Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The different levels of sophistication and quality of fi nish in the prototypes are
accompanied by a difference in the nature of playfulness exhibited. The less sophis-
ticated projects were developed by groups who very much identifi ed themselves in
relation to their peers, a characteristic associated with the ordered play self. The
outcomes of these projects have elements of play as imagination, yet the simplistic
and deterministic interaction has overtones of the play as fate. In terms of develop-
ment progress, this suggests that the students individually may be at different stages,
some prepersonal, some personal and some postpersonal, and that the tensions that
exist between them have implicitly been embedded in the work they produce. The
more sophisticated projects, such as the Social Pavlova, have less confusion in terms
of classifi cation of the outcomes being clearly associated with the play as imagina-
tion rhetoric and the sensitive play self.
When considering both of the previous project examples, Synthesis and Guerrilla
Playspaces, it becomes clear that the second year of the degree is a period of devel-
opment and growth for the students, with many students clearly reaching the
personal stage and moving on to the postpersonal stage of development.
3.4.4
Virtual Reality Wheelchair Simulator
The Virtual Reality Wheelchair Simulator is a serious game project developed by
fi ve students during a second year 'Simulated Environments' paper with the generic
topic 'serious games'. At the beginning, students inquired and learned about the
topic in general, investigated and developed defi nitions of 'serious game' and
looked at development and educational frameworks around serious games in gen-
eral. The lectures were short and concise, merely plotting the outline of the area that
the students were then asked to fi ll out, for example by giving seminars about types
of serious games, collaborative development of a wiki and group critique sessions.
As assessment, the students were required to build a serious game using a topic and
implementation platform of their choice. After having gone through some brain-
storming, one of the teams came up with the idea of a wheelchair simulator that uses
the Oculus Rift for immersion and an actual wheelchair as an input device. With the
help of other Colab staff members and their connections and networks, we were
able to actually have a wheelchair 'donated' for the project duration, and the game
quickly took on form.
Halfway through the semester, the students were given the opportunity to show-
case their prototype at Digital Nationz 2013,
5
a public exhibition about new tech-
nologies with a specifi c focus on New Zealand. Although the learning curve for the
project was steep and the conference deadline was a few weeks before the submis-
sion deadline of the paper, the incentive of the conference showcase motivated the
students suffi ciently that they were able to deliver a fully functional prototype in
