The what questions and the how questions

So I went to Randall School and discussed the MadCity Murder with the kids who played this game in the last 30 days. Yes, since September 26, we had played the game with more than 20 kids. Each day and each group was a different scenario as well as a different case given that the group dynamics among them were all different.

And here comes a quesiton that I have been asking myself: what should we study?

The quesiton comes before the quesiton "how should we study" since a question of "what" is often an ontological quesiton which will pretty much predetermin the methodology, the how questions, that we employ to study the AR game.

Should we ask how before we ask what?
It seems that my position is clear--we ask the what question before the how question.

In some way, we have been asking questions of what and we have predetermined the what questions we need to answer--narrative, space and place--because we all agree they are the key features in the AR learning environment.

Does the what questions that we asked block our sights for other significance? Have we been making the familiar strange? What have been filtered out when we have adapted to certain theories?

I believe these are important questions that we need to ask more when we study AR games.