Clash of Clans

Posted by: Dr Ashley Tan on: September 14, 2012

In: Uncategorized
2 Comments

Thanks to @NikoChenzh, I learnt about the iOS game Clash of Clans. Now my son and I are hooked on it.

What is the game like?

You have to maintain a village of warriors by starting from scratch. You clear the land, build infrastructure, train troops, go on raids, harvest resources, defend your land, etc. You know, stuff that could happen in life but in a more engaging way. It is not easy, but it is heaps of fun simply because it is difficult.

Like most games of this ilk, there is just-in-time instruction at the beginning, progressively difficult but motivating tasks, and opportunities to compete and collaborate. It has all the ingredients of what makes games good and all the hallmarks of good game-based learning.

Anybody can play the game. Anybody can teach it too. This is a kid offering some advice on YouTube about the game.

Video source

Did he have to share? No.

Did he want to share? I am quite certain he did and mostly on his own. If those tips do not suffice, there is this forum and a wiki.

Those resources are not perfect, but that is perfectly fine because they are part of the process of learning, not just the end product. Both will only get better with time.

This sort of self-directed and loose collaborative learning are the main reasons why I believe in off-the-shelf video game-based learning.