My current favorite TV shows (with spoilers)

It's that time of year when folks are posting their top 10 lists. I've never posted one and I don't intend to start now, but I do want to take part in the conversation by adding my fall favorites. 1. Homeland - It's true that there were moments this season where I was pulled out from the narrative and said, "Hmmm.....that's just too convenient." But because I am a fan of emotional truth in my fiction, those moments didn't factor into my decision. Homeland was my favorite series of the year. I don't think any show made me more tense and Claire Danes is crazy smart which is always an winning combination. And my favorite moment was realizing that the truth about Brody was going to come out in the middle of the season. 2. Sons of Anarchy - How horrific was it when Otto bit his tongue in two? Or when Tig's daughter was torched? Or when the Opie was beaten to death? How awful was it to see Jax turn into his stepfather rather than his father? And that last shot where Lady Macbeth reigns supreme? I don't know if it was because of those moments or in spite of them that I found this season to be the best yet. 3. Nashville - I knew if Connie Britton were attached to a series, it would be a good one and I haven't been disappointed. What surprised me is that it's not the acting that has entertained me the most about the series. It's the music. And I'm not even a country music fan. 4. American Horror - I've always loved horror, but horror is not why I've been enjoying American Horror so much. What I find so entertaining is how over the top, the show is. Serial killers. Check. Aliens. Check. Bad Santas. Check. Demonic Possession. Check. You name the trope. Ryan Murphy has is covered. My favorite moment was when they even brought a Bad Seed in. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in which takes the series into metahorror territory. 5. Parenthood - Even the trailers, make me tear up. I love this show in the way I used to love Thirty Something. As mentioned above, I'm a fan of emotional truth and Parenthood has that in spades. And adding Ray Romano? I do love Jason Ritter, but I'm okay sacrificing him now that Men of a Certain Age has been cancelled.

When the Fat Fireman Sings

At the risk of sounding pathetic, I care about my TV friends. If a well-crafted show engages me, then I will make sure to watch each and every episode even if it means eating dinner in front of the HD hearth and risking irreparable damage to the family unit. If a show is cancelled too soon, I feel a sense of loss and even betrayal. (Yes. The men were of a certain age, but they were not ready to give up the ghost). But if it ends when it's supposed to with dignity and grace then I'm satisfied. If a show sustains my interest for seven years and I stick with it through ups and downs, I trust that the creators of the fictional world will respect the rules on which that world has been built when writing the last season and crafting the finale. As sad as I am that I won't be able to listen to the guys bust each others' chops around the table anymore, I am as pleased as punch that Rescue Me left me holding back tears caused as much by sadness as laughter.

Rescue Me has always felt as if it belonged in the same absurd universe as that inhabited by the Coen Brothers. There's something incredibly life affirming about texts that find the humor in the human condition. The darker such texts get, the louder the laughter. I don't think I've had as many gut-wrenching laughs as I have had in Rescue Me or Coen brothers movies. If the creators of Rescue Me chose to kill Tommy or the entire house as they teased, I would have been deeply disappointed. I expected Rescue Me to find a way for me to laugh at how tragic our lives can be and it did.

The pitfalls of immortality

I just watched a trailer for In Time starring Justin Timberlake and it set into relief for an anxiety that seems to be coursing through texts these days: A fear of living forever. Torchwood: Miracle Day is exploring it at length by giving us a world where everyone has become immortal but the body hurts and ages nonetheless. That means if you get cancer you'll have to live with the pain for centuries. The theory explored by the Torchwood gang is that BigPharma is behind the miracle. They have somehow initiated the change so that there pain relievers will become a huge money maker.

So many relevant questions are raised by Torchwood's (and I'm guessing In Time's)premise. Simple but powerful questions: How do you become a caretaker? How do you manage pain? Do the rich deserve to live longer because they have been lucky enough to either inherit or make money? At what point is life not worth living?

If I were writing a paper,I'd probably bring in our fascination with vampires, but I'll save that for another time.

