Screen Time Debate: Puffs or Broccoli?

In this article, game designer Sande Chen delves into the parental guilt associated with app usage, as documented in the book, Baby, Unplugged.

Happy Labor Day! Hope you're having a good holiday and not working :)

In the previous months, I've been following up on research about kid games, especially those for the preschool set. I've had several conversations with parents whose children use apps and with those who weren't using apps of any kind. There was a wide range of opinions. In the latter part of this research, I found myself saying, "No judgment, just questions," mainly because I started to feel like people thought using apps with preschool kids was a touchy subject.  I didn't think it was, but clearly, there was some kind of guilt trigger going on about giving a kid a tablet at a young age, or for not watching or monitoring the kid on the tablet.  I just found it strange that quite a few parents didn't seem to have the same kind of inhibition about kids watching TV. 

This feeling of parental guilt is more clearly described in Baby,Unplugged, a book released during the pandemic and written by a journalist investigating the over $46 billion babytech industry. In the book, author Sophie Brickman wonders if app usage could be compared to secondhand smoke. When she tries to gray out her screen or lock up her iPhone, she finds she really doesn't want to do that. This may seem extreme, but I found that parents who didn't want their kids having any knowledge of a tablet were most successful when they didn't have a tablet and never used their phone beyond calling people. 

Later, she concludes that it's probably a stretch to think that parental app usage causes deep emotional damage to kids.

But what about the flip side: How does app usage affect kids using the apps? Brickman relates an anecdote of a teacher noting that a little girl who could digitally maneuver blocks on an app was at a loss as to what to do when faced with actual real-life blocks. It occurs to me that this is the age-old notion of television rotting one's brain except that it's apps that are rotting kid brains. Brickman does her own survey of preschool apps, which I find problematic because she excluded apps with subscriptions or in-app purchases, and finds a garbage heap. Free apps targeting preschoolers do tend to be advertising-based and questionably educational. 

Brickman ends up interviewing the developers at Sago Mini, Toca Boca, and Khan Academy, entities that develop highly recommended apps for preschoolers. Sago Mini and Toca Boca are owned by the same company and follow the mantra that "Fun is Learning." Their apps are open-ended and promote creativity. Still, she can't shake the feeling that shaving a cartoon lion is not altogether educational. Khan Academy Kids, on the other hand, offers a very structured learning plan combined with gamification. It covers core subjects and is proven to improve pre-literacy skills. Brickman likens Toca Boca apps to addictive baby puffs, which are not as bad as cotton candy, and Khan Academy Kids to broccoli, but more like broccoli tempura, something you'd want to eat.  Which would you want: Baby puffs or broccoli tempura?

In the end, Brickman has mixed feelings. In desperation, she finds herself downloading an app recommended by a doctor to help with a toddler bedtime meltdown.

In my next blog post, I'll discuss more about how preschool apps can help, how to use them, and why designing specifically for a preschooler's level of development is critical. 

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer with over 20 years of experience in the industry. Her writing credits include Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the PC RPG of the Year, The Witcher, for which she was nominated for a Writers Guild Award in Videogame Writing. She is the co-author of Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform, a founding member of the IGDA Game Design SIG, and an expert in the field of educational game design.

A Doll Like Me: Disabilities in Games

In this article, game designer Sande Chen explores the nature of disability in video games.

After seeing this emotional video of a young girl receiving an American Girl doll with a prosthetic leg, I can see that character representations in games and toys do matter.  "A doll like me," the girl says, overcome with tears of joy.  It's only natural that a girl with a prosthetic leg would want a doll with a prosthetic leg.  Those with disabilities want their favorite toys to reflect their own lives.

Though this particular doll was modified pro bono by a different company, American Girl is no stranger to petitions to include the disabled.  In 2012, American Girl released a line of accessories such as wheelchairs, seeing eye dogs, walking canes, and crutches.

When I've had occasion to play with children online in games with character creation tools, I've found that they like to make characters that look like them.  They adjust skin tone as much as eye and hair color.  They want female characters to be in the game world as much as male characters.  I have never seen disabled characters as an option.  Granted, it might not fit in with the narrative fiction, but most games have fantasy elements (I'm counting even power fantasies), so why not an avatar in a wheelchair?

