The Intellectual Life of Online Play

Keynote: Constance Steinkuehler

New book coming out Games learning and Society.

I'm sorry that this is disjointed. I got totally engaged and couldn't write and listen.

Meaningful Play is in fact a way of learning.

Learning isn't about just "education." Her topic is about massively multiplayer online games and learning.

Work

• World of Warcraft
• Lineage II
• Star Wars Galaxies

2+ year ethnography
Socailly & materially distributed cognition
coordination of people, virtual tools, artifacts, & text
collective problem solving, multiple problem spaces
digital literacy practices in constellations online
scientific habits of mind and dispostions toward inquiry
computational litearcy
pop csomopolitanishm
...

We decided for 2 years we would pilot an "after learning lab" as a gateway into academic practics. (the casual learning lab)--but we won't talk about that today.

Players were using scientific methods to "cheat the game".

Science is built up of facts, as a house AAAS stadards for scientific habits of mind.

We went into the World of Warcraft Forums on three areas:

Scientific discursive practices

• Socail knowledge construction
• build on others' ideas
• use of counter arguments
• use of data/evidence
• alternative explanations of data
• references outside resources

model based reasoning

• systems based reasoning
• understanding feedback
• model passed reasoning
• model testing and prediction
• mathematical modeling
• mathematical computation

tacit epistemology

• absolutist
• relativist
• evaluative

We ask that question: Is the talk productive?
86% of the talk was social knowledge construction (3X what was expected)

• question
• Explanation A
• Discussion
• Explanation B
• Discussion
• ...
  

8% social banter
6% uncodable

In the online environment (forums) when the topic trails off, the general consensus is that the issue has been worked out.

Scientific discursive practices
build on others' ideas 37%
Use of Counterarguments 37%

Speaker moves very quickly through all the data. It's hard to keep up, so I'll try to summarize (probably terribly).

On Tacit epistemology
65% are evaluative
30% absolutist
5% relativist

Kuhn (1992) found 15% were evaluative, 50 % absolutist, and 35% relativist in the general public.

1 in 5 Americans are Scientifically literate (missed reference)

Standard inquiry activities engender epistemological beliefs contrary to science (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002)

Science doesn't just work like the science classroom lab. Science is not keep doing your experiment over and over until you get the answer that is "correct". (Thought: Should be using the competencies as a community, excercising the competencies, as a scientific community.)

What is developing around MMO's is a collective intelligence, not a hive mind. It's more efficient to distribute knowledge over a social network than it is to store the complete body of knowledge repeated over and over in individual minds.

Digital literacy Practices
At first there was a real scare that kids weren't reading, and they were losing their literacy because they were playing games. Speaker wanted to refute this by showing that literacy is enhanced by the games. How can we

reading level of the posts in WOW forums is right about HS graduation level reading level.

20% of words used in the discourse are academic words. words that are used in academic tests, and the types of discourse that occurs in college/academic settings (think ACT/SAT).

How does reading game texts compare to reading school texts?
All the men in the sample read at or below grade level (We should be worried about young boys and men about their reading) Average Grade level was 10, reading level was 7.

What happens if the boys choose the game topic? Their reading level on these topics was about 13, or 4.5 grade levels above what they should be able to manage. (Interesting...if you engage the student in a topic they are interested in, they can outperform their general skill level) When allowed to choose the text, they read up to 8 grades above their head. The struggleing readers performed at almost the same level as the non-struggling readers.

When you care about what your reading, you persist over challenges (tend to work

We should worry that reading assessments are collapsing together interest and performance.

Most struggling reading summed up Do you like reading? "I dunno,no, it matters what I'm reading."

meaningful play is learning

learning is meaningful play (learning needs to meaningful to the learner...this ties in with pretty much everything that we talk about regarding engagement).

When you let kids do what they want to do, they

Talked a bit about Flow States (in games? in neuroscience?)

The crisis in education is not a crisis of content, but a crisis of ARGH! I missed...

