Game+Presentation+Schedule

//**Objective: Summarize a game such that the class can get a sense of the learning affordances made within that particular title, then illustrate those affordances through live play. Each presenter will play/speak for up to fifteen minutes (not including discussion, side-chatter, etc.).**//

//**Date:**// 9/14/2010 //**Name:**// Zeus //**Game:** Crayon Physics (single player)// //**Affordances for learning**////://

Gee's list doesn't really capture the true magic of this particular game. This game grabs the attention in an interesting design format that allows learning to take place. As was shown by my example in class, the environment is one where people who are not prone to learning on a computer or in games are still captured by the game's scintillating environment and ambiance. This is a particularly vital tool for classrooms, where students of all walks of life and prior interests are going to need to be encouraged to take up the mantle of game player if that is the teaching method. The psychological reasons why this game appeals to non gamers are variable and unknown - it could be because it is such a non threatening environment, or the childlike simplicity of the design, or even the lullaby chime music to make people feel comforable with an unfamiliar environment. Many of these design features can be found in other media as well - such as microsoft windows (or apples) graphics becoming more childlike to make new users feel comfortable with the environment and more willing to learn to use the software.

1) Active, Critical Learning Principle Puzzle games, by their very natures, have the entire game designed around learning to harness new ideas, or old ideas in new ways, for greater creativity and puzzle solving capacity.

4) Semiotic Domains Principle Learning of base level solutions, and intergrating those sytems into new solutions and new ideas is essential to a game such as this.

5) Meta-level thinking about Semiotic Domain Principle There are definitely metacognitive aspects of this, and most puzzle games, especially salient when one comes across a particularly difficult puzzle. One naturally thinks “what haven’t I thought of”, “what has worked in the past” and “how can I combine elements that have worked before”

6) "Psychosocial Moratorium" Principle The consequences of the real world are almost completely eliminated. At any point you can erase everything and start over with no penalty. The ball can fall and it will be put back. It is a true sandbox experience.

11) Achievement Principle With each level complete, the player is rewarded for their effort – and after certain principles are mastered, one is rewarded by the ability to advance to the next island, for multiple levels of reward.

12) Practice Principle While much practice is utilized in this, and most games, this could be considered more of a timesink and less of a method of getting better every time. Games are notorious for having multiple failures with no advancement for long periods of time as timesinks.

14) "Regime of Competence" Principle Some of the levels are very challenging, although not beyond the capacity of most players.

15) Probing Principle The game is a system of trail and error learning

16) Multiple Routes Principle There are multiple ways to make progress or move ahead. This allows learners to make choices, rely on their own strengths and styles of learning and problem-solving, while also exploring alternative styles

24) Incremental Principle The scaffolding nature of the game allows people to build on previous masteries to overcome obstacles.

25) Concentrated Sample Principle Basic principles can even solve some very difficult challenges later in the game.

26) Bottom-up Basic Skills Principle part of the scaffolding skill building process.

28) Discovery Principle Most of the solutions are found themselves, with no explanations at all.

//**Date:**// 9/14/2010 //**Name:**// Jerry //**Game:** Portal (single or multi)// //Comments: (Mike)-- I played Portal on my Mac via Steam (beginners level is free). It does create an interesting problem solving environment and is designed to be tutorial-free by phasing in capabilities into lower level missions. It may afford some mental rotation practice.// //**Affordances for learning**////://

6) Overt telling minimalized
7) Ongoing learning - distinction between master / learner is vague - in later levels, undo routinized mastery to adapt - learn -> automative -> undo automatization - > new knowledge 8) Regime of confidence - the game is challenging but not undoable 9) Probing - probe -> reflect -> form hypothesis -> reprobe -> alther hypothesis 10) On demand and just in time delivery 11) Text principle - move back and forth between text and embodied experience from enough embodied experience and text experience 12) Incremental principle - early learning situations lead to generalizations for later - more complex cases, learner can reduce equivocality from learned patterns 12) Dispersion - share with others without face-to-face communication 13) Affinity group - bond through shared endeavor

