Minecraft schreit nach medienpädagogischer Nutzung

Posted on 14. August 2011 by Ulrich Tausend

Bowser visits Minecraft by by Jonathan D. Bloom

Minecraft hat mich gepackt. ~~Dieses Spiel,~~ Dieser Kreativitätsbaukasten läd mit ungemeiner Macht ein, sich seine automatisch generierte Welt zu eigen zu machen. Am ersten Tag ist noch eine kleine, hastig zugemauerte Höhle der Schutz gegen die nächtliche Monsterattacken. Doch schon kurz später wird ein krudes Häuschen und dann eine Villa oder ein Schloss den Spieler beherbergen. Und das alles kann man auch gemeinsam mit anderen Leuten per Multiplayer spielen/bauen. Das Spiel schreit gerade zu nach einer Nutzung in der Medienpädagogik. Interessante Versuche hat hier der www.minecraftteacher.net unternommen.

Dieses Wochenende gibt es zwei Minecraft Lizenzen zum Preis (15€) von einem. Denn es wird im Minecraft Team geheiratet und so bekommt jeder Käufer eine Lizenz zum Schenken dazu.

Ausgezeichnete Artikel zum Spiel finden sich in der aktuellen Making Games Ausgabe.

Pong mit 120 Jugendlichen

Posted on 27. Juli 2011 by Ulrich Tausend

Bei meinem Vortrag bei der MyGames Tagung am 25.7.2011 in der BLM zum Thema “Gemeinsam mit Spielen Spielen” haben wir im Sinne von Creative Gaming eine neue Regel beim Spielen gebrochen: “Verbinde den Spielern beim PONG spielen nicht die Augen”. Zum Glück waren 120 Schüler da um durch das Rufen von Kommandos den gehandicapten zu helfen. Es war für alle Beteiligten ein großer Spaß und die Anregung Spiele mal anders zu Spielen hat ein neues eindrucksvolles Beispiel. Vielen Dank an Sebastian Ring für die Einladung und Idee.

Escape From Puppy Death Factory

Posted on 24. Juli 2011 by Ulrich Tausend

- ein wirklich nettes Flashgame mit offensichtlichen Anleihen bei Super Metroid – but with a great twist.

http://games.adultswim.com/escape-from-puppy-death-factory-adventure-online-game.html

Session beim Münchner GameCamp 2011

Posted on 13. Juli 2011 by Ulrich Tausend

Das 3. Münchner GameCamp (ein Barcamp über Games) war echt klasse. Sagt auch Rudolf Inderst.

Und nun mehr Infos zu den Themen meiner Session über Lernspiele und medienpädagogische Workshops:

Das Spiel “Der Camper” ist in wenigen Tagen hier spielbar.
Zum Thema Usability Testing (auch für Games) empfehle das Buch “Don’t make me think” von Steven Krug.
Mehr zum Einsatz von Machinimas und “Ballett tanzen im Ballerspiel” in medienpädagogischen Workshops sowie und “Ballett im Ballerspiel gibt es auf der Seite von Creative Gaming.
Mit Jugendlichen oder Lehrern ohne Vorkenntnisse Computerspiele entwickeln? Das macht das gameLabor.
Die Münchner Mediengelder finanzieren ohne zu viel Bürokratie innovative medienpädagogische Projekte. Zwei mal im Jahr gibt’s bis zu 4000 Euro.

Danke an alle Teilnehmer! Ich freue mich auf das nächste GameCamp.

PS: Ralph hat Links zu diversen Sessions zusammengefasst und auch gleich ein Video veröffentlicht.

PPS: Ein umfassendes Buch über Serious Games mit vielen Beispielen ist “Serious Games” von Ritterfeld, Cody und Vorderer.

Serious Games [Paperback]Ute Ritterfeld (Editor), Michael Cody (Editor), Peter Vorderer (Editor)

Anti War Games?

Posted on 8. April 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

There are great anti war films which leave you with the feeling “never again”. But how about games? In all ego shooters I know disabling enemies (by killing them) is the core element and therefore has to be fun. Otherwise the game would not be played and bought. So can anti war games (even ego shooter ones) work?

Yesterday I wrote about a leaked U.S. military video closely resembling the level “Death From Above” from Call of Duty 4.

There is another game the leaked video reminded me of: It is the free flash game September 12th by newsgaming. In this game you can also bring death from above, in this case to “insurgent looking” as well as unarmed inhabitants of a middle eastern town. But every time you kill a civilian, others gather to moan him and turn into insurgent themselves. The indirect controls are designed so you can’t only kill the gunners – so the longer you play the higher rises the rate of insurgents.

Coming back to the question “can anti war games work”? September 12th is anti war, but is it a game? You can’t win or loose. It is more an interactive caricature than a game.

September 12th is not fun to play – similar to an anti war movie which is usually not fun to watch. Big budged anti war movies can be commercially sucessfull in a free market, but I don’t see that happening for big budged anti war games.

