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Build your own ARG course – [THATCamp Games 2011]

September 13, 2012 Aram Zucker-Scharff — No Comments

http://goo.gl/LiUBd

Build your own ARG course

Suggestion: make your own Google Doc for your group, and copy whatever helps from this doc into that one.

This document is for participants in our bootcamp to identify courses they’d like to design as an   ARG wrapped around an RPG.

More information on practomime.
Overview of Operation LAPIS

–Roger, Kevin, Steve, Emily, and Mark

Learning objectives: one big, two sub
ARG play objective: generally “Save the world by X”
RPG play objective: narrative object McGuffin style, and/or final product like a report to an authority figure
Outline story-arc of RPG (including time period, setting, characters, etc.)

Integrate mechanics/activities: collect important objects? annotate important primary and/or secondary sources? Role-playing! (Mastery of a learning objective can always be expressed as performance as a master of that learning objective.); collaborative development of role-playing performances; collaborative development of reports/papers/briefings in both layers

Examples


Iliad 9: Learning objectives: 1) Summarize narrative of Iliad 9; 2) analyze speech of Achilles in Iliad 9 in its cultural context; 3) make a comparative analysis of Iliad 9 with modern heroic literature/film

ARG play objective: save UConn by making students aware of the ethical implications of senseless glory-seeking
RPG play objective: save the fictional island of Connos by persuading the greatest warrior …

Build Your Own ARG: Philosophy [THATCamp Games 2011]

September 13, 2012 Aram Zucker-Scharff — No Comments

Course: introduction to ethics/moral philosophy

1. Learning objectives: one big, two sub for a course unit

Big: understand and apply utilitarianism to novel situations

Sub:
– understand/apply act-utilitarianism
– rule-utilitarianism

(utilitarianism: what’s morally right is what produces the best consequences)
(best actions versus following the best rules)

2. ARG play objective: generally “Save the world by X”

Save the world by making a compelling utilitarian argument for why humans should exist

3. RPG play objective: narrative object McGuffin style, and/or final product like a report to an authority figure

– Convince Skynet (the machine) not to wipe humanity off the planet

– Create multiple teams to address each kind of utilitarianism

– Arguing with each other, individual arguments trying to strengthen the whole

– Time travel aspect, each team represents the philosopher who espoused the theory (character sheets? worldviews?)

– And end up with this is the best argument?

– Skynet has these 5 reasons why the world should be destroyed (novel instances) — class breaks into 5 teams to address each?

– Utility is useful, but useful to whom? (metaquestion of the unit)

– Debate, have this be hashed out in a forum

– Point is to convince the machine that we’ve either made the right decision or that we’ve learned from our mistakes

4. Outline story-arc of RPG …

THATCamp Games: Narrative Puzzles Links [THATCamp Games 2011]

September 13, 2012 Aram Zucker-Scharff — No Comments

THATCamp Games: Narrative Puzzles

Links for the Bootcamp:

Used during presentation:


Personal Effects: Dark Art http://bit.ly/Ao1LYd

http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com/

www.exoriare.com and www.arg.exoriare.com

The Portal 2 Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i-nMWgBUp0

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/2006/hunt/mirror_mirror/

Used during hands-on puzzle activity:


arcanegalleryofgadgetry.org/bootcamp/BenFranklinPuzzle.pdf (by Amanda Visconti, based on Elisabeth Cohen’s “Lost In Paraphrase” mechanic)

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/2005/lip (by Elisabeth Cohen)

Links for Further Reading:

“General” puzzle-related


Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge (resources):


https://www.collegepuzzlechallenge.com/PuzzleTools.aspx


Harvard Hunt Archive


http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hunt/2005/tm/ (a sample metapuzzle, with solution)


MIT Mystery Hunt


http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/

ARG-related:


Unfiction.com (forum for ARG aficionados/newbies) Online resources for solving various types of puzzles: http://www.unfiction.com/resource/otools/

Cloudmakers list of puzzles from The Beast (along with solutions and some discussion): http://cloudmakers.org/trail/#3.0


(Complete trail can be found at: http://cloudmakers.org/trail/)

Note: The Cloudmakers were the largest and most active “team,” or group of players working to solve the mystery behind Evan Chan’s death and to explore the A.I. universe


Interesting (very) early ARGnet forum discussion (~2002) on “starting a game.” That is, what makes a game “good”, and why cryptographic puzzles are not always enough (without some compelling hook into the narrative):


http://www.argn.com/forums/index.php?topic=185.0


Bibliography of digital resources for ARG design and play:


http://www.arcanegalleryofgadgetry.org/bibliography/

A …

Gaming from the academy [THATCamp Games 2011]

September 13, 2012 Aram Zucker-Scharff — No Comments

You may not believe it, but your professor loves video games. Educators are becoming passionate about gaming and The Humanities and Technology Camp: Games, put that passion to work.

THATCamp Games, taking place January 19 to 22, was an un-conference focused on the the intersection of education and gaming. Attendees came from a number of different perspectives, there were educators looking to integrate games into the classroom, instructors in game design, game makers and more.

Over the four days, the attendees watched a film about gaming, participated in game design and development workshops, and attended self-generated sessions on a variety of topics.

Of the many sessions there were three strong threads: teaching through games, teaching game theory, and teaching game design.

Teaching through games.

Of the three strong threads at #THATCamp, using games as teaching tools was one of the strongest.

Alternate Reality Games were a significant part of the event, there were two ARG-focused workshops.

“Build your own practomimetic (ARG/RPG) course” was run by Roger Travis[http://livingepic.org], Kevin Ballestrini[http://kevinbal.blogspot.com/], Emily Lewis[http://twitter.com/#/blueathena14], Mark Pearsall, and Stephen Slota[http://practomime.com]. The goal of the presenters was to provide a framework for educators to build an “ARG wrapped around an RPG.” The work was based off of Operation LAPIS, the team’s …