Week 8 Play Journal Diner Dash, Portal & Starcraft
Diner Dash
Think about when you entered the game for the first time. What did the title screen invoke? How did you feel about the game during the first few minutes of playing it?
From the title, I assume that it is going to be something about restaurant. The screen was quite nice. Also for the first level , they simulate the game instead of going through instruction. This is a quite good idea. It takes less seconds to know what to do in the game because of this helpful demo.
Think about the game interface. How does the type of interface influence your experience of the game?
The interface is quite engaging. They simulate a real restaurant environment. I do like how the avatar looks like. Once customer start to wait, they become angry so seeing that is also engaging and makes the player hurry up.
Think about the game mechanics. How do they affect your experience with the game? Do they contribute to the kind of feelings the game tries to invoke?
You have your avatar which can walk up-down and right -left. You really don't determine which way to go, you just tap where you want to go and your avatar directly goes there with a predetermined way. In this case I would like to be able to pick my way to make it shorter. I wish there would be run as an option. In addition, the avatar can clean the table, serve the meal and get the check.
What educational affordances do you see with this game (for example, game mechanics, genre capability, content, role playing, etc.)?
There is not any theoretical educational affordances in the game. However, this could be a good game for waiters to practice their job . In additional, it can help people to make an empathy when they are in a restaurant, waiting for to be seated or to be served. They would know they are not the only customers and be patient.
What other thoughts did this game provoke?
Overall, it is a fun game and I do like how they teach what to do in the game in the very beginning of the game.
Diner Dash vs Starcarft2
In the complex game, there are more tools to build a new environment. It is an open ended situation. For example for Diner Dash, you just do whatever you are supposed to do, the way you will play the game is already determined by somebody else, and you are just repeating the exact same thing. However, for the complex game, you have the opportunity to build your own game play. Of course, there are rules but they do not mostly the player to direct their game play.
Portal 2
Many of the games applies to learning by doing theory as portal 2. Portal 2 is a quite amazing games in terms of game logic and mechanics. From the examples that I saw, those teachers taught mathematics and physic to students. Later, they took students to a field trip where students can create a level in Portal. This activity lead students to implement what they learned into the designing of the game.