Island of Icarus
Literature Review
Throughout time people have wondered about the nature of reality. Questioning the nature of reality encompasses inquiries of what constitutes external reality, the individual’s relation to their environment and/or culture and the internal reality of the individual. In this literature review, papers which examine reality, cultural simulation, cultural immersion as well as how scientists, artists, creators have used their genius to understand, contextualize and/or control reality will be examined. Game and simulation design will also be examined.
In the paper “I, Avatar”, Donald Jones discusses Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and how he believed that the concepts that people have in their mind are more real than reality. He writes how Plato believed that the real world was “imperfect because it was constantly in flux and not as real as the ‘perfect’ Forms (universal ideal types of which things we perceive in our world are merely imperfect expressions; e.g. there is a ‘perfect dog’ which exists in another world that any dog we see merely, and imperfectly, reflects” In the cave Plato writes about how humans who are chained in the cave can only interpret the world by what they see as the shadows of the images: “The shadows cast by objects being moved before a fire. The real world is outside the cave, containing the patterns from which the objects were copied, and the principle of the good, whose analogue is the light of the sun” The forms seen in the cave were actually the virtual because the perfect forms of the real universe — truth, light, knowledge — were beyond apprehension.(Jones, n. d. )
Archaeologist and filmmaker Marc Azema has recently theorized that drawings created on caves are not as simple as once thought. A specialist in cave art and part of a scientific team which is studying the art in the Chauvet Cave, he recently published a book La Prehistoire du Cinema, where he theorizes that the drawings were intended to created animations of animals in the flickering light from torches that lit caves. This theory is further substantiated by other artifacts that were found in caves. Bone fragments with animal drawings were also found which when strung on a string and spun, create simple animations like those of a flipbook. He has also created several animated films using the cave drawings demonstrating his theories which can be found on the webpage for his media company Passe Simple. (PasseSimple, n.d.) Rather than random lines haphazardly scribbled on walls, this theory brings new interpretation to cave art, possibly redefining the intelligence of early humans. Although it is hard to know if Plato ever saw cave drawings, this revolutionary concept puts Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in a whole new context. He probably would have been amazed. (Azema, 2011)
Humans have always tried to use their creativity and skill to control their environment. Rather than be controlled by the forces of nature and things they do not understand, they use their abilities and understanding of the world to innovate. In the ancient world, natural phenomena such as eclipses influenced many events and the unpredictability of these forces of nature caused many problems for ancient civilizations. As one example, in the Stone Age, many civilizations created huge stone circles such as Stonehenge which were aligned with astronomical events such as the summer and winter solstice.
In Greece, a metal object was discovered in the early 20th century which has taken nearly a century for modern scientists to understand. Known as The Antikythera Mechanism, it is a metal object comprised of interlocking gears with many inscriptions. Some theorize that it is the world’s first computer. It has been found that complicated mathematical formulas based on Babylonian and Greek astronomy were used to create a system of gears which form a machine that can predict astronomical events such as solar and lunar eclipses. (Anikythera, n.d.)
In a paper describing the most recent findings, Tony Freeth details some of the mathematical concepts which the mechanisms are based on. By applying mathematical knowledge, the inventor created an astronomical model which used gears to replicate the orbits of planets. In this way the mechanism could simulate eclipses at any date, thereby predicting future astronomical events. Rather than be controlled by nature, this machine gave the user the ability to predict future events and thereby gain control over the effect of these events had by being able to prepare for them. This device could also have given the user extraordinary power, esteem and influence due to the value this ability would have given them in ancient societies. (Freeth, 2014) He also cites that 2 geniuses were alive at the time namely Archimedes and a mathematician named “Apollonios of Perga, who died in about 190 BC. He initiated the epicyclic theories on which the lunar and (very likely) the planetary mechanisms were based” (Freeth, 2014) but states that it is speculative to say it was created by either or a collaboration of the two due to the incomplete historical record. (Freeth, 2014)
Archaeologists are using technology to understand the field data they collect about ancient civilizations. The paper “Scientific Visualization, 3D Immersive Virtual Reality Environments, and Archaeology in Jordan and the Near East”, looks at some of the ways technology is enhancing understanding of ancient worlds. “For centuries, practitioners of archaeology have meticulously drafted maps and illustrations, and captured photographs of sites and landscapes (Sanders 2014). Two-dimensional maps and photos reflect scale but never fully embody it. Hence, one of the goals of virtual reality modeling is to take another step toward bridging this gap.” (Knabb et al, 2014)
Using tools of virtual reality, archaeological environments are simulated. “Virtual reality technology such as the StarCAVE does, however, operate in a three-dimensional virtual world, and is sophisticated enough to simulate a “real” environment.” Simulations of archaeological sites are created so that they can be studied remotely. “By visualizing archaeological sites using virtual reality one is able to revisit the site and data again and again without ever going back to the field. In this manner we can investigate the topological and spatial relationship between artifacts, features.” This technological innovation allows researchers to study excavation sites in a variety of scales to easily contextualize information. “Researchers are able to revisit excavation areas at a variety of scales, ranging from an entire region to a single excavation unit and the artifacts recorded there.” (Knabb et al, 2014)
