There were sixteen principles that Jim Gee's article discussed that were involved in good games and learning. While playing through Gardens of Time the ones that I felt connected most to his article were the following: customization, pleasantly frustrating, and challenge/consolidation.
In Gardens of Time, you earn money and experience points to buy artifacts and decorations for your garden. You earn money and experience points by playing completing adventures which are hidden picture games. The money can be used to purchase items to decorate your garden. The points are used towards leveling up and will unlock new items for your garden as well as new adventures to complete.
Gardens of Time is pleasantly frustrating because you are basically looking for a list of items that are hidden in a picture scene. The list changes for each game, but the items are usually in the same area. It is frustrating because you will see an items that you found just the game before, but can't remember where it is and it seems to take even longer to find it than before.
The challenge for this game for me comes from wanting to always beat my own time. It is not so much as earning points and passing other players for me to feel challenged, but to beat my old time and keep getting faster. Many other games make you feel that other people playing are your competition, but in this game it is myself.
Customization allows players to get a sense of identity and feel like they are in that world. Like you, the game Gardens of Time is pleasantly frustrating to me as well, but it is a way to challenge myself to get better. Learning in the classroom should be this way as well.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to "pleasantly frustrating". The timed challenges are very hard for me, I even tried to look at the screen before hitting the "start" button :), doesn't seem to help me! I have noticed the different levels that players have completed, so to make a comparison to the classroom... our students are on different levels at varying times with different content, so educators need to recognize and respond to this, and even though it may be pleasantly frustrating for some, it can be horribly frustrating for others.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I really enjoy the most about Gardens of Time is the challenge. The challenge to beat my own time, earn more points, reach new levels, and accomplish my personal goals. Each time I complete a level I find myself getting faster and faster. I become engaged in the game, trying to conquer the next challenge. Visiting other people to see what they have done to their garden is inspiring; drives me to earn more points and buy more big things. I have not yet accomplished my personal garden goal, I want a hot air balloon. However, the seven gold bars it costs presents a very difficult challenge. It is the challenge that brings the game to life; that keeps us all playing.
ReplyDeleteYour last statement caught my attention. I noticed you said the challenge for you was beating your time. I found for me it was beating the people who were ahead of me in each level. I found after I finished each level the game brought up rankings of my friends and that after looking at that list I wanted to play that level again to get ahead of my friends.
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