Do you remember the old Reese's Peanut Butter cup commercials. You got chocolate in my peanut butter. You got peanut butter in my chocolate. Two great tastes that taste great together. Well, recently I got PLN in my game and I got game in my PLN. The verdict: Great together!
I have always liked games. I teach video game design. I am working on my doctorate in game based learning. Apparently, there are many other educators who like games! They are out there and using games to encourage learning opportunities as well as networking with other like minded educators. Interestingly, I have come to find that many members of my in game PLN were not always gamers. In fact, I have recently become fascinated with the concept of 'point of entry' when it comes to people's foray into games. If you could, please post a comment and let us know your story about how you got into games. There are some pretty great stories about how people accidentally found themselves playing games.
In this article I will focus on World of WarCraft and mix in a little plug for Clash of Clans. These are the two games that make up my in-game PLN. World of WarCraft is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Sounds geeky to those of you who are unfamiliar, but is a second home to many. Essentially, the game allows players to complete quests, earn experience, gain items (gear) to improve their character, and take on virtual professions. This is a very simple explanation. The game is deep and has an incredible fan base that has turned the game into quite a phenomenon. In fact, the second largest wiki (second only to wikipedia) is WoWWiki, currently boasting a total of 98,182 pages. WoWWiki is a wiki (collaborative website where users contribute content) that covers every aspect of the game imaginable. I could go on and on about the game, but I'll save that as my intent here is to talk about the Educational Networking possibilities to be found in the game.
World of WarCraft, as an MMORPG is a social game. Players can group up to complete quests, work through in game content, and socialize. In order to truly capitalize on the social aspect of the game, players typically join a guild (essentially a team). Members of the guild work together to earn special guild achievements, share resources, and enjoy sharing in the gameplay experience. There are guild comprised entirely of educators that game. World of WarCraft is made up of two factions, the Horde and the Alliance. On the Alliance side, the guild, Cognitive Dissonance formed as a group of educators that game and wanted to play and learn together. After some time, the Inevitable Betrayal guild formed on the Horde side for the same reason. These two guild are considered sister guilds and many members have Toons (in game characters) in both guilds. In game, guild members play together while mixing in professional conversation. I played World of WarCraft for years and stopped playing because I felt I did not have time to play. Perhaps a bigger part of the reason was that the idea of an affinity group was lacking. Last summer I met +Laurence Cocco at #ISTE12 and then I met +Peggy Sheehy, +Knowclue Kidd, and +Lucas Gillispie at the Games in Education Symposium. They clued me in to the Cognitive Dissonance guild and I knew it was time to get back in the game. After all, I devoted a lot of time to cultivating and nurturing my PLN on twitter, EdWeb.net, and Educator's PLN. The idea of networking with like minded educators in game was more than appealing. I joined Cognitive Dissonance and Inevitable Betrayal and can't emphasize enough how happy I am to have found my 'tribe' as many people in the guild refer to our affinity group. Everyone in both guilds is so nice, helpful, and welcoming to new members. If you are an educator and interested in gaming, I encourage you to join our in-game (and out) PLN. The in-game networking has expanded outside of game as the guild members are involved in so many exciting projects, including the Games Based Learning Mooc and G.A.M.E. (Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education). These groups hold regular webinars and a Wednesday night tweetchat (#gamemooc) at 9pm EST. I look forward to meeting many guild members at upcoming conferences including #ISTE13 and GLS9.0 (Games+Learning+Society conference).
Recently, there has been a spinoff of the Inevitable Betrayal Guild that has begun playing Clash of Clans together. Our guild name is Invtbl Btryl and we welcome new educators to join us. There have also been spinoffs of the guild in GuildWars2. I have a feeling it won't end there. Feel free to comment on other games that would lend well to an extension of the Educators' guilds and further nurture collaboration (and FUN) for the educational community.
Are you a gamer? As I mentioned earlier, I would love it if some of you could share your experiences as members of a guild, particularly a guild comprised of educators and more specifically, please share your 'point of entry' - How did you get here?
** UPDATE
Some people indicated that they had difficulty posting comments or the story of their 'point of entry' into MMORPGs. Trish Cloud (@trishcloud) was kind enough to post a comment on google+ so I will include it here.
