As per my last post, I decided to do some research for any scientific studies done on violent video games and its effects on children.
Seems like, there were more than enough articles written on this.
From what I have gathered and read so far, there seems to be no actual, accurate, scientific evidence of violence in video games affecting children in such negative ways that this would make them violent beings. The ones I have read all end up with the words, "may have links" or "could lead to." Of course, like with anything, violent video games (and just normal video games, in fact) have both its pros and cons. The few we see on the news, or by politicians, etc, which claim that there are definite causal links to aggressive behaviour, particularly about the brain scans and how the different parts lit up during the playing of these games, well watch the link below, and a pair of doctors make a good argument against this.
There also seems to be quite an outrage on the issue of censorship of video games, especially in Australia. Interestingly, one of the consistent statistics I saw in all these articles, was that the majority of 'gamers' are aged 21+. Seems logical to then, introduce an R18+ rating? At least give us a choice. But again, there is a ton of discussion and articles on this, simply google "censorship video games australia" and see for yourself.
Back to the discussion of violence. I found that Penn and Teller actually did an episode of their show, "Bulls#@!" on, you guessed it, violent video games.
Although, I do find them quite obnoxious at times, some of the things in this episode did seem very interesting; especially the point they make at the end about football. Due to the nature of the show, and also this particular episode's content, I have not embedded it, but rather will link it.
WARNING: Contains graphic scenes from violent video games, and frequent high coarse language! Not for the squeamish nor the aurally sensitive. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Youtube part 1
Youtube part 2
As stated in this episode, I would say the general public of 'non-gamers' still view a gamer as an anti-social, introvert. But looking back at my own life going through school, I didn't really feel like an outsider. In primary years, games were a cool thing. We played sports at lunch time, but if we went over to play at each other's house, we'd play the ol' NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), Sega Master System, or for the few who were lucky enough, a PC. In high school, again it was similar during the junior years. Most of my group of friends were into playing games, and this is where I started to take a bigger interest, buying gaming magazines as well as basketball magazines. We would goto internet cafes to play against or as coop in games such as Starcraft, Diablo, Rainbow Six and Counterstrike.
It wasn't really until the final couple of years of high school and particularly university where it hit me that 'admitting to being a gamer' turned you into an outcast. It was almost as if it was taboo. I still enjoyed the other aspects of "RL" (real life), went out to socialise and meet new people, but I noticed nobody ever talked about games. It was cars, fashion, tv shows, music and movies. After a while, I just couldn't be bothered to do the same thing night in and night out. I rather stay at home or meet some gaming friends and spend the night playing video games. I would be socialising either face to face or virtually with these friends, but of course, this is not considered the same as, for instance, meeting someone in a popular drinking venue.
I remember the first few years I started playing World of Warcraft with a few close friends, and my then girlfriend, now wife. One of these friends was really, really into it. He would analyse all the different stat bonuses gained and lost from different sets of items, how one class could counter another, how to fight a certain boss next time to kill it, etc. He used to come to our place often after a WoW session to just relax and chill, and we'd end up talking about WoW forever. However, when we met him outside, in a social setting with other non-WoW players, it was quite different. Sometimes I would use WoW to strike a conversation with him, and after about 10minutes, he would say "Let's stop talking about games." and stop it. I found that quite confounding. This guy, who once said to me "WoW is more than a game to me," even he was aware of the social implications of revealing himself as a gamer.
Even until recently, I tried to hide the fact that I am a gamer. At the different places I worked at, I've had co-workers who were gamers, and even to them I tried not to talk to them about it too much, and interestingly, they didn't really want to either. We would maybe talk about a game we're playing, something interesting that happened in it, is it good or bad, and then move on. (Possibly before other co-workers come and judge us?) It wasn't actually until I heard Deborah Evans say at the macICT session we had for SciTech, "raise your hand if you are a gamer. Be proud!" (I actually didn't raise my hand, but told her later on.) Another person to note is Sean "Day9" Plott, who does daily video casts on starcraft 2. He begins nearly every show with "Welcome to the Day9 daily where we try to be better gamers." He is unashamed and very proud of being a gamer and having so much passion over games, that it is hard to not have that kind of enthusiasm rub off on you. Also, he would be a great spokesperson on gaming and education; just watch any of his 'Newbie Tuesday' dailies and you can see the cognitive and metacognitive strategies that he puts into place and tries to make us, the viewers, from doing the same when reflecting upon our matches.
