The Game Learner

Well, after a fairly lengthy spell (hopefully) finishing off my Masters in Education (I.T in Education), I’m back.

I submitted my final assignment on Friday and now I just have to sit on the edge of my seat for a few weeks while “they” decide whether I’m worthy or not of the title. (Please, please God let it be so – Introduction to Research Methodology must have been invented by someone who really really hates students)

Anyways, as a dipping the toe back in the water kind of exercise, I’m just going to post a listing I put together a little while ago of all of the model packs, buildings, segments, characters and weapons available in the official First Person Shooter Creator (FPSC) model packs.

I have said a thing or two about this software previously (and it may well be that it turns out that you’re better off just using one of the many, freely available level editors that come with games these days) but in essence, it provides you with the drag and drop tools that you need to build a first person perspective 3d game.

My hope is to soon build something with an educational application. The Game Creators, the company behind this software, also produce a more complicated (and presumably more powerful) version called DarkBasic. (But one step at a time)

Anyways, if you’re interested, you can find a pdf file listing all the models provided up on Google Docs. (there is also a large user community who make a lot more). I mostly put it together to help me get a sense of what is in the game, to help with a possible game design.

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:

1. The thesis, which is the introduction to the setting, the characters and the hero

2. The antithesis, which is where the conflict and villains are introduced and is what amounts to the majority of the story

3. 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.

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.”

Awesome, awesome paper.

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 – 1^st 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.”

Syl Eckermann has more information about this project on her website at http://syl-eckermann.net/expositur/index.html

This is also where I have taken the pictures in this blog post from.

The question of violence in FPS games and what this means in a learning (and wider) context often lurks at the fringes of any thinking I do about the First Person Learner genre.

The software package that I’m using – FPS Creator – is designed to facilitate the creation of shooter games, pure and simple. I’m using this package because it’s cheap and accessible and there is a reasonably large community of users from whom I can draw resources in the form of models, scripts and knowledge. It is also a very easy package to use and it allows me to avoid getting bogged down in what I perceive to be the complexities of other game development tools. (I don’t know for sure, I haven’t used them but I suspect they don’t come with such a vast library of pre-made resources and actions.)

The nature of the tool then makes it very easy to create games that involve running around shooting opponents as well as completing simple find-a-key type missions and more challenging to incorporate more complex gaming elements (such as having conversations and more complex problem solving).

One of the key elements of the First Person Perspective family of games for me is the extra layer of immersion in the game that comes from experiencing it more like we experience day to day life – through our own eyes rather than as a sort of puppeteer, pulling the strings of a third person perspective character. The things that we do and see on the screen become more immediate and more personally felt. I believe that this extra layer of connection to the activities can make the learning experience a richer one and thus more memorable. We have more of an emotional response and it is the things that we care more about that have the most meaning to us.

This is also why, I suspect, the issue of violence in games tends to be at its most controversial when FPS games are involved. Even when the anti-violence campaigners haven’t actually played any of the games, they seem to recognise the heightened emotional involvement that the first person perspective brings.

The actual research on causal relationships between games and aggression is still inconclusive and it is highly simplistic to think that aggressive behaviour might only stem from one source rather than be the result of a range of societal factors however I know that I have certainly felt heightened emotions while playing FPS games. This has included heart pounding adrenaline fueled excitement and genuine (albeit illogical) fear. Whether this has also sparked aggressive behaviour in me I can’t really say – I’m generally fairly laid back – I rather doubt it but I wouldn’t 100% rule it out.

Much of the controversy about the content of games centers around what is perceived to be overly explicit violence – that’s to say more explicit than the real-life image quality of film and tv violence. The interactivity is a large source of this concern but neglects to give players credit for their own abilities to separate reality and play. While the realism of games increases daily, it is still confined to what is referred to as “uncanny valley”, a state where the closer graphics get to reality, the more jarringly unnatural they feel.

Controversies have also arisen (briefly) about the encouragement of “anti-social/illegal” behaviour in games – which tend to be just the latest in an intergenerational series of moral panics – as well as (much less frequently) the occasional presence of sex. (The hidden “Hot Coffee” content in GTA:San Andreas). Personally I find it interesting to observe that in our society something as humourously blocky and unrealistic as a bad sex simulation can arouse so much more ire and civic concern than the most explicit excesses of graphic gore. Perhaps this comes about from the fact that it’s perfectly acceptable in “polite” society for people to talk at length and in graphic detail about injuries they have suffered but only the scantest mentions of making sweet love are (generally) tolerated. Anyway, that’s a side issue really.

