January 2008 Archives

Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to attend an ITS Strategic Planning/ Brainstorming Session, which was led by TLT's Senior Director, John Harwood.  In a nutshell, the session was designed to encourage the discussion of some of the challenges facing us as Penn State's central technology unit, and how best to begin finding answers to some of the major questions that are, or will begin haunting educational institutions like ours in the coming years.

Because of the diverse nature of the parties in attendance, the dialogue weaved in and out of various different areas, from practical technology implementation concerns, to adoption, assessment, and a whole lot of other good topics.  But at its core, the discussion always hovered around technology and education.  Not all that surprising, given what we do =)

At one point, a member of the audience spoke up about how 65% of faculty still want overheard projectors in their classrooms. John mentioned that Windows XP would eventually be phased out in favor of Vista.  Those crazy digital native kids with their TV and their cell phones - what can be done to help reach them?  And of course, how can we facilitate a more consistent educational message across 20 campuses and the web.  At some point amidst the sharing of these, and many other ideas, the monkey who turns my brain crank stood up and fired off a giant flare of a question.

Who are we, as educational technology professionals, working for - students or teachers?  Or if you prefer the Austin Powers version, who does number 2 work for?  Smashing baby, yeah!

I raised the question in the meeting, and John responded that he had been asked a similar question recently by a trustee, who noted that the student and the instructor seem to be going in two, very different directions.

In most cases, I think the role of educational support groups such as ours is to aid the people doing the teaching.  The thought being that by combing the subject mater knowledge of instructor with the pedagogical (you have no idea how much I hate that word) expertise of someone like an instructional designer, the student is reached de-facto.  I'm sure thats a gross oversimplification, but its effective enough in practice.

Or at least I thought it was, up until I heard that "65% of faculty want overhead projectors" line. 

Now before I go any further, its important that I state the obvious.  Penn State has a truly world class faculty, and I never cease to be amazed by the forward thinking ideas some of them have on how to improve the quality of education.  But having said that - the overhead projector thing bothers me.  I find myself unable to balance those quaint little 1970s relics on one hand, with an overarching desire to create immersive, collaborative and increasingly web based, asynchronous learning opportunities to appeal to a new generation of student on the other (buzzword bingo hurray!).  Something just doesnt seem to add up.

I whole heartedly admit, its not necessarily a one or another situation.  As I've said in regards to EduGaming, the key with any instructional tool is to find a middle ground that leverages its strengths, while complimenting the weaknesses of other tools.  You want to find a way to deliver a message that your students find interesting, effective, and ultimately memorable.  Sometimes there is no replacement for some good old fashioned Sage on the Stage lecture.  And as Allan and Elizabeth rightly pointed out in the meeting, even seemingly archaic technologies like overhead projects can have their place. 

My problem lies in the fact that 65% is a big percentage (I am, of course, using this 65% number rather liberally without knowing the context with which the data was gathered but thats my prerogative as an opinionated pretend writer).  A lot higher than I would expect if we are, indeed, looking for ways to deliver more engaging content to our students.  And I'm sure that there are a whole slew of reasons why that 65% was 65% - some more pragmatic than others.  But I wonder how many opportunities are being wasted away in an endless stream of transparencies.  Or power points.  Or frantically scribbled, hand written notes.  Yes they work.  But do they work as well as something more immersive could?  Do they engage students as successfully?  Do they entice the new breed of learner the way we want them too?  I can't imagine they do - and its a little unnerving to know that resources need to go toward supporting what might be an overabundance of throwback technology.

And thus I return to the question that is the crux of this post.  When push comes to shove, who are we working for?  Earlier, I mentioned that John had discussed how eventually Windows XP would be phased out in favor of Vista.  I'm sure you thought it was nonsensical babble - but I found it  to be an interesting parallel. XP can be phased out.  And yet the chalkboard cannot be replaced universally by the white board.  Or better yet a digital white board.  Why?

So how does one answer such an enormous question?  One doesnt.  Instead, one comes up with a delicious cop-out, kiss-ass answer and lavishly flings praise on the efforts of one's employer.  Hows that =)

In all seriousness, I don't have anything even approaching an entire answer, but I think that at least part of it might lie in initiatives like Blogs@Penn State and the Digital Commons.  That probably sounds like a shameless plug, but its not, because both services cater to both the instructor and the student.  From the instructor perspective, both are services that are easy to work with, and open doors toward new, more engaging instructional activities, and with the support to back them up.  From the student perspective, these are services that can not only enrich what might otherwise be bland educational projects, but they encourage them to become digital content creators and contribute their voice to the thriving Web 2.0 world.  Both services transcend a single subject, or class, or project.  In all honesty, both transcend formal education and the walls of the classroom itself, and I think that is where the power lies.

So perhaps thats part of the answer to the question "who do we work for".  Both for faculty and students, or maybe its neither.  Maybe we work instead to find tools that either group can use, for both formal and informal education, or perhaps not for education at all.  Maybe our job isnt to have all the answers, but rather to find tools that empower both instructor and student to come up with their own. 

