Friday Night Fever and Gaming

It's time for Friday Night Fever...which must mean it's time for high school football...

Tonight I was able to attend the first game of the season for Ralston High School (district's only high school).  I arrived early enough to mingle with district administrators at the BratFest, which is always good.  Then we headed for the football field to watch the Rams take on the Crete Cardinals.  I don't normally get involved with a football game, even when I'm at a live game.  I like the atmosphere and people-watching, but that's about it.  Tonight was a different experience, completely.  I have decided it is largely in part due to my time gaming.  I now know certain plays and formations and have a much better understanding of the game.  Do these high schoolers run really complicated plays like the options available on NCAA College Football '13?  Not entirely.  Nevertheless, I was able to understand the run/pass plays that the Rams so clearly executed well to beat the Cardinals 33-7.

The best part of the whole game was when the Rams were going for the PAT after their second touchdown, but the play clock was quickly winding down, so I yelled "call a timeout" and sure enough, the coaches did.  It was then that I knew they weren't going to go for just the 1 point PAT, they wanted to push for a 2 point conversion.  When the timeout was over, they were in place, snapped the ball, and the runner got blocked on the left side, so he quickly retreated back to the middle and found an opening on the right to run the ball right in to the end zone.  I called it, just like I would make the same call when I'm playing NCAA College Football!

What I found most interesting about this whole experience is that I was able to hold my own in a conversation with surrounding fans.  I was sharing my learning!  I was seeing the dispersed principle come to fruition from my own gaming and learning into the real world as I talked to people.  The men seemed pretty impressed that I knew what I was talking about.  Do they still know way more than I do?  Of course.  But it honestly felt like an out-of-body experience as I could see myself taking a learning principle from Gee's book, seeing how it applied to my own gaming, and then making it happen in real life.  My husband was not able to join me for the game, but you can bet that he heard all about my football conversation when I returned home.

Settling In

I'm settling in...I think.

Since my venture to be a pirate didn't go as planned, I have since become a settler...Peyton Earlham to be exact.

The Settlers is an MMO game that is played online with no download.  Players start with a piece of land and go through the tutorial to fully understand how things work and how best to settle.  These first few moments of settling may seem rather trivial because it is all prompted by the tutorial, however the key to productivity is also based on how you arrange your settlement.  Different buildings, factories, residences, and storehouses all vary in importance to the new settlement and require a bit of strategy.

The tutorial provides a lot of information and help up front.  However, I have found the Discovery Principle to be more helpful because it allows for me as the player to learn as I play.  Because I have been able to explore my settlement and its development, I am able to execute the quests when they appear.  I can always refer to the FAQs or the wiki that has been created should questions arise.

I've been thinking about this principle with my ELL students.  According to ELL strategies, frontloading, or providing information at the front of a lesson to help build background, is very helpful to overall learning and retention.  When I read about the Discovery Principle, I questioned whether or not what I was doing was then right.  My students are often confused when I frontload information because it is not in context or they have never had exposure to the information.  The idea behind the Discovery Principle truly makes sense to me because it allows students to be immersed in the content with just enough information to help them understand.  These two schools of thought seem to contradict one another though.  My ELL director would argue that frontloading is still an important ELL strategy, but I'm starting to doubt that it really is when you look at how we learn...in context.

I don't have the answer really.  Maybe frontloading works for some, while it doesn't for others.  Perhaps a combination of the two is truly necessary to see results.  I'd like to further explore this with my students this year...

Two-a-Days Aren't Required Virtually, Right?

With the 2012 college football season just a matter of days away, I can't help but think of the actual football players doing two-a-days right now in preparation for their big season.  I would like to think that my own virtual players are undergoing the same amount of practice, but they're simply not.  As much as NCAA College Football replicates the actual playing experience, I understand it is not real.  Nevertheless, I feel the identity principle and practice principle are both driving my experience so far.

NCAA College Football does not require that one create an identity within the game if you're playing exhibition games like myself.  There is the opportunity to become a "real player" out on the field though.  While there are different aspects to this type of identity development compared to a role play game, it is easy to transport yourself into the "real player" because of the overall player mentality that sets in.  No matter who you are, or how much you know about football, you want to be the teammate that helps win.

Much like the real world football players who practice on a consistent basis, it is important to practice in NCAA College Football.  When I started the game up tonight, I opted not to run a few plays in practice mode and instead chose to play a game right away.  While my opponent was lower ranked than my team, and I still played at the freshman level, I found it much more difficult to execute plays.  I fumbled over buttons in the plays and got frustrated very quickly.  My field goal attempts were abismal and we went into a double overtime with a tied game of, get this...........0-0.  Really??  One more quarterback sac, as well as a run into the end zone that finally helped me gain a point advantage, I won the game.  About halfway through I wanted to abandon ship and go back to the practice field because I could tell that I was indeed out of practice.  The practice principle is there for a reason...and in my case tonight, I now see why.

Thus far, I am not too certain how this is helping develop my love of the game, or even my knowledge about it.  If I spend some more time in practice and develop my skills in a handful of plays that I can always defer to, then maybe I will be able to understand the complexities a bit more.  For now, I still feel like I'm just quickly selecting a play because it looks different than the one I just ran.  While that may be one way of pursuing a win, I would like to think there is more strategy and development required to further guarantee success in each game.

