Little Big Planet

I'm one of those parents of young gamers who is always on the lookout for something remotely edifying video games. If an article suggests that the hours your child spends in the "flow" will help him become brighter and more successful, I'll read it. (I know, I know. It's such an unplayful attitude). And as I've mentioned before I'm jealous of video game designers who can capture the minds of young learners. For those reasons it should be no surprise that I'm drawn to Katrin Becker's examination of commercial video games in the "Pedagogy in Commercial Video Games" chapter of Games and Simulations in Online Learning. Rather than simply dismiss video games as violent, mindless trash, she looks at video games through the learns of popular learning theories and styles.

Intrigued by Becker's approach, I applied Gagne's Nine Events to one of my son's favorite games, "Little Big Planet" and recorded some of my notes. I chose LBP from his ever-growing collection rather than something more violent like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for a couple of reasons: 1) It has a sense of humor 2) The plot doesn't turn on the extermination of an evil, alien race, 3) Luc laughs a lot when he plays it and 4) The music is cool.

Gaining Attention: The game opens with a video involving a wonderful mix of animation and live action shots of people dreaming. We're told that LBP by a narrator with a wonderful British accent that the game has been built from the imaginations of people. The video seemed to promise creative play in a whimsical world which was very appealing. And, as I mentioned, a whimsical tune seems to just float through the air.

Informing Learners of the Objective: The playful tone was carried into the introduction in which the objectives of the game were laid out and tutorials on basic navigation skills were offered. Basically, we are expected to make our way through different cartoon-like worlds governed by a host of unique laws while acquiring nifty stickers and costumes along the way. What I liked about the introduction was that rather than offer a boring list of objectives, we actually learned the objectives through beginning the play immediately. For example, we'd travel down a path and then pause to watch a short video of how to use the controller to move around.

Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning (Retrieval): After discouraging my son from barking out orders to me on what to do, I had amploe opportunity practice the skills I had learned (such as jumping and running at the same time). On different levels I was asked to do slightly different things and even add a few skills along the way (like taking a picture of my son and myself). By activating a "pop-it" box I was able to do things like add stickers to objects (which is actually super fun). Hint bubbles were available just in time to remind me how to do things like apply the sticker.

Presenting the Stimulus (Selective Perception): What drove me forward through the different levels was a desire to make it through to the end of each journey acquiring as points as possible while having as much fun as possible, jumping, falling, and dressing up my rag doll body with all kinds of costumes. My son, the experienced player, also enjoys begin able to create his own levels for other players to enjoy by publishing them online.

Providing Learning Guidance (Semantic Encoding): Just as the opening "tutorial" was embedded within the game itself, all guides and hints seemed very organic to the game. When I needed to know how to activate something in my pop-it box, a hint would appear just in time. What I find particularly interesting, however, is how social the game can be when played collaboratively. When my son plays with his friends, their "tutorials" consist of shout outs to each other, "What the crap? Why aren't you doing this? DO THIS NOW!!! Want me to show you how to do this?" And if his buddies were online, I'm sure the same kind of peer to peer learning would be going on virtually.

Eliciting Performance (Responding): As Becker indicates, interactivity is one of the hallmarks of a video game. Without it, there is no game. Even when not playing collaboratively, players feel as if the world around them is alive. Every cause has an effect. If I can't jump far enough, I fall into nasty water and have to find my way out. What I find great about LBP was that there was always a safety net. If I got stuck, I was shown right away how to escape and get a second chance.

Providing feedback (Reinforcement): In LBP the player can clearly see when they reach the end of a level, how many points they've accumulated and how many objects they've acquired. In the online version players are encouraged to offer their feedback on levels created by other players.

Assessing Performance: Along with a running score visible at the end of each level, LBP keeps a tab of all the levels that have been completed. Making it through every level certainly drove my son and I did have to hear more than one complaint when I shut the game down without him having saved and the game recording his accomplishments for the day.

Enhancing Retention and Transfer (Generalization): In the world of the game itself, it's clear that the more tricks the player learns in LBP, the more fun he has on each level and the more creativity he shows when creating his own levels. But on a more general level, I can see that what I've learned about navigation and game play will probably help me when I try out other games.

Honestly, I think I could die happy if I could build a game for my company that met each of Gagne's requirements as effectively as LBP. i'd also be much happier if all the games Luc enjoyed were as imaginative and joyful as LBP. Maybe I could get him to try out Flower?