Journal of Information Technology and Applications
Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
The Design of an Online Game “Traveling Around the World in 180 Days”
Wernhuar Tarng*, Lu-I Ke,
Department of Applied Mathematics, National Hsinchu University of Education
[email protected]
Chen-Kai Shiu, Yu-Si Lin and Wen-Shin Tsai
Institute of Computer Science, National Hsinchu University of Education
Abstract
Traveling is a very popular recreational activity. We can see beautiful scenes, experience different cultures
and increase our knowledge during traveling. Limited by time, money and foreign language ability, not many
people can fulfill the dream of traveling around the world. In this paper, we propose an interesting online game
called “Traveling around the world in 180 days” to provide people with virtual tours by traveling on the Internet.
Players have to obtain information about places to visit, and book their flights and hotels in advance. They also
need to manage their time, money and health to achieve the goal of traveling around the world while
accumulating enough knowledge and experiences to become a winner in the contest. The online game is
accessible through network, and it can be used as an assistant tool in social science education to enhance the
interest and learning effects of students as well.
Keyword: online game, self-help tours, web-based learning
fun and freedom [4]. For example, a traveler can
decide the routes, daily schedules, foods and places to
stay. To plan a self-help tour, one has to know the
major purposes and conditions such as “Where and
when to go?” and “How much time and money do I
have?” After deciding the destination and time to
travel, one starts to collect the information for
making a plan. Tourist information collection and
asking for the advices of experienced people is very
important for self-help travelers. The more detailed
information, the more fun and less chance of
accidents in the trip. Finally, one can start to book
flights and hotels via travel agencies and apply for a
visa if necessary [5].
There are several requirements to become a
self-help traveler, for example, comprehensive plans,
sufficient expense, strong body and mind, the ability
of foreign languages and accident handling [6]. Many
people would think that self-help traveling is just a
dream due to the lack of essential conditions.
However, students can raise travel expenses by taking
part-time jobs during summer vacation. In this way,
they can also increase their life experiences and
develop the ability of foreign languages. Without
being afraid of exploring the outside world, they can
always expand their visions with optimistic attitudes
and finally become happy self-help travelers.
Safety is a major concern during traveling. With
a huge number of travelers every year, there are
always regretful accidents happening occasionally. In
fact, the accidents could have been avoided if the
travelers can pay more attentions to their safety [7].
For example, a tourist should make sure if it is safe to
swim in the sea and know how to save himself before
1. Introduction
People like traveling at leisure times, and it is a
very good recreational activity for body and mind.
Travelers can enjoy beautiful scenery, experience
different cultures, and increase their knowledge [1].
People used to say that it is better to travel far than to
read voluminously. Therefore, the early baronages in
England considered traveling an important activity
for young people. Traveling can exercise their bodies,
broaden their visions, discipline strong wills, and
cultivate integrated personality. Moreover, young
people can learn to take care of themselves. By
approaching the nature, they will become more
independent and open-minded. Besides, the beautiful
scenery gives them precious memories.
Since Taiwanese government carried out the
policy of “two days off weekly”, traveling has
become a popular activity in recent years [2]. Modern
people are usually very busy, so they would like to
relax by traveling on vacation. In addition, traveling
abroad not only help them stay away from boring
workplace but also improve the relationships between
parents and children. According to the reports of
Tourism Bureau, there are more than 8 million
Taiwanese people traveling overseas in 2005 [3].
They mostly joined tour groups, and young people
preferred self-help traveling or went on study tours
for a few months.
There are several ways of traveling to satisfy the
purposes of different people. Among them, self-help
traveling is more independent and thus can meet the
individual requirements of more people. Furthermore,
designing activities in self-help traveling has more
* Corresponding author.
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Journal of Information Technology and Applications
Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
make profits from the investment. Of course, luck
will be the dominating factor. If one cannot stop at
the places as wanted, even with the best strategy
cannot win this game.
