Mission US - Mission 2: "Flight to Freedom"
General information:
In Mission 2: "Flight to Freedom," a player takes on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky, navigating her escape and journey to Ohio.
In this section, I'll use elements of flow, based on Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory, to analyze this game.
- Task that the learners can complete - YES:
- The overall game itself was structured such that you knew from the beginning of play how many sections were involved in the game (Prologue, Parts 1-5, and Epilogue). This game did a very good job of explaining steps to allow you to knowledgeably play (not just click buttons until something happened) without going into too many details and making me lose interest (I don't want to have to work too hard to get into FLOW). I was never stuck wondering what I was supposed to do next.
- Ability to concentrate on task - YES:
- The simplicity of the graphics and sound (great voice-overs and music) interested me from the beginning (and I've never been big on RPG or Strategy games). Because of the ease of moving around the screen and the fact there wasn't a time limit, I found myself wandering around each screen before making choices, just to see what was there. Each object I chose to learn more about made me feel more involved in the game and wanting to find out more!
- Task has clear goals - YES:
- As you move through play, Lucy is given "tasks" to perform. There "tasks" are actually separated on the screen by "Community tasks" and "Plantation tasks" and show up as a ghosted color (needing to be completed). If you hover your mouse over a task, you see what that task is (again, everything was super self-explanatory and it made performing the tasks easier). When a task was completed, it changed color (lit up more so). I liked this organization of the tasks - could be part of my personality too that I liked being able to "check" things off my list!
- As I mentioned in the description of game play above, Lucy earns journey badges based on decisions she makes along her way. These badges are ultimately used in the epilogue of her story. She also collects items that are stored in her Pack (the biggest thing I saw used here was food she had collected that supplemented her when she escaped).
- Task provides immediate feedback - YES:
- For example, I had a task to take care of the chickens. When in the coop, I had choices as to how I was going to accomplish this task, as shown in the figure below.
- I chose to "waste time" and play with some of my favorite hens while I was in there. After selecting this option, I got immediate feedback from that decision, seen in the figure below:
- Deep but effortless involvement - SOMEWHAT:
- This game was created to teach and so, while the "world" isn't what we currently live in, this era is part of history, Still, the structure of the game allowed for deep but effortless involvement.
- Exercising a sense of control over their actions - SOMEWHAT:
- You had control over the decisions you made from a predetermined set of choices. Since it's a game structured on history, the path that you take depending on your choices can start to narrow due to being structured around that particular time period. You quickly learned that complete disobedience did not get you far in anyone's book during this time (the Plantation owner or fellow slaves).
- Concern for self disappears during flow - SOMEWHAT:
- This game is a role playing game yet is structured on real life time periods in history. I found I was making decisions based on my concern for my character (as myself) and those she cared about. That being said, it was still just a game and the consequences realized in the game did not become my reality.
- Sense of duration of time is altered - YES:
- Some parts of the game took place over a single day, others had a year or more advance in between scenes/parts. I did find myself becoming caught up in the story and lost track of time as to how long I'd played the game.
I also got quite involved in the game—sometimes taking what seemed like ages exploring each screen just to see what was there! I'm glad that time wasn't a factor in making choices because the game was so immersive—if a time limit on choices had been imposed, I might have been too distracted to complete quests on time or I would not have accessed much of the detail that made the game so immersive in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBecause I didn't play Mission 2—only Mission 1—I enjoyed reading your analysis because it gave me detail about “the other half” that I didn't play. I think it was a good idea on the parts of the developers to make this mission focused around a slave and the choices she has to make to survive and escape from her situation. The lessons learned from “complete disobedience” as you have said make for a great discussion point with students after playing the game. In our age, we're taught that rebellion is acceptable, often a good thing, so for them to experience frustrations with this concept in a historical context would really give them something to think about.
You say that choices were "narrow". I found them very appropriate and following a few "personality types" that the player could choose for Lucy. I felt, also, that as I made one type of choice and received feedback from the game, that it "encouraged" me to make better choices than just acting first (the confrontational personality I mentioned in my post). The rewards like earning literacy badges that were so helpful later in the game also encouraged this path, but options were very open to players. I'm actually going to play the game again more confrontational just to see what might happen.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked that there was no time limit on things; I felt that was another strength for my ELLs - they can spend as much time with vocab, dialogue, or the environment as they need for understanding.
I chose the same game as you and agree with your analysis. I didn't think about how the sense of control was determined by the time period, but that completely makes sense. I thought the player had complete control but obviously there are limits.
ReplyDeleteFunny how you goofed around intentionally in some of your tasks, because I was scared to make the slave master angry and be sold. I should have played a second time and been more exploratory.