MayaQuest-+Ruth

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=MayaQuest: The Mystery Trail=

After a disappointing search for games that I felt that I could incorporate into an art lesson I eventually settled on a computer video game called Maya Quest: The Mystery Trail. This second hand buy was reasonably priced for a dollar so I figured I would give it a whirl as I was looking for an educational game based on ancient cultures that my students could then turn incorporate into an art project later. With initial failure to load onto my computer, I finally got this 1997 clunker to work on my husband’s computer and I was off and running. The game’s cover said that it was from the makers of The Oregon Trail and as I had quite a fondness of this game when I was younger (along with the lesser known Amazon Trail) I had quite the anticipation built for this little number. On the back side of the game’s case, it presented itself as a way to learn Maya history, geography and culture with over 1,000 photos, video clips, sound effects, and music. It also praises itself for strengthening decision-making, research and analytical skills. Upon booting everything up the opening screen is promising, offering the player an option to look at journals kept by the people who actually made the Maya Quest on their bicycles, look at multimedia resources including photographs of artifacts, maps, topic overviews, sounds and movies, and photos, or the option to begin either the Explore Game or the Adventure Game. I began by clicking on the multimedia artifacts resource as I figured this would be a great place for my students to start exploring Mayan artwork. And sure enough this information was great; you got to see a lot of different photographs of many different types of artwork which could all be very inspirational for different types of artwork.
 * **A brief description of the game. You may include images or even video clips to help give readers a better idea of the game.**

When I was finished exploring there and I decided that I was going to be a fast paced kind of gal and I decided to go on the Adventure Game. This selection began with an animated video clip in space explaining that the satellites that shot down dangerous asteroids would fail if you did not find the code (apparently the code was hidden somewhere in the ancient Mayan ruins) the satellites would fail and we were all doomed; odd premise, but I’m listening. So after the introduction is finished you are transported to a sort of headquarters on the Yucatan Peninsula where you will begin your quest for the codes. You are given very little instruction about how to accomplish this task and you are only given updates via electronic mail (or as we know it today, emails). You hop on a bike and begin to ride your way through the rough terrain on your way to the Maya ruins. Again, with no instruction, you are left to navigate the bicycle on your own, crashing along the way if you veer your vehicle off the side of the road, costing you your virtual money and time. The game has you control your bicycle with the cursor, either moving it up and down the screen to increase or decrease speed and left and right to turn; I did not, however figure this out until after I rage quite the game since my arrow key strategy was not working at all. I restarted the game and decided to go with the explore route, as that sounded a little less stressful and possibly more educational. The game started out with you already in the headquarters building and you receive an email that informs you of your quest/task. You do have the option of accepting, denying or asking for assistance on the quest. If you deny the quest, you are simply sent another email with another quest on it. Once you have found one that is interesting, you leave headquarters and hop on your bicycle again and after consulting your map and choosing your destination, you’re off! And yes, this time around I discovered how you were suppose to navigate your mountain bike, however the bike easily over corrected itself, sometimes in delay, and you are off in the ditch.

Once you make it to your destination, you just begin looking around by using your map. You can either move around the map by clicking with your mouse on directional arrows that appear on your screen or you can make large jumps and transporting yourself by clicking on the destination you would like to visit. Whereas the biking portion was all digitally animated, this portion feels like a terribly disjointed game of Google Maps! The screen shots are all actual photographs that don’t always appear to fit together, so it is difficult to develop a memory of where things are on the map. For instance, after looking for clues to solve a quest, I finally gave up and turned down the mission, only to get it replaced by a mission that required me to photograph a location I had just been to. Unfortunately because of the confusing nature of the map, I had no idea where I had just been or how to get there again.

