I rarely play games online but liked the opportunity to do so, amazingly, while at work (more thoughts on games and teaching and learning later). Most of the recommended game sites required downloads or installations, so I opted for Pop Cap games. I found the Zuma game to be simplistic and not fun at all. On the other hand, I loved playing Bejeweled! I was actually pleasantly surprised by the fact that I liked all versions of the game and was thinking about playing it again. My son recommeded Insaniquarium. In terms of the X-Men Retribution links, I didn't spend too much time on the web version since it would require more time than I had and the learning curve would be steep. The tutorial looked promising. I liked the wiki and will probably take a look at this again.
I checked out MMORPG.com-what an amazing site! A great source of information about online games. I enjoyed the Videos and thought the graphics for most were of very good quality. I also liked features such as updates, upcoming releases and Games in Development and thought these would be of great interest to gamers (and would keep them coming back to this site along with the forums, podcasts and chat). Another MUSH site I liked was Top MUD sites-lots of info; very intuitive.
I checked a few suggested MMORPG sites. One that interested me was City of Heroes since this had a "fun" aspect to it. Reading through the newsletters and browsing pages, I think players really get a chance to be creative; I am guessing the level of violence is less than than Anarchy Online or WOW but I can't be sure. Overall, these games seem to involve a high level of commitment and time, but a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as you progress through the game. The interest for libraries? Well, these worlds certainly are places where many people spend their time. The structure and group-like activities could be using in a learning environment. I believe assumptions about experience and level of activity can't be made, and any games used for teaching and learning should have very clear objectives and methods of evaluation.
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FYI: With MUSHes, there are hundreds of different themes/genres out there. X-Men: Retribution was just a personal favourite (probably the only one I consistently play on) and one I had permission to showcase.
For more MUSHes, my own MUX (Online Gaming Resource) has a website which lists some that we have 'embassies' for on my own MUX:
http://www.ogrmux.com/embassies/embgenre.htm
Meanwhile, I DO recommend X-Men: Retribution's tutorial (as there is a learning curve for the software the games use) as mentioned, as well as Noltar's "An Introduction to MUSH" ( http://www.ogrmux.com/archives/articles/articlenoltar.htm ) to start with. There are other resources out there as well (just holler at me if you're interested at all).
Honestly, if I thought even four or five people might be interested in learning more about MUSHes, I could do a session just on them. ;)
- Kel
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