Geography Games Research Report
Part 1 – The Method
Initially, I thought it would be very easy for me to find a couple of high-quality serious games or simulations for introduction to Geography major. Since I used quite frequently a lot of applications based on Geography – google map, Uber, Zillow (recently, I have been searching for new apartment rentals for next school year)… However, when I formally started to do the search, the difficulty was beyond my imagination. Finally, I only got a few directly related games about Geography major introduction.
Before searching, I tended to clarify the definition of Geography. With better understanding about the definition of Geography, I could trace the targeted games more accurately. I preferred the definition of Geography from the National Geography website after I compared different descriptions of “What is Geography” from different references, “Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment, and the way that locations and places can have an impact on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time(Geography, n.d.).”
Beyond the definition, I knew that as an expansive discipline, geography covers a lot of study which can always be confused with other disciplines in Environment Sciences and GeoScience. About three-quarters of graduates from the doctoral program become college professors or join college faculties(Beck, 2019). Then, based on the better understanding about what Geography as a major focuses on, I used the following platforms and methods to do the searching.
- GoogleScholar
I used “Game”, “Geography Education” as keywords to research the related articles published after 2014, 51,700 results returned, narrowed down the research results by adding more keywords, such as “Introduction OR Simulation OR Orientation”, and picked up 4 related articles (Robinson et al., 2021) (Gi̇rgi̇n, 2017) (Tidmarsh, n.d.) (Morawski & Wolff-Seidel, 2023) from the results. Unfortunately, none of the related articles mentioned specific games or simulations about Geography general introduction. They were related to game design theory or instructional suggestions with games.
I used “Game OR Simulation OR Geography OR Geographer” as keywords and keyword groups to search related targets. Most of the results were web pages with game introductions, but seldom of them met my expectations. Finally, I found three mostly related games.
Part 2 – The Results
- Game 1: MapMaker
- https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/atlas/index.html?appid=0cd1cdee853c413a84bfe4b9a6931f0d&rsource=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.esri.com%2Fnatgeomapmaker
- Learning Domain: Conceptual knowledge, Rule-based knowledge
- Core dynamic: exploration.
- Summary: The purpose of this simulation is to invite learners to explore anywhere on the planet earth they are interested in, and design a map with different layers which they want to have on the map. For example, they can add latitudes and longitudes, transportation, Earthquake information, Volcanic Eruptions information, etc. on their own map. The different layers include many categories which can meet the designers’ personal preferences and help them understand the meaning of maps, as well as the work details of geographers.
- Client’s expectation: All ages will be welcome to use. The higher standard functions will be more suitable for high-school students and college students who are going to prefer geography as their majors. But the players can not easily understand the traits of geography majors by simply playing the game without instructor’s introduction and guideline.
- Game 2: Geographical Adventures (Under Construction)
- https://sebastian.itch.io/geographical-adventures
- Learning Domain: Declarative knowledge, Conceptual knowledge, Affective knowledge
- Core dynamics of the game are exploration and collecting.
- Summary: It is a little game under development. The game rules are simple: fly around the world, picking up packages and delivering them to various cities as players go. There are three locations marked at the top of the screen. At each location, players will find a hot air balloon waiting with a package for the players to collect. Fly the plane through the balloons to collect the packages. Once the package has been picked up, its location at the top of the screen will change to a delivery address. Fly over to that city based on geography knowledge and drop the package off there. While playing the little game, players will be familiar with the world map, as well as the specific locations of the main cities on the map. The comfortable music and pleasant game graphics give players a beautiful feeling of being a world traveller.
- Client’s expectation: All ages are welcome, especially designed for the players who want to change their understanding about world maps and knowledge of cities all over the world. But the players can not easily understand the traits of geography majors by simply playing the game without instructor’s introduction and guideline.
- Game 3: NASA Earth Observations
- Website: https://neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
- The core dynamic of the simulation is exploration.
- Learning Domain: Declarative knowledge, Conceptual knowledge
- Summary: Users can get visually descriptive data about energy, land, life, ocean of the world from a birdview angle, and the time bar at the bottom can show the date in different years, which are helpful to see the relative change and do comparison.
- Client’s expectation: All ages can use it, but it is more suitable for college students or graduate students who need specific data about geography. But the players can not easily understand the traits of geography majors by simply playing the game without instructor’s introduction and guideline.
- Game 4: Mini Solar System
- Video introduction website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHnfQzlqKPg
- Core dynamic: Exploration, Matching.
- Learning Domain: Declarative knowledge, Conceptual knowledge, Affective knowledge
- Summary: In the Fall semester of 2023-2024, I learnt how to use OpenSimulator to create a desktop Virtual Reality project. When I used OpenSimulator to design my instructional content, I used more energy to decide which learning content I should create than thinking about what technologies I should use during my personal project. What kind of scenarios can I create in the virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) to provide the learners with a better learning experience than in the real learning environment? At that moment, a sentence sounded near my ears, “People do not learn from technology; they learn from thinking. When technologies can enhance students thinking, they should be used. Otherwise, they are probably no better than no technology.” This sentence was from David H. Jonassen, when he commented to the relationships between learning and technology during an interview(Simsek, 2012). My initial thinking for creating my VR project was a studying area contains more barriers or constraints for the learners in the real world. Both the small-sized and large-sized worlds met my assumption. E.g., a plant cell or a solar system is impossible for common learners to experience in real life, but in the VRLE, the answer is OK. Plus, in OpenSimulator, the avatar can fly to check the virtual creation from more dimensions, making it easier and more beneficial for learners who want to learn space science. Then, I created my personal VRLE, a Mini Solar System.
- Client’s expectation: In this serious game, players can manipulate an avatar to explore the mini solar system to better understand the location of our planet earth, then increase their interests in Geography learning. I believe this serious game is suitable for high-school students and college students to explore the solar system in a VR setting. But the players can not easily understand the traits of geography majors by simply playing the game without instructor’s introduction and guideline.
Part 3 – The Critique
There were quite a few apparent commonalities between the games I introduced. Three of them were related to maps. Maybe maps were much easier to be designed for Geological games or simulations.
Game designers like instructional designers, will face a diverse audience, they will never know the specific expectations of the audience. The best games, as well as the best instructions, should be the most proper ones to the players and learners. It requires the game designers to have a tool box which can create different types to fit different players’ expectations. The relationship between chance, strategy, skill, simulation, expressiveness, performance, whimsy, role-playing, competition, and cooperation can be recombined in different ways to create new play experiences – like a chef combines different ingredients and cuisines to create new dishes and fusions (Macklin & Sharp, 2016). The four games I introduced belong to different categories. According to their different traits, they can be put in different positions in a play matrix (Fig. 1) (Fullerton, 2018). Mini Solar System belongs to skill-based Play. Geographical Adventures contains both skill-based game and experience-based game elements. MapMake and NASA Earth Observation belong to simulation-based play (Fullerton, 2018).
Fig. 1 Four Games in a Game Matrix
My client’s expectation of the game was seeking a testable serious game design that not only can help attract interest in the field of Geography, but also educates players on what Geographers do. All the games I introduced met parts of the requirements, but without specific designs for introducing what kinds of jobs the Geographers will do after they graduated from a Geography major. After playing several games about geography, I can feel more realistically about what geography is about. But, the games and simulations I explored just covered surface learning content, which showed a clear signal to us that there is a gap for game designers to create some serious games.
References
Tidmarsh, C. (n.d.). Think Piece – Using games in geography.