Gaming Literacy

Gaming Literacy

Game:  From Shockwave – Super Text Twist

1. What gaming elements provide users the learning content and how?

• Text:  In game playing, students need to be able to read text in different formats such in dialog boxes, story narratives, in conversation with other players, or in the understanding of the rules.  Students will need to identify the main themes and respond accordingly in the playing of the game for meaningful play to occur.  In Text Twist the text is found in written rules and students need to rearrange 6 letters to create words consisting of three to six letters. 
• Visual-graphic elements:  Students will need to identify and detect the visual elements in a game in order to better understand the perspectives from which they are playing or interacting with the various players, for example first person versus second person perspectives.  The graphics are rather simple in Text Twist, just a series of boxes to help the viewer identify where to shift the letter tiles to and from to create the words.  In addition a time clock is running which adds to the level of excitement in trying to achieve as many new words as possible. 
• Audio elements:  The audio elements add another layer of information in the gaming experience whether it is through realistic depictions of a scene which will help inform the viewer about the settings or through chatting capabilities that provide an interactive component to the gaming experience.  The audio elements are what I consider a duck like sound to indicate when a word has been successfully created.  

2. What is the goal of the game?

The goal of Text Twist is to rearrange six letters to make as many words as possible in a two-minute period of time.  If you successfully complete each round (make the six letter word) you move onto another round to accumulate points. 

3. What are rules of playing this game?

You can only make words found in a dictionary.

There is a two-minute time limit during each round.

Newly created words have to be between three and six letters long.

You have to drag the tiles into the appropriate boxes in order to indicate that you are creating a new word and have to click submit.

Points accumulate through rounds by the number of words you create as well as the number of letters used.

4. Does this game have any scenario design? (Refer to the journal article page 5.) If yes, is this a fabricated or embedded in curriculum-related content?

This game has no embedded scenario design.  It is similar to other puzzle games like Tetris where strategy and reasoning help to achieve the intended goal.  For example, automatically making a six-letter word will grant you access to the next round and you don’t have to make any of the smaller words.