This is one of the
hardest blogpost I made, because I rarely play mobile games, or any computer
game. However, there very few games that I enjoy (on the rare events that I
play games) - I enjoy Tetris, Harvest Moon, Sims - totally boring games. I oftentimes
download fad games, but I end up not playing it at all.
According to Rogers, "Cognitively,
different games involve different kinds of skills. For instance, games based on
a limited set of rules (e.g. board games or card games) and, consequently, a
constrained number of possibilities in terms of played moves, engage
perception, memory and thinking processes. Differently, the fact of having to
rely on luck, as in lottery games, seems to involve mainly decision-making
processes.”
Apparently playing games has a positive
effect on perception, memory and thinking process. On the advent of smart
phones, people nowadays need not to have a game console to play, not even a
computer. On their phones, people can play different games - role playing
games, card games, any game at all.
For this assignment, I evaluated NEWBORN BABY
CARE; an game application developed by George CL.
The application description is “ Grown
from a woman to mother with full excitement, tension, pay out, fatigue, joy,
and fun. In period, go through various checks, birth, bathing,
dressing, feeding, and other tedious work, but the birth of new life is very
exciting. Whether you are about to become a mother or have been a mother or a
child will have to learn, review, experience the mother’s hardwork and joy of
it. This is a girl’s game and casual game and fashion and kids game.
From the description alone - it is kind of
confusing - considering how confusing the description is.
I downloaded it on the under the education
section of games on the App Store.
On evaluation, NEWBORN BABY CARE is a game
for prevention and harm reduction and a game for training.
It can provide training and education to
parturient mothers, what to expect and what she needs to prepare in different
stages of pregnancy like regular prenatal check up, delivery and taking
care of the newborn. The role of the end user to be in the shoes of the mother,
and on some stages to be the health care worker, which is can be
confusing if it is considered for educational purposes. Though the expectations
of the parturient mother is fulfilled, except for the roles who does
which.
As a game, I used
by Sharon
Boller as a reference.
On the first part, Why fun matters? Kevin Werback, in
his Coursera MOOC on gamification, identifies eight types of fun in
games. These eight types of fun all happen to integrate nicely with learning,
or are things people need to learn to do.
Winning (You
think this doesn’t link to the workplace? We all like to achieve a win state –
over a challenge, over a competitor, over ourselves – beating a previous
personal best, for example.)
YES Achieving
goals (Humans are goal-driven creatures. Goals are highly motivating
to most of us and achieving them is very satisfying. Goals in games that link
to the real-life learning we want a target group to do can be powerful and
effective. Goals are everywhere in business: reducing percentage of scrap,
reducing number of safety incidents, increasing sales by X, adding X
customers. There’s behavior change required to achieve most goals; that
frequently requires learning how to do something differently or better than you
currently do it.)
Triumphing –
this can be triumphing over a competitor, or the game itself, or over
individual challenges within the game. Many of us enjoy feeling victorious,
particularly if we gained victory by mastering a difficult problem or
challenge. We have feelings of triumph in the workplace as well: vanquishing a
difficult project, prevailing against difficult business odds or challenges,
etc.
Collaborating –
a highly valuable business skill, this is a fun element of many games, too.
People get social and emotional satisfaction out of collaborating with others.
Often people enjoy collaboration much more than they enjoy competing. And
organizations WANT people to collaborate in the workplace to achieve business
results.
Exploring
and building – Games like Sims, Minecraft, and Civilization are
about doing these things – and many people find exploration and building
powerfully motivating and “fun” to do – so fun, in fact, that they can spend
literally hours of time doing these things within a game. These are key skills
inside the workplace. Exploration is an under-rated business skill that closely
links to something more people understand within business: research.
Collecting –
lots of games feature a collection “dynamic” where players’ goal is to collect
certain things. Poker is essentially a collection game – collect the best cards
and you win. The Pokemon card craze of a few years ago is about
collection. The board game Risk combines collection – acquiring territories –
with strategizing. HOW will you gain those territories? Collection appeals to
many people’s sense of fun and can be incorporated easily into learning games.
In the business world, we often have to collect information before we can move
forward with decisions.
YES Problem-solving
or strategizing – these are higher-order thinking skills that lots of
people enjoy doing. Consequently games that feature these elements have lots of
fans. Chess is a classic example of a strategy game. World of Warcraft is a
modern-day example. Games in the adventure genre are all about problem-solving
– figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B. Problem-solving and
strategizing are part of growing and managing any business – and most jobs
within a business.