//**Date:**// 9/21/2010 //**Name:**// Stephen //**Game:** Demon's Souls (single or mult)// //**Affordances for learning**////://


 * TL;DR Version:**


 * 1) **Encourages trial and error in a way that reflects scientific method.**
 * 2) **Peer assistance encourages cooperation, teamwork, leadership (prosocial elements).**
 * 3) **Peers can compete, which encourages critical thinking to outsmart opponents.**
 * 4) **Difficulty is dynamic, reflective of the way the GRE works; if this could be adapted for a classroom environment, players would be rewarded for completing more challenging work but not held back when they found themselves struggling with content --> Quasi-Formative Assessment (assessment of skill/knowledge application, but feedback is not textual and does not indicate the solution).**
 * 5) **Multiple ways to solve each problem encourages multilateral thinking.**
 * 6) **Development of self-efficacy encouraged by dynamic difficulty system.**

What makes this particular game so useful in discussing learning is the affordances it makes to the player despite its obscene difficulty. While the designers ensured that reaching the end would be no simple task (by brutally reprimanding you for your failure to properly complete an objective), they managed to include some very subtle, but important, features that keep the game balanced for the skilled and unskilled alike. The most glaring relationship between Demon's Souls and educational psychology comes when the player is killed in any one of the game's 20 or so levels: not only are you forced to begin the level again, but the game attempts to conduct behavioral modification through punishment. This includes halving your maximum health pool (meaning you have half as much time to get hit by enemies before you die), repopulating the level with the enemies you killed before dying yourself, damaging your armor and weapons (which you will have to pay to get repaired), and taking a substantial percentage of the souls you have acquired in your journeys (your currency for upgrading and improving your character).

In the loving words of one critic, this quickly becomes the game's First Law of "F$#& YOU, THAT'S WHY!"

Conversely, as you succeed in the game (by completing your boss-killing objectives without dying), you are positively rewarded: the game provides you with additional souls, a Demon Soul (that will allow you to retrieve a major piece of armor or a powerful magic spell), and (if you were in the "ghost," or half-health, state) you regain your full, maximum health bar. This is, in a very simplistic sense, a form of classical conditioning in which the player is taught what to do and what not to do with a reward and punishment system (much like those established to teach other skills in school; if you don't study for the test, you get punished with an F, but when you do study for the test, you get rewarded with an A). Positive and negative reinforcement end up going a long way early in the game to teach the player a few basic, but important, foundational skills:

1. Never put yourself in harm's way if you don't have to, or risk losing everything. 2. Do not engage enemies without properly positioning and preparing yourself for combat. 3. You will receive a reward for being patient and cautious throughout the game.

In other words, you learn early on that haste makes waste.

As the player progresses, some of the game's more interesting learning features build upon this foundational knowledge, providing great fodder for classroom teachers and school districts trying desperately to balance the needs of all their students. While the reward/punishment conditioning system is fairly black and white, there are several other, less obvious parameters set by the game designers to facilitate the learning necessary to complete the game in its entirety. Though the player is forced to face a series of additional challenges whenever he or she fails (read: dies), the Demon's Souls universe was constructed with a dynamic difficulty algorithm embedded in its programming to make sure it never became too hard or too easy for any one person. While the player suffers some very tangible side effects whenever he or she dies, the game is capable of recognizing that it is too challenging for the given player and adjusts itself accordingly, not dissimilar from the way the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) modifies its questioning based on the performance of the test taker. Each time the player character loses to a dragon, archer, or any of the thousands of pitfalls in the game, Demon's Souls will adjust its own artificial intelligence to reduce enemy health and damage done such that it becomes slightly easier for the player to kill what has ably been killing him or her. Likewise, as a player displays a high level of skill proficiency, the game's artificial intelligence will note the length of time he or she has gone without dying and will dynamically increase enemy health and damage done to have the opposite effect, thereby making itself more of a challenge. To prevent abuse of the system (ensuring that skilled players do not purposely die to get an advantage), the rewards garnered by fully exploring and completing each zone are tied to the dynamic difficulty algorithm, meaning the harder the enemies are when the player defeats them, the better the reward they leave behind.

