Unit 4

11.127x Unit 4 is now live! For this two week unit, we’ll focus on testing and iteration. The development of the game The Radix Endeavor will serve as a case study and we’ll talk with several team members about their experiences prototyping and testing. We’ll learn about design-based research (DBR) and take a closer look at one project applying it. You’ll work on testing your game and you’ll provide feedback to your classmates. The activity break is especially important for this unit; submit your questions for playtesting and read other posts. After a round of testing, you’ll likely iterate your game. Consider getting some help from your working group (survey-based) and/or affinity group.

Two bonus videos from 11.126x have been released to provide participants with additional background regarding prototying and playtesting. Check out Philip Tan’s video about prototyping in the Unit 3 Overview and Sara Verrilli’s video about playtesting in the Unit 4 Overview. 

Thank you for joining us for the Hangout on Air on Wednesday, April 29! We were impressed with your work and we enjoyed critiquing your prototypes. If you missed this live event, you can access the recording here. If you’d prefer to watch it on Youtube, go here. 

The course staff is looking forward to reading about your experiences testing and iterating. See you in the Forums!

After reviewing activity in the forum, course staff thought it would be helpful to include some additional content regarding prototyping. Research Scientist Philip Tan from the MIT Game Lab introduces the concept of prototyping, explains what it is, and talks about why prototyping is an important skill in developing games.

This video originally appeared in 11.126x: Introduction to Game Design.

Tan


http://youtu.be/Oqksxk56dlM

Welcome to Unit 4! Now that we have entered the later stages of game development, it's time to focus on two challenging aspects of the process - testing and iteration. Since testing and iteration is necessary to get the game "right," we'll be spending two weeks on this unit. Radix: Iterative Design: In this case study, Louisa Rosenheck and Susannah Gordon-Messer talk about their work developing and iterating The Radix Endeavor. They show us the game and offer a true behind-the-scenes perspective. Radix: Digital Prototyping: In the continuation of our look at The Radix Endeavor, Prof. Eric Klopfer and Colin Greenhill discuss the digital prototyping process from the developer's point of view. Design-Based Research: Prof. Eric Klopfer explains design-based research. Prof. Eric Klopfer, Prof. Matthew Berland and Devon Klompmaker discuss the creation of Makescape (now Oztoc) as an example. We will be reading the "11.127x Guide to Playtesting" and Louisa Rosenheck's "Six Strategies to Make the Most of Student Playtesting." Those who wish to dive deeper can read the Edutechwiki entry on design-based research. BONUS: Sara Verrilli talks about playtesting in this video from 11.126x (included in this section). The course staff thought this video would be helpful for a general overview of playtesting. Appearances by: Sara Verrilli, Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, Colin Greenhill, Matthew Berland and Devon Klompmaker
http://youtu.be/Oqksxk56dlM
After this unit was completed, the course staff thought the addition of this video would be helpful to participants. Sara Verrilli, Development Director at the MIT Game Lab, talks about testing games, the different types of testing, and when you should use each of them. This video originally appeared in 11.126x: Introduction to Game Design.
http://youtu.be/Zkz73q4wmpI

Louisa Rosenheck, a research manager at MIT's Education Arcade, and Susannah Gordon-Messer, an education content manager at MIT's Education Arcade, discuss their work iteratively designing, prototyping, and testing The Radix Endeavor. In this segment, they reflect on how prototyping and playtesting contributed to the development of the marketplace quest. The Radix Endeavor, an online multi-player game for high school math and biology, is currently being tested in a large-scale pilot involving teachers and students.

http://youtu.be/tf5TzG79JB4

Louisa and Susannah continue their conversation, walking us through the transition from paper to digital prototypes. They explain how they realized that in-game activity could support certain learning components, but that others might be better served through complementary classroom activities and teacher support. Your learning game could also have complementary activities. We'll talk more about integration in Unit 5, but you may want to start thinking about it.

http://youtu.be/Z6Btdq2uPAk

Louisa and Susannah discuss developing the quests in the final version of the game. They consider how the protoyping and testing phases shaped the final design and influenced their thinking regarding game levels and scaffolding. Does your learning game have levels? Before you leave this section, reflect on your levels. Consider the difficulty, the flow, etc.

http://youtu.be/ZPEsLoL4YV8

When you test your game, you'll want to ask the players some questions so you can learn about their experience. For this activity break, write some questions you'd like to ask playtesters. Consider what questions should be asked and also when you should ask them (Before game play? During? After?). Here are a couple to consider incorporating into your protocol: What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? These questions may look very general to you. You'll want to follow up with additional questions regarding specifics and details. These additional questions will arise naturally out of the playtest experience itself, though you may want to consider in advance the types of questions you're likely to get. Example: If a playtester says that Level 2 was especially challenging because of the instructions, you'll want to find out more. What about the instructions was challenging? You'll notice there are no questions about learning in this list. Think about how you'd like to talk to your playtesters about educational content in the game. What questions will help you find out if playtesters are learning? The list of questions above is adapted and inspired by the Playtester Feedback Worksheet created by Gamestar Mechanic. You may also want to check out the related content.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZWxpbmVtZWRpYS5jb218Z3NtbGVhcm5pbmdndWlkZXxneDo3YjMxNTM0OGRiZmM1NzE5

https://gamestarmechanic.com

https://sites.google.com/a/elinemedia.com/gsmlearningguide/game-design-101/lesson-5-playtest-and-iterate

Even if you don't always share your thoughts for activity breaks, please consider doing so this time. Other course participants may want to reflect on and use the questions you come up with.