The game rules of “Traveling around the world
in 180 days” are similar to that of “Monopoly”, by
making plans to become the winner in the contest.
After registration, each player receives a small
amount of money, just enough to finish the first trip.
The players need to work part-time or answer
questions to earn money for the next trip. The
questions come from the information about the city
and country that they are visiting. They may
encounter some accidents or opportunities during the
trip such as robbery, illness or winning lottery, just
like the “Fate” and “Chance” in “Monopoly”. To
enhance the interest of players, we designed several
treasures that can be found at different scenic spots.
Players find out the treasures can increase the value
of experience, and they can also sell the treasures
when they need cash. There is a discussion area on
the website for players to share their experiences in
virtual and real trips.
The online game proposed in this paper can
achieve the goal of education through entertainment,
which has been the ideal for many educators. Besides
beautiful scenery and attractive animation, it also
provides players with knowledge and experiences in
traveling. Therefore, it can be used for the purpose of
edutainment in social science education by increasing
students’ interest and learning effects. Nowadays, a
lot of young people are obsessed with video games
and they are paying less attention to study. This game
can induce them to study some materials in social
science and help them manage their lives, so it has
positive inspiration for young people.
going into the water. Female travelers should be more
careful while traveling alone in the night. Also, it is
very important to maintain the best physical
condition during the trip to prevent from being
exhausted and getting sick. In addition to balance diet
and full rest, drinking enough water and keeping
warm are also very important. It’s better to bring
portable medicines just in case you need them. If
one’s physical condition cannot afford traveling, it is
better not to take the risk. The medical expenses can
be very expensive in some countries, and one may
also have problems to communicate with foreign
doctors [8].
Although traveling is a fascinating activity, it
also costs a lot of money. Limited by time, money
and foreign language ability, not many people can
afford to go abroad for traveling frequently. Without
enough preparation and experiences, some people
may start the trips with excitement but finally end up
with disappointment. The objective of this study is to
develop an interesting online game called “Traveling
around the world in 180 days” using the technologies
of computer network, database, virtual reality and
animation. It provides the function of entertainment
as well as abundant knowledge and experiences for
traveling. Players can see beautiful scenery in the
world and learn about the history, geography and
cultures in different countries. Besides, they can also
improve their foreign language ability.
In the past few years, computer gaming industry
has had the highest growth rate among the newly
established business in Taiwan. Especially, online
games received high attention from young people and
thus became the mainstream on the market.
According to the Digital Content Institute, Ministry
of Economic Affair, Taiwan, the population of online
game players was 3 million in 2004. This number had
grown to 4.5 million in 2005. Further more, the
output value in computer gaming industry was 5.8
billion in 2002, which rose to 8.4 billion in 2003. It is
estimated to exceed 17 billion in 2006 [9]. The main
products designed or imported by local gaming
companies are: Heaven from Gamania [10],
Millenary and Red Moon from Holy Canonry [11],
Hero from Softstar [12] and Dragon from Acer
Gamezone [13].
There are numerous online games on the
Internet, among which tactics and strategies related
ones are more popular. The 3D virtual scenes and
attractive animation of video games captivate many
young players. Taking the traditional game
“Monopoly” for example [14], the rules are very
simple and thus it is suitable for players of all ages.