My concerns about including violence in games designed for education aren’t necessarily that they are going to warp the fragile minds of the people playing them as much as they might turn some people off the game altogether or that the concerned parents brigade will make a hullabaloo, in spite of the fact that their children are in fact enjoying their learning experience for a change. (Who the games are made for is in some ways a moot point, working in adult education as I am, however there are still some 16-18 year olds who come into the mix from time to time)

Educationally, FPS games (with the shooting elements intact) have pretty well exclusively been used for military training (and recruitment – America’s Army) – which makes a certain amount of sense. What I want to know is, can they be used for other training/teaching purposes without diluting the knowledge you are trying to get across?

If I put my learners in a maze with zombies behind the doors which represent answers to question, is it a reward to fight the zombies for a right answer or a “punishment” for a wrong answer? (This is a very behaviourist approach I know but still valid for some content). What if the learner is rewarded with better weapons or more ammunition for right answers or smart decisions? If the learner already wants to play this game where they can roam around shooting bad guys (or hell, OHS hazards in the workplace) then is it wrong to let them and embed a layer of learning on top of that?

Isn’t half the battle getting their attention?

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) take a cross media approach to game play and attempt to bring the action more into the player’s day to day life. Wikipedia says that:

An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.

The form is typified by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to participants’ responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game’s designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and often work together with a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium.

There is a new game in the field apparently, tied in to the Terminator based tv series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It revolves around a revolutionary new type of camera which can photograph events from 1191 days in the future.

This video that I found on Boing Boing sets the scene

This “rabbit-hole” takes you on to the website for the company which is developing the camera – EniTech Research, where you can find more videos and presumably more ways of playing the game. (I haven’t looked into it yet)

Slightly off topic, I’ve been thinking about other options for “real-world” gaming – having a bit of a fascination with the sport of cyclogaining (a derivative of rogaining), which is kind of like a big bike based treasure hunt.

I was thinking (having been influenced by the mobile-obsession of my friend and colleague Len that an addition to this might be to introduce some element of hunting your competitors by setting up a shared Flickr account and having everyone photograph the opposition on mobile phones and uploading these to Flickr. This would give a time-stamp of who got their pix up there first and thus who got the “kill”.

Haven’t really finished thinking that through yet but I reckon it has promise.

Go on – guess

I’ve spent a good part of the day battling with the FPS Creator segment editor, a tool that allows you to create your own walls/rooms/floors and so on in FPS Creator. This largely came about because I liked the wall of one pre-made segment and the floor of another and (not properly reading the manual) I floundered about for a few days before discovering that you can’t actually do this.

Fortunately now I can take the mesh (the physical framework of the 3D object, generally a .x file in this instance) from one section (wall, floor, ceiling etc), stick it next to the mesh from another to choose my own textures (the flat part that sits on the outside of the mesh and makes it look like whatever it is that you want it to look like – generally a .tga or .dds file).

Of course,  the provided instructions neglected to mention that for the FPSC Segment Editor to recognise your specially created textures (whipped up in Photoshop and converted using the beautiful DDS2 converter), you need to label your textures blahblah_D2.tga or blahblah_D2.dds – fortunately the FPSC forum came to my aid.

All in all, this was a great practical example of discovery learning – just knowing enough to get started and identifying the new pieces of knowledge that were required in the process of doing it.

I also had another design idea the other day – by placing each separate mission on its own individual level and having the player progress to the next level (which is just a cut/paste of the initial level but with different audio files and resources), it’s possible to make the experience a much deeper one. (The initial problem was having the player going up to an NPC – non-player character – for information and having a limited range of responses, which would have been tied only to a single mission).

Nice to feel like this is getting somewhere.

A couple of useful chats with some colleagues here has lead me to the term First Person Learner instead of the somewhat more unwieldy First Person Shooter with the Shooting. (Although another chat still has me thinking about ways to have learning and shooting co-existing).

As for designing the missions – it occurred to me this morning that one of the reasons I’m having such difficulty writing these activities is that I’m trying to work in a field that I’m unfamiliar with. What I’m going to try now is to create some mini lesson plans for each activity and see if that doesn’t come out a little better – give it all aims and outcomes and content and hope that the teacherly part of my brain is able to translate a real world activity to the gamespace.

Stay tuned.

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.

Pixelate – a 28 y.o Swedish guy has posted a series of 4 really interesting Flash based games on the Kongregate web site that explain the underlying concepts behind games. They are called Understanding Games and are an interesting mixture of multimedia presentation with gameplay aspects that really are well worth checking out.