Links to both the macICT website and Day9 daily videos are on the right hand side of this blog.
I think that about sums it up for this entry. Not really education-related, but more of a self-reflective post. Maybe I should've split this into two posts, but hey, I'm a noob at blogs, and that's what tags are for right? :)
Thursday 2 June 2011
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Magicka - Science game in disguise?
I've had an absolute blast with a game called Magicka, an indie RPG (role playing game) that goes for about $10US on steam. Especially when you play it with friends... Boy oh boy, your stomach will be begging for mercy from all the laughing that will inevitably be happening...
Here's a short clip on the basic concept and mechanics of the game:
If that link doesn't show, you can watch it from YouTube here.
Not sure about you, but that seems to me like a great collaborative inquiry based learning game!
There are basic science concepts like the different elements which do not work too well together (eg. you cannot queue up electricity and water spells at once) or use at your own advantage (and so can the enemies), but it occurred to me that a lot of what this developer said in the video was close to what my friends and I did when we "seriously" buckled down and tried to complete some levels. (The first 2-3 hours was just plain experimenting different and humorous ways on how to trap/stun/knock off map/basically destroy each other!) Some would take certain roles, make plans, re-adjust these plans if they don't work out as intended, discuss alternative solutions and so on. We were doing this with none of us realising it! Something I took away from the recent macICT think-tank session, was about "Immersion" and the difference it has with "Engagement," and I can really see how immersion can really just make one lose themselves in something and subconsciously create their own learning experience. Without knowing, the four of us gained skills in collaboration, problem solving and to a certain extent metacognitive ability (Last attempt I tried to slow them, why did I think that was a good idea? Was it due to poor execution we couldn't succeed, or was there a flaw in our strategy? Other variables such as latency, disconnects, etc?).
I was thinking about this game when doing some research and work on a current SciTech group assignment. We set our IBL (inquiry based learning) unit question on "How do things freeze?" and whilst finding some awesomely interesting and informative videos and websites, the experiences of playing this game kind of crept into my head and it just got me thinking about it.
Ultimately, one major factor that this game can't be used in a classroom (especially a Primary one at that) is plain and simple. The dreaded V word. Violence.
Such a shame, and it is something i want to write about in the future here. The whole validity of violence and sex, not just in video games but other forms of media. But I have some questions first, so would like to at least do a LITTLE TINY WEENY bit of research before I do. Main question I am asking is, who came up with the notion that at age 15 people can watch/play something with low/mid level of violence and low level of sexual reference and some drug use and at age of 18 can experience everything else? Is there actually any scientific research done on this? Or is it just another generalisation/dodgy research like the one about how video games make children into psychotic killers? (Interestingly, in the U.S, M rated games are called T -Teen- and for ages 13 and up, the equivalent of our MA 15 rated games, are M -Mature- rated games over there and are for ages 18 and up, whereas in Australia R rated games are denied classification. Just shows what the rulemakers think of games and gamers. That is, made for kids, used by kids.)
If anyone actually has any answers or even links, insight, commentary, thoughts about this, please comment away as it will make my own research more clearer in direction.
Anyway, that's all for now, GAME ON! errmm.. I mean, write essays :(
Here's a short clip on the basic concept and mechanics of the game:
If that link doesn't show, you can watch it from YouTube here.
Not sure about you, but that seems to me like a great collaborative inquiry based learning game!