What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? How does the game compare to other Humanities, history, or general education classes you have taken? Which is more engaging: standard classes or game-based classes? In which type of class–standard or game-based–are you more active? Which game would you rather participate in based on your work and family schedule?

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Colin Greenhill, who works as a software developer at MIT's Education Arcade, about his experience communicating with the design team and his work iteratively creating and refining digital prototypes for The Radix Endeavor.

http://youtu.be/ZPEsLoL4YV8

Eric and Colin continue their conversation and take a closer look at the geometry quest area. Colin highlights the importance of figuring out which interface elements are helpful and useful to the player. Think about your game's interface as you test and iterate this week.

http://youtu.be/UBZfoVvI8R0

http://youtu.be/z-jzwtSmFys

Unit 4 Reading PLAYTESTING 11.127x Guide to Playtesting (posted in this section) Rosenheck, Louisa. 2015. "Six Strategies to Make the Most of Student Playtesting" Gamesandlearning.org (Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop).

http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2015/02/16/six-strategies-to-make-the-most-of-student-playtesting/

DIVE DEEPER Edutechwiki. "Design-Based Research." Hosted by TECFA at the University of Geneva.

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Design-based_research

11.127x Guide to Playtesting How do you find out if your learning game works the way you expect and gives players the experience you want? Playtesting! Use your observations and tester feedback to make your game even better. WHO DO I TEST WITH? Test your game by playing yourself. Do this before you engage any outside testers. Try to view the game from the perspective of a player rather than as a designer/developer. Make necessary changes before you engage playtesters. Allow people you know to try your game. While this audience may not be as objective, you may feel more comfortable testing your game with this group first. You can also fine-tune playtesting questions. This may mean seeking out participants who have seen your past prototypes or who are in your affinity group or survey-based working group. Test with people who do not know you or your game. This group can give you objective feedback. Maybe you can approach 11.127 participants who you have not engaged with previously. Test with your target audience. This may not be possible for all participants. Feedback from this group will be especially relevant. HOW TO CONDUCT A BASIC PLAYTEST Consider what you hope to get out of playtesting sessions. Make sure your questions for the tester will help you iterate effectively and improve the game. For in-person tests, decide if you will test one-on-one, in groups, etc. Provide the information your tester will need to access and play the game. Don’t tell the tester about all of your experiences developing the game or why you think it can help people learn. You want to get a fresh perspective. Ask the playtester any questions you’ve created for the pre-gameplay phase. It’s time to play the game! Ideally, watch your tester play the game and write down your observations. You may notice interesting body language, etc. You may also want your tester to think aloud and explain why they are making certain choices. If that’s not possible, consider asking your tester to write down some observations as they play. Ask post-game questions and discuss the overall game experience. Use the questions you developed for the activity break and also any great questions you might have noticed in the forum. Bibliography: Fullerton, Tracy. 2014. “Playtesting.” In Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 248-271. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.

http://youtu.be/z-jzwtSmFys

It's time to test your game! Get your prototypes into some stable, presentable form, and start looking for playtesters in the real world. You can ask friends and family to play, but the best feedback you can get will be from your target audience. It can be challenging to get into certain kinds learning environments to test a prototype (American schools, for instance), but if you find children of the right age through friends and family, do your best to get your game in front of them. If you can’t get into an afterschool program, perhaps you can get some time with someone who works in an afterschool program and you can ask them to play your game and/or talk to you about how they would use your game in their program. Also, try to make changes to your game based on the feedback from others and then get your game back out there! This type of iterative game design is done by game designers and developers at every level. It is extremely rare that your game is going to come out of your head perfectly. It is much more likely that it is going to take watching a lot of other people playing your game and asking them about their experience to get your game into a good place. If you are working with a team, it may be a good idea to standardize your questions somewhat if you are playtesting with groups in different towns, states, countries etc… This will make sure everyone on the team’s questions are getting answered, and it will make sure that the same type of feedback is coming back to your team. Your deliverable should be publicly viewable and include the following: A written reflection on your experiences testing your game - Did things turn out differently than you expected? Would you test your game the same way in the future? An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations A brief explanation and list of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions Guidance for Peer Feedback Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: Comment on how the participant responded to lessons learned from testing. Do you have any recommendations regarding how the participant can test and iterate more effectively? How did the participant's experience testing and iterating influence your own thinking?

Unit 4 Deliverable

A written reflection on your experiences testing your game - Did things turn out differently than you expected?

Yes, things turned out differently than what I expected. My first tester was very enthusiastic, was very experienced with the game Civilization, and offered to work on a scenario. The second tester was more ambivalent and had no experience with the game but did make an attempt to learn. My third tester had no experience whatsoever with gaming but really enjoyed the testing process. The same tester had expressed a dissatisfaction with the companion course to mine that I had not taught. Their experience confirmed the idea that if a student did not like the standard pedagogical approach the game could be very stimulating. The last tester was a very experienced gamer but was unfamiliar with Civilization. As a result, it was necessary to walk them through the testing process.