Players take turns to throw dices and try to make
money by investing real estate. Whoever earns most
money and makes competitors out of the game will
become the winner. To win this game, one should
know the trick and take the chances to invest so as to
2. System Architecture
The development of this online game includes
the following parts: tourist information, database,
web programming, game rules, virtual scenes, tourist
maps, animation, billiard board and discuss area
(Figure 1). At first, we spent a lot of time collecting
the tourist information. We developed the database
for players to search for the information when
planning their trips or answering questions. We also
defined the parameters to record the information and
statuses of players. After reading tourist information,
players have to make comprehensive plan for their
trips, book flights and reserve hotels. They can visit
scenic spots by using tourist maps. The screen will
display the animation to simulate course in traveling
at the same time. In order to increase interactivity and
3D visual effects, we used virtual reality technology
to develop the virtual scenes of scenic spots in this
game. Players can see beautiful scenery at different
viewing angles, and they can also explore the virtual
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Journal of Information Technology and Applications
Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
About the
Website
Login
Time
Location
Player’s
Status
MySQL
PHP
Game Rules
Tourist
Information
Forum
Billiard
Board
Plot
Animation
Tour
Map
．Tourist Information
．Players’ Status
．Booking System of
Virtual Scenes
System Clock
Figure 1: The system architecture of online game “Traveling around the world in 180 days”
experience. In the 3D virtual scenes, players can also
look for treasures, for instance, Pharaoh’s mace and
the Viscera Coffin of Tutankhamun in the Tomb of
Varn, the painting of Mona Lisa in Paris’ Louvre
Museum, diamond of South Africa and Burma ruby.
The major part for the development of this game
is the database system. We designed four databases,
i.e., tourist information, player’s data, flight booking
and hotel reservation systems. The function of each
database is described as followed.
z Tourist information: There are a lot of
information about the cities and scenic spots. For
example, country name, capital, flag, language,
religion, human race, history, geography, culture,
climate, safety issues, seasons, currency and
exchange rate, time zone, holidays, store’s open
hours, visa, postal service, telephone service and
voltage.
z Player’s data: Each record contains a player’s
account, password, traveling time, position,
money, experience, happiness, health conditions,
country visited and treasures found.
z Flight booking: It provides the user interface for
players to check and book flights online.
z Hotel reservation: It provides the user interface
for players to reserve hotels online.
There are four major areas on the screen area in
this game. The player’s nickname and avatar are
displayed in the left upper frame, and his personal
data are displayed in the left middle frame, including:
current status, time, position, money, experience,
happiness, health, country and treasures. The tourist
map is displayed in the left bottom frame, indicating
where the player is and directing him to the scenic
spots. After arriving at a scenic spot, the screen will
display the virtual scene or animation in the right
frame. We used virtual reality tools to design the
scenic spots in class A, and used Flash to design the
animation for the plots of eating at restaurants,
resting in the hotels and taking taxi to the scenic
spots.
The Flash animations we developed in this game
are the stories occurred during a trip. For example,
packing baggage, taking taxi to the airport, flight
check-in, shopping in duty-free stores, eating in the
cabinet, watching a movie, playing video games,
scenes to find out the treasures hidden at different
places.
The major functions of the website for this
online game are listed in the following:
z Login: Enabling players to register a new
account and login to the system.
z About the Website: The purpose and idea for
developing this game.
z Forum: An area for players to share their
traveling knowledge and experiences.
z Game Rules: The rules to calculate time, money,
experience, happiness and health values.
z Billiard Board: A scoreboard to show the ranking
results of all players.
z Tourist Information: Providing the information
of scenic spots, cities and countries in the
world.There are 204 cities and 326 scenic spots
in 64 countries all over the world in this game:
z Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore,
Malaysia,
Indonesia,
Filipino,
Vietnam,
Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Arab and
Israel.
z America: USA, Canada, Jamaica, Panama,
Belize, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and
Paraguay
z Europe: France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Holland,
Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Italy, UK,
Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Russia.
z Oceania: New Zealand, Aussie, Palau and Fiji.
z Africa: Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and
Tunisia.
We divided all scenic spots into three classes
and each class is displayed by a different technique.
Class A contains the most popular scenic spots and
well- known landmarks, for example, Pyramids of
Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, the Statue of Liberty
in New York and Eiffel Tower in Paris. These scenic
spots are presented by 3D virtual scenes. Scenic spots
in Class B are displayed by videos and animations,
and scenic spots in class C are less attractive and thus
shown by images only. Visiting scenic spots of
different classes will obtain different values of
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Journal of Information Technology and Applications
Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
watching a movie or reading tourist information.