There are basic science concepts like the different elements which do not work too well together (eg. you cannot queue up electricity and water spells at once) or use at your own advantage (and so can the enemies), but it occurred to me that a lot of what this developer said in the video was close to what my friends and I did when we "seriously" buckled down and tried to complete some levels. (The first 2-3 hours was just plain experimenting different and humorous ways on how to trap/stun/knock off map/basically destroy each other!) Some would take certain roles, make plans, re-adjust these plans if they don't work out as intended, discuss alternative solutions and so on. We were doing this with none of us realising it! Something I took away from the recent macICT think-tank session, was about "Immersion" and the difference it has with "Engagement," and I can really see how immersion can really just make one lose themselves in something and subconsciously create their own learning experience. Without knowing, the four of us gained skills in collaboration, problem solving and to a certain extent metacognitive ability (Last attempt I tried to slow them, why did I think that was a good idea? Was it due to poor execution we couldn't succeed, or was there a flaw in our strategy? Other variables such as latency, disconnects, etc?).
I was thinking about this game when doing some research and work on a current SciTech group assignment. We set our IBL (inquiry based learning) unit question on "How do things freeze?" and whilst finding some awesomely interesting and informative videos and websites, the experiences of playing this game kind of crept into my head and it just got me thinking about it.
Ultimately, one major factor that this game can't be used in a classroom (especially a Primary one at that) is plain and simple. The dreaded V word. Violence.
Such a shame, and it is something i want to write about in the future here. The whole validity of violence and sex, not just in video games but other forms of media. But I have some questions first, so would like to at least do a LITTLE TINY WEENY bit of research before I do. Main question I am asking is, who came up with the notion that at age 15 people can watch/play something with low/mid level of violence and low level of sexual reference and some drug use and at age of 18 can experience everything else? Is there actually any scientific research done on this? Or is it just another generalisation/dodgy research like the one about how video games make children into psychotic killers? (Interestingly, in the U.S, M rated games are called T -Teen- and for ages 13 and up, the equivalent of our MA 15 rated games, are M -Mature- rated games over there and are for ages 18 and up, whereas in Australia R rated games are denied classification. Just shows what the rulemakers think of games and gamers. That is, made for kids, used by kids.)
If anyone actually has any answers or even links, insight, commentary, thoughts about this, please comment away as it will make my own research more clearer in direction.
Anyway, that's all for now, GAME ON! errmm.. I mean, write essays :(
Tuesday 26 April 2011
To start press any key. Where's the any key?
I booted up my xbox 360 the other day, for my daily dose of some NBA2k11 action, when it occurred to me that upon loading, a message pops up "Press START." Kind of made me think, yes on most (if not all?) consoles, there indeed is a start key. What if you were a PC user? Would some people think the windows key is the START key? Since pressing this key triggers your start menu in Windows?
Reminded me of an old article I read during my late high school years in a magazine I am still reading (and subscribed to!), PC PowerPlay. I think this was a time of Playstation 2s and Nintendo Gamecubes, and also for PC gamers in particularly, Console Port ins. These were basically console games which were "ported" over to the PC platform. Popular examples were Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear Solid. Now, the writer of this article (pretty sure it was Timothy C. Best) mentioned that not only were most of these ports released several months and in some cases over a year later, he expressed his frustration that simple touches, such as changing messages such as, "Press X to kick" would not be changed to the appropriate PC control key scheme.
Being in high school with very, very limited income, I couldn't exactly go out and buy these games to see what the fuss was all about. All I knew was, my friends owned playstations and sega saturns, and darnnarnit I wanted one too!
Fast forward a few years, and working part time, I finally saved enough to buy my very own console for the first time. Alas, my partner (now wife), though she doesn't see herself as a gamer (played World of Warcraft with me for a few years, and is a KILLER PRO spider solitaire and freecell player! If there ever was a professional competition for spider solitaire and freecell, OMG she would own those so hard, even professional starcraft players would come to watch her AMAZING APM!), didn't like "violent games" but loved "Mario."... You guessed it, my first console, was a Wii. Nothing against it though, we had loads of fun with it, so many times we couldn't stop laughing, especially when we had friends over, but I couldn't play the so-called "blockbusters." So in the end I had to resort to buying PC versions of these games, which wasn't a big deal, since most of these were FPS (First Person Shooters), which I prefer controlling with the classic keyboard and mouse setup. (Keyboard for movement, mouse for aiming and shooting).