Insidious

I have a high tolerance for bad horror movies so my expectations weren't all great for Insidious. In fact, after suffering through an incoherent The Rite last week, my expectations were probably lower than normal. But even if my expectations had been higher, I think I still would have been satisfied with the unholy union of the Saw and Paranormal Activity creators. The movie was creepy. There was not a trace of torture porn. The twist to the haunting wasn't nearly as cool as The Others, but it was clever. The acting was more than adequate, especially Rose Byrne. There was just enough of the satanic in it to be compelling for a lapsed Catholic. It even presented "Tip Toe through the Tulips" as a demonic ballad. How could I not like it? But, best of all, it nods to my favorite subgenre, metahorror.

If I were writing a paper on it, I would focus on the ghostbusting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who, for me, seemed to represent to the two creative forces behind the movie. They lightened the mood just enough and reminded me as a viewer how creepy it is for me to enjoy horror.

P.S. They're cancelling Men of a Certain Age? Isn't TNT supposed to save shows (i.e. Southland) not end them? It breaks my heart to know I'll never hang out in the diner with those three especially after such a perfectly balanced finale. Alas. I wonder what the campaign to get them would require?

Summer TV

USA has done a marvelous job at creating a TV brand perfect for summer. For most of the year, we tend towards the dark--crime thrillers, post-apocalyptic sci fi, black comedies. Most recently I'd add rainy as well as we faithfully followed The Killing. But since dog days have finally kicked in here in the great white North, we've turned our attention to the bright, blue charm of the USA network. When I gave the boys a choice between Alphas and Burn Notice. It was Burn Notice. When I offered Torchwood, they chose White Collar. And I couldn't argue with them because I too am seduced by the uber-charming USA gentlemen.

Of course, we haven't shaken our taste for the dark. Falling Skies is watched religiously in the household as will Rescue Me. And when September comes around, we'll be viewing Miami through a lens much darker than that of Burn Notice.

Treme

I'm watching the season finale of Treme and savoring every minute of it. Ladonna has tapped into her rage and pulled herself out of her personal hell. Janette has been given the chance to open another restaurant in New Orleans. Wendell has found a way to fuse old-time New Orleans music with modern jazz and rebuild his father's pride and home. Even the seemingly not-so-happy endings of Antoine's band and Davis' role in his band are so beautifully crafted they give me pleasure. How could I not beam when I saw Antoine lead his high school bound in performance on a city corner during Jazz Fest?

There's so much to love about the show. . . the acting, the devotion to the music,food and people of New Orleans. But I think what I enjoy almost as much as the music is the slow burn of the show's pacing. It's as if the characters and the plot meander but always with purpose. When random acts of violence occur, they are as shocking as they ought to be. I can't wait to find out if the show captures the mood of New Orleans as effectively as it seems to.

A taste for viral plagues

Somewhere under "Preferences" in my Netflix profile is the entry: Customer enjoys watching movies about viral plagues. Given our rather dark taste in films, I can only imagine what else is on the list.

I suspect the reason for the profile update lies in my decision to view "Black Death." Contrary to the apparent suspicion of Netflix, however, I didn't choose it because of the plague theme. It was the opportunity to see a greasy-haired Sean Bean wielding a sword and wearing a chain mail. (What am I going to do next year when Game of Thrones returns without him?)

Just as the name implies, the movie is set in England during the plague years, but it is definitely not written from the same script as Monty Python used. Darker than dark, it follows the Bishop's envoy who is intent on ridding a village of its satanic protector. When Luc asked if there would really be any monsters in the movie, I assured him that terrified people were monstrous enough and I was right.

Although the movie was dark, by the end you couldn't help but feel optimistic about the fate of humankind. Sure there is plenty of violence and despair. People still commit unspeakable acts. But in the majority of countries, we certainly aren't burning healers as witches, watching half our family die and hearing "Bring out your dead."

Mad Men or X Men?

I guess what it takes for me to enjoy an X Men movie is the superimposition of Mad Men over it. Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis with January Jones playing yet another gorgeous ice queen (dressed like Betty in Rome), I couldn't help but seen Jon Hamm/Don Draper in Michael Fassbender's depiction of an angst-ridden Eric/Magneto.

