According to Gee, good games reflect certain principles. While playing Garden of Time, I found that it reflected the following principles that Gee listed:
- Interaction - Garden of Time provided interaction by giving the player feedback and new problems to solve. Once a challenge was completed, a new challenge was ready. This provided constant interaction between the player and the game.
- Customization - Although the story in Garden of Time didn't allow for the player to make decisions, players were able to create their gardens differently. Players could decide what items to place in their gardens and where to place them. They could choose whether or not to complete quests.
- Challenge and Consolidation - According to Gee's article, "good games off players a set of challenging problems and then let them solve these problems until they have virtually routinized or automatized their solutions." This happened in Gardens of Time by presenting the same scenes repeatedly. The hidden objects didn't change where they were. The more you played the scenes, the easier the objects became to find.
- "Just in Time" and "On Demand" - One thing that I liked about Gardens of Time is that it didn't give a lot of unnecessary information. It gave you information right as it was needed.
- Pleasantly Frustrating - Gee states that good games should be "doable" yet challenging. In the hidden object scenes of Garden of Time, I found this to be true. While finding the hidden objects wasn't hard, it was continually challenging and I still haven't found some of the items.
- Cross-Functional Teams - Garden of Time allowed for team work in a couple of ways. One way was being able to ask neighbors for assistance building or getting items that you needed. Additionally, you could visit their gardens and leave gifts or help people in distress.
When looking at the cross-functional team of GOT the game met this principle in the most basic of ways. I found the team building aspect challenging due to technical issues and the inability to get and keep neighbors. They kept disappearing. I believe at one point I had 5 nieghbors, but I had accepted several additional requests. I would agree that team building is critical in providing a quality learning environment, but there are sometimes unexpected challenges along the way.
ReplyDeleteThe neighbor thing was driving me crazy! A definite bug they need to work out if GOT is going to be consider a "good" game for learning.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis of the game Anita!
I agree with you that GOT is pleasantly frustrating. I would learn a stage well and be able to do it rapidly, but when a new stage came up I was in slow motion until I learned it.
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