Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game for Teaching Youth Finance in Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Jones ◽  
Maiga Chang
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Kindergarten Students ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Personal Finances ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
The Way

It has been stated that people need to improve their knowledge of finances and make better choices with their money. Many programs have been created to teach basic finances. These programs target people of all ages from adults all the way down to kindergarten students. The vast majority of opinions on teaching finances state that education begins with children – the younger the better. The goal of this research is to create a fun to play multiplayer online role playing game (MORPG) capable of teaching younger students how to better manage their personal finances. The game is designed as an educational tool with an attempt to balance both the entertainment and educational components. It simulates a real world where the player must make financial decisions for their avatars in an attempt to develop enough wealth to allow that avatars to retire at a specified age.

Friends and Rivals

2015 ◽  
pp. 1597-1620
Author(s):  
Kristin M. S. Bezio
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Human Emotion ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores how through both narrative and gameplay mechanics, BioWare's 2011 digital role-playing game Dragon Age II seeks to help players redefine their understanding of ethics in terms of human emotion and interaction. These interaction-based ethics are the product of our desire to situate ourselves within a social community rather than on an abstract continuum of universal “right” and “wrong.” The ambiguity contained within the friendship-rivalry system factionalizes Hawke and his/her companions, forcing the player, as the group's leader, to ally with one of the two sides in the game's overarching conflict. This coercive mechanic produces awareness in the player of the way in which interpersonal relationships form our responses in ethical situations, and causes the player to question whether their decisions are the product of “pure” ethics, or the consequence of deliberate or unconscious submission to the ethical mores of others.

Playing Roles in the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing

2009 ◽  
pp. 847-861
Author(s):  
Martin Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Online Relationships ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the roles players created, and how these structured their online relationships, in an online massively multi-player role-playing game, Kingdom of Loathing—a low-tech browser-based game with a satirical, humorous style. Existing research has often sought to understand players’ actions by classifying them into “types”, determined by motivations for play or patterns of behaviour. However, such typologies are shown to be problematic, particularly in the way that they might be interpreted as predicting behaviour. Instead, a phenomenographic exploration was undertaken, looking at players’ experiences, the roles they took up, and how they learned to perform these. This exploration shows that classifications of players are an over-simplification. Instead, the classification should apply to examples of play—not least because the game itself was not “fixed” but was constantly re-designed in response to play. This has implications for research methodology, but also for the (ongoing) design of games.

Promoting Civic Thinking through Epistemic Game Play

2011 ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. S. Bagley ◽  
David Williamson Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Real World ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Civic Values ◽  
Real World Problem ◽  
Urban Science ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
The Many

A growing body of research suggests that computer games can help players learn to integrate knowledge and skills with values in complex domains of real-world problem solving (P. C. Adams, 1998; Barab et al., 2001; Gee, 2003; Shaffer et al., 2005; Starr, 1994). In particular, research suggests that epistemic games—games where players think and act like real world professionals—can link knowledge, skills, and values into professional ways of thinking (Shaffer, 2006). Here, we look at how a ten hour version of the epistemic game Urban Science developed civic thinking in young people as they learned about urban ecology by role-playing as urban planners redesigning a city. Specifically, we ask whether and how overcoming authentic obstacles from the profession of urban planning in the virtual world of a role playing game can link civic values with the knowledge and skills young people need to solve complex social and ecological problems. Our results from coded pre- and post-interviews show that players learned to think of cities as complex systems, learned about skills that planners use to enact change in these systems, and perhaps most important, learned the value of serving the public in that process. Two aspects of the game, tool-as-obstacle and stakeholders-as-obstacle, contributed to the development of players’ civic thinking. Thus, our results suggest that games like Urban Science may help young people—and thus help all of us—identify and address the many civic, economic, and environmental challenges in an increasingly complex, and increasingly urban, world.

Playing Chopin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Frederic Chopin ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Role Playing Game

This chapter explores two video games that feature the nineteenth-century pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin as the main character: the Japanese role-playing game Eternal Sonata and the mobile game Frederic: Resurrection of Music. The chapter begins by examining three mythic identities that have shaped audience’s understandings of Chopin and his music and that play a role in Eternal Sonata and Frederic: the salon composer, the Romantic composer, and the Slavic composer. To address the challenges of creating a compelling video game narrative about a real-world composer, both games employ innovative but problematic narrative strategies to transform Chopin into a more stereotypically heroic character. Moreover, both games include his music in ways designed to reinforce its musical greatness and increase the music’s appeal to younger audiences.

Friends and Rivals

2014 ◽  
pp. 145-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin M. S. Bezio
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Human Emotion ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores how through both narrative and gameplay mechanics, BioWare’s 2011 digital role-playing game Dragon Age II seeks to help players redefine their understanding of ethics in terms of human emotion and interaction. These interaction-based ethics are the product of our desire to situate ourselves within a social community rather than on an abstract continuum of universal “right” and “wrong.” The ambiguity contained within the friendship-rivalry system factionalizes Hawke and his/her companions, forcing the player, as the group’s leader, to ally with one of the two sides in the game’s overarching conflict. This coercive mechanic produces awareness in the player of the way in which interpersonal relationships form our responses in ethical situations, and causes the player to question whether their decisions are the product of “pure” ethics, or the consequence of deliberate or unconscious submission to the ethical mores of others.

scholarly journals Ready for Drought? A Community Resilience Role-Playing Game

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2490
Author(s):  
Markéta Poděbradská ◽  
Mary Noel ◽  
Deborah Bathke ◽  
Tonya Haigh ◽  
Michael Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Drought Planning ◽  
Role Playing Game

