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Education Via Video Games
An anonymous reader writes "According to Wired/AP, food stamp recipients will now receive video games instead of brochures and pamphlets, in an effort to educate them on how to get the most benefit. One wonders why someone that can't afford food would have spent money on a computer on which to play these games."
i read the same article on google news. it seems to be more of a public education issue. btw, where in america ISN'T a computer these days. even the ultra poor have pc access.
Minimum System requirements:
Athlon 64 3400+ or equivalent processor
512 MB of RAM
Radeon X800 or equivalent video card
Seriously though, if the game works on a P90, then one could expect even the poorest of poor to afford a computer to run it since even much faster machines are practically given away everywhere all the time.
Another food-game story from the BBC:
"The game itself is somewhere between a game like Tomb Raider and a lecture from the WFP," explained the game's designer, Mike Harrison.
Those funky, funky people...
Even low income households can obtain a low end PC these days. I for one am in that boat. Except over years I have been able to build a up a very nice system.
There is a few non-profit organizations out there that help low income individuals, or organizations with obtaining computers.
It's easy as going to a thrift store now and building lowely Pentium system for cheap. Or grabbing parts from the curb. (Done that few times too).
And even if you don't have a PC, most likely you know someone that does, or have access to one.
Even for consoles, you may have little income, but you are allowed to spend the basic needs money (least here) on whatever you wish, as long as it's not illegal substances.
misundstood by most, hated by some, loved by few.
Cant.. stop.. must... type reposte...
As a fellow poor person, who worked his way through a CS degree (and masters), I have to disagree with you guys.
The problem is not that poor people are spending their money on entertainment systems before neccesities. This is not something I observed the vast majority of my fellow downtrodden doing during my formative years, although I will admit that it did go on to a small extent.
No, the problem is that poor people exist in the first place.
In a civilized western democracy, nobody should be so poor that they do not have access to a PC. This creates a barrier to getting otherwise able bodied and intelligent people into work. Ask yourself this- how many potential doctors and nurses are sitting on your housing project because they dont have the finances to compliment their intelligence?
Welfare should be a safety net, but that net should be high enough to give eveybody a chance to contribute to the greater good, for all our sakes.
You want to moan about the poor leeching your taxes? They dont take nearly as many of your tax dollars as the corporations who avoid trillions (yes- trillions) of dollars of taxes every year.
Heres an idea- why dont working people pay the same tax, corporations pay the tax that the actually owe, and the resulting extra revenue be channeled into making our society a nicer place to live. This would include allowing people the opportunity to have the funds to do something constructive, and find decent employment.
If someone I love gets really sick I want their doctor to be somebody who got his education and employment, because he was intelligent, motivated, interested in medicine, and he then had to compete against EVERY other person with the same interests and abilities.
If someone I love gets really sick I DO NOT want somebody to be looking after them just because he could afford the $100000 to get throught medical school and the academic competition wasnt really up to much.
Discuss...
I don't know even about very young children. I'm getting the idea that the only ones who make "educational games" are the ones too fucking unskilled to make a proper video game.
Can games teach people stuff? Well, yes. I've learned a lot of history stuff from games like Europa Universalis, or to a lesser extent Civilization. Or at least got the curiosity to read more about that from other places.
Or "Die Gilde" ("Europa 1400 - The Guild" for you 'merkins) gives you a historical report of what happened IRL in that year after each game year. I've learned more late medieval trivia from it than from any other game.
But here's the scoop:
1. It must be fun as a _game_. Civilization was a bestseller in its own right. It didn't need to masquerade as "educational software" to get any sales at all. Ditto for Die Gilde, at least in Germany. Europa Universalis has a steep learning curve, but also got quite a few people addicted on its own merits.
2. Don't lecture or preach. It must first and foremost be a game, not a piss-poorly disguised beating people up with a clue stick. People instinctively resist being lectured.
3. Don't be patronising. Stuff that basically says, "see, we know you're a fscking retard who doesn't know how to put stuff in a fridge. We also know you're an idiot who can't figure out the cheapest crap to buy." serves no purpose other than humiliating someone. If anything, it'll make them resist the lecture even more.
And I'm thinking the same could be applied to software for small children. A game should be written to be first and foremost a _game_, and only incidentally also education.
E.g., there are a ton of _fun_ ways to make someone exercise their maths or logic skills. Economic sim games have done that for ages. Puzzles are also a good means to that end. (And god knows even the worst maths puzzle is still better than yet another "jump puzzle".)
So it's not like they _have_ to be crappy _and_ patronising games to be educational. It's just that the people making them seem to be into patronizing their gamers. And in most cases also utterly unable to make a proper game anyway.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
No, not that sort of adult. Sorry to dissapoint.
Go to Garage Games and check out Bridge Construction Set, available both for Windows and Linux.