Even without the Mad Men resemblance, I still would have loved the movie. With it's groovy 60s setting, wonderful characters, great acting, fun references to history, and clever foreshadowing of the X-Men mythology, it's an origin story that outshines any of the earlier movies.

Like Thor (another comic book movie that I enjoyed this summer), X Men: First Class focuses on the relationship between two brothers who choose to channel their anger and talents in different ways. Thanks to the work of Fassbender and McAvoy, you leave feeling as if you understand their rivalry. I also left the movie wanting to pick up the comic books just because I wanted to know what happened next in spite of the fact that I know the comic book would offer me nothing like the movie and I do know what happens next. That's certainly never happened before.

I guess I'll just have to settle for Mad Men in the spring.

Guilty Pleasure?

Chris and I both watch trash TV, but our taste is very different. While he can watch Dolph Lundgren dolled up as a post-apocalyptic warrior in the same straight-to-dvd flick for the 40th time, I'll actually DVR soap operas. And typically I don't feel a need to justify my choices. I just don't feel guilty over my TV pleasures. But I've got to say that I'm finding it hard to justify my DVR'ing of the Real Housewives of NYC these days. Although I found most housewives in other zip codes to awful to watch, I've been able to watch NYC because the women seemed to lead fairly interesting lives. Yeah, watching them promote themselves is annoying, but I could at least understand why they were trying to brand themselves. But things have just gotten ugly this season.

Not only have the women lost any self-awareness, but the show's editors seem to enjoy casting them in as negative as light as possible. Each show my jaw just drops when I hear Kelly babbling inanities under the pretense of offering advice or listen to LuAnn hold forth on appropriate behavior. I shake my head when Alex stumbles into yet another socially awkward situation or Sonya reveals way too much without panties.

Why am I still watching? Especially since I don't have anyone to gossip about them with anymore? Is it schadenfreude? Am I tapping into a fascination for train wrecks? When all is said and done, I'm probably still watching it because they're in NYC after all and everything just seems a little more glamorous when wearing Manolo Blahniks.

Hearing the Voice and Feeling the Dance

While feeling warm and fuzzy listening to Blake gush over Dia Frampton during the finale of The Voice, I realized that I did in fact like the show. And I liked it because of the apparent emotional connections forged between the coaches and their wanna-be stars. I recognized the blatant manipulation on the part of the show's creators, but watching others be nurtured is just so darn enjoyable.

Although the dancers in So You Think You Can Dance aren't assigned coaches, they are guided each week by choreographers. Magic really does happen when the choreographer is inspired by her dancers and the dancers are pushed by the choreographer. Last night I felt that ever so pleasurable tug on my heart watching Mark and Melanie make that magic happen through Napolean and Tabitha's movement.

Feeling awake

After writing about my discomfort with Jonathan Franzen's books, I happened to hear a remark by David Lipsky when being interviewed about time spent with David Foster Wallace. Referring to a comment in an article, Lipsky talked about how "awake" he felt after reading Wallace. Unlike more entertaining fare, Wallace's writings require work to grasp, but the fact that Lipsky felt smarter after reading Wallace made him feel the effort was worthwhile.

Hearing the comment made me wonder if part of the anxiety I feel when reading Franzen comes out of that feeling of wakefulness. Certainly that's not the case when I slip into Jack Reacher's world. Page turners pull me into a dream world that separates me from any real concerns I may have.

I guess after The Corrections must come Wallace's Infinite Jest, that is unless I get my hands on George Martin's A Song of Fire series before then. No matter how much I value being feeling awake, I'm a sucker for warrior women who choose baby dragons as a fashion accessory.

Jack Reacher invites Jonathan Franzen to dinner

After finishing Lee Child's Worth Dying For, I picked up The Corrections. It's hard to believe that both books can inhabit the same bookstore let alone end up as best sellers. Needless to say, reading the two is a very different experience. When I read a Reacher novel, I'm asking myself: Who is this man? Did Dexter have another brother? (Prompted by my husband) Doesn't he ever change his underwear? In spite of the impossibility of Reacher and the mind-numbing amount of violence, I typically can't put the books down. I have to find out how Reacher is going to extricate himself from yet another hellish situation.

