The Designing Strategy of RGP Game-Learning Under the Instruction of Multiple Intelligence Theory

Session S2D The Designing Strategy of RGP Game-Learning Under the Instruction of Multiple Intelligence Theory

Zuo Mingzhang 1, Wang Yi feng 2, Yu Yan 3, Lulu Chen

Center China Normal University, [email protected]

Abstract- Multiple Intelligence Theory has innovated and RPG game-learning under the instruction of Multiple improved the Previous Intelligence Theory. It stressed the Intelligence theory. multiplity, development, collaboration, diversity and construction of intelligence development. 1 THE EDUCATION SUPERIORITY OF RPG GAME-LEARNING This new perspective of intelligence brings us new At present we have too many computer game products for inspiration for our designing of game-learning. This paper choosing, and we are sure about one thing that the Role- has analyzed the education superiority of role playing playing game is one of the most popular games. In order to game-learning, and discussed its design flow from the explain the education superiority of RPG game-learning, let perspective of multi-dimensional intelligence theory. us identify its definition first. Combing the design flow and the characteristics of role A role-playing game (RPG, often role playing game) is a playing game, aiming at constructing an education game game in which players take the roles of characters and act out environment which can promote the development of fantastical adventures, and the outcomes of which are partially Multiple intelligence, We find some designing strategy, determined by chance, as by the roll of dice. In those games such as, the multiplity of people character, the drawing participants determine the actions of their roles based on their close to lives of game background，the multi-dimension of characterization, and the success and failure of actions game content, the multiplity of game behavior pattern, the conform to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules framework, players can improvise freely, their opening of rules and situations，the multiplity of game- choices shape the direction and outcomes of the games. And learning environment and so on. We hope to realize the RPG game-learning we are discussing now refers to the human's full scale development on the basis of obtaining RPG game which can stimulate the study interest or can knowledge through game-learning. enhance the learning capability of the player. It combines the course content and the teaching thought with the game Key words- RGP game, RGP game-learning, Multiple methods. Intelligence theory As the education superiority of RPG game-learning, we may explain it through an example. RPG game “Lost precious US psychologist Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence book” is design for children to study mathematics specially. It Theory has innovated and improved the previous intelligence tells us a story which happened in firy tale demon country. theory. It divides individual intelligence into 8 intelligences The evil magician bobola has destroyed the demon country's which is independent but also interrelated. This new national treasure “Mathematics precious book”, and she also perspective of intelligence brings us new inspiration for our made the inhabitants of the demon country lost their memory designing of game- learning. Game-learning is one kind of about Mathematics. So Jenny from demon country comes to new education attempts, but there still exists some puzzles in the Earth to seek help, and he has found aoer, zoer and other the theory instruction and design development. If we continue children to help him for seeking the garrulous pages of have the view that “the IQ education is our ultimate precious book which scatters in the whole world. objective” like all the traditional intelligence theory emphasized, it would violate to our education thought that student's full scale development is most important. We try to use Multiple Intelligence Theory to analysis game-learning designs. So this paper has discussed the designing strategy of

1 Zuo Mingzhang, associate professor, Department of Information Technology, Central China Normal University, [email protected]. 2 Wang Yi feng, Center China Normal University, [email protected] 3 Yu Yan, Center China Normal University, [email protected]

1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S2D-24 Session S2D 1.1 Gain growth and experience through playing game realizes himself need to be more careful in real world he may to do so. From the definition we know, when we play the RPG game- RPG game-learning can provides a change stage, the learning, we do not only represent ourselves, we also put our player is allowed to change his own thinking mode or the soul in the roles which we choose. In the game of Lost behavior customs in the hypothesized study world. In this way Precious Book, the player can choose a character like aoer, the players may breakthrough themselves and their study zoer, jenny or other roles .We can feel what the roles feel. We potential got stimulated. obtain emotion experience, life experience and learning experience as the roles in game grow and experience. In this process, our attention and mind are immersed into the game 1.4 Easy for union with teaching deeply. Role-playing games are a form of interactive and Multiple Intelligence Theory assumes that all of our collaborative storytelling. Those storys usually develop learning could be improved and get promotion through the linearly, and have strict level and logic. It conforms to the learners' own experience in particular settings and conditions. “from simply to thorough, from easily to difficult” law. This So if we develop a suitable game-learning environment, the Characteristic of RPG is consistent with the characteristics of learner's each kind of abilities would got developed and education, so we can combine instruction content with some enhanced during their playing of the games. game plot and set some game goals whose achievement is

