Time for another game critique!
This was a game I came across with when I was working - and we had fun competing against one another on the game. It's TypeRacer! It's a browser platform and you can go to https://play.typeracer.com/ to start playing! The developer is Addicting Games, Inc. The educational goal for the game is to improve on the player's typing skills - but not just fast, also ensuring that what the player types is accurate.
There is actually another version - TypeRacer for your School. While it's almost the same thing, it provides a more private learning environment and ensuring only age-appropriate materials being shown to the students. Other than that, it's the same game as well.
The learning objective is straight to the point - improving the typing speed and typing accuracy of the player. The game does not necessarily need much of a prior knowledge / experience (except actually being able to type). Nonetheless, it targets a few types of languages. Hence, if the player is trying to type in a different language / character that is not available here - it might not help as much in terms of accuracy for the language.
Gameplay
The gameplay is super simple. Each player is characterized as a racing car. You start typing when the starting light flashes. As the player types, it measures the typing speed - and it would visualize that in terms of the racing car. The faster you type, the faster the car goes. If you did not type it right, it will not allow you to type the rest of the sentences. Once you finished, it will give you the summary of your speed, accuracy, time and points, a review and analysis of your game. You would be able to replay and change the speed of your replay to see how it looks like faster / slower.
There are three types of "game" you can play:
1. Practice (by yourself)
2. Race with Friends
3. Race with Online Opponents
I thought the game made a good improvement on the typing box for the player as well. Previously, at each word you type, it would erase the word for the next word. It did not feel natural. Leaving the word there as it is now feels more smooth and natural - I find this reflects more to the "Anchored Learning" principles in which it reflects real cases. (But I noticed that it allows to also revert to the old style) Another addition that I noticed was the "Instant Death Mode" - either this was not there or I just did not notice it before. I thought it was also an excellent addition to spice things up! (And get the players to focus on the accuracy first then only the speed - which I believe is a good approach as well.)
I find this using "Exam Expectations" in a fun way - where your exam is sort of the race with your friends / online opponents. It also uses the "Guided Attention" to show where the players should be typing at and "Feedback" mechanism when the player does not type when they are supposed to start typing already.
Overall Critique
Even though it's meant to improve the player's typing skill, for me, I find it as a fun little competition with friends - we do this occasionally to just compete on who types the fastest. And I usually won. Every now and then, when I am too bored, I would also play the race with online opponent just for the fun of it - since it's a quick and easy game. Honestly, even with the scores, reviews and analysis that were provided after the game, it did not come across me that it as an educational game.
However, after learning from the class, it might be because the game flows naturally that it's not the "Chocolate-coated Brocolli" case.
For the game critique purpose, I've created an account to be able to see how it keeps the player's skill's progress. However, I find it just keeping the scores similarly to when you're a guest - just that it does not go missing after a while.
Overall, I thought the game was easy, fun, smooth and reaches the learning objectives. After this, I would definitely recommend the game to friends and families who find it hard to improve their typing skills.
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