The Stories We TellJames CollinsSmithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access

@JamesCollinsJr

Braid, 2008

Five Questions

(1)Why games?

(2)Why narrative?

(3)How do they relate?

(4)How does this connect to collections?

(5)How can we implement this?

“Does Game-Based Learning Work? Results from Three Recent Studies” Richard Blunt

Can the use of games improve performance on tests?

Answer: Yes – sometimes by as much as 30%

But other factors are at play

“Level Up Learning: A National Survey on Teaching with Digital Games” Joan Ganz Cooney Center

55% of teachers use digital games weekly

71% say games are effective for math learning

47% say games benefit lowest performers the most

“Digital Games for Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”SRI

Digital game interventions perform better than non-game interventions

Adaptive games perform better than non-adaptive games

Non-competitive games perform better than student vs. student games

“Emotion and the Structure of Narrative Film: Film as an Emotion Machine”Ed Tan

“When viewing any film . . . we do not only see solid bodies in motion, and understand that they represent people, but also, and perhaps above all, we feel something for the characters and are somehow moved by the sight of them.”

Inside Out, 2015

“Is There A Text In This Class?”Stanley Fish

“Interpretation is not the art of construing but the art of constructing. Interpreters do not decode poems; they make them.”

Final Fantasy 7, 1997

Asteroid, 1979

“Fully Operational Fandom”

“Learning From Fiction: Applications in Emerging Technologies”Ruthanna Gordon

“One common source of information is fiction. Although we are capable of recalling and understanding individual facts, we vastly prefer narratives that draw causal connections between the diverse elements of our world. This tendency can be distressing to experts who would prefer that people learn facts in their most accurate and clearly presented form, unadorned by irrelevancies. Fiction, after all, is not usually created with the sole or primary goal of communicating an accurate picture of the world. Nevertheless, this narrative advantage is a principle familiar to every politician who has chosen an engaging anecdote over a pie chart in attempting to influence people’s worldviews.”

“Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film”Seymour Chatman

“[The] transposability of the story is the strongest reason for arguing that narratives are indeed structures independent of any medium.”

Discrete Narrative

Narrative

Medium

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, 2003

Prince of Persia, 2010

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982

E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982

E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982

Discrete Narrative – Lossy Transfer

Medium

Fidelity LossMediu

m

Jurassic World, 2015

Gee + Chung Audio Tour Display

Dependent Narrative

Narrative

Medium

Differences in Perspective

Discrete Narrative:It is an augmentation of the exhibit.

Dependent Narrative:It redefines the experience.

Discrete Narrative – Game as Add-on

Game

Exhibit

Audio

Tour

Marketing

Narrative

Fidelity Loss

Fidelity Loss

Fidelity Loss

Dependent Narrative

GameExhib

it

Narrative

Othermedi

a

Narrative

Narrative

Where can you see our stuff?

Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981

Jurassic Park test, c. 1992

Wait

ing

in L

ine 3

D,

2013

Implementation?

FILL IN QUICK MIRACLE FIX HERE

University Partnerships

Game Dev

University

Expertise

Content

Museum

Funding Pathway

s

Game

Five Questions; Five Answers

(1)Why games?

(2)Why narrative?

(3)How do they relate?

(4)How does this connect to collections?

(5)How can we implement this?

The Stories We TellJames CollinsSmithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access

@JamesCollinsJr