Responds to Epistemic Games post

Wow! I didn't realise my posting on Epistemic Games: Can this work in MMOG environment? which I copy and paste in blackboard for Dr M module has attracted quite a fair bit of responds. I list them below here.

Abel responded to my posting:
I find your point about what would happen when the no. of participants gets too large interesting. Intuitively, I think there will be a certain level of unrest but whether epistemic gaming would still survive under these conditions would be a tricky one to answer. Let’s consider the massive online gaming now in the market, I believe the guild leaders would in a way restrict the number of players therefore, it will not lead to total chaos. What do you think?

MS replied to Abel:
I had a conversation with my younger brother as I know that he is holding some 'leadership' position in the War craft online game. He shared with me that its important for the members to have common shared goals, identities and have trust with their leaders. One simple way to show 'leaderships' and commitment is to be 'punctual' online and be 'virtually present' to provide guidance to the novices and to invite them to join their guilds according to some. Personally, I'm not an online multiplayer gamer so I am still trying to understand what my brother is sharing with me.

WM responded to my posting:
Epistemic games are reflective, knowledge-generating activities that can be used in any classroom, and can be created for any knowledge domain. The theory of epistemic games was developed by Collins and Ferguson (1993) and Morrison and Collins (1995).

Players are grouped into teams of three. Each player draws one card per turn, and places it onto a hierarchy diagram on the posterboard. The player then draws connecting lines to join the new card to existing cards.

For example, the first player draws the card "meat" and places it on the posterboard. The second player draws the card "plants" and places it on the same row with "meat". The third player draws the card "animals" and places it on the same row with "meat" and "plants". The fourth player moves "meat" to the row below. Subsequent players draw cards and place them on the posterboard according to the legal moves.

Players in the same team must have a common shared goal so that they apply the same strategy to achieve their goal.

Abel replied to WM:
Some of you seem to be saying that the members are having a common goal. Could it be possible that some players just wanted to help others to achieve their goals; hence arguably, they are not having the same goals. In addition, I believe different people may also have other self-vested goals. Therefore, I would like to suggest that yes it is a given fact that all of them have goals. However, it is not a given premise that they must have the same goal. What do you think?

I better start thinking how to respond. Hmmm... I can't think now. Liverpool will play Aston Villa in less than an hour. How I hope they win. *on my knees* Please God.... *trembling* : ) I need to calm my nerves first. Will respond soon enough but I am glad to see that my posting has generated so much interest. Cool. ^^