![]() ![]() I thank Helen Blunden and David Kelly for drawing it to my attention. Keep Talking and Nobody ExplodesĪs its name suggests, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a multi-player hoot. However, as I explain in Game-based learning on a shoestring, I recommend it be deployed as a team-building activity. Like the two games already mentioned, this one is meant to be a single player experience. Of course, simplicity devolves into chaos as the customers pile in and you find yourself desperately trying to serve them all. You play the role of a waitress in a busy restaurant, and your job is to serve the customers as they arrive. The premise of Diner Dash is beguilingly simple. This little gem is a sentimental favourite of mine. Surprisingly quickly, your hipsteresque smugness evaporates as you realise that whatever you decide to do, your decisions will enrage someone. While similar to Lifesaver with its branched scenario format, its non-linear pathway reflects the complexity of the situation. This game simulates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which you choose to be the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President, charged with making peace in the troubled region. PeaceMakerĭespite this game winning several prestigious awards, I hadn’t heard of PeaceMaker until Stacey Edmonds sang its praises. Supplemented by extra content and links to further information, Lifesaver is my go-to example when recommending a game-based learning approach to instructional design. However, the countdown timer at each decision point ramps up the urgency of your response, simulating the pressure cooker situation in which most people I suspect would not check for danger before rushing over to help. Some of the multiple-choice questions are unavoidably obvious for example, do you “Check for danger and then help” or do you “Run to them now!”… Duh. You experience the warm glow of wise decisions and the consequences of poor ones, and – importantly – you are prompted to revise your poor decisions so that the learning journey continues. The branched scenario format empowers you to choose your own adventure. The interactive film depicts real people in the real world, which maximises the authenticity of the learning environment, while the decision points at each stage gate prompt metacognition – which is geek speak for realising that you’re not quite as clever as you thought you were. Lifesaver immediately impressed me when I first played it. Here are 5 that I contend have something worthwhile to teach us… 1. As a profession, we need to investigate what is attracting and engaging so many of our colleagues, and consider how we can harness these forces for learning and development purposes.Īnd the best way to begin this journey of discovery is by playing games. What I do suggest is that we open our eyes to the immense power of games. So what does this trend mean for e-learning professionals? I don’t quite suggest that we start going to bed at 3 a.m. As time marches on, not gaming is becoming abnormal. In other words, the playing of video games has normalised. Gamers are split 59% male / 41% female (approaching half / half) while 44% of them are over the age of 35 (not the pimply teenagers one might expect). In fact, 63% of American households are home to someone who plays video games regularly (hardly a sub-culture). This declaration, however, is stone-cold wrong. Here’s another one… Gamers are a sub-culture dominated by young men. That is a sweeping declaration, and quite possibly true. You can narrow down someone’s age by whether they include spaces in their file names. ![]()
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