We are presenting a new research game, which will make research gratifying and easier for students from any age group. In order to create Research Game: Estimated Research Tool (ERT) we had to find out if there were any games like it, what students were interested in, and the most used and credible research websites
In order to make our game different from others, we thought of games that are already being played. The first game that came to mind was Kings (AKA Circle of Death, Think or Drink, etc.). Kings is a drinking game, which uses playing cards. Kings is very popular amongst college students all over the world. The objective of the game is for players to drink and dispense drinks based on cards drawn. For example, “10” is equivalent to different categories. Whoever draws 10 from the deck of cards must pick a category such as “TV shows” or “Songs”, the players then go around in a circle saying things that pertain to that category like “Friends” or “Gangnam Style.” The first player to say a wrong thing or all the things that can be said have been said must take a drink. Our first idea was very similar to the game of Kings but more group research oriented. Say you pick a “10” from the deck of cards, you would have to go around and name a research engine that is credible, whoever can’t think of an example must drink a cup of juice, eat cookies, or are stuck with the research engine and so on. We then presented this game to our professor and she was a little skeptical about the game. She thought the idea of drinking was inappropriate for a school setting and research game. She also thought we would possibly get into legal trouble because of copyright laws. One member of our group bought it to the professor’s attention that the game of Kings was opens to anyone’s use, meaning no one had legal ownership of the game. Even though he had a point, we decided to take another approach and brainstorm an idea for a new game.
We then began our research process. First off, we thought of what would be needed in the modern age of research and collectively agreed with research tools such as search engines, websites, and books. As a group our decision was to divide up finding information like the top research websites. We found the top 10. Some of these 10 sites included; zotero, Google scholar, Internet public library, and wolfram alpha. The website we found this information on was topsite.com. In order to find out if the site was credible we had to evaluate the source. We went to the website and scan through the pages for answers, as to find out what the site is really about. As we read the “About” page, it explained how the site found its information on how it evaluated its sources. They use a technology in which they are “collecting sites, then applies our proprietary technology to group sites by topics and finally assigning a rank to each site.” (TopSite).
After finding this information, our idea for Research Game: Estimated Research Tool (ERT) was formed. We knew we wanted a card game that would fit students participating in a group research project and our game fit that. We wanted to have reliable and convenient research tools that would provide the players with all the information needed to complete their project and have fun at the same time. We were somewhat inspired by the difficulty we had in our LIB1201 class, when creating groups for our online documentation projects.
One problem we faced when creating this game was making sure there were no games out there already. In order to do this we have to research other card games and see the rules, and if they were very similar or very different from ours. This could be very tricky for someone trying to create their own games but the research must be done if you do not want to get into any legal problems; it is worth it in the end.
In our presentation, we will demonstrate this innovative research game. We will explain the process and steps we took in order to create this game. This game will help group research get done quicker, and guide students in the right direction in beginning their research by helping them use the best and most credible research sites and search engines.
