Action Adventure Games are a level up of the genre of narrative games that we had looked at previously, combining the elements of an action game and an adventure game. These types of games have some more advanced navigation than your point and click or text based adventures we had explored previously, includes puzzles and adventure and we still have the dialogue and story from those types of games. They also include elements from action games like combat and player movement and skill sets to some degree.

One difference from the narrative games explored earlier is that there is still text-based story, but the input from the player is usually by pushing a button to make a choice rather than typing text to have something happen.

Games that fall into this category like Tomb Raider, Metroid, Castlevania and one of my favorites, the Legend of Zelda series. The storytelling, navigation, collection of clues and unlocking items to make your character stronger and action make these great games to play.

This genre of game has grown throughout the years and newer games include better graphics, voice acting and deeper stories, but still contain the basic elements of the action-adventure game.

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Jane Mcgonical gave an excellent TED Talk several years ago where she discussed the power of games and how we can harness their power and create game environments to help create a better world.

Watching this led me to think about the question, “What role does acknowledging progress play in successful gaming and is their transfer to education?”

Another term used to describe progress play is feedback loops. This is important in games and in education. You put the effort and time in to accomplish a task, and feedback is important so the player/learner knows how they are doing and whether to keep going or make some changes along the way so they can be more successful at the end goal, whether it be defeating a boss or turning in a final paper.

Having loops of feedback where the learner shares their work, the teacher or peer reviews it and provides timely feedback is so important. Waiting for feedback for something I wrote on Monday for a few days or even longer can be so deflating, plus it takes you out of the moment. Taking home 30 notebooks over the weekend to read and provide feedback to your students is so time consuming for the teacher. None of these things need to happen anymore and shouldn’t. Teachers need to tap into this element of “progress play” and make use of tools such as Microsoft Office and Google Docs to take advantage of the opportunity to provide their students with feedback in real time. It is much more useful to get that feedback while there is still class time left and I can keep writing and make those changes in real time. Just like in a game if you are away from it for several days there is probably some re-learning time before progressing, the same thing happens if you go several days without receiving feedback on your work, especially for a 10 year old.

If you enjoyed Jane’s TED Talk and want to learn more about her work, you can visit her website.

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There are many different games out there and players naturally like some better than others. So what are the elements of a game that make it good? What are the elements of a game that make it a bad game?

I like games that have an element of increased challenge. Not too easy and not too hard, plus you have a feeling of progression throughout the game. The controls of the game should be comfortable. There should be a good story with a sense of adventure and fun characters. If you are not into the story or the characters the game could become tedious after awhile. I like games that have checkpoints or save points. This fits in with the sense of accomplishment, if I have played for an hour but then lose a life and have to start the entire game over again that would be frustrating. The game should be fun – if I am not getting any enjoyment out of playing what is the point? Also depending on the context of the game I like the idea of relate-able elements or nostalgia. Playing Super Mario Odyssey I really enjoy the components that draw back to the feel of the original Super Mario Bros.

Naturally these are somewhat subjective and different people enjoy different things in their games. However, there are some components that seem to define a good game versus a bad game. Dr. Ruben Puentedura (the S.A.M.R. guy) published a podcast about this very topic in which he discussed his research findings about what makes a game successful and what makes a bad game.

Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 would be an example of a good game. It contains:
– Memorable characters
– Story that you are introduced to at the beginning of the game
– Controls – the game gives you the info you need to navigate through the game
– Tutorial elements to teach you how to play the game and learn new skills
– The overall challenge of the game is explained to the player

Superman 64 for the Nintendo 64 is an example of a BAD game.
– The Demo on the start screen shows you mistakes in gameplay and the character gets stuck at one point
– What is the story? There is one, but you have to go out of your way to click on the menu to find it
– Repeated stages of rings, some of which later in the game can last up to 10 minutes. Very repetitive
– Lack of variety
– There are mini games at the end of each ring stage, but if you are unsucessful, you have to start the entire stage over again
– Poor combat for enemy battles

This knowledge is very helpful to have as I begin to construct my own game.

Dr. Puentedura has done a series of podcasts on educational gaming called “Game and Learn” You can listen to them via iTunes here. http://hippasus.com/resources/gameandlearn/slides/2_WhatIsAGoodGame.pdf

Super Mario 64

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I recently watched the video series “Pixel Pioneers”, a short video series on You Tube created by Stuart Brown. Each video goes through a different stage of the evolution of graphics in video games.

This series was a good overview and reminded me about some of the games I enjoyed playing as a child. Some of the earliest video games used very bare bones graphics where a flickering or moving image on the screen was impressive. Today we have games using the latest technology with real life graphics and cinematic experiences.

Here are a few of the games I remember playing that were shown in the series:

Pong and Pac-Man: Atari classics that I played at some point along the way. Simple games with a goal to accomplish. Pac-man has had sequels and revisions and is still played by kids today. Pong reminds me of table hockey, quick movements to keep the object out of your goal and score points against your opponent.

Dig Dug: I don’t think I ever played the original but recall playing Dig Dug 2 on the NES. It was a Blockbuster rental one weekend (remember those?) going around digging and defeating enemies along the way.

Super Mario Bros.: A classic. I got my NES when I was about 8 and I played lots of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt which was the game that came with the system. The graphics are still nostalgic today as the platformer elements are included as bonus areas within newer games like Super Mario Oddysey.

Street Fighter II/Mortal Kombat: These fighting games were a big hit at the arcades and on the 16 bit consoles like Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. I played my fair share of these as a teenager, and they spawned a great amount of remix fighting games throughout the late 90s.

Super Mario Kart: Another favorite from the Super Nintendo days. The video described this period as the Polygon Realm, and Super Nintendo with their Mode 7 technology allowed game designers to place 3D elements on top of a 2D surface giving the illusion of a 3D world.

There was a gap in my gameplay over the next generation or so, and I reemerged during the late 2000’s with the Wii Sports and Minecraft among other similar games. During this era there was an explosion of first person shooter games, which if you look at a list of Xbox and Xbox 360 games it seems like every other game on this list is this type of game. Not my cup of tea, but alot of people do like them hence their popularity and continued production of these games. As an appreciator of history, it would be interesting to play a game where you are involved in the strategy and story of the Revolutionary War or Civil War for example.

In the 5th video, Stuart tries to answer the question do graphics matter? I think it depends on the game and what you are looking to get out of it. For me, games like Madden and NHL and WWE, having the realistic graphics makes it feel like you are in the game or at the stadium which is fun. Mostly though, if the super graphics is not paired with the enjoyable game and a great story, it can take away from the experience (not to mention the load times).

You can check out this video series here on You Tube.

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Here I will post reflections about various types of games that I will be exploring.

Narrative Games – Gameplay and reflection while playing the game Zork I.

Action Games – Reflection and gameplay.

Other Games – Reflection on other types of games such as card games, board games and games of chance.

I recently had a chance to complete a quest in the virtual world Second Life. In this quest, we walked through a hospital while hearing the “voices” in our head providing us “guidance”. It was an interesting experience and the goal was to teach students about the hallucinations that people with schizophrenia experience. This would be a good activity to use in a health or psychology class for college students to learn about this topic in a safe simulation in the form of a virtual world or virtual reality experience. My reflection on the experience is below.

Case study on a virtual reality version of this experience: http://learningandteaching-navitas.com/the-psychosis-experience-virtual-reality-psychology-education/

The quest I experienced was created by Amanda Hatherly, professor at Santa Fe Community College. http://w2.sfcc.edu/files/inside/Inside_SFCC_SUM2015_WEB.pdf

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