I have a suggestion to make :) How about creating a google sheet (through google form may be) for all participants to add their information such as Avatar name, real name, where from or where they are in the world, what they do or who they teach for example. Then let everybody join with the Avatar name in here, if they choose to at least.
I think this is more immersive and also much less confusing. I found it hard to remember two names for each person :) (I'm already very bad at remembering names).
I for one would love to bring my Olive in here..
Thank you. :)
Vance Stevens ah thanks Vance.. Yes I vaguely remember now that I had to complete something but I never knew that it was shared.
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion that we make it more obvious how the data are shared is a good one. We'll fix that.
ReplyDeleteYes, as someone who suffers from memory issues, I struggle with matching up “toon” (avatar) names with irl names. It has gotten so bad that I just have given up. I tend/try to use the “current name on the screen” (the name that seems to make the most sense “in context”) mainly because that is the name I can be the most confident in, otherwise I am trusting my memory (never a good bet) to match it up with the right “alt”. All my personal convoluted rationalizing aside, “Olive’s” points about immersion and confusion are key... ( I have no idea who this Maha Abdelmoneim is, but I have been quite fond of Olivetree for years). Somebody famous (you can Goggle it; it’s a rabbit hole for another day) once said something about the “willing suspension of disbelief”... and I think this applies to storytelling (and my theory is that everything is storytelling). Games “work” (in this case, let’s say are more effective educational environments) better with “immersion”... which we can sum up simply with that willing suspension phrase. One BIG element of that is... (ooooo, there are so many terms and ways of describing this, agency, your sense of “who am I, how do I relate to the world”.... c’mon Dak... it’s a forum post!... thumbnails!...breadcrumbs!... they’re on the interwebs! they’ll Goggle it if they care!)...ahem
ReplyDeletegames are stories
good stories are the best (most successful) teaching devices humans have come up with to date
more immersive stories are better
referring to someone “In story”, by their “toon” name supports the willing suspension of disbelief, and
thus makes for a better educational environment
use your toonnames! :)
[note: all in good fun, but any behavior in world (that phrase seems preferable to “in game”), that lessens immersion seriously does you and your fellow participants a disservice, in that it prevents everyone from experiencing the best story possible - and there are some truly wondrous stories waiting... is it the 14th yet???]
Dak
no, thank you! That works much better than my typing all that into my response... and I would! ;)
ReplyDeleteDakotah ‘wall-of-text’ Redstone