Weekend Assignment

I found the assignment of playing an augmented reality game to be one of the more interesting assignments this semester. Once I downloaded the App and made an account, I decided to play the "Henry Mall" game because a lot of my classes are in that area. I thought that the game was cool because it told me all about the history of the different academic buildings in Henry Mall. For example, the game said that the Rickets disease was overcome by a discovery made at our very own Biochemistry building. I then had a virtual conversation with a former researcher in Henry Mall. It was interesting the way the game set this conversation up, but ultimately it didn't lead anywhere. It was kind of an irrelevant detail to the game. However, when I visited the former Life Sciences Communications building, I found out the the man I "talked" to, Joshua Lederberg, won a Nobel Prize based on his research done on bacterial genetics here. This was a good aspect of the game because it connected it's different parts. It made the "conversation" with him less irrelevant, even though I still don't this it was beneficial to the game. Next, when I visited Agriculture Hall, I found out that a study conducted in that hall led to the discovery of vitamins. It was facts like this one that made the game interesting to me. Overall, I think that this game was interesting, but I don't think it will ever take-off as a really popular App. I could definitely see it being used while touring a new city, but I don't think people would just spend time using this App in their free time if they didn't have the motives to collect information about a certain location. I probably won't use it again, but I'm happy I was exposed to it and learned some interesting facts about our campus. If I ever wonder about any academic buildings on campus, I now know I could check this game to see if anything is posted.