Virtual World

I have been trying to find a virtual world to write my paper over and I have had a very hard time.  I have decided I do not like the virtual world.  I did a search in Google for MUDD games and found several.  They all centered around history themes and involved war-like activities.  I tried Second Life but couldn’t figure it out.  I kept getting very frustrated so I stopped trying to get it and looked for something else.

I decided to play Runescape.  I had tried to play this game a while ago and quit after realizing it required a lot of reading.  I read through all of the manuals and took it very slow.  I was able to finally get past that dragon at the very beginning of the game, with lots of help from the computer, and then I called it quits.  I am about to go play for a while again and see what I learned yesterday.  Wish me luck!!

Second Life

I tried Second Life last night and I haven’t found it to be very interesting.  I designed my player and had no clue what to do from there.  I was reading through some of the discussions on Blackboard about Second Life and ran across one that made me a little more interested in learning more about it.  There were obviously many aspects of this virtual world that I failed to understand and I will have to go back and try it again soon.

Bloxorz

I was able to sit down this evening and play a game on www.coolmath-games.com.  The game is called Bloxorz.  I have seen kids at school play and I now know why- it is so much fun!  The goal of the game is to move a block using your arrow keys on a piece of floor.  You want to move the block so you get it to fall through a square hole in the floor.  If you aren’t careful, the block can fall off the edge of the floor or break through weak spots.

In order to successfully master each level, the player must think about where the block will land, how many spaces they have to get to the hole, and how to maneuver the piece so it lands just right.  It is a fun game and I am glad I played.  If you have spare time you should check it out.

RuneScape

I am having a hard time finding games to play online.  All of the games I find are on candystand, math websites, or addictinggames.com.  I tried to look up other types of games, such as adventure games, and I found RuneScape.  I have heard many people talk about RuneScape so I tried to play this evening. 

I started an account, after entering about 10 different usernames (all had been taken) and designed my player.  I tried to read through the directions but I was too impatient and ready to play.  I didn’t play for very long because I couldn’t figure out how to do anything.  It really doesn’t look like a game that I would be interested in , but I am going to spend some more time learning how to play and give it another try this week!

Roller Coaster Tycoon and Fantastic Contraption

This past week I have played Roller Coaster Tycoon and Fantastic Contraption.  I love both of these games.  Fantastic Contraption is a game where you have a small workspace to build a contraption that will move an object to the goal space.  You are given sticks, wheels that turn in different directions, and water to help you achieve your goal.  There is no limit on how many times you use each tool to build a contraption that will carry the object.  You can also keep trying if you don’t succeed the first time.  There are 21 levels to this game and, of course, it gets harder as you go.

Roller Coaster Tycoon is an extremely addictive simulation.  You are in charge of building and managing an amusement park.  I sat up Thursday night, knowing I had to work the next day, and played until midnight.  I am no longer allowed to play this game until the weekend!  I can play this game for a couple of hours without realizing that much time has passed.  I would love to play this game in math class because there is so much involved (economics, supply and demand, and money management).

Pool Geometry

I was trying to read through blogs tonight (yes, I am a little behind!) and I found a few that mentioned playing games on coolmath.com.  Students play on this site at school all the time, but I have never played on it myself.  I found a fun game on there tonight called “Pool Geometry.”  You would place your mouse arrow on a ball on the table and it would show you the way it would go if you were to hit it there.  You had to aim the pool stick so the ball would go at the angle you wanted.  I only played two games but I could easily spend longer playing and trying to get better.

Paradise Island

I played Paradise Island tonight and I didn’t find it to be very fun.  I would, however, say that it is educational.  I went to Google and typed in free games and ran across this game.  It is a game that requires you to use your knowledge about vocabulary.  There are two different games you play in order to make it to the next round.  The first one requires you to put two syllable words together and they give you the main topic of all of the words.  The second game has you select letters to put in the place of blanks so you can form a word or words that also focus on the previous topic.  At the end of those rounds you move up a level- which after round 6 I still am not sure what it means to move up.  This would be an excellent game for students to play in order to improve their vocabulary but there really didn’t seem to be a purpose for playing.  There was no type of reward for winning or moving on.  I wasn’t into the game and had nothing to keep me from quitting.

Millionaire and Bejeweled

I played both “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and “Bejeweled” tonight and I didn’t spend too much time on either one.  I have a bad headache or I would have spent more time playing Bejeweled.  I thought both were fun.  Bejeweled is the type of game that I really enjoy.  I like games that are timed and make you think quickly.  Millionaire was fun but I don’t think I would play it very much.  Honestly, it isn’t a game that I ever watched on television and I can’t get that into it.  With timed games I feel under pressure to get it right and with Millionaire I didn’t feel any excitement.

First Week of Gaming

I really like games that are timed and make you think quickly. During our first week of gaming, I played Wii Sports (bowling), Mah Jongg, Awesome Blossom, and Match Maker (the last three are found on candystand.com).  I enjoyed playing all of these games. The first game is fun because you can play with more than one player and it requires the player to be active.  Wii Sports Bowling is probably my favorite game on the Wii.  I have tried to buy Mario games because Mario brothers were always my favorite games to play on Nintendo and Super Nintendo.  However, the Mario games for the Wii aren’t that fun.  The first one we bought was some sort of carnival and required the player to go to different tents.  I never fully understood what I was supposed to do and I was very disappointed.  The second Mario game we bought was Mario Galaxy.  I think it could be a fun game if I was able to spend more time playing and improve at it.  I was sad that none of these games were like the great Mario games that existed years ago.

The last three games I played were very similar.  Each one was played with one player and you had to race against a clock.  Mah Jongg is a puzzle with different layers.  Each piece (all are square) has a picture on it.  Your goal is to match two pieces that are on the edge of a layer on the puzzle to get them to go away.  The clock is running and your score is based on time and you can get bonus points if you get rid of two of the same matches in a row.  Awesome Blossom is a game that has rows and columns of flowers.  You can move either an entire row or column around and try to get as many of the same color flowers in a row.  You keep playing until the time runs out.  The more matches you get the longer you play.  The only thing I don’t like about this game is some of the flowers don’t help give you more time, they are just in the way.  Match Maker is similar to Awesome Blossom because it has a grid of half pieces of circular candy.  The goal is to rotate pieces of candy around and make whole pieces of candy with other pieces around of the same color.  Time is limited and there are bonus points available.

I really like puzzle games that make you think!  I can’t wait to play some more fun games this week.