Game Information: The game I choose to review is called Peter Packet and is intended for children ages 8 to 11. The game is made by Cisco, which is a large supplier of networking hardware and software. Peter Packet is a web-based game and can be found free online at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/edu/packetville/index.html.
Game Play: The main objective of the game is to help Peter, a computer packet that helps carry data from email messages from one person to another. In order for him to successfully deliver the message he has to fight off computer viruses and hackers who prevent him from getting his message to the intended person. The game allows one player to help Peter Packet fight global problems by guiding him through the internet and helping him deliver email messages. The player can choose to help a young girl in Haiti go to school by sending an email to an international organization in order for her family to get a water filtration system for their village. Or the player can choose to help fight the spread of AIDS through education in Zimbabwe by sending an email to an international organization that provides funding for the opening of schools. Or the player may choose to help children attend school in India by sending a proposal to an international organization to obtain funding for a community center to help female children complete school. When playing the game, I chose to help fight the spread of AIDS through education in Zimbabwe. Before I could successfully deliver the email message to the organization (People United for Schools) to provide funding for schools I had to complete three tasks. The first task was to help guide Peter through an internet server by protecting the information he carried from viruses and hackers. After this task was complete I had to help Peter help the computer router route packets so the email message could successfully get through. After this I had to navigate Peter through wireless space and avoided hackers to send the email message. After I completed these tasks the email message was successfully delivered and the village in Zimbabwe received several volunteers to help educate people on the spread of AIDS. Structure and Teaching: Peter Packet has several educational purposes. The main purpose is to help children identify and understand global problems and ways in which they can help solve the problems. It exposes children to different parts of the world and the issues people in those parts of the world deal with. Since the game is made by a major computer technology company, it also provides children with computer knowledge. Throughout the game the player is given directions to help navigate Peter through the World Wide Web. Players are given simple definitions of things like internet, router, and servers, all of which are teaching children about computers. Given these educational aims I believe this game would be best used for fourth through sixth grade. At the end of the game the child is given an opportunity to learn more about the global problem that they chose by getting facts and ways to help from external internet sources.
Critique: The main purpose of the game is to help children understand the global problems our world faces today. While I believe it does expose the player to global problems I feel that the game oversimplifies the problems. It almost gives the message that computers and the internet can help solve world problems. The game also makes it seem like the global problems can be taken care of in a short amount of time (i.e. the amount of time it takes to send an email message from one computer to another). While I do believe the game simplifies world problems, it is a good way for children to learn about the rest of the world while not providing so much information that the child feels overwhelmed. The game is free but it does take a good amount of time and devoted attention to complete. It also requires the player to have a fair amount of computer skills already.