The big thing was NBA2K10. I bought that on steam, for PC, so excited about buying a basketball game for the first time since 1999, I eagerly awaited this download to finish. Once done, I patched it up, and off I went to the loading screen. I played a few games and thought, 'hey, I wanna learn some of the moves' and went into practice mode.' First thing I saw was "To do a stepback, hold the Left trigger and move your left analog stick back." ...... Make a long story short, I now have an xbox360 and 2K11 is NOT on my PC.
Going back to the FPS thing. I also read an article in a recent issue of PC PowerPlay by the tech editor, Matt Wilson (issue 187, Feb 2011 for those who may want to refer to it), about him building a gaming rig for his younger brother and installing steam and Call of Duty for him. To this his brother asked "Can you use a controller on this PC?" and which to this the tech editor was simply flabbergasted, as most PC gamers would agree, 'Why on earth would you opt a controller over the precision of mouse and keyboard?'. Maybe this is just a generation thing? I mean I've tried playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on the xbox a few months back, and I was absolutely hopeless. Yet, look up on Youtube and you will find loads of video replays of players doing some awesome things, things that I would be assuming were done using mouse and keyboard, not a fidgety controller. I've noticed a lot of my younger friends (still in high school), who grew up on consoles, are so good at using these controllers.
It's almost like being left handed or right handed. Of course there are those ambidextrous in this sense and are proficient at both modes of input, but generally people seem to have a preference.
I know this has been a long entry, but one last final interesting note. I was scrounging around teamliquid's website for some starcraft 2 strats, where I stumbled across this article.
Titled, Bumblebees Guide to Playing with low APM. For those who are not RTS players (real time strategy games), APM stands for (actions per minute), which is simply a measure of how many actions a player makes, generally not a be all end all measure of skill, but an aspect of it. Being a noob at starcraft 2, and thus naturally having very low APM I hastily opened this and had a read. It turns out that this particular player has a medical condition which hinders his ability to have high APM, but he has figured out different ways to work around this obstacle. The article goes really in depth, and even has a section on different types of input devices which people who have similar conditions, could use as alternatives if for the chance that they find the mouse and keyboard setup too uncomfortable.
Just a snippet,
"Replacing the mouse
The mouse is usually considered the optimal cursor device for most people. I realize there are many, many options and accompanying opinions about what mouse is best so I will only discuss alternatives to the mouse. I'm going to assume for this that you are not so disabled as to require some form of eye or head tracking to control the cursor. If you are, and are playing starcraft, please message me!
Trackball - Trackballs are the common solution for people who have physical difficulties operating a mouse. The main advantages are that a trackball can be operated without arm movement, and the buttons are independent of the tracking device. For general use trackballs are probably the optimal solution for those with physical difficulties. I spent a good amount of time playing SC II and other games with a trackball and I found some problems with trackballs for video game usage."
(from http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=163299)
So next time you load up your favorite game on whatever platform it may be, be it PC, Mac, console, smart phones, tablets, etc, have a think, are there other ways people use controls to use this game? Even simple things as key bindings, think about how you bind your keys on a keyboard/controller/whatever, and think why you have set it up as so.
EDIT: Just realised there's also motion sensor type controls such as via the Wiimote, Playstation Move, and Xbox Kinect. Looks like we're moving towards the whole no physical control scheme of things, but at the same time, I don't think these will completely replace them in the near future either. Reason being, certain games just will not feel right, or will not work well with motion sensor technology. (RTS being a prime example) So until we start seeing gaming platforms completely rewriting the ways we play ALL games, and start innovating some new ways to produce today's and tomorrow's genres, your mouse/keyboard/controller will still be in good shape.