Pirate's Life Isn't for Me

After several attempts at playing Pirate Storm, I have discovered that a pirate's life isn't for me.

Pirate Storm is designed to be a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) with some aspects of role play (MMORP) due to the fact that you take on the role of a pirate.  The biggest downside to this game is that since it is played online with now downloads required, the actual game is very simple and has limited functions.  The screenshots I showed in my previous post are an accurate representation of the game and its limits.  I sought out information and tutorials online to help me further understand the way in which the game worked, but continued to find broken link after broken link or membership only sites.  To a beginner user, this was an immediate turnoff and predictor of how the game would start to feel.

I was never actually able to accomplish any quests because the cannon-happy pirates would sail nearby and start a battle, which I would always lose in epic proportions.  When I felt like I was getting the hang of killing the sea creatures, my arsenal of weaponry was sufficiently depleted because of my half life status after being sunk.  Sure I could spend actual money and buy diamonds that would increase my power, my fleet, or just my ship size...but I don't really want to invest my hard-earned money in a fake arsenal.

The idea of pirate role play is what initially caught my attention, but then I quickly realized that I didn't actually feel like a pirate at all.  Instead, I was a wimpy ship sailing the crowded seas and being blown to pieces every few nautical miles.  It didn't feel like there was much opportunity to develop my skills...shoot cannons or be shot...with the latter happening more than I care to think about.

Overall, Pirate Storm couldn't keep my attention as an actual user.  I was easily frustrated by the lack of direction once you got past the tutorial to know how to become stronger or power up.  There wasn't that great of a "community" while playing it either.  If I'm going to play an MMO, then I want to feel like I'm doing it with other people and not be some lonely ship at sea.

Guess I'll have to find my gaming booty elsewhere.

Arr Matey!

Captain Jack Sparrow and the pirate life has always been intriguing to me.  Perhaps it's just Johnny Depp playing him in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, or maybe it's the thought of being an explorer on the open seas with the ability to take down other ships.  Whatever the case may be, I was drawn to the MMO game Pirate Storm.

The first time I played the game, I chose to go through the tutorial.  Everything was very easy to maneuver through because the game-makers created it to give new users a sense of quick understanding.  I completed my tasks, learned how to get in and out of the port, attack other ships, fix my ship, attack sea monsters, and more.  Then it was time to play.

By completing the tutorial, I was given a false sense of confidence.  I didn't realize this until the game had officially started and ships came by to start attacking me immediately out of the port.  While in the tutorial, or training mode, the new user works through how to do things and doesn't see the game as it really would be with other users.

I was able to kill several sea monsters, pick up some booty, and attack a couple of ships.  But I was attacked more, so my ship was sunk.  Luckily I could come back and play again.  

I am frustrated as I play because there are no clues or help along the way.  I just want to know why my cannons firing back aren't as powerful or doing as much damage or why there are so many ships with the same name (is it a fleet?).    

Intro to NCAA College Football '13

A little background as to why I chose NCAA College Football '13...My husband is obsessed with football in all aspects.  He lives for Husker football and has since he was very young (apparently you're born a fan in Nebraska, whether you like it or not).  I have learned to be a football widow in the fall into the winter as he watches every possible college and professional game available on DirecTV, including the NFL Ticket.  As part of our engagement, it was required that I learn all about the Big 12, including school names, locations, and mascots.  No joke.

When first posed with the challenge of gaming for the month of August, I defaulted to NCAA College Football '13 because I knew Ryan had just purchased it before I left for CadreCamp.  While playing this is required for class, I think it's also required for me to further understand what draws my husband in for hours at a time.  I know he loves to play the game as if he were the actual players, but he loves the complexity of the game too.  I wanted to understand this.

First time playing...Last night was NCAA College Football 101.  Ryan knew he needed to leave much of it to me to figure out myself, but he did help me understand basics like turning on the PS3 (seriously), which buttons performed certain functions, and a brief snapshot of what the game requires.  Surprisingly, I wanted to jump right in, so I did.

I did not start a dynasty yet, because I need to further explore how recruiting works as part of the game.  Instead I chose one of my alma maters, Arizona State, and worked my way through....I started with practice just running plays, exploring various formations and pass or run plays within that formation.  Once I felt comfortable with a couple of these plays, I introduced the defense into the practice...I continued to stick to several plays that I felt confident in and ran them multiple times to see how they would play.  Then I got antsy and wanted to actually play, so I did...I finished practice and started an actual game, albeit the freshman level (the easiest), against the Idaho Vandals.  I managed to play all four 5:00 quarters, and also learn that if I didn't pick plays and snap according to the play clock I get penalties, running defensive plays is a bit trickier based on which player you choose to be, maintaining your 10 point lead even with 1:43 left of the game is harder than it appears, and that this game is pretty intense even at the easiest level.  I somehow managed to win thanks to 2 touchdowns and a sweet QB sac that prevented the Vandals from passing, but the final was a close one...13-10.