I have heard a project to make an anti war (or a least war critic) ego shooter. I am thrilled to find out how it will achieve being anti war while being fun to play.

Virtual and real deaths

Posted on 7. April 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

Wikileaks released a U.S. Military video showing the killing of 16 civilians including two Reuters Photographers. Please note that the video is very disturbing and graphic (link). Why I write on it here? It looks and sounds VERY similar to the Call of Duty level “Death From Above” (game play video) which made it even more disturbing for me. I thought about why that might be the case.

I think the reason is that I felt guilty that I enjoyed playing the level. Back then I already had a bad feeling noticing the cold blooded commentaries and the unrealistic easy distinction between “good” and “bad” fighters as well as neutral civilians. But playing the level still was great fun. And that I felt that fun makes me feel sick now.

It might be interesting to use both videos when discussing media usage with young adults.

Interview on mobile storytelling

Posted on 11. März 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

“Spielwiese” is a new format on the German On-3-Radio on innovative digital media. For their second episode they interviewed me about the topic mobile storytelling.

During the interview we played a mission created by teenagers during my latest media education project at the Multikulturellen Jugendzentrum (more about the project).

You can listen to the episode online (its in German).
To play the file either use this direct link or do it the propper way by

clicking here
and then scrolling down to “Komm spiel mit uns” and pressing “play” there

The interview is between 29:20 and 35:40.

They also released filmed footage of the interview. But there is not much info in there. Just us playing GPS Mission and occasionally cracking bad jokes.

Amanita Design does it again with "Machinarium"

Posted on 9. März 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

We at Neodelight were big fans of Samorost by Amanita Design and happy we could feature it on neodelight.com.

So I was excited about their latest game “Machinarium“. And I can say I really, really enjoyed playing it. Can’t remember feeling so moved by a game as during the last screens, when I had freed the robot girlfriend, knowing it would be over soon.

Kudos to for making the game so challenging (riddles) and accessible (one button design, included walk through, Flash) at the same time.

From what I hear sales of Machinarium here in Germany seem to be pretty good. It makes me very happy that Amanita therefore does not only get the critical reception they deserve.

If you are interested in the creation of Machinarium check out Machinarium Deconstructed or this little interview.

Amanita also did a little serious game for BBC called “Questionaut“. Feels good

So guys, keep up the great work! You are an inspiration to many others out there.

Mobile Storytelling

Posted on 1. März 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

Did you ever stumble on the term “Mobile Storytelling”? It basically refers to storytelling technology that incorporates awareness of locative, spatial and contextual factors in mobile interactive environments. GPS Mission, which I use in my latest project, is an app you can use for mobile storytelling.

If you are interested in the topic www.mobilestorytelling.net offers a comprehensive resource for all things (apps, companies…) connected to it.

Mr. X Mobile

Posted on 22. Februar 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

Have you played the classic boardgame Scotland Yard/Mr. X.

A mobile game version is in development by the University of Bonn.

For more info (mostly in German) check out: http://qeevee.com/projects/misterx

The game sounds promising, hope I can test it soon.

Update: I had the possibility in several settings with teenagers and it worked very well. For me the best “spontaneous” game yet. And it works with Android and on the iPhone.

Creating geotainment with teenagers

Posted on 18. Februar 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

At the moment I am working on a pretty exciting project which I got funded by the City of Munich. Based on free www.gps-mission.com. I am enabling educationally disadvantaged teenagers to create, review and play geotainment.

During the two day course two groups of teenagers first scout the area to come up with riddles based on their surroundings. With these each group creates a “GPS Mission”which the other group tests and reviews.

We also discuss basics of game design and storytelling. Goal is not to have bare riddles but to decide on a story which link the places and objectives together. Nice examples groups came up with till now are a suspense secret agent story and a voyage to Harry Potters Hogwarts (with a Bus Stop standing for Platform Nine and Three Quarters).

The kids love that they can use an iPhone to play the mission and are very motivated. The geotainment aspects makes it easier for the kids to be creative as we are working not only in virtual but also real space and they can basically “touch” the riddles. One challenging aspect of the concept is that I only have a limited amount of iPhones and therefore don’t have a smart phone per kid. In a week I will try the project with 5 kids per iPhone which I think is the upper limit.

I would like to thank some people who helped to get the project to where it is now:

Mobile learning expert Chris Nash with whom I had an inspiring discussion in London
Marike Schlattmann from Lern-welten is working with me on the project.
and last but not least the City of Munich and Netzwerk Inter@ktiv which are open for innovative media education projects.

Update:

You can find a summary of the projekt results here:
http://ulrichtausend.com/2012/gpsmission

"Silver Gaming" in Germany

Posted on 3. Februar 2010 by Ulrich Tausend

Videogames are more and more becoming a regular medium. Like older mediums (books, TV) they are increasingly being used by a variety of people (across gender and age barriers) for various different means (e.g. entertainment, learning). As part of this process different specialized markets emerge (this was one of the topics of my diploma thesis).

