Game it - Week 8.0

In this segment of Netnarr we are being asked to think about games. Here is a short reflection on two of my fave games at the moment.

Mahjong - the board game
This is nothing like the 'match the pair' version that is popular on computers. The goal of the game is to be able to make a certain pattern of the tiles (like cards) in a throw out/pick up routine. I like the routine and process of this game which starts with shuffling the tiles, building a wall, throwing dice to determine East wind etc. While the challenge is to complete your own set of tiles, there is an added challenge of guessing what your oponents want (or discard). What I personnally get out of it is relaxation (providing I'm not trying to teach someone the game!), memory of the hands and the connection with the other 3 players.

Sudoku
Goal - to fill in all the boxes....according to the rules. It's a solo challenge and the satisfaction is finishing it. It's annoying to share with anyone else because they might see a bit that I missed. I know there is computer equivalent but I like the old paper and pen version. What I personally get out of it is relaxation, non-screen time, mono-tasking and the ah-ha moment when it is completed.

The start of my story....
My father had one of the first Mac's around. I can't remember what the game was called but I totally remember what it looks like. Black screen, white space ship down the bottom, shooting white bullets at things. Going down a rabbit hole of mac places now....

Oh cool, there is even a Mac Software Vintage [online] Museum

Oh no, there is over 50 pages of games too look through in the Macintosh Garden

I'm back....climbed out of the rabbit hole and realised that it doesn't really matter what the game was. It was a shoot and sink kind of thing. My brother would play it for hours (and hours and hours) and I could never get my name on the Top Ten list. Well, he was 10 years older than me! But there was only the 2 of us playing (no networking).

This affected my interest in computer games. I still don't see much point in the find and shoot dead, kind of games. As my son grows older I am coming back to this gaming concept and always join in his conversation about Minecraft and Robloxs and what he is doing in that space.

Playing Little Alchemy:
I like the visual nature of this. However, I don't have any goal...it's just playing around to see what sort of combinations. I like the hint page and then get frustrated because I see something really cool but don't have the base elements. I think my son would like this and learn from the pop-up explanations of what happens when items are combined.

Checklist non-game
For me, the Week 8 checklist 'game' totally fails. There are no boxes to check! I saw 3 dot points and too many words, so I stopped reading. The expectations I have of a checklist game is a) something you have to tick off b) some sort of visual feedback that you have done that c)  a reward? Like more diamonds in my #netnarr treasure chest?

Creating games for learning

In the open Netnarr project of #MediaJumping, I've been investigating the site H5P which allows you to select templates and create interesting objects. The example below, called The Broken Key is not really a game but more of an interactive (hide and seek) learning piece.