"I started playing WoW about 2 years ago. Unlike many in our tribe I don't have alot of experience with NES, Sego, etc. I remember when Pong came out and I sucked at it. I was also terrible at Tetris, Frogger, Space Invaders etc. So I pretty much determined that I was not a gamer. Until 2 years ago I saw commercials for it and I began to wonder what it was like. You didn't use those handheld devices, you did it with a keyboard and mouse and I thought hey I can do that. So I got a friend to join it with me. Needless to say I was hooked. I was not part of a guild that instructed like IB but I was in a guild made up of some high schoolers we know. Great kids, One is at Savannah College of Art and Design now, the others attend Philip O Berry Academy of Technology here in CMS. But I digress, I learned pretty well and eventually got my paladin up to 75, but I was lured away by SWTOR.
Then last summer via Twitter I heard about the Games MOOC. Well let's just say that's all she wrote. I've gotten back into WoW via Cognitive Dissonance and now Inevitable Betrayal. My gameplay is better than ever. I've learned TONS about game theory and how to use games in the classroom. Learned much about different types of games, and best of all, earned the status of "Cool" with my daughters (10 & 13) and my students at the school I work at. "
I have always liked games. I teach video game design. I am working on my doctorate in game based learning. Apparently, there are many other educators who like games! They are out there and using games to encourage learning opportunities as well as networking with other like minded educators. Interestingly, I have come to find that many members of my in game PLN were not always gamers. In fact, I have recently become fascinated with the concept of 'point of entry' when it comes to people's foray into games. If you could, please post a comment and let us know your story about how you got into games. There are some pretty great stories about how people accidentally found themselves playing games.
In this article I will focus on World of WarCraft and mix in a little plug for Clash of Clans. These are the two games that make up my in-game PLN. World of WarCraft is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Sounds geeky to those of you who are unfamiliar, but is a second home to many. Essentially, the game allows players to complete quests, earn experience, gain items (gear) to improve their character, and take on virtual professions. This is a very simple explanation. The game is deep and has an incredible fan base that has turned the game into quite a phenomenon. In fact, the second largest wiki (second only to wikipedia) is WoWWiki, currently boasting a total of 98,182 pages. WoWWiki is a wiki (collaborative website where users contribute content) that covers every aspect of the game imaginable. I could go on and on about the game, but I'll save that as my intent here is to talk about the Educational Networking possibilities to be found in the game.World of WarCraft, as an MMORPG is a social game. Players can group up to complete quests, work through in game content, and socialize. In order to truly capitalize on the social aspect of the game, players typically join a guild (essentially a team). Members of the guild work together to earn special guild achievements, share resources, and enjoy sharing in the gameplay experience. There are guild comprised entirely of educators that game. World of WarCraft is made up of two factions, the Horde and the Alliance. On the Alliance side, the guild, Cognitive Dissonance formed as a group of educators that game and wanted to play and learn together. After some time, the Inevitable Betrayal guild formed on the Horde side for the same reason. These two guild are considered sister guilds and many members have Toons (in game characters) in both guilds. In game, guild members play together while mixing in professional conversation. I played World of WarCraft for years and stopped playing because I felt I did not have time to play. Perhaps a bigger part of the reason was that the idea of an affinity group was lacking. Last summer I met +Laurence Cocco at #ISTE12 and then I met +Peggy Sheehy, +Knowclue Kidd, and +Lucas Gillispie at the Games in Education Symposium. They clued me in to the Cognitive Dissonance guild and I knew it was time to get back in the game. After all, I devoted a lot of time to cultivating and nurturing my PLN on twitter, EdWeb.net, and Educator's PLN. The idea of networking with like minded educators in game was more than appealing. I joined Cognitive Dissonance and Inevitable Betrayal and can't emphasize enough how happy I am to have found my 'tribe' as many people in the guild refer to our affinity group. Everyone in both guilds is so nice, helpful, and welcoming to new members. If you are an educator and interested in gaming, I encourage you to join our in-game (and out) PLN. The in-game networking has expanded outside of game as the guild members are involved in so many exciting projects, including the Games Based Learning Mooc and G.A.M.E. (Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education). These groups hold regular webinars and a Wednesday night tweetchat (#gamemooc) at 9pm EST. I look forward to meeting many guild members at upcoming conferences including #ISTE13 and GLS9.0 (Games+Learning+Society conference).
Clash of Clans
Guild Wars 2
Are you a gamer? As I mentioned earlier, I would love it if some of you could share your experiences as members of a guild, particularly a guild comprised of educators and more specifically, please share your 'point of entry' - How did you get here?
