Curtain falls on "Shakespeare World"
by Eloise Pasteur 
Jan 8th 2008 at 12:01PM
Filed under: News items, Academic, Education
You may never have heard of Arden, the brain child of Edward Castronova and now you never really will. The project was ambitious, aiming to create a MMORPG that also educated the players in the world and works of someone regarded by many as the greatest wordsmith the English language has ever seen.According to this report in Technology Review, the virtual world failed because whilst it was crammed with educational content, no one went there because "it was no fun" and they forgot to include the puzzles and the monsters and the game-play elements. The work was supported by a $250,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation's digital learning programme. Whilst this is pretty big money in educational grant terms, particularly in the humanities, it's a drop in the ocean when compared to the millions of dollars that go into creating the online MMORPGs that we normally review.
It is a lesson well worth remembering for everyone creating educational games, you need the educational content AND the game content. A hard balance to strike - I speak from personal experience here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ted said on 1:56PM 1-08-2008
Uh... awww too bad?
Reply
Coherent said on 2:54PM 1-08-2008
I would say, in all honest, F#CK the educational content, focus on the game content and try to sneak the educational content in around the edges.
Besides which, aside from trying to get people to frigging memorize the bard's words, why don't you just get people to explore the themes themselves and show how they underlie ALL dramatic elements. That's not educational content, either, that's just good quest writing!
Regarding memorizing his plays, I think Shakespeare himself would say, "It's flattering, but please... get a life."
Focus on the game content, the entertainment content, using the dramatic tools and themes that the bard so graciously bequeathed to us.
Reply
Coherent said on 2:54PM 1-08-2008
I would say, in all honest, F#CK the educational content, focus on the game content and try to sneak the educational content in around the edges.
Besides which, aside from trying to get people to frigging memorize the bard's words, why don't you just get people to explore the themes themselves and show how they underlie ALL dramatic elements. That's not educational content, either, that's just good quest writing!
Regarding memorizing his plays, I think Shakespeare himself would say, "It's flattering, but please... get a life."
Focus on the game content, the entertainment content, using the dramatic tools and themes that the bard so graciously bequeathed to us.
Reply