Collaborative game environments for informal science education: DinoQuest and DinoQuest Online

We describe concepts and results that arose from the development and deployment of a large-scale collaborative game environment called DinoQuest and DinoQuest Online. As interoperable game environments, DQ and DQO provide a unique experience and approach to informal science education. DQ and DQO are games for helping school-age children to learn about science (or more specifically, life science and dinosaurs). In this paper, we identify and examine different collaborative group forms that emerged to play DQ and DQO, as well as the affordances that help facilitate collaborative game play. Along the way we provide examples of the collaborative groups, affordances, and game play from DQ and DQO.