Digital Directions

Some Further Reflections on Simple

After having spent a couple of very enjoyable days tinkering with the software I now feel a little more able to make some comments on the system. The launch event itself was highly enjoyable and useful with a good balance of hands on events and theoretical considerations but really as with all computer related learning it very much a case of going away reading the manual and then playing for a bit.

I choose the word play quite deliberately  for two reasons. Firstly, because I would recommend that your first forays be purely exploratory having a fixed goal in mind always leads to frustration if problems arise but approacing something as an investigatory mission means that should someting useful be produced it will be a bonus. Secondly, the strength of the system is really that it allows engagement with a real-life based, challenging storyboard (puts me in mind of old games like AD&D only this time the Simple system acts as the DMs screen) . Paul and the team may just be the Gary Gygax of the legal eduction world I hope Simple has as many imitators and adopters as Gygax creations did. I have been able so far to create  a number of straightforward scenarios and although at first I was a little disappointed by the difficulty of creating major variables that has been smoothed out  as I got to know the system better and designed things more appropriately and also when I worked I could copy blueprints quite easily.

From the students perspective I also see some advantages of the "Simple" approach. Whilst it might not have the "fancy" interactive elements of someting like Second Life it doesn't really need them because of the strength of the story telling aspect (people still play AD&D and other RPG games which just need paper and dice it's the story and the game that are the challenge!).  Secondly, the system makes the simulations more accessible to even the most technophobic and those with low computer hardware budgets. I heartily applaud the open source approach of the Simple Foundation and will be contributing blueprints and characters myself as soon as I am able. I hope to ultimately try running the system with a group of students using Linux (to create a value for money computer lab) and if Michael et al don't mind I might post on that occasionally.

My final thought is that this system is as it's name suggests straigtforward and accessible but will only come to its full strength if we all engage in sharing resource and practice.

 

SIMPLE – Day 2 (the hands-on approach)

Day two was very much an opportunity to play around with ideas and attempt to build some simulations.  Group work looked to be very lively and productive: some attendees had thought of a scenario and were starting to draw a Narrative Event Diagram.  To start with, a pen and paper were essential (and refreshingly different) tools to plan an idea.  Some odd parallels were drawn as the timeline for the players, non-players etc appeared to look like a musical stave, the events like notes, and even vertical bars were present to break up the carefully orchestrated scenario – with or without a crescendo!

I certainly came away with a head full of ideas – not only for developing a sim, but how to embed it into the programme and bring about maximum benefit.  My previous knowledge that SIMPLE was really for learning procedural things (which might not fit in a substantive law module) and focussing on professional practice (which might be more relevant to diploma and LPC students) changed dramatically – I’ll update the blog with my own progress over the summer, and also get some of the attendees to blog about their views from the event – feel free to comment and add your own views along the way!