BZFlag Club
- The Purple Panzer
- Field Marshal
- Posts: 246
- Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 8:13 pm
- Location: Stonington, CT
- Contact:
BZFlag Club
For a few weeks I've been running an after-school BZFlag Club at my son's school (Mystic Middle School in CT - he's in 5th grade). This is a brief report on the experience so far.
It's great to run a server in a computer lab (basically a big classroom with lots of PCs) and have the kids in one room; it makes CTF interesting too, as one can verbally coordinate play.
One goal I've got is to teach them how to make maps (version 1), but so far they just sprint into the room and start driving around. It's a challenge to get their attention - it's the end of the school day, and they have more energy than I do.
There are usually 8 kids or so, and we do this after school on Wednesdays, from about 2:30 to 4:00, when they catch the late bus home.
Every once in a while we'll go on to internet servers (that is, use one of the servers that appear in the normal list). Often there are problems with bad language - more than once this has been started by one of the charming 5th-graders.
They can yell a lot, and sometimes the language degenerates a bit (I was surprised at this, and I doubt they really know what they're saying - and it's not too hard to stop). In general the Club has worked pretty well, but they can get too excited, screaming and generally carrying on. But they're all about 10, so this is understandable. It might be a lot more rewarding with high school kids.
It's been fun to do, but I'm not sure I'll continue it in the fall. If anyone else tries this sort of thing, let me know.
It's great to run a server in a computer lab (basically a big classroom with lots of PCs) and have the kids in one room; it makes CTF interesting too, as one can verbally coordinate play.
One goal I've got is to teach them how to make maps (version 1), but so far they just sprint into the room and start driving around. It's a challenge to get their attention - it's the end of the school day, and they have more energy than I do.
There are usually 8 kids or so, and we do this after school on Wednesdays, from about 2:30 to 4:00, when they catch the late bus home.
Every once in a while we'll go on to internet servers (that is, use one of the servers that appear in the normal list). Often there are problems with bad language - more than once this has been started by one of the charming 5th-graders.
They can yell a lot, and sometimes the language degenerates a bit (I was surprised at this, and I doubt they really know what they're saying - and it's not too hard to stop). In general the Club has worked pretty well, but they can get too excited, screaming and generally carrying on. But they're all about 10, so this is understandable. It might be a lot more rewarding with high school kids.
It's been fun to do, but I'm not sure I'll continue it in the fall. If anyone else tries this sort of thing, let me know.
Thats awesome,
I can just see them charging through the door towards the computers
You could test some of the servers to see if they are using the swear filter and "herd" the kids towards those if they play online.
I do recall seeing a couple of servers in the list advertised as "family" friendly servers so they might be good. But really I would
think the game would be more fun on a lan against people you know than over the net.
So can we expect them to form a team for the CTF league?
I can just see them charging through the door towards the computers
You could test some of the servers to see if they are using the swear filter and "herd" the kids towards those if they play online.
I do recall seeing a couple of servers in the list advertised as "family" friendly servers so they might be good. But really I would
think the game would be more fun on a lan against people you know than over the net.
So can we expect them to form a team for the CTF league?
- Workaphobia
- Master Sergeant
- Posts: 252
- Joined: Wed May 26, 2004 7:29 pm
I would not suggest encouraging these kids to use online servers. All popular public servers have occasional language problems (although gamesunited seemed comparatively sheltered the last time I was on there), and the administrators probably don't need a classroom full of ten year olds to watch over.
But by all means continue the LAN games. If the school's routers will allow it, see if you can't get another school to do the same and connect remotely - then you can make an actual competitive sport out of it.
Or is that going too far?
But by all means continue the LAN games. If the school's routers will allow it, see if you can't get another school to do the same and connect remotely - then you can make an actual competitive sport out of it.
Or is that going too far?
"Nifty News Fifty: When news breaks, we give you the pieces."
