Could you present an encyclopedia in a game-like way, in order to promote and encourage learning?

[Christer]

I don't mean in the classic "let's make learning fun"-way. I'm thinking more about introducing things like:

* A clear pathway through the information, with a realistic difficulty curve

* An explicit level or rank system, maybe based on what you've read and proved yourself to have understood

* Collaboration with other users of the encyclopedia, asking for help

* maybe even a quest system?

Any other ideas? What do you think?

 

[Veloxe]

"Why didn't you complete your assignment Jimmy?"
"I couldn't beat the Columbus boss to get at the information chest!"
"Well maybe next time you won't be such a newb and will be able to finish Jimmy."

I do think that online wiki's and information dumps could be more streamlined sometimes. Especially in respect to your first point. Often times I find myself jumping around in wiki looking for certain information and either coming across stuff that's higher knowledge then I need or an oversimplified version of what I want. Some article sets (especially those dealing with a time line) tend to do this much better then others because there is already a logical way in which to order the information.

With the second point I can't help but think of a Maester's chain (too much not enough A Song of Ice and Fire for me!) or like CoD levels (I prestiged Chinese history!) or something like an achievement system. For most people it probably wouldn't matter but younger people have notoriously small attention spans and get easily distracted. So by introducing a small worthless token at the end might keep them interested long enough to finish. Although that would probably result in less actual understanding and more just jumping through the hoops to get to the end reward.

 

[Popido]

Gameplay.

...

...

Enough said.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Clicking on endless wikipedia links and reading obscure articles IS a game.

 

[Christer]

A friend mentioned the old Encarta CDs, which supposedly did something similar. Of course Encarta was a huge success... :l

 

[Scars Unseen]

Not sure, but recent games (glares at FF13) have taught me that you can certainly present a game in an encyclopedic way in order to promote and encourage disinterest.

 

[Jazoni89]

Microsoft Encarta did this.

I remember their being a maze like game were you had to answer general knowledge questions in order to progress to the next room.

My younger self thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Trolldor]

I don't mean in the classic "let's make learning fun"-way. I'm thinking more about introducing things like:

* A clear pathway through the information, with a realistic difficulty curve

* An explicit level or rank system, maybe based on what you've read and proved yourself to have understood

* Collaboration with other users of the encyclopedia, asking for help

* maybe even a quest system?

Any other ideas? What do you think?

They already have those for specific subjects, and there are a lot of studies which suggest that well made games work.


But an entire encylopedia?
Fuck no.

 

[Alfador_VII]

A friend mentioned the old Encarta CDs, which supposedly did something similar. Of course Encarta was a huge success... :l

Microsoft Encarta did this.

I remember their being a maze like game were you had to answer general knowledge questions in order to progress to the next room.

My younger self thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yeah I remember that too. I'm sure I got a copy of Encarta bundled with one of those new fangled CD-ROM drives many years ago.

And yes Encarta was massively successful. Of course sites like Wikipedia mean trying to get anyone interested in the old dead-tree Encyclopedias again, or even disc-based ones, is virtually impossible.

Someone needs to build a game around Wikipedia!

 

[Aurgelmir]

I am not sure I understand what you are suggesting...

 

[darth.pixie]

"Why didn't you complete your assignment Jimmy?"
"I couldn't beat the Columbus boss to get at the information chest!"
"Well maybe next time you won't be such a newb and will be able to finish Jimmy."

I now know how I will raise my child, if I have one.

Well, I don't think about gameplay but about what gamers usually do. Not a lot read everything without getting bored and listening to monologues sucks. So unless they can actually play like Cortez, Vasco da Gama or Galilei (i got the new gold telescope/sniper rifle!! kewl) it would be pretty hard...and even then, making it replayable/enjoyable is hard work. People complain about how linear things are all the time. Imagine playing history (most linear thing ever) and we're not even certain about it all.

Nice idea...which I'd play but really hard to do.

 

[Trolldor]

A friend mentioned the old Encarta CDs, which supposedly did something similar. Of course Encarta was a huge success... :l

Microsoft Encarta did this.

I remember their being a maze like game were you had to answer general knowledge questions in order to progress to the next room.

My younger self thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yeah I remember that too. I'm sure I got a copy of Encarta bundled with one of those new fangled CD-ROM drives many years ago.

And yes Encarta was massively successful. Of course sites like Wikipedia mean trying to get anyone interested in the old dead-tree Encyclopedias again, or even disc-based ones, is virtually impossible.

Someone needs to build a game around Wikipedia!

Find the misinformation?

 

[Aurgelmir]

"Why didn't you complete your assignment Jimmy?"
"I couldn't beat the Columbus boss to get at the information chest!"
"Well maybe next time you won't be such a newb and will be able to finish Jimmy."

I now know how I will raise my child, if I have one.

Well, I don't think about gameplay but about what gamers usually do. Not a lot read everything without getting bored and listening to monologues sucks. So unless they can actually play like Cortez, Vasco da Gama or Galilei (i got the new gold telescope/sniper rifle!! kewl) it would be pretty hard...and even then, making it replayable/enjoyable is hard work. People complain about how linear things are all the time. Imagine playing history (most linear thing ever) and we're not even certain about it all.

Nice idea...which I'd play but really hard to do.

Well it depends on what the game is about, and what you learn from it.

I personally learned a lot of history from Empire Total War, which also let me answer two questions on a game show I listened to the radio
So you can learn in games, without the game being about learning