On the 25th of January 2010 the first congress about gamers exceeding the age of 50 took place in Germany. As project manager for the conference I was very happy we hit a nerve with the topic which we labelled “Silver Gaming” (we were sold out

. The next conference will most likely be taking place end of April in Nuremberg.

I especially liked the presentation by Nintendo. They mentioned the pressure of the strong ageing in Japan as a main reason for the development of alternative input methods for their consoles.

Pädi 2009 winners announced

Posted on 9. November 2009 by Ulrich Tausend

The winners of the 2009 “Pädi” – the pedagogic interactive award – were announced. The Website www.kindernetz.de/minitz won the award in gold in the kids category, “Line Rider – Freestyle” for teenagers.
Other winners include “Rhythm Paradise“, “Maus DS – Der mausgeflippte Denkspaß” and “Professor Layton and the Curious Village“.

I was happy to be part of the “Pädi Expert Team” which took part in the decision making process of the award. There will be an award ceremony on November 12th 14-16 in the Munich Gasteig/Carl-Orff-Saal with approx. 600 guests.

More info on the award (in German)

Der pädagogische Interaktiv-Preis – bundesweit einzigartig in seiner Konzeption – basiert im Unterschied zu vielen anderen Preisen, die entweder auf die künstlerische Komponente, die technischen Details oder die curricularen Lerninhalte Bezug nehmen, zu einem wesentlichen Teil auf praktischen Erfahrungen im Einsatz der multimedialen Produkte.

Mit dem Pädi werden Lern- und Spielprogramme pädagogisch bewertet, die Kinder und Jugendliche in ihrer Freizeit nutzen.

Der Pädi ist einerseits eine Orientierungshilfe im schier undurchdringlichen Dschungel der online- und offline-Angebote für die Heranwachsenden und andererseits eine Auszeichnung für die Hersteller von pädagogisch wertvollen Multimedia-Produkten. Er ist ein Ansporn für ihre Bemühungen, sinnvolle Produkte für Kinder und Jugendliche anzubieten und damit einen Beitrag zur Förderung der Medienkompetenz zu leisten.

You can find more infos on the Pädi and a full list of the winners of this 12th here:
www.sin-net.de/paedi.htm

Gamescom

Posted on 22. August 2009 by Ulrich Tausend

At the gamescom in Cologne especially the PSP game “Invizimals” caught my eye.
The game allows players to interact with their environment, using the PSP Camera to look for and interact with “invisible” creatures. It is the most convincing augmented reality game I have seen so far, while they still have problems with the prototype camera they were using at the gamescom.

Remote Control here we go!

Posted on 27. Mai 2009 by Ulrich Tausend

Since beginning of May I am working for remote control productions running their research department.

remote control productions is an independent, internationally active production house, with an emphasis on mediation, development and production of entertainment software and research services. With its extensive experience and far-reaching contacts, remote control productions acts as an important interface between developers, publishers, distributors and investors.

It feels great to be here. The general focus of the company is very interesting with projects which try to do something new and/or have an positive impact on society or the video games business in mind. On top of that the company is very much involved in education, the local IGDA chapter, contacts to political institutions and the Verein für Videospielekultur (club for video games culture) on which I blogged here.

One of my main projects is our weekly newsletter which goes like this:

Up-to-Date in 30 minutes
Keeping an eye on current trends and affairs is an imperative for anyone concerned with the video games industry.

With the RCP-Newsletter, remote control productions are offering a compact overview on the latest trends and news as well as concise figures. Whilst we are tracking the international market very closely, our special focus lies on Germany. This not only provides our readers with detailed information about international happenings but also with insights into the German industry and current political developments.

Our newsletter summarises news items from more than 40 different sources, relevant to the games industry, in a short and clearly arranged way, thus giving you the advantage of having all relevant news at hand in only 30 minutes a week.
The sections of the newsletter are covering the following areas:

Current Market Data: Software-Charts with sales figures, global hardware sales and company reports

PC and Videogames: announcements of new titles worldwide on all platforms

Online: news about digital distribution, social networking platforms and online games

Companies: fusions, takeovers, openings, closings and partnerships

Technology and Hardware: firmware updates, new middleware versions, technical innovations, licensing of engines

Politics, Culture, Events and Education: political decisions and amendments, cultural events, changes in education, conferences and events

Feature Recommendations: articles and blogs concerning current topics and trends

Event-Calendar: the most important conferences and events of the next three months

The RCP newsletter is released once per week (48 times per year) in English and German language.

What do you think about it? And if you are interested, please request a free sample copy at my new email address: utausend [) r-control.com

neogames

Ulrich Tausend – Medien und Lernen