Aris

Jasmine Skamser, Austin Czarnecki, Daniel Rodriguez

Aris was not was we expected. Upon discovering that the weekend online homework was to download an app and play a game on an apple product the first thing most of us pictured were the mindless types of games that control the top charts in the app store. Instead we were surprised by Aris after downloading and skimming over the website. It was refreshing to see the real world and educational spin Aris puts on an a game app for iPhones. It was an unexpected twist that the app actually requires the players to physically walk around the area to complete various quests. The app asks permission to use your location at all times, to send you notifications, your camera, and so on. This app truly wants full access to your whole idevice. After giving all the necessary permissions, we were ready to play the game. There were two game types: one interactive where you walk around the city, and one where you could play anywhere. We chose the later due to the harsh Madison weather. We looked at Dow day which was a virtual game consisting a primarily videos that provided the same information that the other games did while allowing us to stay inside out of the zero degree weather. Then we tried Shadow Game, where users upload photos and learn about the different shadows objects can cast. Overall we found Aris to be a great middle ground for the way technology and games are evolving with today’s society. It provides the easy access that people love about electronics, yet it still requires for kids to go out and experience the outdoors, which counteracts older generations, and even our generations’ belief that kids are no longer experiencing the outdoors as they should.