Woe is me, still there are so many loose ends in all of this. How do you continue to encourage instructors to experiment with new technologies?  How much disruptive technology can you incorporate before you've gone too far, and lost the benefits of tried and true methods?  Yikes.  But then I didnt really go into this post thinking I'd be able to answer it all.  Not yet anyway ;-)

I'm not sure where this is profound, obvious, or just straight up nonsense.  But either way I think it might have changed the way I think about what I do, or at least filled my head with a whole lot of things to think about.  Regardless, I've gone and overstimulated myself again.  Time to lie down under my desk and have nightmares about overhead projectors attacking me.
 



Images from webdesign.org and salestores.com

I've never really gotten the whole brevity thing when it comes to personal writing, particularly here in my own little piece of blogosphere.  As part of a personal exercise, I would consider that to be a good thing, though I can only imagine what it must be like to slog through one of my tirades from a reader's perspective ;-)  But if there is a downside (for me) its that lengthy posts are prohibitive as far as the number that can be written in a given time period.  I don't get paid to write and finding a good scribe has become exceedingly difficult since the end of the good ole' middle ages.

The result is that there are a lot of topics, ideas, or general happenings that I don't have time to write about.  Sure it all gets filed away somewhere, but we know how that goes.  And if you saw the number of links in my Del.icio.us library, you'd probably have to use the defibrillator they just installed outside our office.  

So this was a typically long-winded way of saying that I'm going to try something new - a segment I like to call "Almost All Things Considered... But Not Really".  The idea is to blatantly rip off NPR idea for "All Things Considered".  But not really, because I'm not Meeeeeechele Norris and my world revolves around all of about three things =)   Anyway, thats enough blathering.  Lets ride!


NASA Planning an Educational MMO
Hit the jump for the details, but on the surface it looks like an interesting endevour.  NASA's understanding of the potential benefits of an MMO environment for education seem right on, and the basis for the game seems interesting enough.  But I am a bit concerned that an emphasis was not placed on fun.  I know "fun" is probably not the flashiest selling point to educators and non gaming stakeholders - but given what recently transpired with the Shakespearian Educational MMO, Arden, I hope NASA make an earnest effort to learn from the mistakes of others.


Save the Rainforest Flash Game
Though I absolutely hate jumping puzzle game design, Congo Jones and the Loggers of Doom is a nice little example of how flash games can be used to support education.  Its not so educational that it ceases to be a game, but with periodic factoids and level scenarios that support the overall message, there is more to it than just jumping over alligators and chainsaws.  As our own EGC begins to grow, I have a feeling that these are the sorts of games that will gain the most traction - both because of their simple, accessible, casual game play, and their relative ease to design (at least when compared to more complicated gaming engines). 


"We Are Major League Gaming"... and ESPN is Covering Us
As a Gamer AND someone whose TV is perpetually set on ESPN, this should be great news.  But I've never had a particular interest in watching other people play video games, so it doesnt excite me nearly as much as it might seem.  Though professional gaming is an incredibly popular spectator sport in Korea, I question how well it will be received here in the States.  I also can't stop thinking about ESPN 8 - The Ocho.  Regardless, it further reinforces gaming's significance in our society.  ESPN already has an MLG site up and running.


Time-Warner Demoing Pay-Per Use Internet Policy
This could end up warranting a much more in depth discussion should it ever become more than just a trial.  I wonder about the demographic makeup of a group in which 5% of internet users account for 50% of the bandwidth usage.  But a pay per use internet policy could potentially have a negative impact of the up and coming student, what with the prevalence of digital media and all.  Or maybe it just becomes akin to an electric bill and no one really cares. 


They Might Be Giants Doing Educational Podcasts for Kids
At first I was sure this had to be a joke.  But then I remembered that two of They Might Be Giants bigger hits Istanbul and Particle Man, gained a lot of their notoriety from the cartoon Tiny Toons, so I suppose they've always been catering to a younger audience.  And yet I still enjoy their songs today.  I feel like this is a parallel to my post on Lego Star Wars in a way - creating content that both younger and older audiences can embrace together.  Kids like singing songs.  Adults don't like going to work.  Its catchy AND its educational.  What could be better!  I love it.  Are we also seeing a shift from cartoons podcasts when it comes to children's entertainment?  Kudos to Stevie for passing this along. 



So ok, the post didnt actually end up being any shorter.  But it is more digestible (question mark?).  Anyway it makes for a nice chance of pace.  I think I might just have to break this out every once and a while.


Images from wired.com and stupidfresh.com  

One of the side effects of my continuing recovery from the holiday cell phone culture shock is that I've had my ear a little closer to the bluetooth headset pulse of the street when it comes to the happenings in the mobile world.  So imagine my excitement upon reading (care of Bryan Alexander) about the latest move by the big dawg on the CMS block.

