games

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" truna "

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hi lesley ..

blogger has changed its interface - we should now be able to sms to the blog and also add comments to postings ...

we need a reason to base the game environment on a specific place ... the reason we had the canary islands was primarily raquel's spanish learner motivation [cultural context] and of course my own powerful wish to have an excuse to visit said islands again one day!!

so, if the prototype is to centre on a town / city in order to provide a prototype cultural environment to show what we are exploring in terms of game play AND constructivist use of game play, i would suggest we choose a town that is trying to join [oh the horror!] florida's 'creative centres' concept .. vile tho' it is ...

oh .. goodness, isn't that what that job that patrik is going for in newcastle about .... ??!!!

:)

actually i figure you are quite right - virtual brighton was really rather cutting edge [time to write about it?] - why not use some of the MMORPG principles and design a virtual world with game elements but like EQ - with the option of joining in ... i happen to know there are big research dollars going this way .. particularly aimed at asian markets at the moment - MMORPGs are monster in korea ...

i checked lost cities out after posting the suggestion to look at victoria's secret and sadly, the images have gone with the student who had them housed on her uni network drive ...

lost cities takes mm .. yes, i reckon let's just build a concept environment with intrigue elements that also encourages acting together and personal building ....

btw - the BIG reason MMORPGs are so popular is that users pay for membership ...

:)

our les, do you still have user and p/w to enter the cities?

my hold on the cities is a tad fragile but we have a plot which looks promising to move them onto the new CRC research servers ...

xj

so, lets do an article about creating games for learning and write a little number about VB while wwe are at it ... good research cred to boot ??

from lesley: :

I think that what we need to do is do something very small indeed (like Brighton with bells and whistles and a few bots - have you got a MOO we
could use that supports multimedia?) and show it to Raquel and a.n.other or two. We also need to show that we can use it to investigate research
questions (I'm sure you have the same view of this as I do, but anyway, it can be difficult to understand if you're not familiar with it I guess) so
let's develop a languages / culture oriented one and go for it in English in Brighton or Bamburgh (or even Newcastle - hooray!!)... What do you think?
Could we do one scene and demo it from there?

i agree with the project management stages our lesley ....

i guess we are on stage one: planning the scenario ... primarily whatever the pedagogical imperative we need a PLOT or narrative hook, basically a design concept in HCI terms

from the bits and pieces we have bounced around thus far i suggest something along the following lines:

you [probably a tourist] awake in a room with a sea view in maspalomas .. a popular beach resort in the canary islands ... you find you cannot remember who you are or why you are here ....

this is a classic game-play device [XIII uses it] not to mention a movie device [bourne identity]

the adventure then takes you around the islands following the mystery until your identity and the incident that led to your amnesia is revealed!

i figure the jewel robbery [classic carmen sandiego] is nice but might upset the sensitivities of those who want tourists in the canaries ... bad press
:)

i guess another classic alternative is that the player is an agatha chrities type character and we run a bit of a carmen sandiego type plot


my design kids made some lovely plots like this last year ... i think victoria's secret is still working .. try and enter the lost cities if you can [they are apparently open to the world but are in a dismal state since the servers were moved - most images and icons have been lost!!]

go to: http://student.ci.qut.edu.au:7000 for the enore interface or port 7771 for text client and find your way from the desert of haptic illusions through to the lost cities, into the archaeological dig [dig] and into dig site six

from there follow the link to class of 2003 and then class of 2003 sem two ...

in this batch you will see an entrance to VICTORIA's ROOM ....

love truna

adding this for lesley until blogger gets its act together:

I'd say that generally these projects require the following steps:

1. planning the scenario and storyboarding (if appropriate)
2. building the environment (finding resources, writing the script etc)
3. testing (a couple of colleagues, maybe?)
4. refining
5. finding students
6. running a pilot
7. collecting feedback
8. enlarging project if appropriate
9. dissemination

But, of course, during the early phases, you have to make decisions about:

- pedagogical imperative (in this case, what I've been considering this morning are the following points:

a. is interaction with the storyline individual or collaborative (I prefer the collaborative, myself, but that makes it much harder to design and set up!)

b. what are the learnng outcomes (I know it's 'fun' but to get money in the future, we need to set realistic learning outcomes)

c. what is the timescale?

d. what technologies are prerequisites for participants (I'd tend to suggest either email AND / OR mobile phones that accept SMS (so that 'clues' could be sent out at appropriate moments)

e. who is the target audience?

and just in case you have lost it, here is the capri island mystery site : http://www.gotgameentertainment.com/capri/

i really do like the idea of doing a myst type adventure - but shorter and with more action!

the basic plot:

a basic spanish speaker [beginner?] arrives in the canary islands and awakes in a hotel by playa canteras in las palmas de gran canaria not knowing WHERE or WHO they are .....

or perhaps finding a body in the bathroom?

anyway, some agatha christie type plot device that then sends them around the whole canary islands group finding out a] who killed the body b] who they are or whatever ...

i suspect some cultural tin tin type mystery would be more appropriate to the audience actually ... and exploit more cultural affordances of the setting ... i quite like the idea of the 'lost treasure of the guanches' ....

:)

this is the canarias-game blog ...

i actually just made a blog for us over on mblog but the whole site collapsed horribly so i guess this time i will copy any notes i add

ok, this is a place to carry on those discussions about the construction of a game environemnt for spanish language learners that offers a kind of virtual holiday with an adventure in the canary islands ...

i will send you both the address and then work out how to add you to the user modes ... if i can do it in the free version!