In summary, the previous experience or lack of experience with gaming did not determine how the tester reacted to my iteration process. Some experienced players really embraced the idea or some still struggled with it. On the other hand, those with little to no experience did really enjoy the new approach. I would have anticipated previous to the testing that the more experienced gamers would more readily embrace the new approach and the less experienced gamers would struggle.

Would you test your game the same way in the future?

The next time around I am better prepared with the readings and experience in this course to test in a more effective manner.

An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations

I took into consideration the feedback that I received. The issue with a scenario is how accurate does it need to be based on the learning objectives of a regular course. For example, the scenario is limited because I do not have Italy in the course; does it need to account for every, or only some of the key elements of the Renaissance. Or, do I favor the realistic nature of gameplay as opposed to the actual events of the past?

A brief explanation and list of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with

1. Very experienced gamer

2. No experience with Civilization but a fair amount of gaming

3. No gaming experience

4. Very experienced gamer.

The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions

What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? How does the game compare to other Humanities, history, or general education classes you have taken? Which is more engaging: standard classes or game-based classes? In which type of class–standard or game-based–are you more active? Which game would you rather participate in based on your work and family schedule?

Because of my particular audience I asked questions that would address the key issues that they are concerned with. How does gaming technology contribute to the students being more active and engaged? I also wanted to compare their experience with gaming as opposed to traditional pedagogy.

Boston University Against White People

Boston University

How Islamists Prosper in the West

Survive

Krauthammer: Saudi Loud Statement

Loud Statement

Barbara Seaman

Seaman

Seaman and the Catholic Church

PBS The American Experience

Isis He was also a practicing Catholic who found himself in the spotlight of controversy ... he took these attacks far more personally than those from the Catholic Church. ... and health feminist Barbara Seaman catapulted the controversy onto center ... www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/652100

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/652100?uid=3739808&uid=2460338175&uid=2460337935&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=83&uid=63&uid=3739256&sid=21104366538991

Islamic States Volunteers for 72 virgins

Candidates for 72 virgins.

DHS Strategy Against Islamists: Talk

Talk

Waller, TX Cop Pepper Sprays Student Filmer

Waller, TX

State Department Promoting Islamist Colonies in America

Secure Freedom.org

Marines Beat Korea in Drum Battle

Drums

Court Rules Against NSA's Section 215

215

Peter Thiel, PayPal, Palantir Technologies, Zero to One

Peter Thiel on what works at work (from the Washington Post)

Peter Thiel is often described in techno-hyphenated words: Techno-philosopher. Techno-libertarian. Techno-utopian. Technology, after all, is how he first made his name and built his billions. Yet his reach has since stretched beyond that, with his political opinions now getting him nearly as much notice as his tech investments.

Thiel, 46, was born in West Germany and moved to California at age 10. He was the first outsider to invest in Facebook ($500,000 for a 10 percent stake), the co-founder and chief executive of PayPal, and now serves as chairman and co-founder of data-analytics company Palantir Technologies. He’s also the author of Zero to One, a manifesto on how to create American progress.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can also listen to the conversation with Thiel in the latest episode of our new On Leadership podcast. (You can listen on the Post's site or on iTunes.)

Q. What’s a question you always hope you’ll be asked in interviews, but no one ever seems to ask you?

A. There are all these questions about what’s working in Silicon Valley today, what’s not working, that I think are really interesting. There’s something about the software businesses built in the last 30, 40 years that works incredibly well for actually capturing value. And I think it’s interesting to explore how unusual that is relative to many other areas of technology, because there are so many innovations that were good for society but the people who came up with them ended up with very little. The Wright brothers built the first airplane—they didn’t make any money on that.

Q. So is this something we’ve cracked the code on now?

A. I don’t know if we’ve really cracked the code. Innovation is a very strange thing in general, because it’s so hard to know what to learn about it or how to study it. Every moment in the history of business, in the history of technology, happens only once. And so there’s no formula.

A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas.

Q. Some people outside Silicon Valley see it as a place that is not really in touch with the rest of the country. Does that ring true to you in any way?

A. There is a big disconnect, because you have this sense of stagnation and slow growth in many other places, and you have this incredible boom in Silicon Valley.

Also, I do not think we live in a scientific and technological age, as a society. I think most people do not like science and technology. They’re scared of it. All you have to do is watch science-fiction movies — they all show technology that doesn’t work, or they’re dystopian. I watched "Gravity" last year, and it’s like you’re so glad to be back on a muddy island. You never want to go into outer space.

There’s something about our society that’s incredibly conservative, in the sense of not wanting things to change. So I think there’s a cultural disconnect with Silicon Valley that’s pretty big.

Q. You’ve written that you doubt the efficacy of MBA programs to prepare future business leaders. What would an effective MBA program look like?

A. The question is, what substance of business are you focused on? The conceit of the MBA is that you don’t need to have any substance at all. It’s just this management science, and you can apply that equally well in a software company or an oil drilling company or a fashion company or a rocket company. That’s the bias I’d want us to cut against. So for the degree, people would learn substantive things and then on the side you’d pick up some business skills. But you wouldn’t treat the business degree as the central thing.

I think one challenge a lot of the business schools have is they end up attracting students who are very extroverted and have very low conviction, and they put them in this hot house environment for a few years — at the end of which, a large number of people go into whatever was the last trendy thing to do. They’ve done studies at Harvard Business School where they’ve found that the largest cohort always went into the wrong field. So in 1989, they all went to work for Michael Milken, a year or two before he went to jail. They were never interested in Silicon Valley except for 1999, 2000. The last decade their interest was housing and private equity.

