Unlocking Games

Unlocking Games

By Chad Haefele and Brandon CarperTechnologyEducationLeisureVideo Games
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Unlocking Games episodes

  • Episode 06: Communication Training via Witness
    Witness, a cooperative crime-solving mystery board game, is on our minds.
    In Witness, each player knows different facts about the case. Gameplay revolves around whispering clues to each other in an effort to piece everything together.
    It’s so clearly applicable to communications training and working in cross-functional teams that Witness doesn’t just provide lessons - it might actually be useful as a game played during training.
       
    Show Notes & Links:
    • Witness
    • Shut Up & Sit Down’s review of Witness
      • Other games mentioned in this episode:
      • Spaceteam
      • Space Alert
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      • Episode 05: Onboarding in Super Mario Maker
        Super Mario Maker, a game for the Wii U, could probably support entire books about the approaches and design choices it reflects.
        It’s a complex level creator for classic side-scrolling Mario games. Anybody can use 72 different pieces in infinite combinations to build the Mario level of their dreams (or nightmares).
        Imagine being dumped into that playground with no structure or rules. Without guidance and constraints, figuring out how to design fun and challenging levels could easily be overwhelming. Thankfully, Nintendo caught this problem ahead of time.
        In this episode we specifically examine the game’s onboarding process. The way Super Mario Maker teaches players how to play has implications for getting someone up to speed in other games and elsewhere.
        Show Notes & Links:
        • Super Mario Maker
        • While recording I couldn’t remember how many items there are to use in creating levels. There are 72.
        • The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Socialization - Chapter 14: “Are Organizations On Board with Best Practices Onboarding?”
        • Actionable Gamification
        • Skipping ahead in Super Mario Maker
        • Super Mario Maker manual & art book
          • Other games mentioned in this episode:
          • Skyrim
          • Oblivion
          • Fallout 3
          • Dark Souls
            • If you liked this episode, please leave us a review on iTunes or your podcast app of choice. And if you've seen any other interesting ways games handle onboarding, let us know!
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          • Episode 04: Cooperative Learning Principles in Pandemic Legacy
            Brandon introduces Pandemic Legacy and its applications of cooperative learning principles in this week’s shorter “lockpick" episode.
            Pandemic Legacy is a collaborative board game that takes a serialized approach to gameplay. Players work together to stop the spread of diseases around the world, and consequences of decisions made during one game carry forward to the next time.
            Pandemic and Pandemic Legacy are available wherever finer board games are sold.
            Show Notes & Links:
            • The State of Cooperative Learning in Postsecondary and Professional Settings
            • Pandemic
            • Pandemic Legacy
            • Battlestar Galactica (board game)
            • Archipelago
            • Shut Up & Sit Down's review of Pandemic
            • Shut Up & Sit Down’s review of Pandemic Legacy
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            • Episode 03: Experiential Learning and Text-Based Training in Mr Robot: Exfiltration

              In a smaller “lockpick" episode, we take a look at the new awkwardly named game Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltrati0n. The game (available for iOS and Android) pretends to be a messaging app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

              Set in the world of the TV show Mr. Robot, you take on the role of a hacker specializing in social engineering. It’s a choose your own adventure style experience where you decide whether and how to blackmail and coerce your way into systems.

              Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltrati0n serves as an interesting exploration into how chatbots or other text interfaces might be useful in training and experiential learning.

              Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltrati0n is $2.99, available for both iOS and Android

              Show Notes & Links:
              • Mr. Robot
              • ARGs
              • The Beast
              • I Love Bees
              • Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte Chatbot
              • Amazon Echo
              • First Principles of Instruction, M.D. Merrill
              • Slack
              • Cognitive Load
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              • Episode 2: Gone Home
                This week we discuss the UX and Instructional Design potential of Gone Home, 2013’s 12th highest rated PC game on MetaCritic and the 2014 Games for Change Game of the Year. It’s also an excellent walking simulator.
                Gone Home is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
                Show Notes & Links:
                • An Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy to the Teaching of Business Ethics
                • This American Life Episode 584: For Your Reconsideration
                • Testing Theories of Attitude Change With Online Panel Field Experiments
                • GDC 2014: Why is Gone Home a Game?
                • The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman
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                • Episode 1: Life Is Strange
                  In our inaugural episode, we talk about elements of Instructional Design and User Experience that caught our attention in Life Is Strange.
                  The first episode of Life Is Strange is free to play on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Steam.
                  Show Notes & Links:
                  • Cathy Moore's Training Scenarios
                  • Building Expertise, by Ruth C. Clark
                  • Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain
                  • Elizabeth Loftus' work
                  • Don't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug
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                  About Unlocking Games

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                  A show about social impact games and how they provide a new way to explain the things you care about. Every week we cover how a game applies (or misses) the lessons of our work and research in…