04/25 Reflection

The study on Political Internet Games begins with an intro on other studies about the positive effects of video games in the classroom. The background describes “hard” and “soft” news, digital games for serious purposes, and their use as an expressive medium. The study consisted of interviews of political game developers, which were followed by the interviewing of players of these games. Both of these griups had to play political games and respond in a questionaire about how they felt playing. The developers all had different aims for creating games, but the most significant was creating an impact on their players. They wanted the players to learn something, and they also their gmes to be persuasive and engaging. Part of the process of creation, the study states, is the involvement of the audience. The players obtained new knowledge and formed new opinions after playing the game of their choice, and this incited the players to act politically. The games incited individual and social facilitation, but future research should be conducted to see how games affect the “political-self.” The paper by Mary Flanagan describes the game put together by psychologist Csikszentmihalyi, wherin a large-scale real- life collaborative game was constructed throughout New York. The paper includes pictures of students playing the game. An important point of the game was to include diversity and tolerance, and teach the players of their importance. The game offered collaboration, inquiry, and problem-solving skills through interaction with groups of new people. The conclusion of the paper states that “playing” a game shouldn’t be viewed as an unimportant past time, it is apart of growth, and allows the expression of a new world or a parallel universe, bringing up many new skills including imagination.

I have personally experienced a “real-life” video game, but not as large-scale as one conducted throughout New York. One class in high school (which I was no apart of), hosted a large “video game” on campus at school. This consisted of me and a group of peers going on an adventure to find the hidden “treasure” the school had. We received clues that we had to decipher and we were also provided with a map of the school. We had to collaborate and navigate our way around to be the first group that got to the treasure. In addition to these two resources, we were able to stop at different checkpoints to get supplies to “recharge” us or “boost” us. It was almost like a giant board game and scavenger hunt mixed together. This experience was super cool and allowed me to meet people I never would have met outside of the game.

Would you participate in a campus-wide “video game?” If you were to design it how would you do so? Why?