WolfQuest+(Susan)

Educational Video Game Review Assignment



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WolfQuest is an interactive educational wildlife game where players learn about being a wolf. The setting is on the North side of the Yellowstone National Park. You can play alone or with a few other friends to hunt, explore, meet other wolves, and have a family. These activities are built around learning how to survive in the wild and the ecological system supporting a wolf. ======

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THis game is about a lone wolf at first, I found it felt lonely until I began to learn by repitition where and how to find a wolf. I wondered around a long time to find one, and only learned by trial and error how to make better communiication choices so I was not almost killed each time.======

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Players end up watching the health meter to make sure they find food and eat often. In my case I was not able to kill anything so ate dead elk... often. The main tasks when you begin, after creating and naming your wolf is to find food, and then find a mate. I started as a male wolf so should of been able to catch and attack something but I didn't know how to use the keys on the keyboard so was much slower at the foraging.======

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In the beginning and at my level of progression I see both the probing and multiple routes principles used in this game. You have to try something and learn from that success or failure to gain new skills and do better next time. You also choose how you spend your time, do you work to get better at hunting and killing or do you focus on how to find the other wolf packs and communicate in order to build relationships. What you choose impacts how fast you progress forward. =====

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I am not far enough into the game to appreciate the level of Semiotic Domains here, it mostly focused on the Semiotic principles, and how they are inter-related to progressing. I don’t find any emotional connection at all to this game, especially not at this level. All conversations are pre-scripted. =====

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This games is geared to a younger age level and they are trying to support learning about the ecosystem of a wolf. At higher levels if the kids are playing with other kids across the world I am sure there are many different levels of learning which can occur. =====

**3. Teaching in Wolfquest**
The resouces available for educators is wonderful to help support students learning this game or using it as a supplement to a subject area they are teaching. The images and worksheets can be found at: [] Here you can find many suggestions on how to enhance the learning of the ecosystem, team work, and survival of a species for students. I think if the players can progress enough to keep an interest and build team work within a pack it would be fun fo the kids. This is a game geared toward a younger group of students.

4. Reflections on Wolfquest
Since learning about some of the helpful hints on how to progress I will use those now and keep playing to see if I begin to enjoy this game more. Up to this point I have not felt very connected or involved.

I sort of felt like I was "cheating" by using outside resources to learn how to do the different steps in this game. One of the benefits though in viewing multiple youtube videos was I realized the kids who play this game are making the videos for other kids. They have added music, comments, etc... and some are very creative. Finding the kids work online was a highlight to me with this game.