Apologies for the wall of text!
Reminded me of an old article I read during my late high school years in a magazine I am still reading (and subscribed to!), PC PowerPlay. I think this was a time of Playstation 2s and Nintendo Gamecubes, and also for PC gamers in particularly, Console Port ins. These were basically console games which were "ported" over to the PC platform. Popular examples were Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear Solid. Now, the writer of this article (pretty sure it was Timothy C. Best) mentioned that not only were most of these ports released several months and in some cases over a year later, he expressed his frustration that simple touches, such as changing messages such as, "Press X to kick" would not be changed to the appropriate PC control key scheme.
Being in high school with very, very limited income, I couldn't exactly go out and buy these games to see what the fuss was all about. All I knew was, my friends owned playstations and sega saturns, and darnnarnit I wanted one too!
Fast forward a few years, and working part time, I finally saved enough to buy my very own console for the first time. Alas, my partner (now wife), though she doesn't see herself as a gamer (played World of Warcraft with me for a few years, and is a KILLER PRO spider solitaire and freecell player! If there ever was a professional competition for spider solitaire and freecell, OMG she would own those so hard, even professional starcraft players would come to watch her AMAZING APM!), didn't like "violent games" but loved "Mario."... You guessed it, my first console, was a Wii. Nothing against it though, we had loads of fun with it, so many times we couldn't stop laughing, especially when we had friends over, but I couldn't play the so-called "blockbusters." So in the end I had to resort to buying PC versions of these games, which wasn't a big deal, since most of these were FPS (First Person Shooters), which I prefer controlling with the classic keyboard and mouse setup. (Keyboard for movement, mouse for aiming and shooting).
The big thing was NBA2K10. I bought that on steam, for PC, so excited about buying a basketball game for the first time since 1999, I eagerly awaited this download to finish. Once done, I patched it up, and off I went to the loading screen. I played a few games and thought, 'hey, I wanna learn some of the moves' and went into practice mode.' First thing I saw was "To do a stepback, hold the Left trigger and move your left analog stick back." ...... Make a long story short, I now have an xbox360 and 2K11 is NOT on my PC.
Going back to the FPS thing. I also read an article in a recent issue of PC PowerPlay by the tech editor, Matt Wilson (issue 187, Feb 2011 for those who may want to refer to it), about him building a gaming rig for his younger brother and installing steam and Call of Duty for him. To this his brother asked "Can you use a controller on this PC?" and which to this the tech editor was simply flabbergasted, as most PC gamers would agree, 'Why on earth would you opt a controller over the precision of mouse and keyboard?'. Maybe this is just a generation thing? I mean I've tried playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on the xbox a few months back, and I was absolutely hopeless. Yet, look up on Youtube and you will find loads of video replays of players doing some awesome things, things that I would be assuming were done using mouse and keyboard, not a fidgety controller. I've noticed a lot of my younger friends (still in high school), who grew up on consoles, are so good at using these controllers.
It's almost like being left handed or right handed. Of course there are those ambidextrous in this sense and are proficient at both modes of input, but generally people seem to have a preference.
I know this has been a long entry, but one last final interesting note. I was scrounging around teamliquid's website for some starcraft 2 strats, where I stumbled across this article.
Titled, Bumblebees Guide to Playing with low APM. For those who are not RTS players (real time strategy games), APM stands for (actions per minute), which is simply a measure of how many actions a player makes, generally not a be all end all measure of skill, but an aspect of it. Being a noob at starcraft 2, and thus naturally having very low APM I hastily opened this and had a read. It turns out that this particular player has a medical condition which hinders his ability to have high APM, but he has figured out different ways to work around this obstacle. The article goes really in depth, and even has a section on different types of input devices which people who have similar conditions, could use as alternatives if for the chance that they find the mouse and keyboard setup too uncomfortable.
Just a snippet,
"Replacing the mouse
The mouse is usually considered the optimal cursor device for most people. I realize there are many, many options and accompanying opinions about what mouse is best so I will only discuss alternatives to the mouse. I'm going to assume for this that you are not so disabled as to require some form of eye or head tracking to control the cursor. If you are, and are playing starcraft, please message me!