One of the experimental areas is integrating “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the virtual reality environments. GIS programs, such as ArcView and QGIS, allow the user to browse, query, and manipulate the database on a personal computer. ”This allows the user to interact with the archaeological site in a 3-D immersive simulation.” (Knabb et al, 2014)
The authors point out that in using virtual reality, the intent is not reconstruction of a representation of a perceived past. This would be a subjective interpretation of archaeological data. Virtual reality is used to create a reconstruction of an excavation “informed by the creators’ own theoretical positions and cultural sensitivities. Our research with the virtual reality environments presented here are first and foremost a reconstruction of the excavations; not an attempt to rebuild the site as we think it was 3,000 years ago”(Knabb et al, 2014)
The quest for understanding the environment has inspired many civilizations. The ancient Mayans had a mythology that was an all-inclusive immersion interweaving astronomical events with architecture and how they interpreted the landscape. A recent expedition brought new light on the role caves played in the astronomical cosmology of the ancient Mayans. While archaeologists have thought that caves had special significance to the Mayans, in 2010, archaeologists found several artifacts “an offering of a human skull, pottery, the skull of a dog, deer bones, and a two-edged knife probably used for sacrifices, all neatly placed there centuries earlier.” The archaeologists theorize the caves played a special role in Mayan cosmology as they interpreted events in their environment to understand their reality: “Each god inhabits a separate layer of reality, along with dozens of alternately complacent and ferocious gods that live in the 13 otherworlds above and the 9 otherworlds below. Together, they filled the Maya people’s lives with dreams, visions, and nightmares; a complicated calendar of agricultural times and fertility rituals; and a firm sense of the way things must be done.” An agrarian society, survival depended on the crop and as the caves actually are sinkholes which extend to the water table, their importance would have been essential in making sure crops were successful. This significance caused the Mayans to consider the caves as sacred spaces. .(Guillermoprieto, 2013) By making these connections, archaeologists give us an understanding of ancient cultural heritage which can be contrasted to the culture of the 21st century.
Are cultural values eternal or do they fluctuate with time and perspective? What is considered truth, fluctuates with the values of society, what is considered modern or even common sense. In the paper, “I, Avatar”, the development of virtual reality is discussed. “Throughout history, there have been differing views on what exactly was the real. Virtual reality lies in a discourse on reality and the position of human beings within it that has spanned from pre-modern times, through the Enlightenment and to the present.” (Jones, n. d.) The author goes on to detail that the observation of the natural world led to scientific revolution of knowledge based on the senses, “shifted the construction of reality from the mythological to the logical, scientific and observable: from what Armstrong describes as the move from mythos (myth) to logos (logic) as the centering approach to understanding the world (2001). The physical, rather than the metaphysical, became the locus of reality. (Jones, n. d)
In the book, Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard examines postmodern society and culture through the concept of simulations. In the essays, he looks at how simulations have replaced the real so that there is no longer the concept of the real that a simulation will copy or be a model of. Rather, the simulation is the cultural reality, if there is a cultural reality. (Baudrillard,1994)
The essay, “The Animals” looks at the concept of objectivity, experimentation. In experimenting on animals in the quest for objective truth, he writes about how humans have created an environment that predicts the outcome. Animals are affected by the stress and overcrowding of their farm habitats and although they have a psychic life, they are affected by a culture of death used for experimentation. “Beasts of burden, they had to work for man. Beasts of demand, they are summoned to respond to the interrogation of science…Everything that has happened to them has happened to us.” He states that animals once had a sacred more divine character than man and connects the loss of reverence for animals with human’s loss of the capacity for empathy and loss of myth. He writes “Certainly, one makes them speak, and with all means, some more innocent than others. They spoke the moral discourse of man in fables…very day they deliver their “objective” –anatomical, physiological, genetic –message in laboratories.” He discusses how people transitioned from venerating animals to using them to experiment on and questions the shift in perspective, objectivity and lack of morality that is at the heart of scientific experimentation. (Baudrillard,1994)
In the essay, “Apocalypse Now”, Baudrillard examines the Vietnamese war and compares it to the film Apocalypse Now. “One can always retrieve a tiny little idea that is not nasty that it is not a value judgement, but that tells you the war in Vietnam and this film are cut from the same cloth.” He goes on to discuss whether war can be created as a movie and .wonders about the morality of war as a spectacle. He writes, “The war as entrenchment, as technological and psychedelic fantasy, the war as a succession of special events, the war become film before even being filmed.” Through this comparison, he points out how the politics of war and peace render violence and destruction chess pieces in an economic battle that negates the horrors of war and renders reality nothing more than a production. (Baudrillard, 1994)
How do simulations and games affect the perception of reality? Can the lines between reality and simulations be blurred so that it is difficult to distinguish between games and reality?
