The Game Learner

One of the things that has come from the thought I have put into my project (full details to come shortly) into educational applications of FPS style games has been a real belief that first person perspective gaming is a richer experience than third person. This has raised a few questions for me.

Chief among these questions is that of why there isn’t more variety in terms of first person perspective gameplay? Puzzle games have it in that it is you interacting with the puzzle elements on the screen rather than via the agency of your avatar however this isn’t so far removed from simply doing a real puzzle that is sitting on the table in front you.

I know that whenever I play a first person shooter (and even moreso when I am playing other people rather than the computer A.I) I have a more intense emotional experience than when I play any other game. The feelings of fear, excitement and joy are richer in these games than any games that involve controlling an avatar, regardless of how good those games might be.

If I can have that level of emotional involvement in a shooting game, why shouldn’t I have it in other gaming experiences. Most importantly of all, why shouldn’t I be able to have these richly emotional experiences when I am learning something. The technology is clearly available so what is the problem? We live our lives in a first person perspective and if we benefit from making our learning experiences as authentic as possible, surely learning in first person perspective games is more authentic than any other game type.

Then again, perhaps this is exactly the problem. Playing a third person perspective game can ultimately be seen as a glorified form of playing with toys or dolls. We are able to do more with our avatar in them and we have more power over them, which may provide us with more of an escape from reality.

I recognise that driving games and flight simulations also offer first person perspective gameplay however they don’t allow the player to interact with objects and characters in the game environment on more than a superficial level and as such are a different kettle of fish. (And I rarely play driving games in anything other than 3PP for the aforementioned reasons of better control.

Is first person perspective too intense for us? Why aren’t there non-shooting first person games?

Why?

I’ve spent a good part of the day exploring the fascinating Fuchs-Eckermann project (more on this soon) and I know it’s been good because it’s brought up a number of questions that I think are going to be important to address in the First Person Learner (FPL) project.

Some of these can already be found in the project proposal I posted here the other day but it’s good to have all of these in the one place. (By the way, if you have a good answer to any of these questions, your input is most welcome

What are the possible users of FPS/FPP games in VET learning? (Or rather, training based on developing foundation skills – including language learning)

How can different educational approaches be applied to FPS learning games? – primarily behaviourist, cognitivist and constructivist

Do I want to develop games for gamers or for people who don’t normally play these games?
If it is the latter, how do I ensure that these games are accessible to these people?

What is the end purpose of these games? (Depends on the educational approach being applied to some extent):

• Reinforcing material covered elsewhere (in class or online)
• Presenting new content in a fun or engaging way
• Developing problem solving skills
• Using scenarios to illustrate concepts/knowledge
• Presenting information in a more memorable/understandable way

Where is the point where the knowledge/skill require to play the game is secondary and 100% of the player’s attention is on the activity? (Depends on the player?)

Can the games be broken up into 5min (or less) digestible chunks like web/casual games?
A series of puzzles which increase in complexity and have high replayability (and the capability to drop in to the level that you left the game at previously)

How can the space, appearance, sound, movement through and emotion (e.g joy or fear) of the game environment be used to enhance the meaning of the content and experiences?
(Like a big bright space with grassy floor vs a dark narrow trail bordered by lava pits)

What do we lose by making the playing experience fairly directive and linear – rather than having a broad info space that the learner can choose their own path in and focus mostly (or only) on the content that they are interested in. [This may be another project entirely - I probably just want to focus for now on the directed, scaffolding type VET learning]

Is decision making/collaboration still possible in a more directed style FP Learner?

Should this be targetted (initially at least) at learners who are already comfortable with the conventions and controls of FPS gaming?
Who are these people and what are they (generally) studying?
(Can I get CURVE – our research unit – to include some questions about gaming habits in their next student survey?)

What kind of structured tasks or knowledge are appropriate to development into an FPL game?
ESL (consider English of the Dead)? Business and I.T? Spraypainting? AIE? Media? Flex.Ed?

What is the anatomy of an FPS game? How does it differ from 3rd PP and virtual world games and what are the relative advantages?

(How) can FPS games be educational?

What impact might game violence or destruction of objects have on the learning experience?

