Friday, November 06, 2009

Yes, I want you to give me your candy.

Had a fun game of Where are your keys? last night.

There were 6 of us in total, and we played through "What is that" to fluency, and then poked and stumbled through "Who/Whose is that?" and "Want, have, give, take." It was a lot of fun, and by the end of the evening, we had people using the game to trade around the bag of caramels.
"I want my candy."
"That is not your candy, that is my candy."
"That is my rock. I will give you my rock."
"Yes. You give me your rock, I will give you my candy."
"Perfect!"

We talked about the game a bit, both before and after, and discussed some of the techniques, and the viral, open source nature of the game. One aspect of that which came up in particular, is that I talked about the roadmap using Technique: Language Ladder instead of Technique: Travels with Charlie, and after the game was done, I talked a little about the why's of that, and how the game allowed and encouraged that kind of thing. I also talked about some of the Techniques we didn't use, because we didn't need them (Everybody Plays, Lunatic Fringe) with so few people.

The game will spread from here; two of the participants were already talking about bringing it to other people this weekend, and I'm going to show it to my brothers at a family dinner this Sunday as well; they're both teachers, and I think they'll quickly see the potential of it.

I'm going to try and get something going on a monthly basis, probably using a facebook group for organizing things. This would just be for teaching and spreading the game, and the hope is that people will spin off of this, and hunt down native speakers in their target language, and spread the game even further.

I really need to figure out how the built in camera works in my laptop.

James

Labels: WAYK

Friday, October 09, 2009

The update of updateyness, now with updates

Lots of things going on. Like SNOW.

Stupid snow, reminding me that Winter is Coming. We need to winterize the trailer, and clean out the garage so we can park under shelter ASAP. We're also giving the inside of the house the hairy eyeball, and looking at some major reorganization.

In less prosaic affairs, I've got lots of cool ideas for Reality Cops, but they mostly pertain to layout and presentation; the game itself is floating untended at the moment. I desperately need some perspectives that aren't mine, and they aren't coming. :/ I hate chasing after people.

I'm reopening Death's Door as a project; not so much with an eye to republish it, as to use it as a testing ground for rewriting and layout now that I've got that many more years of writing/designing under my belt. It may end up getting republished as a result though, who knows.

And last but not least, Where Are Your Keys is continuing to hold my fascination, such that I've invited a bunch of local people to a workshop to introduce the game, and we'll see what happens from there. I already have some thoughts about techniques and things that I may (will) do differently.

James

Labels: I need a tag for this sort of thing, publishing, Reality Cops, WAYK

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

WAYK, the Language Fluency Game

Where Are Your Keys?

Wow. Just . . . Wow.

The sound quality is politely described as "poor" in this video, but you can really see the potential. I was able to pick up some of the basics of ASL just watching, let alone actually participating.

Seriously. Check it out.

Labels: geekery, I need a tag for this sort of thing, WAYK