Self-esteem games

http://selfesteemgames.mcgill.ca/games/index.htm

This website had three different games. They were the stupidest games I had ever played. The first one was “Grow your own Chi”, in the game you entered you name, then every time you name or a picture of a smiling face flew by the screen you were supposed to click on it. For every time you clicked on a smile face or your name, you got points, if you clicked on a sad face you lost points. It is supposed to teach you to avoid negativity. The second game was “Eye Spy Matrix,” where there was a four by four grid of pictures. One of the pictures was of a smiling face and all the rest were negative faces. You were supposed to click on the smiling face as fast as you could. Each round had four grids and it took you fastest time and average of your times. Then you played another round, trying to improve you time and teaching you to look for positive information and avoid the negative. The last game on this website was “WHAM! Self-esteem conditioning.” In this game you entered your name and birthday, and once again clicked on them when you they would appear on the screen. The idea that it would give you links between yourself and social acceptance. The website says that these games are not supposed to increase self esteem but instead help you look for the positive in things. This was not true at all for me. I found myself very board and it in know way helped my look for the positive. I found all three very boring and a waste of time.

Ben’s Game

http://www.makewish.org/site/pp.asp?c=cvLRKaO4E&b=64401

Ben’s Game was created by a kid that is in remission from Leukemia. He created the game as his wish from the make a wish foundation. The game is designed for kids to play in the hospital. In the game you have to find 7 shields, while fighting mutated cells, and diseases. I downloaded the game and tried to play but was not any good at it. I did not get how to fight the diseases to receive the shields. Also I was really bad at avoiding the mutated cells. But over all I thought the game could be fun for kids.

Break Down

http://www.gothamgazette.com/breakdown/

Break Down is a game about New York City. It asks questions about the city’s electricity, telephone, cable, gas, steam sewage and water. In the game you are a repair man who is trying to save the city. There is an animation of a guy crawling down a sewer pipe. At each leave you are asked a question, if you get it right then you advance down the pipe if you get it wrong you have to go back to the previous level. The questions are multiple choice about New York City’s polices and facts in the different areas of electricity, telephone, cabal, gas, steam, sewage, and water. The questions were not that hard but more interesting. I was really bad at the water questions and kept being sent back to sewage. Overall I found the game very informative.

Overall, I did not really like the games I played. I found them kind of childish and boring. Break Down was the best I looked at. But on the website I noticed that I had played most of the social impact commercial games, like roller coaster tycoon, sim city, and organ trail. All of which I enjoyed. So while some of these games were very boring, I could see how others do change how people look at the world. For example when playing sim city you have to plan out the whole city. Look at where to but the neighbor hoods, the power planets, the jobs, the roads. It helps in a understanding of how a city is built.