I know that there have been games made especially for the blind or for those with learning disabilities.  There have been games that try to make us feel like a schizophrenic or a depressed person.  A lot of developers are recognizing the need for accessibility options, whether it's a different color scheme for the colorblind or a way to customize keys.  These options concern disabled players, but what about disabled characters in games?

Among disabled game characters, there's been amputees who gained a high tech appendage or characters who viewed their disabilities as something to overcome.  I think I would prefer it if the stories didn't focus too much on their disabilities.  Perhaps the disability is even an advantage, much like in the movies Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral.  Those characters do have a back story about their disabilities, but they don't dwell on it.  Although their disabilities are obvious, they have accepted the way they are and the way life is for them.

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

Educational Games: The Big Picture Part V

The final article in the educational game development series on Games + Learning, "The World According to Edu-Larps: The Analog Learning Games," explores meta-gaming, the activities and fandom surrounding a game that promote self-directed learning, and how meta-gaming is expressed in analog games and informal settings like museums. Analog games include card and board games, tabletop RPGs, and edu-larps.

Students participate in Mesopotamia Edu-larp

For schools with technological challenges, these types of games may be a more affordable option.  Moreover, analog games provide a social aspect that can't be replicated in digital games and allow educators to change parameters to suit the particular classroom.  Analog games have proven to be especially effective with struggling students and students with disabilities. 

Informal schooling in after-school programs, summer camps, and museums provide children with the opportunity to pursue learning at their own pace and according to their own interests.

In particular, check out the audio interview, which covers material not included in the article. 

Mega-gaming also happens with digital games and it begs the question:  Is the true essence of learning outside of the game rather than inside?  What do you think?  If so, then all those on-board assessment tools may not be uncovering the true state of a student's educational progress.

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

What's Wrong With Pre-K Game Apps

In this article, game designer Sande Chen explains why some Pre-K educational game apps may actually be disrupting the learning process.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center recently released the report, "Getting a Read on the App Stores: A Market Scan and Analysis of Children's Literacy Apps." Disappointingly, the majority of children's apps, although labeled "educational," didn't have any benchmark of educational quality and moreover, they weren't even game-like, featuring content that had wrong or right answers or actions.  Basically, they were interactive quizzes.

I had suggested in Journal Review: Game-Based Learning in India that perhaps we should be thinking about designing an app for a group of children rather than just one.  It turns out that young children learn best when an app is designed for co-use by a child and another caring individual, like a parent, babysitter, or sibling.  Only 2 of the 170 apps reviewed in the children's literacy report had any support for co-use.

Embed from Getty Images

Have we been designing children's apps wrongly?  An April 2015 study entitled "Putting Education in 'Educational' Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning" describes what not to do:

"The app began by reading the story to the child, and the narrative was progressing naturally with an introduction of the main characters and a story arc when buttons were suddenly displayed on the screen and children were asked to find things that “begin with the letter C.”

Adding these interactive activities or interactive hotspots, sections of the screen that move or make noise but are not essential to the story, may seem natural to game designers, but it turns out this is detrimental to the child's learning process.  And it's worse when the app is for pre-schoolers.  Older children may be able to focus, but pre-schoolers are especially susceptible to distraction.  Researchers have studied the areas of distraction and attention extensively in children. 

Furthermore, very few Pre-K apps are open-ended enough that the child can direct the play.  I have always heard that children's games should be very directed, with big arrows guiding the child to do the programmed activity, but according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, "When play is allowed to be child-driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their own areas of interest and ultimately engage fully."

This kind of play is so important that neuroscientist Sergio Pellis found in studies of baby rats that the brains of play-deprived rats do not develop normally.

As developers, let's learn to optimize learning rather than destroy it!

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

Color-Coded Pink and Blue

In this article, game designer Sande Chen explores the notion of girl and boy games and wonders if it's time to cease such labeling.

