As you play Bot Colony, you’ll travel through an exotic island and have many conversations with robots and occasional humans.
In order to be understood by our virtual characters (robots or humans), you must speak good English. There will be a version of the game (our ESL Beta) configured so that characters give you feedback related to your spoken or written English – spelling, syntax, choice of words in a particular context. If they did not understand your pronunciation, you will be able to see what they think you said, and try again until they do. If you want to practice your written English – just type instead of speaking. When you think about it, this is exactly what a real-life English tutor does – she/he corrects you in real time when you speak, or corrects your papers. No English teaching package available today can do this, because computers don’t yet understand English (except ours; if you keep it simple, you should be able to get through). The ability to provide YOU with customized feedback to the mistakes that YOU make means that playing it can improve your language skills.
Whether you`re a student, a professional, or a business person, it is more fun to learn English in real-life situations where you actually have to speak the language, than just do boring exercises. In this sense, the world of Bot Colony is very close to real life. Playing to learn is probably a very effective learning method, since the student is really motivated (to advance in the game and have fun).
Studies have shown the developing literacy and analytical thinking is the key to raising the standard of living of a society. We will be very happy if Bot Colony, besides entertaining the players, can help people in developing countries improve their lives through better education.