Steering Wheel Differences

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 how my gaming steering wheel provides a better usability than my car’s steering wheel.

This week’s article is based on my very own observations as well as experiences made while driving virtual and real world cars. Currently, it might be the case that I spend more time driving virtual cars in racing simulation games than driving my actual car in reality. As discussed in previous articles, this caused several positive effects such as better car control and reaction times. In addition, my simulated driving experience, due to the similarity of the controls, probably also resulted in a better trained muscle memory of holding the steering wheel and controlling the pedals.

For the purpose of ensuring an ideal car control, my computer steering wheel has all buttons and flappy-paddles, which are used for up- and down-shifting, attached to the rotational part of the wheel. As a result of this, I just need to extend my fingers without moving my hand when I like to activate a particular function, such as switching on the lights or activating the windshield wipers, and just press the designated button. Due to the high amount of time I spend playing racing simulations, I automatically got used to this feature of my steering wheel.

In contrast to my computer steering wheel, my real car’s steering wheel has most of the car-system related controls attached to the non-rotational part of the wheel: the windshield wiper lever is mounted on the right hand side whereas the light control lever is installed on the left hand side. As a result of this, depending on the steering input, I have to move one of my hands in order to reach the correct lever. Normally, this is not so much of a problem as rarely that much of steering input is needed that I can no longer reach the levers.

However, yesterday evening I was driving along my favorite road which is relatively twisty as it features a sequence of several long narrow turns. Driving through them requires more than the usual steering input and, as a result of this, my left hand was no longer near the light control lever I wanted to reach in order to turn off the high beam as an approaching traffic appeared. Being used to the concept of just being required to extend my fingers, I extended my fingers and grabbed into the void … this situation and the realization that my real car’s setup is inferior to my gaming setup immediately made me laugh.

It always amazes me when I directly experience the training effects of computer game simulations that easily allow for a knowledge transfer due to similar demands. However, although the fixed control levers were unpractical in this particular situation as I had both hands on the wheel, having fixed position probably still is superior for the daily use cases of a car that is intended to be driven in a casual way. Moreover, having those car controls at fixed positions can reduce the effects of a sudden confusion in stressful situations. Interestingly, my steering wheel has some buttons directly placed on the wheel that are used for interacting with the board computer or controlling the radio without requiring me to reposition one of my hands…

LearnEnglish Minecraft Server

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 very interesting project to teach the English language to beginners as well as advanced learners: a Minecraft server that provides special learning puzzles and game goals.

Learning a new language is a very challenging task as learners are required to memorize vocabulary, develop an understanding for the foreign language’s gammar, practice the correct pronunciation as well as their listening comprehension skills. While the latter two skills can be easily trained by watching movies and series that are subtitled, expanding the own vocabulary and learning grammar requires a lot of hard work that mostly involves a periodic repetition of the learning content. Unfortunately, traditional learning methods are not very engaging and lack an immediate feedback.

The gamification of learning, however, can improve the language learning quality by turning the key learning aspects into game mechanics that not only provide an immediate feedback, but also give the foreign language an important meaning by using it as a means to solve puzzles or other game goals. Furthermore, by turning the language learning activities into game mechanics, they can also be implemented in engaging, flow-inducing and vivid virtual worlds. That way, students not only experience a higher enjoyment when practicing a foreign language, but also are more motivated to continue playing the game thus repeating the learning content more frequently. Lastly, computer games, due to their reward game mechanics, also encourage players to retry challenges after a failure in a highly motivated way.

Recently, I came across a very interesting approach to teach the English language to beginners as well as advanced learners by implementing the learning activites into Minecraft. The LearnEnglish Minecraft Server project, created and developed by Cacille, provides puzzles and other mini games of various complexity.

For instance, beginners can start to expand their English vocabulary just by exploring the virtual world and meeting Non-Player Characters (NPC) that perform various activities such as running or swimming. Once a player approaches one of those NPC, they inform the student about the activity they are performing: „I am running“. Other beginner puzzles challenge the players to find a way through a maze by answering questions correctly or to count various types of animals.

LearnEnglish Minecraft Server

In contrast to beginners, advanced learners are challenged with more difficult activities like a language based scavanger hunt or a minecart ride that, each time the minecart arrives at a station, requires the player to correctly complete a sentence. Based on the player’s input the minecart will take a different route which might kill the player or safely bring them to the next destination.

Aside from providing the puzzles, the LearnEnglish server can also act as a classroom where students as well as teacher meet in order to cooperatively or competitively tackle the game’s challenges. That way, teachers or parents can utilize the game as a platform to teach the English language in a very engaging way.

Currently, the learning environment is still in development, but already shows its great potential. I am really excited to follow its development and hear about the results when it is tested for the first time.

Great Games do not Force a Player into a certain Direction

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 how the freedom created by open world games attracts a broad variety of player types.

One of the key aspects of open world games is the freedom that is given to the players. Instead of providing them with a linear story which is based on a sequence of pre-defined goals a player must complete, open world games offer various activities to the players thus allowing them to choose what they want to do inside of the virtual worlds. As a result of this, each player experiences a unique story as well as the feeling of being an actual part of the virtual environment which ultimately results in a deeper immersion.

Skyrim

For instance, the role-playing game Skyrim provides players with a main story line, many side quests, various factions that like the player to join them as well as a vast virtual world full of secrets and treasures which can freely be explored. That way, players can decide if they want to follow the main story line, if they want to help out a certain faction or completely ignore the goals provided by the game for the purpose of discovering special places in the world.

In addition, open world and even many role-playing games provide a high amount of various activities players can perform inside of the virtual world without actually requiring them to utilize all of those game mechanics in order to play the game successfully. Hence, players experience another degree of freedom as they can only focus on some of the activities which they enjoy or use every feature of the game. Of course, players who take advantage of many game mechanics might have a better overall performance in the game, but this mostly is important for some very special events a player rarely encounters during the regular gameplay.

Minecraft

For instance, Minecraft, amongst other things, allows players to craft various types of armor which subsequently can be enchanted for the purpose of increasing a player’s capabilities, making the armor stronger or more durable. In addition, players can brew various potions that can have various positive effects on the player such as taking less damage or moving faster. While enchanting and brewing helps players to survive and is needed in order to defeat the strongest Minecraft enemies which only appear when they are summoned, it is not needed for the regular gameplay. Naturally, players who wear stronger armor do not need to be as careful as unarmored players, but this mostly is not important when a player likes to explore the world or build ambitious projects.

In the end, digital games that can be played in various ways and do not force players to perform certain activities mostly attract a broad variety of different player types as everyone can focus on a particular aspect of the game that matches the own interests.