YES Role
playing or imagining – many games allow us to do one or
both of these things and people love doing them. Second Life, a once-popular
virtual environment, leveraged people’s desire to role play by allowing people
to create avatars to represent themselves. GameOn Learning has two
learning games that both have the learner imagine themselves in a different
place and time – while learning time management and negotiation skills. Fantasy
can provide a powerful means of letting people feel free to try new behaviors
and acquire new skills while feeling safe and minimizing fear of failure.
Achieving
goals –
in each stage the end user need to achieve goals by playing on mini games to be
able to collect different items (eg partograph) to complete each stage.
Problem-solving or
strategizing - this is the aspect of the game that is NOT
On evaluating what you play, there are a lot of guide
questions on the article. I’ll answer objectively the questions.
What’s the game goal? Is it clear? Is it compelling to me? Why
or why not?
Some, because the minigames is TOTALLY NOT
related to motherhood or pregnancy.
What’s the game’s core dynamic? Is it exploration, collection,
“race to the finish,” solve—or a blend of two different dynamics such as
collection AND race to the finish?
It is more of exploring
pregnancy and motherhood.
Are the rules clear? How do I learn them?
Somewhat, because the
game itself guides you to each step.
What game mechanics (aka rules) make the game most fun? Which
one(s) would I change? What would happen if I did? (Suggestion: Try changing
one of the mechanics and re-playing the game to see how it alters the play
experience and the sense of “fun.”)
It would be more fun and
educational if the mini games are related to motherhood and pregnancy.
Do the aesthetics of the game draw me in? What emotional
reaction do the aesthetics elicit in me?
Yes, neat and clean
images of the game draw me in. The colors is encouraging one to download and
play the game.
Is the game “balanced” in the sense that it accommodates
different player levels? How?
Not really, all stages
are of equal difficulty, finishing each stage would depend on how good you are
on strategy on the minigames which are totally unrelated to pregnancy or
motherhood.
Do I feel like the game is a good match for its target audience?
(We play games intended for school-aged kids at times. I have to evaluate the
game’s play in the context of who it is intended for, which isn’t me.)
Yes
Is there a story associated with this game? How does it enhance
the game play experience? How did the designers weave the story throughout the
game? If they didn’t, why not? Would it add/detract from the game if they did?
Yes, there is a story,
through stages a woman will go through from pre pregnancy to giving birth.
What’s the balance between strategy and chance? Do I feel like I
have control over the outcome by the choices I make in the game or do I feel
the outcome is almost all chance? (e.g. the card game War is all chance. Chess
is strategy.) How does the “chance” factor affect how I feel about the game?
There is no CHANCE
aspect, all strategy on the minigames.
Is the game cooperative, competitive, or a blend of both? How
does this make me feel as I play the game? Does it increase or decrease my
motivation to play?
The game is more of game
of strategy, what motivates one to play more is getting through all the stages.
If the game is competitive and I lose, how does this make me
feel? Does it motivate me to play again or do I want to avoid playing again so
I can avoid losing?
Not applicable
If it’s a digital game, how easy is it to navigate? How clear is
the navigation? Can I quickly learn by exploring?
VERY EASY TO NAVIGATE.
Finally, as a learning game designer, what elements from this
game could I use in a game I design?
This is a very important question especially on gamification for
health, I would like to include the element of reality. Specially on achieving
each stage and the goals, if I were to enhance or recommend some for the game,
it would be including or changing the minigames related to the motherhood or
pregnancy.
Reference:
1.
McCallum S. Gamification and serious games for personalized
health. Studies in health technology and informatics 2012;177:85-96. http://www.miro.ing.unitn.it/download/Didactics/Misure2/2012%20pHealth%20-%20Gamification.pdf
2.
Gamberini, Luciano, et al. "A game a day keeps the doctor
away: A short review of computer games in mental healthcare." Journal of
CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation 1.2 (2008): 127-145.http://htlab.psy.unipd.it/uploads/Pdf/Publications/Papers/Cyber_rehab08.pdf
3.
Learning Game Design Series, Part 1: Play and Evaluate Games by
Sharon Boller http://www.theknowledgeguru.com/play-and-evaluate-games/
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