WolfQuest

WolfQuest



WolfQuest is a third-person wolf-simulator (there’s a niche market!) which puts players in the role of a lone wolf in search of a mate. The game is graphically pleasing, taking place in a well-rendered mountain region full of nature and wildlife. Due to its open world nature, gameplay and setting, it could be compared to Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption (a free-roaming western) or Grand Theft Wolf … errr, Auto.

While the main goal of WolfQuest is to find a mate – there are many side quests that are important to your character’s well-being. Players must learn to track down food sources (hares, coyotes) as well as interact successfully with other wolves to avoid conflict. These “conversations” are a highlight of the game, as they are delivered in a standard conversation-tree (in English) while each response elicits a reaction from the wolves, demonstrating how the message would be conveyed in nature. For example, the player can have their wolf announce “I am not a threat!” which the wolf executes by rolling onto his back and lolling its tongue.



I played this game in single-player mode alongside my two boys (8 and 9), and some of their responses appear in the game review to follow. They were mostly engaged with WolfQuest, with its impressive graphics and free-roam environment it felt very “game-like” as opposed to the majority of educational titles they have played in the past.


 * Kinds of Learning:**

Wolf Quest puts players into the role of a wolf, so immediately upon beginning the game, it is vital to fully immerse yourself in this identity. Like any “role-playing” game, the first item on WolfQuest’s agenda is to allow players to create a character. While options are limited compared to most RPG’s, the character creation screen does allow you to choose the appearance of your wolf, as well as balance strength, stamina and speed. Once the character is complete, a long shot glides over the forest to reveal your wolf standing in the middle of the mountainous terrain… and the player’s first thought is – OK, what do I do now?



Noticeably, there is no “training module” for the game, so the player does not experience the **subset principle**, in which initial learning “takes place in a simplified subset of the real domain” (Gee, 141). Instead, players are dropped into the middle of the open world with the goal of completing the “quest for a mate”, with the rather intimidating overlay of the complex keyboard controls seen below:



While the movement controls are fairly standard, there are a myriad of non-standard buttons/actions specific to your role as a wolf; resting, howling and feeding pups are not your typical actions in a video game, so there is little transferring of existing video game skills to Wolf Quest, and constant toggling to the keyboard overlay is necessary – a cumbersome act that takes the player out of the game frequently.

While game tasks are somewhat vague, the designers do employ **“Just in Time”** information to assist players through the world. The first time the player approaches a dead elk, instructions appear in an on-screen pop-up on how to eat the carcass, and how it can benefit your avatar. This timely breakdown of information is far more useful than the initial barrage of keyboard controls that overwhelm the player. After an hour of play I was familiar with the controls and most of the actions, although an in-world sub-domain tutorial would have captured my interest earlier, and made me feel more confident in my virtual identity.

Players quickly realize that while it’s possible to navigate the environment as they would in a normal third-person game, the wolf has special talents that afford extra “powers” to help locate food sources, potential mates, and possible enemies. By toggling the “V” key, we can view the world through “scent” the way a wolf might, and we learn how much more powerful this sense is than vision alone. With scent mode on, objectives light up like signal flares, and other animals leave neon trails which are easy to track. This method of teaching the importance of scent in a wolf’s environment is very successful and rewarding for the player.

In WolfQuest, **identity principle** is key – and it is vital for the player to take on this virtual identity, which might clash with their own real identity. Tellingly, when my oldest son (who loves his plush bunny) came across a food source (a hare), he did not react well; “Papa, I don’t want to eat the bunny!” he said – which, as a wolf, is quite necessary in order to keep energy levels high. For his virtual identity, it was a failure to let the bunny escape, but his real identity wouldn’t allow it to be eaten – which is a significant barrier to his success in WolfQuest!


 * Kinds of Teaching:**

Due to its nature as an open-world sandbox game, WoldQuest relies heavily on the **discovery principle** in order to teach players about the wolf’s behavior and its environment. This method allows “ample opportunity for the learner to experiment and make discoveries” (Gee, 226), especially while learning how wolves interact with other creatures. I got too curious in my discovery phase, approached a bear for a “conversation”, but obviously the two don’t share a common language and I was quickly dispatched.

As mentioned earlier, **identity principle** is also employed, in order for the player to learn how and why a wolf behaves as it does, they must take on his virtual identity, even though it may clash with their own real-world identity. We all enjoyed “playing with identities in such a way that the learner has real choices” (Gee, 222), particularly during our conversations with other wolves in which we could try to dominate and threaten the other animals, or bow down to their superiority and be on our way.


 * Active learning** in WolfQuest is “set up to encourage active and critical, not passive, learning” (Gee, 221), by having players chose //how// they interact with other creatures, and how that impacts the environment and their avatar.

WolfQuest also engages the **probing principle**, leaving players to keep “probing the world, reflect in and on this action and on this basis, forming a hypothesis” (Gee, 223). I probed a bear. I was killed. Reflecting on this, my hypothesis is that bears are stronger than wolves. I think that was a teachable moment from the game designers – well done!


 * Overall Reflection:**

I feel that WolfQuest is an engaging, graphically pleasing educational title that can capture the imagination of its target audience. Unlike many educational titles, it feels far more game-like, and I witnessed the fun and enjoyment my own children had playing it. I can certainly imagine this being part of the curriculum in a class on science and nature – and even more engaging would be the use of the multiplayer option, which would allow an entire class to play together in the wolves natural environment and interact with one another. Unfortunately, the multiplayer seemed somewhat finicky and was tied to a forum subscription which made it difficult to put into practice.

After playing for an hour or so, I finally asked my boys “What did you learn about wolves?”

Their responses:

//“I learned that wolves should run away from grizzlies!”//

//“I learned that wolves don’t mate with coyotes!”//

I’d call that mission accomplished!