I am here to give you insight into my development of Game Learners. That’s right, I developed my own website named Game Learners that aims to highlight the educational and health benefits of all commercial video games. Below are some of the questions and answers I gave for an interview some time ago. This post will concentrate on development and some project management concept and less on actual code.
What is Game Learners?
Game Learners is an online resource that serves gamers and parents with information that will help them uncover and utilize the educational power and health benefits of commercial video games. The mission is to positively educate our community on the effects of video games. It was created as an open-source website so that members of the community can contribute their knowledge to help achieve the mission.
How did you decide to start Game Learners?
I decided to start it one day after my Project Management class because I realized how similar one of my favorite video games was to the concepts I learned that day in class. That day I learned about the project management life cycle and managing a project. As I was learning about it I realized that the concepts came easier to me because it was very similar to how I play Franchise Mode (Called MyGM Mode) in NBA 2K16 and manage my own sports team. In the video game, the owner of the team will give directions and I will have to make sure to complete them in a timely fashion, with goals that needed to be achieved along the way. This is similar to managing a project in real life. From there, I thought, how can other children benefit from this type of learning?
In terms of health, in what ways can children benefit from video games?
Essentially, one way is that active video games may allow players to achieve the recommended levels of Physical Activity. Physical activity is key both to preventing childhood obesity and to reducing an individual’s risk for type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. While conventional Physical Activity interventions face problems of sustained motivation and adherence, active video games offer an innovative alternative for Physical Activity promotion due to their motivational properties. This includes games like Dance Dance Revolution, Pokemon GO, or most games on the Nintendo Wii.
How did you develop the website?
I was able to develop and manage the website, www.gamelearners.com, using WordPress and PHP. The “WordPress” I used is a little different than the one I am using here for this blog. For instance, for this blog, I am using “wordpress.com” to create and host it, all on “wordpress.com”. The advantage that gives is that it’s free to host, and code development is limited. For Game Learners, I used “wordpress.org”. The difference between the two is how the website is developed and hosted. On “wordpress.org”, the website can be developed using PHP and hosted independently of WordPress. To develop a website on “WordPress.org”, you need to download the free WordPress software and install it on your web server. As well, you need to decide on service to host your website.
For Game Learners, I used wordpress.org. The difference between WordPress “.com” and “.org” is how the website is developed and hosted. On “WordPress.org”, the website can be developed using PHP and hosted independently of WordPress (need some code to develop the website). To develop a website on “WordPress.org”, you need to download the free WordPress software and install it on your web server. As well, you need to decide on service to host your website.
Where do you host your website?
There are many options right off the bat! However, I decided on going with Blue Host as I have heard many good things about its integration with WordPress Software. Since using it I have had zero complaints. There have been some short network hiccups, as I am using shared hosting. Shared hosting is a web service where many websites reside on the same server. The reason I am using shared hosting is because it is cheaper, and I do not need the dedicated server as of yet. As my website begins to accrue a lot of traffic, I will probably upgrade to get its own dedicated server. In case you are wondering, my second, choice for a web hosting service is Host Gator. As well, you can also use Go Daddy as a host.
In general, what approach did you take with the development of your website?
I would say that I am constantly developing my website. However, speaking at a very high level, I first created a testing site using a local server. The concept here is that I turned my local machine into a beta site. Using MAMP, I was able to download WordPress and create my website. After some testing and a lot of code manipulation (some plugins did not behave how I wanted them to), I moved my beta website into production. To do so, I transferred all the files on to the Blue Host server. Overall, migration took about a day.