Because the player must achieve the goal of traveling
around the world in 180 days, he must accumulate the
game time of 180 days, which is equivalent to
180/60=3 days (or 72 hours) in the real world. If a
player spends an hour everyday in this game, he
needs more than 2 months to achieve the goal of
traveling. Therefore, the player should avoid idle
time when playing this game and try to visit as many
countries as possible to accumulate more knowledge
and experience value.
In addition to game time, player’s position is
another important state to be defined in this game.
We used hierarchical state diagrams (Figure 3) to
clearly define the player’s current position. There are
several nodes and links in the state diagrams. On the
world map, a node indicates a traveling city and a
link represents the air route between two traveling
cities. On the city map, a node indicates the airport, a
hotel or a scenic spot, and a link represents a bus
route. For example, the player took a flight from
Taipei to Tokyo. After traveling in Tokyo for several
days, he took another flight to Honolulu to continue
his trip.
reading tourist information, arriving at the destination,
asking for tourist information, taking taxi to the hotel,
sleeping, eating at the restaurant, shopping at markets,
watching the show, seeing a doctor, answering
questions and working part-time. We designed the
billiard board to show the competition results of all
players. The scoreboard will show the player’s basic
information and status by clicking at the “user name”.
The score of a player is calculated based on his
money, experience, health and happiness values. A
player can search for other player’s status and
ranking. For example, by clicking at “country”, we
can see the flags of all the countries visited so far.
3. Developing Method
The system is developed using the technologies
of network, database, virtual reality and animation.
We designed the engine to calculate the game time
and position of a player by using state diagram. We
used game time instead of real time to reduce the
scale and player’s time spent in this game, and
maintained its continuity by state-transition method.
For instance, a player logged in the system at T0, and
logged out at T1. During this time, he registered an
account and applied his passport and visa. On the
next day, the player logged in the system at T2 and
booked his flights and hotels. He also packed his
baggage during this time. After that, he logged out at
T3. Several days later, he logged in the system again
at T4. After taking the flight and visiting the scenic
spots, he logged out at T5. The system recorded the
player’s login and logout times for the calculation of
the player’s accumulated game times. In this example,
the player has spent a total of T5-T4+T3–T2+T1-T0
time in this game so far (Figure 2). Using the
accumulated game time is more flexible for players to
decide when to log in or log out and how much time
he wants to play.
Figure 3: Defining player’s position by state diagram
According the state diagram, a player’s position
is either in a node or between two nodes (meaning
that the player is in the flight between two cities).
When the player is in a flight state, the screen will
display the world map and play the animation to
simulate the plots in the cabinet. When the player
arrives at the destination, the screen will display the
city map, showing the airports, hotels, restaurants,
and all scenic spots in this city. The system records
and displays the player’s position on the map by
using state transition method. In addition, the screen
will display animation or the virtual scene of a scenic
spot depending on current status of the player.
To create the feeling of traveling in the real
world, we designed the course and game rules based
on the true stories of self-help traveling, including
beautiful scenery, surprising discovery, adventure,
and accidents. We used 3D modeling and virtual
reality tools to develop the virtual scenes of popular
scenic spots and well-known landmarks. Players can
enjoy the beautiful scenery as if seen in the real world.
They can also explore freely in the immersive 3D
space and search for precious treasures. Developing
Figure 2: The calculation of game time
Based on the time domain of this game, we
defined a minute of game time as an hour in the real
world to reduce the scale of game time. For example,
it takes about 12 hours to fly from Taipei to New
Zealand in the real world, so the virtual flight time
from Taipei to New Zealand is 12 minutes. During
this time, the screen will display the animation of
staying in the cabinet, for example, eating, sleeping,
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Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
information.
When the player arrives at the restaurant for
eating, the waiter takes him to a dining table and
gives him the menu for ordering a meal (figure 6).
the virtual scenes is an important task for online
game design. Players may feel as if they are situating
in the real world by seeing the beautiful and highly
interactive virtual scenes. To create such effects, we
collected the pictures, videos and models of these
scenic spots as reference for the development of 3D
models.
