(some language may offend)
Basically it is the actual game footage from (I think) the 2006 version of the game, but every single step and action that is performed by the player is superseded by pop-ups and voice overs instructing the player what to do next. The player is bombarded with things of which we are becoming complacent. There are the instruction pop-ups, the click here, click there, the do you want to post your achievement to Facebook, to Twitter, do you want to buy more coins for $0.99, do you want to buy a new outfit for Mario for $5.99. It is spoofing, and to a great degree, showing how drastically marketing and social interaction has been embedded into all we do today.
What really struck me and continues to haunt me as a designer/developer is the bombardment (this is my word of the day) of instructions given to the player. I seem to be "forced" into adding this level of instruction into the courses I've been designing lately and I'm tired of it. (Here comes my rant). I'd love to hear from other designers how often they too are put into this predicament of having to add in countless instructions to ensure that each and every single learner does not have to use any extra brain power to navigate through a course.
The argument is that good design does not need all the "Clicky-Clicky Bling Bling" (via @CammyBean). So how come so often I hear from my clients and beta testers "Oh I didn't know I was suppose to click that". What has happened to everyone and their sense of exploration? Why when there are four choices on the screen do they need to be told "Use your mouse and left-click on one of the four blue choices that are located on the right lower side of the screen".
I'd also like to know if anyone has an opinion on how many times do you hear...."Oh I didn't know I had to click there", before you actually decide to resign the activity. Do you take the first instance as a warning that something is wrong or the tenth? At what point can you say "it must be the learners" and at what point do you decide "it must be the design". For me, it is unfortunately all about my learners and I've come to know that they do not like to explore or be adventuresome.
My learners appear to just want to click NEXT to continue.
So my thinking and goal for this year is to move them away from the Mario 2012 version of learning and back to the 2006 version (at a minimum). I want them to try to explore every pipe to see where it leads. I want them to try to punch every set of bricks to see if they get a reward. I'm not entirely sure I'll find a solution and a great methodology to make this shift, but I would be really excited to hear from any of you that would like to join in on this movement.
Can we really remove all the annoying instructions and get our learners to be adventuresome? It's time we designers/developer revolt and change things up. What are your tips, tricks, demos you can share that do move design in this manner.
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3 comments:
Hey Tracy -- I'll fess up to a little learned helplessness around instructions -- I've been forced to cave to client demands on that too many times, and subsequently I don't push back nearly as much as I should.
That said, one of the things about games vs elearning is that games usually have a self-selecting audience. Games are played by people who like figuring stuff out, whereas we can't make that assumption about elearning audiences.
It's not an excuse for treating people like they are stupid though. I tend to advocate for the least amount of instructions followed by user testing followed by adding just enough to fill in the gaps or help where people struggled.
I do agree to some extent - I think a lot of the games available today (and instructional strategies) rely on over-helping.
However, the reason games have that level of instruction vs what Mario Bros had back in the 80s is the diversification of the market. You could easily point out what type of person would buy a NES back in 1985, because only a small subset of the population ever picked one up. With Facebook at 500 million users, the games cannot appeal only to the same group of people who grew up on Mario games.
I don't know if there's a parallel phenomenon in education, where the students we have now are more diverse than 30 years ago, but that might explain some of the over-helping.
As a future designer, I would like to know if, as a designer, you are able to nudge your target audience into another direction, or, if as contracted, your job is to do exactly what they want/need?
This generation is used to being spoon fed and hands held and walked wherever they need to go. I see it as the dumbing down of our youth which stands in such contrast to all the information they have available in a millisecond.
I feel like I want to design things that encourage them to think and explore...make their brains hurt a bit. But if the desire isn't there, I guess the money wont be either.
Besides, I'm surprised they have the will (or know how) to read all the pop ups, unless there are logos on them.
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