Introduction

Three previously recorded Twitch streams were selected to examine how streamers approach the “work of play” (Taylor, 2018), as well as how community and social interaction contribute to media enjoyment, as described by Wulf et al. (2020). Streams were selected based on their distinctiveness in style, popularity, and games played. The first stream was by female streamer Snowmixy playing World of Warcraft (WoW). The second stream was by young British streamer tommyinnit’s gameplay of Among Us, an online social deduction game. The final stream was by Ninja playing Valorant, a team-based first-person shooter.

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The following mind map was adapted from

Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., Smith, J. H., & Tosca, S. P. (2020;2019;). Understanding video games: The essential introduction (4th ed.). Milton: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429431791

Link to mind map: What is a Game?

Martin, Wendy, Silander, Megan, & Rutter, Sarah. (2019). Digital games as sources for science analogies: Learning about energy through play. Computers & education, 130, 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.11.002

Martin et al. (2019) conducted a study to determine if students who engage in analogy mapping exercises following digital gameplay demonstrate greater understanding than students who did not. The authors conducted a matched comparison group study with a treatment and comparison group. Both groups received similar instructional sequences that introduced digital games surrounding three topics related to energy transfer, with the exception of two steps. The treatment group reflected on their gameplay experience immediately afterwards, while the comparison group focused on activating prior content knowledge. In the final step, the treatment group engaged in a discussion utilizing analogy-mapping techniques featuring visual support to highlight the connection between gameplay and the target content, while the comparison group engaged in an alternative discussion.

Analysis was conducted over a few months, which would likely make variables such as absences difficult to control. Results indicated that students in the treatment group learned more regarding broad energy concepts and one of the three energy-related topics. Notably, treatment group students with higher pre-test scores, those likely to be more advantaged with less missing data, learned more than those with lower pre-test scores. I assumed intervention would have had a greater impact on struggling students, but perhaps student motivation and absences were a factor.

This study was significant as it highlights the importance of instructional strategies to help learners connect digital games to disciplinary knowledge through “bridging activities” and reflection. Analogy mapping techniques can have a similarly positive impact when including an initial understanding of game mechanics, visual comparisons, and discussion to connect to discipline knowledge. Surprisingly, findings suggested that “analogies tend to be more effective when the source and target come from very different domains, because they demand greater conceptual effort,” highlighting the importance of teacher intervention rather than relying on gameplay alone. (p. 130).

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Exercise 1.1: Become a Tester

Take on the role of a tester. Go play a game and observe yourself as you play. Write down what you’re doing and feeling. Try to create one page of detailed notes on your behaviours and actions. Then repeat this experience while watching a friend play the same game. Compare the two sets of notes and analyze what you’ve learned from the process.

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Gee, J. P. (2008). Cats and portals: Video games, learning, and play. American Journal of Play, 1(2), 229.

Description: Gee (2008) argues that well made commercial games must effectively promote learning in order to be engaging and rewarding; however, commercial game designers do not necessarily draw on the learning sciences or academic domains but rather strive to promote mastery within the game world, and as such, sharp distinctions should not be made between entertainment and “serious” games as they both require sound principles in designing problem spaces. Placing too heavy an emphasis on “serious” games can detract from the essential element that makes commercial games such effective learning experiences: play, specifically the aspect of discovery, and using Portal as an example, Gee demonstrates that by placing emphasis on using tools to produce an action, players must learn to understand and manipulate physics even though learning physics as an academic discipline is not the goal of the game. Gee further utilizes an example of a young woman who blended the virtual and real world by turning real clothes into virtual clothes in The Sims and becoming a “Pro-Am” – passionate amateurs who have become experts by utilizing online resources and communities of practice and subsequently channeled that expertise into economic benefits and real-world skills, further demonstrating that games do not need to be “serious” or reliant on academic disciplines to inspire further learning and growth within the context of the game and the real world.

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