When I visit Franzen's fictional worlds, I also feel as if I'm visiting some kind of hell but for a very a very different reason. Whereas Reacher is someone who I've never known and will never know, I feel uncomfortably close to Franzen's characters. They all seem to intersect my own world in odd ways. In fact, I hate to say it but I often see myself in all their self-loathing glory whether it's the nice, liberal couple in St. Paul or the professor who hopes to teach his students how to read all the texts produced by corporate America.

The Corrections will certainly take me longer to finish than Worth Dying For and it's not because of it complexity. It's because I can only take the character's self loathing (and by extension my own self loathing) in limited doses.

During my current break, I'm just imagining how Jack Reacher would handle Christmas in St. Jude with the Lamberts. A conversation between Chip and Jack would be priceless.

Show about those old guys

A few weeks ago my son saw Ray Romano on The Office and asked, "Isn't he on that show about those old guys?" It took me a minute to realize that he was talking about Men of a Certain Age. The delay in catching his drift was due to a couple of reasons. First and foremost, people in their 40s and 50s do not seem old to someone closer to 50 than 40. Second, Men of a Certain Age is about so much more than three old guys. Watching the season premiere last night reminded of all the reasons why it's on my list of favorites.

Among my favorite moments in the season premiere: 1) Seeing Joe in the opening scene hungrier for conversation with his buddies than he was for breakfast. 2) Seeing Joe finally satisfy that hunger in the closing scene 3) Noting how hopeful the 2 toothbrushes positioned in the same water glass was for Terry 4) Learning his "girlfriend" was also struck by how meaningful those toothbrushes were 5) Learning that Owen wouldn't give up the dealership and 6) Seeing that the connection between Joe's bookie and the stripper really was there.

I can't wait to see what the season has in store for the old guys.

If I had a daughter

In today's NYT Week in Review, Frank Rich locates the reasons for the box-office success of the Coen brothers' True Grit in the audience's nostalgia for a time when black and white hats could be easily distinguished from one another and the Law prevails. He sees the western as an antidote to the murky gray of the less commercially successful Social Network whose technologically gray landscape he likens to the pre-civilized Wild West.

Rich offers a fairly standard reading of the western and I won't argue against it. However, it doesn't account for the pleasure I took in TG. In fact, it wasn't until after I saw the movie Winter's Bone and finished the novel Anthropology of an American Girl a few days later that I realized why I so thoroughly enjoyed both movies. At the heart of each are fierce, smart, and resourceful young woman who embark on quests through lawless worlds in an attempt to restore order. Unlike the more conventional narrative thread of Anthropology and so many other texts for and about teenage girls, TG and WB tell coming-of-age stories for girls that do not hinge on the girls' sexuality. Mattie and Ree certainly endure much during their brutal journeys. Both girls see and experience violence that I wouldn't wish on any teenage girl or boy, but for me the fact that their pain wasn't based in a vicious rape or a broken heart made the stories more powerful for me. I found it inspiring to watch the two gritty girls overcome obstacles that didn't originate in their sexuality. As happy as I am parenting my almost 11 yr old son, I regretted not having a teenage daughter by my side while watching both movies.

If I had a daughter, we could admire the determination of Mattie and Ree to do what they thought was right. In watching the two fatherless girls saddled with passive, helpless mothers remain constant in their respective quests for justice, I'd want her to realize that she was blessed with an inner strength that didn't require the passionate embrace of a sparkly blood sucker to activate. She would see the loss that comes in giving up childish things and assuming her place in an adult world with all its violence and pain, but that loss wouldn't be sexualized. I'll need to think more about why this difference matters to me but it does. All I know is that I can't wait for Katniss Everdeen to make her way to the silver screen.

The Repulsive Fly in Red Shoes

It's approaching midnight and I am being kept awake by visions of Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis dancing in my head. I can't remember the last time that I had such a visceral reaction to a movie. Perhaps it's because I spent just enough time worrying that I could never dance as well as the bunheads who had spent years in a studio. Maybe it's because I've thrilled to watch the scale dip below 100. Or it could stem from the years I spent writing about femmes fatales in graduate school. But, whatever the reason, I felt every torn cuticle, every bloody scratch, every thrust of the nail file, every kiss, every disappointment, and every thrill that Nina experienced. Repulsed, fascinated, and excited, I couldn't keep my eyes on or take my eyes off of Nina while she disintegrated on screen.

