Exercise: Board Game Analysis
In
this exercise, you'll take a close look at some existing board games
and think about their effectiveness (instructionally and motivationally)
and the sources of that effectiveness.
You'll look at two or more games during class. At least one will be a commercial educational board game. The others will come from the collection of 670-created games in Cardboard Cognition.
Online students: Find two games in your own home and explore them in the same way. Post your analysis on the link at the bottom of this page.
For each game, you and your group will answer the following questions:
- What game did you look at? (Name, author or publisher)
- What type (Race, Pattern, Battlefield, Combination) of game is it?
- To
what extent do the game elements parallel elements in the structure
of the content?
- What
examples can you find of...
- movement through space or time
- shortcuts
- obstacles
- patterns of elements as goals
- elements with differing levels of power
- elements with differing levels of value
- choices and decisions
- variations in risk
- changing environments
- random
or uncontrolled events
- What does the game purport to teach?
- How instructionally effective do you think the game would be? Why?
- How enjoyable do you think the game would be to its intended audience? Why?