[MLUG] Re: linux game information...

[Fallert, Adam Christian]

Na, this game is a lesser danger than WoW or EverCrack.  The game is a
player dictated MMO and doesn't require a huge time commitment.  Besides
the whole point of the game is to relax and free the mind.  One cannot
spend every waking hour doing something "usefull" or "educational".

Educational materials need to stick to books and Learning Management
Systems.  I am designing an LMS right now and I gotta say it has been a
Learning experience... pun intended. ;)

Lastly there is a game like that called Entropia
(http://www.entropiauniverse.com/en/rich/5000.html).  It started out as
a University Economics Experiment and expanded.  The currency in the
game is real currency and you can make a living from playing the game.
Personally, I really don't see the fun in that though.

-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at mlug.missouri.edu
[mailto:members-bounces at mlug.missouri.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Miller
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:26 PM
To: MLUG Members
Subject: RE: [MLUG] Re: linux game information...

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, Fallert, Adam Christian wrote:

> Lastly, this game is light on system requirements.  As far as I can
tell 
> this game mostly runs off of html, xml interfaces with java applets in
a 
> specialized browser window.

Interesting.  So it was designed with portability in mind.  Someday it 
will run on a Blackberry and people will become even more disabled by
it! 
;-)

This is a really fascinating thing.  The game seems very attractive and 
interesting, but this means that it is an even greater danger to a 
person's real life.  Accomplishments in the virtual world are not real. 
The "career" you have there is not making you any money and it is
probably 
not even developing you in a useful way for real life.

It would be much more difficult for the developer, but it would be 
wonderful if someone would create a game where the user was learning 
important things by playing the game.  In fact, my guess is that much of

the future of education will be like that:  Computer "games" will teach 
and reward learning.  That kind of instruction *can* be made much more 
effective than book-based or classroom-based learning.  It is harder to 
produce a great instructional program than it is to produce a book, but
in 
the next century or so, loads of freely-available bits of game code will

be lying around ready to be assembled into a great instructional
program.

Mike

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