> But it's needy and overwhelming after the first few days.

I agree. I unfriended someone because their feed was strange and I didn't like seeing their stuff pop up. They immediately tried to friend me back.

That said, I do enjoy my interactions with it, but I don't love seeing 50 notifications from it.

> So basically they have a solid app/game with some really unique elements that needs some serious work. But we're in the first week or two, so there's definitely room for improvement.

Since it got so much use, I imagine we will see lots of continued improvement to it.

Yeah, BB-8 really is everywhere. I remember seeing him show up all over even before I bought the movie. Disney hit paydirt with that droid!

So if you bought the disc at Target then you can use that code on Disney Anywhere to watch the special stuff I talked about. There is a special Tunnel scene if you redeem the code in iTunes or Google plus not on the disc, but everything else is.

And it's incredible, so enjoy! Curious what your thoughts on it will be.

That is unfortunate. I updated the article to reflect this.

#unmasked

> I noticed that you removed the auto-load from the end of the page, so it's back to paginating now rather than grabbing a new set of posts. Was that something that stopped working or a choice?

I flipped that back a couple months ago, but i'll add it to the patch notes. The main reason is the implementation was OK but when it interacted with other JavaScript it created strange bugs that were hard to solve. Not that I couldn't fix those bugs, but I also like pagination more and I think it's better for the user to be able to easily skip over a ton, go to the first post than scroll infinitely.

> but using The Oregon Trail as a test seems misconstrued when it sounds like the original creators were simply looking for a catalyst to stir young minds to inquiry, rather than to build an actual lesson plan in game form.

I think the whole notion of Oregon Trail lying to us is also kind of silly. That said, those kinds of headlines get clicks and it seems a bit dodgy because to make it payoff in the video you have to do things that maybe don't make sense?

> I'm curious to know who heralds The Oregon Trail as "one of the most important educational games, ever to exist.

I would. I think the original Oregon Trail is heralded as a great game because it was impactful to so many. It may not have been the pinnacle of educational gaming but it was so deep and rich for me and I loved playing it on the Apple II and Commodore. Lots of kids grew up in the 90's having played it as it was a staple in tons of schools. You might not find a ton of thought pieces about it, but seeing games like Organ Trail and the like existing now kind of nod to it's influence.

> Once again, I feel Jamin abuses hyperbole to make a point, this time to the extent of inappropriately disparaging a game for not being more than it was ever intended to be, or could have feasibly been, at it's inception.

The video title is clickbait for sure, but I don't think the historical significance of the Oregon Trail was overblown. At least to me.

> What might be more interesting to emphasize, is that the original board game, and teletype game, played in Rawitsch's classroom was an exercise in group play, which, according to an article from New York University (http://bit.ly/1Xf7vPx), is one of the most effective ways of implementing games into education, promoting mastery goal orientation, rather than individual performance goal orientation which seems to inhibit potential learning opportunities.

Absolutely, but for whatever reason the method they chose might work for the large gaming audience? I'm not sure, I love a good deep dive into that sort of thing you mention so it wouldn't bother me

Yeah, he covers that in the video. I've heard stories but not seen much first hand. Matt does a good job outlining it.

I still want to try it sometime, just to see how bad it really is I've played Action 52 and wow, yeah that is pretty bad.

> Is it just me or does Cygnus always look wet?

I think it's nerves or a very bright system of lights on him.

> But yeah, I've played it a few times on an emulator and it's really truly bad. It's in the so-bad-it's-kinda-fun category though, like playing Big Rigs Over the Road Racing or watching D-list movies.

I love bad movies, I haven't found a similar love for bad games myself.