Finding the Feeling: Experimental Development @ThatGameCompany

Presenter: Robin Hunicke

Here's an old paper she did with Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek that I really like: MDA - A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

That Game Company Games

• Flow
• Flower

We are focused on the total emotional pallet when people play game. Current set of games is focused on a narrow part of the emotional spectrum (action, sports, and the sorts)

Next up:

Journey (Ships in 2011)

comment: I just took a look at this page. This is going to be a beautiful game. (They'll make a ton of money from Dune fans...)

Journey is a game to experience with others. What it mean to us that it's an opportunity to explore how people play with each other and experience things together.

Journey is a game where you are in a big open space. Inspirations: We are very empowered by living today (internet, mobile computing/communications, technology.) The game is a journey: The Hero's Journey.

The characters we see in games exercise this elixir of power and knowledge. They are compelling because they make us feel even more like a God (than we already fell like).

Charles F. Bolden Jr. said that without exception every single person he has taken to space on the space shuttle, they were hardcore scientists...but when they came back, that had been changed. VERY strong conversion. (Change the world, religion, or whatever)

When you stand on the face of the moon, everything you care about is smaller than your thumb, and when you look out into the vastness of space...what else is out there? The characters in our games we play are not out there.

Even in games where you are in a team, 99% of the time you are freaking out about dying...how do we create better interactive player experiences.

This is the inspiration for re-imagining multi-player games. people are intellectual, emotional, and social, we are all these things? What if Game Play combined intellectual and emotional, and also had a social experience. The importance of effective social interaction is what starts the conversation about the Journey.

The current social interaction is dated (think green screen MUD).

How do we find the value of the social interaction and how do we bring it to the players. This Human to Human focus is what Journey wants to be. Most games feel like everything is focused on the stuff. What if we focus on people instead of the stuff. What if the player didn't have power.

We've all been in the Internet space, with all the glory and opportunity of collaboration and equality and love...that gets polluted with all the noise that others bring to the environment. STRIP it ALL out.

The more constraints you add to the interaction, the more meaningful the interaction has.

We decided that there would be no verbal and no textual communication (due to noise constraints, and due to technology issues.) Players communicate through their behavior.

We really wanted to focus on the nebulous connection between people Imagine in a cave that's really scary, and the person ahead of you went around a corner and you couldn't see them, and you felt alone. What would the "monsters" be like? We even talked about making the people monsters, but thought it would take us too close to Shadows of Colossus.

How can you interaction...struggle against wind, help a friend who has fallen, hold something in place, collaborative climbing. Sandstorm and shelter. 1 is in a shelter as storm approaches. 2 more come, but only room for 1...the other...

how many people would there be here. We decided to work with 4.

We made the screen view bigger when you were with other people, empowering the players to do more and see more.

The lessons from Dragon (prototype of Journey).

People did such mean stuff to each other. We did our best to not let play-testers see each other. We had a problem in that people were mean.

Tracy Fullerton said that you "can't punish me for being myself". We all need to play journey the way that we want to play. The solution: it's a single player game that you can play with other people.

Elastic Online Experience that does Flow (Flow theory)

Create Collaborative experience, but not one that is dictated.

In a game where you are exposed to many people, you might find one that you can go all the way with (she just got married so she's really into that metaphor).

Moving from 2d to 3d was really tough.

At That Game Company a thesis is very important...the thesis for journey was together we can move a mountain. Then we shifted to "We ALL walk the Path; Each Journey is DIFFERENT."

2d is not 3d because in 2d you can see things very quickly that in 3d becomes a very different, more difficult experience. (Movement through space).

It is really hard to make a 3d game that is collaborative when you are not forcing people to cooperate.

We don't know if it will be successful, but searching for it is worth it.

One of the things that Hunicke would like to be true is that the second time you play you will find something different, but doesn't know if they'll get there.

Fighting Childhood Obesity Through the use of Technology - Chaning the evil reputation of "screen time"

Presenter Jorian Clarke

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to be drawn in to this program, but the reason I didn't take notes was because I totally got engaged.

