Week 4, Assignment 1 - Gaming Elements

Facebook:  Words with friends

1. What gaming elements provide users the learning content and how? (Refer to the journal article page 4).

•  Text: The first time someone plays words with friends, they are brought to a tutorial.  WWF (Words With Friends) is just like scrabble but you are able to play your Facebook Friends.

•  Visual-graphic elements: The visual-graphic elements resemble the scrabble board.  The words that have been played on the board are yellow tiles with black letters. The word(s) that was played last is in yellow tiles with white letters.  This allows both players to see what word was added to the board. On the side of the board there is a pane with pictures of your friends that you currently have a game opened. 

•  Audio elements: The audio element of the game is very simple.  The sounds are present when a tile is moved, a word is played, or when a word is not accepted.

What is the goal of the game?

•  The overall objective of the game is take turns forming words horizontally and vertically on the board, trying to use the bonus tiles and scoring as much points as possible.  You win the game by scoring more points than your opponent when all the letters are used.

3. What are rules of playing this game?

•  The rules of the game are just like playing scrabble.  Each opponent is given 7 letter tiles, each with a different point value.  Players take turns placing words on the board so that at least 1 tile is shared with an existing word on the board. The words must be “REAL” and cannot be a proper noun, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone or words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe. 

4. Does the game have any scenario design?

•  No, the game does not have a scenario design.