Week Three Observation

I spent a lot of time with the boys last week as they worked on their multiplication game development ideas, so I wandered in to see what the girls were doing today. Clare seemed a little grouchy and unwilling to talk with me about her ideas for creating a new version of an existing game which was their assignment for the beginning of Wednesday (this attitude continued throughout the day with her not being willing to play two player Katamari so that Chasen could have something to do). Not to be daunted, I decided to try Alicia and Hannah. After asking me who I worked for (they are apparently very concerned about corporate espionage), they told me a bit about their new version of Mario Kart. I asked if they would teach me to play when they were done and I ended up learning quite a bit about what they loved about it and what few things they wanted to change (namely that they hated being hit by their own rebounding weapons). It took nearly three weeks, but I finally connected with these two in a way that allowed them to share their game likes, dislikes and playing style insights in a near constant stream of consciousness. I almost reached a kind of insider status so that I became transparent (almost) in this setting, though I lost horribly.

Next, I talked with Chasen who was playing the Motorcross Playstation game. Despite the way he trounced me in Katamari Damacy Monday, he was more than willing to show me how to play this too. I was impressed by his openness to the skill level of both genders of racers. He even chose a female rider at one point. I was also terrible at this game (I actually am good at some games, really), but the cool thing was that Chasen actually WAITED on the track for me to catch up. I think because he knew he could completely destroy me, it wasn't any fun to just lap me three times and be done. We got far more enjoyment from watching Cheri fly over the handle bars or bale off the jump. Of course, competition would have been great too, but you take what you can get. Chasen was very adaptable.

This last day was great experience, as was the whole three weeks. I learned a lot from observing and from interacting with the kids. It will be interesting to go back and look at some of their video closet entries and learn if what they said in private differed from their public personas. Thank you to everyone who made this possible.