So there is something about the way in which business school is decoupled from anything really substantive that I’d want to rethink.

Q. Even though you don’t agree with teaching management in and of itself, were there any lessons you learned as CEO that you would share with others?

A. One is that competition is overrated. People should try to do unique things. As a business, you want to have a monopoly, not be in a company where you have cutthroat competition. Google is a better business than opening a restaurant, for example.

The internal management application of this is that it’s always a bad idea to set one’s employees too much against one another. You want to find ways to differentiate people’s roles. Frame it this way: If you were a sociopathic boss who wanted to create trouble for your employees, the formula you would follow would be to tell two people to do the exact same thing. That’s a guaranteed formula for creating conflict. If you’re not a sociopath, you want to be very careful to avoid this.

We have this ideological understanding of conflict, where we say it happens when people want different things. But I think it actually happens when people want the same thing — the same promotion, recognition for doing the same job well, the same toy as a kid.

One of the rough rules I had at PayPal was that people were responsible for one primary thing. I wanted to be really clear that the job descriptions for everybody were different, so you would not have this endemic conflict. I think that was very powerful.

You still end up having conflicts in all these startups because the roles are very fluid and things change a lot, but it’s something you want to really avoid. For a lot of these businesses, the most common cause of failure is that they blow up internally when people don’t get along.

An executive once told me she thought that if you had three good friends at your office then you’d never leave. If you had no good friends, you were a very at-risk employee. It’s a really good question: How do you build a company culture where people have strong friendships with at least a few people at work? That’s healthier than having a super professional approach where there’s this low-level chronic dislike everybody has of everybody else, and it somehow functions but people are unhappy — which I think is true of a lot of law firms or investment banks.

Q. Did you figure out any good ways to support that fostering of friendships? Aside from some of things we immediately associate with Silicon Valley companies, like ping-pong tables and free food.

A. You try to hire people you think you could become friends with. I’m personally very skeptical of the ping-pong tables and all these corporate perks. I think the company culture is always best organized around the mission of what the company does.

Q. What did you find the hardest part of being CEO?

A. As CEO, you’re somehow both the total insider and the total outsider at the same time. In some ways you’re at the center of the organization. In other contexts, you’re like the last person to know anything.

Q. What’s your basic philosophy on how to effect change in a society?

A. I’m biased to the model that change happens in small groups, in small organizations. I’m skeptical of solo efforts, and I’m skeptical of mass movements. This is why I like the Silicon Valley startup, or the Constitutional Convention of the United States. You have a small group of people who come together, united by a purpose.

In theory, everything should be solved within large existing organizations — governments, large companies, large nonprofits. They have more resources, they have longer time horizons. Yet there’s always a need to start small new organizations, because the politics in these large organizations slow things down too much.

Q. What’s a trait you possess that you really value?

A. I’ve built some great friendships over the years with people I’ve worked with. And I think that’s a really important part of what enables one to be successful in the long run in our society. There are ways people can succeed without doing that, but I think it’s very underrated. My friend Reid Hoffman always says it’s hard to know what the meaning of life is, but he thinks it has something to do with the people you spend time with.

Q. What about the flip side? Is there anything you’ve had to work at over the years, some trait you’ve had to tweak?

A. There are all these things that you never know whether they’re features or bugs—in a company or organization, or even in a personal trait. I’m interested in lots of different things. I’m interested in business but also economics and philosophy and literature. I always like to rationalize that as helping me think about things better, or that these things are interdisciplinary. But maybe it’s just being a dilettante or procrastinating and not ever really getting focused.

Q. When you were young you were a U.S.-rated chess master. Has chess influenced your strategic thinking outside of the game?

A. When I was in high school, one of the intermediate learnings in chess is that you should always have a plan. Even having a bad plan is better than no plan at all. I think something like that is true in a lot of business contexts, where even a bad plan is better than randomly going from day to day. But I suspect in general it’s a mistake to try to say that life is too much like chess. It’s a lot more complicated.

Q. Who has had the biggest impact on shaping you?

A. I grew up in this very middle-class context where there was sort of this mindset that if you worked hard, you could get ahead. That was a sensibility that I powerfully picked up from my parents.

Q. What’s it like to be a billionaire?

A. Well, you have a lot of money, and there are sort of good things and bad things that go with that. You certainly have a lot more freedom. There are fewer financial worries. On the other hand, one of the strange dynamics with extreme wealth is you always have these questions — are people interested in talking to you because of your money? — and all this second-guessing that can happen to varying degrees. I try not to worry about that stuff too much. My experience was not that different from many people in Silicon Valley, where it happened virtually overnight. It was this very fast and very strange change.

Q. What’s your concept of what it will mean to have lived your life well?

A. People always say you should live every day as though it's your last. I sort of have taken the opposite tack, where I think you should live every day as though it's going to go on forever. You should treat people like you're going to see them again in the future. You should start working on projects that may take a long time. And so I want to live every day as though it's going to go on forever.

Q. What’s your best piece of advice?

A. Always prioritize the substance of what you're doing. Don't get caught up in the status, the prestige games. They're endlessly dazzling, and they're always endlessly disappointing.