It should come as no surprise that I'd be entranced by ballet noir. I had been anticipating the movie for months. But what did surprise me about my reaction to the movie is what went through my mind during her final breakdown(or should I say triumph?) Like any normal audience member, my stomach dropped when she fell on her ass during the opening pas de deux and I was even more shocked when she attacked her doppelganger. However, when she dragged her bloody doppelganger into the bathroom and tapped into her inner black swan, my heart soared. I thought to myself, You go evil femme fatale and dance that fallen ass off. I thrilled to see her embody the black swan. I loved it when she pulled the ballet director into a steamy kiss. And as she fell to her death in the finale, I realized that at the moment I firmly believed that such a moment of sublimity is worth the price.

Why should such a cautious woman as myself think such a thing?

In the Field

The successful sale and onboarding of a new client to a payroll management company requires teamwork between the Sales and Operations(i.e., Enrollment, Implementation, Client Services) teams. On the Sales side, sales representatives build relationships with bankers who then refer potential customers to them. The sales representative works with customers to find solutions that meets their payroll needs. Once a sale has been made, the sales representative works with the customer to complete a complicated packet of documents called an enrollment kit. On the Operations side, the Enrollment team ensures that the packet is complete. If anything is “pending,” they working with both Sales and the customer until the kit is complete. Implementation works with the customer until their first payroll has been processed at which point Client Services assumes responsibility for the ongoing management of the customers’ payrolls.

Because Sales and Operations are charged with managing different parts of the customer experience, their priorities can diverge causing misunderstandings between team members. Although both teams understand that the customers’ needs are the top priority, their measures for success and the nature of their work environments are very different. Sales representatives work independently. Their compensation depends on whether they make a sale. Simply put, “You sell, you stay. You don’t sell, you go.”

In contrast, Operations work in a highly structured environment where they are expected to satisfy the client while respecting fairly rigid payroll procedures. Their performance, including any interactions with clients, is closely monitored. Their success criteria are more complex than that of the sales representative.

The differences in the day-to-day lives of Sales and Operations team members can create a gulf between the two teams. When a relationship with a customer is damaged, fingers often get pointed across the divide. Building trust between Sales and Operations will help bridge the gap between the two teams. The closer the two teams become, the higher the likelihood that the customer will have a smooth and pleasant experience with the company.

The HIVE (Highly Interactive Virtually Environment) “In the Field” is designed the help reduce misunderstandings between Sales and Operations by building awareness in Operations of the challenges and motivations faced by Sales on the job. The HIVE is not aimed to teach a team member how to be a sales representative. No explicit technical knowledge is required to complete the tasks. Rather, the HIVE is designed to bring the Operations team member “into the field” so that they can experience the frustrations and satisfactions of a sales representative.

The players’ success in the HIVE will be measured in the same way that the success of Sales is measured: Making the sale. If they can build a relationship with the banker, convince the customer of the value of the payroll product, and manage the customer through the enrollment kit process, they will succeed. These three key points in the sales process will be marked in the HIVE by a specific interaction. If the player fails to successfully navigate their way through each interaction, they will lose the game.

The first version of “In the Field” will be treated as a prototype. If the players react favorably to the game in an online survey, I will include more sophisticated visuals, interactions and reward mechanisms (e.g, different levels of increasing difficulty, a more sophisticated scoring mechanism). Future iterations of the HIVE will include, “In the Call Center” aimed at Sales Rep and a more immersive version of “In the Field” designed to simulate the sales process for new members of the Sales team.

See Storyboard DRAFT HERE.

Bank Rush

Industry Masters offers single-user and real-time, multiplayer simulations developed by Industry Masters for use by business schools, business competitions and corporate events. The multiplayer simulations allow you to run your own business and measure its success against the businesses of your competitors from all over the world. The single-user games such as Bank Rush, Mastering the Credit Crisis and Rescue Detroit (aimed at the automotive industry) are also grounded in real global economic conditions.