In what circumstances might game violence or object destruction be appropriate in a learning activity?

Do single player and multiplayer games support different educational approaches?

To what extent does the level of realistic representation of the learners environment affect their engagement with the game? (Uncanny valley + Understanding Comics)

What makes a game enjoyable and what makes a player want to play a game repeatedly?

What kinds of interactions can there be between multiplayer users exploring the same knowledge space?

Can players in a multiplayer environment communicate asynchronously as well as synchronously – leaving notes or tips for those who follow?

How do the limitations of the game building software/environment impact on design decisions?

Does the size of the screen that the game is played on affect the user’s sense of being lost/nauseous if the screen content is overly complex/busy (P.85 Fuchs & Eckermann)

What motivates a player in a game?

What kinds of information/data content and experiences/activities can be used in an FPP/FPS game?:

• Video
• 3D models
• Audio
• Photographs/Graphic images
• Text
• Conversations (with other players or Non Player Characters)
• ?
• ??

Now clearly I’d rather be at the point in this exercise where I have answers to a lot of these questions but it still feels like progress.

I think the question about casual games is more important than it looks.

Yep, it’s this old hobby-horse again but I still believe that FPP/FPS games can prove useful in education. Research into this field is still a little scant but I have found some useful stuff – not just about using these games in military training either.

This is the proposal that I’ve put together for a uni project to investigate these options – now I have a whopping great 21 days to put together the 6400 words I’ve promised to deliver (and 2 game prototypes – or at least designs)

Title:
Creating the First Person Learner: Educational Applications of the First Person Shooter game genre.

1. Abstract
Gameplay in First Person Shooter (FPS) games is generally highly structured with the player given limited options in terms of the paths they can take and the decisions that they can make. They are often taught a specific skill, practise it for a period of time and when they have adequately demonstrated it, they are given progressively more advanced skills.

This often reflects students’ initial experiences of Vocational Education and Training (VET), during which they spend large amounts of time methodically developing foundation skills and knowledge in their chosen discipline.
This proposal describes a study that aims to investigate the potential uses of First Person Shooter style games as learning tools for students in the VET sector. It will centre around identifying the unique characteristics of the FPS genre and examining ways in which varying educational approaches might be applied to the design of FPS style games for these learners.

2. Introduction
While the use of computer games in education has been widely researched in recent years (Prensky, 2006), a significant focus of this research has been on the development of higher level skills such as problem solving and collaboration in third-person perspective games and particularly virtual worlds such as Second Life. (Kay, 2007)

Much less attention has been paid to the first person perspective genre, typified by the highly popular (and sometimes controversial) First Person Shooter. An initial scan of educational and games research however has indicated that this genre possesses a number of relatively unique characteristics that mesh well with behaviourist, cognitivist and even constructivist approaches to education.

Behaviourist.
Robyler and Havriluk (1997) point out that among the “needs addressed by directed instruction” (their term for the Behaviourist approach) are “making learning paths more efficient… especially for instruction in skills that are prerequisite to higher-level skills” and “performing time-consuming and labor intensive tasks (e.g., skill practice), freeing teacher time for other, more complex student needs”.

In 2005, Oliver and Pelletier devised a methodology which permitted a detailed analysis of how people learn from particular instances of game play. They compared a player of an FPS game (Deux Ex) who played a level having previously used a training level with one who had not. Unsurprisingly, the player who had played the heavily structured and repetitive training level first progressed through the level far more quickly than the second player and also mastered a number of essential skills that the second player did not.

Cognitivist
In 2001, Fuchs and Eckermann developed Expositur – ein virtueller Wissenraum, a game based collaborative project showcasing ten Viennese museums. This first person perspective knowledge space, built using the Unreal FPS game engine, made use of loci, a place based mnemotechnique dating back to the ancient Greeks, to enhance the meaning of its virtual museum exhibits by “connecting seemingly unrelated imagery to gain insight into visual similarities and connotations”(p.84).

