Real Lives Game Analysis

W505 Games as Learning Tools
Stage 2 - 1: Analysis of Simulation Games

Title: Real Lives

General information

1. Background information
Who or what organization developed the game for what purposes?
Educational Simulations is a privately held software company which develops and markets software products and services that help people learn about our world and the people in it. They seek to enhance understanding and compassion in our society. Real Lives offers a first-person simulation of life for players who experience this game.

2. Play features

At first, the game introduces you to your new character that starts out as a baby with a name living in a random country. Further information is made available to you about the country you live in and its social and political state. Different tabs on the top of the home screen let you view different aspects of the characters life including self, family, actions, country, and stats. You can make the character age in one year increments and by doing so, new events occur in the life of the character, and their life situation can change.

With each new year lived, Real Lives introduces the player to new facts and information about the country you live in such as histories, weather, current events and other information pertinent to your life in that country. Coupled with each new status update are usually links to websites that provide statistics and further information to investigate. In the actions tab, the actions you take will have far reaching consequences in many areas of the character’s life. You can take actions such as going to school, finding a job, entering into a relationship, trying to have children, and you also keep track of your monthly expenses and housing situation.

3. Representation

A created persona complete with birth history, country, and family constitute the main character in the game world. A graphic facial image is provided and this character is a randomly created person but one whose situation could very easily match someone living in the real world. This character faces challenges, joys, trials, and pains which also reflect potential and often likely events that could take place in the real world. My first character for example, an Indian Hindu girl, lost her parents when they were at the relatively young age of 45. Those events impacted her life in similar ways as which might happen in reality. Suddenly family income is lost, new shelter must be found, and a new way of living must be adopted.

Just as in real life, the character in the game has little knowledge of what will happen in the future. They often cannot predict and have little to know power to alter events in their lives. For example, I was very surprised at being removed from school at the age of 6, just one year after starting. In other areas, the character is able to exert some control over her situation and decisions. At the age of 7, I was offered a chance to get a job which is an interesting and foreign concept for me at that age. At age 8 I was given the chance to choose my activities for leisure time. At the age of 13 I noticed that my family’s monthly expenses were exceeding our income so I attempt to get a job. Most jobs were not available in the countryside where I lived, others needed graduate degrees. At 13 I began as a trader of used goods. I later got married, had a son, continued to try to live below my means and invest, and then at 63 I died suddenly of heart disease.

Analysis

1. Game components

My definition of games is as follows:
A game is an activity which is governed by rules, is meant to be fun, and which contains an element of surprise or chance. Players should be able to make decisions and have some control over their actions, successes, and failures. A goal is also needed to make an activity a game and competition often arises as a result of two players pursuing the same goal. Often, some way to keep track of the success of a goal such as by using points and high scores is integrated within a game.

According to my definition of games, Real Lives succeeds in that it is meant to be fun while being rather informative at the same time. Rules exist in the game such as only being able to advance your age in one year increments, being able to only spend money that you have, and only being able to choose leisure activities if your life situations allows the time for them. By making important life decisions such as finding a job or mate, the player is exerting control over the game which will have an impact on their subjective successes or failures in the game life.

The problem with this game according to my definition lies in the absence of a definitive goal. There are no set patterns or rules for living your life and there is no real competition. There are no objective criteria for measuring the successes or failures in the lives of our characters. There is no high score which can be received as a result of living your life well. I believe the game designers intended this game to be educational, eye-opening, and as life-like as possible.

2. Learner’s styles & Teaching / Learning objectives

Adopting the learner styles developed by David A. Kolb, I have chosen a learner group designated as convergers whom involve a combination of learning style traits including: Abstract Conceptualization (AC) - learning by thinking, and Active Experimentation (AE) - learning by doing.
Taken from the site http://people.usd.edu/~ssanto/kolb.html,
“This learner likes finding practical uses for ideas and theories, evaluating consequences and selecting solutions, following detailed sequential steps, hands-on activities, trial and error, and being given clear objectives with a logical sequence to activities. This leaner does not do as well in interpersonal situations. He or she may enjoy simulations, selecting information sources, guest speakers, and application to the "real world."”

Objectives for players of Real Lives:
Logical Thinking – This entails understanding the situation of your character and understanding the logical results of certain actions the character has. Convergers enjoy evaluating consequences for actions and this is where logical thinking can be quite helpful.

Problem Solving Skills – Often in Real Lives, the character is faced with a problems such as a lack of safe water, a family death, and a lack of funds. The player must learn how to solve these problems in order to survive and thrive within the game world.

Decision Making – this involves considering the pros and cons of each decision you make as a player for your character in this game. The converger learner should be motivated by how closely their decisions mimic effects that might occur in the “real world.” They can find practical “real world” applications for lessons learned in Real Lives.

Acquired Knowledge – this learner will be confronted by large amounts of information and the information should be meaningful for them as they construct the knowledge and relate it to the experiences of their characters’ game lives.

Motivation – This group of learners may find the lack of clear objectives and detailed sequencial steps in this game to be motivationally inhibiting. Yet, they should be interested in the potential for learning by trial and error and the simulations which allow for selecting solutions should assist motivation.

Implementation & assessment

1. Settings
What resources do we need to implement this game as a part of teaching /learning activities? What obstacles you may have if there is any? Who will be major stakeholders in the context?
A sufficient number of computers with adequate specifications, proper software, and internet connections for the number of students in a class would be ideal for the implementation of Real Lives within a classroom.

Possible obstacles for implementing this game into curriculum include a lack of funding, lack of administration support, not being able to tailor the game for the subject matter of courses, and also possibly students spending too much time involved in the playing of the game. Stakeholders for this game may include: students, parents, teachers, and administrators.

2. Procedure
This game has lots of potential for uses in History, Social Studies, English, Geography, and Government classes. Some class time could be dedicated to playing this game each day or each week, and it could also be assigned as homework. Students in these classes could keep a journal and write about the experiences they had within the game. They could write about the new information they learned, the different concepts they have been exposed to, as well as their thoughts, feelings, and revelations regarding the game.

3. Assessment
Assessing the effect of Real Lives on converger learners would likely be done efficiently though the use of independent assignments and reports. Some group work and class discussions might be more difficult for this learner group, but would serve the purpose of exposing students to the need for developing inter-personal skills. These group situations would also give students a chance to vocalize the thoughts and feelings they’ve had in their journal writings.

Students can write reports, complete compare-contrast essays, have classroom debates on selected topics pertaining to the game. They can even be encouraged to initiate social justice actions on issues they feel deeply about such as poverty, discrimination, and disaster relief, many of which are touched upon within this game.