RefBandz

Why did you created the game the way you did?

I created an offline social game that attempts to teach players to conduct successful reference interviews based on the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers. The idea for my game, RefBandz, came from the game HedBandz, in which a player wears a headband with the name of a famous individual and has to guess who they are based on the information provided by other players. One of the most difficult aspects of developing fake research questions when practicing reference interviews during my Library and Information Technician degree was that the whole scenario felt extremely fake and unnatural. RefBandz give players a predetermined research topic and background story that they could roleplay for the reference librarian (player 1). When designing my offline social game I wanted to make it fun and goofy. HedBandz always seems to draw a humorous reaction from players when someone puts on the headband. To me, including something physical like a headband adds a nice aesthetic to the game, but it was not only designed with this in mind; the headband has a role to play. It acts as a fun tool to help develop the social interaction between players. Especially as one player removes the headband and the other player puts it on. According to Donald Norman (2012), it is easy to dismiss design as purely aesthetic, “the prettifying of places and objects to disguise banality” (p. 69). However, Norman argues that this is a serious misunderstanding of the idea of design. I also drew heavily on Scott Nicholson’s book Everyone plays at the library: creating great gaming experiences for all ages, specifically chapter 8 (Social gaming experiences). I wanted to include what I would argue is a very important aspect of social gaming in my game: the gaming environment. According to Nicholson (2010), one of the major components of social games is the “focus on players talking, laughing, and getting to know each other” (p. 134). Nicholson also argues that social games help build social interaction when discussion is encouraged after each round of play (p. 136). Although I did not specifically build discussion into the game, I see this as being something that happens naturally between players. Finally, Karl Kapp (2012) argues that “to foster higher level skills, the player should assume a role during the game and not just play” (p. 148). Kapp goes on to say that role play provides players with a framework to practice what they need to do in a safe and secure environment (p. 148). As I will discuss later, I wanted both the player taking on the role of the reference librarian and the player taking on the role of the patron to role play the scenario they pick. There reference librarian will not know anything about the player and must effectively use the RUSA guidelines to navigate the reference interview. Meanwhile, the patron will have to role play the scenario and challenge the reference librarian to ask the key questions needed in order to provide the patron with the reference help they require.

What do you think worked well?

Overall, I felt that my experience creating an offline social game was a positive one. When creating RefBandz, I was initially overwhelmed with the potential outcomes that could develop when conducting a reference interview. This made designing scenarios particularly difficult. I wanted to provide the patron (player 2) enough information to effectively answer the reference librarian’s (player 1’s) questions, without making it necessary to read a text-heavy manual for game play. To address this issue I kept the scenario manuals to between 1 and 2 pages each. I also made sure to indicate that the scenario manual should be used as a starting point only; I wanted them to be able to get creative with the narrative and the information they were sharing with the reference librarian. The inspiration for allowing players to craft their own stories and, in turn, rules, came from my experience playing Munchkins and Dungeons & Dragons. Both of these games’ rules encourage creativity and the ability to adjust rules accordingly to make the gameplay flow better. This allowed me to give players more control of the game flow without including too many rules, instructions and details that would ultimately hinder the experience of the players. It would also create an unnatural reference interview experience for both player 1 (the reference librarian) and player 2 (the patron).

What challenges did you face? and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge I had this week was deciding on a format for my offline social game. I have contemplated remixing HedBandz for the purposes of teaching reference interview techniques using the RUSA guidelines for a long time. I thought it would be a fun and engaging way to have people learn about conducting reference interviews. However, when I sat down to develop the various scenarios, I remembered that reference interviews rarely ever went according to schedule. This proved to be challenging when developing the test scenarios for RefBandz. In the end, I drew on my experience with other games like Munchkins and Dungeons & Dragons to allow players to change the scenarios as they played through the experience. Instead of the rules being set in stone, I made sure to encourage players to make changes, be creative and use the scenario manual as a reference guide. Once I decided to make the scenario manuals a tool to guide players through the encounter rather than force players through the encounter, I found myself much happier with the results. I have received great feedback from my classmates this week and I think that this game may be a good candidate for polishing and developing further in the upcoming weeks.

Game Assessment

Found here

References

Kapp, K.M. (2012). The Gamification of learning and instruction: game-based method and

strategies for training and education. Retrieved from

http://discover.sjlibrary.org/iii/encore_sjsu/record/C__Rb5018864

Nicholson, S. (2010). Everybody plays at the library: Creating great gaming experiences for all

ages. Medford: Information Today.

http://discover.sjlibrary.org/iii/encore_sjsu/record/C__Rb4288344

Norman, D. A. (2002). Design of everyday things. New York: Basic Books.