Test run #1 (cont'd)

Created a 7.5-minute screen capture video showing how to log in to Freeciv, pick a nation, and start playing. Demonstrated the basics of movement, settlement, and goal establishment. Embedded the video in one of the introductory PowerPoint presentations.

We continued the first exploratory game from a couple of days ago and played a few more hours today. Looks like a lot of effort really needs to be invested in learning the game mechanics before any knowledge about international relations in the real world can be imparted effectively.

T said she forgot all about what she was trying to do with her cities and units, and brought up the idea of writing down her strategies and objectives. That's great! In fact, that's one writing activity I've wanted to implement from the very beginning. In my notes several months back when I first envisioned teaching ESL writing using Freeciv, I scribbled:

Each turn, each player writes a sentence, paragraph, article, or even a poem, song lyrics, etc. summarizing important events that took place in regard to that player's civilization that turn, including technological discoveries, founding of new cities, commissioning of new military units, construction of new city improvements, battles and wars with other civilizations, treaties signed or broken, verbal agreements between leaders, inauguration of new bridges and railroads, establishment of trade routes, annexation of new territories, establishment of new governments, setting of new research goals, formulation of new security/diplomatic/development strategies, new fiscal policies, new high in government revenue, demographic figures, etc.

Ten-round strategic review articles or commentaries can also be written from the perspective of historians, scholars, policymakers, or journalists.

We've got a long way to go yet.

Test run #1

A trial run was conducted today with the help of T and PP. First, I ran two introductory PowerPoint presentations, one showing Freeciv screenshots and another showing game objectives and learning objectives. The first one was well-received because of all the graphics, but the second one was too long and offered too much information that made little sense to present so early in the process.

After the presentations, we jumped right into an exploratory game that lasted almost four hours, with frequent interruptions including lunch. (G)oto was easy to teach. (B)uild City was also straightforward enough. Setting technology goals and switching city production to settlers turned out to be more difficult to explain because they involved also learning about the technology tree, grand objectives, and food surpluses. Techtree v3.0 by David W. Pfitzner proved to be most useful in helping T and PP visualize the technology tree and long-range goals.

Preliminary research (objectives)

1. To assess the difficulty of teaching Freeciv to non-gamers

2. To assess the potential of Freeciv as a teaching tool in studying

• strategy
• international relations
• intelligence analysis
• governance
• security
• diplomacy
• negotiation
• history of technology
• journalistic writing

3. To leverage knowledge gained from #1 into the development of an effective and easy-to-follow tutorial package that includes at least

• a video introduction
• a PowerPoint introduction
• a game manual
• a strategy guide

4. To leverage knowledge gained from #2 into the development of an effective and easy-to-follow content guide for some or all of the listed disciplines