Video Reviews Objectives - Lab Activity 11/11

During Friday's game lab, we prepared an activity in which the participants would begin work on creating a video game review. One of our objectives with this project was to have the kids provide more in-depth discussion of individual games. Although previous video reviews had been relatively informative, we wanted to push them to give more detail and explanation about what they did or did not like and why. The two participant format seemed to support this effort to a greater degree than previous methods because each individual could elaborate and add in details about the views expressed by the other.

To prepare them for this work, we did the following:
* had them watch a segment from XPlay on G4TV about the new game Nintendogs.
* had them watch short video reviews they had done previously
* had them discuss what was good about and what might be added to both kinds of reviews (things like more overview of the game, screenshots or video of the game being played, and clearer recommendations)
* talked with them about creating storyboards to plan their on-air review (to be completed during the next game lab session). These storyboards will include both a written review scripts and specific images from the game to illustrate and support what they thought of it.
* Barb reminded them that reviews should be both critical (in both the negative and positive sense) and backed up with evidence.

The participants were then paired up and asked to play a new (to them) game for about 45 minutes. As they did this, Tanya and I would periodically watch and listen, encouraging them to think about including some of their comments in their reviews.

After game play, the kids did some brainstorming and then began to outline the things they wanted to discuss in their reviews. Tanya and I again visited with each group to push them for visual specifics from the games which would support their views and comments (e.g. in Lego Star Wars, the group commented that collecting coins didn't seem to be that worthwhile because there were very few things you could buy with them- in taping, I suggested they visit the place where they could spend money to illustrate the lack of items available).

We will return to these storyboards in the next game lab session and begin taping and editing.