›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Quick Links

Can quests teach us something

[Deleted User][Deleted User] UncommonPosts: 0
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
The user and all related content has been deleted.

Comments

  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    TSW is set in the modern day, and many of the quests point to real-world historical facts, bodies of music or literature, and  real-world cryptographical puzzles.  Had me translating Egyptian glyphs at one point.  Puzzles and thinking problems are fun in a games in general, and I see no reason why they can't be in MMOs as well.  I think they key word here is "fun" -- no one wants to feel like they are at work/in school, but I do think there are many ways you can both teach and be fun.
  • NildenNilden Member EpicPosts: 3,916
    My first responce would be yes quests teach us how lazy and unimaginative every company that makes MMOs is. Kill 10 rats quests at the front of the pack for useless quests that might as well not even be there. While The Secret World has some of what your talking about in its investigation quests it's really all I can think of and it still has tons of kill x. Your giving these games way too much credit past kill it or click glowy.

    "You CAN'T buy ships for RL money." - MaxBacon

    "classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon

    Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer

    Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/ 

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] UncommonPosts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    Originally posted by nilden
    My first responce would be yes quests teach us how lazy and unimaginative every company that makes MMOs is. Kill 10 rats quests at the front of the pack for useless quests that might as well not even be there. While The Secret World has some of what your talking about in its investigation quests it's really all I can think of and it still has tons of kill x. Your giving these games way too much credit past kill it or click glowy.

    Granted, not many MMOs do it -- TSW is the only one that does, really.  But plenty of single-player games use puzzles and thinking pieces, especially older-school games such as Myst.  I think these things come and go in cycles, and it would be a welcome change to see more of it.

  • maplestonemaplestone Member UncommonPosts: 3,099

    Entertainment and truth don't tend to play well together.  You can see a bit of this in the way established IPs tend to drift further and further away from the spirit of the original source material over time. My fear is that a history-flavoured MMO would drift further and further into fiction, then fantasy, over time.  You also run into a problem that people sometimes have pretty strong feelings about history (there's one particular historical-themed console game out there that ran ads all through Christmas that was like nails-on-chalkboard for me)

  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    Originally posted by maplestone

    Entertainment and truth don't tend to play well together.  You can see a bit of this in the way established IPs tend to drift further and further away from the spirit of the original source material over time. My fear is that a history-flavoured MMO would drift further and further into fiction, then fantasy, over time.  You also run into a problem that people sometimes have pretty strong feelings about history (there's one particular historical-themed console game out there that ran ads all through Christmas that was like nails-on-chalkboard for me)

    Yeah, I think the key is to not be too much of a scolding schoolmaster regarding the truthy bits of content, but just make it as interesting as the subject really is.  If it's too lectur-ey, you're moving away from the fun factor, but if you are fictionalizing it, you may want to question whether you want factual puzzles.  I guess try to choose subjects that are interesting in the first place.

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247

    "My question is, can we bring knowledge sharing into games and would people even play a game like this?"

    Both take the route of making education a two-way street by disseminating information through missions and objectives but also by encouraging collaborative and cooperative experiences.

    Definitely doable. Currently Walt Disney Interactive is working on "Disney Connected Learning" which is taking the approach of being a game you learn in, as opposed to being a learning game with contrived 'fun' overlayed. 

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • RossbossRossboss Member Posts: 240

    I actually used to learn much more than you'd think from video games. Turn-Based Strategy games were great to help me learn how to actually plan out my plan of attack/defense/progression without getting overwhelmed. I also learned a whole lot of vocabulary from video games, especially fantasy ones. They tend to use less common words like zounds or bolster and they probably increased my vocabulary exponentially. We definitely learn from video games now and always will if we pay attention to the details and key moments.

     

    I definitely see potential in making an MMORPG where players learn things as they play instead of being an "Educational Game". This would be a great way to sneak in some math/vocab/other learning concepts like learning from your mistakes and fixing issues before they happen. Giving players broken quests where they won't work unless you can befriend the NPC would be interesting. There are some different ways that you could accomplish the learning process while hiding the actual learning part in a fun experience.

     

    I do not think using real world information in the game would be a great idea. Most people play video games to escape reality and doing so would deter many players. I do think bringing some reality to the gameplay elements we find mundane would be a good way to work in some concepts though. Using credible knowledge from experts would be absolutely perfect for MMORPG style game play. When players reach "End-Game Learning Level", the content will be dynamically changing and increasing to adapt to the developing field. Example, if you were to start a game about programming, players would learn about programming in different aspects and how to program in different languages. However, when these players reached the end of the game or learning cycle, you could introduce new languages, new uses and new innovations for the field to keep players coming back for more.

     

    Some larger universities use World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs to actually give players an immersion experience in learning foreign languages. Players join the foreign country's server and have a guild with a voice chatting service set up to keep in contact with fluent speakers to test their knowledge. It's an excellent way to promote learning other languages while the players are enjoying the game. I think hiding the motive of learning would go over much better than making it the main motive to play the game.

    I played WoW up until WotLK, played RoM for 2 years and now Rift.
    I am F2P player. I support games when I feel they deserve my money and I want the items enough.
    I don't troll, and I don't take kindly to trolls.

Sign In or Register to comment.