combined with the instruction knowledge points. As the 1.2 Stimulate responsibility for learning players are experiencing the game process, they also obtain some learning experience, and their acquisition of knowledge Role-playing games are appealing because they need accumulated. So at the end of the game, the knowledge and imagination and emotion. The player determines the actions abilities the instruction goals provided is also achieved. of their characters based on their characterization. With the Taking the Role-playing games “lost precious book” as an role′s destiny grasping in their hands, the player will have the example, its story plot development is also linear. With the feeling that they are closely linked with the roles. Under this collection of the book’s broken pages, the challenges the unique close relation the player takes the game responsibility. game roles encounter are also increasingly upgraded, and the As the game progresses the character gains experience and the mathematical problems need to solve become more and more role gains new abilities and becomes more powerful, so you complicated. The set of game difficult meet the linear can play the game better. development of instruction content, it follows the “from easy In the RPG games whether your role is powerful is to difficult” law, moving form examing single mathematical manifested directly by the role′s achievement of “Ability knowledge to examing comprehensive application of math targets”. Game player can achieving those “Ability targets” ability. through enhancing and improving their game method.

If we choose aoer to be our game role ,we must use our knowledge to solve some mathematics problems, if we failed 1.5 Easy for union with popular game form we can not help jenny to find the Mathematics precious book

. So the player may feel anxious and he may learn related The RPG’s essential characteristics, that is, allowing the mathematics knowledge more hard to breaks through the player to experience game process through role playing, is difficulty, so that he can continue the game. beneficial to its combination with other pop game form to In this progress the player not only take the game derive new game form, so to meet the players’ psychological responsibility, they also have the need to study, so they also characteristics of pursuing strange experiences. For example, have the study responsibility. it can be combined with strategic games which culturing

human logic and strategic thinking to produce SRPG （ 1.3 Stimulate study potential Strategy Role Playing Game）, and can also be combined The biggest pleasure lies in the acting when we playing the with action-based game which training action-reaction to RPG games. Some research indicated that when we realize ourselves may become another person, we may display many produce ARPG（Act Role Playing Game）. different aspects from original ones, it is means “Individuality qualitative change”. In this process some potentials of individuals got stimulated very easily. 2 THE DESIGN FLOW OF RPG GAME-LEARNING A player who is careless in the real life chose the zoer ,an After discussing the education superiority of RPG game- smart and careful girl to be his role in the game. When he play learning, the actually problem We face is how to design and the game he must be good at observing details to find out develop. After analysis, we find RPG game-learning design game clue,and he need to do some complex mathematics flow As follows: problems. All of these request him to be more careful if he want to continue the game or play the game well. In this way the player may become more careful in the game and if he 1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S2D-25 Session S2D 2.1 Earlier period analysis 2.5 Game’s regulation and condition design As the same as all games’ design and development, to design There must be some regulations and rules to determine our a RPG game-learning game we also need to do some analysis, actions’ success or failure in the game behavior. Here we such as market analysis, player analysis. What is different is design a fixed system of rules and guidelines. According to that we need to be more carefully. the rules, players can improvise freely. The rules also judge During player learning analysis, we must identify the and remind the player who has made a wrong operation. We games we design is for which school year sections’ student. determine whether the player may continue to play or the And we also should identify extremely clearly their cognition game is over according to the ultimate goals which we characteristics and their basic study level. In this way we can mentioned before. And we also need to make some rules to guarantee that the game we design conforms to student's study reward a good player and punish a guy who has done a bad situation. job. And we also need to analyze the goal. It includes two aspects, game goals and learning goals. The game aims at a 2.6 Game script design pleasant stay of players due to the game system. Learning goals has clearly defined the specific goals in knowledge and When we have done all the things above we as designers ability development and various cognitive and emotional should have a very clear understanding for our game to be goals players need to achieve through game playing. designed. So we start by describing the entire game process. The game script writing is to list the game development process sequentially. It includes two latitude, not only the 2.2 Times and background design whole process of content instruction, but also the development It contains three parts, times, environment and background. process of the game story accompanying the content learning Times means the entire time and space game occurs. It is in need to be written down. It describes all situations that may order to describe the time the roles exist and where the game happen, just like playing the game in our mind，and then stories take place. Environment and background design are write down all the process in the papers . based on the design of times. According to times and space determined before, we then design some reasonable environment and backgrounds. 2.7. Game design and development

