Last chapters of book

When designing an interface, make sure you represent the activity so there can be learning taking place. Keeping the interface simple but challenging is key. Opinion bars let the end learner rate what they are reading and doing at each point.
Three things that most likely will happen to the creator of a game are: 1. You will put the wrong amount of time into some parts that should have been used on another part. 2. You will realize that you’ve left out an important feature that is just too expensive or time consuming to fix. 3. Someone will point out something that you’ve failed to add that would have totally enhanced the game.
The first games made the user happy by scoring high points and beating fellow players. The points were incentive enough to keep playing.
Gameplay includes it all – graphics, story, interface, plus more. When working with a group, a unifying idea brings them together. After racking up points was the incentive, making it to the next level was the goal of every player. The Virtual Leader game takes many hours to move through. Some moved through it and enjoyed it and others couldn’t do it. There are many long term issues to be worked out with simulations. A huge issue is how much do you guide the user?
Evaluating simulation based content is not easy either because unlike with books, magazines, and TV, you can’t skim through a simulation. There’s always the fear that people will try to beat the simulation instead of learning from it. The three stages of playing a game are: frustration and misery, you have a great time; then gaming begins. The future of all students is in the hands of the simulators. Once it’s realized that this is where the future lies, students will be excelling and learning so much more than they do now. I think they are just waiting to be unleashed!

Presentation notes

I worked on my presentation last night and was able to get it up and running. The bad part is that it's very simple. I wish I had more knowledge and could add much more. I need to get rid of my fear of the whole thing. I put in some wrong numbers and the whole thing disappears! Then I am afraid to do that again! The information on the board is very hard to read with its small sized font. I don't know how to remedy that other than making the board gigantic. I also have a question that sounds ridiculous if you know the answer. When each person does something to my board like types on it, does everyone see the same thing? or is it just for that person and others don't know changes are being made? I'm wondering this for test taking.

Final Project Proposal

I've decided to do my project about making all kinds of drinks for the beginner bartender. Simple Bartender's Guide to mixing drinks. My target audience would be people who have not taken classes in mixology but want to start out in simple bartending. Anyone can use this; a teacher can use this in a class also. All you have to do is access the board in Second Life. The board will already exist and the teacher or beginning bartender can just access it.
I would like to have a "search" bar with numerous spaces for searching for ingredients so if someone knows a few ingredients, they can type it in and pull up drinks that contain them. This could also be used as a teaching tool for remembering what goes into a certain drink. This could work with groups also. It would be nice to have the teacher list ingredients and the group says what the drink is or writes it in chat and then the real drink is shown.
There could be roles...someone is the bartender and someone is the patron. The time spent here will depend on how much time a person is willing to spend reading drink lists and learning. A teacher could assign times and watch the groups or however many people trying to get the ingredients right.
A test could be devised that groups take on their own and submit the answers to the teacher. It could be a one on one test also or by group with each student having a time limit to submit their answers via chat or voice.
A session will be brought to a close once the teacher feels the learners are at the correct level to be graded or let go. Studying can be done at any time by learners, which makes it a good tool.
I'm not sure if this could be done in real time by any other means that would be as good as SL, other than by sitting in a classroom.
The obstacles I envision are getting the search buttons to allow for multiple ingredients in order to find the right drink. I need the skills of adding media to a board and being able to work with it. I am excited to think that this will possibly work!

Struggling a bit

I am feeling a bit lost but hope to be able to find my way soon. I got thrown off a bit by thinking that I needed to learn how to script, but then found out that it's not required and is for those more advanced in Second Life, so I felt better! Our assignment is to show everyone something in Second Life that would teach them something. I'm having trouble figuring out what the "thing" is that I want to teach! Hopefully an idea will hit me in the head soon. I've figured out how to build my board and how to have a website show up. So I'm thinking that maybe I will record something with my webcam and have that show up on my board. I need to get busy!

Modeling Reality, Part Two

In designing your own game, you need to have the three content types- linear, cyclical, and open ended. Modularity is an important asset meaning you can customize throughout with just one change. There are drawbacks to having a massively multi-online role playing game (MMORPG) like scheduling, how players “act”, and the fact that it’s not fair to others when one person wants to repeat a certain play over and over again and others are ready to move on.
Simulations will never be exact replicas of reality so it’s good to remember that simulations are made to help people, not to replace them. When designing characters you need to give them a personality so they can represent real people. With all the animation given the characters, you can have probabilities attached so the characters are not predictable. The animations are controlled by graphic engines.
One of the simplest simulation models has locations called “states”. This allows backtracking, allows freedom, and has no time limit.
For the dialogue, precision is necessary. You have to be sure that what one character says matches what was said prior and after. It gets expensive to add dialogue due to the recording times needed.
Ideas can be divided into premises and plans. The premises are then sectioned into either negative, neutral, or positive. The plans are either negative or positive. Added to this is interpersonal dialogue. The dialogue adds up quickly and it’s still tough to add all that needs or wants to be spoken. There is no way that all things that need to be said or want to be said will be said!
Artificial intelligence mimics what humans do in using personal influences (PI). Depending on how you react to another's statement, your “ranking” in the group changes. Also the intelligence level needs to be at the right spot so as not to be so smart that the fun factor is gone nor so dumb for the same reason.
There are a lot of good lessons that can be learned from the bots and their design. For instance, if you don’t have the perfect mix of motivation, ingenuity, and drive, then not much will be accomplished. Being a team player is key.

