Hello again! In my last blog we discussed video games and how much difficulty I was having with the simple task of choosing a game. At the end, I selected a game called 100 Balls. The reviews made the game seem really fun and I was actually enthusiastic about getting a chance to play the game.
The first time I opened the app, 100 Balls, I was a little confused. Upon opening the app, you have what looks like some sort of
reservoir filled with several yellow balls and two grey balls. At this point I was hoping I would be able to choose a level i.e. easy, intermediate, difficult, but the game forces you simply start playing (since the only button you have the option of pressing is the ‘start button’).
When I pressed the start button, several cups began to move counterclockwise along what appeared to be a conveyor belt. As the cups move, in order to release the balls from the reservoir, you have to tap the screen. For a small amount of balls, you quickly tap the screen, and for a larger amount of balls you slowly tap the screen.
While playing, the object of the game seemed to be to catch as many balls as possible in the cups; however, during the process of catching the balls, new cups would appear. At this point I am not sure if this changes the way the game should be played. I wondered if I were supposed to be catching yellow balls in the yellow cups, green balls in green cups, etc. I’ll keep playing and see what I can figure out!
Mrs. Webb's 5th Grade Math Class 
I would be just as confused as you if I was just first playing the game and was not given any direction or any choice with the difficulty. I think that is the opposite of how most video games work. I know many computer or game system games take players through tutorials to show them how to play the games and teach them the skills needed to succeed in the future challenges. I know many of these games also give the players an opportunity to pick their difficulty level before playing and some even allow the player to change the level during play. But it seems to be different for video games on the phone because many do not do one or either of the options. I think that by not doing that it creates more frustration and confusion for the player and will cause them to quite the game sooner than players who play games with both tutorials and ability to choose difficulty levels. I think there is an obvious connection to education and teaching with these types of games. Teachers need to teach by giving tutorials first before the students move on to the more challenging tasks and teachers need to give students a variety of difficulty levels.
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