In further examining the interface between reality and games, Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World wrote an article,”Your Cyberpunk Games are Dangerous: How role playing games and fantasy fiction confounded the FBI, confronted the law and led to a more open web”. In this article he discusses several situations where people were confused by role playing games, reported the incidents to police, who found that scenarios were actually fabricated. In this essay, Peterson details incidents where law enforcement officials interfaced with computer scientists, confusing science fiction role playing games with espionage. “While real-world hacking experience informed the speculative future of GURPS Cyberpunk, it bestowed only the sort of realism that games have. It could no more turn a reader into a computer hacker than Top Secret might turn its players into James Bond.” He details about how computer geeks were sought by the FBI for even alleged disclosure of secrets: “now it seems that anybody with any computer knowledge at all is suspect,” He writes: “Our cyberspace today has its share of problems, but it is no dystopia—and for that, we must acknowledge the key part played by the messy collision of table-top games, computer hacking, law enforcement overreach and cyberpunk science fiction in 1990.”(Peterson, 2015) This article makes it frightfully clear that a simulation can be misunderstood, with those in control the ones who create the definition of what reality is.
Can humans really trust their perceptions? The paper, “Innocence Lost”, the author looks at scenarios where life considered to be a simulation could have negative consequences. The argument that there might not be an external reality could really only apply to environments created around human created cultural values. “The Simulation Argument thus provides an unexpected boost to the Free Will solution to the Problem of Evil. Ancient Greek sceptics argued that since our senses can deceive us we can never be justified in supposing that the world is how it seems, but the idea that there might not even be an external world never occurred to them. For the latter hypothesis to be thinkable consciousness must be construed as a self-contained and potentially autonomous realm of existence in its own right. “ While it is entertaining to muse about whether there is reality or not, these arguments really seemed like the question, If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to see it, has it fallen or alternatively does it make noise? Or in the case that there is some sort of culturally sanctioned evil which people deny the existence of, then these arguments would make sense. (Dainton, 2002)
The concept of virtual reality has developed over time. In the paper “I, Avatar”, the history of virtual reality is detailed. The author considers virtual reality as spaces similar to a formal garden. “The historical context of the use of imagined and experienced virtual spaces, as well as cyberpunk dreams of making the cyberspace/matrix/Metaverse into a reality, frames the imagination of Second Life’s creators and users. In fact, Second Life takes the production of virtual spaces further by allowing the users to be the gardeners themselves, landscaping their world as they wish it to be.” Many people who frequent virtual reality use the spaces as sets to create films. The author quotes,”Csikszentmihalyi says “creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives … when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life” By using virtual reality such as Second Life as a tool for creativity, people are able to explore ideas and concepts that they would not be able to do in the real world. “It is by engaging its users in the act of creation that Second Life provides opportunities that are not necessarily available in real life…Second Life creates a new type of producer-consumer (prosumer), similar to the thousands of people who are mixing their own music, making their own movies or publishing their own art or texts on the Internet.”(Jones, n. d.)