Iranians Scare Americans in the Gulf of Aden

Obama Bows

Games for Technology and Education

Gamification Design (ended, archived)
https://iversity.org/courses/gamification-design
Video Games and Learning (ended, archived)
https://www.coursera.org/course/videogameslearning
Gamification (2nd iteration in January, 2015)
https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification
Game design for learning (asynchronous)
http://academy.nmc.org/course/crash-course-on-gaming-and-learning/

Anti-Black Obama

Anti-black

Surveillance in Baltimore

Surveillance

Two Islamists Dead in Attempt to Stop Free Speech, Garland, Geller

Judge Pirro

Why Won't Pamela Geller Shut Up?

Bill Maher

SNL: Draw Mo

Geller vs. Juan Williams

Dead Islamists Tell No Tales

One Brave Texan Cop Results in Two Dead Islamists

Suspected IED Near Texas Border

Islamist Describes Weapon of Mosque

Megyn Kelly and 1st Amendment Expert

British Islamist Advocates Death Under Sharia for Geller

Geller: No Government Protection After Islamist Attack

Megyn Kelly vs. Richard Fowler

Anti-free speech mosque to hold Islamist's funeral.

An unidentified “senior law enforcement official” tells the New York Times that, while the FBI had been aware of Garland, Texas jihadist attacker Elton Simpson for nearly a decade, they did not follow his violent, pro-jihad tweets as closely as they could have because “there are so many like him” that the agency is overwhelmed.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/05/06/official-fbi-overlooked-texas-shooters-violent-tweets-because-there-are-so-many-like-him/

More anti-jihad conferences and a selection of anti-jihad cartoons.
Geller on Fox and Friends
Geller and Imam on Hannity
Geller and the First Amendment
Fox News Seeks to Restrict Free Speech
Dershowitz vs. Islamists
Islamic State threatens Pamela Geller.
CNN promotes Sharia over Garland, Geller event.
Islamists
Killing Free Speech
Second shooter finally identified. Both Islamists have been identified for years by the FBI.
"Good" Islamist Shooter
Tom Trento

Short Trento vid

This event follows the Stand With the Prophet conference in January.

Watter's World

Ian Hunter and the Crybabies, Everybody's A Fool

Ian Hunter

Sold Out Draw Muhammad Day

Moohammad

Mormon Missionaries with Special Skills

Serious

Satan's Hallow

Hell

MTA Bans Free Speech

Speech

Who Is the Most Articulate President?

Articulate

Raven Star on Baltimore

Raven

UCLA Computer History: Kleinrock Center for Internet Studies

Theatrical release, 6 August 1948
 
Some years before the first transmission was made, in part, in Boelter Hall, another machine made UCLA a center for technological advancement. In the late 1940s UCLA’s College of Engineering received a differential analyzer, also known as a mechanical computer, from General Electric. This analog machine cost $125,000 to make and performed mechanical calculations at an unprecedentedly fast rate. Housed at UCLA, near the center of the film making industry, the mechanical computer even became a movie star when it was displayed in the 1951 science-fiction movie When Worlds Collide.

Unfortunately, UCLA’s mechanical computers eventually became outdated in the 1960s, though it clearly served as a forerunner to what Kleinrock and the others would do later on in that decade. One of the machines was sent to the Smithsonian Institute in 1978, but it will be remembered for mid century technology advancement in Southern California.

Kleinrock

Judging Blacks

Judging

Unit 3

https://d2f1egay8yehza.cloudfront.net/MIT11127/MIT11127T115-V007300_DTH.mp4

Welcome to Unit 3!

It's hard to make a good game; great ideas are only a start. In this unit, we'll talk to several experts about their process for designing learning games, with a special focus on prototyping. 

• Important Design Questions: Prof. Colleen Macklin and Prof. Scott Nicholson tell us about their experiences designing and prototyping games and share the kinds of questions they ask during the process. 
• Lure of the Labyrinth: Design Process: Prof. Eric Klopfer and Scot Osterweil take us through the creation of math-based puzzle game Lure of the Labyrinth. 
• Lure of the Labyrinth: Prototyping & Testing: Scot Osterweil and Dan Roy play Lure of the Labyrinth and explain how they iteratively prototyped and play-tested.
• Reach for the Sun: Objectives & Tradefoffs: Prof. Eric Klopfer and Dan Norton play Reach for the Sun and consider aspects of its development. 

We will be reading excerpts of Moving Learning Games Forward by Eric Klopfer, et al. and those who wish to dive deeper can read "Introduction: The Logic of Backwards Design" by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. 

Appearances by: Colleen Macklin, Scott Nicholson, Scot Osterweil, Dan Roy, Dan Norton