At last, programmers and artists can develop the game 2.3 Design game content according to the script. At the same time music can be added into the game according to the characteristics of the role or In this step we choose the appropriate course content first, and circumstance of the game. then sort out the instruction content according to linear senquence. Through sorting out the course content we can put 3 MULTIPLE DESIGNING STRATEGY the content into some levels. We put those levels from simply to thorough, from easily to difficult, and each level has an Combing the design flow and the characteristics of RPG ultimate goal which we expect the learner to achieve. Then game, aiming at constructing an education game environment comes the clues of game development and the general plot which can promote the development of multiple intelligence. design. At last we design the content switch. It means after the We find some designing strategy ， and call it Multiple learner’s abilities achieved the ultimate goal through the game designing strategy. playing, they should turn to learn more difficult content, so we must design the content switch to make our game smooth and natural. 3.1 The multiplity of roles’ characteristics

Unique personalities attract game players’ interest like bright 2.4 Game behavior pattern design lights. There are many RPG game-learning games in the market. However, we can find that the roles in those games Generally games have some specific flow patterns used to usually seems very clever or mature, sometimes they wears pass through the entire process. We must carries out RPG glasses just like a knowledgeable doctor. Those smart roles in game according to the flow pattern. Game behavior pattern the games are more like a good student or good guy who are actually is just like our scissors, stone and headwrap which we consistent with traditional concepts .Those roles make the used in playing a finger guessing game. It stipulated how to student feel boring. Multiple Intelligence Theory tell us that play the game. When we play games we continue the game we must respect every kind of intelligence. A student may be sometimes through fighting with the manticores, sometimes good at composing or dancing but performs poorly at his through guessing the riddles and sometimes through replying academic. This kind of students also need our appreciation on some questions and so on. Those fight, guess and reply are all his unique personality. So we should make our roles more game behavior patterns. lovely. They may not be perfect but they have multiple characteristics. When students playing the RPG game-

