MMORPG

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Draft

Definition

  • The global internal economy of these worlds is now bigger than the ones of small third world states.

Implementation

  • Some games use augmented technology (mixed reality or mobile technology, i.e. are integrated in real world space

Popular environments

Multi purpose habitats

Some people may argue that these systems are not just games (i.e. they are virtual habitats). That is true, but they do contain games or "gaming" features.

Games

(there are many others !)

MMOPRGs in education ?

There is some potential in using its technology. Examples:

  • Implementation of "virtual universities" (digitalize existing practice of lecture halls, libraries, meeting rooms). There have been several attemps, but none really successful.
  • Environments for first and second language learning
  • Various gaming and simulation worlds, e.g. in business, economy, sociology and history
  • Modeling and microworld environments for science phenomena (e.g. physics and biology)
  • Habitats for non-informal collaboration (e.g. as an alternative to instant messaging)

Hung et al. (2009) [1] studied motivational factors in educational MMORPG. The conclude that “four factors motivated students to play the game provided, and allow extension to other educational MMORPGs: achievement (desire for competition with a standard of excellence), social (collaboration with others and building social networks), immersion, and the completeness of instructional mechanisms.” According to the authors, research also suggest that MMORPGs could develop various higher-order thinking skills, such as creativity, problem solving, communication skills, and meta-cognition: “Beedle and Wright (2007) indicate that playing MMORPGs can inspire creativity, motivation, problem solving skills, and communi-cation skills [6]. Dickey (2007) also argues that playing MMORPGs can foster learn-ing while requiring players to think, plan, and act critically and strategically [7]. He further indicated that different types of quests in MMORPGs could facilitate different knowledge domains (e.g. declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, strategic knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge).”

Suh et al. (2010) [2] investigated the effectiveness of MMORPG)‐based instruction in elementary English education compared to more traditional classroom education. 118 students of a treatment group were taught with an English MMORPG, and 102 students in a equivalent control group were taught in a face-to-face classroom using multimedia courseware and a textbook. “Univariate ANOVA results [..] show that for the post-test the differences in the mean scores between groups were significant in all the subcategories of listening, reading and writing, but not speaking. The statistical evidence indicates that the MMORPG group (treatment group) outperformed the traditional class- room group (control group) in the post-test.”

In addition to a "MMORPG" effect, the authors tested a modle with nine independant variables: gender, prior knowledge, motivation for learning, self-directed learning skill, computer skill, game skill , computer capacity, networkspeed , and computer accessibility. “A survey and five tests (i.e. English learning achievement test, motivation test, self-directed skill test, computer use ability test, and game skill test) were conducted to compare students’ achievement.” (p. 375). The overall model of nine variables predicted 47% of the variance in English learning achievement, in particular prior knowledge, motivation for learning, and network speed had significant effects. This means that a well designed environment must take into account speed and that the motivational impact of playing a MMORP also could play a role.

Earlier studies using rather text-based environments such as MOOs came to similar conclusions with respect to language learning. E.g. Lee et al. (2005) [3], in a pilot study,

Examples

Software

Free Multi-user game engines

We don't know if there exist any specific operational systems that one could use to create educational many-user games.

Lists
Multiverse
WorldForge

Virtual environments

Since 3D interactive environments are scriptable to some extent, they also could be used to implement games. This page lists some technologies.

See also MUDs, an older, but functional text-based technology.

Links

References

Cited with footnotes

Beedle, J.B., Wright, V.H.: Games and Simulation in Online Learning: Perspectives from Multiplayer Video Games, ch. 7. Idea Group Inc., NY (2007)

Childress M.D. & Braswell R. (2006) Using massively multi-player online role-playing games for online learning. Distance Education 27, 187–196.

Dickey, M.D.: Game Design and Learning: A Conjectural Analysis of How Massvely Multiple Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) Foster Intrinsic Motivation. Educational Technology Research and Development, 253–273 (2007)

Lee M., Eustace K., Fellows G., Bytheway A. & Irving L. (2005) Rochester Castle MMORPG: instructional gaming and collaborative learning at a Western Australian school. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 21, 446–469.

Lee J. & Hoadley C. (2006) Online identity as a leverage point for learning in massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPGs). In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Advance Learning Technologies (ICALT). Kerkrade, The Netherlands.

Riegle, R.P., Matejka, W.A. (2006) The Learning Guild: MMORPGs as Educational Environments. In: 22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

Other

  1. ↑ Hung KH., Kinzer C., Chen CL.A. (2009) Motivational Factors in Educational MMORPGs: Some Implications for Education. In: Pan Z., Cheok A.D., Müller W., Chang M. (eds) Transactions on Edutainment III. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5940. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
  2. ↑ Suh, S., Kim, S. W., & Kim, N. J. (2010). Effectiveness of MMORPG-based instruction in elementary English education in Korea. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(5), 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00353.x
  3. ↑ Lee, M. J. W., Eustace, K., Fellows, G., Bytheway, A., & Irving, L. (2005). Rochester Castle MMORPG: Instructional gaming and collaborative learning at a Western Australian school. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 21(4). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1314
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