In my first Video Game blog, I began writing about the experience I had playing iCivic’s Immigration Nation. After I explored the game more, I found some neat things that I would like to share. If you create an account with iCivics, you are prompted with the opportunity to save your in-game progress, unlock more achievements, and compete with friends on the leaderboards. I think this would be beneficial to a classroom! Competition may motivate students to put in a greater amount of effort.
The game begins by providing players with a short series of introduction statements, which explains the layout of the game, and even prompts students to think about what they will be doing while playing the game.
Players are provided the option of having assistance while playing the game, and they are also provided with the ability to play without guided help. The game provides a virtual assistant named “Liberty Belle” who is a little fairy, and ironically looks like the Statue of Liberty. I think it would be useful and beneficial for new players to play with guidance the first time playing. Although the game may seem straight forward, it is asking fairly particular tasks that need to be completed. I found it helpful to use the guided instructor the first time playing Immigration nation.
Once you complete the first few tasks, you may be prompted with a completion banner. There are 11 levels within the game. There are different categories you can be provided awards with. The categories include traffic delays, short trips, boats sent, on first try, and sights seen. There are two scores that are also provided on the award banner. These scores are referred to as “impact points.” Impact points include two subcategories, level score, and total score. The player will be able to view their impact points once they complete any given level. Players can also view their scores by clicking the box in the upper right corner of the gaming screen. Although, this may depend on what kind of device you are playing on. Throughout this blog series, I have been exploring Immigration Nation on a MacBook Pro. Immigration Nation is also available through Google Play and through the Apple App Store, which is comparable with Apples’s iPad products. I enjoy exploring different aspects of this educational video game!