From an educational perspective, an instantaneous feedback system like this would go far in aiding teachers who struggle to ensure that each of their students is being appropriately challenged rather than gliding through the content or facing a brick wall each time they open their textbooks. Imagine if chemistry, a content area I struggled with in college, was designed in such a way that every student in the class could receive continual assessment and feedback that would keep them engaged and learning at an appropriate difficulty level. Tracking systems in schools (i.e. remedial, college prep, honors, and advanced placement (AP)) have long attempted to accomplish this goal, but even within each level there is not a great enough degree of flexibility to properly accommodate all students across all units (an AP student who is excellent at all graphical, visual elements of calculus but struggles with the "math-ness" of complex derivatives, for example). While such a dynamic system may seem unattainable, it appears that in at least two cases (one game-driven, another required for graduate student admissions) there are tools available to make this a reality for public school students trapped in an antiquated and unmanageable system of skill measurement.

Surprisingly, the learning affordances in Demon's Souls do not end at ability measurement and difficulty adjustment. One of the other most influential elements of the game comes from the peer-to-peer interactions between players, which are not only controlled, but successfully incorporate tools usually isolated to on-line forums and first-person shooter games (both to aid one another cooperatively and through direct competition). Unlike many on-line video games, Demon's Souls does not allow players to write or say whatever they choose; there are very strict parameters for what information can be conveyed through the game, moderated via the use of text blips that contain information such as "Watch your step!" or "Use fire on the enemy ahead!" Players have the option to select bits of text from a master list and leave complete messages on the ground for others to see as they pass through the area. Furthermore, whenever a player dies, his or her death is recorded in the form of a blood splatter that others may click on to witness what led to the unlucky character's untimely end. From an educational standpoint, the simplicity of this peer-to-peer system is brilliant not only because it prevents players from harassing one another, but allows them the opportunity to take the reins as peer teachers, educating others on how to avoid many common problems and overcome challenges they may face as they progress through the game. If we were to frame this through the lens of the aforementioned Maine to San Diego roadtrip, the driver might find him or herself lost when a good friend suddenly sends a text message that says, "Take exit 76 to Utah!" Not only does this empower the player receiving the message, but it enables him or her to convey that same message to other players, thereby giving him or her ownership of the knowledge (and making it feel more important to retain that knowledge).

Along those lines, players having extreme difficulty with a boss may call in an allied player to lend a hand in the fight, supporting cooperative learning where strategy can be shared to achieve a common goal; conversely, players who find the game too easy may call in enemy players to add an element of human-versus-human combat (which is rewarded with additional souls, weapons, and armor). This ingenious peer education system helps players meet the learning objectives set within the immersive game environment as well as explore the metacognitive applications of their continued learning through play. Essentially, those playing Demon's Souls are not only thinking about how to meet the game's objectives, but also sharing what they have learned with others and, through cooperation, illustrating their chosen process of skill acquisition (which might be comparable to forming a math study group and showing your work to your peers as you all progress toward the same goal). In all, the game affords players several avenues through which they may share their learning with one another and highlight their specific strengths and weaknesses (especially in player-versus-player combat where one individual chooses to fight with melee weapons and another magic spells), creating a varied, interactive world of learning within the game's own context.

