseous if the screen content is overly complex/busy (P.85 Fuchs & Eckermann)
What motivates a player in a game?
What kinds of information/data content and experiences/activities can be used in an FPP/FPS game?:
Video
3D models
Audio
Photographs/Graphic images
Text
Conversations (with other players or Non Player Characters)
?
??
Now clearly I’d rather be at the point in this exercise where I have answers to a lot of these questions but it still feels like progress.
I think the question about casual games is more important than it looks.
Yep, it’s this old hobby-horse again but I still believe that FPP/FPS games can prove useful in education. Research into this field is still a little scant but I have found some useful stuff – not just about using these games in military training either.
This is the proposal that I’ve put together for a uni project to investigate these options – now I have a whopping great 21 days to put together the 6400 words I’ve promised to deliver (and 2 game prototypes – or at least designs)
Title:
Creating the First Person Learner: Educational Applications of the First Person Shooter game genre.
1. Abstract
Gameplay in First Person Shooter (FPS) games is generally highly structured with the player given limited options in terms of the paths they can take and the decisions that they can make. They are often taught a specific skill, practise it for a period of time and when they have adequately demonstrated it, they are given progressively more advanced skills.
This often reflects students’ initial experiences of Vocational Education and Training (VET), during which they spend large amounts of time methodically developing foundation skills and knowledge in their chosen discipline.
This proposal describes a study that aims to investigate the potential uses of First Person Shooter style games as learning tools for students in the VET sector. It will centre around identifying the unique characteristics of the FPS genre and examining ways in which varying educational approaches might be applied to the design of FPS style games for these learners.
2. Introduction
While the use of computer games in education has been widely researched in recent years (Prensky, 2006), a significant focus of this research has been on the development of higher level skills such as problem solving and collaboration in third-person perspective games and particularly virtual worlds such as Second Life. (Kay, 2007)
Much less attention has been paid to the first person perspective genre, typified by the highly popular (and sometimes controversial) First Person Shooter. An initial scan of educational and games research however has indicated that this genre possesses a number of relatively unique characteristics that mesh well with behaviourist, cognitivist and even constructivist approaches to education.
Behaviourist.
Robyler and Havriluk (1997) point out that among the “needs addressed by directed instruction” (their term for the Behaviourist approach) are “making learning paths more efficient… especially for instruction in skills that are prerequisite to higher-level skills” and “performing time-consuming and labor intensive tasks (e.g., skill practice), freeing teacher time for other, more complex student needs”.
In 2005, Oliver and Pelletier devised a methodology which permitted a detailed analysis of how people learn from particular instances of game play. They compared a player of an FPS game (Deux Ex) who played a level having previously used a training level with one who had not. Unsurprisingly, the player who had played the heavily structured and repetitive training level first progressed through the level far more quickly than the second player and also mastered a number of essential skills that the second player did not.
Cognitivist
In 2001, Fuchs and Eckermann developed Expositur – ein virtueller Wissenraum, a game based collaborative project showcasing ten Viennese museums. This first person perspective knowledge space, built using the Unreal FPS game engine, made use of loci, a place based mnemotechnique dating back to the ancient Greeks, to enhance the meaning of its virtual museum exhibits by “connecting seemingly unrelated imagery to gain insight into visual similarities and connotations”(p.84).
They considered “the freedom of the user to go his or her own way in the virtual environment as an important feature that allows for individually shaped relational networks inside a complex field of knowledge”(p.84), which ties in well with Ertmer and Newby’s description of knowledge acquisition under Cognitivism as “a mental activity that entails internal coding and structuring by the learner”. (1993, p.58).
Constructivist
Some researchers have also investigated the use of FPS games to develop higher level skills in decision making and problem solving using authentic and immersive scenario based learning approaches commonly found in the constructivist approach to education. (Colvin, Clark & Mayer, 2007). Barlow and Lewis from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) presented a paper to the SimTecT conference in 2005 discussing their use of a customised FPS game (Operation Flashpoint) to develop and examine the tactical decision making skills of ADFA students in a variety of authentic scenarios.
I believe that elements from all of these approaches can be successfully integrated into an FPS based learning game, whether it be a drill based reinforcement of key concepts, using the arrangement of information in three dimensional space as a cognitive aid or engaging students with an authentic and immersive scenario based learning experience.
3. Methodology
This project will draw on the ADDIE instructional systems design model. This is a five stage process involving Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation and represents “a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools”. (Wikipedia, 2008) Given time and resource constraints, the project will focus on the first three stages of the ADDIE process.