1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S2D-26 Session S2D learning games they can choose a role they like. If those roles We should design some circumstance which students with multiple characteristics like himself or his classmates, he could not experience in the real world. The outsider would may have a feeling of warmth and intimacy. It is good for a also find that the game occasionally shifted into 'role-playing' student to have a nice game-learning experience. in a more conventional sense - the participants improvising conversations between imaginary characters. Through role playing, the students gain knowledge and society experiences. 3.2 The multi-dimension of game content and goals Games and real life linked up in various situations. One of Multiple intelligence theory’s contribution is its Students can gain some experience from the game to absorption of some “non-intelligence” factors which enhance their problem-solving abilities. Due to the game beforehand education theories do not pay much attention to. background’s drawing close to lives and its simulation of the So we have more fields to choose for course contents. We can real daily life, it does not only meet the requirement for the choose some contents related to Logical-mathematical game’s self-realization function but also trained the students’ intelligence, Musical intelligence, Spatial intelligence, ability to solve problems. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, naturalist intelligence or even Interpersonal intelligence. Generally speaking, those contents 3.5 The opening evaluation system are welcome by students. We can combine the education with the fun of game. The diversity and richness in instruction Multiple Intelligence Theory stresses the multiplity, content could help to alleviate the "emphasizing education" development, collaboration, diversity and construction of embarrassment. The diversity of intelligence constitution intelligence development. It is difficult to measure students itself illustrates that the human development needs the full- using the same standard. We must make a proper evaluation scale development of multiple intelligences, so we should to the player’s performance. This evaluation should also be draw a balance between the knowledge acquisition of subject multiple-dimensional and opening. Make sure each student content and the development need of other intelligence, and could be able to present their knowledge and capacity through design the correspondent instruction content. proper ways which suit their characteristics. We use opening At the same time the multiple intelligence theory has evaluation rules to meet different development needs of also provided “multiple incisions” for realizing the instruction intelligences. Every intelligence may have their own objectives. We can use multiple intelligences as the “multiple evaluation system, we set the same point for them and design incisions” in instruction and provide multiple approaches for some opening evaluation rules to coordinate their differences. learners’ development to realize the multi-functional education. When developing games, we should not only 3.6 The multiplity of game-learning environment consider the “objectives of instruction in game” with knowledge content, but also considering the objectives of Gardner claimed that the eight intelligences rarely operate developing multiple intelligences. Only in this way the independently. They are used at the same time and tend to diversity of content could be highlighted in the designed complement each other as people develop skills or solve games. problems. Each game is set in a fictional world in which adventures and campaigns can take place. The learning environment in RPG game-learning games includes much 3.3 The multiplity of game behavior pattern entertainment and it also help to inspire students various Gardner suggested that each individual possesses a unique intelligences development. Try to built an opening game- blend of eight intelligences. While the intelligences are learning system to promote the comprehensive development discrete in terms of their existence in the brain, "real world" of human wisdom. Design an multiple environment so that the activities inevitably involve a blend of intelligences. It is students who have advantage in certain fields can get unlikely that the intelligences can operate in pure form in development. everyday functioning. Different intelligences development needs different education methods. We must pay more 4 CONCLUSION WORDS attention on game behavior pattern if we want to stimulate How to combine the RPG game-learning with teaching is a multiple intelligences of the students. We design diversity question needs more discussion. RPG game-learning is just a game behavior pattern to help intelligences to progress. We new thing, it is still in its infancy and need a lot of practices hope to realize human's multiple intelligences development on and exploration. Contrast to previous theories, Multiple the basis of obtaining knowledge through game-learning. Intelligence Theory has made a great breakthrough. It

provides theoretical support for the full-scale development of

students. We hope students can obtain knowledge through 3.4 The drawing close to lives of game background RPG game-learning so to realize their full-scale development. Howard Gardner viewed intelligence as 'the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting'.

1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S2D-27 Session S2D REFERENCES: [5]yinfengma,baoyunhe, “Network Game Curriculum -- Exploration of the game and education balance.” Modern [1]zhangjing, “The Inspiration of Inquiry Teaching under the Education Technology , June , 2005. instruction of Multiple Intelligence theory”, Instructional [6] Xie Tongxiang,“Edugame:A Practice to Combine Research, October，2005,pp19-22. Education and Entertainment”, Modern Education Technology, June , 2006. [2]Gardner,H., “Frames of mind:The theory of multiple intelligences(2nd Edition)”,New York,Basic [7]Shang jun jie,li fang le,li hao wen, “Light game “the future Books,1993,pp59-62. and hope of game-learning, Educational Technology Research , January , 2005,pp 24-25. [3]panhuadong, “to create a happy sky for Children playing and learning “, Information Technology Education , [8] Zhou Jian-ping, “On the Theory of Teaching in Games”, September 2003. Theory and Practice of Education, May ,2002.

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