The game I have chosen to play is “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project. Upon selecting the game, I was told that it would take about an hour and a half to two hours to complete. In selecting this game, I was given background that it was 1941 and that my character was 16 year old Henry Tanaka. As I began to play the game, I found there was a great dependence on exposing the player to the background knowledge. It begins with a prologue in the present day and allows the player to travel back in time to meet Henry and to know his story. As I began to play I also saw that it allowed for the player to choose the dialogues that took place between characters, player autonomy can be seen as a very important element in engagement. This concept aligns with Gee’s element of co-design as I was able to learn and manipulate the game by selecting my own. Players are able to ‘tell their own story’ and ‘choose their own path’ for Henry which can diversify player experience with the game. As I continue to develop in Henry’s story, I am intrigued to learn more about Henry and his World War II experiences.
(Screenshot as I (Taylor Loiacono) play “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project on 9/15/22)
A great feature about this game is that it also provides underlined words that players might not know and if clicked on, is provided with a definition.
(Screenshot as I (Taylor Loiacono) play “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project on 9/15/22)
(Screenshot as I (Taylor Loiacono) play “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project on 9/15/22)
I quickly found that this game is multisensory as it challenges students to complete things visually but also allows them to hear all things said audibly. This is a very important element for a game like this to entail because it makes it more appealing and accessible to different skill sets of players and how they retain information best.
Taylor's Education Blog 
Taylor, I really enjoyed reading through your blog post as we played the same game but in different time periods. I played the City of Immigrants game from the MissionUS website. You mentioned how you liked that the game “begins with a prologue in the present day and allows the player to travel back in time to meet Henry and to know his story”. My game also did this at the beginning of the game which I really liked because I was able to get to know the main character at the beginning of the game which ended up being very helpful to determine the storyline. I connected this game to Gee’s element of well-ordered problems. This would be a great example of well-ordered problems. For example, the game gave us background knowledge in the very beginning which helped us then determine which decision we were going to select. If the game did not give me background knowledge in the beginning I would have been led to the wrong conclusion and maybe would have made some poor decisions in the game because I had no prior knowledge of the character. I really like how you connected the game to Gee’s element of co-design. I did not think about connecting this game to co-design but after reading your explanation of why you connected the game to this principle, it makes a lot of sense! I really like how you mentioned that this game is multisensory. I also agree that this game can be for children at different skill levels because if a student cannot read, this game reads it to you which can be very helpful. Overall, I agree with everything that you wrote in your reflection and I also had a very similar experience when playing this game!
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Taylor, I really enjoyed reading your post and I think this game sounds super interesting! I think your point about player autonomy is helpful to understand the kind of game you are playing and what the player will go through. I think this is something to keep in mind in our future classrooms when we are picking various games for our students to play. I know my students in my current placement love the concept of choice and like you said, autonomy. Games like these allow the students to feel a sense of agency as they are the ones making decisions to decide their outcome of the game. Additionally, the note you made about the game being multisensory to challenge students to complete things visually but also allowing them to hear things audibly was important. I think having both modes like this within a game helps to show the player different and unique aspects to games.
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Taylor, you did a truly outstanding job covering this video game! I especially loved your inclusion of the smaller aspects that often tend to go unnoticed by players, such as the feature that allows you to see the definition of unknown words that are underlined as well as the fact that it is multi-sensory and thus easily accessible to players with differing skill sets! Another aspect that stood out to me can be seen in the screenshots you included! I noticed that the game, while animated, provides real life historical photos of various people, places, and things! This undoubtedly allows for a deeper understanding of the material of the game and thus more knowledge gained by the player! I also love how you brought up Gee’s principle of co-design, as that is exactly what this video game is about! It is an extremely immersive video game that truly allows its players to assume the role of the character. They make decisions on the character’s behalf and thus face the consequences- both good and bad- of those decisions! In that sense, it also implements Gee’s principle of system-thinking, as it allows the players to transfer the decision-making knowledge they gain from playing this video game into the real world! I love your acknowledgement of player autonomy in this game as well. I think player autonomy is very important, as it tends to stimulate an emotional reaction (to varying degrees) from the player. Oftentimes, the player truly wants to obtain the best outcomes for the character they are controlling and thus try their very best to make the best decisions. Overall, you did such a great job capturing the intricacies of this video game! I am looking forward to checking this game out and possibly integrating it into my classroom one day! Keep up the great work!
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