nothingtodowiththatpartridge

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SWAT not SWOT?

I always have difficulty teaching students to use the SWOT tool for analysing the current situation. No matter how I word it, there is always one and often more students who use the Opportunities section to put their ideas and recommendations.

Two approaches I am going to try this year:

Explain the concepts of Constraints and Affordances from game design, use these instead of, or within the "Opportunities" section of the SWOT.

Create a massive board. Have half as "now"/situational analysis, and half as "future". On the left, in the NOW half, have the SWOT template, on the right in the FUTURE half, have a Recommendations section and an ideas section. Make pre-made cards around a specific case study - we are working with a drone pilot this term, and a games convention as our class clients - and then get the students to place the cards in the correct sections. Do a few rounds, with it getting more difficult each round, and also maybe have a timed round. Throw in a round with newspaper articles (eg pandemic, 5G, Brexit etc) - where does that go in the NOW section? How does that then spark ideas and mitigations for the FUTURE section? Obviously, then get them to do a SWOT analysis, make their own cards (post-it notes) and put them in the right sections.

I will report back.

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What's this all about?

I am using this corner of Tumblr for experimenting with writing in a way that isn't really academic, to think out loud, encourage collaborators to step up early in the process of game-making and other projects, and maybe move the thoughts to a more academic platform at some point.

The Wayback Machine is my friend.

I am also trying to gather up all the places I have contributed or been mentioned online, so that I have a ludography and bibliography that I can refer myself and others to. I have written *a lot*. I wrote 280,000 words for just one of my LRP/LARP campaigns, and have written several LRP game systems, over 50 escape games, and run live games for thousands of people. My approach has always been transmedial, but only in the last decade have I recognised that. There will be raw posts that are just links to random stuff I have done in the past with no context. At some point I may revisit them and explain a little.

I am also going to reproduce here some of my writings that never made it online. I wrote before the internet (just!). Some of that stuff was interesting enough (to me, at least) to put online now, and maybe reflect on, maybe rewrite.

My current interests are in:

Notations that help folk design games fast - if we want game-based learning to be normal in the classroom it has to be as quick to write and setup as a lecture - or as near as we can get it. I want to help non-gaming folk create games for learning. This includes re-using games, game elements and game mechanics. Also, setting up some kind of accessible archive of games.

"Broken games": What happens when you present a broken game, or a game that you tell the players is broken, and ask them to co-create the fix with you? This is so powerful. Even if you just use a commercial game and then ask the students how could we make this "better"?

Game-making, not designing: getting students to make elements of a game, to critique and think critically about a game. Using students as game-makers not game designers. Game-designers make the game template, and then students and teachers can skin it and fill it. I hope to post soon about IIF - my Imaginary Interactive Fiction project.

Keepsake and journalling games.

Adaptation of fiction and non-fiction into story-based games.

When I say "game" you can assume I most often mean a "game for learning".

I do not "do" video game design. My games are generally live and kicking. As a Digital Marketing lecturer my students spend enough time in front of screens.

You can find some of my recent collected work here: www.linktr.ee/lizcable

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Using Actionbound: Ambient Literature and other location-based texts

I am running a workshop for the Electronic Literature Organization 10th September 2024 over Zoom: bit.ly/elo-salon I will be covering inspirations and explorations, and of course campus induction games.

As luck would have it, Actionbound is running a beginner's workshop tomorrow night. You could be an expert within 24 hours! https://en.actionbound.com/academy/beginners-course-110924

"Let's create and play Actionbound with Liz Cable! bit.ly/elo-salon 4 pm UTC, noon EDT, 9 am PDT

Actionbound lets you create and share games based on your location with text, images, audio, and video.

Actionbound (https://en.actionbound.com/) is an app for creating location based games known as bounds, that players can play as individuals or in teams on their mobile phones. There is a free version for personal use, and a cheap(er) educational version that’s affordable for campus induction games. Both writer and players can add text, audio, images and video, with the option of leaderboards for different groups and customisable base games shared amongst different designers. The recent addition of logic-switches and time-released media opens up opportunities for interactive narratives and more elaborate storytelling. From scavenger hunts to psychogeography, poetry trails to wellness walks, come be inspired by the possibilities.