Trackball - Trackballs are the common solution for people who have physical difficulties operating a mouse. The main advantages are that a trackball can be operated without arm movement, and the buttons are independent of the tracking device. For general use trackballs are probably the optimal solution for those with physical difficulties. I spent a good amount of time playing SC II and other games with a trackball and I found some problems with trackballs for video game usage."
(from http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=163299)
So next time you load up your favorite game on whatever platform it may be, be it PC, Mac, console, smart phones, tablets, etc, have a think, are there other ways people use controls to use this game? Even simple things as key bindings, think about how you bind your keys on a keyboard/controller/whatever, and think why you have set it up as so.
EDIT: Just realised there's also motion sensor type controls such as via the Wiimote, Playstation Move, and Xbox Kinect. Looks like we're moving towards the whole no physical control scheme of things, but at the same time, I don't think these will completely replace them in the near future either. Reason being, certain games just will not feel right, or will not work well with motion sensor technology. (RTS being a prime example) So until we start seeing gaming platforms completely rewriting the ways we play ALL games, and start innovating some new ways to produce today's and tomorrow's genres, your mouse/keyboard/controller will still be in good shape.
Apologies for the wall of text!
Monday 18 April 2011
Qualities of a gamer, learner, teacher?
Just as I posted that last one, I hopped over to the macICT blog, and found a very interesting article indeed.
Titled, Top 10 qualities of an innovative teacher. Here are some of the qualities DEVANS17 listed in her top 10,
"....
3. Innovative teachers are risk-takers. They usually don’t take ‘no’ for an answer too easily. They are willing to make calculated risks, to break rules and often test untried territories on a regular basis.
4. Innovative teachers are gracious and giving. They usually say ‘yes’ when someone asks for help or needs support. They are never too busy to share their expertise.
5. Innovative teachers are not afraid to fail. They see mistakes, errors and wrong decisions as learning opportunities.
...."
For the full article, you can check that out here.
Also check out this video
It's called Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
If the video doesn't play properly, or if you'd rather see it directly through YouTube, you can do that through this link.
So after reading through the article and watching the video, as a gamer, do you share of these qualities mentioned? How about as a learner? How about as a teacher? Personally, I found it interesting that I share most of these qualities as a gamer, more or less the same amount as a learner, but not that many as a teacher... As a preservice teacher this is something I now know I must work on harder to achieve!
Titled, Top 10 qualities of an innovative teacher. Here are some of the qualities DEVANS17 listed in her top 10,
"....
1. Innovative teachers are problem-solvers. They are never too busy to find answers to problems. So when a problem occurs, they don’t see the problem. They are usually already trying a workaround, and usually searching for a solution at the same time.
2. Innovative teachers are perseverant. If the solution to a problem doesn’t come immediately, they persevere until they find one.3. Innovative teachers are risk-takers. They usually don’t take ‘no’ for an answer too easily. They are willing to make calculated risks, to break rules and often test untried territories on a regular basis.
4. Innovative teachers are gracious and giving. They usually say ‘yes’ when someone asks for help or needs support. They are never too busy to share their expertise.
5. Innovative teachers are not afraid to fail. They see mistakes, errors and wrong decisions as learning opportunities.
...."
For the full article, you can check that out here.
Also check out this video
It's called Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
If the video doesn't play properly, or if you'd rather see it directly through YouTube, you can do that through this link.
So after reading through the article and watching the video, as a gamer, do you share of these qualities mentioned? How about as a learner? How about as a teacher? Personally, I found it interesting that I share most of these qualities as a gamer, more or less the same amount as a learner, but not that many as a teacher... As a preservice teacher this is something I now know I must work on harder to achieve!
Weclome fellow N.zoids!
Hello people of the world wide web! (or perhaps just a few friends, family and loved ones as this was created 5 minutes ago...)
