Fix 11-12

Sustainable Engagement Economy

  

Good game world- The game Settlers provides a sense of a good game world by providing the gamers with constant quests that requires research and exploration to achieve the next level and to complete each quest.  McGonigal (2011) mentions, “It [Wikipedia] invites participants to explore, act, and spend large amounts of time there.” (p. 186) Settlers maintain a gamers attention by providing constant, achievable quests. The quests are achieved through “…curiosity, exploration, and collaboration” that McGonigal mentions. (p. 184)

Good game mechanics- The game Settlers has “direct and clear results” (McGonigal, p. 186) by showing your ability to “level up” after completing quests or defeating other camps.  Settlers also show the results of building up your settlement.  I recently leveled up my pinewood cutter, forester, and sawmill to level 3 and noticed the effect it had on my other buildings that require pinewood to produce materials.  However, as I build more buildings that require pinewood I will need to think about placing more cutters, foresters and sawmills to keep up with production.  I know every decision that is made in the game Settlers there will be some effect that will require action.  I have the “…powerful sense of control over the environment.” (McGonigal, p. 186)

Good game community- McGonigal (2011) states, “Good game community requires two things: plenty of positive social interaction and a meaningful context for collective effort.” (p. 186) I know I have mentioned a guild plenty of times in my previous posts and many of you have probably encountered the many benefits of a guild but I have to stress the benefits of the social interaction and the positive impact it had on my settlement.  After joining a guild I build up faster than I did before the guild.  I was given many resources and help to build up my settlement and I was able to socialize with others to help them achieve their goals in their settlement.  My guild members have taken their guild quests and help to a new level by sending out an email daily stating what the guild quests are for each “level band” and ways we can help these people achieve their quests.  The community that the guild had build, I feel, could not be better! We can definitely compare this to what McGonigal (2011) mentions about Wikipedia with “…competition (arguing over recent edits) and collaboration (improving and organizing existing articles).” (p. 186) We are in competition with other players to build a great settlement but we are also collaborating with others (in a guild) to help each other out and build even better settlements than what we have done without.

More Epic Wins

Epic wins are described as “…opportunities for ordinary people to do extraordinary things—like change or save someone’s life—every day.” (McGonigal 2011, p. 200) The game Settlers brings out curiosity daily in me.  I think about how much more I can build and how far I can go each day.  I wonder how to make my settlement better and how to make my settlement like others.  I wonder how I will help people for the day or what kind of help someone will offer me.  This curiosity is a wonderful feeling when I figure out some things and accomplish more each day.  However, I see an epic win as something more that can relate to helping people in the outside world.  After reading about the many crowdsourcing games and seeing how people are making a difference in other people’s lives I wondered if I was really experiencing “epic wins” in the game of Settlers.  I do think the social aspect can help people who would rather socialize behind a screen and in that way I am helping by socializing with them.  I may also be building confidence in some of the players. The gratitude I am showing for their help may make them feel more successful than they may feel in their outside life. Maybe I am doing something that matters to others but I am just not aware of it.

The game Settlers harnesses the social participation of the masses by uniting people all over the world to achieve common goals (quests).  The social participation is also helping others successfully build their settlements.  The social participation does not only stay within the game, there are many forums that have been created to help others with their settlements. The help given is similar to a social participation task for Christel House.  McGonigal (2011) discusses the Christel House, an organization built to help children feel successful in education and life.  One simple but amazing task of the group is to write a note, which is actually delivered to the students, to encourage the student to do well on a test by offering “good luck” messages. (p. 205) The forums and help sites dedicated to helping the players in Settlers are similar to these “good luck” messages because they are giving words of advice to show that every thing in the game can be achieved and many people are guiding others to help others achieve these things.

Crowdsourcing

The crowdsourcing project I found is for a large corporation (publishing company), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). HMH is using crowdsourcing to gather ideas from the public to create new products for the education world.  HMH is using this crowdsourcing to reward the public with monetary funds for their ideas.  The “winning” ideas will be rewarded but will have to give up their rights to their idea.  I think this is a great project that involves the community to gather ideas to create new products to educate students (good game community).  I hear way too much that people who create products do not understand the education world, this contest will allow educators, parents, and professionals to give their input and put their ideas into realization (good game world).  There is a set goal, that is direct and clear, for the competition and a reward is given in the end (good game mechanics). 


McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is Broken. New York: Penguin Group.