Tim Thompson’s ‘Sid Meier’s Memoir!’ Memoir!

Categories Gamification, HE Sector, Learning & Teaching

I like to play video games to relax. I always have, ever since I had a Spectrum 48k. I tend to go through phases of what I like to play though. At the moment, it’s third person action-adventures, but often it’s something more strategy-based. One time last year, my wife asked me what I was playing, to which I replied Cities: Skylines. My town was coming along very nicely and I was rightly proud. “So, let me get this straight” she said, “In order to…Continue Reading “Tim Thompson’s ‘Sid Meier’s Memoir!’ Memoir!” →

Choose your own adventures…

Categories Gamification, HE Sector, Learning & Teaching, Research

When my twelve year old called me a nerd recently, I pointed out that ‘nerd’ pays the bills. And then pointed out that he was an even bigger nerd than I was. And then we laughed, high-fived and went to do our respective homework because that’s how we roll. Clearly, he’s not wrong. And gaming is where he usually points this out to me. The resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons, the fact that Warhammer is now worth over £1 billion, and that tabletop gaming generally…Continue Reading “Choose your own adventures…” →

Catastrophic: The Card Game

Categories Gamification, Learning & Teaching

Well, seeing as the whole world is rapidly heading to hell in a hand-basket, it seems entirely appropriate that we’ve been road-testing a game called Catastrophic. Now, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I like games and gaming, and I think there are aspects of this that can enhance our teaching sessions. Over the years I’ve attempted to embrace this, with varying degrees of success. For every Minecraft or Twine success, there’s a car-crash tumbleweed-strewn session I’d rather forget… In fact the last…Continue Reading “Catastrophic: The Card Game” →

Skele-rush! Board games, not bored games…

Categories Gamification, Learning & Teaching

So, I like playing games. Most people know that by now. And I don’t mean, like, emotional games, although those can also be fun. Like today, when the poor guy valiantly organising nine graduation ceremonies for thousands of students for next week asked if I was ready to read out the names of the graduates, and I told him I was going to wing it. He went very grey. It was very funny. No, I mean board games. I’m thinking of them again now because…Continue Reading “Skele-rush! Board games, not bored games…” →

Replica worlds – the education benefits of bloody violence in the grimy streets of physical and virtual reconstructions of the past

Categories Learning & Teaching

Let’s face it, children are idiots. They whine a lot and rarely know what’s good for them. For example, some of them don’t even realise that a trip to a museum is not a chore. It’s fun! Who doesn’t want to learn things?! Idiots, that’s who… Anyway, it was just this attitude that we were faced with on a recent trip to Preston Park. Preston Park is a museum and gardens complex near Stockton. The large house was built in 1825 and became a museum…Continue Reading “Replica worlds – the education benefits of bloody violence in the grimy streets of physical and virtual reconstructions of the past” →

Eat. Sleep. Mine. Repeat.

Categories Learning & Teaching

Everyone here knows that I like to play video games. I always have, and my transition from ugly duckling to beautiful swan can be mapped alongside my gaming platforms: Spectrum 48k and Spectrum 128k at school, Amiga and Atari Lynx II (if anyone remembers that…) at college, PlayStation 1 and PS2 at university, PlayStation 3 in my first academic posts and now the X Box One with my own boys. I’ve never been massively into playing on the PC – despite the fact that my…Continue Reading “Eat. Sleep. Mine. Repeat.” →