Basically, the creation of a virtual world that teaches kids about nutrition and different fruits and vegetables. The world is called Kidscom.com.

The interesting thing is that the kids in the world are pushing the limits of the world creating new opportunities that were not originally intended.

Think SecondLife meets farmville meets Cooking mama.

This was VERY COOL!

Come Closer: What we've learned about creating powerful player experiences

Jamie Antonissse and Sean Bouchard

Audience: People that make games

Any game maker starts (should be able) to say "I want to make a game about..."

On the other side (the player, or person engaging in the game) they are having a unique experience.

A creator should be able to say "When playing my game, the player should feel...." Creators need to be able to complete this sentence in a meaningul way.

This talk is about the challenge of aligning the purpose and topic of your game with an intended Player experience.

How designers often think of player experience:

• accessibility (getting new players up to speed)
• engagement (making it fun)

These are both really important, but not what we are going to talk about...

Mention of the game Debt Ski.

The game's stated purpose: spotlight the dangers of excessive debt...

There is real meat in the idea of finance and debt management...lots of opportunity. In Debt Ski, they tried to create a fun experience...it is fun, mildly exciting, and feeling instant gratification. The whole thing was interesting, but when I got to the end, it just ended, and it was anticlimactic.

The Problem:

"I want to make a game about spotlighting dangers, challenging people to avoid destructive behavior, spurring action, inspriing financial responsibility" and then have the say, I was mildly amused, and it ended abruptly

We need to create experiences that resonate with our topics.

Games we've played when examining the context:

Sonic the Hedgehog

I want to make a game about cartoon animals

When playing my game, the player should feel fast.

Uncharted 2

I want to make a game about Indiana Jones

When playing my game, the player should feel extraordinary.

Civilization

I want to make a game about 6000 years of humanity

When playing my game, the player should feel like they're guiding the course of history.

Gears of War

I want to make a game about war on the front lines.

When playing my game, the player should feel strong, solid, tough-as-nails.

Tetris

I want to make a game about abstract shapes.

When playing my game, the player should feel like their world is spinning out of control.

(I think this is a bit of an over simplification of what the game is about...)

Minecraft

I want to make a game about building blocks.

When playing my game, the player should feel awe at the scale of the world.

Delving a bit deeper: making games with the concerns of topic, player experience and resonance in mind.

Hush

We want to make a game about the Rwandan Genocide

When playing our game, the players should feel powerless in the face of moral crisis.

How did we do this with Hush?

Create sense of crisis out of minimal game elements through contrast and tension. The story and concept was personal and simple, but emotionally charged. It starts with a tutorial on how to sing a lullaby. Then you have to sing your lullaby to your child to keep it quiet as the Hutu were coming by the house. The pacing is very slow, wanting to create tension. The sound is sweet, simple melody vs. horrific background SFX/ The control experience: Slow rhythmic key presses simulating a lullaby. It is simple, but not too simple. It had to be complicated enough that you had to think about it, but not too complicated that non-gamers couldn't do it.

In testing we tried to disempower the hardcore gamer. Tension between gameplay elements. Helped to create the feeling being strived for.

Suits: Devising Elaborate Deathtraps

IWe want to make a game about supervillainy.

When playing our game, the players should feel buried in bureaucracy.

Story/Concept: Dramatic element invites social roleplay. The bureaucracy is used to create interactions with other players, but generate blocks to the play of the game. The pace of play is sporadic and disjointed. We are still working on the "engaging" aspect of the game.

Focus of player attention: Multiple parallel tasks require attention (and limited resources).

Information design: There's a lot of hidden information (especially between players). We were trying to give a "board game" feel/aesthetic. This forces a reliance on other players which introduces social dynamics/politics into the game. If players cooperate with one another they "kudos" which are bonuses.

Players are given asymmetrical goals.

Suits is a facebook game, which sets expectations of the game. The Facebook context creates expectation of asynchronous communications.

The misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom

We want to make a game about time-traveling duplicates, silent films, old-timey villains and pie.

When playing our game, players should feel charmed.

The art direction is quirky and period.

Pond

We want to make a game about zen gaming

When playing our game, players should feel their expectations changed by the impact of a single moment.

Ninjabi

We want to make a game about oppressed Muslim women.

When playing our game, players should feel powerful.

Mechanical Incentive: Move quickly like a ninja. Its a brawler platformer, where some of the platforms can not "hold the wait" which make the game move quickly...like a ninja.

Spectre

We want to make a game about a life story, and delve into the biography of a single character.

When playing our game, players should feel nostalgia and and inviting...undiscovered depth.

A platformer that tells a story. Inspired by the loss of speakers grandmother, and the stories she would tell and share as she progressed with dementia.

"A lifes worth of memories are bigger than any sense of theme."

It's a platformer...simple movement: use arrow keys to move, spacebar to jump.

Balancing between simplicity of interface, with complexity of narrative leaves a lot to think about. We wanted a "short experience" (20 minutes) but support re-playability.

Major change in development was a shift in the way that the platformer worked. The original overworld invoked nostalgia for people who play platformers for platformers, as opposed to creating nostalgia through the platformer.

Question: How do you find a player theme that resonates with your topic?

• Divine inspiration (sometimes good ideas just come...write them down and try them out)
• Know your topic, have some opinions about it. (be aware and don't do it absent ideology but use that ideology)
• Think about the experiences of someone/something embedded in your topic area
• Devour related media (or if you prefer unrelated media...things you want to do, but also things that you don't want to do (movies, books, games, whatever.)

How do I make a game that matches what I want? (That player experience)

Be critical. Look at all different aspects of your game and think about...

Make sure design is someone's job, jot just an afterthought. Content expertise is vitally important, but its not the game design.

Know your scope: Keep some thing simple. pull out things that distract from the player experience. Enhance the things that add to the player experience...

ITERATION...nothing more needed to be said about that...

Play test, and listen to criticism. You don't need to agree with it all, but you need to undersand it.

And of course: Play Games. Be literate in games. In order to understand player experience, you have to have been a player.

Games that move us: Designing more powerful emotional and social play experiences

Keynote: Katherine Isbister, NYU Polytechnic Social Game Lab

She is here to inspire us to move people, up our ante...

Media can kick off incredible social change.

• Television magnified civil rights movement

Games can create visceral immersion.

Isbister got into the field: after studying English Literature in college, she was working at Brookfield Zoo, and noted the disdain that developed in the zoo goers for the animals. A separation. But after using a CD-ROM, and became a bird for

Games have always had characters in them. Speaker wrote: Better Game Characters by Design.

Good characters create immersion and engagement. Games mentioned:

• Darfur is dying
• Waco Resurrection

The use of character, and identification is used in these games to help drive the "point" home.

Discussion of Japanese dating sims, and what the aesthetic brings to the idea of "meaningful play"

With the Wii, we can do more physical interactions, and create physical feedback loops...all this comes back to immersion in games, and increases the opportunities for meaning...

We don't exploit the affect that physical feedback loops can have on experience. (This would be really interesting to explore for education...think: if you behave like a professional, you'll develop professionalism)

• Foursquare:
• Farmville
• Cheat? (dataing games.

How do you pull people's physical realities into the virtual realities, and how do you leverage the virtual to make change in the real world. How do you get people connected to make meaningful change

Book: What is the What by Dave Eggers

What the speaker would love to see is taking the experience of Darfur is Dying, and merge that with the japanese dating sims...Create long term relationships through the relationships and experiences of What is the What...THAT can affect change.

It would really be cool if the game designers would craft into the interactions the "beauty: of the motion (think violinists, and conductors).

What will great serious games look like?

Keynote: Ben Sawyer

Over saw the creation of Virtual U, president of Digitalmill, Inc.

Afterthought: I had a really hard time following this talk. I get the gist, but the details were very quick and very "inside". I didn't get many of the references.


