games and immersion

mike's post on active participation in board games has me thinking about what software designers and game designers call immersion. it amounts to roughly the level of engagement (i.e. active participation) a player has with a game. from the figure below, you can see how white and i mapped Ermi and Mäyrä's (2005) dimensions of immersion in games:

but player immersion really difficult to measure, because it seems to be fairly subjective and player-dependent. i wonder if we would run into the same problems trying to measure active participation in board games. it would be interesting, at least to see how the kids characterize their game play and level of engagement with different games.

for more on immersion, you can check out some writing i've done on it here:

"Enter the game factor"

or here:

"Multiple perspectives on player immersion"

this last link includes some embedded video from the television show South Park, and while it's not exceptionally vulgar (as the show can be), i would want to warn parents to watch the clip before sharing it with their kids. it is very funny and raises some interesting questions about how and why kids become immersed in their favorite games. . . .

Passive vs Active Entertainment

Yehuda just posted about board games and whether they are passive or active entertainment (here). And that post, of course, really got me thinking (his posts seem to do that) about how this kind of thing would apply to kids and the games they play and if we should be taking this sort of thing into consideration with our after school gaming group.

Passive Entertainment
This shows up in a game when the game is ruled by randomness: you roll the dice or you spin the spinner or the drawn card determines what happens in the game. In Yehuda's words: "When you roll the dice and laugh, groan, or jump for joy at the outcome, you are enjoying passive entertainment" In other words, you don't have to do a lot of thinking or "strategizing" in the game. Your involvement is quite passive.

Active Entertainment
If you play a game that involves you making many decisions, laying out plans, or thinking up different strategies that will help you accomplish the goals of the game, then you are involved in a more active entertainment. Again, in the words of Yehuda: "When you're called upon to think or make a decision, you are enjoying active entertainment. There are different levels of active entertainment, from the simple (trivia: do I know it or not?) to the complex (how do I get my battalion to that base?). Regardless of complexity, you can rank better or worse players, and most of the time you can work to improve yourself."

In my mind these two "levels" of entertainment would lie on a continuum (each occupying an extreme).

This continuum could then be used to categorize games; games could be placed along this continuum. Some games would include some active and some passive entertainment. Other games would include more passive entertainment, but still include a little active entertainment. Snakes and Ladders could be used as an example. In this game players spin the spinner and move their pawn the corresponding number of spaces on the board. If they end their turn at the bottom of a ladder, then they climb the ladder to the space above. If they end their turn at the top of a snake, then they slide down the snake to the space at the end of the snake. So, there is no decision making involved with this game. The random result of the spin determines all that happens in the game. I would place Snakes and Ladders at the extreme end of passive entertainment on the continuum.

This all raises a question in my mind: elementary school kids, what kinds of games would they prefer, and probably more importantly, what kinds of games should we introduce them to, games with more passive or more active entertainment included in them?

This quandary also arises from the following news post: Star-Telegram. Were those who rated the games looking for a more passive or active entertainment experience?

Progress

We met today and discussed the things we hope to accomplish with the after school gaming group. It should be a lot of fun!

We put together a flier (here) that will be sent home with kids to let them and their parents know about what we are doing. The group will start up on the 6th of January!

Gaming in Libraries Online Course

I just came across this Gaming in Libraries course that was taught online by Scott Nicholson at Syracuse University a few months ago (here's a link to the intro episode). It looks like it provides a lot of great information that will really be beneficial to this little adventure I have embarked upon (I've also added a link to it in the right-hand column).

I watched the first 3 videos: the intro, session 1, and session 2. He goes through and introduces himself and the course and then starts talking about how "games" will be defined for the purposes of the course. Games include three important components: play, goals, and structure.

Play
The purpose of engaging in the game activity must be to have fun. There are a lot of things that we do that have goals and structure but that we don't do for fun. He gave the example of professional athletes. They are playing a sport but are getting paid to do so. So, is it still for the purpose of having fun for them?

Goals
Second, there must be goals involved in the game activity. These goals can be self-imposed, as is usually the case with role-playing games, or the goals can be imposed upon players by the game (i.e., be the first player to score 10 points).

Structure
Lastly, the game activity must be structured. This is usually provided for players via the rules or instruction document; how do you play the game? Dr. Nicholson did mention that games can be used for play but without structure. For example, you could just take the bits from a game and explore them or incorporate them into some other "free-play" that you are engaged in. This is something that I see with my children all the time. I'll get out a bunch of the pieces for Heroscape and usually they don't much care for playing the game according to the rules and whatnot. They would much rather grab the guys and start building land and things for them to "live" on. They love to engage in "free-play" with the pieces from Heroscape. Recently though, our 7 year old, she is a lot more into trying to learn how to actually play the game according to the rules. It's just not that easy to do with the other kids just wanting to do their normal "free-play" with all of it.

This all got me to thinking about the goals that I would have for doing this after school club with kids in an elementary school. First, I want to help them learn new games, learn new ways of having fun! I enjoy learning and playing games; it's a lot of fun. Second, I want to make it a learning experience for them. I want them to stretch their brains and have new experiences that will help them learn. For that reason I've sought out things like the book, Libraries Got Game, and this online course by Scott Nicholson about having a gaming program in libraries.

It's great to find so much available for guiding those of us who are new to this kind of thing and looking for help in moving forward.

Everything's got to start somewhere

I recently heard about the book Libraries Got Game: Aligned Learning through Modern Board Games. It's published by the American Library Association and sounds really cool. So I looked for it here at the USU library and at the public library, but came up empty at both places. The university library did let me know that they were in the process of acquiring the book and put my name on the list to receive it once it came in. Well, I just got it a couple days ago and can't wait to really get into it!

After picking it up I needed to make a stop at the Edith Bowen Moore Library. While I was there I had to tell them about the book and talked to them a little about my love of designing games. The idea came up (not mine) that I could head up a little after school group with the kids at the elementary where I would teach them games! Well, I thought the idea was excellent. I love games and I am very into education, so, it seems to fit pretty well for me.

The plan is that Tuesdays after school, starting on the first Tuesday of December, I'll have an hour with any kids who decide they want to participate. I'm not exactly sure how the whole thing will work out, but I am going to use the book as a guide for what I'm going to be doing with the kids. Plus, the authors of the book are from the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES and have put up a great website about games and libraries (here). These great resources will be very helpful in this little adventure. I figured I'd chronicle the whole thing in this little blog.