http://youtu.be/71L-wUBhiWA
Prof. Colleen Macklin, from Parsons The New School for Design, tells us what kinds of questions she asks when designing and prototyping games. As you work on your project, consider asking yourself some of the same questions, including: "What is the most interesting thing my game could convey to players?" and "What is this game going to feel like?."
http://youtu.be/sg0_GX5D_Rw
Prof. Scott Nicholson from Syracuse University discusses his gaming experiences and his thought processes for conceiving and designing games. Note that he tries to a create a simple prototype early in the process so that he can get his game into the hands of players. Remember that you can still get value from making and testing a simple paper prototype, even early in the design process.
http://youtu.be/NLen6hS1lS8
Scot Osterweil and Prof. Eric Klopfer begin their conversation about the creation of Lure of the Labyrinth. First, they talk about the design and prototyping process in general. As you watch the videos in this section, think about your own game and how you might learn from their process and from their ideas. How do the lessons of Labyrinth apply to your game?
http://youtu.be/oktupItPujc
Scot and Eric speak about the project approval process, determining and balancing needs, considering resources, and securing partners.
http://youtu.be/IGeVYhdYLtU
For this activity break, we're going to think about creating a paper prototype for a particular game mechanism, rather than an entire game. First choose a digital game, then choose one mechanism of that game (how players will take turns, how new information is presented, etc.) and think about how you would create a playable paper prototype. Here's an example: I'm interested in testing how game pieces will be introduced for my Tetris-like puzzle game. I could create the paper pieces in the variety of shapes I'm using and then hand one to a player on a schedule, say every 10 seconds. Perhaps you might learn that, like Tetris, you might want to start progressively decreasing that time period. You can either look at an existing digital game or your own project; consider how you would create a paper prototype for one mechanism. You are welcome to share your reflections (and photos if relevant) with your classmates in the forum.
https://voice.adobe.com/a/2qgAX
Scot Osterweil and game designer Dan Roy, who worked on Lure of the Labyrinth, play the Cafeteria Puzzle (in Lure of the Labyrinth) and discuss how paper prototyping helped them figure out aspects of the gameplay.
http://youtu.be/Whnk3ttAy84
Scot and Dan talk about importance of playtesting and the iterative approach they used to test an aspect of the game.
http://youtu.be/Whnk3ttAy84
To test certain puzzles in Lure of the Labyrinth, it was more effective to use a crude digital prototype. Dan explains and also underscores the importance of allowing players to really play your game, rather than just asking them to comment on a demonstration. As you work the project, make sure you play your own game and allow others to play it.
http://youtu.be/6zTaLt1pDrM
Prof. Eric Klopfer talks to Dan Norton at Filament Games about Reach for the Sun, a plant growth learning game. Dan plays and gives the rationale for various design decisions.
http://youtu.be/6zTaLt1pDrM
http://youtu.be/HcrlEVTRJbI

Unit 3 Reading MOVING LEARNING GAMES FORWARD Read the sections "Learning Game Design Principles" and "Examples" (pgs. 28-40). Klopfer, E. et al. 2009. Moving Learning Games Forward: Obstacles, Opportunities, & Openness. Cambridge MA: MIT The Education Arcade. DIVE DEEPER Read "Introduction: The Logic of Backwards Design" for an overview of a widely-used method for curriculum development. Scot references backwards design in u3.v3.s3. McTighe, Jay, and Grant P. Wiggins. 2004. Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

http://youtu.be/yOpA9OA-LfY

OK! You’ve laid a foundation for the last few weeks - now it’s time to start making your game. For the next 4 weeks (Unit 3 and Unit 4), you have lots of room to make passes at creating your own learning games! Take a look at the feedback you’ve received, find teammates if you are interested, and start designing and building prototypes of your game. Create paper versions or digital versions, and try to collect feedback on the forums, as well as from your friends and family in real life. Deliverable: A publicly viewable and if possible playable version of your prototype(s) with documentation about the following: target audience learning objectives the "fun" in your topic your reasons for choosing certain game mechanics your experiences developing, testing & revising your prototype When you're designing, don't lose sight of the goal of your game and what you want the learner to get out of it. When you're prototyping, think about the following: What is most important for you to know? With each prototype, you should be trying to figure out a few specific things - is it more fun with more players? Does adding “points” make it more fun? Are these mechanics balanced well? If you change too many things between prototypes, it can be difficult to tell which of your changes are working and which aren’t. How can your classmates play this game? It’s easy if you are working in GameBlox to share your games in the forums, and other digital protoypes may be shareable through sites like Dropbox etc. If want feedback on a paper prototype, consider making a .pdf file that they can print and also make a video so they can understand your prototype as well as possible. Are people learning? We’ll be addressing this question more formally in Units 4 and 5, but for now - what do you think? Are people using the game’s language to describe their moves and decisions? Are players getting a better understanding of your topic as they get better at the game? Ask people what is confusing to them, and see how you can improve it. Remember to take a look at everyone else’s games! Think of this as a really big studio class. A large part of your learning is going to take place not just by watching videos or reading articles, but in your interactions in the forums. Debate, ask questions, and provide constructive feedback! Finally, don’t forget to have fun! There’s a lot to think about in this course, but you’re making games, so enjoy it! Guidance for Peer Feedback Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: Give your overall impressions of the game. Were there aspects of the game that you think worked especially well? How can you help the participant improve his or game? You might suggest a change/addition or ask a question. Does the game seem aligned to the learning objectives? Are there ways the participant might improve alignment? How did the participant's prototype influence your own thinking?

Cambridge Hawk Takes Down Drone

Hawk

Assignment 3.1

OK! You’ve laid a foundation for the last few weeks - now it’s time to start making your game. For the next 4 weeks (Unit 3 and Unit 4), you have lots of room to make passes at creating your own learning games! Take a look at the feedback you’ve received, find teammates if you are interested, and start designing and building prototypes of your game. Create paper versions or digital versions, and try to collect feedback on the forums, as well as from your friends and family in real life.