First off, I just want to say (or write), that I absolutely love video games! Whether it is playing it, watching friends play, watching the professionals play, reading about it online, through magazines, listening to podcasts (and more recently videocasts - vidcasts??) and so on and so forth. However, I always seemed to hit a brick wall in terms of "skill" in most, if not all, of the video games that I have picked up and played in the past. No matter how much I played, or practised, or read up strategy guides and such, I just plain sucked.
As many ex-noobs may imagine, this lead to many a times where the rage monster (like the cookie monster, but way, way, WAY uglier. Not to mention the mess it leaves behind!) would be unleashed and its wrath would know no end and it'd be chaos in my computer/bed room... Or at least until my ma or pa came in and gave me the ol' LOOK. (You know what I mean. That expression on my father's face when he first saw me 'speaking' to my computer at 4 in the morning on a ventrilo server - oh boy... but that is for another time)
But I digress. Back to the point. What was it? Ah yes. I suck at games. Question is "Why?" (No trolls allowed. I know, I'm kind of feeding them) I mean, I look up strategies, video guides, pro game replays, etc, and of course practise when I can. Yet it only seems to take me so far?
So I thought I'd start this blog, mainly as a therapeutic exercise, to keep the woosah and the RM (see rage monster) within, but also wanted to sort of explore the different types of resources that are available for gamers today, compared to say, when I was 7 and my pa got me a second or third hand atari. For example, in singleplayer games, if you are 'stuck' on a particular level, all you have to do is simply open up your web browser, load up google and search "[game name] walkthough guide." Back then though, when I had my super high tech atari tuned masterfully onto a random, freed up UHF or VHF or whatever they're called frequency, the only guides or hints you could really get (especially at the age of 7) was from your friends or family or neighbours. I'm not too sure if gaming magazines were around then, which would have been quite amusing actually... "WOAH, check out the graphics on this screenshot man! It's got like TWENTY COLOURS! That's like TEN MORE than the first one!"
Ahem. So going back to my story (again), there was this game on that atari, I think it was called Kung Fu Master or something. Definitely had the word Kung Fu in it. It was a side scrolling beat 'em up, really really ancient stuff. Basically you can move forwards, backwards, crouch, punch and kick, while the "bad guys" came charging at you from both sides. As you could imagine, it wasn't that hard. Until I reached the first BOSS. Oh Em JEE. This guy did like the Chun-Li 100s & 1000s kick and this game didn't even have a BLOCK ability! (Btw, I'm pretty sure this was released before Street Fighter II) So naturally I got beaten to a pulp. Of course I kept going back and trying and trying... and trying and trying... eventually even trying different approaches. Maybe I can crouch and dodge the kicks and punch him in the hurt locker? Nope, I just got beaten while crouched. Maybe if I wait for the kicks to finish I can slip in a quick jab to the face? That's a negative, them kicks go for a looong time. Seeing as most of the kids at school were playing SEGA master system or the Nintendo Entertainment system, I had noone to ask for help! Eventually I just booted up RAMPAGE and ate people and cars and blew up cities, which kind of made me feel better.
This idea of all these resources being put out there, by fellow gamers, both hobbyists and ex-pros (retired due to real life commitments, or to start shoutcasting - which is like commentating for professional game braodcasts) is really exciting, and ever expanding, that I just wanted to write a bit about my thoughts on it from time to time.
Another thing I have been slowly uncovering from the internet and recently even at uni (forgot to mention, I'm studying to be a Primary school teacher), is the link between games and education. I think this could maybe get stretched to hobbies and education, but games moreso as I think this is a prime example of everyday technology being used for problem solving on multiple levels. (individual, collaborative and metacognitive)
Finally weaving in and out of these parts will be my own personal history of gaming, from throwing upright joysticks to throwing xbox360 gamepads, and the occasional mice and keyboards.
To finish off, if you are interested in some of the exciting stuff gaming can and is currently having with education, check out macICT, a department in my uni researching this kind of work, through their website.
