Learning & Games

Pick an online game, play it, and write a brief critique of the game from a learning perspective and interface perspective. Include a link to the game and screenshots (as you see fit).

I found this game on the games site within the BBC's Interactive Content for History site and was immediately taken by its design. The game's content is concerned with ancient history- specifically archaeology and ancient Egypt. This Flash game plays out in the form of a comic book with beautifully rendered frames and wonderfully dramatic music that elevates the experience. You take the role of Charles Fox, an English reporter in the late 1920s who is asked to investigate the disappearance of a young Egyptologist by her grandfather, Mortimer Armstrong, a museum curator. As you play you are charged with discovering clues, interviewing characters and finding your way around Cairo, by successfully completing mini-games, in hopes of finding Elizabeth Armstrong and returning to England.

Using Prensky's descriptive game terminology, this game would definitely be considered a mini game, rather than a complex one, in that it treats one subject- the Egyptology craze in the late 1920s- and does not demand that the player or learner acquire a great variety of skills and strategies to progress through the game. In no way, is this classification as a mini-game meant to diminish Sakkara- it's just a distinction that recognizes the fairly condensed and concentrated treatment of one subject that this game provides.

Employing Garris' game characteristics as discussion points, I will provide further analysis of the game in the paragraphs that follow.

Fantasy
Fantasy is employed by immersing the learner, in an endogenous fashion, in downtown Cairo. Instructional content concerned with the hype and craze of Egyptology at this period of history are embedded in the illustrated frames and within the interactive reporter's notebook that Charles Fox maintains. You as the learner have access to its contents at all time, by clicking on the notebook icon located in the lower left of the screen. The image belows depicts the notebook when it is displayed- it is interactive and as you discover clues and accomplish tasks its content grows.


Rules/Goals
The procedural rules of play are fairly simple and take just a few minutes to discern. There are four episodes which act as levels. Progress can be saved at the episode level only. Advancing from frame to frame within an episode involves clicking on the dialogue text that appears in the lower-left of the frame. Mini-games are included within each episode and involve recognizable play patterns like mazes, safe-cracking and character interviewing where you choose the right question to ask.

Sensory stimuli
The learner/player is transformed to another reality through the expert use of wonderful music and other auditory stimuli that greatly enhance the experience. Several examples are present in Episode 1, such as the rain during the interview between Fox and Armstrong and the train noises during one leg of Fox's travel to Cairo.

Challenge
The main goal of the game to locate and bring back Elizabeth Armstrong is very clear to the player, but other intermediary goals are a little less apparent. One particular interesting frame included a challenge to examine Ms. Armstrong's abandoned hotel room. Within the room are several artifacts that are available for collecting, as well as a safe that must be cracked. You are given one clue - that perhaps Ms. Armstrong's telegram to her grandfather contained the information needed to derive the combination. I'll leave it at that, so as not to spoil the challenge.

Mystery
Mystery is involved in almost all aspects of this instructional game. The frames are rendered in a film noir style and you often encounter mysterious characters that pique your interest and prompt you to continue on your quest. Even the reporter's notebook which is meant to be an aid, also adds to the mystery of the game as you work to create links between the facts and characters that are recorded within its pages.

Control
Finally, control is fairly limited within this game. The learner or player has some control over which questions to ask, for example, or when to access the notebook for help, but the game is very linear and progress to another frame is not possible without the accomplishment of defined tasks. The game does not appear to allow players the option to develop alternate paths through it. The notebook does, however, allow the player to explore supplemental, contextual, instructional information on topics such as Egypt, archaeology, etc.

If you have the time for a quick trip to Cairo, I would definitely recommend checking out Sakkara.