Analysis of Play, September 12, 2014

September 12, 2014

Today

1) Your readings 2) Discussion: Gee, I got Mangled3) Play time 4) Homework

Gee gives us… principles of good game learning!

1.Identity

2. Interaction

3. Production

4. Risk Taking

5. Customization

6. Agency

7. Well Order Problems

8. Challenge and Consolidation

9. “just in time” and “on demand”

10. Situated Meaning

11. Pleasantly Frustrated

12. System Thinking

13. Explore, Think Laterally, Rethink Goals

14. Smart Tools and Distributed Knowledge

15. Cross-Functional Teams

16. Performance before Competence

“Often, what I find missing from such conversations is a robust account of theways in which in-game communal norms amplify, enhance, negate, accommodate,

complement, and at times even ignore hard-coded game rules.”

“[note on gold farming]…Typically they must collect 300,000 adena per shift in

exchange for their daily wage of $3. It may not sound like much, but compared to

China’s average yearly income of US $316, it’s rather lucrative work.”

365 days x 3 a day= 1095, or 3.4 times the average.The average US income is $28,000 a year, so gold farmers at that time made the equal of

$95.2K a year.

“By the time this short essay is circulated, the practices I have described will have evolved and changed and the descriptions I’ve given will no

longer be accurate or complete. This fact, however, only further supports my point: The ways in which a game gets played out on the ground level are not

easily determined a priori by the game design, rules, EULAs, or whatnot.”

Let’s play some Hearthstone!

I want you to play other people in class. Or me, I suppose.

Get set up/login.

For Wednesday

Read: History of Video Games stuff

In-class: we talk about where video games were born