Fix 14

Massively Multiplayer Foresight

1. Describe your personal growth in the areas listed below as a result of playing Settlers.

1. Taking a long view – My personal growth with taking a long view in Settlers is the ability to be patient with tasks taking long that it seems it would.  Also having to many different tasks or quests at one time makes it feel like you have too much to do in one day.  It sees in my experience that you’re either doing a lot at once or waiting for things to get done. 
2. Ecosystems thinking – It does seem that in Settlers, you’re in your own world or ecosystem.  I’m my experience with playing the game; you play with the players that are in your guild. Talk among each other or about the game and our real lives.  Most of the conversations are about the game and things we need or questions we may have.  The game does get you focused on the quests that are needed to be accomplished. 
3. Pilot experimentation - In my experience with Settlers, I designed my settlement the Way I thought it should have been.  But as time went on, I noticed by looking at other settler’s settlements that I should have organized it a little better.  Also, some of my guild members mentioned that I needed to move something’s around to produce things faster.  I did take their suggestions and moved some ting around my settlement.  I also trial and error the best ways to produce more materials that I tend to use more of.  I had to decide whether upgrading was the best or building more of them.  The whole Settlers game was a piloted experience for me.  I don’t usually play these kinds of games.  I learned that I like them as times but then they frustrate me when I don’t have the right tools or materials in order to move on.  Also the time it takes at times frustrated me. 
4. McGonigal (2011) states together, we can tackle what may be the most worthwhile, most epic obstacle of all: a whole-planetary mission, to use games to raise global quality of life, to prepare ourselves for the future, and to sustain our earth for the next millennium and beyond (p. 344).
1. In what ways could these skills be beneficial to any individual? 
1. These skills are beneficial in order to understand the game, accomplish the quests and grow as an individual.  In order to understand the game, you have to look at the long view of the quests and the have piloted experiences.  To complete the quests, you need to experiments and think about the ecosystem to get things done efficiently.  Lastly, all these skills help you grow as an individual in the game. 
2. How could you take this kind of gaming experience and skill learning into an educational context and use it to empower learners?  Be creative in your answer!  This kind of gaming experience and skills learning can be used in education content and to empower learners by one being more patient.  I’m pretty patient, since I teach Kindergarten but this is a different kind of patient.  I would use this experience to empower learners are by teaching them the experiences I have learned.  I will take my experience of building the skills to complete the quests to my students by showing them that they have to build their skills to complete the things they want to accomplish.  For example, they have to know their letters sounds before being able to read word or sound out unfamiliar words.  Same goes with Math, they have to understand their numbers before they can think about completing addition and subtraction problems.  Also, I plan to take the games that I have found for my students to show them the things they can learn by playing games on the computer. 
3. Summarize the three most memorable concepts from McGonigal's book that you learned or could relate to while playing Settlers.

My three most memorable concepts from McGonigal would be failure, social connectivity and leveling up in life. 

McGonigal (2011) says that failure in the real world is not fun, but failure in the gaming world has no risks and a better chance for success (p. 68).   Which in the Settlers game, you learn that it is okay to fail at a quest and to seek help from others in the game.  It’s less intimidating to ask questions online versus asking for help in real life. 

McGonigal (2011) also states that games build stronger social bonds and leads to stronger social networks (p. 82).  In the Settlers game, you learn to build relationships with other member or join a guild.  Joining a guild requires you complete separate quests from the ones that games has for you to level up.  It has become useful in needing more materials or tools to get the things you need to do. 

Lastly, McGonigal (2011) says that compared with games, reality is pointless and unrewarding.  Games help us feel more rewarded for making our best effort (p. 148).  The settler’s game gives you the sense of accomplishment when a quest is complete and when all your quests are complete to level up.