Gaming

What is a game or Why There is a Time and a Place for Philosophical Debates.

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Rules rule What is a game or Why There is a Time and a Place for Philosophical Debates

After my last item about serious games (Too Broad a Term to be Meaningful), one topic of debate came up. How can we determine if the term Serious Games is too broad, if we don’t really understand what games are?

I have looked into this question before and it has to be said, at an academic and philosophical level – it is muddy as hell. Generally it is accepted that a game is structure play (where play is free from form and rules). Here are a few definitions (taken mostly from Wikipedia).

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is often cited as discussing games in great detail in his book “Philosophical Investigations” in 1953. The simplest quote i can find about his view (that may well be paraphrased!) was Read More ...

Serious Games: Too Broad a Term to be Meaningful

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A while back, I wrote a piece on the difference between serious games, games and gamification. It was simple, but covered the important areas of what makes them different from each other.  Since then, I have had more involvement with serious games (recently helped as one of the judges for the Serious Play Awards for instance) and it has started to dawn on me that we are still confused as to what they actually are.

Yesterday, Mattie Brice posted the following on twitter

Hey y’all, tell me the most popular serious games you know of Read More ...

Machinations Model of a Basic Points and Badges System

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Machinations of Gamification

Machinations is a fantastic game mechanics modelling tool by Joris Dorman – http://www.jorisdormans.nl/machinations/

It allows you to build an interactive model of the basic structure of many types of game and recently has been getting some attention in the world of gamification. I decided to have a quick play and just build a simple Points and Badges system. Click run, then press the Like, Share or Comment buttons to gain XP, unlock badges and increase your level. If nothing else, this will show you why this type of gamification / pointsification in isolation is so boring! Read More ...

An Interview with Karl Kapp

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To continue the interview theme for another week, I present my interview with Karl Kapp. Karl is an eLearning expert, author, researcher and all round fountain of information and understanding!

Can you sum up what you do in a single sentence?

I teach, study, research, write, and educate others about the convergence of learning, technology and pedagogy with a focus on games and gamification.

How did you get involved with learning and helping people understand it better?

I discovered the field of instructional design my first year out of college.  I was working for a company that happened to be an instructional design firm. Working for them changed my life, when I found out what the field was about and how it impacted people through carefully designed learning interventions, I wanted to be a part of it. When I found out about this field, I changed my graduate program of study from Educational Counseling to Instructional Technology and I haven’t looked back. I think the ability to impact learners through instruction is compelling and to do it with methods like games and gamification is even more exciting. Read More ...

An Interview with Kaye Elling lecturer in Computer Games at the University of Bradford

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Today I am really happy to have an interview with Kaye Elling. Kaye is a  currently a lecturer in Computer Games at the University of Bradford. Kaye has over 12 years industry experience in game design, with titles such as GTA2, Premier Manager and Bratz on portfolio.

Recently she shot to fame after releasing the 51 things every game student should know, which has now grown into the 100 things every game student should know. With all of this game knowledge, I wanted to pick her brain on games, gamification and women in games. Read More ...

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