Deliverable: A publicly viewable and if possible playable version of your prototype(s) with documentation about the following:

• target audience 

The target audience is working adults with the average age about 35 years old. They are students who typically have gone to work all day and have family and personal responsibilities and then attend class between 6 and 10 PM at night. 

• learning objectives

The learning objectives include the idea of learning humanities and culture but in a more interesting and informed manner. By playing a game they are no doubt putting in more time but are much more active in the learning objective is for them to be engaged in their own learning.

• the "fun" in your topic
The fun in the topic is that students will be engaged, will interact more with their peers, and will follow avenues of culture that are unique to the gameplay of the individual student.
• your reasons for choosing certain game mechanics
I am choosing the mechanics of the game to include the five countries represented that closely parallel the actual Renaissance cultural conditions. they start off as more or less equal but as in the Renaissance the countries need to develop their cultural production and diplomatic achievements.
• your experiences developing, testing & revising your prototype

Several points can be made in developing, testing, and revising this prototype. Based on feedback that I received the game needs to be set towards diplomatic and cultural interactions and as a humanities class an emphasis must be placed on those aspects in particular.

When you're designing, don't lose sight of the goal of your game and what you want the learner to get out of it.  When you're prototyping, think about the following: 

I want the students to get out of it more than what they expect. It is not only cultural appreciation but the goal is to understanding how resources must be artfully balanced and allocated towards the winning goal cultures have decided upon.

• What is most important for you to know? With each prototype, you should be trying to figure out a few specific things - is it more fun with more players? Does adding “points” make it more fun? Are these mechanics balanced well? If you change too many things between prototypes, it can be difficult to tell which of your changes are working and which aren’t.

It is most important for me to understand how someone can pick up the game fairly easy to begin but then to actually learn from it as well. I have found through testing that about five is a good number; however, I would like at some point to try the online and connected version of the game. Adding elements does not really contribute given the fact that during the game successes or failures are continuously looped back for the learner to grasp. Yes, the mechanics are soundly conceived.

• How can your classmates play this game? It’s easy if you are working in GameBlox to share your games in the forums, and other digital protoypes may be shareable through sites like Dropbox etc. If want feedback on a paper prototype, consider making a .pdf file that they can print and also make a video so they can understand your prototype as well as possible.

Classmates can play at least some version of the franchise Civilization in fact one responder went to FreeCiv to at least be introduced to the concept of the game. It is an early free and online version of the game.

• Are people learning? We’ll be addressing this question more formally in Units 4 and 5, but for now - what do you think? Are people using the game’s language to describe their moves and decisions? Are players getting a better understanding of your topic as they get better at the game? Ask people what is confusing to them, and see how you can improve it.

Students are learning and having fun with it. In a testing environment several students had just taken a previous course--HUM111--but found my prototype for HUM112 much more engaging and interesting. Yes, they are using the game's language because you find the units produced are referred to and shorthand versions of gameplay introduced into their interaction. The players are better understanding how cultural production develops as they advance in the game which is one of the important learning objectives. The confusions can be cleared up as they game facility in gameplay.

Remember to take a look at everyone else’s games! Think of this as a really big studio class. A large part of your learning is going to take place not just by watching videos or reading articles, but in your interactions in the forums. Debate, ask questions, and provide constructive feedback!

Finally, don’t forget to have fun! There’s a lot to think about in this course, but you’re making games, so enjoy it!

Guidance for Peer Feedback

Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following:

• Give your overall impressions of the game. Were there aspects of the game that you think worked especially well? How can you help the participant improve his or game? You might suggest a change/addition or ask a question.
• Does the game seem aligned to the learning objectives? Are there ways the participant might improve alignment?
• How did the participant's prototype influence your own thinking?

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Defending Marriage by Judicial Watch

Defending Marriage

In a little less than two weeks, on April 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the extraordinary notion that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires a state to license or recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex.  Your Judicial Watch is participating in this historic legal battle.  The bold intervention of federal judges in remaking marriage is a challenge to self-government.  That the U.S. Constitution would suddenly require states to change their marriage laws to keep up with the changing tastes of liberal elites is the antithesis of federalism and undermines the rule of law.  (You can track the legal arguments and numerous briefs filed here.)

Earlier this month, we filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the rights of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan (James Obergefell, et al. v. Richard Hodges, et al.(No. 14-556, -562, -571, -574)).  Our brief makes the case for judicial restraint with respect to marriage.  In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit reversed district court rulings that would have imposed same-sex marriage on those four states. This ruling, which is quite sensible, is at odds with judicial activist rulings from other circuit courts that redefined marriage in Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho and Nevada.  So now the Supreme Court may resolve the conflicts and rule, astonishingly, whether the American people can maintain the definition of marriage that goes back thousands of years. 

In our brief, our legal team argues "the role of defining marriage and implementing laws in regard to it has always been primarily the province of the States," and that the courts have continually reaffirmed that tradition. Reversing that trend would only create legal and political confusion:

Interference with the States' sovereign sphere and ultimately, with the right of their citizens to engage in the democratic process, is contrary to our system of government and will result in dangerous constitutional conflicts.

JW also argues that denying recognition of out-of state marriages that conflict with state law is not a constitutional violation.  Specifically, the courts have traditionally recognized marriage as an issue residing within the states' sovereign sphere of authority:

While it is in within the federal government's power to intervene in the sphere of marital relations, this Court has made it very clear that those interventions are to be infrequent, deferential to State authority, and always with the balance of federalism in mind.