Apparently our friends at Blackboard have recently dropped a few coins (ie nearly $200 million) to acquire the NTI group - a private company which specializes in distributing messages to a lot of people via multiple mediums, quickly.  And you better believe that includes SMS/ Text messaging capabilities.  If I hadnt just used the orly bird in my last post, you would be saying a life size one right about here.  So you'll have to settle for the noise I made when I heard the news.  That never gets old =)

Blackboard had my attention years ago, when my sister (a Florida State graduate and former Blackboard user) noticed me using Angel during a holiday break, and politely commented that it was the most awkward thing she'd ever seen.  Their pursuit of a Facebook interface via the Coursefeed app raised my eyebrow higher than The Rock's when they proposed the idea for the Scorpion King 2 <shudder>  But with this news... well...





Yikes!  Well now you know why I type ;-)

All Angel bashing aside, I do give Penn State credit for the implementation of the PSUTXT service, which was created to provide text messaging in the event of an emergency or campus closing.  I think its a great idea, and I applaud the administration for pushing for it, especially in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy last year.

But with the Blackboard press release, the bar has been set even higher.  Why should a text messaging service stop with emergency communication?  Why can't it be used for the full spectrum of educational communication?  Why not offer up a mobile version of the discussion activity? Or create entirely new ways to think and write collaboratively like the twitter fictional writing that Brad had talked about?  Or provide mobile device ready media?  Or design learning experiences around a classroom without walls.  Or a million other potential uses that could emerge with the help a text message supporting CMS. 

I know there are at least a handful of people here at Penn State who are looking into ways to use mobile devices that would blow your mind (including my new office mate, Jason Wolfe).  And like I said, I do commend the PSUTXT effort.  But that doesnt keep me from tossing some serious love to the folks at Blackboard for their efforts to take advantage of everything they can to give education a little giddyup.



Images from movies.yahoo.com and flashtoybox.com

I've never been a huge fan of Scrabble.  I have nothing against the game itself, but tragically, I was born without the ability to spell words correctly (I also dont know no grammar).  The result for a "pre spell check era" Stub was a lot of red ink on elementary school papers and a disturbing number of emotional let downs.  Do you know what its like to nail a triple word score double toe loop, only to find out that "desision" is actually spelled "decision" or some other thing?  And when you combine an inability to spell with a competitive, trash talking personality, playing Scrabble is a delicious recipe for no-bueno sauce.  To this day, I am completely and totally unable to spell "congratulations" without using a "d", and thats just the tip of the iceberg.    

So when Scrabulous (a Facebook version of Scrabble) hit the scene, I decided it would be in my best interest to pass.  I've loaded up the app to see just how it worked, but in the end decided that it was probably for the best that I not go out of my way to humiliate myself.... <thinks about it>.... ok, its probably best if I don't add yet another way to go out of my way to humiliate myself.  Ah, much better =)

But there is no denying that Scrabulous is huge.  Its only been around since about the middle of '06, but with more than half a million daily users, it has long since locked itself in as one of the most popular applications on Facebook (I'd give you the exact numbers, but Facebook seems to be broken at the moment). 

So imagine my surprise when I opened my RSS reader this morning to find that Facebook has been asked to pull Scrabulous down, and that the suits from Mattel and Hasbro (owners of Scrabble) have filed a cease and desist order against the Scrabulous creators.  


To capture my feelings on the subject, please allow me to show you a brief photo montage.  It is also an example of how to splice photos together really poorly in 20 seconds or less.


Yes.  That will do nicely.  

To be fair, I can respect the position of the toy companies.  In the immortal words of Under Armor commercials, you most certainly have the right to "protect this house".  Copyright is copyright and as a business, you have a right to insure that others don't simply steal your ideas or IP and build on it at your expense.  But thats where the sympathy ends.  Because there ways to protect ones livelihood, that don't involve all the tact of an angry, sleep deprived 2 year old.  (Tangentially, I had a lot of fun imagining the board of directors for Mattel and Hasbro reenacting that Under Armor commercial.  Jolly good!)

To my knowledge, there is currently no online Scrabble game which is supported by Mattel/ Hasbro.  Supporting something like this would cost money.  To my knowledge, there is currently no online Scrabble game under development by Mattel/ Hasbro.  Supporting something that that would cost money.

Meanwhile, a third party has come along, created a game which is true to the standards of the original, build an enormous following, exposed Scrabble to an entirely new demographic, re-energized enthusiasm for the brand and potential increased your sales, all at a whopping cost to you of... zero.  

The owners of Scrabble could have worked together with the Scrabulous developers toward a mutually beneficial arrangement - one that would allow Scrabulous to continue their work and Scrabble to reap the many benefits of the wildly popular Facebook version.  But instead of leveraging the entrenched popularity of Scrabulous to their advantage or being open minded toward the potential that could come from withing with, not against, this third party, Mattel and Hasbro have chosen to play by the old rules.  Its ours.  Don't touch it.  Get out.  And in doing so they've shown that they are living in the past and greatly disappointed this Stub.

Regardless of how this situation turns out, I think it makes for a very interesting example of the clash between two extremely different worlds, and has reaffirmed in me an understanding that walled gardens of knowledge are not the answer.  