First off, I just want to say (or write), that I absolutely love video games! Whether it is playing it, watching friends play, watching the professionals play, reading about it online, through magazines, listening to podcasts (and more recently videocasts - vidcasts??) and so on and so forth. However, I always seemed to hit a brick wall in terms of "skill" in most, if not all, of the video games that I have picked up and played in the past. No matter how much I played, or practised, or read up strategy guides and such, I just plain sucked.
As many ex-noobs may imagine, this lead to many a times where the rage monster (like the cookie monster, but way, way, WAY uglier. Not to mention the mess it leaves behind!) would be unleashed and its wrath would know no end and it'd be chaos in my computer/bed room... Or at least until my ma or pa came in and gave me the ol' LOOK. (You know what I mean. That expression on my father's face when he first saw me 'speaking' to my computer at 4 in the morning on a ventrilo server - oh boy... but that is for another time)
But I digress. Back to the point. What was it? Ah yes. I suck at games. Question is "Why?" (No trolls allowed. I know, I'm kind of feeding them) I mean, I look up strategies, video guides, pro game replays, etc, and of course practise when I can. Yet it only seems to take me so far?
So I thought I'd start this blog, mainly as a therapeutic exercise, to keep the woosah and the RM (see rage monster) within, but also wanted to sort of explore the different types of resources that are available for gamers today, compared to say, when I was 7 and my pa got me a second or third hand atari. For example, in singleplayer games, if you are 'stuck' on a particular level, all you have to do is simply open up your web browser, load up google and search "[game name] walkthough guide." Back then though, when I had my super high tech atari tuned masterfully onto a random, freed up UHF or VHF or whatever they're called frequency, the only guides or hints you could really get (especially at the age of 7) was from your friends or family or neighbours. I'm not too sure if gaming magazines were around then, which would have been quite amusing actually... "WOAH, check out the graphics on this screenshot man! It's got like TWENTY COLOURS! That's like TEN MORE than the first one!"
Ahem. So going back to my story (again), there was this game on that atari, I think it was called Kung Fu Master or something. Definitely had the word Kung Fu in it. It was a side scrolling beat 'em up, really really ancient stuff. Basically you can move forwards, backwards, crouch, punch and kick, while the "bad guys" came charging at you from both sides. As you could imagine, it wasn't that hard. Until I reached the first BOSS. Oh Em JEE. This guy did like the Chun-Li 100s & 1000s kick and this game didn't even have a BLOCK ability! (Btw, I'm pretty sure this was released before Street Fighter II) So naturally I got beaten to a pulp. Of course I kept going back and trying and trying... and trying and trying... eventually even trying different approaches. Maybe I can crouch and dodge the kicks and punch him in the hurt locker? Nope, I just got beaten while crouched. Maybe if I wait for the kicks to finish I can slip in a quick jab to the face? That's a negative, them kicks go for a looong time. Seeing as most of the kids at school were playing SEGA master system or the Nintendo Entertainment system, I had noone to ask for help! Eventually I just booted up RAMPAGE and ate people and cars and blew up cities, which kind of made me feel better.
This idea of all these resources being put out there, by fellow gamers, both hobbyists and ex-pros (retired due to real life commitments, or to start shoutcasting - which is like commentating for professional game braodcasts) is really exciting, and ever expanding, that I just wanted to write a bit about my thoughts on it from time to time.
Another thing I have been slowly uncovering from the internet and recently even at uni (forgot to mention, I'm studying to be a Primary school teacher), is the link between games and education. I think this could maybe get stretched to hobbies and education, but games moreso as I think this is a prime example of everyday technology being used for problem solving on multiple levels. (individual, collaborative and metacognitive)
Finally weaving in and out of these parts will be my own personal history of gaming, from throwing upright joysticks to throwing xbox360 gamepads, and the occasional mice and keyboards.
To finish off, if you are interested in some of the exciting stuff gaming can and is currently having with education, check out macICT, a department in my uni researching this kind of work, through their website.
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