In the paper, “First-person perspective and sociomaterial decentering: Studying technology fromthe standpoint of the subject”, Professor Ernst Schraube looks at the interface between the individual and the machine. He states that “the dichotomy between human being and technology can only be overcome by systematically including the subjective dimension of human life.” In this paper, Schraube looks at how first person subjectivity is looked at the past as well as research being conducted now which reexamines the way psychiatry considers the first person subjective point of view. By evaluating technology from the standpoint of the subject, he maintains, “first-person perspective can overcome individualistic positions and opens up a situated, decentered and social-symmetrical epistemology…In this process human beings do not stand at the mercy of a great deterministic punch press that cranks out precisely tailored persons at a certain rate during a given historical period. Instead the situation y is one in which individuals are actively involved in the daily creation and recreation, production and reproduction of the world in which they live”. By considering the first person perspective he maintains, this orientates the perspective to include ” human beings in the creation and appropriation of the techno scientific world in which they live their everyday life establishes a constituent integration of subjectivity within STS. Subjectivity conceptualized not in an isolated and worldless, but in a contextualized and situated way. Such an understanding opens up the possibility for a critical, decentered examination of the nature and significance of material.” ” (Schraube, 2013)
He evaluates the research of several people including Sherry Turkle who explores how new computer technologies changing human relationships and self-understandings. She states: ”Technology catalyzes changes not only in what we do but in how we think. It changes people’s awareness of themselves, of one another, of their relationship with the worldly. My focus is on the “subjective computer….We come to see ourselves differently’, she explains, ‘in the mirror of the machine’In her research she considers how “our experience and action in the world of cyberspace transforms the understanding of ourselves, and how conducting a virtual life might give us new insights, as well as a more defined and comprehensive sense of identity in the real world.” ” (Schraube, 2013)
Schraube maintains that the under researched first mode of perception is where the individual perceives psychological dimensions, such as experience, emotionality, thought and action, are present in a specific form of existence – the first-person mode.” As these perceptions exist from the point of view of someone who has them, “they always exist in a perspectival mode and therefore in the first-person perspective….The emotion of fear, for example, is ontologically subjective in the sense that it only exists because it is experienced by an ‘I’, that is to say in a first-person mode. Without the concrete experience of fear of an ‘I’ there is no fear. Accordingly, all psychological processes are ontologically subjective and in the first-person mode because they have to be experienced by a human being to exist. Within the history of psychology, the first-person perspective has not yet had a major role although leading scholars have called for the integration of the subjective dimension of human life into psychology’s theory and research practice from the very beginning of the institutionalization of psychology as an independent discipline. ” (Schraube, 2013)
Further he points out that the “reasons for action are always in the “first person”. They are, in each case, “my” reasons, i.e., reasons from my standpoint and my perspective. When I ask anyone else about the reasons for her/his actions, I am asking about reasons from her/his standpoint and perspective.” (Schraube, 2013) This perspective and area of research is valuable and valid in the study of simulations, virtual reality, games and creativity.
Immersion and how this related to culture? If culture is a micro chasm or a simulation, how does one interface with it? Can one interact with it? Artists throughout time have created images which functioned as models of reality. In the Northern Renaissance, Hieronymous or Jheronimus Bosch created fanciful paintings which contained symbolism pertaining to religious ideas as well as everyday events. His paintings are some of the most imaginative paintings from that time period. Some art historians consider him to be the “ancestor” of the Surrealists. His Garden of Earthly Delights represents an alternative universe, a virtual reality space where the characters symbolize ambiguous concepts. Many people have conflicting ideas of their meanings. In the paper, “Jheronimus Bosch and the issue of origins”, art history professor Larry Silver discusses some of the origins of the imagery in Bosch’s work. Although much is based on Christian symbolism, he states that Bosch’s individuality was an act of will:” For the artist developed his artistry, his distinctly personal authorship, even his pictorial authority through the same act of will… But in making his own personal choice of Christian themes and fashioning his own visual originality, he opened up new possibilities for art-making…. From Bosch’s own origins and authority came in turn the later innovations and originality of the new century’s imagery in the Netherlands.(Silver, 2009) Despite living in a society where symbolism was defined, Bosch used his imagination to create unique creations which defy categorization today. (Silver, 2009)
