Last time, I looked at a simple game where the player must escape a room. In this post, I will look at a "serious" game where the player must escape a potentially dire situation. This game, 3rd World Farmer, has many more options to the point where a bit of strategy is required.
You start with a simple household: one head of the family, a spouse, and two kids. You have a hut and some land. What do you do?
There are many options. You can choose what crops to plant and what tools to buy to increase crop yield many of which are not available right away due to their cost. You can also raise livestock and constructing certain farm buildings can increase the efficiency of your farm animals. Having wells can protect you from drought. The game then advances in one year turns, as in each turn is one year of in-game time. You plant your crops, set up your farm and hit "play" to go to the next turn, which begins by relaying you the results of your choices from the past turn. Many factors and events can affect the health, efficiency and value of your farm.
Good Events:
Troublesome Events:
Choices to Make:
Choices, choices, choices!
Admittedly the game gets more interesting the second or third time through, once you know what's possible and can build up a good farm. Though, the first time through is perhaps the game's strongest point: real life doesn't give you a second chance in this type of situation.
This brings us to classroom use.
By today's game terms, this game is quite simple: an internet flash game. However, in terms of education potential, it is quite potent and the overall simplicity can lend itself to focus within the classroom on the content without being distracted by explosive graphics and winding story plots, though those can certainly also be fit in somewhere! However, for the purposes of intermediate level ESL 3rd World Farmer is apt. For one, the students could write a simple narrative of their first experience with the game, which could be used to practice past tense. "I did..., I planted..., we bought..., etc..." Given the many forms of the English past tense, this could be useful. The teacher, having already played the game many times and familiar with all or at least most of the game's possibilities, would give the students a list of verbs to put into the past tense in their narrative. Select nouns could also be included and these could be linked to the appropriate transitive verb: "I plowed/ploughed the field."
Going by Kyle Mawer's task types this incorporates listing, ordering & sorting as well as a degree of storytelling with each student's run through of the game being their own short story. This first simple exercise can get the students familiar with the game and ready for their next play through. Now, that they know many of the games events and possibilities, especially after reviewing the short story in class with peer editing in the manner described for a simple game, the students can take the game to the next level.
They can play the game and take note of the events that take place, both good and bad (see lists above), and list their causes and effects. "I lost money because my pigs died from disease" or "I had a good harvest and earned more from wheat this year" and then these could be linked to events such as "and so, I couldn't (or could) afford medicine this year and so on and so forth. The choices ripple down through the turns and the students should be encouraged to take note of them and see the connections.
This brings us to Performance Indicators (see full list here)
This is a good performance indicator of students at least an intermediate level. They have the basic understanding of grammar and have a degree of proficiency, however they are not crossing beyond the reaches of the formulaic textbook language into the realm of creative language. The serious game allows for this much more than a simple game. The 3rd World Farmer game was meant to be education and so the students can look up in the news events that are similar to those depicted in the game. Given the complexity of news language, this could be done in the students' L1 (much easier and perhaps only feasible) with the same L1 in the classroom. Either way, the teacher should know about the students' L1(s) and have several sources/web portals in each language ready for them to consult. The students could then write a summary of the events in the news and related them to the game in a short prose essay in English. Much of the above performance indicator's elements would be included in this assignment as would be thinking of English outside of the classroom.
Recap:
First: Play the game much like in the simple game assignment. The students can see how far they get with distinction being given to the winner(s) and then write a simple narrative in the past tense about their play through. Peer editing and handing in of the short essay follows.
Second: The students play the game and focus on the causes and effects within the game. Does hosting paramilitaries help? Are some crops better to plant than others? What tools and equipment is needed to sustain livestock? Does the outside world affect what happens in your farm? And so on. In advanced classes this could be quite open ended with questions such as these merely giving the students a start in shaping their second longer writing with the requirement being "examine 5 causes and effects." In intermediate classes, the questions may be more specific and the answering of each (or a certain miminum amount) can be made a requirement for the essay.
Third: The students look at real life news stories (in their L1, if they wish) about similar events in the real world and then write summary in English about the events and also say how similar or different the real events are to those of the game. The list of events to look for can be drawn from the game's "Annual Report Screen." After play the game through at least 5 times (as I did) most of the game's possible events are encountered.
To save on class writing and peer editing time, the play throughs where cause and effect is noted and logged may be assigned as homework. The teacher here takes the role of introducing the assignment and each step, though it largely in the background and available for reference for the duration. This is why much of the writing and the first game play through will be done in class as that's what the students will likely need help with.
You start with a simple household: one head of the family, a spouse, and two kids. You have a hut and some land. What do you do?
 |
| Main Screen: Building up the farm resources with some acquired tools & a new family member has been born. |
There are many options. You can choose what crops to plant and what tools to buy to increase crop yield many of which are not available right away due to their cost. You can also raise livestock and constructing certain farm buildings can increase the efficiency of your farm animals. Having wells can protect you from drought. The game then advances in one year turns, as in each turn is one year of in-game time. You plant your crops, set up your farm and hit "play" to go to the next turn, which begins by relaying you the results of your choices from the past turn. Many factors and events can affect the health, efficiency and value of your farm.
