Villainy,+Inc.+Review

** A brief description of the game: **
This is a web-based game that reviews pre-algebra concepts. It is described on the game's website as, "You are a secret agent in the Anti-Villainy Unit (AVU). Your mission: to stop the crazy plans of Dr. Eugene Wick, ID, and his front company, Villainy, Inc. Wick's plans always have one weakness: they just don't add up. Find out how your math skills can help you beat this evil genius at his own game." In the game, you take on the persona of a double agent working for the AVU. In the first mission for the game, you use your math skills to maximize the amount of money Dr. Wick has to use in order to pull off his evil scheme.

** The kinds of learning involved: **
Though the game is intended to be a review of some basic pre-algebra skills, it does not actually teach the player any of those skills. In order to play the game, the player must learn the context for the mission, the goals of the sub-mission, and how to interact with the game's interface. As an example the first part of the first mission is to fit a rectangular area into a non-rectangular space. The player must learn that that is what the goal is and must learn how to manipulate the rectangle in the space provided. Generally speaking, there isn't much that needs to be learned in-game.

**The kinds of teaching involved:**
In game, you are provided with two assistants. You get to choose these two out of six options. While you play through the game you can call upon each helper to give you assistance with whatever you happen to be working on. One of the helpers I played with did not say anything but rather drew on the screen to show me what I was supposed to be doing. Other than your helpers to guide & show you what/how to do, any time you input something correctly, it turns green. There were a couple points in the game during which I knew I had put in the wrong information because it didn't turn green. There is also, after each section of each mission, a screen that judges how well you did by telling you if what you did was acceptable or not. Nothing in the game, however, explicitly told me what I should do or what the outcome is supposed to be.

With these facts in mind, I'd say that the game uses the following principles of learning: semiotic domains, self-knowledge, material intelligence, and intuitive knowledge.

Honestly, since the game is intended to be a review of pre-algebra and everything that's new (i.e. how to interact with the game space) is taught explicitly, there is not a lot of teaching that happens in this game.

**Overall reflection:**
All things considered, I was not particularly impressed with the game. It moved pretty slowly: most of the game was spent watching narrative videos. Yes, the videos were mildly funny/entertaining but I'd rather be spending my time actually playing. If I was teaching a pre-algebra class, I could see sending my students to play this game as a sort of review activity. The problem with doing that is that it isn't particularly targeted at any specific pre-algebra skill. I think this game pretty well exemplifies what James Paul Gee was talking about when he said that when you combine education (something that's boring) with video games (something that's fun) you don't end up with fun education but rather boring video games. This was just a really boring video game.