We also remind the Supreme Court that history matters, and that a practice going back to the beginnings of our nation deserves respect under the First Amendment:

Marriage has, by definition, been the province of the States and has been traditionally defined as one man and one woman. This has been the case since the nation's founding. There is no evidence that defining marriage in that way was viewed as discriminatory or in violation of any constitutional rights or principles. Segments of society have begun to take a different perspective but this is hardly a sufficient reason to cast aside this "unique history" consistent with "centuries of national practice." 463 U.S. at 790. "[I]t is not necessary to define the precise boundary of the Establishment Clause where history shows that the specific practice is permitted. Any test the Court adopts must acknowledge a practice that was accepted by the Framers and has withstood the critical scrutiny of time and political change." Town of Greece at 1819. "From the founding of the Republic to 2003, every State defined marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, meaning the Fourteenth Amendment permits, though it does not require, States to define in that way." DeBoer, 772 F.3d 388, 404; see also Town of Greece, 134 S. Ct. at 1818-1820.

Finally, we warn that requiring the recognition of out-of-state marriages conflicting with state law will inevitably lead to constitutional conflicts and lead to harmful consequences:

[F]orcing States to recognize out-of-state same sex marriages that conflict with state law would ostensibly open the door to forcing States to recognize all out-of-state marriages that conflict with state law regardless of the conflict. This would completely remove the States from the marital relations sphere or at the very least, make state laws worthless.

The bottom line is we need to get away from results-oriented jurisprudence that substitutes judicial activism and a political agenda for constitutional safeguards and responsible adjudication.

The Supreme Court should resist the temptation to impose its moral values on marriage through raw judicial power, as it did with abortion through Roe v. Wade.

The judicial branch is being asked to undertake a power grab unmoored from the Constitution, history, self-government, and judicial restraint. 

Simply put, under our republican form of government, the Supreme Court has no power to invalidate laws protecting traditional marriage under the United States Constitution. 

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Hillary Claims 1st Amendment Religious Liberty Must End For Women

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Pamela leaving.

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What Naval Battle Must Not Be Forgotten?

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Assignment 2.1

- Who is your audience?
My audience consists of working adults approximately 35 years old. Since they are working adults they have generally worked all day and are taking evening classes between 6 and 10 PM. My learners are particularly challenged to be active and involved after a long day.

- What is your topic? Why is that interesting?
My topic is the Renaissance. It is an interesting area since it is the rebirth of western Civilization.

- Briefly explain your game. What is the fun in your topic/game?  
My game is a modification of Civilization IV. Define in the topic word game is that it is a innovative way to introduce the course content. The learning is counterfactual or a counter history of what we know occurred. The student has history unfold before them. The fun is a more pleasurable way to learn in a required class.

- Where/how do you propose the game will be played?
It will be in a computer lab. But how will be following a lecture or presentation about the period.
The game will be paid played in segments between 6 and 10 PM. It is a classroom University setting. Following an introduction the students move into a computer lab.

- Think about the curriculum assignment from Unit 1 - how do you think someone would use your game to teach?

WHO are your students? Consider their age, grade level, etc. My students are working age adults the average age about 35 And this is college level. 

WHAT do you want them to learn? What are the content, skills, or ideas you want your students to come away with? ex: Underlying causes of the U.S. Civil War; Programming procedures; Pre-algebra understanding of variables I want them to learn history firsthand. The content is history but learning history skillfully through gameplay. The ideas I want them to come away with our depreciation of breaking difficult cultural decisions which may differ from the actual history, that is, counter history.

WHERE are students playing the game? What is the context? Are they playing the game and discussing it in more than one context? ex: At home; In a 6th grade Computer Science classroom; On the bus on their phone I would see them playing it for about one hour in a four hour class session. There is a possibility though which the game allows and that is to play online against other players.

WHY this game? What mechanics make it suited for this topic? ex: Role-playing as Abraham Lincoln, making decisions; Programming simple robots to complete game goals; Puzzles that require algebraic thinking to complete. The mechanics make it possible for students to make decisions about civilization and how history will unfold for them. They need to make decisions so that their civilization will survive and even flourish if possible.

HOW are you implementing the game? How are the learning goals of the game integrated into your activities and goals? ex: Before instruction, as a thought starter; As an in-class competition to stimulate peer learning; As extra credit or enrichment for a struggling student. The game is implemented as a part of the course in history. The game is integrated in that students are required to learn history but they should see it in a more personal way by building their own civilization. Peer learning is important because students need to learn the game and they can help one another and they need to compare their civilization with others.

As above, you need not create more than a page or a few minutes of video to make your point(s). Post your curriculum to a filesharing website (see our list if you don't already have a service you use), then post a link in your post in the forum. Check out how your peers responded. BE SURE TO MAKE THE DOCUMENT PUBLICLY VIEWABLE so that you classmates can see your work.

Guidance for Peer Feedback: Provide feedback to the two participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: In your opinion, is this game suitable considering the subject matter and the identified students? Has the participant explained why this game will enable students to learn the desired subject/content? Do you think the game serves its purpose? Has the participant considered issues related to the implementation of the game? Examples: Would this game just be played once or would the students come back to it later? Would the students play the game with a limited population or everyone?

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