Good Events:
- Good Harvest - better than expect crop yield (+50%)
- Splendid Harvest - much better than expected crop yield (+100%)
Troublesome Events:
- Civil War - get plundered
- Theft - loss of tools or property
- Corruption - loss of tools or property, more than in simple theft.
- Bad Weather - poor crop yield, wells destroyed
- Bank Crash - less profit from selling crops
- Poor Markets - less profit from selling crops
- Refugee Wave - potential loss of tools or property
- Disease - death of livestock and/or family member(s)
 |
| Annual Report Screen: There's been theft! Also, results of the year's harvest and income are displayed. |
Choices to Make:
- Host paramilitaries near by? Could get you caught up in war.
- Accept "harmless" barrels to be stored? Could poison your land.
- Accept to host a "native culture" festival. Get some money. This seems to be a good option, but it comes up rarely and only if your farm is doing very well.
Choices, choices, choices!
Admittedly the game gets more interesting the second or third time through, once you know what's possible and can build up a good farm. Though, the first time through is perhaps the game's strongest point: real life doesn't give you a second chance in this type of situation.
This brings us to classroom use.
By today's game terms, this game is quite simple: an internet flash game. However, in terms of education potential, it is quite potent and the overall simplicity can lend itself to focus within the classroom on the content without being distracted by explosive graphics and winding story plots, though those can certainly also be fit in somewhere! However, for the purposes of intermediate level ESL 3rd World Farmer is apt. For one, the students could write a simple narrative of their first experience with the game, which could be used to practice past tense. "I did..., I planted..., we bought..., etc..." Given the many forms of the English past tense, this could be useful. The teacher, having already played the game many times and familiar with all or at least most of the game's possibilities, would give the students a list of verbs to put into the past tense in their narrative. Select nouns could also be included and these could be linked to the appropriate transitive verb: "I plowed/ploughed the field."
Going by Kyle Mawer's task types this incorporates listing, ordering & sorting as well as a degree of storytelling with each student's run through of the game being their own short story. This first simple exercise can get the students familiar with the game and ready for their next play through. Now, that they know many of the games events and possibilities, especially after reviewing the short story in class with peer editing in the manner described for a simple game, the students can take the game to the next level.
They can play the game and take note of the events that take place, both good and bad (see lists above), and list their causes and effects. "I lost money because my pigs died from disease" or "I had a good harvest and earned more from wheat this year" and then these could be linked to events such as "and so, I couldn't (or could) afford medicine this year and so on and so forth. The choices ripple down through the turns and the students should be encouraged to take note of them and see the connections.
This brings us to Performance Indicators (see full list here)
Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.2:
Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information
Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information
related to academic content areas and various sources.
May Include - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.2.MI:
Sources such as nonfiction books for young adults, reference books, magazines, textbooks, the
Internet, databases, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, charts, graphs, maps, and
Internet, databases, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, charts, graphs, maps, and
diagrams.
This is a good performance indicator of students at least an intermediate level. They have the basic understanding of grammar and have a degree of proficiency, however they are not crossing beyond the reaches of the formulaic textbook language into the realm of creative language. The serious game allows for this much more than a simple game. The 3rd World Farmer game was meant to be education and so the students can look up in the news events that are similar to those depicted in the game. Given the complexity of news language, this could be done in the students' L1 (much easier and perhaps only feasible) with the same L1 in the classroom. Either way, the teacher should know about the students' L1(s) and have several sources/web portals in each language ready for them to consult. The students could then write a summary of the events in the news and related them to the game in a short prose essay in English. Much of the above performance indicator's elements would be included in this assignment as would be thinking of English outside of the classroom.
 |
| A good harvest season. Lots of crops. Expanded family. Developed town. |
First: Play the game much like in the simple game assignment. The students can see how far they get with distinction being given to the winner(s) and then write a simple narrative in the past tense about their play through. Peer editing and handing in of the short essay follows.
Second: The students play the game and focus on the causes and effects within the game. Does hosting paramilitaries help? Are some crops better to plant than others? What tools and equipment is needed to sustain livestock? Does the outside world affect what happens in your farm? And so on. In advanced classes this could be quite open ended with questions such as these merely giving the students a start in shaping their second longer writing with the requirement being "examine 5 causes and effects." In intermediate classes, the questions may be more specific and the answering of each (or a certain miminum amount) can be made a requirement for the essay.
Third: The students look at real life news stories (in their L1, if they wish) about similar events in the real world and then write summary in English about the events and also say how similar or different the real events are to those of the game. The list of events to look for can be drawn from the game's "Annual Report Screen." After play the game through at least 5 times (as I did) most of the game's possible events are encountered.
To save on class writing and peer editing time, the play throughs where cause and effect is noted and logged may be assigned as homework. The teacher here takes the role of introducing the assignment and each step, though it largely in the background and available for reference for the duration. This is why much of the writing and the first game play through will be done in class as that's what the students will likely need help with.
 |
| My first successful play through: #3 |
Thanks for your detailed post on how to use this game to increase language proficiency. I think that your idea of doing the first run through in class, but later playing at home is a very good one. That way, you are using class time very efficiently but also giving students the opportunity to play at home at their own "comfort" rate and to play multiple times if they choose.
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