Video Game Awesomeness Post 2

The sentence that flew out of my mouth after the twelfth time I died playing Call of Duty 3  was WOW, can I please go back to the days of Nintendo 64! To my expense, Call of Duty was my next single and multiplayer game pic. To play Call of Duty you have to use every single button and joy stick on the controller at all times. Needless to say there was a lot of discover learning going on the first seven minutes. I went into the game this time without any instructions on which button caused what action and the game was pretty overwhelming the first four times I died. The hardest part for me was having to do multiple things at once. For instance, using the left joy stick to walk while using the right one to move my vision from up and down, and from left to right. For me moving the right joy stick would work the opposite way I naturally assumed it would. If I moved the stick up my soldier would look down, and if I moved the stick down my soldier would look up! This was so frustrating and would be the main cause of my death almost every time. I did start to get the basics down after a while, but I never made it down the street without dying. I am also not positive if the people I shot at, or killed were actually on my side or not... 

Call of Duty is super intense because there are so many stimulants going on in the game that it made me a little bit frazzled. You really have to focus on your goal, which for me was crouching down, moving forward, moving my head side to side, and sort of aimlessly firing my gun. I was really proud of myself when I could run from one car to another firing my gun, and then getting low and popping back up to fire it again! Unfortunately though the more I played sometimes I would do worse than the time before. It was fun for a little bit trying to figure out how the game worked, but once I just kept failing over and over again without making a difference in the game I threw in the towel. I understand that the only way to continue to get better at this game was to fail, but there was not enough positive reinforcement to keep going. It just got really old really quick. I learned to play the game by discover learning, acceptance of failure to improve, and the cognitive process of filtering and integrating information very quickly. 

When I played the game with others I just felt even more lost. They kept trying to help me, and some times I would get excited when I did something minuscule, but I mostly felt discouraged because I was not able to help with the mission. I learned to play the game by discover learning, acceptance of failure to improve, and the cognitive process of filtering and integrating information very quickly. Playing the game with others also showed me strategy, teamwork, and communities of practice. To accomplish a mission there needs to be somewhat of a leader to strategize the next move, or to voice when to attack. Without the help of your teammates you have a much higher chance of dying, especially if you are new to the game, which brings me to communities of practice. Everyone learns new maneuvers, or strategic methods from the other players. Some have more skills than others and the passion that comes through in wanting to be successful at the game gets the players to work together.

Lastly the "potty" game I played and am now semi addicted to is Fruit Ninja! It is the most simple game and it entertained me for hours. It had all the correct stimulus motivation with the cool swiping sounds as you splice the fruit in half, to a crazy explosion if you accidentally sliced a bomb open. The  game taught me patience, quickness, and it is definitely strengthening my left hand! It also helps with hand eye coordination and I am determined to beat my high score even if I get frustrated! I get so excited when I think I am doing well its comical, but the game motivates me to keep going, which is what gamification is all about!