** UPDATE
Some people indicated that they had difficulty posting comments or the story of their 'point of entry' into MMORPGs. Trish Cloud (@trishcloud) was kind enough to post a comment on google+ so I will include it here.
"I started playing WoW about 2 years ago. Unlike many in our tribe I don't have alot of experience with NES, Sego, etc. I remember when Pong came out and I sucked at it. I was also terrible at Tetris, Frogger, Space Invaders etc. So I pretty much determined that I was not a gamer. Until 2 years ago I saw commercials for it and I began to wonder what it was like. You didn't use those handheld devices, you did it with a keyboard and mouse and I thought hey I can do that. So I got a friend to join it with me. Needless to say I was hooked. I was not part of a guild that instructed like IB but I was in a guild made up of some high schoolers we know. Great kids, One is at Savannah College of Art and Design now, the others attend Philip O Berry Academy of Technology here in CMS. But I digress, I learned pretty well and eventually got my paladin up to 75, but I was lured away by SWTOR.
Then last summer via Twitter I heard about the Games MOOC. Well let's just say that's all she wrote. I've gotten back into WoW via Cognitive Dissonance and now Inevitable Betrayal. My gameplay is better than ever. I've learned TONS about game theory and how to use games in the classroom. Learned much about different types of games, and best of all, earned the status of "Cool" with my daughters (10 & 13) and my students at the school I work at. "
I've left WOW a couple of years ago for Rift - would be wonderful to find others of like mind there.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, I played card games, board games, text-based adventure games on my dad's work computer, and Atari video games. For a generally mild-mannered person, I can be extremely competitive in the game setting! My teenage daughter asked for World of Warcraft after seeing her cousins playing it. I resisted at first, but within a few months after buying it, I was playing it more than she was! As an educator, I started to notice how the game actually teaches you how to play by gradually introducing new skills and types of gameplay. I noticed that the quests were the most fun when they were in my "zone of proximal development." After joining the Inevitable Betrayal guild, I have found even more parallels between our work as educators and the game world. I would love to do a better job at bringing the elements that support learning from the game to my teaching life.
ReplyDeleteI entered Wow and Minecraft through 3D GameLab. My son (now 23) is an intense gamer. Right now his friends are infinitely amused that I am playing WoW. I had begun playing over a year ago as part of the 3D GameLab quests. At first I wasn't much interested. I made the decision I'd rather read novels and work on my "arts and crafts" instead of WoW. I kept paying without playing for a year. This last January I participated in a Teacher Camp in 3D GameLab and suddenly found myself totally engaged in play.
ReplyDeleteMost of the difference was that I reached out to my Guilde (CogDis). I had been hesitant to engage with them. But, through mentoring in 3D GameLab I was able to learn about play strategies and how to better get around. Since January I've leveled up from 7 to 65!
My son, his friends, and I have great conversations about gaming and the effects it has had on them. Just yester day we had an interesting "bit." He decided to buy a big-screen tv to replace his nine year-old tv. I was sort of upset--he doesn't have much money and I thought it was a bad decision. (But like a good mom of a semi-adult offspring I kept my mouth shut.) As we were in the car driving to Costco he spontaneously explained that part of the reason he wanted the new tv was that the resolution on the old tv was so bad that he was having trouble reading the text! (He knows how to get to me!) I totally changed the way I was thinking about his purchasing decision.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteI'd heard of WoW before our taking our current class, but had always assumed it was essentially a virtual version of Dungeons and Dragons (which I know very little about!). I've always loved games, but have been mainly attracted to logic puzzles like Sudoku. However, now that I've been playing WoW as a solo player for about a month, I am COMPLETELY HOOKED. I haven't yet explored the guild aspect, and I'm expecting that to open up a whole new set of experiences for me. As it is, I find the game very relaxing - even though my adrenalin is pumping! - and a great escape from the stress of regular life. I've also found that I get a great deal more satisfaction from completing quests than I anticipated. Before playing, I would have questioned the motivation to continue playing a game like this - after all, there's no monetary payoff or anything tangible that I can take with me once I leave the game. But there's something bigger going on - in my opinion anyway - because I'm continually drawn back to the game, and I find myself thinking about it often. It could be that I just really need a break from the stress of life that badly (yikes!), but I think there's more to it than that. There's a lot of strategy involved, and I have to think about things differently than what my "real" life dictates. Maybe that's the thrill. I'm not sure about all that just yet, but I am sure that I'll continue to play. I'm looking forward to the guild experience!