But then what do I know.   I can't even spell ;-)

 

Images from wow.alakazam.com, and realtshirt.com and wikipedia.com

The majority of this blog has been devoted to more professional topics than personal ones.  But at its core - its a site about the things that are important to me.  And so despite the fact that what I'm about to say has nothing to do with gaming, social networking, education, or any of the things I normally talk about - its a life altering event, and thus well worth a post =)

I've mentioned my girlfriend Jenn in quite a few of my posts, and I am thrilled to announce that as of this past Saturday, we are engaged to be married.  

No official date or location has been set yet, though I'll be sure to toss out some updates as more details reveal themselves.  Who knows, maybe this is just the inspiration I needed to turn this site into more than just a blog.

Many thanks to all of you who have passed on congratulatory wishes =)

As I may have mentioned before, I spent part of the holiday break in Long Island for a family reunion of sorts.  My Grandparents were up from Florida, which is generally an occasion worthy of bringing the family together in and of itself.  It being Christmas time just sealed the deal.

There were quite a few family members present that I hadnt seen in years, including my now 10 year old cousin.  The last time I saw him, he was 4.  He now has a 4 year old brother, which sent me into weird freak out temporal shift mode.  But can you really call it living if you don't experience freak out temporal shift mode at least once a year?

Inevitably, our conversations turned to what he had asked for for Christmas (Santa is a tough sell to plugged in kids).  And much to my elation, two of his most desired gifts were Guitar Hero 3 and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, both for the Wii.  I was jazzed.  But just before I asked him if he wanted me to grab him a beer in preparation for a lengthy discussion, I was reminded of the fact that he was, in fact, still 10.  And I am 25. 

And at that moment I had this image of myself sitting on my couch playing Lego Star Wars while an condescending voice booms the phrase "what are you, like 10?" in a really smarmy tone.  After shedding a single tear, I consume a Fruit Rolllup and drink some Ecto Cooler.  <scene>  

Thankfully, however, my little vision was fleeting, and was quickly replaced with a reality that required less self admonishment.  

Some people might feel slightly awkward if there interests coincided with those of a 10 year old.  Thankfully I'm not one of those people.  Thats the product of being not quite right in the head, but also from the gaming industry building better games.

I think its exciting to see more titles with broad age range appeals - something I mentioned in my Rock Band post.  Don't get me wrong - the majority of my favorite games are either too complicated or just flat out inappropriate for younger audiences, and I think that divide is good.  But its nice that there are more and more gaming options that act like Pixar movies - appropriate for the little ones, with still enough appeal to older people to make them enjoyable.  Lego Star Wars and Guitar Hero are both examples of that.  

But short of looking for ways to justify my youthful spirits, why is this relevant?

I took some time yesterday to read through the "D is for Digital" report by Carly Shuler (pdf), which was recently released at the Consumer Electronics Show.  The report is essentially an overview of digital media as it pertains to young children (pre-teen) and education, but it comes with a few interesting recommendations for educators, regulators, and industry groups.

But there was one recommendation that stuck out to me.  To the quote mobile!

"3. Break the traditional model of one child per screen in children's educational digital media.  The bulk of educational digital media products now on the market assume one child sitting alone in front of a screen: however, better learning takes place when an adult is present to scaffold the child's learning experience.  With product's that encourage group play, notably the Nintendo Wii, now achieving commercial success, this is an opportune time to develop educational digital media products that encourage intergenerational interaction".

I'm reminded of a post that Cole made back in October regarding a Webkinz he had purchased for his daughter.  In his words, "the stuff is so engaging I’ve actually caught another member of my family spending time working puzzles and answering trivia".  Was the goal of the Webkinz designers to appeal to parents?  I'm not sure.  But when you make an activity that creates a multi-general appeal AND provides for learning opportunities, then you've struck edutainment gold.  

Lego Star Wars is probably not what you'd consider educational, other than its problem solving elements.  But its fun for a wide range of people, and if you ask me, thats a pretty good start. Though its no easy task to stack educational elements onto an entertaining game without disrupting the fun for either party, and yet add meaningful learning elements.

I'm almost envisioning a new era of the discussion activity - a fun game that, within the game play experience, raises some sort of thought provoking question which could generate a conversation between a parent and child playing together.  Or perhaps a puzzle game with obstacles intentionally designed to be beyond a child's knowledge, enabling opportunities for parental help and incidental learning.  Or maybe a game that encourages parents and children to collaborate to create some form of digital media...

Its all very nebulous in my head right now, but I'm fascinated by this idea of designing edutainment materials from the perspective of more than one person per screen at a time.   And since it seems that most parents arent playing video games with their kids, there is no time like the present to start thinking about ways to  build games that can be fun, educational, and broadly appealing all in one basket.






Images from wikipedia.com and esrb.org
    


 

In case you've missed my subtle references in previous posts, I was fortunate enough to land myself a copy of Rock Band for Christmas (thanks Mom).  For the uninitiated, Rock Band is a spin off of the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game series, which in addition to allowing you to play the Fisher-Price guitar, adds in a drum and karaoke element as well.  And if you don't know what Guitar Hero is then I'd like you to go sit in a corner and think about your priorities.