All Games are Serious

When I want to be entertained it's a good use of time. The only time a game is a waste of time is if the game sucks.

Sawyer did two talks in the Spring:

Recap:

The return of Drill and Skill (GDC): There is an opportunity to develop games that can change practice behaviors...Drill and Skill Games.

Games Everywhere: browser and HTML based is going to be the platform for Serious games in the future. Mix in mobile, and other devices.

Integration with other apps will create an ever deepening platform to provide experience.

Mentioned Minecraft

Google Web Toolkit

For 99% of serious gamers, latency is not an issue, so move on.

Four thoughts:

• What we build & how we build it is changing (especially serious games)
• What do we have with the body of work we have done?
• Scalability at implementation
• infrastructure vs. game - re balancing investment

Serious games is an established concept:

You can do behavior change based on a videogame, Sawyer doesn't say it is better, just that you CAN do it.

Most serious games are disconnected from the players and the community. We're on the outside looking in. We're just not making an impact.

Sawyer finds it repulsive that one aspect of the current implementation of serious games is removing the human interaction from the environment. When you add a human, things seem to work better, the game needs to help create connection.

Guerilla Gardening video.

Speaker was alerted about the game, and wonderd if this game could change the world for the better. Sawyer (and Bogost) agree that the game is not a persuasive game.

There are 4 ways that a game can affect change

1. The game exists and inspires action; activating support
2. Produces sills & aptitudes
3. Playing equals instantiated change (can it be sustained?)
4. Motivation through messaging.

Sometimes if you insert a game in to an environment, the fact that ANYTHING was injected could create the change. It's very existence in the environment initiates the change.

When talking about Guerilla Gardening, Sawyer believes that the 1st and 4th point have merit, but he is skeptical. Unless a game can embed all the community interactions from a webiste (like Guerilla Gardening . org) then it is not got be affective.

Sawyer got lots of requests to incorporate real data into Virtual U, but real world data does not necessarily make a good game (Grand Theft Auto doesn't use a real map, it uses a map optimized for game play.)

A large part of the serious games clients, want their data in the game.

Connectedness

• human connectedness
• action connectedness
• systems connectedness

We are not fighting the right battle anymore. The battle has changed. People are not asking "is this game thing good?" they're asking "can we do THIS?"

We need a way to connect our games back to real world infrastructures and make this stick.

Infrastructure that needs to surround serious games

accessibility --> Where is the toolkit?
Metrics-->Where's the toolkit?
Deployment tools-->Network Management tools
Mentor Tools & Networks (Community)-->Tool set? Web System?
High Score & Achievements-->Where is this?
Adaptive Systems-->Tools? Services?
SCORM/LMS?-->???????
Behavior/Sustained Play Support Systems-->Tools?

What other traits are there?

• Pervasive & Platform Agnostics
• World Class Security
• Connected to our Data
• Real Curriculum Materials & Support
• Modifiable & Malleable

What will great serious games look like? Sawyer doesn't care anymore. If the infrastructure is not in place to create connection, it won't be worthwhile.

Educational Game Design for Everyone: Successes, Challenges, and Insights of using Game Design as Pedagogy within Formal and Informal Learning Setting

Panel Discussion

Alex Games, Michigan State University

Kirk Riley, Information Technology Empowerment Center

Rachel Schiff, Microsoft Fuse Labs

Idit Caperton World Wide Workshop Foundation

Scott Quibell, Kodu Club at Explorer Elementary, KEntwood Public Schools

Kurt Squire, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Kodu game lab was created for kids to be the "smart agents" that can design the experiences that they want to have, and want others to have. It is a program language. There has been a lot of enthusiasm about Kodu, it builds the sort of rich 3d visual game you are used to playing on the xbox (first came out of xbox)--session on Kodu after this one.

Building games, even in Kodu is still more work than just playing games. The focus of this is specifically on Kodu, or related topics at creating interest and skills in the STEM areas...Although there is also time spent on learning history and geography, and other things by modding Civ.