With many Linux distros that use KDE, you can get several "edutainment" games such as Kiten (Japanese), KVerbos, Klettres, Ktouch, KFlashcard, Kstars.... They are OK, but rather limited. I hope they will become better, one day perhaps KPercentage will have grown enough to teach (for instance) 9 years of basic school math to anyone.
The best educational game I have played though was back in Windows 95 days, a Swedish game developer from my home town Uppsala had made a geography game that fit on one floppy. You could learn names and locations of continents, countries, states, capitols etc, the quiz was usually by pointing and clicking on maps when presented by a name.
I believe they later went on to make the Backpacker series. I have never played any of them, but appearently they are great successes. The sort of game parents can pick up at any supermarket for their kids and not worry about voilent content and so on...
if I ever get the time I hope to do a similar geography game in Java on Sourceforge.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
One wonders why someone that can't afford food would have spent money on a computer on which to play these games.
You're kidding, right?
In high school/college I worked summers at a convenience store in my tiny, hick Kansas town. A few of the things I witnessed while working there:
- I saw a lady try and buy dogfood with food stamps.
- I saw a lady purchase two 16oz Pepsi bottles, and insist they be rung up seperately. Each one rung up for about $1.05, and she paid for each one with $2 in food stamps. She then took the change received back from each one and bought a pack of smokes.
- I can't tell you how many times people would try to buy beer with food stamps. The best part was when they'd get all pissed off when we wouldn't do it, and talk about how we couldn't tell them how to spend "their money".
Not to go Right Wing Facists on anyone, but I would guess than 9 times out of 10, people on food stamps don't have a history of making wise purchase decisions.
I'm finding the gross number of "We were so poor that..." posts kind of amusing. They all generally make the point that people that have money don't understand those that don't have it unless they themselves did not have it at one point.
Of course I see a couple of these stories and have to laugh at what people consider "poverty". Only one or two have entered the territory I consider "poverty".
In my mind, having cable takes you out of the poverty level. Having a television at all takes you out of poverty. Owning a computer takes you above poverty. Poverty means not being able to afford non-essentials like those items.
I look back and consider myself having come out of poverty around age 9 or 10 when we got a black & white TV. I remember thinking back when I was 5 or 6 and visiting the neighbors how rich they must be for having indoor lighting, plumbing, and this cool TV thing. I was 8 when we got electricity.
Granted times have changed and that was the 80's, but commodities are still commodities. The idea of poverty is that you don't have a commodity based lifestyle, that you will go hungry if you instead spend the money on unnecessary items. As much time as all of us spend on the computer, it just isn't a necessary item to continue living for the majority of the public. It is still a commodity rather then a necessity. Electricity has become more necessary, a phone is generally necessary, water is somewhat necessary, those I would qualify near the upper limits of poverty, but crossing the lines to non-necessary appliances (necessary depending on rural vs urban) means that while you may be less then middle class, you are no longer impoverished.
Even the above poster (who I wasn't singling out by posting at this level, just using it as an example), talks about how they received a washing machine from their parents who then went and bought a new one.
While I was no longer poor and had a washing machine in my house by the time I graduated highschool, there is no way I would have gotten it as a going to college present. Those things are expensive. We did have a computer at the time, but only because it was necessary to my fathers occupation.
I find myself able to get glued to the television easily now, though that is compared to 20 years ago when I didn't have a television. I went to the library. I have over 500 books on my shelves (now, then I had none). I have a bad habit of being a packrat because everything is re-useable for something. I have an infinite level of disdain for any political candidate that pretends they know what poor was like because they only got such-and-such an allowance while going to their Ivy League college after moving out of their parents mansion(s).
In 2003 a single person (roughly, this is just a guideline) had to make less then $8,980 to be considered to be in poverty. 3 people had to make less then $15,260. Spending $100 for a P3 level computer (if they have access to ebay somehow) is a stretch when it means spending 10% of their monthly income when they could eat a little better and maybe get a toy or school supplies for their kid.
Or maybe that would b my priorities and people making that little would rather eat rice and beans 24/7/4/12 and have a cheap computer. Of course, the fact that i visited many of the poorest neighborhoods quite frequently when I deliverd pizza belied that, for the majority at least.
Whee signature.
Believe it or not, some people don't know that. Believe it or not, some people come from countries where refrigerators are not commonplace. I guess you forget that when you live in an ultra-rich Western country. Maybe the government should develop a video game to teach you some perspective.
Why not take the SAFE way, the prudent way, as they do in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Canada, etc etc, and RAISE TAXES ON THE RICH.
gee tax $0 net income hmm... The rich are rich because they know how to dodge taxes legitimatly. How can you tax me if I make nothing and my corporation buys me a house? I can't give you 60% of the house so you must be SOL.
Thos ewho make 40k -100k shoulder most of the burden of social services whiel those who actually make 100k plus, evade liek crazy.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."