Overall Reflection

I have had a great time playing this game for the last several months. Although I have not beaten the game yet, I am very close and will continue to keep playing until doing so. With more free time coming up, I think that I will be able to finish it pretty quickly. Through playing this game I have been able to discover the many principles in both learning and motivation that games such as this offer. It has changed my perspective on how useful video games can be to the learning process and how beneficial they could be to incorporate into education. Overall, I have had a fun and educational experience.

What have I really learned?

After playing this game for several months, I decided to go back and reevaluate what I have actually learned through my game-play experience. After playing Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, I do not believe that this game involves great learning in the area of core educational subjects such as math, science, etc. however I don't think that this game was really designed with the intentions of doing so. One exception to this is that I do believe for the younger age groups that play this game, there is valuable learning that can take place involving reading. Because this game is a story mode based rpg game, there are many conversations and scenes that take place that introduce and develop the storyline which all involve quite a bit of reading. I think that younger children could increase there reading abilities through games such as this one.

For the older audience of this game however, including myself, I believe the learning and educational content lie elsewhere. I think that the main learning for this age group comes from the experiences the game provides for evaluating and relating to your identity. This game involves you taking on the role of Mario and Luigi, and Bowser, the traditional villain in the Mario & Luigi series. It is interesting to compare how you relate to each of these characters, and take on their identities based on your relationship. Also, I believe that throughout the game, as your identity, and the identity of the characters develops, the way you play each of these characters and relate to them may change.

Incremental Principle

This week , I have discovered another one of Gee's principles that is very evident in my game, the Incremental Principle. This principal involves the idea that learning in the game is ordered in a specific way so that things you learn early on can be generalized and can eventually help you in later more complex situations. I find these ideas present in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Throughout my playing, I have found that I need things that I learned in the very basics in the beginning later in the game. At later times, I must take these basic skills I had learned and adjust them and build on them in order to be successful at later more challenging tasks.

My View on Cheating

There are numerous ways that someone can define the word cheating, especially in relation to video games. Throughout my experience of playing Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story over the past few months I have come to a better idea on what cheating is in my mind. For example, for my game there are numerous sources both in print and online that contain step by step walkthroughs on how to play the game. Although I have not used any of them yet, I feel that it would be okay to use them if I was in a position where I was stuck and could not move on in the game unless I used the walkthrough. I think it is okay to use the walkthrough at this point because without it I might not continue with the game at all. This is an interesting way in which cheating such as through using a walkthrough can actually be beneficial to a game or a players experience with that game. Another method of cheating is cheat codes. From my perspective, I think that it is only okay to use these once one has already beaten the game once. This is also somewhat beneficial because it adds to the replay value of the game and helps to create new experiences from which the player could learn on.

Transfer Principle

Throughout playing my game this week, I have really picked up on the idea of James Gee's Transfer Principle in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. James Gee's Transfer Principle states that "learners are given ample opportunity to practice, and support for, transferring what they have learned earlier to later problems, including problems that require adapting and transforming that earlier learning". I have seen examples of this repeatedly throughout my time spent playing this game. One example is the way in which I battle enemies. In early levels of the game you are taught to fight certain enemies with simple and basic moves. Once a couple levels have passed, these enemies you have become used to fighting no longer exist, and in their place are new enemies with higher difficulty. Every time I encounter a new enemy I find myself thinking about the ways I have succeeded in fighting previous enemies, and analyze and apply these methods to the new enemy. This is an example of the Transfer Principle because I am applying my previous knowledge and adapting and transforming it to conquer new situations and problems.

Tough Battle

This week during my game play I found myself struggling at a particular battle. In order to move on in the game I needed to beat the enemy and succeed in this battle. I tried many times, using different techniques each time, and with each new attempt I got closer and closer to winning. This shows that each time I retried the battle I was learning from my previous mistakes and correcting them in order to improve my techniques the next time. Also, something internally was motivating me to, even though I had failed several times, continue to go back to the same battle and try again, until I finally succeeded.

Customizable Experience

I think one reason that some games are so successful is because they are structured in a way in which the player believes they are in control to some extent of what's happening in the game. In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, one way that the game is able to be customize the player is the way that the character's in the game are rewarded with experience points. In the game, after playing a certain number of battles and earning experience points Mario, Luigi, and Bowser will advance one level. When they advance a level, each of their subcategories of points, such as health, defense, power, special, etc. are given additional points. Next the player is allowed to chose one category to add additional points to, and a random number of additional points is added to that category. Because the player is able to choose which categories to add additional points to every time the character levels up, the characters can become more advanced in certain areas depending on how the player distributes the points. I think this is an important aspect to this game because it really allows the player to feel in control of the game and to stay interested and involved in it.