Thanks to the wonders of the holiday vacation, I have had an opportunity to spend a gloriously unhealthy amount of time pretending to be a rock star over the past few weeks.  Side effects may include dizziness, irritating your dog, drumming on every available surface, and hearing "My Sharona" everywhere. I think I want to eat a piece of cheeseSharona.  <shudder>

But amid the countless hours of serving up "jamz", there was another, slightly less useless side effect.  I realized that Rock Band (and to a lesser degree Guitar Hero) is very close to being the perfect game.  And not just because it has "Enter Sandman".   Rock Band essential has almost everything you can imagine to make a game appealing to an enormous range of people.  How so?  Lets ride...

Avatars and Personalization
The ability to customize avatars is pretty much universally seen as a win.  Everyone loves personalization, and Rock Band is loaded with it.  From hair, to makeup, to tatoos, and the cloths oh the cloths, Harmonix gives the game a lot of options on ways to put your own personal touch on rocking.

While I've always understood the importance of customization, I think I had downplayed the significance of its impact... that is until I found myself spending 20 minutes one day searching for the perfect pair of pants for my guitarist.  Though can you blame me?  I look pretty friggin' sweet.  Especially the afro =)  During another such moment, Jenn had decided to rock with me, but insisted that I "let her get dressed first" (referring to her own avatar). 

Not only do I think that the character customization helps to support Rock Band's "create your own band" mentality - but I think it also peaks the interest of an entirely new segment of the gaming population that might otherwise have breezed over the game. 

Strong Social Component
Lets be honest with each other.  There arent a whole lot of video games that you could invite friends into your living room (or den, or basement, or cave of infinite glory) to play with you.  Sports games and shooters (an honorable mention to other fighting games) have historically been just about it.  And despite the popularity of games like Madden or Halo, its not a stretch to say that they tend to be polarizing.  Not everyone likes football.  Not everyone likes shooting aliens.  I know, I don't really understand how its possible either, but its true.  The result is that face to face multi player games tend to be niche.  Part of the magic of the new kid on the social gaming block (that being the Nintendo Wii) is that it escapes the status quo.  Everyone, from any age group, gamers and non gamers alike can enjoy a game like WiiSports.  It doesnt offend anyone.  It doesnt turn anyone off.  Its like a teddy bear and a slice of apple pie. 

Rock Band isnt quite as accessible as the Wii, but it shares some of its transcendent properties.  It something everyone can embrace.  And even if you have no interest in participating, being in the room with someone who is means exposing yourself to real music - not gunfire, explosions, or crowd noise.  That makes it easy for people to accept.  Couple that with a well designed learning curve (discussed below) and you've got a recipe for an extremely social game.  Its a game you can play with your significant other.  Its a game you can play at a party.  Its a game you can play at a bar.  You don't have to put the kids to bed before you rock. We all secretly want to be rock stars.  We all also secretly want to embarrass ourselves by trying to sing Bon Jovi tunes in public.  And we can do it with friends and love every minute of it.

If face to face virtual rock glory isnt possible, or if you're one of those people that likes lounging around in your underwear too much to ever leave the house, then I welcome you to the age of the internet.  Rock Band also lets you play with friends online.

And no online component would be complete with a community space to go with it.  Forums, "band" spaces, leader boards, and even personal blogs are all available to help bring the game's community together.  As far as community sites go, Rock Band's is still a bit rudimentary, but regardless it makes for a nice addition, and adds to a gave thats covered nearly all of its bases.  Yet another way to engage current or potential gamers.

Downloadable Content
With the support of MTV, Rock Band had pledged to release new songs for the game roughly every week.  Thus far they've been true to their word, utilizing online services such as Xbox Live and the Playstation Network to serve up about 3 new songs every 7 days.   The downside is that the songs are not free, varying in price from $1-2 a pop, but since they are all optional and available ala carte, there is no obligation to spend any extra money  if you don't want to.  That, however, would be sheer craziness =)

The new content keeps the game fresh and interesting, while continually offering you new incentives to keep playing. 

Both Casual and Hardcore
Some games are made for the hardcore gamer.  These games might have a complex control scheme, take decades to finish, or require large blocks of time to enjoy.  Some games are made for the casual gamer.  These games are inherently more basic than their hardcore comrades - generally boasting simpler controls, simpler gameplay, and requiring less time per sitting to play.  Very rarely do games cross into and succeed in both realms.  But Rock Band does.

You don't have to be a gamer to play Rock Band.   If you've never played before in your life, you can sit down, figure it out, and within a few minutes have the hang of it.  Only have 10 minutes to play?  No problem.  Load it up, crank out 2 songs, and call it a day. 

But you can just as easily spend 4 straight hours Rocking if you are so inclined, though your fingers might not thank you for it.  And jacking up the difficulty means that you can always find a challenge and an opportunity to improve your skills. 

Best of all - these two sides of the coin can exist in perfect harmony, allowing two people to play together at opposite ends of the difficulty spectrum seamlessly.  Both can enjoy the experience at their own pace, and the result is glorious rock.  Not only does this make Rock Band more appealing to a wider range of people, but it also helps to make it a far more social game than most. 