Some of the core elements covered in the first game are:

• Rules define the possible actions of the players
• Rules apply to all players and have to be made clear and intelligible to them
• Rules are fixed and you cannot change them to your own advantage
• No game can be played without the interaction of the player
• The outcome of the game has to be uncertain otherwise it loses it’s appeal
• The way that game elements are represented (i.e realistic vs abstract) influences the way we think they should act
• A more realistic looking game (e.g Rockstar Table Tennis vs Pong) should allow for more realistic play

The main points of the game are summarised at the end and are all well worth considering when thinking about using games.

It’s a little odd seeing yourself in a game as a 3D character. Our resident graphic designer and 3D champ Bec has been busily working away on the models of the team for the CEE project (happy Len?) and here’s me.

It uses the .x format (which ties in to Microsoft’s Direct X) and uses a .dds file for the texture. It’s set in FPS Creator.
Bec used a nifty shareware app called Milkshape to create the model.

(This is around version 12 – there were some odd problems with the model appearing teeny tiny and then being stuck in the floor for a while)

For the sake of comparison, this is a pic of me taken a little while back.

An earlier 3D version made more use of the existing character’s hair and made me look somewhat creepier – so it seemed only right to create a clone army of myself at the time.

Well, it’s the beginnings of one anyways – I’ve gotten a little stuck.

I’ve been working on a game to be used as an orientation to the services of our team – currently known as the Flexible Learning Solutions team. It’s being built using a nifty piece of software called FPS Creator (First Person Shooter Creator) which allows you to create first person perspective 3d games with a mostly drag and drop interface.

Here are a couple of walkthrough videos that I’ve made about it so far.

I’m now trying to document the whole game so I have a better idea of exactly what it is that I need to complete it. I’m using the suggested Game Design Document from The Computer Game Design Course book that I’ve mentioned here before.

This is what I have so far.

Exploring the CEE

Producer: Flexible Learning Solutions

Version 1.0

Chief editor: Colin Simpson

Game concept:

A first person perspective exploration of the services of the Centre for Education Excellence – first stop, the Flexible Learning Solutions (FLS) team.

Game synopsis:

You are a teacher at the Canberra Institute of Technology, vying for the teacher of the year award against your arch-rival Peta Perfect. Use the skills and resources of the FLS team to enhance your teaching, improve your students average marks and satisfaction with the course and win the trophy.

Gameplay elements and features:

• complete 3D version of the CEE building at Southside.

• Relevant, real-world CIT based scenarios

• interact with 3D models of FLS team members

• learn all about flexible learning and how it can work for you

• watch videos, read guides – all inside the game

• you decide the best path to take

Market consideration: CIT teachers and staff

Platform: PC

Story synopsis:

It’s the first day back at CIT of the new year. Classes start in two weeks and tells you and your office-mate, Peta Perfect, that this year’s Teacher of the Year award will be decided based on student satisfaction and marks.

You have a friendly rivalry with Peta, who has won the TOTY award for the last 2 years running and you would also like to make some parts of your subjects more engaging for your students.

One of your colleagues asks you to do a quick favour for them and collect something from the Flexible Learning Solutions team while you are visiting the Centre for Education Excellence at the Southside campus. From here you start to get an understanding of the ways FLS can help you to enhance your teaching by interacting with the FLS team members and carrying out tasks.

Each FLS team member has expertise in a particular aspect of flexible learning and the more FLS team members you talk to and the more tasks you complete, the higher your student marks and satisfaction levels get and the closer you get to the Teacher of the year award.

Can you get there before Peta Perfect does though?

Look and feel:

Exploring the CEE has a fairly naturalistic look and feel, attempting to replicate the actual environment that the CEE is found in as closely as possible, while incorporating some changes to the space to enhance navigability.

The space is well lit and walls around each team member’s area are colour coded with subject matter related icons for easier identification. These colour/icon combinations are also used to make objects in the FLS office (such as folders or cd-roms) more easily relatable to the respective subject areas.

Game objective:

The ultimate objective is for the player to be more familiar with the services and information provided by the Flexible Learning Solutions team.

In the game, the player’s goal is to win the Teacher of the Year award.

Game mechanics:

Players are able to increase their score for student satisfaction and grades by interacting with FLS team members, gathering information, completing tasks within a certain time and correctly answering questions.

Menu systems:

Exploring the CEE features an opening menu allowing the player to begin a new game, load a saved game or exit. This menu can also be accessed at any point during the game by pressing the ESC key and during the game it includes the option to save the game or return to the game.

Controls:

This game uses conventional computer game controls, namely the keyboard and mouse. The player uses the mouse to control the camera (their view of the 3D environment) and the keys to move through the space and interact with objects.