More on theory

Interacting with others in gaming is what game theory is all about. When we couldn’t interact with each other in Runescape, we went to another source – Angel and the discussion board. With all levels of learning and gaming experience in our group, it was interesting to see how everyone cooperated and helped each other to maneuver around the game and answer questions to help each of us get to the same point in the game. Reaching goals and being told on screen that you’ve completed a task is always a reason for celebration - a pat on the back so to speak. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Compare this game to life and there are many similarities. We work hard, we are rewarded, we continue and do it again. Having things handed to us takes away the fun and intrigue. Having a logical path, or even a not so logical path to follow is what keeps us going along with the rewards along the way. Meeting others along the way is just another plus.

Second Life photos

I've been doing some wandering around in Second Life and making sure that I can find my way home. My hair has stayed on too, which is a good thing! I've been able to create a notecard but haven't figured the scripting out yet. I am finding the Torley Linden videos on youtube very informative so I'm sure I'll figure it out. My avatar does not like to look at the camera at all....how do I change this? I only look the other way and even walk backwards so I don't have to look!

Assessing learning in gaming

How can learning in gaming be measured? There are so many varieties, levels, and types of video games which make it tough to come up with one answer. With some of the games the instant gratification that comes with making the right choice and getting rewarded shows that learning is taking place. In other games, outlasting your enemy means you’ve learned how to battle and stay alive through perseverance and using your memory skills to do the right moves that get you to that end. With games that contain levels, the learning continues with each level by recalling your wrong moves on any earlier levels where you may have failed. How adapt you are shows in the time it takes to move through the game and through the levels and to stay alive in others. I’m not one to play games often – it may be due to my eye hand coordination, my lack of excitement over small advances, or having to start at the beginning due to being killed. I guess this may be a good thing if I want to design my own game because I would have to design it in a way that would keep someone like me interested. What a task – design a game for learning that will work for everyone…is it possible?

Playing Runescape...sort of

This game is not for beginners..unless of course you ask the teens who seem to be able to make sense of all things gaming....I must be showing my age! Last night we were all to meet at 10pm. I was on way before that and just doing my usual running around trying to find things I can pick up or make use of. I got some fishing supplies but was only at level 17 and was told that I needed to be at level 20 in order to fish....(I played today and am at level 20 by completing another task so I can't wait to go fishing later). So I saw two other players from my class in the same world that I was in which was where we were supposed to meet. I only saw their names and did not run into them while traveling around. I think if we can meet up and be given some guidance (by Jason :)) that we might be able to do more things. Like I said, this game is not for beginners, can be very frustrating, and if it's labeled self explanatory, then I'm in big trouble! Perseverance is what I need! And air conditioning...darn it's hot out!

Still learning

I'm still trying to figure out a lot of things, but each time I play I learn something new. Yesterday I picked up a bowl and a jug. Not sure what I'm going to be doing with them, but I have them! There was someone following me around yesterday no matter where I went and he kept trying to give me stuff. He told me they were for free, not trade. I was scared to take the stuff in case it might be bad or something. Maybe I lost a great opportunity...I will never know now! I'm looking forward to our meeting tonight at 10 so we can work as a group. I hope to learn some good stuff!

Module 2 book discussion

There is a lot of great knowledge in the book, Simulations and the future of learning by Clark Aldrich. E-learning is used for training by the airlines and the military – two organizations with no margin for error. Even though it is pretend play, the simulations mimic real life situations. In another class I had to build a roller coaster using Roller Coaster Tycoon and while “riding” the roller coaster, it felt as real as being on one except there was no wind in my face! Basically what the first part of the book is doing is trying to decipher what a leader is by breaking it down and starting from scratch with each piece being another building block of the pyramid until the term leadership stands out at the top. A leader is made up of just the right mix of power, ideas, tension, and work.

There are three types of content that can play alone or be combined. The first is linear content, which means that the viewer or user has no real control over the content. Sure you can pause, rewind, and control the volume but you can’t change the content. The second is cyclical content where the viewer/player goes over and over the same content again and again to hone their skills. And the last is open ended content where you have enough control to learn from your mistakes and the next time work on improving yourself. Skills learned using open ended content can be taken with you and used in other situations.

Runescape for beginners

I spent many hours trying to figure out what is going on in this game, Runescape. So far I've figured out how to walk, run, change the view angle, and I've killed a few creatures that look like goblins or trolls. This is going to be a tough one for me to figure out. I run around there like a chicken with no head! I did find a website for beginners and read it through but there's so much to know !!! Patience and persistence....is this when I'm allowed to ask my kids to show me how to play this?

Gaming for beginners

All of those times I could have been watching and learning from my kids while they played games...and I didn't! Runescape is a lot of fun when you get something done right...when you don't, you have to listen to Sir Valiant tell you 20 times how you should be doing something! If he was human, he would have thrown me to the dragon already. Following directions is not as easy as it seems it would be. I think I am following what they are asking me to do but there seems to be a lag in when I do something and when it really happens. Maybe it just happens at home where my internet is not as fast as it should be. I am looking forward to maneuvering around the castles and fighting with all my might in the days and weeks to come!

First blog for gaming strategies

Blogging Summary
Blogging is something that you put on your to-do list at whatever frequency you decide and you stick to it. Blogging is a big part of some people's lives. It's like their diary. Don't mince words - get to the point and get on with your day. Some people write a few times a day, a few times a week, or just monthly. I'm not sure what they write about. So this is my first blog for my Gaming course and since I was told to write about blogging, I had a reason to blog. See you later.