I’m seeing “I’m so frustrated I want to scream” posts on various blogs. This is unfortunate and avoidable. Here are some FAQ’s:

Q. Where are the pictures?
A. This is a text based game. It was designed for low bandwidth/low power gaming. The kinds of situations most teachers face when dealing with populations that are (1) rural, (2) poor, (3) both.

Q. How do I talk?
A. Type “say whatever it is you want to say.” Almost all commands are in the form “verb object” so “say” (the command to the game to repeat what follows to the room) and “whatever you want to say.” will be echoed. You will see the word “Ok.” and not what it is you say.

Q. How do I talk to somebody not in the room with me?
A. Type “tell whoever whatever it is you want to say.” The stipulation is that “whoever” must be logged in and visible to you at the time you “tell.” To find out who is on and visible, use the command “who” to see.

Q. Where am I?
A. Use the command “look” and read the room description. It starts with the room’s name, followed by a description of what the room looks like, a list of people and objects in the room. By using the command “exits” you can see which open doors lead out of the room.

Q. It keeps telling me I’m hungry and thirsty! What do I do?
A. Eat and drink. The MUD is going to demand that you have food and water. Water is available at the well in Town Square, but you’ll need a cup. Food is available in the General Store in the form of iron rations, altho newbies are encouraged to slay the herds in the grasslands and eat the food provided there in the form of mutton, chops, steaks, etc. Clerics can create food and water for people who get caught short.

Q. Are there other commands I should know?
A. Yes. Informational commands like “score,” “inventory,” and “equipment” are critical for keeping track of where you are in terms of score and gear. For a relatively comprehensive list of game commands, use “help” in world to get a list.

Q. I have to log off! What do I do?
A. Go to the Last Resort Inn. Go up to where the Receptionist waits. Type “rent” and take the 0 option from the following menu. This will save your equipment and log you out safely. When you come back in, you’ll start in the reception and be ready to go with everything you had when you left. People who drop link or quit to leave run the risk of coming back naked and unequipped.

The following links have articles that explain more about the environment:

1. Tips on creating a character
2. Some background on resources
3. Some ideas about how the game is controlled in time
4. Map of the town
5. Map of the grasslands just outside the gate

Posted in 688, Games, Resources | 7 Comments »

As I was reviewing some closed discussions on the 688 discussion board, the Learning Styles construct keeps coming up. I’ve written about this in length here, and the link to the most comprehensive refutation is listed in this article:

Several of you have referred to “learning styles” in some of your posts and comments. I know it’s fashionable, but it’s also not supported by any credible scientific evidence. It’s intuitively appealing but it appears to be superstition. For a critique of the extant literature on this see:

Learning Styles.

The question often comes up, given my proviso regarding scientific evidence, “What would you consider credible evidence?”

Answer: Pretty much anything that actually establishes the hypothesis and goes about testing it. Key elements there involve showing that an individual student consistently learns “better” — presumably using some specified outcome assessment — using one mode over another. In order to justify the “Learning Style” theory, that individual student MUST show sigificant improvements across a wide variety of content areas delivered in a variety of modes and therein lies the rub. Whatever design this research takes, it must somehow tease out that causal relationship between the delivery mode and the outcome that’s independent from the repetition.

So? How do you prove that little Mary learns best by hearing? You can’t give her the same lesson in multiple ways, because then any measured improvement is confounded by repetition – which we know has an effect. Further, you can’t be sure that the recoding to cross media from – say – audio to visual is actually the same message so there’s the additional problem in interpreting the messages as to whether or not it’s the repetition, the encoding, or the “learning style” that made the difference.

And it gets more complicated when we factor in a variety of content domains. Teaching “visual learner” Tommy how to read visually is one thing. Teaching him volley ball is another. Credible research would have to account for that.

Yes, I know that learning style theory says that an individual cannot learn using another style, only that they learn best in one, consistent mode, regardless of content or context, and frankly, I’m not buying it. On its surface, there is an intuitive appeal, but when you get into the nuts and bolts of how this thing must have to work if individuals had “learning styles” it seems implausible.

Posted in 688, Education | 5 Comments »

Sometimes we lose sight of history. Raph Koster’s timeline, while perhaps obscure at times, attempts to chronicle the development of an important artifact of our times.

The following is a timeline of significant events for the development of virtual worlds. This has been reprinted at a few places, including MudCenter and Four Below Zero. I welcome more additions to the timeline. Check at the bottom of this for a list of sources.

