Games MOOC, Week 2 Wrap-up

Last week was a pretty interesting week in Games MOOC. The main idea behind the week was to try out some new games and explore the game dynamics.  There were a few recommendations, among them RuneScape, a free (or freemium?) online MMORPG.  I thought I would give it the "ol' college try" and try out something new, but RuneScape just was not cooperating with me!  That, plus I was at the Campus Technology conference (see recent blog posts) so I wasn't really able to really try out RuneScape.  Perhaps another time.  One of my main issues with RuneScape was that Java was not cooperating with me (so browser version was a no-go) and the downloaded version had some sort of issue where my mouse needed to be x-many pixels south of where I needed to click in order for the click to register (20-30 pixels it seemed).  This meant that it was a bit frustrating to even start to explore.  Maybe when I get back to it I can use Jing or something to record what's going on and share it.

In lieu of an MMO, I decided to finish up L.A. Noire (read all about it here) and to try some new game after that.  I did try to go with the "epic" theme and tried Oblivion, a game I borrowed from a friend of mine.  I have to say that after that first quest (and 80 gamer points) I saved and quit.  It wasn't quite what I was expecting (I was expecting a Diablo Style game) and the front facing hack-n-slash (that would take forever to complete) seemed like not a good game to start at the time.  Instead, I tried my hand at Too Human which I quite liked (I am 4.5 hours in thus far).  I don't like Asgardian lore more than Elder Scrolls lore (they are both new to me), so I went with the style of game-play that I wanted to explore a bit more.

Finally, I did a small comparison between Chocolatier (iOS) and Dinner Dash (iOS).  I had played Dinner Dash before, it's a nice game to play when you have a few spare moments, but Chocolatier was new to me. Comparatively speaking, Chocolatier is sort of like a sim-city for the food world.  You have to watch your finances, spend money wisely, travel wisely, procure appropriate raw materials, create new product and sell in appropriate places to maximize profits.  Reminds me a bit of drug wars from back in the day.  Nice game if you are trying to teach management skills to someone young or old.  Dinner dash on the other hand is a bit more "fun" and behaviorist in application.  Tap here, tap here, wait for stimulus, tap here. There isn't much planning involved.  It is fun, but I don't quite see any educational application just yet.

So this was it for Week 2.  Now entering Week 3 - and we are officially half way through the MOOC!


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