At last month's Digital Kids Conference, a panelist discussing gender barriers revealed that when 5-year-olds were informally surveyed, they tended to identify mobile app icons with the color blue as "boy" games and those with pink as "girl" games.  Boys would not click on a pink app even with a big robot on the icon.   I find it surprising that as a society, we are still so color-coded.  This superficial reskinning from blue to pink can really change the appeal to boys or girls.  According to a research study by Kids Industries, parents may be the ones reinforcing these gender conventions.  The panel noted that this labeling of pink or blue wasn't so prevalent 30 years ago when marketing to kids tended to be more gender neutral.

This year's Girl Toy of the Year

Even though 93% of parents say they shop by category (i.e. activity) rather than gender (as labeled by the manufacturer or retailer), 85% of the parents said they would not buy a pink kitchen toy for a boy, but had no qualms about buying the same product for a boy if it was in gender neutral colors.  They would in fact prefer gender neutral packaging.  The top 3 grossing kid apps at the time of the conference had neither pink or blue icons, but stuck to gender neutral colors like light orange.

This year's Boy Toy of the Year and Toy of the Year

While retailers like Wal-Mart definitely have pink and blue toy aisles, most popular kid game sites nowadays do not have a section for pink or "girl" games but rather, will categorize games of interest as dress-up, etc. games.  I think in the past, separate sections for girl games were created to encourage girls to play Web games and you can still see a special tab for girl games on FreeKIGames.  If you take a look at GirlsGoGames, which features games obviously marketed to girls, you'll notice a lot of pink.

Must we keep the Pink Ghetto for games?  Do we need to label games as girl or boy games?  Parents feel uneasy about the influence of marketers.  Boys can enjoy playing a hair salon game app, but won't touch one that is overly pink or labeled for girls.  A good game can appeal to both genders.

It seems to me that games marketed to girls tend to reinforce gender stereotypes by focusing on fashion, shopping, make-up, cooking and other stereotypically female activities.   Surrounding all these play activities with the color pink allows the color code to continue.

Pink = Girl = Existing Gender Roles.  

Marketing does influence our choices, but we can stop and think about how these choices may affect our children.  Parents do not need to follow the expectations of marketers.

I wonder:  Are we giving girls toys solely based on fashion, shopping, make-up etc. and not toys promoting STEM skills?

A game about space exploration could be marketed to girls and to boys and it doesn't even have to be pink or blue.  I don't think we need to label any game a girl game, just like we don't need to label a gamer a girl gamer.  Is it time to end this marketing convention of pink girl games?

[Sande Chen will be speaking at this year's Different Games Conference on the topic of female representation in games and game development.]

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

When Game-Based Learning Doesn't Work

In this article, writer and game designer Sande Chen discusses specific instances where game-based learning may not be effective and how serious game developers can make improvements.

As the co-author of the book, Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform, and a serious games consultant, I will happily point to the advantages of using serious games in the classroom and workplace.  Games are great at conveying systems and allowing exploration in a safe, virtual environment.  As has been shown in studies in the classroom, the use of deep (vs. drill and practice) games can make a remarkable difference in the learning outcomes of otherwise reluctant students.

However, there is one subset of students that may still need convincing:  Adults.

At the 2013 Games4Change Conference, Dr. Alicia Sanchez presented results of a study based on the use of games at the Defense Acquisition University.  Despite efforts, there were some adult students that felt the games were frivolous and especially disliked being seen playing a video game with a cartoony character.  Learning outcomes were better for these students when they avoided these lighthearted games entirely.

These results reoccurred when a serious game developer wanted to introduce a game to help would-be employees of the airline industry memorize airport codes.  Adults preferred to rely on their own tried and tested methods of memorization rather than muddle about with the new game.  The majority of the target audience did not even try the game.

What can we take away from these examples?  How can we reconcile these results with other studies that state that learning outcomes do significantly improve with the use of serious games? 

In both of the "fail" results, the adults didn't want to be seen playing an edutainment-like product, replete with childish helper characters and bright text.  These were also both situations where the adults' future jobs were on the line.  If one doesn't follow the right procedure in defense acquisition or doesn't know the right airport code, that person will not get the job.  Even if the game wasn't like edutainment, why risk job security?

