Social Media and Games

Final Project Presentations

As a group or individual, share your final work and any exciting discoveries or progress you’ve made so far. Share with us:

• Your thesis or claim
• Connection or use of social media
• The motivation for your project
• Next steps

You can also take the chance to pose any questions you have for the class and crowdsource resources or solutions. After each presentation, there will be a brief opportunity for feedback and suggestions.

Turning in Your Final Project

Send me a message when your project is complete and ready to be graded, including the names of all group members. If your work is online, include links to every piece. If you prefer to keep your project offline, storing your project in a public dropbox (or another cloud-based file sharing service) and emailing me the link is preferred. I will send you a confirmation after I’ve checked that I can access all files. Final projects are due December 15th at midnight.

Remember: extra credit options and extended final project turn-in are detailed in the post below.

Have a great winter break!

Gradesheets Distributed

Grades will be distributed at the start of class. As a reminder, you can spend your points to improve your grade.

• For missions prior to the midterm — 500 points for up to half of a missing mission, with submission of a summary related to missed content
• For missions after the midterm — 1000 points for up to half of a missing mission, with submission of a summary related to missed content
• For the final project — the deadline is December 15th at midnight. You can extend that deadline for 25 points an hour (per team member) for up to 72 hours total.

Reflective Writing

There is a brief reflective writing prompt in place of a reading quiz this week. This is not the formal evaluation for this course, but it is a series of three questions that act as an end of semester survey. You will be graded on participation alone, but your reflective answers will help improve this course in the future. The prompt will be open until next Monday’s class meeting.

Stepping Back – Class as Metagame

Revisiting our mission objectives:

• Use social media to react to, challenge and recontextualize games
• Design and workshop elements of social games
• Analyze and critique existing social games
• Examine the social structures surrounding game spaces and their implications
• Participate in the debates surrounding “gamification” and “gamefulness”

In-Class Discussion

• Gamifying Education
•  Reflective Play: Notpron
• Revisiting DML Badges
• Reflective Play: Achievement Unlocked
• Where Good Ideas Come From 

Reminder: Final Projects

Remember, next week is our final class meetings. Please come prepared as a group or individual to present the progress you’ve made on your final project. Procedures for final project turn-in will be covered next week. We’ll also be filling out class evaluation forms and celebrating the end of the class mission. Sign up to bring food and drink in the Metagame Forum.

If you or one of your teammates is ranked at least “Hardcore Gamer”, you’ve unlocked Early Registration–send me a message to confirm your choice of either next Monday or Wednesday as your final project presentation day.

In Class Discussion: Evolving Games

• What have hardcore games learned from casual? And vice versa?
• Reflective Play: Glitch
• The Social World’s A Stage
• Five years out: “Are games better than life?” (David Perry)
• Learning from the past: “We should expect the social game to evolve and seek for such an evolution.” (Gareth Mensah)
• Something missing from games: “How can we change their perspective on life? By making more cows?” (David Calvo)

Check-in: Final Projects

At-home Task: Final Project Progress Reports

This week, you are expected to report back in the COSC 407 forum on some element of your final project. This could take the form of showing pictures or a playable prototype, crowdsourcing ideas for gameplay or technical solutions to problems, sharing new discoveries from research or offering your contemplations on an interesting challenge.

Participation in the weekly progress reports requires at least ONE post as an individual, each week, and at least TWO comments on other people’s final project progress or ideas.

Remember to work collaboratively–even if you choose to pursue the final project as an individual, you can benefit from the conversation.

This check-in is due by the start of class December 5th.

An updated gradesheet with the final mission grades will be available next week. Also, beginning next week, there will be no long-form missions. Instead, there will be an ongoing final project discussion.

In Class: Augmented Reality Concepts

Share your game pitch with the class. Remember to reference any other augmented reality games you examined while creating your concept, and bring up your very rough prototype to share.

Answer the following questions about your game concept:

• How is your game a lens that changes your viewer’s perception of their environment?
• What are the quests? The player’s objective?
• What did the games you looked at and created suggest to you about the future of augmented reality?

In Class Discussion: 

• American Censorship Day
• Lying on Match.com Should Be a Crime
• Situationist App

All final project meetings at Shady Grove will take place in Building III: office 3147.

Step One: Grade Sheets Distributed

Step Two: In Class Discussion: Augmented Reality

• Philly History
• Avatar Kinect
• AR Pop Stars
• Nintendo 3DS AR
• PS Vita WAAR
• Layar AR browser
• Layar Creations
• String App
• ARIS

Step Three: Take-home Work

Propose an idea and create a mock-up for an augmented reality game. Consider the examples in this week’s reading and others from around the web.

This task has three parts:

• Contribute a link (to our links hub) to an interesting Augmented Reality Project, with a description of its unique character
• Post a pitch describing your proposed augmented reality game to the “Augmented Reality Games”
• Using Aris, make a mock-up of elements of your ARG. Post screenshots of your game elements to the forum.

Your mock-up should include:

• At least 3 quests
• 3 objects with pictures
• Use of the map for location-based elements

Remember, an augmented reality game should provide a “lens” for viewing the world in a new or unusual way. It may require advanced technology, but it is always spatially anchored. We will work with the Aris framework in class on Wednesday.

Step Four: Continue Work on your Final Project

Don’t forget to sign up for a final project meeting!

Appointment Time Slots

You can now book a final project meeting through Google calendar. Most meeting times are offered at Shady Grove, some are offered at the main campus. If you are in a group, please choose a time that works for all group members. Each appointment time is for 20 minutes: if you are in a large group and want to assure you have enough time, you can book two time slots back to back.

Remember to come prepared with your ideas and interests, and to use this week’s final project discussion on the forums as a chance to flesh out your ideas and find teammates.

In Class Discussion:

• Revising the Prejudice against Social Games (and media)
• Social Games — Looking Forward
• Final Project Guidelines

In the News:

• Breaking the Internet
• Rogue Sites Bill
• Digital Activism
• Anonymous 101