Game design
Literacy Lesson 2
Gaming is good!
Introduction
Watch the video for an introduction to the lesson.
Understanding the tasks
Rating the tasks
This lesson contains a few activities. Each activity will have one or more tasks. These tasks have been given a rating.
Some of the tasks in this lesson are must do. These are important to help you understand the introductory ideas or skills.
Have a go at the should do tasks and reach out to your friends or teacher if you need some advice. These will usually take a bit longer to complete than must do tasks.
Could do tasks will probably take you some extra time and might need you to get creative or problem solve. We strongly encourage you to try these.
Activity 1 - Gaming is good!
Task 1 - Warm up words
Yesterday, we learnt a lot about games, gamers and gaming. We also learnt that there are different types of language used to communicate about gaming, including subject-specific, technical, jargon and slang.
Complete the following interactive quiz to see how much you remember.
Task 2 - Building gaming vocabulary
It is important to build your vocabulary so that you can use the most precise and relevant language, whether in formal communication or just chatting with your friends. Creating ‘word chains’ can be a great way to build vocabulary. They can also be a lot of fun.
Read the information in the 'Word chains and word clines' Google Slides below.
When you feel confident that you understand word chains and word clines, check your understanding by completing the interactive below.
Use the blue Check button and arrow at the bottom to move from question to question.
Task 3 - Coding vs gaming – language
During your applied lesson you will be learning about a new language entirely – coding. 'MakeCode Arcade' requires very precise, technical language to ensure your game works properly. This is not the time to get creative with word clines! Some words describe instructions e.g. ‘Destroy’, some words describe objects, e.g. ‘Sprite’.
Some of the coding will program ‘cause and effect’. This means that if you do something, then something else will happen. When we use the technical language of coding a cause is called an event, while an effect is a conditional statement. You will learn more about this later today. When we aren’t coding we can play around with words and language.
Complete the interactive below to look at some 'If... then...' statements.
Use the blue Check button and arrow at the bottom to move from question to question.
Activity 2 - A closer look at audience and video gaming
Task 1 - Understanding gamers
We have mastered some of the language of gaming, now it is time to develop our understanding of gamers. Yesterday, we identified that the average age of gamers in Australia is 35 years old. But we need to know more if we are going to design a game for a specific audience. Part of market research is to identify your game demographic.
Click on the hot spots below as we look at the changing age of gamers over the past 25 years.
When you feel confident that you understand the demographics of gamers, check your understanding by completing the interactive below.
Use the blue Check button and arrow at the bottom to move from question to question.
Task 2 - Gaming and stereotypes
A stereotype is a widely held and oversimplified belief about a person or thing. Some stereotypes can create humour, but other stereotypes can be quite harmful and perpetuate/spread misinformation.
Read the information in the Stereotypes Google Slides below.
When you feel confident that you understand stereotypes check your understanding by completing the interactive below.
Use the blue Check button and arrow at the bottom to move from question to question.
Task 3 - Reflection
Revisit your KWL chart that you began in Lesson 1. Have you answered any of your W questions? Have some of your assumptions about games and gamers been supported or challenged by the data? Were you guilty of stereotyping?
Fill in the L column and reflect on your learning.
Activity 3 - Gaming is good!
Note: While we have linked to videos in this activity, any other pages or linked material linked is not endorsed by the department.
Task 1 - Can video games make you smarter?
As well as being fun there are many benefits to playing video games.
It will be important for you to research this week, so playing games will be part of your learning.
Just in case the adults in your life think this isn’t ‘education’, watch the 'Can video games make you smarter?' video on the importance of playing games. You may need to convince them that gaming is good.
Note: See how skilled you are at tracking the blue dots!
Answer the questions in the interactive quiz to check your understanding.
Use the blue Check button and arrow at the bottom to move from question to question.
Can video games make you smarter?
Duration: 4:13
Task 2 - Collating evidence
Summarise the main ideas from the video 'Can video games make you smarter?'. These ideas will form the basis of any potential argument to prove gaming is good.
Open the Brainstorm bubble Google Slides.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Task 3 - Organising ideas
Now that you have collated some evidence from the video, it is time to organise your ideas about the impacts of gaming. You may include some ideas from the video or the information texts we have explored so far. You can also include your own ideas about gaming.
Open the Plus, Minus, Interesting Google Slides.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Record the positives and negatives associated with gaming, and points of interest that you think deserve further thought or investigation.
Want to check your written answers for Activities 2 and 3?
Activity 2, Task 1:
Question 3 - Did any of this data surprise you? What did you think the average age of players might be?
Give reasons for your answer.
Suggested Answer:
I thought the average age of players would be younger people, like teenagers, mostly because I play a lot of games and my family don’t. My friends all play games but not many of their parents do, so I assumed that made teenagers and maybe early 20’s the main players.
Activity 2, Task 2:
Question 2 - Can you identify any stereotypes in this image?
Give reasons for your answer.
Suggested Answer:
The sprite has been characterised to look ‘girly’ – she is wearing a pink hat and shirt, a skirt, and has her hair in pig tails.
Activity 3, Task 1:
Question 6 - Remember that tricky colour game, and how hard it was to recognise the colour when the word said something different? How might you use this screenshot to explain how playing action video games can improve attention?
Suggested Answer:
Playing action video games for 5-10 hours per week can improve the brain’s attention to detail, and problem solving skills.
Activity 3, Task 1:
Question 9 - ‘It turns out, the average person can track about 3-4 objects, while a practiced action gamer can track around 6-7.’
What does this evidence suggest about gamers?
Suggested Answer:
This suggests that experienced gamers, who practice a lot, have better than average attention skills. Gaming makes you twice as good as anyone else.
Handing in your work
Don't forget to hand in the work you completed today!
Your teacher will have told you to do one of the following:
Upload any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your Learning Management system (MS Teams, Google Classroom for example).
Email any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your teacher.
Make sure you keep any handwritten work you did in your exercise book or folder as your teacher may need to see these when you are back in class.