When simulations are used in the workplace, adults clearly see the benefit.  Here's how you should land an airplane, conduct offshore drilling, fight a wildfire, run a roller coaster safely, etc.  These are deeper experiences in which adults can see a clear connection between serious game and job security.  As a target audience, adults may need a more "serious" visual presentation to take games as learning tools seriously.  To put it bluntly, adults need more convincing, especially in the workplace.

Furthermore, serious game developers should be striving for these deeper experiences in their games.  These are the types of games that slough off the shackles of edutainment and show why games are useful in the classroom and beyond the classroom:  in the workplace.

Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.

Ponies and Space Marines: Demographics and Design

In this article, writer and designer R.M. Sean B Jaffe reminds everyone that it's the designer's job to make a game fun, even if the game is about topics outside of the designer's comfort zone.

I have a powerful friend on the West Coast who asks his potential hires two questions. I’ll skip the first one since it’s irrelevant, but the second one is pretty straightforward:

“Let’s say we have a position open on My Little Pony Farmland Adventure. Would that interest you?”

As you may have guessed, the correct answer is yes. Because, as he puts it, "games are games."

While you may not have dreamed of that *exact* project when you were playing Final Fantasy or Doom back in the day and fantasizing about being a game designer, you should be aware that what sets apart a good designer is the ability to make almost anything fun. One of the most pervasive, successful, and well-known games of all time is about real estate and rent control in Atlantic City. I’ll let that sink in.

With the entire idea of games and game design turning on its ear, one of the great unspoken fears of a large element of the industry is the shift towards casual games and the demographics that come with that. The elephant in the room is that a lot of designers in the industry didn’t get into this biz to write for bored housewives, teenage girls or the elderly. They’re into goblins and lasers and space marines, and those are a hard sell for the above demographics, who seem much more into jewels, farms, and the aforementioned ponies. So, as a guy who got his start with vampires, antichrists and were-sharks, I’m writing this for you.

There was an adage in the tabletop industry where I got my start: write the *system* for the *game*. What this meant was that if you had a combat-heavy world like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, you didn’t spend days and days coming up with a perfect system for public speaking. Using that sort of logic, it makes a lot of sense to see what that people outside your comfort zone like about games, what makes them work, and what keeps them playing.

Recently I’ve heard a great deal of complaining about Farmville: “It’s not even really game!” “ You don’t *do* anything”, but not a lot of real assessment of what *does* makes it work. And while there are plenty of arguments to be made about Farmville, it can’t easily be argued that it doesn’t work.

Certain mechanics are popular with certain types of gamers: most FPS players have a fondness for “twitch” mechanics. These don’t go over so well with the casual crowd, who like a lot more time to make the decisions they are going to make. Small details like this are crucial in writing for specific demos, and it’s worthwhile for a designer to play every game they get their hands on, regardless of who it’s marketed to. That way, you get a feel for each demographic’s type of game, and can readily adapt to what a specific job might require.

When creating for any specific group, the most important thing to do is maintain a balance of what you may or may not know appeals to that group, and what you know as a designer is going to be the most fun. While Ponies and Space Marines all have their place, simple fun always has a broad appeal.

R.M. Sean B Jaffe is a writer and designer with a background in tabletop gaming and over ten years of experience in the industry working for companies like Griptonite, Vogster Entertainment, and White Wolf Game Studio. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey with his wife, his dog, and a fanatical devotion to old-school arcade games and tabletop RPGs. He is a bad enough dude to save the president, and for a reasonable fee, he can be convinced to rise from his grave and rescue your daughter.

November 2010: Designing for Demographics

Apologies for the late start!

What's the best way to tackle designing a game for a specific audience? That audience could be segmented by age, gender, or even location. Some designers feel that a great game appeals to everyone while others go fishing for specific likes or dislikes of a targeted audience. For instance, if 50-year-old women are known to like gardening, then games about gardening might be a clear direction for that audience.

Or how about when a game is successful in one country, how will it be received in another? Are there specific steps to be taken when localizing?

Can any game mechanic be successfully copied and marketed to different demographics? Are there differences in design or is it just in the marketing?

So what's your methodology and the reasoning behind it?