But, if you are a hermit with no internet connection and no friends, you can also play by yourself and have fun too =)


Well Designed Learning Curve
Pretty much every game in the history of mankind works through the progression from easy to hard.  The earlier on the game you are, the more basic the expectations and skills needed to achieve victory.   As time goes on, the expectations advance and the challenges increase in difficulty - building on the foundational skills you've learned early on.  To be fair, this really isnt a gaming principle - its really like Education 101.  There are a lot of reasons for this, some more obvious than others, but it is pretty universally accepted as a method that works.

So it should be no surprise that the new genre of music games follows the formula.  First you learn to play single notes.  Then you learn to play them faster.  Then you learn to add in the double note.  Then the occasional hammer on.  Then you add a new "string".  Then the hammer on double note string.  Then faster.  Then another new "string". Then the triple note hammer on combo.  Then a 12 minute long continuous hammer on string that makes you want to smash the guitar over your coffee table.  Then get groupies and go on tour around the neighborhood.  You get the idea. 

Unlike most games which make this progression process obvious, Rock Band accomplishes it with great subtly.  You don't realize you are getting better.  You don't think about what you just accomplished.  Then you step up the difficulty and realize you're doing just fine.  And before you know it you've beaten the game.  

Its a game that excels at teaching you without teaching you - a lesson that I don't think I was fully conscious of until Derick Burns mentioned it to me, but it represents another one of the reasons that Rock Band (and guitar hero) rocks.

A Little Something For Every Taste
Because Guitar Hero and Rock band are both guitar and rock and roll centric, this point might be a bit deceptive.  You're not going to find any Beethoven or  Kenny G, and the majority of the musical content centers around Classic Rock, modern Alternative, or Heavy Metal.  Having said that, there are a few outliers that help to insure that just about everyone will come across a song they get excited to play.  You can find tracks that range from Death Metal, to Blues, from slightly Country, to the beeps and boops of Electronica, and even a few non English tracks if you're into the European music scene. 

Its probably worth mentioning that Guitar Hero is a bit more diverse in its musical selections, but Rock band is a newer franchise and will likely catch up in time.


Whats Next?
This post has probably come off sounding like the least objective review you've ever read, though it wasnt really my goal.  What was my goal?  Who knows.  Probably to try and put my own spin on why Rock Band has been and will continue to be so successful.  Probably to justify a holiday break lost to virtual rock.  And probably to do my part to support consumerism =)  But in all seriousness I'm a huge fan of this newly emergent genre of music games and I think it has some tremendous potential for music, for gaming, for education, for entertainment and maybe even for world peace.  Maybe.

A few folks have suggested that it would only be a matter of time before someone was giving a Rock Band or Guitar Hero concert live on stage.  Well, it might only have been a promo event for the Consumer Electronics Show, but those predictions were dead on.  Since the release of Guitar Hero 2, one of the local bars in town has had Guitar Hero serve as the primary form of musical entertainment for a night or two a week.  No DJ.  No real band.  Just Guitar Hero.   Most interesting... 

But my undying love for Rock Band and Guitar Hero doesnt mean the games have no where to go.  So along with my ass kissing and the requisite bag of salt that comes with all my posts, I have a few ideas for places games like Rock Band to go.

1)  Continue the Diversification
While I mentioned that these sorts of games do have a little something for everyone, they still have a long way to go before I'd consider them truly musically diverse.  Obviously there are reasons for that, not the least of which has to do with what sells, but I hope that as more and more people involve themselves in these enterprises, that we start to see a wider range of music outside of the mainstream spectrum.  Some of the most enjoyable songs I've played have been by artists I've never heard of.  Everyone loves playing Metallica, but how many people know about Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer Incentives?  Games like Rock Band provide an entirely new avenue for exposure - and I hope there continues to be room for the little guys, especially since this could provide to be major outlet for new music distribution.

I'd also love to see Rock Band add more non rock.  There is some now, but the more the better.  Again, continue to widen the appeal to as many audiences as possible, and to provide opportunities for exposure to a new audience.  I'd love to see more Blues music.  My friend and colleague Bart Pursel is pulling for "Jam Band Hero".  There are a lot of different places games like Rock Band could go.  Thankfully, the downloadable content model is one that I hope will facilitate a bit of risk taking that will eventually lead to this sort of expansion.  Because EA doesnt need to waste money with shipping, packaging, and marketing, it can create opportunities to release a ska song or a big band track pack - just to see what happens.

2)  Allow for Composition
This one gets a little crazy, but one of my biggest hopes for Rock Band before it was released was that it would allow users to create, record, save, and share their own music.  Rock Band is capable of supporting the guitar, base, drums, and vocals, which while not a complete arsenal of musical instruments is most certainly enough to make for some mighty fine tunes. Such a feature would not only bolster the online community, but could also inspire a lot more people to get involved in music on a personal level.  Obviously I can hear the skeptics already.  Why not just play real instruments if you want to make your own music?  cough cough *Garage Band* cough cough.  There will always be reasons to use real instruments - but there is nothing wrong with making it easier for people to get started.   And I think it could add a huge dimension to the game, and perhaps to music at large.  Plus, how awesome would be to be able to teach music with Rock Band?  Oh mama!