In the Analysis phase I will initially seek to answer a number of questions which will give me a better idea of the strengths of the FPS genre, suitable content and activities for the games, evaluation strategies and pedagogical approaches to developing these games. Given my stated aim of examining games suitable for VET students, this will initially involve identifying particular types of structured tasks that would be appropriate to this form however all options will be considered as they arise.
Some of the key questions to be considered are:
What is the anatomy of an FPS game?
How do FPS games differ from third person perspective and virtual world games and what advantages do they offer?
How can FPS games be educational?
What kind of educational approaches lend themselves to this type of games based learning?
What are the factors that might determine the most appropriate target audience for an FPS based learning game?
What impact might game violence or destruction of virtual objects have on the learning experience?
In what circumstances might game violence or destruction of objects be appropriate in a learning activity?
Do single player and multiplayer games support different educational approaches?
A number of game design questions will also be considered including:
To what extent does the level of realistic representation of the learners’ environment affect their engagement with the game?
What makes a game enjoyable and what makes a player want to play a game repeatedly?
In answering these questions I will draw on existing research into the use of games in education in general then focus on the use of FPS games and environments specifically.
I have a growing list of game oriented resources at http://del.icio.us/colsim/edugames
which will be my first port of call. From there I’ll also look into writing from Marc Prensky, James Gee, the Serious Games Initiative, Constance Steinkuehler, Jack Thompson and other games in education writers and theorists as a starting point.
I will also make contact with Barlow and Lewis at ADFA and teachers at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, a respected game design school in Canberra.
Based on the findings of this research, I will develop design statements for and build prototypes of two small games using FPS Creator, a game development software package. These games will serve to demonstrate some of the possible practical applications of the FPS game genre in education.
5. Results and Discussion
Assessment of this project will centre around a final report which documents and discusses the outcomes of this research. This report will examine the methodology used and outline the answers found to the questions listed earlier. It will consider the success or failure of my attempts to integrate learning strategies into FPS based games and consider approaches for future developments of educational games.
During the course of the project I will regularly discuss the use of games and particularly FPS games in education by posting observations and reflections on my edublog at http://gamelearner.edublogs.org. This reflection process will enable me to formulate my ideas and seek feedback from the wider games in education community. I will include a summary of these posts as an appendix to the report.
I will also include an annotated bibliography of the six most significant publications that I find in my research .
Due date:
June 13, 2008
Final Report – Methodology and findings
4000 words
50%
June 13, 2008
Annotated Bibliography (6 x 200 words)
1200 words
15%
I’ve mentioned games using Guitar styled interfaces before – Fret Nice being one example and the entirely awesome Guitar Hero series of course being another.
Guitar Rising looks like it may well take this a step further with PC based software that enables you to plug your actual electric guitar into the soundcard of your computer and play along with songs that appear on screen. This would function similarly to Guitar Hero in tracking the notes you hit (somehow) in relation to the note symbols that appear in the game window.
Now sure, serious musicians already have the option of hooking up midi interfaces to their computers if they want to record but this seems like a great opportunity to access realtime feedback about your playing that I’ve never seen before. By adding gameplay mechanisms to the mix as well, it takes a learning tool into the fun zone.
We had a big institute wide talkfest and professional development day here last week and my colleague aAron and I ran a short session on games in learning.
Overall people seemed interested but problems with Flash on the computers meant that they couldn’t participate in some of the activities we had lined up for them so it ended up a little more talk’n'chalk than I had hoped.
You can check out the slideshow for the presentation over on Google Docs – or download the pdf version below.
The further into the process of designing the Exploring the CEE (working title) game, an orientation game to our Flexible Learning Solutions team, the more complicated it seems to get.
I’m hamstrung by a few aspects but they mostly all come down to my use of FPS Creator.
I’m something of a newb in my use of FPS Creator, the game creation software that I’m using for this and my knowledge of the underlying scripting that can be used to create interactions between the player and other characters. I know very little about 3D modelling (although my colleague Bec seems to have worked this out thankfully) and while I’ve played my fair share (perhaps more than my fair share) of games, the principles of game design themselves are relatively new to me.
The initial intention of this game was to serve a prototype to get a feel for game design, so I’m regularly having to remind myself that it’s better to do something simple well than to over reach. The game is also intended to act as a promotional tool for our area, a way of showcasing some of our knowledge base, the resources we have available to teachers and the ideas that we can help them with.