//**Date:**// 9/21/2010 //**Name:**// Masha //**Game:**// Foldit! //Foldit!// can be both single player game and multiple-players (teams). However, approaching this question more generally (and not specifically based on Foldit), another question comes up: As multi-player games involve students’ collaboration, how much students collaborate in usual classrooms? How do we, as graduate students in Ed Psychology class perceive teaching and learning? Do we all perceive it as collaborative process? Finally, when we play ourselves (those who do play;)), do we play multi-player games more than single players? Perhaps, the answer on these questions might be linked to why so many of us chose to present a single-player game. //Foldit!//// has many websites that provide support and help for players. For example, a wiki page ([]) provides the following info: (1) The new players: how to go through the tutorial; (2) The science: general information, the structure of amino acids, secondary structure, protein folding theory, biochemistry of proteins; (3) The game: covers from tools, scores, shortcut keys to different modes; (4) Strategy: describes how to get better scores, starting this section with **proverbs**, and describing the three components of the game (opening, middlegame, and endgame) and how to get better scores during each of those; and (5) Players: for those who play in groups. Additionally, players can communicate within the game as online chats are available. //
 * Affordances of Foldit: (1)** Players can create new proteins: (a) Could help prevent or treat diseases (i.e., HIV/AIDS, Cancer, Alzheimer’s); and (b) Converting certain types of plants into biofuelby breaking down the plant material (currently by cellulases); (2) Over 100,000 people have downloaded the game!; (3) In early 2009, Foldit announced solutions to the CASP protein structure; (4) Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by human-directed computing: (a) Spatial reasoning (seeing solutions) – 3D!; (b) Intuition (especially, with experience); (c) Adaptivity (change strategies based on what was learned; (d) Collaboration (creating teams, sharing knowledge); (e) Self-organization (within teams, labor is divided: early-stage openings, middle- or end-game polishing); (e) Competition (frequent feedback to players, scores). Additionally, //Foldit!// exists in English, Dutch, and Svenska. **Keeping Players Motivated within the game: (1)** Short-term rewards (score); (2) Long-term rewards (player status and rank); (3) Social praise (chats and forums); (4) Work individually or in teams; (5) Connection between the game and scientific outcomes; (6) Achievement through competition and point accumulation; (7) Social interaction through chat and web-based communication; (8) Immersion through engaging gameplay and exploration of protein shapes.

