"Just In Time" Learning

Throughout playing my game this week, I was able to find the concepts of "Just In Time" learning in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. "Just In Time" learning is the idea that you are not taught specific skills or facts until just before you will need them. This is one way to keep learning active. In playing my game, I have noticed that tutorials that teach you specific skills come just before you will need them to solve a puzzle or use in a battle. I find this idea of "Just In Time" learning very helpful and rewarding because I am not bombarded with numerous amounts of facts and information at once and then need to remember them to use later. Instead right after I learn a new move or new skill, I am immediately able to practice that skill and put it into effect. I believe that this is an important concept found in many games that differentiate learning from games from learning in a classroom setting.

Mario or Bowser?

Now that I am beginning to get the hang of the game and advance to higher levels, I have started to be able to transition more between playing as Mario and Luigi and playing as Bowser. In order to move along in the game you have to switch back and forth between the two, each time assuming their identity fully and utilizing their special attacks and skills. I believe that throughout swtiching back and forth between these characters I have begun to learn some things about myself and the identities I am taking on while playing the game. Before starting this game, I had played a few other Mario Bros. games. In all of these that I had played Bowser was the portrayed as the bad guy and the story line ultimately involved defeating bowser in the end. However, for Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story they give the traditional games a twist. Now you are playing as both Mario and Luigi and Bowser, working towards the same goals of saving Mushroom Kingdom. As I play as Boswer more, my feelings and preconceptions about him as a bad guy are starting to be lost as I need to assume his new identity in order to move forward in the game.

Gee Principle

As I have continued to play Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, I have found myself noticing the presence of many of the principles that James Paul Gee talks about in his book What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy. Through my playing of the game this week I have really come to find the ideas of the "Psychosocial Moratorium" Principle. Gee describes this principle as learners being able to take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered. There were several times in throughout my playing in which I decided to shut down my game without saving. I had taken risks since my last save point that I had not liked the outcome of, so by restarting the game I could return to my last save point and not felt any of the effects of the risk I had taken. I believe this is very important principle to learning in video games and how it differs from learning in school. In school people are raised to value success and not take risks if they could lead to failure. In video games however, options such as restarting to return to the last save point allow people to take risks they would normally not take in an environment such as school. By taking these risks you can explore various outcomes and learn from your mistakes.

Motivation

One aspect of motivation that I have found throughout playing Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is the idea of the "Gap Theory" of curiosity. At the beginning of the game, a story line is developed. In this particular game, a disease called the blorbs has infected many of the people in Toad Kingdom. In order to get to the bottom of what/who was causing the sickness a meeting was held at Princess Peach's castle. In the end Mario and Luigi were chosen to investigate/solve the case. The creation of this storyline really brings the player into the game and fills them in on all of the background information they need to know before they start playing the game. This storyline also creates a gap in the players knowledge. I found myself wondering and asking myself questions what/who was causing the spread of the blorbs, how would we go about solving these problems, and wondering what was in store for the rest of the game. This tension and gap in my knowledge has caused me to feel a sense of motivation to find the answers to these questions and more. The game also did a very good job when setting up the storyline and beginning training levels to find a nice medium in between giving the player too much information (where they would be bored) and giving the player not enough information (where they would find it too challenging to continue playing). I think these are key concepts in how this game and other video games connect with the players and keep them coming back to play more.
Another concept of motivation that this game has is flow. By creating this idea of keeping the player in flow, the game captures my full attention and allows me to enjoy the game in its entirety. At the beginning of the game I was taught a few basic skills through tutorials on the early levels. As soon as I had mastered these basic skills, right when I was beginning to feel very comfortable with them, I entered new levels that created new challenges. Through these new challenges I was able to learn more and master more skills. Once again right as I was getting very comfortable with these new skills I was given new challenges again. It is this cycle that kept me in a state of flow and continuously felt a sense of intrinsic motivation to play the game. Through this concept of flow that the game created, I never have felt bored with the game or too challenged to not continue playing.

Finally, I have also experienced the idea of autonomy that I believe has added to my motivation to play the game. There are many points in the game where I am given choices on what to do. This allows me to feel a sense of control and the ability to decide my own destiny. For example, every time that Mario, Luigi, or Bowser gain enough points to level up, I am given a choice of which of several categories to add a certain number of points too. Where I add the points effects things such as their health, power, defense, etc. which all can affect later stages of the game.

My Game Choice

The game I chose to play this semester for EDUC: 222 Video Games and Learning is Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS. There are many reasons that led me to choose this game. First, I decided that I would choose a genre of video games that I am not as familiar with as others. In the past, I have usually found myself more interested in the puzzle and strategy type games rather than the action and role-playing games (RPG). I thought that this would be a great opportunity to leave the zone of the games I am comfortable and experienced at playing and choose a game that is a bit different than what I am used to. After narrowing down the category, I did some research and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story seemed to catch my eye. Reading numerous online reviews and talking with friends who had played the game before assured me that I had made a good choice on a game to play.

In playing this game, I hope to learn many things. I believe that one learning principle that I will find embedded in this particular video game is the idea of becoming another person and and bringing out your personal values and goals through your character in the game. I believe that this game is good for teaching about identity because during the game you can change from being Mario & Luigi to being the traditional "bad guy" Boswer. I think that it will be interesting to see how I react to playing as the different characters, throughout the game.