[arg_discuss] Commercial ARGs with learning outcomes

[Wendy Despain]

I'd say it depends on the company. Some companies have education as an
express part of their mission statement. Most don't.

However, having worked in television development, there are those who
are interested in building education into their products - and not
just nonprofits like Sesame Street. In the US, stations broadcast over
the air are required to include a certain number of hours of
educational content. The definition of educational is pretty broad so
if you can claim any educational content at all, you've got a better
chance of being picked up (for non-prime time slots).

Book publishers for kids might be another kind of company interested
in education.

As someone else mentioned, learning is often used in game design
circles because it shows up in several theories of what makes things
fun. And marketers are interested in educating consumers about their
product. But sometimes it's considered an unpopular add-on.

Personally, I'm a fan of learning and fun and love how ARGs approach
these topics, but not everybody sees the world the way I do. :-)

Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com


On Mon, January 12, 2009 12:05 pm, Mike Monello wrote:

> Marketers are only interested in the kind of learning that leads you

> to buy a product. Yes, these companies have altruistic aspects to

> them, such as the Ronald McDonald House, but if you are talking to the

> marketing department, they want to sell products, and any education

> they do leads to that sale.

>

> But I'm not even sure that the people you would want to speak to are

> inside those companies. For instance, I'm not sure anyone at Audi

> really understand how the story of Art of the Heist pushed players to

> educate themselves about the features and benefits of the A3 on their

> own terms. They just were not connected to it in that way. They would

> talk about the ads, and "engagement" and they might cite some results,

> but people like myself and Brian Clark actually owned that part of the

> campaign - built it, brought it to life, monitored the results, etc.

> All they would likely recognize was that people who engaged in the

> story went to the online car configurator and engaged with that.

>

> I'm willing to bet the same is true for most marketing campaigns - if

> you want to get into how and why it worked, go to the people who

> actually did it.

>

> -Mike

>

>

> On 1/12/09 2:22 PM, "Nathan Mishler" <nathan at studiocypher.com> wrote:

>

> It's possible.

>

> There's a problem with the thought that there are Games and then there

> are

> Educational Games. Many people think that only learning comes out of

> games

> that are specifically designed to teach. The thing is, ALL games

> teach.

> Granted, much of what entertainment games teach is not useful or

> applicable

> in any form in the real world. Okay, you learned how to avoid the

> alien's

> attacks on level 8. That is very specialized knowledge.

>

> ARGs on the other hand tend to involve more "real world" knowledge,

> using

> things that people already know (or can learn) as part of their

> puzzles.

> They also tend to encourage players to go out into the world and doing

> this

> learning on their own. Of course now I'm treading into a lot of things

> discussed in Dave S's book about the differences between formal gaming

> and

> the sort of hybrid game / storytelling systems that are in ARGs. And

> that's

> a looooong discussion.

>

> I'd say go for it, but recognize that they might not care that they

> make

> "learning" functions. Learning is part and parcel with the game, but

> they

> might not be interested tuning their marketing args towards a "benefit

> of

> all mankind" sort of thing. There's still a belief in some circles

> that

> games are "just entertainment" and any attempt to "shoehorn" learning

> into

> them will make the games unpopular. I think that's silly, seeing as

> games

> are nothing BUT learning systems, but not everyone recognizes it.

>

> On the other hand, Mc Donalds for instance is part of the whole

> "Children's

> Hospital" scene so it's not like they are entirely against the public

> good.

> If you can get their backing you could do a bunch of cool stuff.

>

> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Steve Vosloo <

> steve.vosloo at shuttleworthfoundation.org> wrote:

>

>> The Foundation for which I work tries to innovate within the space

>> of

>> education (formal and informal) (amongst other spaces). I've

>> suggested ARGs

>> as an innovative way for youth to develop certain skills whilst they

>> employ

>> social media -- sometimes in a pop culture-based story context.

>>

>> The way that we work is that usually we pilot demonstration projects

>> and

>> then present the results to bigger stakeholders who can scale these

>> projects, e.g. the Department of Education in South Africa.

>>

>> After having read Jane McGonical's /Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in

>> Collective Intelligence Gaming/ and other pieces on the learning

>> outcomes of

>> ARG play, I'm asking this: if commercial companies use ARGs for

>> marketing

>> purposes, and players learn from them, then are these companies some

>> of the

>> stakeholders that the Shuttleworth Foundation should try to

>> influence? Did I

>> Love Bees turn Microsoft's gaming unit into creators of educational

>> experiences? Did /The Lost Ring/ mean that McDonalds is not only in

>> the fast

>> food business, but in the business of education too?

>>

>> All thoughts would be much appreciated.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> Steve

>>

>> --

>> Steve Vosloo

>> Fellow, Communication and Analytical Skills Development

>> The Shuttleworth Foundation

>>

>> Tel: +27 21 970 1240 | Fax: +27 21 970 1241

>> Web: www.shuttleworthfoundation.org

>> Blog: www.innovatingeducation.wordpress.com

>>

>> Email disclaimer: wiki.tsf.org.za/EmailDisclaimer

>>

>>

>>

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>

> ---

> Mike Monello

> Partner, Campfire

> 62 White Street, 3E

> New York, NY 10013

> 212-612-9600

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>

>

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>

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Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com