The Language of Play
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Learning, Teaching, Technology
Reading this week’s papers from Pat Kane (2005) and Brian Sutton-Smith (1997) were a sheer joy and delight compared to the James Newman chapter the other week. I think the issue between these three writers is one of how an argument is being presented to the reader. We start with Sutton-Smith (1997) who sets that scene [...]
Tags: education, game, google, IDGBL2009, learning, play, rhetorics, toy
The Agony and Ecstasy of Social Gaming
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Learning, Technology
I’ve been fortunate enough last weekend to have had a go on some of the different games consoles that are currently out on the market without hemorrhaging my wallet or bank balance. A work colleague has a Nintendo Wii and my partner’s brother has a Microsoft Xbox. The Nintendo Wii (or simply “Wii” as the [...]
Tags: collaboration, competition, IDGBL2009, immersion, social gaming, wii, x-box
Dearth on the Nile
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Learning
I chose Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” – the computer game that is, not the book, film, play, an episode from the TV series or, more recently, a graphic novel that have lent itself to the Christie brand – for two simple reasons: I like murder mysteries and this story is very familiar to [...]
Tags: agatha christie, computer game, IDGBL2009, poirot, puzzles
All work and no play?
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Technology
Although I have been keeping up with my course readings, writing regular posts into my blog and doing a spot of game creation using Google Earth, this course has given me an opportunity, or is that licence?, to reacquaint myself with computing / video / arcade games that I haven’t really touched since my very [...]
Tags: computer games, games, gaming, IDGBL2009, videogames, web-based games
The New Seven World Wonders Quiz – A Team 2 Production
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Learning, Pedagogy, Project, Technology
Week 4 of the course saw the teams being given an exercise that involved building a game around the Google Earth platform. Team 2 member, Nicholas Palmer, got the ball rolling by providing a useful mind map of the task at hand – this instantly gave us a quick, ready visual aid. There was some [...]
Tags: game, google earth, IDGBL2009, kml, kmz, new seven world wonders, project, quiz, team work
Videogames: A tug of war
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Learning, Technology
Let’s get one thing clear. I’ve never read anything by James Newman before other than “Chapter 2: What’s a videogame? Rules, puzzles and simulation” – without reading Chapter 1 or a preamble, it’s hard to say where James Newman sits on the pantheon of videogame scholars. To say that this chapter iritated and angered me [...]
Tags: definition, IDGBL2009, videogame
The Hidden Rules of Pac-Man
Posted by HeyWayne | Filed under Technology
Before I launch into my (recent and past) experiences with Pac-Man, the arcade game developed by Namco, I would like to say something about this week’s reading, Chapter 7: “Video Games” from Greenfield (1984). Greenfield (ibid, p. 88) makes an important statement by saying that “children with a television background develoop a preference for dynamic [...]
Tags: arcade game, game, hidden rules, IDGBL2009, pac-man, video game
