GLS '07 Day 1

Stayed up way too late last night hopped up on caffeine didn't want to get up this morning. Got notes from today's sessions. Notes below the break.

Starting with Jim Gee's plenary
Gaming the system Looking through the eye candy and the "bad stuff" and getting tothe things that allow them to play the game. I'm thinking about the danger of ubiquitty.

Learning throughthe actual process of game design.

Eric Zimerman-
gaming literacy-connections to and diversions from traditiolnal literacy
-systems
-play
-design
IF we think about the world in game terms how is it changing

Systems- the way that we learn, interact and engage socially and politically is mediated through technology. It's about being connected through a broader system. A set of parts that interrelates to forma whole.

Play- Rules and Play. Free movement within a more rigid structure. transformative play- playing not only with(in) the system but playing with a sytem (or playing a system?)

Design-is about the creation of meaning.

Betty and Alex-
Current Software and Research
How educators are using games.
What is design thinking?
a way of thinking about solving
creating strat by experiencing it
and some third thing that she flew past

constructionist approach- creating knowledge by actually designing games
looking at three approaches (game making to teach programming, using it to learn content, and facilitating understanding of design concepts)

three approaches are not mutually exclusive.

1. games as a scaffold for acquiring programming skills: Alice, Toontalk, Scratch
Research indicates that improvement in programming skills of novices after the design task.

2. Using elements of game desingn to get into other domains: Adventure Author, Civ III, Logo
Research-Improvements in math performance and understanfinf historical periods. Unless specific acaffolding was in place for novices they will likely fail to integrate it into their own designs.

3. Understanding game design concepts as the educational goal: Game Maler, Klik and Play, Stagecast Creator

Eric Klopfer-
StarLogo TNG- First Person Simulations
Graphics Programming
Goals:increase interest, enable/empower students to think scientifically
Science is driven by modeling and simulation. How to make it accessible to students
Important.
Current public controversies
Are simulations to be believed
Dilemma
where to experience? avoiding specialized classes and headed for regular classes as content material
What not school?
Been there done that moved on
Teach tech levels
takes to long to ramp up
takes time away from "teaching"
too hard

Content Centered Game Programming
makes it easier for teachers to teach
flexible,powerful and rewarding for students
connect to content
intersects with gaming and simulations

Similarities of games and simulations.

Platforms for Simulations/Games- Starlogo and Starlogo TNG- visual programming language like Scratch. Calling it a cousin of scratch.

Are girls and minorities the new LD? 2 folks so far talking about the lack of capability of these two groups and contemplating seperatin them from the "normal " students. Shouldn't we be thinking more of how to bring them up to speed in classrooms with more traditional/typical demographics?

To Cheat or Not to Cheat

Practices, Purposes, and Polices of Cheating in Digital Games

Yasmin Kafai-
Typology of Cheats from easter eggs to spoil sport cheats that seek to bring the game down.

Gaming Industry perspectives on cheating a no in things like MMORPGs but game companies also publish books of cheat codes.

Eric Zimmerman-
Cheating at Play
Cheating
1. end and means- Cheaters often are more concerned with ends and means than with bringing down the game.  They are often more invested in the game and wining it than non-cheaters
2. the social contract of a game- gamers sit down together and agree on certain things like playing by the rules.
3. Rules and implicit rule- Stated rules and implicit rules such as how to behave (social rules of play)

5 Player types
standard- follows rules
dedicated- extra zealous "hardcore gamer"
unsportsmanlike- violates implicit rules of the game.
cheat- people who actually breaks the rule in order to win
spoil-sport- sore loser

mods, codes, guides, spoilers, etc

cheating by design

Mia Consalvo
Is it Cheating, Learning, or Both?: Exploring Boundaries in Videogames
Cheating in a broader social context
What does it mean to cheat in a game?
1. cheating gives you an unfair advantage
2. anything other than getting through a game all on your own (purist)
3. code is altered or using a cheat code (code is law) hollow wins
4. you can only cheat another person anything is a single player game is open (cheater)

Why people cheat
1. stuck in the game
2. It's fun to play God!
3. hitting fast foward in the game
4. to be an ass

Debbie Fields
Contestations and Cheating in a Tween Virtual World
What do people get from cheating
World called whyville
What's learned by creating cheats? What's learned when using cheats?
Whyville:
2.1 M
20K daily
68% female
12.3 y.o. ave
40 minute sessions
3 hours per month
20 salary raising salary games
Salen and Zimmerman's types of cheats
Range of cheat sites
Case study chose the one most active cheat site
Collaborative Development of a Cheat in Whyville (Spitzer of Spectrometer)
THe Whyville Times
100 articles on Cheating
coordinated cussing to get arounf the filters
Effects of Cheating on the Whyville community

Tom Satwicz
Does using cheats make a player a cheater?
the gaming to learn project
How does gameplay get tied up with the rest of the kids' lives
methods: collection
8 participants
How to find cheaters?
take a similar approach to games
ethnographic questions

SimSavvy Girls

boys are more likely to create so computer games maybe adding to the gender gap in technological fluency.

Chose The Sims because the girls were already familiar with it.

1st up (14)- Sim narrative that revolves around Grey's Anatomy, love, marriage, and having babies (yeah, real empowering). She also made a sweatshop and a plantation!

2nd (13)- Building houses, having businesses, kids have lemonade stands, legacy challenge...have 10 generations..make friends, best friends, then marry.

3rd (14) Using cheats to make funny pictures. Using the pictures to write stories. A story of love.

4th (14)- Creating clothes for the Sims. Taking pictures of clothes and making them into skins. Also making celebrity look alike skins.

Leaving before I do harm to myself since no one else seems to see anything wrong with these girls perpetuating stereotypes or using slave to punish their siblings in game (even though she really seems to think that slaves were actually farmers who got to sell their wares at market and stayed together as a familial unit. Good lord what is wrong with these people? I'm going back to my hotel before I hurt somebody!