In-game information:

A HUD (head-up display) provides information about the players current student marks and level of student satisfaction. During tasks it will also display time remaining or number of objects obtained/required.

Character movement and interaction:

The specific keys used for the character to move and interact with objects/other characters are:

• A = left

• W = forward

• S = back

• D = right

• Space = Jump

• C = crouch

• T = open chat window

• Enter = Use/Interact with object

The player can trigger certain actions (such as picking up an object or playing an audio/video file) by moving close to the object.

Character health and power:

Characters in this game can’t be hurt and have no specific powers. They accumulate points for student marks and student satisfaction based on the completion of tasks and these points are displayed in the HUD.

Camera systems:

The camera view is controlled by the player using the mouse. It offers a 360 view of their environment in any direction. It maintains a fixed perspective (i.e no zooming).

Gameworld:

Game activity takes place in the A block building of the Southside campus of CIT. In attempting to keep the game environment as free as possible and offer the player the widest range of choices, it uses a sandbox model of gameplay, in which the player is (mostly) able to choose their own tasks from a collection.

Game physics:

The player is able to walk at a modest pace, jump up onto tables and across approximately 3 metres. Inanimate objects can be set to be static or active – static objects don’t move if push while active objects do.

Non-player characters:

These represent CIT teachers (and students ?) as well as members of the FLS team.

Head of Dept

Peta Perfect

Colleague teacher (how many? – up to 6?)

Student(s? – how many?)

Colin

Marg

Bec

Helen

Aaron (or Dan?)

Len

Equipment and effects:

Folders containing information about the 6 specialisations of the team

CD Roms which trigger movies/audio files

Trophy

Key to open doors to rooms containing the bonus points?

Animation sets:

Machinima movies setting up story and interactions between the player and the FLS team members.

Opening movie – rivalry between player and Peta Perfect is established, Teacher of the Year conditions set out by Educational manager.

You can also read a little more about the underlying educational design theories in the document attached to this post, which was a uni assignment last year.

I have a few problems at this point. I’m very mindful of the need to keep this game relatively simple, as it’s as much of a learning experience for me and the team in game design as anything. I haven’t figured out where to physically locate the player’s character – the offices used in the video are actually those of our Curriculum dept. I’m leaning towards putting the teacher (and the teachers colleagues) in another building – though I don’t know if it’s connected to us or not.

I may also need up to 6 colleagues for the teacher to have as starting points for the tasks, which begin when they come over and talk to the FLS team members. Where to put these teachers – and perhaps a student might be nice as well – is another question. How does the teacher get from their office to our building? I’d like to keep it naturalistic, so walking from a connecting building sounds reasonable.

The question of how the teacher accumulates their score is another big one – are they given an object (eg a folder or a key – which might open a previously inaccessible area) on completion of a task or is the score just automatically incremented. (Which I’m not 100% sure I can even do in the game software anyways).

How in depth do the scenarios behind the tasks need to be. I can see the value in having them reflect the actual reasons that teachers might come to us for help but these may be relatively complex to explain while still keep the momentum of the game moving.

What are the best ways to present information to participants in these games – given that this is a showcase, I guess we’ll try a little bit of everything to see what works best.

Lots of things to consider really.

Exploring the CEE design statement

I went out and treated myself to an Xbox 360 during the week and based on the growing mountains of praise, the first game I bought was the Valve bundle The Orange Box. This includes Half-Life 2, a couple of extra HL2 episodes, Team Fortress 2 and most importantly of all, the game I’ve been hearing oodles about, Portal.

This is quite simply one of the most brilliant, entertaining and enjoyable games I’ve ever played. It’s not a long game – I got around 8 hours of gaming out of it but every moment is better than the last. It’s set in a slightly futuristic lab complex where you are asked by a friendly sounding computer voice to complete a series of puzzles using a portal gun that you use to move between otherwise unreachable areas.
If you complete the tests, there is the promise of cake at the end.

This video should give you the gist of how this works.

The writing of this game is simply superb – your only interaction (as it is) is with the computer voice running the tests and some other robots along the way. There is a bitingly dark and funny edge to the whole experience which grows the further through the tests you get – a very corporate “you’re very important to us but this test will probably kill you” kind of thing. The strength of the computer character goes to show how important this is in making a good game.

The puzzles themselves get progressively more mindbending and force you to think about using space and physics in your environment in ways I’ve never had to before in a game. (Not that you need to be a science nerd or anything).

Most of all, it’s just a lot of fun and even the end credits are entertaining, with a specially written song by the computer that sums everything up nicely.

It’s not surprising that this game is popping up at the top of best games of 2007 awards all over the shop.

Best of all, I haven’t done the bonus levels yet.