Many researchers have looked at how participants use virtual reality for self expression and creativity. The paper “Creative Expression in Virtual Worlds: Imitation, Imagination, and Individualized Collaboration”, examines how people use virtual reality to express themselves. The researchers categorize the potential for expression as “for mini-c expression of individuality as well little-c and Big-c creative contributions.” This research evaluates virtual spaces as “intentional and possibly unintentional imitation of real world objects, as well as flights of imagination in the virtual environment that represent movements away from that structuring. “3D virtual world imagined and created by its residents” They maintain that these virtual reality spaces give anyone with an internet connection the opportunity to participate. By evaluating different levels of creativity they show that “creativity is not a monolithic entity. Instead there are clearly degrees, domains, and directions of creative contributions” Elements of “mini-c creativity” include: customizing avatars, imitative builds, imitative recreation Sistine chapel, Vietnam memorial basilica of St Francis of Assisi which offers visitors the ability to hear recordings about the cite depending on where they stand. (Ward et al, 2011)
The Shakespeare site is very interesting. Visitors can purchase costumes designed for one of the characters in the play. Providing a venue for performance, while it would not be the same as going to The Globe Theater, could provide a sense of what that theater is like. The author questions whether these types of constructions are “Big-c creativity” but he maintains” virtual worlds do contain “impossible” possibilities as well as objects and actions that radically violate real world assumptions. Finally, virtual worlds allow interactions among levels of creativity as when individuals personalize their experience of or participation in group level little-c creative activities. (Ward et al, 2011)
The author goes on to detail other possibilities available to the visitor avatar such as “scripting that automatically shifts the avatar’s camera position to the stage when they click to sit on one of the seats in the audience so that, in effect, there is not a bad seat in the house. Finally, audience members can click to acquire and wear a heads up display (HUD) that will provide subtitles of the dialogue in any of several languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.” (Ward et al, 2011)
Many people use the areas of Second Life as a set to create machinima. By using virtual reality as a set, they create the individualized narrative. Virtual reality gives the participant the opportunity to explore and develop their language in the context of how they choose to contextualize it. (Ward et al, 2011)
The paper, ”Which Competencies Are Most Important for Creative Expression?”, explores several elements which contribute to creativity. These are capturing ideas, challenging, broadening one’s training, experience and surroundings. People noted that they used strategies such as notebooks to write down their ideas as they occur, they challenged themselves to take on more difficult tasks and set open-ended goals, while managing fear and stress associated with failure effectively is important, broadening is where a person seeks training, experience, and knowledge outside current areas of expertise, and finally surrounding which involves changes physical and social environments regularly to seek out unusual stimuli or combinations of stimuli. Virtual reality allows for many new experiences which can be attained without the expense of travel. (Epstein et al, 2012)
Design practice has evolved with technology. The paper, “Interaction design studio learning in virtual worlds” examines how some artists and designers are using virtual reality as a design or artist tool. Beginning with a brief history of the design studio and design learning within ”the tutoring practices at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts(i.e., School of Fine Arts, France, 1819–1914) and the Bauhaus (Germany, 1919–1932). The design studio is widely conceived as both (Broadfoot and Bennett 2003) the physical place where designing occurs and the learning process of designing that incorporates ‘‘learning by doing’’.” (Vosinakis et al, 2013)
The authors point out several ways that virtual reality is ideal to be used as a design studio tool. While in traditional design studios, students produce prototypes, models and mockups, “Virtual worlds (VWs) combine a number of characteristics that may be valuable for addressing the identified issues. Concepts and ideas can be visualized and manipulated in real time, users can meet and collaborate in shared workplaces, there is an increased awareness of the work in progress and of user activities, the designed product or system can be presented in a realistic context and evaluated by team members or external users, and some functional aspects can be included in the prototype, for example, moving or rotating parts, inter- object communication and point-and-click user interaction” (Vosinakis et al, 2013)
Further, the author points out that many attributes of virtual reality are conducive to design process and design thinking. These include creating the design brief, design thinking, design practice (conceptual and detailed), the desk crit, design review and user evaluation.(Vosinakis et al, 2013) In virtual reality, “designers use a single integrated environment for both private and collaborative activities, that they may visually explore the design while being designed and that they may get immediate feedback from their actions leading to further re-evaluation.” (Vosinakis et al, 2013)
Virtual reality gives the design process more flexibility in the tutoring process of the design studio environment allowing students and teachers to interact in an immersive environment while experiencing the designs in a functional environment. Virtual reality allows students to create simulations with prototypes. “Design practice refers to the acts of putting the design into form and function with various materials ranging from paper and pencil to computer-aided design (CAD) and prototyping systems. The design review (or jury) refers to the scrutinizing of student work by the tutor (or sometimes other students as well) (Shaffer 2003) and in the case of interaction design also includes user- centered evaluation of the designed artifact on various aspects of the user experience.” (Vosinakis et al, 2013)
