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[MikeLeeSon]

Hey Everyone,

I'm working on developing an educational gaming software that I'm calling The Garden Online (TGO), and I'm looking for some criticism/suggestions on how to make this thing work. The idea behind the game is to strive for a traditional MMORPG feel, but include a heavy emphasis on education. One difference, though, is that I'm replacing the traditional crafting class with a professional "job" class where players still craft, but they're producing essays and written works instead of armor and weapons.

Like the primary class (ranger, paladin, etc), the crafting class (blacksmith, armor crafter, etc) increases in level based on XP, but this is also the primary method of earning money within the game. Professional job (crafting) class are required to go on quests, complete tasks, and kill mobs just like the primary class, buta player must level both classes simultaneously (this ensures that students actually go through the educational portion of the game). The professional job's quests and tasks increase in writing skill complexity as they increase in level - basically beginning with sentence structure and, as students level up their professional job (crafting class), they move on to more complex writing tasks (essay structure, persuasion, etc). Put simply, they would choose a battle class (I.e. a ranger), pick a sub-class that comes in the form of a professional job (I.e. a journalist), and are then required to level up both simultaneously in order to progress. The professional job would still have quests specific to the particular job, as well.

Thoughts?

I've included links to all of my websites as well. Those might help to give a better of idea of what I'm working on. Keep in mind the purpose of this game is to be used in my high school English Language Arts classroom, and then to be used as a study to look at the effects of multiplayer gaming on classroom education.

Thanks for any critiques!

Official Website: http://www.TheGardenOnline.net
Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbgaming/928651358?token=977e93d9
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/tgoeducation
Twitter Page: http://www.twitter.com/tgoeducation

[QCPolmer]

Thoughts?

A: I think your kickstarter link on this page is broken (the one on your site works. )

B: I recall this one guy did something like this that had a large focus on writing. http://www.destructoid.com/should-games-replace-text-books--251189.phtml I think he discusses it at 0:47:00 - ish. Might be something to look into.

C: Isn't $11,200 a little low for a multiple person team?

D: I'm a little skeptical of the concept of making a special game to teach students rather than, say, making a game that the average person would want to play anyway that just happened to contain a system that people could use in the real world. I mean poker and black jack are little but simple math and risk assessment.

Good luck.

[MikeLeeSon]

Thanks for the heads-up! I changed the link - it should work now.

This is really great info. I'm going to check up on the link you posted right now. Thanks!

As for the 11k, I'm really trying to make this a bare-minimum funding in order to help the chances of success. Most of the people I work with have stakes in the project, so they've agreed to work with the funding that we agreed on. We're all gamers, teachers, and students of gaming studies, so we all have our own goals, and the funding is really a bare-necessity type thing.

I suppose this is also the reason why we're not targeting more of an audience than high school teachers and students. I'm a teacher and the sole purpose of this is to help improve education in the classroom. Video game studies have been around for a long time, and nearly every article continues a perpetual call for educational gaming that feels more like a "real" video game and less like an attempt to focus solely on teaching content. Granted, that's what we're focusing on - teaching content - but we hope to do so with an entertaining and "real" video game feel. Like you said, blackjack and poker do this, and rarely does anyone ever think to themselves "awesome! I'm learning math skills!" That's exactly the trend we want to follow, so I think you're spot-on with your reference.

I think we will extend this to a more general audience-focused game when the time is right, but right now, we're just trying to help high school students get prepared for the Common Core State Standards. Once we have evidence that this will work, we will expand our horizons.

Like I said, thanks a lot for your input. I really appreciate any criticisms - good or bad - that you might have.

[MikeLeeSon]

Just an update:

The Kickstarter campaign has gone live since my last post on this thread - in case anyone is interested :-)

Kickstarter Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbgaming/the-garden-online-educational-gaming-for-the-class