Liz Cable has been using and teaching Actionbound with undergraduates for several years, and has created numerous games and experiences, including summative assessments where students create a bound, and one where students work in teams to solve a bound over a week. It is a very easy to use platform – the creativity comes in how you use it.

Please download the Actionbound app to your mobile phone and create a 14-day trial or free account at Actionbound.com. A trial account will give you access to more features than a free account."

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If you build it will they come?

Whitehead, H, and Cable, L. (2008) If you build it will they come? A model for sustainable online community networks for practitioners. Short paper presented at ALT-C 2008, Rethinking the Digital Divide, September 9–11 in Leeds, UK

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Puzzling it out: Exploring Escape Games for Learning and Assessment. Telfest 2018

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This Tumblr blog is for James

A talented writer and friend who badgered me for over an hour about my online presence not being representative enough of either what I *really* like to do or my expertise in game design for learning. You can find him over at Orbific. Beware of the clowns

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Mention: The one where Darren Green and I ran a Climate Crisis Megagame for the Playful Learning Conference.

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https://repository.alt.ac.uk/467/1/ALT-C_09_conf_intro%2Babstracts_web.pdf

Page 78 session 0271

Beyond 9 to 5: learning and community design to support flexible working.

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It's not gamification!

Gamification is the use of any mechanism of a game in a non-game environment. [Disclaimer: there are other definitions available].

My energy provider, Octopus, has a wheel of fortune that you can spin when you submit a meter reading, if you install a smart meter, or once a month just for logging into the app. At its simplest, gamification can be about getting rewards for exhibiting behaviour, or performing in a way that the "gamesmaster" wants to encourage.

Gamification can also be used in learning. I would argue our whole education system is set up that way. Through exams and other assessments the learners earn points, points mean certificates, certificates get you entry to the next level, or advantages within levels, and there is no doubt that there is a "boss" to defeat at the end of every level of learning. Conclusion: gamification is not necessarily "fun".

When I am introduced as an expert in gamification, I am not being humble when I disclaim the title. What I do is game-based learning. However, this phrase also falls short as it doesn't capture the spirit of play that I like to get into the classroom wherever I can. Game-based learning is very much pre-planned and premeditated. My colleagues in the Playful Learning Association have the same issue. Nic Whitton who is one of my go-to experts told me she calls it Ludification.

Nic is not the only one, I like this ludification definition from Updigital translated from the Dutch:

"Ludification is the process of adding the fun aspect to something that is initially not. The purpose of ludification is to reduce the pain that a user may encounter in engaging in a not-so-fun process."

As a marketer and educator I am used to reducing the friction between the learner/customer/player and the behaviour we want them to adopt. As a marketer I promote something on the basis that it reduces the customers' pain. As a teacher, I know that learning can be uncomfortable, I talk about the Conscious Competence learning model a lot, and am very aware that when you make a learner conscious of their incompetence, that's not a comfortable place to be. As leaders of learning we need to signpost the way out of discomfort and to competence quickly, whilst these days also justifying the desirability of said competence - using those marketing skills again.

I'm not even interested in gamification elements such as leaderboards, timers, etc, as these are all competitive elements of games. Even in my escape games, the timer counts up, not down. It's a matter of interest or logistics, not a race. I am much more concerned with games involving collaboration and co-creation. I have recently become aware of "keepsake games"* where the players create their own record of their playful journey. I create sessions and activities with cheeseholes - a wonderful phrase from transmedia - for learners to add their own learning. Being playful for me means changing assumptions; one of those assumptions being that the person running the session is the one with all the knowledge or even the most knowledge.

As AI renders several traditional methods of assessment useless, getting students to co-create with each other, and even their tutors in this way, can help ensure that the result is a plagiarism-free artefact.

Gamification is not at all synonymous with game-based learning. Knowing which you are attempting is the start of your journey.

