Request For Information - Game Based eLearning

#21 @Demolishun - you're telling me. I am English and can barely speak the bloody language, could never learn a language that way ever. He was a massive fan of Elvis Presley which somehow seemms cliche, kinda thing one would expect to hear from a guy who had taught himself to speak that way. Sometimes life is exactly like fiction.

#22 I am really pleased that we, some of our mature developers, are going quality academic.
I put my 2d game on hold to pursue more useful projects back on the 3d engine for educational purposes.
The market is over saturated with fps.

#23 Educational software isn't exactly a new thing. It still suffers now from the same problems it always has, i.e. doesn't really engage the player much, not particularly fun, tries to impose traditional teaching methods onto a new medium without really making use of the strengths of that medium. The problem with using traditional teaching methods and not really examining how a game works and why kids choose to play a certain game and why they will spend hours doing so always results in misplaced ideas and effect. Most games that try to teach even through FPS insert questions or quizzes which pulls the player out of the experience, where the quiz reduces the suspension of disbelief - suddenly a player is rushing down a corridor in FP POV dodging bullets and then they get stopped short because they have to answer 5 academic questions. Suddenly the player is back in the classroom and bored and no longer interested in playing. This is because a lot of people think just imposing one system over another constitutes turning a game into a teaching tool and it doesn't, without close attention paid to inetgrating the two in a seamless manner the aims one wants to achieve, i.e. help children to learn new skills and come to new understandings are bound to fail and in reality all one has done is swapped pen and paper for an iPad that's 100 times more expensive whilst not making any more use of the latter than can be done with pen and paper. The real mark of a success in this field is when a child turns tne game on outside school because it's fun to play, becomes immersed in it and doesn't realise they are actually learning at the same time. I've yet to find teaching software that achieves this.

#24 We're here to solve the 'haven't seen it yet'. The goal I am working towards is to keep the school setting in camera only mode, and allow those who want to shoot it up the freedom to do so at home, at the same time learning what Torque has to offer as an engine, by having the fps add-on in Git hub.
I am hesitant to have a quiz anywhere in the software I am developing.
You should be able to learn key concepts simply by menu navigation, and as you become more familiar with the material, the quicker you can click and buy game items that help you own.

#25 @Nathan - a lot of the experimental stuff that will change the way educational software works probably can only be done by people prototyping on their own. In company terms if one wants to make a living in this field one simply gives the customer what they want. Teachers have used games to teach for many years they're just not games that are suited to anywhere but the class room. Software isn't cheap to develop and as a lot of the research into how best to utilise computer technology to create virtual worlds in which kids have fun and learn at the same time hasn't been done yet, it's hard to ask organisations to invest in development of stuff which is an unknown quantity with an uncertain outcome. That sort of fundamental research should be done in University computing departments. There was a book that came out this year I believe examining just these ideas and laying out a plan for a way forward. I'll see if I can find the reference and post it here.

#26 Just bumping this for anyone who is watching. This RFI will close at the end of this week.

#27 hi there,
I m russell. I work as 3D graphics designer in TIMUZ (gameseverytime.com), its an online gaming portal.Mates can you help me out in finding the RFI file to download. I couldn't find proper path or dumped file. And i m happy and should thank you for MIT open source software for torque 3D.

#28 Nice to hear you guys are trying to branch out, I heard of GG back in 2006 when my college (Del Mar College) was trying to push ALICE game maker in our class, I didn't like it so I went out and a limb and bought Torque Game Engine 1.4.2 created a kick ass game, they were so impressed that I had to show case it to the Dean of College and board and they turned the hole degree plan around GG they bought several licenses. Good Luck Guys.....