The design of virtual scenes is divided into three
parts according to the distance from viewing position,
i.e., long range, middle range, and close range. The
long-range objects indicate the sky and mountains;
the middle-range objects include forests and small
hills; the close-range objects represent the
independent and dynamic objects such as buildings,
flowers, plants, trees, animals and people. After
developing the 3D model, we also need to past
texture to the surface of these objects to create better
visual effect.
Let’s take Hikone at Shiga, Japan as an example.
This castle was built by Ii Naokatsu in 1603, so it has
more than 400 year’s history. Due to its unique model
and style, Hikone receives very high appreciation
from architects all over the world. In addition, it has
been rated as national treasure of Japan. Hence, there
are numerous tourists visiting this place every year.
In this game, the model of Hikone is developed using
3ds Max by referring to the picture (Figure 4). The
images of wood, stones and bricks are used as texture
for pasting to the surfaces of gate, stables and walls.
Figure 5: The animation of flight check-in
If the player prefers western-style foods, he can order
beefsteak or mutton chop. If the player would like to
eat eastern-style foods, he can order Chinese or
Japanese foods. However, there are different prices
for different foods, so the player must choose foods
according to his budget. For example, a bowl of
seafood noodles costs $5 only. A candlelight dinner
with beefsteak, croissant, seafood salad, oxtail soup,
fruit plate, orange and blueberry yoghourt and fruit
tea, is worth $40. Although the latter is more
expansive than the former, it is very helpful in
increasing the values of health and happiness. In
order to make the players familiar with the foods in
different countries, we designed several restaurants
with different menus for people to select, for example,
Spanish paella, Swiss cheese fondue and Italian
pizza.
Figure 4: The 3D model of Hikone’s architecture
In this game, the players can enjoy beautiful
scenery during their trips, and they can also
experience the course that could actually happen in a
self-help trip, for example, taking the subways, eating
foreign foods and staying in 5-star hotels. All these
events are simulated by Flash animation, and the
interaction between players and the system is
achieved by Action Script and PHP. We designed
several lovely cartoon characters and interesting
conversations for entertaining the players. For
example, front desk staff asks the player to show his
ticket and passport, and measures the weight of his
baggage for the check-in (Figure 5). After that, the
player needs to pass through the custom and security
check. He can go to the boarding gate directly, or
spend some time at duty-free store to buy some
souvenirs. After take-off, the player can eat meal,
watch movies, sleep, play video games or read tourist
Figure 6: The animation of dining in the cabinet
As described before, we have embedded real
circumstances in self-help traveling into the events
and rules of this game. The course of these events is
shown by animation, and the interaction between the
player and database is achieved by Action Script and
PHP. Taking the event of eating in a restaurant as an
example, the system has to update the player’s data
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Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
value. What’s worse, if the health value is decreased
to zero, the game is over no matter how much money
and experience value one may have.
When taking a flight, the player has to check in
the flight early enough before the departure time.
Otherwise, he may miss the plane and his trip will be
delayed. In that case, he must re-book a flight and
there is a penalty of paying extra charge imposed.
Basically, time, money and health are the important
factors to win the game or to succeed in the real
world. Hence, the player needs to collect enough
information, make a comprehensive plan, use game
time efficiently to travel more countries and answer
more questions to obtain a high score. In other words,
he needs to manage his time, money and health
efficiently to achieve the goal of winning this game.
Experience is an important index for the ranking
of players in the billiard board. A player will receive
a flag and 100 points of experience value after
visiting a country. Besides, the player will get extra
experience values by visiting scenic spots. The scenic
spots in this game are divided into 3 classes, and their
experience values as defined as: the class-A spot is
worth 100 points, the class-B spot is worth 50 points,
and the class-C spot is worth 10 points. The treasures
found in scenic spots can also increase experience
values. The player can also sell them for money when
needed. The treasures and their equivalent experience
values are listed in Table 1.