In my initial design process, I was heavily focussed on the information landscape that I was building – largely influenced by the very interesting writings of Fabice Florin from the early 1990s. It was all about using metaphors and creating virtual spaces with strong logical connections to the information. Using our building and our office seemed pretty sensible in this regard. I was also quite determined to have a very open and democratic information landscape that allowed the user/player to be as free in the way they accessed the information as possible. (Much in the sandpit genre of games – like the Grand Theft Auto series). The player could theoretically choose only the aspects of the game that interested them specifically by moving to that part of the space. (Of course, even in GTA you have to complete certain missions to move the story along).
The more I work with FPS Creator however, the more I wonder how much I’m going against the nature of the programme – and the genre.
FPS Creator is a very nifty piece of software for what it does – allowing game making novices to build 3D games where they run around in first person perspective, shooting enemies to progress to the end of the game. Taking the shooting out of the game to make Exploring the CEE is slightly subversive as it is, repurposing the whole experience, but I’m just now realising that the First Person Shooter genre is much more geared towards a heavily linear storytelling experience.
Some of the limitations of the FPSC software are that it struggles with large rooms with a lot of entities (furniture, characters, objects like cdroms and folders) as it favours a series of smaller rooms with more twists and turns. Interaction is predominately with weapons and enemies, so conversation and collaboration are low on the list of priorities for most users of the software – however this would be the area of the game that would be the most useful for our particular needs.
We had been thinking about some scoring systems to help measure player progress – rising student grades and student satisfaction levels – however, again, being designed for FPS’, it’s all about diminishing health and ammunition levels.
It allows for players passing over particular parts of the map to trigger audio/video/graphic files and some of the FPSC community (a lively modding scene) have devised basic scripts to enable simple conversations between the player and non-player characters – although these don’t have the depth that we would really want in our game.
Players can also trigger audio/video/graphic files by interacting (passing over/close to) game objects such as folders, cdroms and the like. This appears at the moment to be the extent of which we can work with this game. (I may learn more in time but I have to come back to the do something simple well principle).
After chats with members of our team, where I laid out the driving game elements that I’ve come up with so far (mentioned previously here) , we’ve come up with some possible models for the game play to follow. None seem perfect but offer some options at least.
The background story, of the player being a teacher trying to improve their existing, (boring) course – Theory of Occupational Health and Safety- in pursuit of the coveted Teacher of the Year award. The player is in direct competition with a colleague – the slightly annoying Peta Perfect.
The game map is a representation of the campus here at Southside – the FLS team is located in A block which is connected to the players dept in D block by a large corridor. This corridor takes about 40 seconds to cross at present, which could be seen as dragging somewhat, particularly if the player needs to go back and forth.
1. Sandbox style talker:
Talking forms the only interaction in this game – there is a relatively large collection of NPCs who just have one conversational audio file associated with them, triggered whenever the player stands next to them. Some (but not all) of these NPCs will have helpful information pertaining to the Flexible Learning Solutions team and when they give this information out, the player’s score is increased. One of the player’s main goals here is 100% completion.
The score issue here is a problem as it falls outside the functions of the software – it may be possible to have particular useful objects appear or doors unlock (which the player would need to be made aware of) once the player has spoken to the NPC. What purpose these objects have or where the unlocking doors lead is uncertain.
Pluses: Simple goals and activity
Minuses: Don’t know how to implement the scoring system for 100% completion. Seems slightly passive.
2. Two level game:
This option breaks the game into two separate activities – the player firstly has to identify all of their teaching needs that can be supported/enhanced by the FLS team by moving around D block only (A block is locked) and talking to their colleagues. Each colleague – six in total – has information that relates to one aspect of FLS team expertise.
This would require a system for tracking the fact that the learner has interacted with each of the 6 respective colleagues which then enables them to exit via the door to the corridor to A Block. (This would use a “Win Zone” which tells the game that they player has completed the level and moves on to the next one.)
In the second (A Block) level, the player begins at the entrance to A block and finds the FLS office. They would then interact with the FLS team members in a similar way to the first level. Moving up to the characters would trigger a cut-scene animation which would feature a conversation between the player and the FLS team member about the options that FLS has for supporting them with their relevant issue.
It may be that the FLS team member directs the player to access/use an object located in the FLS office. This could include a computer terminal which has a screen-capture video of FLS website, a folder with a text-based list of workshops or how-to guide resources, a cd-rom showcasing previous projects or potentially other objects.
