Finding of the week #76

Geothermal energy

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, geothermal energy is just powerful!

Strokkur 1 Strokkur 2 Strokkur 3

to be continued …

Finding of the week #75

Geothermal energy

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, geothermal energy is just great!

Geothermal activity on Iceland

Geothermal activity on Iceland

to be continued …

Finding of the week #74

Go out, go running!

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the way how computer games could help the players to engage more in sportive activities.

Recently, I was playing the action-adventure game „Mirror’s Edge“[1]. In Mirror’s Edge the player is experiencing the story from the point of view of the female Runner „Faith“, who earns her money by delivering „hot“ packages by running and jumping across the rooftops of a fictive city in order to circumvent the police. During the story, Faith gets entangled into a conspiracy and is also trying to save her sister.

I was mostly hooked up by the game because of the innovative way of moving through the scenery. Faith is not only able to run and jump, but can also perform wall jumps and run across walls. In general, the whole gameplay is like a virtual version of the discipline of parkour[2].
This was especially engaging to me because running is one of my favorite outdoor activities. However, I mostly go out running through the forests and I am not jumping from the rooftops of high buildings, but still, being able to run in a computer game was really inspiring. Moreover, the immersive effect of being such a parkour runner was increased, because I was able to see Faith’s arms and legs when she was sliding down a slope or was grabbing onto the edge of a rooftop while I was controlling her through the levels.

I believe that running games like Mirror’s Edge can help the players to create a positive connection between running (or better doing sports) and experiencing exciting situations or beautiful views from special locations as a reward for their efforts. Additionally, the computer games can enhance the flow experience of running by changing the appearance of the environment. The visualization of the environment could become more beautiful, if the player manages to keep running over a certain amount of time.
After playing such an energizing game, the players might get inspired to try to improve their body control and their endurance. The only challenge the players have to come by is just to step outside and to go exploring. By adressing the players directly and inspiring them to step outside, they could get the incentive to try it out.

However, the transition from the virtual activity to the real world activity can unfortunately cause some disappointing situations or even result in situations where the players might injure themselves because they have not developed their body control yet.

This results in an additional requirement for an inspiring computer game: the gameplay should not only point out the positive and rewarding effects of running, but should also demonstrate how the players can safely start their running career. Furthermore, it is necessary to demonstrate the players how they could improve over time and that they need to start with small challenges in order to gain some first experience they can rely on while they are trying higher challenges.

As a conclusion, I think that computer games can inspire the players to engage in sportive hobbies by allowing them to see the beautiful rewards of running. However, such an inspiring computer game also needs to teach the players how they can approach these activities in their real life. Finally, the game should also help the players to regain motivation after a disappointing outcome after the first real world runs.

Finding of the week #73

Games as educational tools: Is ultra realism really required?

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance and the requirement of ultra realism in simulation computer games in order to use them as a learning tool.

The simulation computer game genre can have a lot of different shapes. The range of the realism for such a game can be from ultra realistic to a simplistic implementation of the core features. The ultra realistic game version is often very hard to understand and hard to play successfully at the beginning unless there are a lot of tutorials explaining all the different functions of the game. The arcade simulation on the other hand is much easier to access and the players can experience successes on a much faster rate. However, the challenges of an arcade style simulation game then can be exhausted quite rapidly, because it is too easy to master all the game mechanics.

Apart from these two extremes, there are a lot of games which can be placed somewhere in between. Some games are more on the arcade side, but feature more realistic features. On the flipside, some realistic games increase the accessibility by neglecting or simplifying some core elements. Finally, some games allow their players to change the realism of the simulation in order to adjust the difficulty of the game to match their very own skills.

Simulation computer games are not only entertaining but also educating. It can be much easier to understand certain facts by testing them in a simulation then just reading about them. The immediate and often also visual representation of the outcome can help the learners to develop a deeper understanding of the presented facts. Moreover, a simulation game can be even used to demonstrate some facts in class to make the learning content more interesting.

A good example for such an approach would be the education of basic principles of spaceflight and orbital mechanics using Kerbal Space Program (KSP)[1]. KSP is taking advantage of a realistic physics engine thus allowing even to calculate possible outcomes before playing the game[2]. On the other hand, KSP is also a game and does not use the ultra realistic approach in order to simulate spaceflight. In this case, it is much easier for new players to achieve successful outcomes and the visual representation is even exaggerated compared to the reality.

