Zoo's wolf game has thousands on prowl

Since the Minnesota Zoo's free educational video game, WolfQuest, launched late last year, it has attracted attention and gamers from across the globe.

More than 100,000 people have downloaded WolfQuest and it averages more than 1,000 new users every day, according to figures provided by the zoo.

Michelle Housenga, the WolfQuest project coordinator at the zoo, said downloads come in waves as new countries learn about the game. She said its popularity stems from extensive news coverage, including from National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Iran's Tehran Times newspaper.

"I think the response we're getting is exceeding our imagination," she said.

The online video game is a lifelike simulation of a wolf hunting, communicating with other wolves and mating (only nuzzling is shown before the screen goes black and the wolf pups appear). The goal of the game is to survive, find a mate and start your own pack.

Collin Shinkle, 14, has been playing WolfQuest from Lincoln, New Zealand, since he learned about it through the news. He said he plays video games frequently and has a large collection of them, but WolfQuest is by far his favorite.

"I've never played anything quite like this before," he said.

He said he revels in hunting and communicating through gestures as a wolf, one of his favorite animals. After playing WolfQuest and visiting its online forums, Shinkle said he's learned how wolves hunt and communicate.

The online discussion boards have supported the learning aspect of the game and been another catalyst for its popularity. Housenga said members of the gaming population often discuss the dynamics of wolf communities, seek advice from wolf experts, socialize and set up wolf packs to meet and hunt together online.

The game has also reached demographics beyond the teenagers targeted. In the United States about 30 percent of downloads have come from adults between 20 and 40 years old.

Nora Paul, an expert on new media studies at the University of Minnesota, said educational video games struggle to compete with action-filled mainstream games, but when they succeed, they turn the learning process on its head.

Instead of the traditional educational approach of doing everything right the first time, she said, video games encourage players to backtrack, start over and try things differently. "Using the game environment is more engaging," she said.

Paul said educational video games fail when they are thought of as silly or a waste of time, but there is a strong trend toward developing video games as a teaching tool.

"This is a very hot trend," she said. "Every aspect [of education] that you can think of is trying to look at how using games could be an effective approach for informing and engaging people."

Tom Moran is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune.