Game Reviews – Third World Farmer
A game that focuses on the reality of trying to survive in a 3rd world country. What crops do I plant? What disaster is going to hit next?
Posted in: Week 05: Game-Based Learning
ETEC 522 – Sept. 2011
Ventures in Learning Technologies – Sept. 2011
-
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
- c
- compose new post
- j
- next post/next comment
- k
- previous post/previous comment
- r
- reply
- o
- show/hide comments
- t
- go to top
- l
- go to login
- h
- show/hide help
- esc
- cancel
Everton Walker 5:58 pm on October 4, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I chose this game as I am living in a third word country and as a result can resonate with all the happenings. It was as if I was preparing for a real world experience and as a result it more than just a game. This game could be applied within a social studies and geography context within my classroom. The fact that we experience floods and hurricanes on a regular basis, students would learn to strategize and prepare for impending disasters and learn how to live within their means. Since we are in the tropics students will also develop a sense of what crop survives in this region and how to spend wisely. This is more than a game. It’s a lesson on real life.
Deb Giesbrecht 5:33 pm on October 5, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I chose this game as it reminds me of our favorite family game – Settlers. Buying property, getting crops and supplies. etc. Harsh reality though to watch your health meter go down. Gives you an annual report, which is very different from the board game though.
Jay 1:44 pm on October 9, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I played the game Third World Farmer without success. Everton’s post above points to some ways that a game such as this could be used in a social and geographical studies learning context and giving students some idea to issues that people living in these environments face everyday.
At surface level the game provides the user/learner an opportunity to build problem-solving, critical thinking, simple money management and business concepts and the unpredictibility of farming and markets.
At a deeper lever, what troubles me about games such as this is by removing real global soco-political issues and placing them in a ‘virtual’, game (=fun) environment, undermines the very reality and seriousness of these issues faced by millions of people across the globe everyday. While we “lose the game” and can start again, people facing these issues lose and die. Some may argue that these games raise awareness around these social issues and is a way of social issues learning, but this type of education that in my opinion does little to support or foster change or social justice. It also does little to address the greater forces socio-political forces at work that are often reason these types of situations and this game places blame on uncontrollable forces (drought, floods) and does little to address systemic flaws (market, politics).