Gamers get Schooled!?

Hello again, Game Bandits!

Get ready for Gaming chatter!!!

What have you got gaming-wise to cover this week?

I’m hoping Ironham, Bagofchips and LordChunky can walk us through the crazy AFK Roblox playing they’ve been up to and the keystroke generators they’ve been using to buff their characters while they sleep!?

Looks like GGiraffezz is putting his new microphone to good use in his latest Minecraft videos…using Filmora9… curious to know what he thinks of that software for game videos!

Kitchen Banditry

First up for our London Ladies and their Sims.! Some interesting news about EA responding to the call for better skin tone and hair options. Gamers want the Sims franchise to better reflect diversity and representation of people of color within the game.

Sims Skintones letting down people of colour?

There was an original update back in Feb 2018 to add “additional” skin tones and hair styles…

https://simsvip.com/2018/02/07/sims-4-gurus-respond-players-feel-underrepresented-game/

But it sounds like there were problems and the update hasn’t been well received. This has lead to a more recent response about the problems that EA will be addressing as they move forward:

https://simsvip.com/2020/08/11/the-sims-4-simgurulyndsay-addresses-skin-tone-representation/

How important do you think representation is within gaming. Why do you think it matters? What’s the underlying problem that you see with EA failing to deliver on a patch like this?

Dr. Pixel

Next up I want to try out this game I saw on the CBC.

https://quarantriviagame.com/

Dr Pixel was written by university of Waterloo student Ridhi Patel, who has designed this trivia game to help battle COVID-19 misinformation and fake news about the global pandemic.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/dr-pixel-quarantrivia-misinformation-game-ridhi-patel-1.5687044

It’s a great idea… But is it a good game? As “real” gamers, does this appeal to you, Bandits? Would you play it in school or for fun?

Minecraft Education Edition

I don’t know of any games, other than Minecraft, that I would call successful at being educational games that I would play. Have you used any great “educational games”, services or servers? I really like online tutorials on YouTube as well as LinkedIn Learning and Khan Academy…how about you? Which worked for you? Have any failed miserably? What did you like… or not like about them? Do you have any educational games or services you like and would recommend? How about something for Minecraft or Roblox perhaps?

Extra Credits is one of my favourite YouTube Channels and they’ve got a lot to say about Education and gaming… from the gamers perspective. They see a lot of “Top Down” design the game and force kids to play it approaches that don’t work… here’s a couple of great ExtraCredit takes on Educational Video Games:

Games in Education
Gamifying Education

Then I suddenly realized that one of the most iconic “simulator” games has just launched… Microsoft Flight Simulator… is this an educational game, do you think? Could simulators become more game-like?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-flight-simulator-standard/9nxn8gf8n9ht?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Flight Simulator Returns!
MSFS Before you buy guide!

Which brings me to my friends at LevelEx! These folks are making games… for Doctors! Want to do a little surgery? Download their apps and have a go? I am really excited about the potential of this “virtual” or “simulation” based education.

https://www.levelex.com/

Heart Surgery Anyone?
Find a flat surface and practice intubating a virtual patient using AR on your iphone!

What do you think? Slap on a pair of Augmented Reality glasses and learn while you’re doing it? Hope you’ve got a few grand! Microsoft’s Hololense 2 costs $3,500.00!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/

Education and Hololense2

It doesn’t sound like I’m the only one excited about this edu-gaming stuff… The United Nations Environment Program has started a new initiative call Playing4ThePlanet that gets gamers and game companies working together to inform and save the planet!

Playing4ThePlanet.org

See you all at 11am EDT!

Cheers,

D!

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