//**Date:**// 9/28/2010 //**Name:**// Andrew //**Game:** League of Legends// (LoL) //**Player Affordances:**//
 * //(1) Active, Critical Learning Principle//: LoL provides an excellent example of an active learning environment because, without solely digging through the forums and associated pages, there is no way to interact with the game, aside from experiencing it.
 * //(3) Semiotic Principle:// While some of the semiotic principles are, arguably, loose, much of the experience of playing LoL involves navigating the complex network of game-relevant icons, symbols, and terminology that one cannot hope to play well without mastering. Interestingly, I never hear complaints from players for having to learn such a complex set of semiotic components -- similar to the Pokemon principle, and quite dissimilar from what we see in our classrooms.
 * //(4) Semiotic Domains Principle:// The semiotic specifics of LoL are quickly integrated into player vocabulary, and can easily be seen in conversational mediums on the forums, and when speaking with player-friends. New language and symbols quickly develop in the community, and a pidgin has developed that better allow cross-cultural communications (because, while there are distinct servers, people play on those other than where they originate for a variety of reasons -- or the servers span large geographical realms).
 * //(11) Achievement Principle:// Because of the team-based, discrete timeframe, competitive structure of LoL, there are ample opportunities for positive feedback, as there are in many similar games. Whenever a player takes down a difficult opponent, secures a match goal, or helps another achieve victory, then some form of achievement experienced. The compliment is also true, of course, and failures are equally present (and, arguably, more prominent).
 * //(12) Practice Principle:// In terms of game-relevant learning, players readily secure 300 games (of ~30 minutes each, so 150 hours) as a standard minimum. While this will not secure expertise, it provides an excellent working capability within the game realm, and, if interested in more rigorous development, there are a variety of related materials to help players achieve a higher level of play, and understanding. Most of the people on my list (granted, this is a select group of my choice) have at least 1000 games under their belt, easily totaling over 500 hours.
 * //(13) Ongoing Learning Principle:// Playing LoL is simple, and it has a simple training regiment (although, it has recently updated its training -- see the game-related links for more details). What is not simple, however, is playing LoL well -- especially if one begin to play in the more competitive circles. Like any competitive game, one's opponents help adjust the level of play necessary to achieve victory (the presumed goal, from experience), and LoL utilizes an ELO system that will scale your team to have ~50% expected win rate in any given match (I believe it varies ±5%; and top/bottom players are skewed a bit... ELO complications from being a team game with a personal ELO) -- this gives players a fresh challenge in every match. And, even if you are stomping/being stomped, there is always something to work on (although this is often lost to what is lovingly referred to in the gaming community as "rage"). Nevertheless, learning is persistent, and ever-changing, as the game is always bringing new players, maps, champions, items, and content updates (along with meta-game shifts).
 * //(14) "Regime of Competence" Principle:// As mentioned above, LoL utilizes an ELO scale that attempts to place players at a 50% win ratio in each match. This helps well-established teams/players from having a "faceroll" victory (a term that illustrates the ease of winning through rolling one's face on the keyboard), and prevents bad players from being persistently punished. There are some difficulties with using ELO in a team-based game, where teams switch, and players switch champions... but it works pretty well. (They are, sadly but not unexpectedly, very reluctant to share their match-making algorithms.)
 * //(15) Probing Principle//: In LoL, I'm taking a bit of interpretative liberty by applying this to the theoretical work that is being undertaken when a player goes into a match with a certain belief about how to play well, and then refines their understanding through the iterative processes of failure and victory in a variety of circumstances. Many players, once establishing competence, will often attempt to employ a "cookie-cutter" strategy in a variety of (often) ill-fitting situations. Good players will adapt this model to fit more generalizable circumstances, while others will persist in applying these unyielding strategies again and again with the expectation that they work really well sometimes (and, often, blaming their teammates for failing to play well when their strategy inevitably fails to provide victory). This principle also highlights the necessity of continual cooperative growth in a team-game environment -- something that I have been personally work on.
 * //(22) Intuitive Knowledge Principle:// LoL is a real-time strategy multiplayer online battle arena (RTS MOBA; often just MOBA), and, while situations can be planned, and theorized, real-time gameplay is certainly a rich medium for intuitive, action-based learning. Reacting to what a handful of opponents are doing in real time, along with what a handful of your teammates are doing, with the additional complexities of what they have done thus far in the match, create unique, but theoretically-similar circumstances in each battle. Reacting to these unique circumstances provides ample practice for intuitive knowledge, and the analysis of these events (especially from domain experts) can be a valuable learning experience.
 * //(26) Bottom-up Basic Skills Principle:// As noted in Probing Principle, above, LoL provides players with the ability to play the game adequately without focusing, specifically, on the fundamental techniques of "good" play during their introduction to the game. While these techniques may be pointed out to them in the training, and highlighted by other players during play, they are largely unnecessary to develop, in whole, before progress can be made, and will continue to develop either intuitively, or through focused practice/research (much documentation is available on the LoL forums, and through associated sites).
 * //(27) Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle:// LoL's new training system is astounding in this light -- providing players with intelligently-designed Just-in-Time tips that relate, specifically, to the circumstances that are present at that time in the match. I've yet to exhaustively play through this training, but what I've seen was truly impressive for such a dynamic environment.
 * //(28) Discovery Principle:// Instructions are basic, and minimalistic in LoL. The very brief initial training system has them in ample amount, but this is only to explain the theory of what it is that the player is doing, and leaves the actual actions to the players, themselves. Beyond that, a match begins, and it's largely dominated by other player's suggestions, not rote instruction.
 * //(29) Transfer Principle:// This was largely covered under the Probing and Intuitive Knowledge Principles, but it is clear that similar circumstances are seen again and again, and that a growing player will progress by incorporating these concepts into their understanding of the game, and acting more intelligently in future circumstances that share some aspects of their prior experiences.
 * //(34) Dispersed Principle:// Many players post their thoughts on the forums and related sites, as a means of communicating their growing understanding of the game to others. Additionally, LoL established multiple waves of early players, and exceptional players, by giving them forum titles (e.g., //Adjudicator// for those in Closed Beta; //Council Member// for those of exceptional understanding and expertise), and these identities are seen as more knowledgeable, and trustworthy than the run-of-the-mill community members.
 * //(35) Affinity Principle:// LoL'ers are anonymous (unless they provide the information), and thus very little about a player's real-life characteristics can be discerned in-game. As with many online games, LoL is a relatively level playing field... and I am often chastised for my proper use of grammar, capitalization, punctuation, use of "big words," and my propensity to attempt to use failures of these principles as an educational opportunity...
 * Extraneous (non-Gee?) Affordances: Complex-systems learning, Online group dynamics (possibly 34 & 35, with a bit extra), Metagame theory, Teamwork, Leadership

//**Date:**// 9/28/2010 //**Name:**// Greg //**Game:** Drift City (single player)\// 
 * Affordances: ** Camaraderie, Teamwork/Collaboration, Decision making skills (financial budgeting, using the most optimal parts), Creativity and design, Physics, Negotiation skills (economics: principles of supply and demand).

