The Learning

Over the course of the semester, we've learned that games can benefit learning environments in many ways:

• Games allow students to see their progress, which is a tremendous human motivator.
• Games make abstract concepts concrete, facilitating transferring knowledge into different contexts.
• Games can fully engage players (students) by occupying all their eyes, ears, hands, mind.
• Games provide lots of little goals that are concrete, achievable and rewarding.
• Games give students “permission to fail” which help them to understand why things happens the way they do and provides them with meaningful insights.

Our team has put a constant effort into developing Metro Madness: Bar Crawl Edition to create innovative, meaningful, and mind-expanding experiences for our players. Throughout the entire process of game development, we continuously asked ourselves what our players are actually learning from playing our game and how we are able to develop evidence to make a claim that our players are learning.

The ultimate learning goal of Metro Madness: Bar Crawl Edition is for our players to become familiar with the NYC, specifically the Manhattan, subway system. We established the following learning goals as benchmarks of our players growing knowledge and familiarity with the system through their recognition and understanding of the mechanics of the subway, the relationship and navigation between and in neighborhoods, and the supporting materials provided by the MTA (maps, signs, etc ). Our final two goals address a more expert player - one who has developed the rudimentary understanding and knowledge of the NYC MTA subway system in Manhattan - who can begin to apply their understanding in both a strategic and fun way.

Learning Goals

1. Players will become familiar with the NYC MTA Subway map of Manhattan.
2. Players will understand the MTA iconography, what the different symbols mean, and the unique characteristics of the NYC subway system.
3. Players will become familiar with neighborhoods and the relevant train lines and local bars.
4. Players will be able to strategize about the best, most efficient routes to take to get to their bars, which can later transfer to real-life situations where they can strategize about the most efficient routes to take to get to any location in the Manhattan.
5. Players will be able to apply the strategies used in the game to their everyday subway usage.

Evidence

As we have described in earlier prototypes, we as game designers have encouraged explicit transfer of certain features of our game through our design choices. By using the MTA Manhattan subway map, exactly as it exists in the real world, the knowledge they will gain as they traverse the game board will directly transfer to their real-world usage of the NYC subway system. As players make meaningful choices about which bars to choose, they are displaying an understanding of either geographical proximity, or logistical understanding of which subway lines would make their navigation easier. The more efficient their navigation of the game board, the deeper their understanding of both the map and the iconography of the NYC subway system will be.

From all of the play testing sessions and observations we have had, our team noticed the learning happening through the change of strategies during each play. At every turn, players are constantly aware of their situations and the surrounding players' situations as well. Whenever they roll the die and/or pick up a Chance Card, they are likely to change their strategies to achieve their goals and win the game. Players understand where their starting and ending points are, they understand which paths (train lines) they need to take, how many stops needed to take, where to transfer stops, and what their limitations are. What the players learn in this game can all be traversed into knowledgable skills used in their real life subway usage but the only way we will really know is if we do a live-action version of our game.