Advergames
And what they have to say to
developers of educational
games
NMC Online Educational Games Conference December 2005
Kim Gregson, Stephanie Belsky, Michael Potter - Ithaca College
If you call it a game, then it better be
…. Fun, challenging, well-made
“Boring”, “No Levels”, “Not Fun”,
“Same thing over and over”
Play the game: http://www.mikeshardlemonade.com/splash.html
“Hard to follow instructions”,
“Frustrating”, “Limited gameplay”
Play the game: http://www.jackdaniels.com/bartender.asp
“Instructions too difficult”, “Takes too
long to set up before playing”
“Fun”, “Keep playing to improve
score”, “Easy to play”
Play the game:
http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Games/game.aspx?gameid=10013
40% got 1 or none of the trivia questions
right, less than 2% get all trivia right
Nostalgia, matching = good
Lack of challenge, black & white = bad
Conclusions
Students have high expectations for
games - even students who don’t
play frequently
Students concentrate on the games
themselves - not on areas around
the game