Tertiary Motion: Chrysanthemum by Dan McAlister from Carleton CAMS on Vimeo.

MDA Format

Today is a 2-for-1 special!

I’m going to quickly outline the format I will use to analyze games as well as give you my first game analysis.

MDA Analysis is an analysis first proposed by Marc LeBlanc. I learned about it from the excellent podcast Games with Garfield.  I really like the method because I think it utilizes three different perspectives in which it does its analysis.  It looks at the game from the Designer’s perspective, the Player’s perspective, and a third “bird’s-eye” perspective which views the entire arch from mechanics to view.  I also think it’s important because it emphasizes the key element of game design that separates it from other medium.  By looking at it from this linear analysis we can see the way that mechanics ultimately result in the aesthetics of the game play.  In my opinion it’s …

Is it possible for games to educate people?  Should we be teaching kids by playing more games?

I’m not going to get into the dynamics of what’s wrong with education in the United States.  I’m more curious about if and how it’s possible to get games to teach people about life, history, the universe, and everything. (Note: I am in fact being facetious)

First I’d like to note what I think is the wrong way.  Games that make the learning the obvious point of the game are just doing it the wrong way.  They are neither teaching kids that effectively or being that fun, so they really don’t accomplish any of their goals.

I still think the main objectives that games should try to accomplish is to be fun and challenging.  The problem with creating an “educational” game is that games are bad …