Drought is an abstract and complex phenomenon that can be difficult for many people to comprehend. Proactive planning to improve response during drought events is necessary but complicated because it involves stakeholders and decision-makers with competing interests. A category of games, called serious games, have proven to be helpful when learning about abstract concepts, and for improving communication and conflict resolution with respect to water-related issues. In this study, we present a new in-person role-playing game that serves as a drought educational tool in both classroom and professional settings. The message of the game emphasizes the importance of communication and cooperation between various communities and sectors that can be affected by drought. Furthermore, it also encourages discussions and collaborations between stakeholders involved in drought planning and can serve as an icebreaker activity. The game has been played in a variety of settings including university classes, university extension workshops, and drought workshops. This study describes the game itself, its development, and the results of surveys from game participants that were used to evaluate the usability of the game as an educational and icebreaker activity.

scholarly journals Le théâtre de Madame de Maintenon: outil de soumission ou lieu d’affrontement social?

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Monika Kulesza
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Social Education ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
The Way

Conversations and Proverbes dramatiques are texts written by Madame de Maintenon with the thought of raising the girls at Saint-Cyr (moral and social education). Conversations resemble a role-playing game, while Proverbes dramatiques are short plays made up of only a few scenes. After a brief presentation of both works, I analyse the way the author presented womensʼ duty of submission and the role of plays in shaping obedient wives and mothers. Theatre is an effective means of communication of the author’s convictions, but dialogues presenting other views — even if only to argue against them — the varied nature of the plays and comical elements made the theatre of Madame de Maintenon a tool for teaching both submission and freedom.

Mixed Reality Games

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Charles Marty ◽  
Thibault Carron ◽  
Philippe Pernelle ◽  
Stéphane Talbot ◽  
Gregory Houzet
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Learning Session ◽  
Real Objects ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Set Up

The authors research work deals with the development of new game-based learning (gbl) environments. They think that the way of acquiring knowledge during a learning session is similar to following an adventure in a role-playing game and they apply the metaphor of exploring a virtual world, where each student embarks on a quest in order to collect knowledge related to a learning activity. In their university, the authors have set up numbers of experiments with students using gbl environments. They revealed weaknesses for specific learning activities. Sometimes, learners seem to acquire a skill in the game, but they are not able to reuse it easily in the real world. This is particularly the case for skills that require concrete manipulation of real objects to be acquired. Gbl environments thus lack of means to learn know-how aspects. Some of the learning processes involving real world objects are very difficult to reproduce in gbl environments and there is an essential technological issue in mixing virtual and real aspects in gbl environments. In this article, the authors describe the possible problems that can appear when using this mixed approach, give hints on how to avoid them and illustrate the proposition with examples issued from the electronic domain. The authors focus on issues linked to the transition between virtual and real worlds and they explore how new electronic features can facilitate this mixed approach, where identification, localisation and update of the user models are key issues.

Greenworks:  Science, Role-Playing, and Community Transformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lev Horodyskyj ◽  
Tara Lennon
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Community Transformation ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Community Projects

<p>Environmental crises will overwhelmingly impact Millennials and Generation Z.  Most are aware of this reality and enthusiastic about finding and promoting community and policy solutions.  However, many youths also lack the communication and collaboration skills necessary to implement change in their communities.  The Greenworks program is a collaboration between Science Voices (a nonprofit focused on improving science education) and a political science course at Arizona State University (ASU).  Teachers and students from the University of the Virgin Islands (US), Khairun University (Indonesia), and University of Campinas (Brazil) are currently involved in on-going pilot projects as well.  The program provides space for students to practice deliberation and policy-making in an online role-playing game and then implement their own proposal to address an environmental problem in their community.</p><p>In the Greenworks program, students complete a short curriculum on geoscience and governance, engage in a role-playing diplomacy game to resolve environmental issues in a fictitious world, and then implement a community project to effect change in the real world.  ASU students participate as part of an online political science course formally offered by ASU.  Students and faculty mentors at other universities are recruited by Science Voices and complete custom curricula and community projects.  As part of the role-playing game that all students participate in, students are assigned to fictitious nations and address analogous real-world environmental and political challenges through diplomacy between nations with various competing objectives.  Challenges vary from semester to semester and include trade relations, climate change, plastic pollution, pandemics, and deforestation.  Through communication channels like Slack and Discord, students share their personal experiences on these topics and collaborate on related policy options.  Students enrolled through Science Voices also develop proposals to address local problems of importance and are provided with crowdfunded grants and materials to implement their proposal.</p><p>We will describe the program in more detail, discuss the experiences of our students, and the results of the first community projects.  We will additionally discuss developing this program as a collaborative space for students from the Global North and South to partner and co-mentor each other in developing local solutions to global challenges.</p>

scholarly journals A New Quest is Available: seeing, walking and narrating the city

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Elita Nuraeny
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
The Body ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
Spatial Narrative ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Project Location ◽  
The City ◽  
Knights Templar ◽  
The Church

Walking becomes a conversation, of past, present and future, between our body and the city. However, today’s modern hand-held map demands us to look down, disrupting the dialogue between the body and city. Like a modern role-playing game, the map guides us to our quest mark beyond with minimum consideration of the present time. The map makes the quest mark and path visible; yet, the in-between space of our reality is overlooked. Following the idea of a hidden quest mark in our real world, this study explores the lost narrative between our body and the city. The study examined a project named Location + that follows spatial history, experiences and the journey beyond of a hidden church of the Knights Templar in London. The project is filled with instructions to decipher codes, directing people to the church. By using psychogeography, the project Location + approaches a spatial narrative using site writing and creative map-making that is specific to the site. By emphasizing the idea that our journey matters, this project allows a dialogue between the body and city.

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