Last May I announced I would be leading the informal learning category within the Madison, Wisconsin-based Play Make Learn Conference‘s 2021 James Paul Gee Learning Games Award. Below I am excited to announce which game won, and why.
As a reminder, the GEE! Award, also known as the James Paul Gee Learning Game Award, celebrates educational games that serve as examples of what Gee highlights in his scholarship:
- games that empower learners,
- create problems worth solving and
- generate deep understanding – while having fun.
Our panel was composed of myself and two colleagues: Tienya Smith, Community Library Manager of the Queens Public Library in New York (with 23 years of experience in Library and Information Science beginning at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the New Haven Public Library) and Nick Martinez, Senior Manager in Education, at the American Museum of Natural History.
Together we reviewed six games:
Sea of Roses: Sea of Roses explores the impact of one’s culture on their attitudes & beliefs regarding gender roles and dating relationships.
Culture Overlord: Culture Overlord explores the impact of cultural items (e.g. books, movies, games, websites) on attitudes & beliefs of young people regarding dating relationships.
Mars Horizon: Mars Horizon is about running a space agency tasked to get the first people on Mars. They worked with space agencies such as the European Space Agency (ESA) & the UK Space Agency (UK SA) to reflect their real work in the game.
Bloomwood Stories: Block Party: Bloomwood Stories: Block Party is a visual novel that aims to help marginalized populations increase their health self-efficacy outside of formal medical systems, and is being distributed through public libraries and other community partners. (side note: We all felt this would also be a strong contender if submitted to Games For Change).
Svoboda 1945: Liberation: Svoboda 1945: Liberation is a unique blend of adventure gameplay, full-motion video interviews with real actors and historically-accurate interactive memories of people who lived through the chaos of the aftermath of World War 2.
Hannah: A friend in need: Hannah: A Friend in Need (Hannah) is an Android-based interactive narrative game prototype, developed as a creative response to the prevalence of Domestic Violence (DV).
We were looking for a game that was fun and engaging to play for a young person on their own time, but would also be a strong example of Gee’s 13 principles of good learning games. It had to be both.
And the winner is… Mars Horizon! Below is Nick’s summary of why we selected this game:
We recommend Mars Horizon for the Informal Learning Award because it provides a rich learning environment with complexity and unique gaming aspects within a traditional simulator model. Mars Horizons invites the player to take the role of director of one of 5 space agencies at the beginning of the space race, racing against time and AI controlled space agencies to be the first to make it to Mars. In their role as director, players are required to make complex decisions ranging from the actual components of the rockets and spacecrafts to weather, societal support, agency funding, and staff training that all impact the potential success of a launch. The game allows the player to build upon previous decisions but continues to add additional complexity and elements embodying Gee’s Fishtank principle of learning. With each launch whether resulting in a triumphant success or a fiery failure the player learns and is able to learn and conduct research for new components to improve chances of success in the future selecting better components with varying chances of success. It challenges players to solve problem after problem but provides them the freedom and flexibility to customize their playstyle and develop their own solution to the problems.
After playing Mars Horizon we better understood the complexity of space exploration and research. Each decision you make as director has a cost and impacts your ability to successfully complete your missions before your competing agencies but as a player you also understand that working together with agencies from other countries can benefit both of you even when you’re competing for the same goal. Overall Mars Horizon is an enjoyable game that helps learners gain a deeper understanding into decisions that space agencies have to manage to increase our understanding of the universe and the potential for humanity to reach Mars. While complex with many moving parts, it hits all of Gee’s learning principles in an engaging way that keeps the player looking to the stars and racing to make it to Mars.
I will also share, as a bonus, our thoughts on Bloomwood Stories (written by Tienya):
Bloomwood Stories is compelling, diverse, profoundly original, and meets Gee’s five learning attributes. The narrative has a complex system where the players choose between two-player modes, sandbox or fish tank. Their notebook serves as the scaffolding for the sandbox mode. Once the players gain confidence, understand the purpose of each agency, and acclimate to the complexity of the game, they can decide to play the full game without relying on the guidance of the notebook. Then, the players chooses whether they want to customize their roles to be more or less supportive to each character. Lastly, the responsibilities of their roles motivate them to be new people by the end of the game. During the players’ journey, they experience cycles of expertise that build the character of the players. The complex system, player modes, the players’ ability to customize their role, cycles of expertise, and the players’ transformation are Gee’s five learning attributes. This game is unique in that it has all five. For this and the other reasons mentioned earlier, we believe Bloomwood Stories is in a category of its own.
Congratulations to the winners in each of the categories, and I look forward to seeing what new games get submitted in 2022.
