The Value of Accuracy

Video Games are, by design, a series of simplified obstacles. The player chooses to overlook generalizations and simplified mechanics in order to have fun playing the game. The degree to which a game chooses to simplify itself runs a wide range, from the airplane simulators which require custom screens and flight controls, to Mario Kart, where go-karts can be driven with a single stick and button. For an educational game, finding the right balance between simplicity and accuracy can be a challenge.

The degree of accuracy a player accepts for any given game has a lot to do with how that game is presented. The best example I can give is by looking at racing games. Racing games have a varying degree of accuracy depending on which one you decide to look at. At one end of the spectrum, you have the Kart racing games popularized by Nintendo, where characters race around fantastical tracks while lobbing cartoonish weapons at one another. Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, and a slew of others fall into this category, where all it takes to do well is an understanding of right and left. At the other end, you have games such as the Gran Turismo, which features realistic physics and cars which require a great deal more skill to drive. In Gran Turismo 5, the player needs to understand the effects of under braking, how to find a good line through a turn, and how driving changes under adverse weather. The rest of the spectrum is filled with games which find niches at some balance between the two ends. Blur has powerups and weapon pickups, but requires more precision driving. Need for Speed uses advanced physics and cars, but driving them is significantly easier than in true sim racing games.

But even with this vast array of games playing loose with the idea of accuracy, you can still find a successful game at any point in the spectrum. As long as the game is consistent and up front about the degree of accuracy it holds onto from the real world, someone will play it if it is an interesting game.

Sometimes educational games get too caught up in the battle for accurate representations of the problem at hand and forget that it really doesn't matter how true to form the content is, as long as the game is engaging to the player. The games that Neural Energy Games will develop are meant to educate, which means they will attempt to be as accurate as possible, but that doesn't mean the game can't also be engaging to the audience.

Make it Accessible, Don't Dumb it Down

One thing we had to consider when developing the games for this company was our target audience. Since this is an educational tool, we wanted it to be used by school aged children, but the difference in ability and maturity is vastly different from K up to 12. How do we strike a balance between making something that is generally accessible by the greatest number of people without alienating some other section by "dumbing down" the content?

I'm speaking from personal experience, but I believe kids know a lot. They know what they know, but they also "know" what they don't know. They also don't like being told that they don't actually know what they don't know, which makes getting some kinds of information across difficult. Kids also generally have a low tolerance for things made for age specific levels. If a 5 year old is given a toy made for 5 year olds, he'll say you're giving him baby toys. He want's what all the 6 year olds are playing with. Turns out all the 6 year olds don't want to play with their 6 year old toys and want the 9 year old toys. This scales up linearly almost into college, where most people finally realize that no one actually knows anything and we should have just spent more time playing. All of this means that creating targeted video games can become difficult when trying to reach children.

Neural Energy Games will try and create games with a broad spectrum of appeal. While aimed initially at the Middle School market (grades 5-8), we want to make sure that the games are still accessible to younger players, but still don't alienate older players. By talking to kids in a respectful manner, we hope that we can engage in accessible dialogue without being patronizing. Because we all know the fastest way to lose the interest of a kid is by talking down to him.