Games Serious and Social

First, it is important to understand that a game/simulation is not educational just because it is a game/simulation. Instead, a game/simulation is an effective educational tool primarily because of the high level of interactivity and instant feedback. Well designed games/simulations engage the learner in a constant decision making process. The learner is forced to interact and think through the content and then witnesses immediate or near immediate feedback based on his or her actions. So the most critical aspect is not the technology (which is the focus of many when thinking about games/simulations) rather the most critical aspect is the design. The design must be interactive and provide realistic or corrective feedback as the learner progresses and the game/simulation must maintain a balance between anxiety and boredom which is known as the elusive “flow state.”

We have been investigating the impact of anonymity provided by avatars on emotional communication and self-disclosure. In a recent study done at the Institute for Creative Technology, University of Southern California (Kang, Watt,& Gratch, 2009), researchers found that increasing the levels of anonymity from none (full visual identification), to intermediate (a graphical avatar), to full (providing no visual representation at all), had two opposing effects: it decreased the sense of emotional connection while at the same time increasing the amount of self-disclosure of intimate information that an individual was willing to share.

the overall effect of increasing anonymity is to increase the communication of intimate information.

This should promote group cohesion and honest communication, even though anonymity also somewhat decreases the emotional connection with the other group members and thus might decrease the motivational effectiveness of social interaction in a game. This is a bit of a quandary, as we would like to have both emotional connection and self-disclosure.

The game is not linear, but dynamic, meaning that the user is able to begin from different starting points. The game continuously captures and reflects the user's choices and actions while she or he plays.

the macro environment is the internet, drawing on its immense resources.

Information, challenges, and new tasks can be found around the elements presenting the symptom, where the learner will be provided with knowledge about the external real-world source of the symptom or change. In most cases the learner cannot solve the problem on location and will have to travel the animated body to search for and analyze other symptoms, as well as search for specific information via the Internet or other resources in the platform surrounding the game itself.