What are the characteristics of games that cause immersion and the motivation to keep playing? In designing games and simulations for education, it would be useful to have guidelines to create environments where participants want to play. In the paper “From Game Design to Gamefulness”, many different aspects of design are examined in regards to using game design elements in a non-game context. The authors call this “gamefacation” citing several sources defining it as “the adoption of game technology and game design methods outside of the games industry”, “the process of using game thinking and game mechanics to solve problems and engage users” or “integrating game dynamics into your site, service, community, content or campaign, in order to drive participation” (Deterding et al, 2011)
They define gamefulness as the “experiential and behavioral quality”, gameful interaction as the “artifacts affording that quality”, and gameful design as “designing for gamefulness, typically by using game design elements”. They propose that game designer “treat game elements as a set of building blocks or features shared by games (rather than a set of necessary conditions for a game), comparable to Wittgensteinian family resemblances.” (Deterding et al, 2011)
Many elements of game design can be incorporated into a system. “Game design methods “gamified” applications merely use several design elements from games. Seen from the perspective of the designer, what distinguishes “gamification” from ‘regular’ entertainment games and serious games is that they are built with the intention of a system that includes elements from games, not a full ‘game proper’. From the user perspective, such systems entailing design elements from games can then be enacted and experienced. Some of these game design elements include game interface design patterns such as interaction design and components like badges, game design patterns and mechanics, game design principles and heuristics. Evaluative guidelines to approach design problems such as enduring play, clear goals, variety of game styles, game models can create a gaming sensibility in the mind of participants. (Deterding et al, 2011)
Games design offer instructional designers many elements which can be applied to create interesting learning experiences.
Do game aesthetics influence the player’s experience while playing the game? How do the aesthetics of a game influence the enjoyment of the game? The paper, “What we talk about when we talk about game aesthetics” examines aesthetics within game studies research, to better “understand the way in which games function as sites for sensory and embodied play, creative activity and aesthetic experience.”(Niedenthal, 2009)
The authors define aesthetics as “the sensory phenomena that the player encounters in the game (visual, aural, haptic, embodied), aspects of digital games that are shared with other art forms (and thus provides a means of generalizing about art), an expression of the game experienced as pleasure, emotion, sociability, form giving, etc (with reference to ”the aesthetic experience”)” and “game aesthetics is identified with the play experience in its fullest sense, both the explicit elements that the player encounters, such as the game world and representation, as well as implicit features that influence the play experience, such as rules. Aesthetics is play.” (Niedenthal, 2009)
The authors break down the aesthetic experience further by defining game aesthetics by these criteria: Aesthetic design is an element which “attention is firmly fixed upon: components of a visual pattern. This element excludes the awareness of other objects or events, is dominated by intense feelings or emotions, hangs together, is coherent, and involves “make-believe” “These elements contribute to the “Flow” state. The authors further state, “These terms also resonate well with the desired outcomes of successful game design. Game designers themselves, for example, frequently speak about creating games that are “tight” (cohesive) as essential to fashioning a good play experience.” (Niedenthal, 2009)
Although many of these elements such as the procedural nature of games, rule sets, mechanics, sound, graphics and the controller exist on the subliminal level, by examining the effect these parts have player, researchers can gain an understanding how these parts come together to make a game successful. (Niedenthal, 2009)
In the paper, “Games and Simulations and their Relationships to Learning”, Margaret E. Gredler looks at additional criterion for game design. She writes that well-designed games are challenging and interesting for the players while, at the same time, requiring the application of particular knowledge or skills. (Gredler, 2004)
Five design criteria important in meeting this requirement are summarized. First she points out that “winning should be based on knowledge or skills, not random factors. When chance factors contribute to winning, the knowledge and, effort of other players are devalued.” In an educational game, it would be important that winning was based on some sort of knowledge system. The second criterion: ”The game should address important content, not trivia. The game sends messages about what is important in the class.”, makes sense as well. Creating a game structured around important information gives incentive to play and learn. In designing, it would also be important to make “the dynamics of the game be easy to understand and interesting for the players but not obstruct or distort learning.” The fourth principle:” Students should not lose points for wrong answers. Punishing players for errors also punishes their effort and generates frustration.” also would be important so that the participants did not get discouraged. The fifth criterion assures that all participants get something out of playing and deemphasizes academic competition:” Games should not be zero-sum exercises. In zero-sum games, players periodically receive rewards for game-sanctioned actions, but only one player achieves an ultimate win. The educational problem is that several students may demonstrate substantial learning but are not recognized as winners.” (Gredler, 2004)