- cookiecutter
- Private First Class
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:25 am
- Location: Boston MA
- ducatiwannabe
- Private First Class
- Posts: 3258
- Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2004 3:55 pm
- Location: Planet Earth
- Contact:
- M1A2AbramsTank
- Private First Class
- Posts: 251
- Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:39 pm
- Location: Midlothian, VA
- M1A2AbramsTank
- Private First Class
- Posts: 251
- Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:39 pm
- Location: Midlothian, VA
My Network Admin class plays BZFlag religiously.
We do it at the end of every term. After building our Linux terminals and setting them up, learning all about the commands and such, we learn to download and RPM install BZFlag.
We spend the last few weeks of every term playing LAN games on the default map.
We do it at the end of every term. After building our Linux terminals and setting them up, learning all about the commands and such, we learn to download and RPM install BZFlag.
We spend the last few weeks of every term playing LAN games on the default map.
-
- Private First Class
- Posts: 641
- Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2003 3:26 am
cool, bzflag club! wish they had that when i was in school
try secretplace server they are very strict about language there
one time i said @$%*( @#$# &*&**&, and "bum" and was banned for it more of a family or young kids server, they have zero tolerance for language there, nice fast server, great for keeping your mouth shut and playing.
try secretplace server they are very strict about language there
one time i said @$%*( @#$# &*&**&, and "bum" and was banned for it more of a family or young kids server, they have zero tolerance for language there, nice fast server, great for keeping your mouth shut and playing.
One time there I said "%$*&" And I literally mean that... I typed the symbols in... I didn't swear or anything...Death Barrel wrote:cool, bzflag club! wish they had that when i was in school
try secretplace server they are very strict about language there
one time i said @$%*( @#$# &*&**&, and "bum" and was banned for it more of a family or young kids server, they have zero tolerance for language there, nice fast server, great for keeping your mouth shut and playing.
But 2 admins were on and assumed I had swore, they were all over me like a rash. lol. Very family friendly server, even if the admins won't listen or accept an apology.
At my middle school there's thing thing called the Enrichment Program. Its every mon and wed after school for 6 week sessions. There are a bunch of different courses you can take and i could prolly set up a bzflag thing here, but i dunno how many kids would go for it... let alone the school. I dunno if the comp teachers would allow me to download games for this...
rambo/appleflap's new pillbox server has a language filter, but he definately needs to update it. It blocks out 'idiot' but not many actually swears. (note to self - i need to talk to him about that...)
rambo/appleflap's new pillbox server has a language filter, but he definately needs to update it. It blocks out 'idiot' but not many actually swears. (note to self - i need to talk to him about that...)
I am a leaf on the wind.
-
- Private First Class
- Posts: 71
- Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 4:35 am
- Location: Huntsville, AL
- Contact:
Teaching Programming with BZFlag
How useful do you think BZFlag will be for teaching a programming class?
Being an open source code, students would be more engaged since they get to see the program compile directly into the game and get to play with the code themselves.
The only problem is that I would want to restrict the class to more advanced and mature students since the game's coding itself may be over the head of a beginning porgrammer and some students may be more interested in playing instead of coding.
Being an open source code, students would be more engaged since they get to see the program compile directly into the game and get to play with the code themselves.
The only problem is that I would want to restrict the class to more advanced and mature students since the game's coding itself may be over the head of a beginning porgrammer and some students may be more interested in playing instead of coding.
Some parts of the code are very easy to understand. Others...aren't. I guess it pretty much depends on what you're trying to teach. Keep in mind that BZFlag is C++ with lots of STL, not plain C. Also, there's also a lot of stuff that's not properly abstracted (e.g. there are OpenGL and socket calls throughout the codebase), while other parts of it are very clean OOP.
That said, if you decide to do it and any of your students come up with nifty patches (or bugfixes) by all means have them submit them.
That said, if you decide to do it and any of your students come up with nifty patches (or bugfixes) by all means have them submit them.