W505 Games as
Learning Tools
Stage 2 - 4: Analysis of Strategy games and RPG
Mission US: Flight to Freedom is an online role playing game (RPG) that immerses the player in pre-Civil War Kentucky as a young black slave named Lucy. The game goes through 5 stages with the ultimate goal of her and her family's freedom.
Each level the player interacts with family, friends, slave holders, abolitionists, and other characters in the story. She is given tasks to do and must determine what the best choice is to act on. With each decision she makes, she can earn badges that may help her accomplish her goal in the long run.
Each choice leads to another action, or interaction with another character – presenting a new problem to solve and leading her to continuing levels. There are no “right” answers so Lucy's path is different with every player and each time it is played.
The game begins with a prologue that sets the player up with the story. From here on out, the player is the decision maker. The player goes through each level and ends with an epilogue that the player can use the badges collected throughout the game to determine her ultimate journey.
Stage 2 - 4: Analysis of Strategy games and RPG
Title:
Mission
US: Flight to Freedom
General
information
Mission US: Flight to Freedom is an online role playing game (RPG) that immerses the player in pre-Civil War Kentucky as a young black slave named Lucy. The game goes through 5 stages with the ultimate goal of her and her family's freedom.
Each level the player interacts with family, friends, slave holders, abolitionists, and other characters in the story. She is given tasks to do and must determine what the best choice is to act on. With each decision she makes, she can earn badges that may help her accomplish her goal in the long run.
Each choice leads to another action, or interaction with another character – presenting a new problem to solve and leading her to continuing levels. There are no “right” answers so Lucy's path is different with every player and each time it is played.
The game begins with a prologue that sets the player up with the story. From here on out, the player is the decision maker. The player goes through each level and ends with an epilogue that the player can use the badges collected throughout the game to determine her ultimate journey.
Analysis
based on Flow Theory
According to Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist, people should be fully involved and absorbed in an activity. This produces an emotion that leads to higher learning achievement. We will use his theory to determine if this game has these "flow" components and this be a good game to use in a classroom environment.
- Task that the learners can completeThroughout the mission, the player is given small tasks to complete that lead to the next steps. On the top of the screen, there are symbols that help to remind the player what steps need to be completed. Once the tasks have been completed for that level, the player moves on to the next level and it's corresponding challenges.
- Ability to concentrate on taskThe layout of the game is clear, understandable, and visually sound. It is not hard for the player to understand what to do or how to navigate the game. This creates a deeper connection to the objective.
- Task has clear goalsThis game has clear a goal. Lucy, the slave girl, needs to get free and can try to accomplish this mission by surviving challenges like encounters with slave catchers, gathering food for the run to freedom, collecting freedom papers and evidence, etc. Because the tasks are concise and leading, the player is able to feel the accomplishment of achieving them.
- Task provides immediate feedbackAs Lucy makes her decisions in her interactions with the characters in the game setting, she is given immediate response and feedback. The characters let her know as soon their opinions as soon as the choice has been made.
- Deep but effortless involvementBecause this game is based on US History, the world is somewhat known to the player. Although the player never lived in pre-Civil War time, there is some background knowledge that a player would bring to this game. This makes the game more real to the player. But because the young girl is not famous and the situation is not necessarily documented, there is some fantasy involved. The player can construct a story through choices that does not represent a necessarily factual slave account.
- Exercising a sense of control over their actionsWith every task and interaction the player is given, there are multiple choices on how to deal with that situation. Therefore, the player has control of the path the character will take. There is no set path the player must take.
- Concern for self disappears during flowThe mission itself is a dangerous one. A young girl must escape to freedom and hope to stay free. This means she must runaway from her family and independently make choices that could jeopardize her life. She has to hide in wagons, encounter slave catchers, hide in the forest, and even trust others blindly and accept help from them without truly knowing them. The game environment is life and death.
- Sense of duration of time is alteredThroughout the game and in between levels years go by, making time a non-factor to achieve the objective. The player is so immersed in the game that time is meaningless.