Raph Kosters Home Page.

Posted in 688 | No Comments »

There’s a great conversation swirling around this interactive timeline of video gaming over on the GAMESNETWORK list: The Video Game Revolution: The History of Games | PBS.

The conversation has to do with “why this game instead of another?”

As in any field, there are opinions on both sides.

Posted in 688, Education, Technology | No Comments »

I did a quick post yesterday on SuperStruct. I spent some time yesterday exploring the site in some detail and looking over the various features and facilities. There’s a lot there – video, text – organized in a variety of ways. I’m looking at this site from two perspectives — one as a game, and the other as an educational setting. There’s a LOT of stuff that’s available to the public (that is, non-members) and even more that registered players can see.

As a game, the scoring is perhaps a bit arbitrary. As an educational environment, it’s probably best described as “problem based learning.” It’s particularly intriguing from that perspective because the problems are hypothetical but based on dystopian extrapolations of the present. Finally, the “game play” is probably best described as “interactive fiction” because discussions, stories, and user contributions are intended to visualize what our real lives might be in 10 years’ time. It’s a sort of “imagine what you’ll be then based on what you are now and what you’d like to do between now and then” scenario. It’s a kind of ‘predict the future’ game based around the six threats.

While the threats are speculative, they aren’t that far out. Based on food, climate, energy, politics, and health, the roots of these challenges are already with us. The game, while speculative, may well provide some interesting ideas for charting a future where these catastrophes might not happen.

So, for the gamers (688? You know who you are), what do you think of this as a “game”? Does it work? Is there a place here for educational application? Either in this game, or as a derivational idea?

For the distance ed people, what do you think of this environment as as an educational environment? A learning environment?

Posted in 688, Education, Resources, Technology | 5 Comments »

Here’s a little game for you to consider. I’m filling out my GEAS Profile now.

Superstruct: The Final Threat.

Can we save the world?

Posted in 688, Education, Games | 2 Comments »

In March of 2006, I joined Second Life. At that time, educational institutions were beginning to pay attention to the space as “educational environment.” Knowing the track record on (lack of) innovation that most institutions bring to online education, I wanted to see if there was anything interesting happening there. Near my first anniversary I wrote up my observations in a long post on my SLumming blog. At that point, I observed that most educators working in the space were trying to recreate the classroom experience in-world. Rather than using the space as it existed, they were imposing real-life expectations, structures, and restrictions where they were neither required or useful. In some cases, those efforts led to frustration and dissatisfaction. In too many more, the educators completely failed to comprehend the nature of the space and were quite happy with the results they were getting.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 688, Education, Resources | 6 Comments »

Big “Duh” for most of this, but the interesting stuff is in the details:

Teens, Video Games and Civics.
The first national survey of its kind finds that virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement.

Some highlights:
- Almost all teens play games.
- Girls tend to leave it behind.
- They don’t play just one game – not even one kind of game
- It’s a social occasion

There’s some interesting stuff there.

Posted in 688, Education, Technology | 6 Comments »

There’s a lot of interesting podcasting and these five podcasts were the finalists for the 2008 Parsec Awards this year. If you’re interested in seeing what podcasting can do for learning, try learning about gaming from one of these.

Nominees for best Gaming Podcasts in the 2008 Parsec Awards

• Brilliant Gameologists
• CoH Podcast < — Recommended –<<
• Family Night
• The Game Kennel Winner
• Out of Character
• WoW Radio : Octale and Hordak vs The World

I’ve cross posted this for both my 685 and 688 sections because the gaming is of interest in 688 while the technology as a tool is important to 685′s discussion on “exotic tools” coming next week.

Game on!

Posted in 688, Games, Resources, Technology | 6 Comments »

I didn’t get too far down the rabbit hole but this is an interesting looking online game and I suspect there’s a fair amount of history buried here.

In the summer of 1897 two ocean going steamers landed on the west coast of the United States. One ship, The Excelsior, landed in San Francisco and three days later The Portland landed in Seattle. Down the gangplank of these two ships went a rag-tag group of men and women carrying sacks of gold. Some walked down the docks with $5,000 worth of gold while others had over $100,000 worth.
Klondike – Rush for Gold.

The answer to my big question will have to wait until I can play it. “Is it fun?”

Posted in 688 | No Comments »