In her assessment of simulations, she points out that “simulations are evolving case studies of a particular social or physical reality. The goal, instead of winning, is to take a bona fide role, address the issues, threats, or problems arising in the simulation, and experience the effects of one’s decisions.” Rather than static classroom situations the author points out that “simulations provide advantages not found in exercises…First, they bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world by providing experience with complex, evolving problems. Second, they can reveal student misconceptions and understandings about the content. Third, and particularly important, they can provide information about students’ problem solving strategies.” (Gredler, 2004)
The author defines experiential simulations as social microcosms. She writes:” Learners interact with real-world scenarios and experience the feelings, questions, and concerns associated with their particular role. That is, the learner is immersed in a complex, evolving situation in which he or she is one of the functional components.” (Gredler, 2004) The author writes that in designing a simulation, one needs to address important questions. These are: ”What is the nature of the knowledge? and Why should this occur? In other words, addressing the prior questions is important in order to explore the potential of simulations for both cognitive and metacognitive learning.”(Gredler, 2004)
In the paper, “Game-Based Curriculum and Transformational Play: Designing to Meaningfully Positioning Person, Content, and Context”, the intent of the educational goal is examined in conjunction with the game design. The authors point out that students need a reason to play an educational game. Most students are interested in meaningful engagement. “Videogames are not interesting to students merely because they are fun. Meaningful engagement requires curricular scaffolds that position content as tools that can be used to solve meaningful problems: merely creating opportunities for students to leverage tools without robust conceptualization of those tools is ultimately unsuccessful. Our study suggests that when students have opportunities to act with intention on legitimate contexts, they both engage deeply with content and enjoy what they are doing.” The authors define this as “transformational play”. Through studies they show that in role playing games, the role the student plays makes a difference in the learning process. This study also makes clear that “requiring uptake of rigorous academic content does not have to undermine student learning and engagement. Instead, when students have opportunities to learn new content, and use that content in the interest of solving personally meaningful problems, they find their work to be enjoyable and interesting and even learned more than a control classroom. More generally, we believe that schools are suffering from a crisis of meaning, not from low test scores in that unless youth understand why the content they are learning is valuable they will appreciate the relevance of academic content to their personal selves or possible futures.” (Barab et al, 2012)
What is the future of video games? The paper “Video games and the future of learning” explores many attributes of video games that contribute to the learning process. The authors state” video games are important because they let people participate in new worlds. They let players think, talk, and act—they let players inhabit—roles otherwise inaccessible to them.” Virtual reality gives participants the opportunity to experience concepts in concrete ways. “In game worlds, learning no longer means confronting words and symbols separated from the things those words and symbols are about in the first place. “ Because a participant can experience the idea or concept rather than memorize a formula, deeper learning takes place, As an example: ”The inverse square law of gravity is no longer something understood solely through an equation; students can gain virtual experience walking on worlds with smaller mass than the Earth, or plan manned space flights that require understanding the changing effects of gravitational forces in different parts of the solar system. In virtual worlds, learners experience the concrete realities that words and symbols describe.” This opportunity to experience concepts to see the “connection between abstract ideas and the real problems they can be used to solve make it possible for participants to develop situated understanding.” (Shaffer et al, 2004)
This paper also outlines some of the communities that have emerged with different games. Although education has been focused in the past on much memorization, the authors contend that situated learning environments offer participants the opportunity to be immersed in virtual reality and/ or gaming environments, “games that initiate players into an epistemic frame depend on epistemographic study of the training practices of a community.” This creates new learning opportunities that are more vital and dynamic.” In games as in real life, people must be able to build meanings on the spot as they navigate their contexts.” (Shaffer et al, 2004)
The authors propose that creating games around situated learning within communities of practice offers participants the opportunity to learn by doing from a community of mentors. The authors contend that video games have offer the potential for educators to move “towards a new model of learning through meaningful activity in virtual worlds as preparation for meaningful activity in our post-industrial, technology-rich, real world. “ (Shaffer et al, 2004)
People have created simulations and games from the beginning of civilization. In the 21st century, games and simulations offer many possibilities to create innovative learning aids. Technology gives people the opportunity to examine the way they perceive reality and use innovations in new ways of creating and thinking in a rapidly changing world..
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