(money, health and happiness) after finishing the
meal and paying the bill. The process for the event
and updating data is described as followed:
z The values of money, happiness and health are
retrieved from database by using PHP, and these
parameters are passed to .swf file by Java Script.
z Players order meals by filling in the menu.
z The values of money, happiness and health after
this meal are calculated by Action Script.
z A PHP program called by Action Script is used
to update the values of money, happiness and
health in MySQL database.
4. Defining Game Rules
We designed this game by simulating self-help
traveling in the real world. The goal is to travel
around the world within a fixed period of time while
obtaining the highest score to win this game. The
money, experience and happiness accumulated during
the trips are the major factors for computing the final
score. At the beginning, a player needs to register to
obtain an account, and he will receive $5,000 as
traveling expense for the first trip. He can make a
plan by searching for the information of destination
on the website. The plan includes departure time and
place, arrival time and destination, the way of
traveling, hotels and scenic spots to visit. Before
traveling, the player needs to apply for the passport
and visa, book flights and hotels, and pack his
baggage. The player takes a taxi to the airport, checks
in with his baggage, passes through the custom and
enters the boarding gate. In the cabinet, the player
can eat meals, sleeps, watch movies, play video
games or read tourist information during the flight.
When arriving at the destination, he has to find his
baggage. After checking in the hotel, the player
begins his trip in this country.
During the trip, the player goes to scenic spots
by clicking at the city map. He can visit and explore
at the scenic spots to increase the values of
experience and happiness. The treasures found at
scenic spots can also increase experience value, and
the player can also sell it for money. To support the
function of education in this game, we have designed
the rule that a player must earn money by answering
questions, of which the answers comes from the
tourist information. In addition, we have designed
some questions about the English conversations
frequently used in traveling to enhance the language
ability of players.
To win this game, the player must manage his
money, health and happiness well to obtain a higher
score. For example, he needs to pay attention to his
safety and health during the trips. If the player is too
hungry or too tired, the health value will decrease and
he may get sick. In that case, the player has to see a
doctor, which costs him some money and experience
Table 1：Treasures and their experience values
Treasure
Hiding Place
point
Pharaoh’s mace
Pyramids of Egypt
50
painting of Mona Lisa Louvre Museum
50
clay figures of warriors Chin Tomb
50
torch
Statue of Liberty
40
gold coin
Colosseum in Rome
40
diamond
South Africa
30
beryl
Istanbul
20
ruby
Burma
20
black pearl
Tahiti
10
Visiting scenic spots, reading tourist information
and answering questions are the ways of learning in
this game. Moreover, the scenic plots and animations
provide a lot of traveling experience for players. To
increase the motivation of learning, we designed a lot
of questions related to tourist information. The player
can answer them to earn money for the expense. For
example, “Which country in Asia is called the garden
city? (Singapore)”, “Which museum in Paris collects
the painting of Mona Lisa? (Louvre)”, “Which park
in New Zealand is the major scene for the movie The
Lord of the Ring? (Tongariro National Park)” Players
can earn $100 and 5 points of experience value if
they answer the questions correctly.
To create the feeling of adventure, there are
several events designed in this game to simulate the
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in happiness and health values in return. Seeing a
doctor, the player has to pay some money, but he can
recover his health value to 60%. The calculations of
some parameters in Table 3 are described as
followed:
z Food: The food value is set to 100% after eating
a meal. It is decreased by 10% in each hour until
reaching 0. Although it won’t become negative, a
low food value will affect the health condition.
z Sleep: When sleeping, the sleep value increases
10% in each hour until reaching 100%, and it is
decreased by 6% in each hour when awaking. A
low sleep value can also affect health condition.
z Health: If the value of food or sleep becomes 0,
health value will decrease 2% in each hour. On
the other hands, health value will increase 2% in
each hour if the values of food and sleep are both
more than 80%. The player will get sick if health
value is less than 50%. Then, the player will
receive a message warning him that he is sick.
z Money: The player will receive $5,000 as
traveling expenses after registration, which can
be used to arrange the first trip. The player must
work part-time or answer questions to earn
traveling expenses after arriving destinations.
z Happiness: All nice events increase the value of
happiness, for example, seeing beautiful scenery,
enjoying a hearty dinner, staying at 5-star hotels
and supporting a busker.
z Experience: Players will receive different values
of experience after visiting a scenic spot or a city.
