Sunday 27 October 2013

Week 13 Educational Gaming

Normally I would try for a topic that was completely different to the previous weeks one, but after playing a newly released game I couldn't help but discuss it.

Rocksmith 2014 is a game released just this week and is essentially Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but you use a real guitar. This goes beyond providing a more authentic experience, you are actually learning how to play guitar. I have been playing guitar on and off for a few years now and this game has increased my skills faster than they ever have since I was learning with a guitar tutor.

The game is more than just about playing some songs, it will actually teach you techniques and chords. It will also help you learn each song by allowing you to slow it down and practice sections that are hard for you to play. This obviously goes way beyond what I talked about with the games listed in last weeks post. Now this style of software could be seen as merely educational software, and Faster Than Light as more of a game and therefore it would be more interesting to discuss the educational merits of something that is purely a game. I think Rocksmith however deserves extra credit beyond educational software for how well it performs its task.

The game uses a system not unlike gamification to keep you interested. As you play you are giving little missions that reward you for doing them. These missions are simple and quick enough that you don't feel overwhelmed at the prospect of doing them. However they lead you into learning essential skills for the guitar and encourage you to try songs that might be a bit out of your comfort zone.

One aspect I particularly enjoyed was the arcade games feature. The developers have created a number of arcade style games that you control using your guitar. Such as a game where you have to shoot bandits in a saloon based on where they are by playing the right string on the guitar. Learning where the strings are through muscle memory and not looking is a vital skill in playing guitar and I found I was getting better at this skill through playing a game. It is done so well that I actually forgot I was playing guitar and just felt like I was playing a game; this something that make even boring subjects seem fun to children.

An example of the arcade games.

Now while it could be argued that the reason I have been so sucked into this is because I already enjoy playing guitar and didn't need much encouragement I do see this as an excellent example that education software developers could follow. I remember playing educational games when I was in primary school and hated them. They were boring, and no matter how pretty they looked a kid knows it is no different to learning their subjects the traditional way. However by introducing this concept of rewards this could be very effective in creating useful educational games.


Image References

Gamespot (2013). String Skip Saloon [Image]. Retrieved from http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/917/9176928/2350841-untitled1.jpg

2 comments:

  1. Ok now I actually want to play this game. I have played Guitar Hero and as much as I loved it, I would actually have no skills on a real guitar. Combining gaming and education is a really smart idea as most kids will do anything for a video-game tutorial but will run away from anything that sounds too education-y or a school lesson.

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  2. This game sounds super fun! It's great to see developers building on gamification strategies employed in products like RunKeeper that combine everyday activities, training and reward. There is now achievements even in editing software and recording software being sold on Steam.

    I think this is definitely the future of providing people with an incentive to do something on a regular basis. If you'd like to see a rather dark take on the idea of gamification in the future, the British series Black Mirror has an episode called "Fifteen Million Merits" that combines a life where gamification is present in every facet of the everyday, along with the hollowness of reality TV.

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