Games
I chose to play a number of the games that seemed to all put you in a first-person context. The first game that I played was the game Spent. Spent was a pretty well crafted game that was quite short and based on a number of decisions as a single parent that has lost everything. It was an interesting play, well designed, and followed through logically.
What I found with this game (and with others) is that they were designed to increase empathy for those that are less fortunate. Each of the games had links to donate money at the end of the game to the cause and were quite short. Because they were so short, it almost made me think that they were an in-your-face advertisements (even if for a good cause) and not intended to learn, but instead make you donate.
This is a great collection of games all the same.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Posted in: Week 05: Game-Based Learning
bcourey 3:37 pm on October 5, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I gave Spent a try too…and was wiped out financially in about 3 minutes…I see the point they are making about trying to make a living on minimum wage – I can see this being quite beneficial for those students who drop out of school before graduating because they got the “great job” at minimum wage – having no clue how much everything costs…But what disengaged me was the fact that the reason I was wiped out financially was because I didn’t pay for health insurance – very U.S. oriented. However, I then needed dental work and couldn’t afford it so I lived with the pain…a real-life experience. I found that my university bound students were much more intrigued with SimCity games where the development of a city or society required much more complex thinking and problem solving.