For more on Keepsake Games I recommend Shing Yin Khor's blog post and their Patreon, or a goggle at Tim Hutching's amazing work.

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Notations on live game design

Today I am taking a real police investigation and attempting to create a notation to enable me to turn it, reliably, and in a way that anyone can understand and emulate, into a game-like experience. However I am conscious that a “break-through” in the case might be different for each group of players depending on the order in which they investigate things. I like that idea - that each team will construct their own experience, and will be able to discuss it afterwards with other team members and discover how they prioritised tasks and went about solving the case differently. The sjuzhet of their stories will be different, whereas in an escape game, even if it’s non-linear, it is always the same.

As I don’t want to force an order, it’s not going to be a linear game. It’s also very likely going to be similar to solving a logic puzzle in the solution. The key will be different for each group. Multiple right answers for solving the puzzles, but only one solution for the crime. I need to learn more about how much is needed for an arrest and how much is needed for a charge to be made. Like a meta-puzzle that just needs a mixed subset of puzzles to be solved - not all of them.

The escape games I have made around police procedure in the past have indeed had many persons of interest, (a lot more than any game I have played) lots of whom could be quickly dismissed because they had an alibi for the time of the murder. The game aims to establish a means motive and opportunity for each PoI, or to remove them from the suspect list. However, this being real life there are multiple plot lines, and nothing is a red herring, so the format of a police connections board (a murder wall) is tempting but doesn’t help me gate the investigation.

C’mon brain!

It isn’t just about creating experiential learning from investigations, but seeing if by recording an investigation in this way it can aid in teaching, and even, maybe, aid in investigating.

I have played a few “case files” style games at home and invariably they fall short of the reality, many of them concentrate on a “murder wall” which narrows any investigation dramatically from the start.

I will report back.

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Is it LARP or LRP?

So again, eons later, the LARP/LRP argument has risen its ugly head. Firstly I have to ask do I care?

I used to care very much. I felt LRP was as much definitively English as “Norwegian LARP” is Norwegian. We invented our own version and culture with no reference to the wider world. I was there. Chiselling the stone. LARP was the American invention- with boffer weapons, bean bags, wuss combat (in fear of lawsuits) and all that I assumed that meant at the time. The difference was important.

To be honest, I think some individuals called it LARP in the UK and I know some clubs did. I remember having a discussion with some players from a Basingstoke club (Adventure Calls?) who were new to our LRP events. They ran combat intensive linears, and had come to a Boozy Hick production freeform for the first time under the Adventurers Guild banner.

A “freeform” or “bar room brawl” is an interactive scenario, but the refs basically set it up and apart from a few set pieces leave the players to it. Usually in an interactive scenario I would have multiple plot lines running concurrently. At least one per ten players (although the Venn diagram of players and plots would have many intersections), I would write individual plots based on the backgrounds of the players and their desires for the event and I would run them under a sensible production name. “Boozy Hick” was meant to indicate that this was a less than serious social event in character. It was a laid back opportunity to muck about in costume. However, during the cursed “Saturday Afternoon Lull” I heard one of the new players mutter (and I still don’t know who it was) - “The Adventurers Guild - taking the Action out of Live Action Roleplaying.”

Now how I reacted and why I believe that was not the case is a story for another day. But it does show that for some folks the terms back then (late 80s) were even then questionable, perhaps interchangeable, and even held different nuances of meaning. The written record will show it was LRP because the magazine of the hobby “The Adventurer” called it that. However, I was the founder and frequent editor of said magazine and I had a strong opinion on the matter, so it may well have been down to me. Or not.

On reflection, I don’t care about the LRP/LARP argument (not least because the recent adoption of the term LARP in the UK means calling it LRP is as aging as putting a double space after a full stop, or wearing your glasses on a string, so I am done with it.) However, I am very keen that English LARP/LRP is seen to stand alone as a game-form, not least for the contributions we early pioneers made when we were literally making it up as we went along. Neither the Americans, the Norwegians, or even the heavily armed Belgians (another story) had any influence on how we made and played our games. LRP is an English invention. Fight me.