3)  Play then Listen
My third idea came to me a few days ago as I was playing "Blood Doll" by Anarchy Club (not my video, just an example).  Before Rock Band, I'd never heard the song before, though I've come to really enjoy it.  At the time, I just happened to be playing "Blood Doll" to fill a few minutes before going to the gym, which made allowed me to notice that it would be a song perfectly suited to my workout mix.  But alas, should I want to make such an addition, I would have had to go all the way upstairs, buy it from iTunes, and push it onto my iPod.  And thats a little too much effort to exert ... as I'm headed to the gym.  Oh the beautiful irony. 

But the situation got me thinking how cool it would be if Rock Band, a revolutionary method of music promotion, could actually provide you with... you know... non interactive music to listen to as well.  I know that sounds a bit counterintuitive, but wouldnt it be cool if in downloading a new Rock Band track, you also came away with a straight mp3 version of the song that you could add to your own personal collection?  Obviously it might take a little bit more to make that track portable, blah blah blah, DRM, blah blah blah, buy a Zune, blah blah blah licensing, blah blah blah <throw up in my mouth>.  But you dig my beat?


Anyway, thats more than enough from me on all of this.  But regardless of who you are, or what you think about video games, I'd highly advise that you give games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero a shot if you have the opportunity.  Even if its just at your local Best Buy.  These games have a lot to offer, they are a lot of fun, and they can be enjoyed by just about anyone who is willing to give them a shot. 
  


Image from wikipedia.com

A few months back, I wrote on a post on the interesting way that Myspace and MTV had come together to try and find a way to engage America's youth in the political process.  Not to be outdone, and perhaps in an effort to show its "maturity" to a national audience, Facebook decided to throw its hat into the political ring by co-sponsoring a nationally televised series of debates which took place this evening - first between the current Republican presidential candidates, then between the Democratic candidates.

Because of the differences in nature between the New Hampshire debates and the MTV-MySpace "Presidential Dialogues", its a bit of an apples to oranges situation to compare the two.  But I enjoy strawberry-banana smoothies, so who am I to complain about mashing fruit together =)

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, essentially Facebook allowed users to share their feelings on certain basic questions involving the debate or certain candidates. For example:

What I had very much appreciated about the MySpace events was that poll results were shared with the candidate in real time.  So in the case of my example above, the moderator would say something like "our voters are overwhelmingly interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the economy - could you please elaborate on that topic".  Moderator Charlie Gibson seemed to have his hands full - so no such sharing occurred tonight.  To be fair, the MySpace events were not debates (they were a single candidate at a time) and both their aim and audience was far different than tonights debates.  But regardless it added an interesting dimension and interactivity to the experience and I was a bit disappointed not to see it in New Hampshire.  Myspace also let viewers lay the smack down if the speaker was trying to give them garbage answers.  And who doesnt love a good smack down?

But what Facebook did do that MySpace (to my knowledge) did not, was to leverage its pre-existing user data to provide more interesting meaning to the numbers. Don't pretend you havent always wanted to play the "Be a Political Analyst: Home Edition" game.  Cheggit:

This chart above takes the results of a broad question, and shows how people responded based on their pre-existing political ideology.  And all of a sudden the data starts to look a little more interesting.  Facebook's breakdown also showed the effect that gender, and age had on peoples opinions as well.  And this is not information that people were required to put in when responding to the poll - all of it was pulled behind the scenes from users Facebook profiles.

A few points in all of this.

First, I'm not really a statistics person, but I think its really fascinating to have an opportunity to see data like this emerge.  I also really like the mashup style of bringing together the wide range of information Facebook has about you for a purpose other than to sell to advertisers ;-)  And I most certainly appreciate any medium that seeks to engage people in the things that matter in our county, world, etc. Online communities for the win.

Second, the possibilities of a more sophisticated Flixster and the like are about as delicious as that smoothie I was talking about =) If you're a marketing person, I hope this stuff is jiving your turkey.

Third, do we have some potential educational implications in all of this stuff?  There are most certainly parallels between these Facebook/Myspace polls and the new Clicker system that Penn State is rolling out.  But clickers don't really work in online classroom environments... hmm....  Or imagine a beginning of the semester "get to know your class" survey.  You ask 5 questions, and get the answers to those questions plus a truckload of other information - all pulled together by Facebook.  And what about for research purposes?  Obviously academics have long since found ways to gather survey data in order to conduct research - but does Facebook or something like it represent an entirely new way to collect heaps of data without forcing people to answer heaps of questions?  Would it mean anything if 90% of the people who gave you a slammed your class in your end of year review considered themselves liberal?  Would it matter if 27% of the people who got As in your class had "The Great Gatsby" listed as one of their favorite books?  Or that 62% of the people who enjoyed discussion activities had the Hotness application installed?  Obviously we're getting into an entirely new region of privacy concerns, and its entirely possible that you'd end up with a flood of nonsensical and totally irrelevant data... but then if you're reading this blog I can only assume you have some sort of fetish for nonsense and irrelevance anyway =)

Seeing as how we're coming up on 2am, its getting far too late to be pondering such things.  At this point I'm just hoping I wrote this post in readable english =)   But I feel like when I'm a bit more lucid, there might be something too all this.  Something that just beyond my over tired grasp.   We'll have to see...

