About a month ago, I was driving early on a Saturday morning, and heard a TED talk, “Gaming can make a better world,” by a woman named Jane McGonigal. She is a game designer, and she thinks that if we can somehow harness the energy that gamers put into computer games, we can solve all kinds of world problems. Now, that may be arguable, but what isn’t arguable is that computer games can be powerful motivators.
So, what does this have to do with amateur radio? Well, I think we need some amateur radio games. These games could be used to help people learn what they need to know to get their licenses. There might also be some games that teach people how to send and receive Morse Code. Remember, games are great motivators.
I developed an amateur radio game—Tech Pursuit—several years ago. I made up some question cards that could be used with a Trivial Pursuit board and markers. I tried using this with a middle school class that I was working with at the time, but it wasn’t a huge success. For one thing, the game Trivial Pursuit isn’t really aimed at kids. Whatever the reason, I decided not to update the question cards when Tech question pool was updated two years ago.
So, what do you think? Do you think a ham radio game could get more people interested in amateur radio? Could a game motivate people to get their amateur radio licenses? Could we use games to teach amateur radio skills?
Kevin K5KVN says
I saw Jane give a similar speech last month in Seattle. The focus of her speech there was how to use games for social good. The audience was from the non-profit world and they seemed receptive to the idea that games can teach and motivate people to do things, like donate money, volunteer, or see things from a different perspective.
I think that the same could apply to amateur radio and I’m glad you brought it up. I can imagine a virtual DXpedition game, giving someone the chance to be on the receiving end of a pileup. Or maybe a repeater etiquette game. Or HF net protocol game. Emergency comms. Etc., etc.
And given the fact that so many hams are already gamers, programmers and technically adept, I think the nature of a game becoming a tool would be an easy fit.
Bob - W2TAC says
How about a real game — hunting down low-lifers who jam, cause willful interference and such?
Dan KB6NU says
@Bob: While that is certainly a worthwhile pursuit, it’s not exactly what I was trying to get at here.
@Kevin: Great ideas! I need to learn about how to develop games.
Mike VE3WDM says
That is a great idea and it’s such an innovative but very simple way to make ham radio attractive through game or gaming for that matter. These days there are games on your cell phone, gaming consoles galore and app games as well. Excellent idea!!!
Mike
Dave, N8SBE says
I’ve heard of contest simulators (for CW and maybe digital modes?) that help you learn how to pull call signs out of simulated pileups, etc. The real trick would be to make that work somehow as well with voice modes. Then not only contest simulations, but emergency communications, roundtables, traffic nets, etc. all become “off-line” teachable, to a whole new generation of ‘no-code’ would-be and current hams. With Google Voice and Siri (although still a bit lame) moving quickly into pretty good voice recognition, the enabling technologies are quickly falling into place.
k8gu says
There is a series of articles in the National Contest Journal by Brooke Allen, N2BA, that is called “Game Design For Contesters.” Part 1 is on the NCJ web site, but he’s up to Part 3 in the most recent issue. This has been a passion of his since at least early 2011 when he posted something about it to CQ-Contest. All very interesting…
Brian says
This is a great idea, we need a way to get young people excited about ham radio. Whether it’s a game, or maybe some animated shows that teach amateur radio.
Mel says
Great post. One of the keys is simply packaging and getting the word out…ham radio is already full of games! From the flash card game I am playing now to get my ticket, to the antenna-building-game, the hit-the repeater-with-the-right-CTCSS code game and many others I look forward to playing. Like the video games Ms McGonigal speaks about ham radio games take a lot of perseverance to get an “epic win” so I think your typical gamer would be very well suited to ham radio…they just don’t know it!
As far as adding games on top of the ham radio universe I could envision a worldwide multi-player game on some large repeater net where an automated Siri voice responds to DTMF or voice queries with more than just the simple ID or status message, but pieces of story/puzzle that takes multiple operator several weeks or months to solve/win. Maybe you could even bundle game instructions with a cheap HT…and of course you need to log in with a verified call sign. Wonder if any game designers ut there are Hams?
Julie floyd says
Was just talking about this last night…. it’s still a jumble in my mind, but here goes…
Apocalyptic scenario (that’s all the rage today, right?)
Goal is to collect information to help you and your club? Friends? Survive.
Clubs or individuals are given 1 piece of information, (location of food, water, shelter, medical aid, etc.)
Contestants rush to find out all the information they’ll need to survive. But watch out because there are other who will steal that information. (Not sure how)
The winner is the person/club who has all of the essentials for survival. I’m not sure how that could all come together, but I’d love to get some ideas or feedback! Thanks, julie ki4itt
Jake, KC3HRN says
I have been trying to do something similar. I have a Zombie Invasion Prep course in which a practical exercise (The Zombilympics) at the end of the semester includes a bit of a “game.” The premise is that they are an emergency response team (based on the federal CERT program) and they have to find and rescue people around the city. They receive radio ‘transmissions’ from several different sources- some of them are morse code, some are SSTV, most are me pretending to be someone else and they have to use their laptops to decipher the message and send a request to ‘higher’ to move to the next location. Once accomplished they have to perform emergency medical tasks. It was a massive pain to put together but I have gotten a lot of good use out of it. It is mostly a mapping and medical game and not a radio game.
I have been trying to adapt old text-based role-playing games into a school district-wide role playing game that was a bit more focused on radio transmission but I have not had a ton of luck. Any ideas (games that would be able to be adapted or purchased) or uses would be helpful. I would love to make radio more of a fixture in my school district.
ad6ec - Rich says
I am working on a gaming and communication technique using 2 meters to start.
I am waiting for the software to arrive, and then will be writing an environment to be able to perform games and ham radio tasks, some what like the old DOS environment.
Would you be interested in talking about it?
You indicated interest.
Just give me a shout.
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