They considered “the freedom of the user to go his or her own way in the virtual environment as an important feature that allows for individually shaped relational networks inside a complex field of knowledge”(p.84), which ties in well with Ertmer and Newby’s description of knowledge acquisition under Cognitivism as “a mental activity that entails internal coding and structuring by the learner”. (1993, p.58).

Constructivist
Some researchers have also investigated the use of FPS games to develop higher level skills in decision making and problem solving using authentic and immersive scenario based learning approaches commonly found in the constructivist approach to education. (Colvin, Clark & Mayer, 2007). Barlow and Lewis from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) presented a paper to the SimTecT conference in 2005 discussing their use of a customised FPS game (Operation Flashpoint) to develop and examine the tactical decision making skills of ADFA students in a variety of authentic scenarios.

I believe that elements from all of these approaches can be successfully integrated into an FPS based learning game, whether it be a drill based reinforcement of key concepts, using the arrangement of information in three dimensional space as a cognitive aid or engaging students with an authentic and immersive scenario based learning experience.

3. Methodology
This project will draw on the ADDIE instructional systems design model. This is a five stage process involving Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation and represents “a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools”. (Wikipedia, 2008) Given time and resource constraints, the project will focus on the first three stages of the ADDIE process.

In the Analysis phase I will initially seek to answer a number of questions which will give me a better idea of the strengths of the FPS genre, suitable content and activities for the games, evaluation strategies and pedagogical approaches to developing these games. Given my stated aim of examining games suitable for VET students, this will initially involve identifying particular types of structured tasks that would be appropriate to this form however all options will be considered as they arise.

Some of the key questions to be considered are:
What is the anatomy of an FPS game?
How do FPS games differ from third person perspective and virtual world games and what advantages do they offer?
How can FPS games be educational?
What kind of educational approaches lend themselves to this type of games based learning?
What are the factors that might determine the most appropriate target audience for an FPS based learning game?
What impact might game violence or destruction of virtual objects have on the learning experience?
In what circumstances might game violence or destruction of objects be appropriate in a learning activity?
Do single player and multiplayer games support different educational approaches?

A number of game design questions will also be considered including:
To what extent does the level of realistic representation of the learners’ environment affect their engagement with the game?
What makes a game enjoyable and what makes a player want to play a game repeatedly?

In answering these questions I will draw on existing research into the use of games in education in general then focus on the use of FPS games and environments specifically.

I have a growing list of game oriented resources at http://del.icio.us/colsim/edugames
which will be my first port of call. From there I’ll also look into writing from Marc Prensky, James Gee, the Serious Games Initiative, Constance Steinkuehler, Jack Thompson and other games in education writers and theorists as a starting point.

I will also make contact with Barlow and Lewis at ADFA and teachers at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, a respected game design school in Canberra.

Based on the findings of this research, I will develop design statements for and build prototypes of two small games using FPS Creator, a game development software package. These games will serve to demonstrate some of the possible practical applications of the FPS game genre in education.

5. Results and Discussion
Assessment of this project will centre around a final report which documents and discusses the outcomes of this research. This report will examine the methodology used and outline the answers found to the questions listed earlier. It will consider the success or failure of my attempts to integrate learning strategies into FPS based games and consider approaches for future developments of educational games.

During the course of the project I will regularly discuss the use of games and particularly FPS games in education by posting observations and reflections on my edublog at http://gamelearner.edublogs.org. This reflection process will enable me to formulate my ideas and seek feedback from the wider games in education community. I will include a summary of these posts as an appendix to the report.

I will also include an annotated bibliography of the six most significant publications that I find in my research .

Due date:
June 13, 2008
Final Report – Methodology and findings
4000 words
50%

June 13, 2008
Annotated Bibliography (6 x 200 words)
1200 words
15%

June 13, 2008
Reflections
1200 words
15%

June 13, 2008
Game prototypes x 2
N/A
N/A

Easy right?

We had a big institute wide talkfest and professional development day here last week and my colleague aAron and I ran a short session on games in learning.

Overall people seemed interested but problems with Flash on the computers meant that they couldn’t participate in some of the activities we had lined up for them so it ended up a little more talk’n'chalk than I had hoped.

You can check out the slideshow for the presentation over on Google Docs – or download the pdf version below.

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.