On the other hand, the accidents in the trip may
also decrease the experience value.
unexpected situations occurred in the tours, which are
similar to the “Fate” and “Chance” in “Monopoly”.
For example, seeing a doctor due to the injury when
climbing Columbia Glacier costs $500 and 10% of
health value, winning the first prize when playing
bingo in Las Vegas earns $10,000 and increases 10
points of happiness, and visiting the British Museum
in London increases 50 points of experience value.
We defined some parameters in databases to
store player’s information and current status (as
shown in Table 2 and Table 3). Some parameters can
be used to compute the final scores of the players.
Others are related to the control of game time and
current position of the player. We used Action Scripts
to control the movement of players on the maps and
its synchronization with animation. After logging in,
the player can make a traveling plan, e.g., booking
flights, reserving hotels and applying for visa. He can
continue the tour from last logout time, e.g., taking
taxi to scenic spots, resting in a hotel, eating in a
restaurant or answering questions. Any change of
player’s data will be updated immediately by calling
a PHP program to upload and download the data.
Table 2: Information (storing player’s information)
Parameter
Description
name
login name (primary key)
password
password of player’s account
nick name
player’s nick name
mail
player’s e-mail address
registration
registration date and time
Table 3: Status (storing player’s data)
Parameter
Description
time
accumulated game time
position
player’s current position
hunger
degree of hunger
sleep
degree of sleep
health
health condition
happiness
degree of happiness
money
player’s money
experience
experience value
score
total score
country
countries already visited
city
cities already visited
treasure
treasures found at scenic spots
5. Conclusions
In this paper, we have proposed an interesting
online game called “Traveling around the world in
180 days” to provide people with virtual tours by
traveling through network. Players can enjoy
beautiful scenery and increase their foreign language
ability during the trips. Modern people are usually
very busy, so they may not have time or money to go
aboard for traveling. This game enables players to
start and stop their trips at any time. They can make a
new plan for the next trips or continue the unfinished
trips. They can see popular scenic spots around the
world, and experience different cultures, life styles
and exciting adventures. They can also learn more
knowledge and experiences in traveling, and share
these experiences with others on the Internet.
Education through entertainment has been the
ideal for many educators. We tried to integrate the
knowledge of history, geography and foreign
language with that of traveling such that this game
can help the learning of young people. In order to
improve the player’s motivation in learning, we
designed the game rule of “answering question to
In addition, there are some other tables used in
this game, for example, the tables for booking flights
and reserving hotels, and the table for providing the
information of scenic spots. When designing this
game, it is very important to define a set of
reasonable game rules for which can affect the
interest of players about is game. Also, the
computation of parameters and final score should be
reasonable because they will affect the ranking of
players. For example, having a hearty meal may cost
the player more money, but he can earn some points
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Journal of Information Technology and Applications
Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
earn money”. We also designed the way of
competition such that players must manage their time,
money and health carefully in traveling if they want
to win this game. We believed that players would
realize that these factors are also very important in
the real life. If one can manage them efficiently, he
can also succeed in his life.
Nowadays, many young people lack experiences
of life management. They are not capable of dealing
with difficulties and frustrations. The materials of this
game are mainly from real life, and we designed the
game rules to provide positive inspiration for young
people. It helps players to learn courtesy and decency,
and teaches them to know that being prepared before
action gives them a higher chance to succeed.
Traditional video games often gave people bad
images and brought negative effects to the society.
