In the spirit of playing some games, now that I am studying this course, I tried playing some this week. I must admit that my selection may not be the best of the educational games. But "stop disaster" and "Lure of the Labyrinth" were not interesting enough for me to keep playing. of course these games are developed for younger audiences therefore neither the entertainment nor educational part suited me.
The next stop was EVE which was suggested as an educational game in another course. I am still not sure what was the actual educational content in this game(some googling told me it helps to learn management!). This game has great graphics and nice space scenery. Large amount of text to read in each step can qualify it as a reading practice game.
The game is about a colony of humans that travel to a new galaxy thousands of years ago using a wormhole. After a while wormhole collapses and the colony starts its own path. Now after several thousand years, original some hundred humans grow in number to millions and they are technologically advanced to occupy the whole galaxy and its solar systems. The current stage is that there are several civilisations in eden and they are sometimes in conflict. There are also criminals and space pirates!
first 30 min was spent on avatar making, which was fun, although my computer was not doing its best in processing.
The game was super hard to start, complicated panels and little cryptic given directions.
After 30 minutes of clicking around I managed to get my ship destroyed and my avatar ejected in a space capsule. Then the tutor avatar told me to double click on ship-hanger to get a new ship. The next 30 min was spent on searching around to find "ship-hanger" ... after unsuccessful clicking around my husband came to rescue and since he was less afraid of messing up things, finally found a mothership to dock and enter. The ship-hanger was in there!
my experience with this game ends there!
- What kind of game is it?it is a multiplayer role playing online game.
- What are its serious goals? How are they achieved?
Based on internet you can learn management in it, however I think planning and maintaining are also part of the game.
- How did it feel to play it? (Difficult or easy? Fun or boring?)It was difficult as i mentioned before, however not boring at all, the visuals were nice, and I like space!
- How much did you actually learn?not much! I did not learn anything from the supposed educational aims, but I am getting a better feel of games by trying them.
- How could the game be improved?
I think it contained too much text, it would be nice if they included some audio guid.
The controls and pages/maps/panels are crowded and confusing. I think they could be more user friendly, however I am not sure if that was not a conscious design decision to give the player the feel serious environment(spaceship and stuff!).
The universe is too vast, things you can do are numerous (at least at first for a beginner)
The universe is too vast, things you can do are numerous (at least at first for a beginner)
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