Either way, I couldnt help but notice that, even with Facebook behind it, the debates still were not as awesome as my Stubstyle PTI debates.

Despite the fact that there is a very close Virginia Tech-Kansas bowl game going on, I'm not watching football at the moment.  No, for some inexplicable reason, I'm watching the various Presidential candidates give their rections to the the Iowa caucus results.  <awkward pause>  "What did he just say?"  Yea I know, I can't really explain it either.  I mean come on... its the first BCS game of the year where the point differential didn't require exponents to convey.  But I digress.

Though I'm a Democrat (dont be too stunned), one of the big stories among the talking heads is how Republican Mike Huckabee spent a fraction of the money of Mitt Romney, and yet won decisively in Iowa.  They seem to think it was Huckabee's ability to capture the "born again and evangelical Christians" that lead to his surprising victory.  But after watching his speech to his supporters, I realized whats really going on.

Because standing right behind Huckabee, well within range of every television camera in the land, was the one man to rule them all. 

It wasnt the religious vote that won Mike Huckabee the state of Iowa.  It wasnt a superior closing final days before the caucus.  No, only one power could explain this underdog win.  Thats right ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked Mike Huckabee right into an Iowa caucus victory.  The legend continues.




P.S.  I hate ruining a good joke by explaining the punchline, but if you don't get it, just go spend some time on chucknorrisfacts.com

Image from darkplanet.com

One of the unfortunate things about the holidays is that despite the large chunk of time off, you always seem to run out of time to do things.  Between family, travel, various gatherings, and the constant barrage of college football and video games (*cough*) something had to give.  In my case, that something was staying up to date in the happenings of the various things I follow.  It wasnt an intentionally decision - just a byproduct of the holidays and an excessive amount of mental laziness =)

As such, my return to "real life" was ushered in by a disturbingly bloated RSS reader, the bottom of which I will likely never see.  But within the insanity filled memory banks of my own digital reconnaissance team are many delicious nuggets of joy which I'll likely be commenting on over the next few days.  

We'll start however, with a new feature from our friends at Facebook.  A feature so simple, and yet so brilliant that it has shattered my holiday hangover mind.  What is this new feature you say?  How would personalized contact groups tickle your fancy?



As you can see, this new feature lets you take all of your friends, and group them in meaningful ways that make them easier to manage and give you more control over how you communicate with them.  Once you've grouped your friends, you can send messages just to members of a particular group, making it very easy to quickly replicate the functionality of a list serve/ mailing list within Facebook.  Maybe I want to send a quick note to all the members of my Family group to coordinate holiday plans.  Or if you're using Facebook for business, maybe you'd like to send only your clients a note about a new service you are providing.  Looking for that EduSpin?   If you're one of those people with 5,000 friends, then you more than likely stole the sign in sheet for every class and activity you've ever been a part of.  This new feature lets you group those friends, making it easy to communicate with just the people in your Physics class - or better yet, just the people in your Physics group in your Physics class.  You feeling me?

The ability to group friends also lets you fine tune the information you take in.  Maybe I only want to see update from my Penn State friends.  Or I only want to see what the High school crowd is doing.  You get the idea.

So its nice and its novel but on its own this really isnt earth shattering.  But if you take the next logical step, then an a-ha moment emerges.

I wrote a post a while back that discussed how the social pressure to "be everyones friend" coupled with the homogenization of all of our social groups could eventually lead to the downfall of Facebook.  In its current state, the contact groups feature doesnt solve that problem, but imagine if you add in more granular privacy controls to go along with it.  

I don't want the group "Family" to be able to see what Groups I'm involved in.  I want to lock "The Man" out from being able to view my pictures and my wall.  Or maybe you want the man to be able to see your pictures - but in an a la carte fashion that you control. My high school and college friends can see that picture of me doing a naked keg stand, but I think I'll hide it from clients and business partners.  

Obviously there is a danger of Facebook becoming a content micromanagement nightmare, but having the power to make that choice for yourself could drastically reduce the chance for "accidents", or be the driving force behind an eventual exodus from social networking.  Such privacy controls would also afford an even greater level of sharing between certain groups, because the risk of public humiliation would be reduced.  I have more than a few friends who would like to share more on Facebook, but are skeptical to do so because right now, privacy in Facebook is an all or nothing enterprise once you've made it onto someone's friends list.  

Now to be fair, this is all theorycraft at the moment.  Personalized group privacy controls are still a pipe dream in my fragile little mind.  But I don't think its a stretch to expect that Facebook's devs would be looking to offer that level of control sometime in the future, and I think this personalized groups feature paves the way for it.  It would be a wise decision to say the least, and one that could change the game in a big way.