As an example, launching a rocket into orbit is much easier compared to real world spaceflight. KSP players do not need to take precise ascent profiles into account to reach an orbit. As long as the rocket has enough power and some kind of gravity turn is carried out, the rocket will mostly reach space without too many issues. Once in a low orbit, the view looks much more dramatic than the view from the International Space Station, because the KSP homeplanet as a much smaller radius than the Earth.

This approach makes KSP very special for educational purposes. On the one hand, it is possible to use this game to demonstrate several principles of spaceflight and orbital mechanics. On the other hand, it is not too realistic and allows the players to quickly achieve successful results. Furthermore, it also reduces the possibility of getting frustrated because of an unforgiving ultra realistic simulation.

Although KSP is using a realistic physics engine, the results can not be directly compared to real world spaceflight. This important fact can have two different dimension based on the viewer’s standpoint.
It is possible to argue that it helps to develop an understanding that the orbital mechanic principles are always valid. The learners can calculate the orbital velocity for a circular orbit in KSP and for a circular orbit around the Earth. Of couse, the results of both calculations will be different, but it can help to understand every variable of the vis-viva equation[3], because the learners need to think more about the specific numbers.
However, it is also possible to argue that this simplified approach is distorting the learning outcome, because it can not directly be applied to real world outcomes. Furthermore, it can be problematic if real world facts (like a rocket ascent profile) can not be directly simulated in the game.

Both dimensions are valid, but I think, that it is much more important to make the simulation more accessible in order to increase the motivation of the learners to use a game. Additionally, I think it is much more rewarding to compare important equations between KSP and the real world, because it deminishes the problem of just using some constants without really thinking about the values of the constants. Finally, it can be much more productive to foster the basic understanding in a motivative environment before getting really deep into the real world theories.

FInally, KSP allows the users to install some modifications which can even enhance the realism of the game. Unfortunately, this will also reduce the accessibility of the game. In this case, a good use of this feature would be to start playing the game without these modifications and adding them later on after a basic understanding has been developed.

Finding of the week #72

Playing history

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about a way how computer games can be used to educate the players in working with historic texts and allowing them to extend their historic knowledge.

During my time as a student in the master program „Media culture and media economics“[1] I was also required to visit some history courses. The most interesting course was about reading historic texts. I even increased the challenge by taking a course about the letters from a French nun who was one of the first settlers in Canada. Apart from the challenge to translate the letters from ancient French to German, it was pretty interesting to learn more about the different meanings of some words in this age.

The course’s learning outcome of having a basic idea on how to handle historic texts and on how to put the messages into the context of their age was really interesting to me. It was fun not only to read words written hundreds of years ago, but also to decrypt the real message of those words. All in all, it was a bit like a treasure hunt or a puzzle with the reward of an in-depth understanding. Additionally, I was even able to learn more historic facts about this age and to develop a better understanding of it.

However, developing the ability to work with historic texts and learning more about our own past should not only be possible in such courses. Moreover, the whole approach of reading a text and trying to decrypt its message is almost like a small adventure. The process of reading those texts could even have a great potential to be the basis of an adventure computer game.

Adventure computer games mostly challenge the players with small puzzles they need to solve in order to proceed through the game. This can be done with simple „use item“ tasks and can end with complex quizzes requiring the user to decrypt a message to find the correct code. Additionally, adventure computer games are offering interesting background stories to the players and can also take adventage of neat visual representations of the content.

The result of this short adventure computer game genre analysis is indicating that these games might be ideal to present historic facts to the players. The setting of the game can allow the players to experience a historic age by simply exploring the environment and maybe being able to talk to Non-Player-Characters (NPCs), who will provide the players with additional insights about the presented age.

Finally, like in any other adventure game, the players need to be challenged with some puzzles in order to proceed through the game. These puzzles then can be solved by reading and understanding original historic texts. The combination of historic texts and the historic background story can help the players to relate the written information to the historic age. Furthermore, the players can unlock some questions they can ask the NPCs by reading those historic texts. They might be even able to start a conversation with an NPC and click on parts of a text to ask the NPC for their opinion. This approach would allow the players to gather enough additional historic context and to finally solve the puzzle.

After playing such a history adventure, the players could have gained additional information about the historic age and they might even have developed a certain understanding on how to connect historic texts to their age. Additionally, due to the highly immersive and motivating environment of a computer game, the players could have even learned more about the presented topic than by just reading a history book.