As a teenager I spent lots of time in my garage designing and making boardgames. Highly elaborate fiendishly complex and virtually unplayable boardgames. The first computer game I designed from scratch was a simple town planning simulation. It was about 15 years ago and I built it to complement a theatre show for schoolchildren. Since […]
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Yesterday I spoke at BAF Games. This is a summary of my ‘Play with Learning’ talk. I have embedded links to supporting information into the post . Sadly, I couldn’t capture the lively Q&A session afterwards. I made my first game as a young teenager – a board game so incomprehensibly complex and tedious, it only […]
Play & Games articles
There’s a lot of really interesting work going on with play and games – here are some of the articles that have caught my eye in the last couple weeks. Play Bring Back Play and Disorganized Sports to Our Children. From The Innovative Educator. http://j.mp/n8tCG3 ChicagoQuest promotes game-playing at school – Chicago Sun-Times http://j.mp/qU8zEk Parents’ […]
The games people play
Although I’m sceptical with much of the ‘research’ that describes virtually everybody as a ‘gamer,’ there is no doubt that over the last few years there’s been an explosion of activity in casual games. Of course one could argue that we’ve always played casual games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper but recently the genre has […]
Beach games
During the summer I went to North Wales with the youth group I help lead. While we were away, we played lots of games. Not high-tech, computer-based games but real-world, physical games. It was a timely reminder to me that play, even for teenagers, does not always depend on bits and bytes but can happily […]
Play and games articles
Some of the articles about play and games that I have seen in the last few weeks. Theory Online Games & Interest-Driven Learning are Transformative for Today’s Young Learners by @constances http://htn.to/anmyvV Three Qualities That Make Video Games Better Teachers Than Teachers from EdReach http://j.mp/lNARUV Gamification time: What if everything were just a game? From […]
Play & games articles
Some of the articles that have caught my attention in the last couple of weeks: Play Swings & Roundabouts in Whitehall: Pat Kane article for Play England’s Play Today http://j.mp/jKQWXV Wanted: More Playful Parents http://j.mp/mII7ph Games & education How social media and game mechanics can motivate students – http://on.mash.to/ieEOyQ Computer Games and the Future of […]
Failed Sim
I have had the pleasure and privilege of attending and presenting at this year’s Games + Learning + Society conference in Madison, WI. My talk was one in the wonderfully honest, encouraging and educational strand, Hall of Failures. The strand was an opportunity to share experiences of projects that have delivered surprising results or haven’t […]
Tweets this week
Some of the articles that have caught my eye this week. Games The seduction secrets of video game designers from The Observer http://j.mp/jXRfP4 Interesting article from @gamasutra – Unsocial ‘Social’ Games http://j.mp/kaItTZ RT @dripster: “Hollywood shuns intelligent entertainment. The games industry doesn’t. Guess who’s winning?” http://bit.ly/iEcxHk Psychology Value of art? Men who visit galleries, museums & theatre enjoy better health […]
Underage gaming
I received this note from a friend recently, I wanted to share it and my reply because I think this is an important issue for parents and children. “A lot of children in my son’s class are playing games well above their age, specifically call of duty. My son is 9. He was shown it […]