It was at this point that I was two hours into the game and still didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere in terms of being educated or entertained (which is also a component of educational games). Although this game was a letdown, I did enjoy seeing the actual photographs of the architecture and artifacts of the area. This information presented to the player when they stumbled upon these two things was also interesting and informative, but I felt like the information would have been just as easily accessible in a book without the hassle of trying to navigate through the random pictures in the game. Overall, there would be a slight chance of me using this game in my classroom, but I can definitely find benefits in it if I did incorporate parts of it in my lesson. It seems like games based on ancient cultures are hard to come by so I guess I have to take what I can get if I want to plan a unit of study around those cultures. There were plenty of opportunities for learning in this game, especially if it was used in an art class because the information would not necessarily have been covered before. The player could learn a lot of interesting facts about the art, architecture, and artifacts that the Mayan left behind by clicking on them when you found one in the game. A blurb would pop up with facts about the specific piece you had discovered. As I experienced, it was helpful to read all of the information you come across, because it could relate to the next task that you receive, and that information would make it easier to complete your new goal. With new terms, such as lintels and stelas, players (and primarily students) are introduced in informational blurbs about artifacts and will build vocabulary. These terms will be used in quests and if students explore the settlements well enough they will know what to look for when they are given a new task. I think this game does a good job at combining elements that introduce both new educational information as well as review information that students will likely already know, such as the existence of the Mayan and possibly their location in South America. This game is particularly good at letting you figure things out on your own, i.e. it does a poor job at teaching you in any sort of specific, planned out way. As I mentioned before, I played the game for two hours and I felt like the whole time I was the one responsible for my learning and the game offered very little in clear teaching techniques. The game did reward you with money for completing tasks and, perhaps if I played longer, this would have been an incentive but I was not even able to make it to a point where I would have needed to use money. I did feel a sense of accomplishment when I completed the one and only quest that I was able to figure out, but the game was just so confusing that it felt like a waste of time to keep pressing on. Overall the reward was not greater than the challenge.
 * **The kinds of learning involved (i.e. What specifically did you learn from playing the game?). Think about the game tasks, objectives, terminology, etc. What skills did you need to learn to be successful at the game? Note that many 'educational' games don't actually teach new content area skills, but rather allow students to practice skills they've already learned elsewhere.**
 * **The kinds of teaching involved (i.e. How did the game teach you?). Think about the kinds of feedback, rewards, guidance, and information the game gave you, and how it paced and structured your learning. Which Principles of Learning did the game utilize?**

The Principles of Learning that I found evident was again the multiple routes principle and the discovery principle. The multiple routes principle is applied because the game allows the player to explore the given map as much as they want without consequence, with the exception that your time is slowly running out…you have 30 days before the rainy season returns and spoils all of your fun. The second example, and the one that I thought was the most fitting, was the discovery principle. This game gives you little to no direction, so success relies heavily on the player’s ability to discovery ways to complete tasks on their own. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just means that the player has to be willing to put in time and energy to explore the game and be patient with the sometimes confusing map that makes up the playing space.

I think my opinion has become apparent over the course of my review, but to summarize, I had high hopes for this game and ultimately it came to disappoint me as a useful educational tool. Of course, one has to take into account when this game was make (about 15 years ago) and how far technology has progress, and subsequently what we have come to expect as a result. With that said, other games like The Oregon Trail were interesting, engaging and educational and didn’t require high technology to entertain its players. I think this game could have been really great if it was designed more like a game instead of an interactive book, simply offering fun facts to the reader/player.
 * **Your overall reflections on playing the game. How might a teacher use the game in their curriculum?**

I did really enjoy the information that the game provided and think it would make for a great starting point for an art project based on the Mayan. The photographs provided in the opening screen were fantastic and the vocabulary introduced would help students have a better understanding of what the Mayan practiced and believed. I would love to supplement this game with other videos, music, and books so that student could have a better overall understanding of the culture. I think this game would be more meaningful if the teacher worked through it first and came up with a worksheet that the students could follow and fill in while they play the game. There is certainly valuable information in the activities, maybe just a poor execution of game development.