Learn Something...Go Play Online

     Social Issues are not a game. Yet they can be turned into games. This can be figurative nowadays but also literal. There are games today that teach different age groups about social issues....about anything really. I had played 4 educational games found online.

• Climate Change
• Stop Disasters
• MedMyst Original: Mission 1 Orientation at O.R.B.
• Engineering - Design a Cell Phone

The first three deal with social issues while the last game is also educational but deals with business and design. 

Game 1: Climate Change

     Climate Change is a role play game where the player is the President of the European Nations. As President the player must make policy decisions regrading the nations as a whole, local communities, agriculture, trade, and environment. 

• Target age group: Late teenagers to adults

Younger children would not understand all the policies. Late teenagers and even adults may not but they understand that leaders make these decisions.

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player:

1. World policies
2. Outcomes of leader actions
3. Importance of carbon emissions 

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?: 

     It is successful that it gives real life decisions that a world leader has. I would improve the rounds that player must go through due to the fact the options did not change much but good to see that a previous option is no longer available due to a previous decision. Present decisions affect the future. 

Game 2: Stop Disasters 

     Stop Disasters is a game where the player can pick a natural disaster scenario and try to save lives. This is done through building housing and defences. 

• Target age group of this game: middle school to high school students 

Adults would already know defences against natural disasters and I feel would be bored with game. To middle school and high school students it would be more of a challenge so they would play the game all the way through. 

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player.

1. The effects of disasters
2. How to protect an area against a disaster
3. The cost of disaster protection and aftermath

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?:

     It is successful that there are many available options to protect the island that would be used in real life. I would improve the way a player can move to see all of the island. It would have been easier to have a pan out option. 

Game 3: MedMyst Original: Mission 1 Orientation at O.R.B. 

     MedMyst Original: Mission 1 Orientation at O.R.B. is the first game in a series of games where the player is a NCDC (Neuropolis Center for Disease Control) agent in 2254 after the Great Plague that kills millions. 

• Target age group of this game: Late elementary to high school students 

Adults would find this game childish. High schoolers may also find it childish but would learn from this game.

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player:

1. Types of infectious agents & how to defeat them
2. How infectious agents are spread & how to prevent getting disease(medicine, vaccine, soap)
3. How to identify a germ 

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?

It is successful this game gives a large amount of information throughout several short games. I would improve the going back option in some games and shorten the number of different games. I feel like younger players would get bored after awhile. 

Game 4: Engineering - Design a Cell Phone

• Target age group of this game: Middle School to High School

This game is too simple for adults. 

• List three specific concepts/things the designers are trying to teach the player.

1. Research is needed to understand product
2. Important to reach out to target market wants
3. Design and testing of a product

• What is successful (or not) about the game. What could you do to improve the game?

It is successful that a player can get feedback and go back to research and/or design to improve the cell phone. I would improve the options for designing a cell phone. The basic options are fine but there is not much room to change the phone after feedback for there are only so many options. 

CAPSTONE: "Common Senseless"

     What if a leader had no common sense? What if those who elected leaders had no sense? Well that makes no sense!! In the words of Richard Dreyfuss it is “common senseless”. For the leaders of today, politicians, children, and the public to not know the values of this country or how this country is run is senseless. The Dreyfuss Initiative wants to start a vehicle of bringing common senseless to light. For my capstone I will create a WordPress blog to do just that. On the blog I will write examples, include videos, have news feeds, links to TDI social media, and create a forum. This blog is part of a social media strategy for TDI.

     This blog idea comes after the two TDI events I helped with this weekend. During the first event I helped set up, signed in media, sold CDs, got to people join the email list, and answered what is TDI to those who asked (more than a few). Which means this message needs to reach more people which is my job. The second event was at Shepherd and the topic of my next blog. 

  My research for this week is to look at professional WordPress blog websites. Blog websites that are more then just....well blogs like this one. Through looking at popular ones so far I have noticed navigation menus, social media links, and layout. Sidebars hold popular posts, there are sidebar menus, there are site maps at the bottom, comment boxes at end of every post, voting on posts, and clean simple backgrounds. I plan to model the blog in similar fashion. My research throughout this whole semester will be to find examples of “common senseless”. This is unfortunately not to hard to find today. I will continue to watch and read the news daily. Which we all should be doing already right? 

CAPSTONE: Taking the Initiative

     The end is near.......of my college career. For my capstone project I will be working with The Dreyfuss Initiative. My role in the Shepherd team is marketing and press. For the upcoming events, September 17 I will be a press liaison. TDI is also looking to us as college students for ways to engage people in this internet savvy age. Additionally, aspects of branding like helping to prepare displays are also a part of the marketing. The events this month introduce an important area of the organization. 

      I have expressed to the executive director of TDI that I am interested in PR aspects as well as the theatre area of TDI. TDI is composed of three different areas. One of the areas focuses on theatre. TDI is holding an American history play competition. Working with the theatre and helping to handle logistics was an idea suggested to me. 

     I also have expressed my enthusiasm to write press releases. At this time the executive director writes the press releases but I hope to at least help get the information to the media if I am not given the opportunity to write any press releases. TDI has a message and I am here to spread it.