As a result, most people do not want to get involved
in this business. This is the major reason for the lack
of game designers in Taiwan. In recent years, most
popular online games on the market are from Korea
and Japan. Moreover, the online game market grows
rapidly in Mainland China. Since Taiwanese gaming
companies have more understanding about this
market, the government should set up strategy and
direction for developing domestic gaming industry.
The online game proposed in this paper has the
functions of both education and entertainment. It can
help young people to develop correct worldview and
teach them the experiences of life management.
Playing this game is a lot of fun, especially for those
who like traveling, and it can also be used as an
assistant tool in social science education to enhance
the interest and learning effects of students.
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
download/tdva_930616_2.pdf
Biographies
Wernhuar Tarng is currently
a professor in the Institute of
Computer Science, National
Hsinchu
University
of
Education, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
He received his B.S. degree
from
National
Chiaotung
University, Hsinchu, Taiwan in
1984. He received his M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering
from State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
in 1987 and 1992, respectively. He was a visiting
scholar of Oxford University, UK in 2003. His
research interests include: computer network,
real-time systems, virtual reality and web-based
learning.
Acknowledgement
Lu-I Ke received her B.S and
M.S. degrees from National
Hsinchu
University
of
Education, Hsinchu, Taiwan in
2004 and 2007, respectively.
She was a pre-service teacher at
Min-Fu Elementary School,
Hsinchu, Taiwan in 2005. Since
August 2007, she became an
engineer in Vanguard International Semiconductor
Corporation, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
References
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Shi, Z. M., 1996, “The travelers’ manual for
safe outdoors activities,” Taipei: Tourism
Bureau.
Bureau of Consular, “The safety guide for
traveling abroad”: http://www.boca.gov.tw/
Lin, H. T., “The boundary and current status of
digital content industry”: http://www.tdva.org.tw/
[10] Gamania Digital Entertainment Ltd.: http://ww
w.gamania.com/home/index.asp
[11] Tainan National University of the Art: http://
dacenter.tnca.edu.tw/business/07.htm
[12] Softstar Entertainment Inc.:http://www.joypark.
com.tw/HOME/Index.asp
[13] Acer Game Zone: http://www.acergame.com.
tw/
[14] Rich Man: http://rich.joypark.com.tw/
The authors would like to thank for the financial
support of Best Wise International Computing Co.,
Ltd. and the National Science Council of Taiwan
under the contract NSC 94-2524-S-134 –003.
[1]
Flying Web, To know about self-traveling:
http://www.flying.com.tw/travel/know/know1.htm
Tang, C. H., 1993, “Travelers manual around
the world,” Taipei: Jin-Xiu Publisher.
Luo, C. N., 1999, “Studying the influence of
two-day-off in a week on people’s traveling
activities,” Taipei: Ministry of Transportation
and Communications.
Tourism Bureau, 2005, “The report of a
workshop for developing tourism,” Taipei:
Ministry
of
Transportation
and
Communications.
Yu, C. V., 2004, “A travel guide for self-help
travelers,” Taipei: Easy Doctor Publisher.
Gu, H. R., 2001, “Planning a few steps before
self-help traveling,” Taipei: ET News,
http://www.ettoday.com/2001/08/08/153-544529.htm
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Journal of Information Technology and Applications
Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 51-59, 2007
Chen-Kai Shiu is a graduate
student of the Institute of
Computer Science, National
Hsinchu
University
of
Education, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
His current research interests
include network administration
and the application of virtual
reality in education.
Yu-Si Lin is a graduate student
of the Institute of Computer
Science, National Hsinchu
University
of
Education,
Hsinchu, Taiwan. He also works
part-time as an engineer for a
L7-network company. He is an
instructor of MBT (Mind
Building Training) program. His
research interests include network administration,
web-based education and virtual reality technologies.
Wen-Shin Tsai was graduated
from the Department of Social
Science Education, National
Hualien
University
of
Education, Hualien, Taiwan in
2006. She is currently a
graduate student of the Institute
of Computer Science, National
Hsinchu
University
of
Education, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
59