The player “wins” by completing these 6/12 interactions, which unlocks a door and gives them access to the Teacher of the Year trophy – awarded to them in another cut-scene animation.
Pluses: avoids the A/D block trudge, simplifies the maps, talking to FLS person and interacting with object model is good (could be used in any of these)
Minuses: does it suggest that FLS can’t help teachers find solutions ourselves? can the player interact with the FLS office objects independently?
3. D block to A block and back again (and again)
This is the initial model I had in mind but the drawback is the time that the player needs to spend between missions traversing the corridor between A and D block.
The player has full access to the entire building and after the initial cut-scene animation that sets up the story, can either explore D block and interact with (get information from) their colleagues (and perhaps students?) OR go directly to A block and explore the FLS office.
They would generally need to activate a mission by speaking to one of their colleagues but it would be nice if they could also do this by speaking directly to the FLS team member. (The gameplay mechanics behind this however make it more complex that I’m currently able to do). There would also be freely accessible FLS resource objects around the FLS office (the cdroms etc mentioned in option 2). There could also be an FLS pamphlet or CD-Rom available in the D block offices of the player in the first place.
Given the limitations of the gameplay options, the player would probably have to trigger the mission by speaking to a colleague and then go to A block to complete it. If they speak to the wrong FLS member, it would be nice if they could say (for example) – sorry, I’m Bec and I support graphic design – you’re looking for Colin. (This is more than I can currently do at the moment though.)
As speaking to colleagues would be optional in this case, it would only be by interacting with the FLS team members that the player would access special items OR unlock doors to give them access to the winner’s trophy.
Pluses: Full sandpit style gameplay
Minuses: Fair bit more complicated to make work, A/D block trudge, door unlocking option – is it contrived?
4. The Linear approach.
The FPS genre is conventionally a very linear one and this would entail redesigning the whole map so that each task would logically (and physically) come after another.
This runs counter to one of the main purposes of the game, which is to provide a relatively realistic orientation to the FLS team and their physical location.
On a practical level, it would work similar to option 3 but mean that particular colleagues wouldn’t be available to trigger the next mission until the preceding one had been completed. Likewise, the appropriate FLS team member wouldn’t be available either. (and I’m not overly sure about how to do any of this just yet). The player would need to be made aware upon completion of a task that they now have access to another colleague and task. This would offer a sense of progress but could make the trudging back and forth between A and D block frustrating or contrived.
One option for the physical space which could work would be a corridor with doors (see through doors?) which unlock on the completion of tasks and allow progress toward an always visible trophy room.
Pluses: More suited to the genre and so presumably to the software
Minuses: Less realistic, much more back and forth activity
General random thoughts and ideas.
Maybe one of the FLS team members is actually embedded over in D block in the first part of the game.
Can the player “win” the game without having to speak to all of the FLS team – what if they are only interested in two components?
I would like to see intermittent cut-scene animations showing that Peta Perfect is making progress, earning points/objects/unlocking doors and gloating to the player. This would be to spice up the sense of competition.
We could have a guide/mentor character that offers updated information on visits. (there is a script available in the game that allows for up to 3 sets of conversation files to be played – when the player returns to the character. This isn’t context sensitive however. Guide figure may offer advice on gameplay – eg – by touching the folders/cd-roms/etc, you can access information.
The player would have an opportunity for discovery learning in the game space before the opening cutscene animation which sets up the story. They find themselves alone in their office which is shared with three other teachers. They can wander around the office but not leave just yet.
Their colleagues’ desks in the office have some interactable objects on them – folders which can be triggered by moving close to them. When they move close enough to the trophy on Peta Perfect’s desk, they trigger the opening, story-establishing animation clip.
These are the actions that the player can do:
walk in any direction
stand on or near objects
jump
crouch
open doors
trigger audio/video/graphics by standing near/on objects and people.
roughly move objects by walking against them.
The player needs to make things happen, not just be caught up in an extended series of movies.
Purpose of an Orientation game – to learn about:
Who is in FLS
Where FLS is
What we do/know
What resources we have available (physical resources – toolboxes, handouts, software cds)
What workshops we run
Accessibility through on-campus presence
There is also an optional level available at the start of the game which offers training in navigating a 3D space in a First Person Perspective game.
for those who follow. Difficult in this kind of game building environment but more doable in virtual worlds such as Croquet.
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