Ecology and evolution simulation and quest design for an educational massive multiplayer online game

In this design-based research project, I developed two simulations to be used as student tools in a massively multiplayer online game targeted at STEM education, the Radix Endeavor. I designed both the underlying agent-based model as well as the user interface for each simulation, and furthermore designed quests for my simulations for the purposes of playtesting. My final ecological prototype is able to authentically model fairly complex food webs of six or more organisms, and my final evolutionary prototype can handle complex fitness relationships between the individual traits of a single population and various environmental factors. In my thesis, I discuss the design and implementation of these simulations, the feedback we received from students, the overall effectiveness of my prototypes, and recommendations for further work.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Zhang, Mark (Mark A.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Eric Klopfer.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85535

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/85535