Although my knowledge of business principles is limited and my interest minimal, I decided to test myself by playing Bank Rush. Watching the computer-generated narration of the introductory video, I learned that the mission was to manage a bank through the financial crisis that began in 2007. I was given a brief overview of the trends and regulatory decisions which affect a bank’s direction. Each month I was made aware of the current state of financial affairs and then expected to base my decisions about things such as raising or lowering interest rates. My success was measured against other players’ performance.

As a part of a blended solution, I think that Bank Rush would certainly help business students learn to apply principles they’ve reviewed in lecture. The games themselves seem quite relevant and the videos do bring the descriptions of scenarios to life in a way that a written description wouldn’t. As a standalone game, I think that players without the support of an online or real classroom community might get overwhelmed by the abundance of information and the limited guidance offered.

What struck me while playing Bank Rush was whether it’s be possible for a game to engage a player in a topic that isn’t inherently engaging for them to begin with. Can superior game elements outweigh the inherent dullness of subject matter? If Bank Rush, for example, added more of a narrative to the game, would I have found it more compelling?

The goal I'm setting for myself in the development of games designed to educate on the payroll industry is to use narrative to draw someone into the game who isn't interested in payroll to begin with. We'll see how it goes.

WolfQuest

Wolfquest is an immersive downloadable game developed by the Minnesota Zoo to "change players' attitudes towards wolves and habitat conservation in the real world by creating a strong emotional connection between players and wolves. " In addition to the game and a community forum, there is a section of the website devoted to wolf education, including classroom activities, videos Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the first release of the game, Amethyst Mountain was in 2007 and the next release, Slough Creek, is slated for the end of 2009.

The game has both single and multiplayer modes. In each, the player assumes the form of a wolf avatar, selects its most important traits, and travels through the mountains of Colorado in search of a mate. Along the way, he or she (depending on what the player chooses) howls, runs, jumps and bites while encountering elk, coyotes, hares and even grizzly bars. The wolf can howl, run, jump, and eat. Short, written guidelines are offered when needed (e.g., Notifying you that you're in another wolf's territory) and a help function is always available charting the different keyboard functions. Additionally, in the multiplayer online mode, the player can chat with other players using a specific wolf lexicon of 5,000 words and also work together in a pack to take down an elk.

Clark Aldrich discusses game elements as "techniques that motivate people to want to engage an experience, outside of any intrinsic motivation." And WolfQuest has those elements in abundance. The mountain landscape is beautiful and the soundtrack by Tim Buzza is haunting and beautiful. I honestly enjoyed the experience of running through fields as a wolf with the forest surrounding me. I was a half hour into the game before I realized how much time had passed and began wondering why I couldn't find a mate. I started to feel a bit insecure about what I thought was quite a lovely pelt.

I think the game succeeds in its mission of encouraging the identification of players with wolves. Rather than anthropomorphize the wolves as a novel inevitably would (If anyone has read the Warriors series or Watership Down, you'll know what I mean), the player does, I think, get a sense of what it might be like to run wild and free through the forest driven by very basic needs. It also I'm not sure how many players it's attracted as a standalone game. As lovely as it is, it doesn't have the high production values and more complex narratives of games like World of Warcraft. Luc definitely thinks its cool, but he'd rather play Assassin's Creed (which by the way he claims has taught him about the Knights Templar and all kind of other religions). Nevertheless, I think it would make an excellent component of a Science class and really help engage students in the study of conservation issues.

The next release, Slough Creek, looks even more engaging in that you not only assume the form of a wolf but you also have a litter of pups that you must fend for. I can't wait to see how Luc handles a family of his own.

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?

Colon-ization: The Legacy of Time Spent in the Academy

After writing my last blogs, I realized that my years as a graduate student has left me dependent on colons. I can't resist them. Why did this happen? Is it that I can participate in a discussion I initiate? Pose and answer a question? Is it because I can tease out irony in a topic? I guess you can take the woman out of the Humanities, but you can't take the Humanities out of the woman.