More Gaming

I definitely saw elements from the assigned readings appear in Lineage. It was amazing to see, as Kim points out, “the towns, forests, and dungeons…are more than just intricately rendered; details are meaningful.” For instance, there is Adena found on the ground. After picking up the Adena, your amount increases by the amount picked up. You can hear the wild boars grunts as they are attacking you. The spider hisses. Kim also states, “With practice, players become progressively more powerful and skillful – and it’s reflected in their outfits.” As I become more experienced with Lineage, I acquired more Adena and was able to purchase better armor.

I also found that it is better to barter than trade with Fraoun as pointed out in Dibbell’s article. Dibbell also raised the idea of rare and semi-rare pieces and I found myself nervous that perhaps I picked one up and didn’t realize the value of it. At one point I had joined forces with another fighter, Gadfly, who showed me the secret passageway to Hidden Valley. I made sure I had as many Healing Potions as possible and prepared to go into battle. Unfortunately, I died (no big surprise there) and left behind a Spell Book. Amazingly enough, I found Gadfly again, about 10 minutes later, and he offered to return my Spell Book to me that I had apparently “dropped” when I died. How nice! I let him keep it figuring it was more beneficial to him than my short two-week stint in Lineage.

I appreciated the article by Kurt Squire and Sasha Barab and found some great points to begin considering about ways gaming can improve learning. Squire and Barab look at Civilization III in an urban school for underserved students. Unfortunately, one of the big problems lies within their methodology section as the students refused to take a pre-test “making pre and post-test comparisons impossible.” Students began working with their own civilizations and then the teacher and researchers would facilitate conversations (based on historical events) as to the state of their civilization. The learning outcomes were quite different for the students and included the following:

• Playing out historical hypothesis
• Exploring geography (investigating the map, locating resources, identifying elements for successful civilizations)
• Nurturing the civilization
• Developing social relationships, i.e., playing with friends

This brings up an interesting point. If the teacher and/or researchers had not been there to facilitate application and integration of the students knowledge, would the resulting state be “pooled ignorance”? I think the game did a great job of activating students’ interest. However, the later stages of Merrill’s five components of effective instruction only took place with intervention by the teacher and researchers.