//**Date:**// 10/5/2010 //**Name:**// Ben //**Game:** Medieval II: Total War (single player)// //**Affordances:**//

Active, critical learning principle

Semiotic principle

Semiotic domains principle

Metalevel thinking about semiotic domains principle

Psychosocial moratorium principle

Committed learning principle

Identity principle

Practice principle

“Regime of Competence” principle

Probing principle

Multiple routes principle

Multimodal principle

Intuitive knowledge

Transfer principle

Cultural models about the world principle

//**Date:**// 10/5/2010 //**Name:**// Matt //**Game:** Scribblenauts//
 * //Affordances:// **Creative thinking, problem solving, vocabulary, camaraderie/teamwork (if kids are working together to solve the puzzle, like in the video)
 * Since Super Scribblenauts introduces adjectives, increases vocabulary aspect. however, puzzles are much different, which actually might take away some of the truly creative aspects of the game
 * Language learning:
 * language options: English,French, Portuguese, Spanish
 * The 1st game has a very different puzzle structure than the 2nd game
 * The 1st one gave the player a general situation (get the starite from the tree, save the cat from the burning building, give people things they want, get the cat across the shark-infested waters, etc.) and let them come up with whatever they wanted to solve it
 * The 2nd game has much more structured puzzles, some of which feel like they could actually be part of a test
 * find an adjective/noun combination that fits with other given objects (like a house and bigfoot), give 3 adjectives to a human to make him similar to a dragon, etc.
 * There are some more open-ended puzzles, but for the most part, the majority of the puzzles are very structured and require specific answers, whereas the puzzles in the first game could be solved in many seemingly random ways
 * So, there may be different affordances of each
 * 1st one seems to require more thinking outside the box and allows learners to apply some vocabulary in interesting situations
 * 2nd one seems to focus more on knowing vocabulary and the meanings/applications of the nouns and adjectives

//**Comments: (Mike)** -- I played on my Mac emulator and enjoyed the tutorial and level 1 puzzles. I see problem solving, vocabulary, and creativity involved. I see the affordance for language learning, particularly if there are multiple language sets available.//

//**Date:**// 10/12/2010 //**Name:**// Mike //**Game:** World of Warcraft// **Affordances presented**//:// Camaraderie (creating/building it, not just experiencing it), Leadership, team-building (Guild management and working out social issues), coordination of large groups, Learning about learning (including the metagame), language pick-up in context of (virtual) activity.

//Mike's Questions:// //1) What are the educational affordances of each game?//

//2) Why were so many single player games selected to address educational issues?//

[Jerry] - It looks like about half of the presentations were based on puzzle games (//Scribblenauts, Foldit, Portal,// and //Crayon Physics//). Maybe our minds tended to go there right way when we thought about commercial games and learning affordances. There's probably something to the idea that some of us are clinging to a traditional view of academic learning coming from individual efforts, rather than the more authentic group collaboration. The puzzle games also seemed a little easier to present, given the technical difficulties of connecting to networks to demo the multiplayer games (see: NetReg locking the PS3 out of connecting to the network or Blizzard updating their servers).

[zeus] - this was something that has occured to me as well - that one of the skills my children learn when playing games, and the one I value the most, is the ability to work as a team. Whether they're helping each other with crayon physics, or playing a lego star wars game, they have to work coorperatively as a team, something that children naturally don't do well, and are immediately and consistantly rewarded for doing so. There's not many other ways to so easily reward children for working as a team - the rewards of teamwork are usually delayed.

//3) How are the meta-game support sites a part of the learning affordances (different single vs MMO)?//