Integration of Educational Technology - Unit 9 Transmedia

Unit 9 Transmedia

77 unread replies.1818 replies.

Q1. There are several transmedia games listed on the website for this unit. Play one of the games, then write about your experience in the discussion for this week. What did you play? What surprised you? What do you think about this type of learning? What did you learn?

5:21pm

Manage Discussion Entry

One of the biggest things that surprised is the computer skills & search knowledge (apparently) that someone must have to play these games.  Specifically, I played America's Army: Proving Grounds (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. on the Steam platform.  It took me an hour to really get the game started.  

First, I discovered that I couldn't play it on my Chromebook - no worries or surprises.  The Chrome operating system is really only a window to the Internet & web apps, albeit the fastest one out there.  

So, I shifted to my MacBook.  Likewise, "Proving Grounds" was not available for macOS.  That just seemed a just a bit snobby, but I was aware of the fact that PCs led the Eighties' gaming revolution.  Fair enough.  

Finally, I logged onto the monster gaming PC that I just had built for my HTC Vive VR headset (I know - I shoulda started there!).  Once onto the gaming platform, I was a little surprised that the game would not install from the flashy, dynamic Steam user interface (call me impatient). So, I Googled the problem.  I found in my search that many gamers were having the same problem.   This gentle gamer (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. provided the solution which required three Microsoft updates (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., one of which took thirty minutes.

Now, the game was a blast.  Very immersive with near photo-realistic scenery and action.  Lot's of blood and violence.  Cool!  I can definitely see how this might give a young soldier preparing for small tactical movements and an idea of how to maneuver in a kill zone.  Also, very cool. 

What sort of awed me is that, normally, I won't ever put this kind of effort into playing a game - creating a game, yes.  So, it surprises me that so many would put so much effort into gaming - and the little effort some of my gamer students put into class - the gaining of useful knowledge.

Guess I'm just being a Digital Immigrant.  It's quite possible that a younger or more gamer-minded individual might have skated through the process.

That is what the initial link from the class' webpage gave me the impression for the game I played, America's Army: Proving Ground (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - the button even said "Play Now."  Right on!  It got me really excited.  

What I learned from my drawn out experience of downloading the Steam platform, the game, and then the updates for Windows to be able to render the game properly, was how not to build an interface.  

I'm happy there are smooth interfaces out there.