Creating Your Game Review Criteria Activity - Learning Games Lab Toolkit

Time for

Plan: 5 min
Implementation: 45 min

Type(s) of Essential:

Social & Emotional Growth

Critical Review

Prerequisite

Is a prerequisite: No
Has a prerequisite: Yes

Overview

Learners gain an understanding of categories game developers use when reviewing games, identify additional categories from peers, and apply this knowledge to evaluating games.

Goals and Outcomes

Goal: Learners enhance their knowledge of ways to review games and identify what they value as players.

Outcomes: Learners develop their understanding of what they and different people value when reviewing games and digital media, and how to create a criteria for reviewing games.

Materials

Creating Your Game Review Criteria sheet; Shareable crowdsourcing tool either online (e.g., Padlet, Google Doc, etc..) or in-person (e.g., blank dry erase board, etc.); Presentation tool (e.g., Keynote, Power Point, iMovie, etc.).

Preparation

Activities to complete before this activity - Game Evaluation.

Copies of Creating Your Game Review Criteria sheet

Organize the crowdsourcing tool so it is ready for responses. On the crowdsourcing tool, use a header that states a question that is easy for learners to understand and respond to. The header could state, “What is important to you when reviewing a game? What else do you care about when playing and reviewing games? List them here.”

Implementation and Completion

Remind learners that reviews are made by people. Inform learners they will build on the Game Evaluation activity and explore different ways people review games. Distribute the “Creating Your Game Review Criteria Sheet”.

There are three parts to this activity.

Part One

For part one, learners will work together to brainstorm what points they care about when playing games. Provide examples of additional categories you and other educators use to evaluate games, not already listed.

Some categories identified by the Learning Games Lab educators include:

Are characters with different body types and abilities featured as main characters?
Can the player understand what to do?
Does my character have a mission or a problem to solve?

Then ask learners for categories they would like to add using a tool to crowdsource. Discuss their entries as they add them or after all are added. If possible, work with learners to reduce multiple similar statements into one. Then work with them to make statements into short phrases or words that can be perceived as categories. Once this process is completed, tell learners they will review a game (different from a game reviewed for the Game Evaluation activity) using four of the new categories and four categories developers use to review games.

Part Two

For part two of the activity, ask learners to select a game to review from the list of Guided Gameplay of Serious Games. Give them time to play the game. If they have not played the game, give them at least 20 minutes to become familiar with it. If they have played the game, learners will need less time to play.

Part Three

For part three, learners will review games and share their reviews using a presentation tool. Tell learners they will select eight categories to review a game: four categories will be from the Game Evaluation activity and four categories will be for Part One of this activity.

The learners’ name
A brief overview of the game (audience, content, context, goal)
Eight categories for game review (with at least half of them with new categories)
Any bugs or mistakes you found in the game
If you do or not recommend the game to a friend

Give the learners 20 - 30 minutes to complete putting their reviews in a presentation software. Tell them it may be helpful for them to revisit the game as they review.

After they complete their reviews, ask each learner to present their review to the group.