The following testimonials are taken verbatim from post-game evaluations completed by players. The players were students in 2024 in a first-year Critical Thinking course at Douglas College, where the game was developed. Thanks to all students who participated.
- “My overall experience was good with trying to convince others except for at the end. It was satisfying with mostly everybody agreeing with my first two premises. I learned that even if people agree with some of your premises it is still hard to convince them.” (4/4/24)
- “While most people stuck with their initial views, some shifted towards being convinced after I tweaked my arguments and offered further explanations for my reasoning. I’m confident in the strength of my premises; they effectively explain my topic without stirring up too much controversy, making them agreeable to most people. I had a great time trying to persuade others, and it was genuinely interesting and enjoyable. Hearing their reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with me was insightful, and I enjoyed examining their arguments. Gathering different perspectives helped me strengthen my own argument and adjust my approach. I would rate Tug of Logic a 5 [out of 5]. It was a great learning experience that taught me how to argue better and how to understand my peers POV more.” (2/4/24)
- “Some word changing can severely affect the argument and strengthen it” (9/4/24)
- “My experience with the game it was awesome, with my arguments I could change one mind, and most people agreed with the premises. Moreover I believe I learned a lot how just one word can change someone’s mind. Words have power and I can take this to my professional and personal life. For me the experience was 5 [out of five] (very good).” (nd/4/24)
- “Majority of the votes did stay consistent and some voters were influenced after hearing the explanation for each premise. I believe my first premise was effective, there were some voters opposed to it and after sharing their opinions I was able to say what I believed in order to defend my premise. I believe my arguments were persuasive enough because some voters did change their minds in the Bout vote. Convincing my peers was an overall fun and satisfying experience; Being able to hear their sides and oppositions to the premise and overall argument was insightful and that was able to help me change my premise into a more effective and stronger take. [I gave it a] 5. It is very good.” (nd/4/24)
- “I had a vague set of premises, I wish they were more specific. It was satisfying to convince others on other arguments, but frustrating trying to convince others on my own arguments. I learned mostly that it is difficult to argue a statement. I had fun with the game.” (21/3/24)
- “A majority of the class agreed with our Main Claim and premises, so we didn’t have to do much persuading, although for two of the premises I altered, I enjoyed hearing feedback from my peers, and at moments found it a bit challenging to reword them. Overall it was an interesting and rewarding experience. 5/5 (very good)” (25/3/24)
- “Prof changed his mind because he was hoping he would be able to use an objection he learned in the other class, but couldn’t. I thought it was satisfying seeing my arguments get 100% established but frustrating seeing the other argument gets contested and having to figure out how to reword it to satisfy everyone. I learned to be more careful with the wording of my premises and not to be so broad. I give this experience of four, just because I was busy trying to write everything down before we got to the next premise and I wouldn’t be able to object to someone’s objection” (21/3/24)
- “The word ‘opinion’ [in my premise] was too general… and was changed to ‘political opinion’ and this resulted in votes being almost 100% established and the premise being moved to Common Ground. The voters who were against my other premise were not able to be swayed and this premise was not moved to Common Ground. All in all, we believe conducting this game was a great learning experience on how to form persuasive arguments. Many of the lessons we learned from voters feedback on our premises are going to be applicable in the future when needing to represent our point of view. Although we deem this game to be a good experience, it did have its own frustrating moments, such as voters being against 16-year-olds being able to form their own opinions, which we thought would have almost zero contest. On a scale of 1 to 5 we would rate Tug of Logic as a learning experience at 4.” (2/4/24)
- “I was not expecting a huge swing on votes because the claim is quite controversial. However, I’m slightly confused why more people didn’t vote convinced. Throughout both my premises I had only one vote disagreeing with me, yet four people were still not yet persuaded. Based on the positive feedback on the polls, both of my premises (including the updated one) were effective. I think that the game was a little frustrating since I developed a good argument and both my premises landed in Common Ground yet people still voted against me on the Final Vote. However, I feel like this will always be an issue because people have set views on topics and are very hesitant to change. I learned that it’s important to change your premise during the game to secure more votes. I really enjoyed the games we played during class and especially liked how interactive Tug of Logic is. My favorite part was arguing my own views if I disagreed with the premise. I would rate the game a 5” (11/4/24)
- “Three people ended up [changing their vote from] being’ convinced’ to ‘not persuaded’, so in a way I failed. My side dropped 21% after going through all the vote tallies. I was unable to persuade anyone to become convinced. Even my partner was not persuaded. (Shame.) I enjoyed the experience. I thought I took a naturally controversial side to begin with, so the opposition did a great job of exploiting fundamental issues with my argument with, say, for example, the right to live. I would rate the experience 5, being very good.” (27/3/24)
- “People initially disagreed with the opposing team’s arguments, which led me to believe they would agree with mine easier. Although the majority of the class supported my views/side of the Main Claim, when it came down to each premise, there were votes on each side. I felt my arguments were strong but after hearing classmates’ opinions, I think it would be better to change them to something more certain. I found it hard to have a premise be 100% without relying on the … Main Claim. Also, I believe the wording of each premise is really important and can make a big difference. … My arguments were most effective in the beginning but as the game went on, the views of others opposing may have persuaded people to the other side. At the end of the game, the Final Poll was at 5 ‘convinced’ and 7 ‘not yet persuaded,’ which means I lost three votes from the original 8 ‘convinced’ and 4 ‘not yet persuaded.’ Although it was frustrating not getting more people on my side, I think overall the experience was a fun learning method. I would definitely do it again!” (nd/4/24)
- “I was able to see the gaps in my premises and realized the wording of my premises wasn’t creating the strongest statement. Although they weren’t contested and the votes were primarily on my side, my premises could have been constructed more to be perceived as valid truths. If I was to redo it, I would either restructure my premises to create more sufficient argument or use my other argument which I thought was a bit stronger than the one I presented” (3/4/24)
- “The vote results at the end of the game showed that I was able to convince four people who were not persuaded by the main claim in the beginning, and I lost one person who was originally convinced. The person who originally agreed with my Main Claim stated at the end of the game that her reasoning for changing her mind was the fact that she believed the outright banning of social media would be an extreme course of action and that regulation may be a better way to protect minors online. The people who were convinced by my argument said that my first premise was what persuaded them to change their minds. I also agreed with this point because that premise is backed by research. I enjoyed playing Tug of Logic because it requires you to convince other people of your ideas, and seeing people change their minds on a whole situation because of one or two talking points is interesting and is like a small simulation of society and public opinion. I also enjoyed participating in other peoples’ games because it gives you a chance to affect the outcome of the game and allows you to observe people’s critical thinking process.” (nd/4/24)
- “During the game I could notice trends especially when wording was changed and used. It swayed people one way then another (with specific words such as ‘can’). By the end of the game the poll was relatively the same with one player going from ‘convinced’ to ‘not persuaded,’ which I think was a given. … Overall I think my experience was good. I wish we could have chosen maybe even a more controversial topic to create something more static just because most people were already persuaded on this issue; there was not much convincing to do. I did enjoy my game as well as playing others. It is very interactive and gets a good conversation going.” (nd/4/24)
