Understanding Gaming Lingo As A Parent, Teacher, and School Administrator

Happiness is...
• Meaning Beyond Oneself
• Hope of Success
• Social Connection
• Satisfying Work
Monday, May 12, 2014

Purpose
1. Point of entry to understand youth
culture
2. Opportunity to increase rapport and build
relationships with students

Deﬁnitions
Computer Games - games played on a computer
• Steam
Video Games - has evolved into a catchall phrase that encompasses the
above along with any game made for:
• Mobile
• Action
• Action-Adventure
• Role-Playing Games - RPG
• Sports
• Real Time Strategy - RTS

Game Genres
Mobile Games
• Designed for mobile devices, such as smartphones,
feature phones, pocket PCs, personal digital assistants
(PDA), tablet PCs and portable media players

Game Genres
Action
• Emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye
coordination and reaction-time

Game Genres
Action: First-Person Shooter - FPS
coordination and reaction-time + shooting and combat
from the perspective of the character controlled by the
player
Master Chief

Game Genres
Action-Adventure
coordination and reaction-time

Game Genres
Role-Playing Game - RPG
• Gives the player choices to direct their story
Types
• Sandbox RPGs
• Action RPGs
• Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
- MMORPGs

Game Genres
Sandbox RPGs
• Allow the player freedom and contain a somewhat
realistic free-roaming world (the player is not
conﬁned to a single path restricted by rocks or
fences etc)

Game Genres
Action RPGs
• Features a heavy emphasis on combat, often simplifying
or removing non-combat attributes
• Combat takes place using a real-time system (hence
the "action") that relies on player's ability to perform
actions with speed and accuracy to determine success

Game Genres
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games -
MMORPGs
• Feature the usual RPG objectives of completing quests
and strengthening one's character, but involve up to
hundreds of players interacting with each other on
the same world in real-time

Game Genres
Sports
• Games that play competitively or controlled by you
that you can play by yourself, with friends or online

Game Genres
Real-Time Strategy
• Action in the game is continuous and players make
decisions within the backdrop of a constantly
changing game state

Game Genres
Real-Time Strategy: Multiplayer Online
Battle Arena - MOBA
• Two teams of players compete with each other with
each player controlling a single character through
an RTS-style interface. It differs from traditional
RTS games in that players control just one
character

Game Genres
• Adventure
• Player assumes the role of protagonist in
an interactive story driven by exploration
and puzzle-solving
• Strategy
• Gameplay requiring careful and skillful
thinking and planning in order to achieve
victory and the action scales from world
domination to squad-based tactics
• Racing
• Place the player behind the wheel and
involve competing in a race against other
drivers and/or time. Two sub-genre can be
identified: simulation and arcade
• Puzzle
• Require the player to solve puzzles or
problems and can involve the exercise of
logic, memory, pattern matching, reaction
time, etc
Other Types
• Simulation
• Many simulation games aim to simulate physical
activities such as flying an aircraft, (sometimes
with as much realism is as possible). Other forms
of simulation game aim to provide simulations of
forms of management, management games, city
management (SimCity), railroading, etc.
• Rhythm/Music
• Require the player to undertake some action
(e.g. follow a sequence of movement or develop
specific rhythms) in response to some stimulus
(often music)
• Traditional
• Represent computerized versions of board, word,
and card games and include games such as
chess, checkers, backgammon, mah-jong, go,
scrabble, etc
• Educational
• Designed to teach new skills which can span
from pre-school onwards

Purpose
1.Point of entry to understand youth
culture
2.Opportunity to increase rapport and build
relationships with students

Copyright
Rosalind
Wiseman
2013
www.rosalindwiseman.com
Strong
Verbal Skills
Tall
Detached
Always relaxed
Athletic at “right” sports
Girls Like Him
$$
Funny
Good Style
Good at Video Games but not
Obsessed
Boy World
Backs Down
Short
Poor
Like a Girl
Bad Style
Controlled by
girls
Snitch
Awkward
Fat
Easily upset
Tries too hard
Disabilities

Guys try to stay in that box and can never really
be who they truly are. When I moved here I
always tried to be in the box and be cool but it
never worked out and always made me miserable.
I'm sure that if the box wasn't there I wouldn't slack so
much in school because people who try hard in school get
made fun of and are lower on the social scale.
So many guys are scared to say or act certain ways because
of this box. The worst part is that guys try to deny it. We
don't want to admit that we have problems. I put on a mask
every day and mask my insecurities, secretly wishing I could
take it off.

Copyright
Rosalind
Wiseman
2013
www.rosalindwiseman.com
Right Style
Verbal Skills
Thin but Curves
Good Grades
Doesn’t Get Offended
Athletic at “right” sports
$$
Above it All
Trend Setter
Conﬁdent
Girl World
Too skinny
Poor
Physically
Immature
Looks like a
Boy
Passionate
Snitch
Awkward
Fat
Easily upset
Too enthusiastc
Disabilities
Tries too Hard
Uptight

SEAL
1. STOP: Breathe, listen, and think when and where, now
or later?
2. EXPLAIN: What happened that you don’t like and what
you want.
3. AFFIRM: Afﬁrm and acknowledge.
4. LOCK: In the friendship, take a vacation or lock it out
(as a last resort).

SEAL (w/ Video Games)
1. STOP: Breathe, listen, and think when and where, now
or later?
2. EXPLAIN: What happened that you don’t like and what
you want.
3. AFFIRM: Afﬁrm and acknowledge.
4. LOCK: In the friendship, take a vacation or lock it out
(as a last resort).

Take Aways
1. Be curious
2. Use new language
3. Appreciate complexity
4. Stop assuming

Resources
• Reality is Broken - Jane McGonigal
• It’s Complicated - Dana Boyd
• “No Girls Allowed” - Polygon
• Entertainment Software Association 2013 Report

Understanding Gaming Lingo As A Parent, Teacher, and School Administrator

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