All Blog Posts (74)

Hello Everyone:

I am the creator of rgMOOC (Rhetoric and Game-Based MOOC), which will run on May 28 - Aug 1, 2013!  This is an Advanced English Composition course for studying digital games as paratexts and as rhetorical objects.  For 10 weeks, we will be playing and writing about a variety of games made in flash, html 5, PS3, and other game engines.  Some of the game genres we will play are Adventure, Interactive Fiction, RPG, Platform, FPS, Horror, Puzzle,…

This is a basic introduction to the uncanny valley concept and how its acceptance without supporting research has affected various decision-making processes in many fields, including animation, gaming, and simulations.

The idea of the uncanny valley has become a primary concern in many fields such as animation, gaming, simulations, doll-making, robotics, and many others. Basically, any field where a human or humanoid character is designed has been affected by the uncanny…

Our members created a terrific collection of training activities. These are tested designs that provide an engaging learning experience on a variety of topics. Read more about our book and take a look at a free sample activity.

We are pleased to announce the first issue of Simages for 2013. This issue has 3 articles by simulation and gaming experts and an interview with an up and coming game designer.

• Gaining Your Meaningful Gamification Badge By Scott Nicholson
• STEM Education: An Epic Battle By Melissa…

For anyone who wished they could have joined us tonight, here is a link to the transcript on Storify.

We had a great conversation, and intend to keep these up on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. Our next one will be March 26th.

Also please respond to the poll on the front page of our website, we are trying to start virtual games nights and would like to get a feel for who is playing…

Games MOOC III  will begin on March 18, 2013 and run for six weeks until April 22, 2013.

The topic for Games MOOC III is Build the Game using Apps, AR and ARGs. The focus of this MOOC will be creating a game or gaming project for a course you are currently working on. This may take the form of using mobile devices to include even augmented reality. Or it may be a highly immersive interactive project that has your students doing live action role-play. Depending on…

For anyone who wished they could have joined us last night, here is a link to the transcript on Storify.

http://storify.com/mwbtle/inaugural-nasagachat

We had a great time chatting, and will be doing another one in early March. Please let Chris Saeger or myself know if you'd like to try your hand at hosting!

We also are going to be trying out some of the ideas that we came up with last night for more NASAGA…

During the conference in Columbus this year, I noticed many times that my discussions with people turned toward the idea of keeping the conference going year-round. Everyone was having such a good time learning and engaging with each other that no one wanted it to end. Time and again I heard, "There has got to be a way to keep the discussion going!"

With that in mind, we are embarking on an experiment in social media this month. For those who are active Facebookers, we have set up a…

The international Simulation and Gaming Association Conference will be from June 24 – 28, 2013, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Jan Klabbers, is organizing two special workshops at the conference.

• Methodology of gaming simulation for learning, research and design
  
  
• Fidelity and Embodied Experiences in…

At the opening keynote of NASAGA 2012: Boldly Launching into 50 More Years of Games-Based Learning, Greg Koeser, Chris Saeger, Scott Nicholson and myself led an alternate reality game (ARG) which flipped the keynote from a sit-and-listen experience into a shared experience which had new and established NASAGAns interacting with each other from the first. This activity, however, was the culminating experience of a longer game that was played by NASAGA neophytes before the conference…

From the site--

"Understanding Games is series of four games explaining the basic concepts of video games. The tutorial-style episodes deal with rules, motivation, learning and identification in video games. The player is guided through each episode by the narrators Bob and Bub, who explain core concepts of games to the player. The player can experience these concepts directly while playing the integrated games"…

Who knows if it is a coincidence but Google is launching Ingress an mobile ARG. You can request an invite at http://www.ingress.com/

From AllthingsD

"..Ingress, a new free mobile app and alternate reality game made by Google launching today (on Android first, available as soon as it makes it through the Google Play release process).

Ingress is a project of former Google director of geo John Hanke…

It was a whirlwind of activity from start to finish. I don't recall any other conference in which all three keynotes were highly interactive. We opened with an Alternate Reality Experience (ARG). The second presentation invited people to explore their beliefs and stereotypes. The closing session gave us an opportunity to use a variety of methods and metaphors to reflect on the conference overall as well as where we are as an organization. Brian Remer kindly provided the handouts on…

From Classroom Aid, "CNN just made a special report “Gaming Reality“ to reveal the true stories of gaming in our current world. Here is the beginning of the stories: “Video gaming is a $90 billion business. Globally, we spend 1 billion hours per year inside games. But this virtual pastime has infiltrated the real world in unexpected ways. It’s…

This is a concise article on simulations, games, and gamification. A good overview of the key ideas. What would you add or modify to provide greater depth or how to's?

What’s the Difference Between Games and Gamification?

"..the best way to think about games in education is not to automatically call everything that looks like fun a “learning game.” Lumping all digital game approaches together makes no more sense than a toddler’s inclination to call every…

I hate math with numbers and calculations. My math result at school is very low. I never think that I can be good at math and I also don’t want to learn it. My parents usually yell me about my studying but I don’t care.

My only interest is playing games and games. I spend almost my free time on finding and playing new games. I like discovering new kinds of games and introducing them to my friends. One day, I found a new kind of game but unfortunately, its name is…

Bottom Line Performance is a learning design company based in Indianapolis. They are creating a board based game called A Paycheck Away, "a learning game that will show what being homeless is really like…and why it is so hard for people to get out of it. The  game was selected for the 2012 Spirit and Place Festival, a coming-together of arts, religion, and humanities in Indianapolis." It is a project very much in the sharing…

I ran across this book from the course reading list in Bernie Dodge's long running course Exploratory Learning Through Educational Simulation & Games, EDTEC 670 at San Diego State. I haven't had time to skim through it yet but it sounds fascinating. It is a free download.

Costikyan, G. & Davidson, D. (2011). Tabletop: Analog Game Design. Feedbooks. 

"In this volume, people…

Back at the beginning of the month I posted about a Massive Open Online Course on Games-based Learning. The course is running for a total of six weeks and we are now close to the end of week three so it is time for a mid-term paper.

To re-cap here is the schedule for the six weeks.

Game-based Learning

Week 1 Games Based Learning/Game Principles. 

Week 2 Overview of…