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On Instructional Video Games
The New York Times (registration required), is running an article entitled Is Instructional Video Game an Oxymoron?. In it they discuss the increasingly high profile that games are playing in educational and conciousness raising situations. From the article: "Stop Fluin' Around, which arrived in December, is one of dozens of instructional online games that public interest organizations, advocacy groups and government agencies say have become the best way to reach a generation of children and teenagers weaned on video games and the Web."
This approach certainly works for advertising. As long as they "rebrand" the game right, it could work. Never, though, should this replace honest-to-goodness schooling. Games should be considered academic enrichment (in their current form). The only thing Pac Man taught me was that I couldn't cut corners.
Instructional video games are quite useful. I used one to develop my leadership skills, in the area of large-scale ship-to-ship space combat. It was tough and I almost had a complete breakdown during my training, but I finally beat the game. Fortunately, I figured out the trick to beating the final level, and wiped out the opposition completely.
One thing that made the game so challenging was the enemy AI. It learned from its own mistakes and my tactics almost as if it were a real intelli... gence.
Oh, my God.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Someone's been playing Mario is Missing lately. I did once long ago, but never got through much of it. Some geography stuff (like where the Transamerica building is and the like), mixed in with walking around a city and the occasional Koopa, from the little I played. Not exactly a disease-prevention game, but I think I learned a thing or three.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
...and that you could actually spend quality time "munching pills while listening to repetitive music." Amazing what they put in the Smithsonian's collections.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
It's a good idea but will anyone play this game and then start washing their hands more? Maybe a better question is will anyone play this game besides my sister? People who send the time to go on the internet and play games don't want to play hand-washing simulation, trust me I've played the game (it sucks).
Seriously though, I think the non-game possibilities could be both useful and lucrative. I sat through a 40 hour HAZWOPR (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response) course for my present employment and I could imagine absorbing 10 times the information were it presented in a real-time strategy format (e.g. the mission starts with a worker on a forklift crashing into a drum of xylene and then you must coordinate the emergency response). There is supposed there is something like that in the works with Incident Commander for local U.S. government agencies to deal with the coordinating emergency services and aid in the wake of a natural disaster.
On more of the instructional side of things, anyone who has ever taken a ballroom dance class would appreciate taking home a game disc that let them see their various moves demonstrated by 3D models where they could change the camera angle to see exactly where their foot goes and how to shake it like that. A more basic use could be a CDC game of properly putting a condom on a banana.
On the advertising side of things, wouldn't travel agencies love to use an enemy-free mod of Crytek's Far Cry to advertise for Tahiti trips? Wouldn't the London Chamber of commerce love to help potential tourists figure out where the good shows/museums/historical places are using a modded version of The Getaway: Black Monday?
Of course they do. I remember playing a ton of educational games at school back on the Apple 2e. The ones that seemed effective to me were the math and learn how to read/type ones.
The one I remember the clearest was called Kids on Keys. The game would drop letters from the sky and you would have to hit the corresponding key on the keyboard before it hit the ground. When you are in the first grade you are having too much fun playing it to realize you are actually learning.
roche
Bah Humbug!
Try any of Squeenix's recent offerings... or any game for that matter. The tutorial is enough to make any man cringe.
In high school I had a shirt that I made that had the old Squaresoft symbol on the front, and on the back it said, "Fear the tutorial."
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I have a copy waiting for my son to be 3 so he can start learning the right way.
demo still widely available on the net- I strongly suggest everyone give it a try.
no better educational game ever
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
One I can think of that is still pretty popular. Fight Simulator.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
on-topic.
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
These days it's all about money and profits though, and if edu-tainment doesn't pay, then you'll have a hard time getting game warehouses to finance you...
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Back in Elementary school(I'm an undergrad now) the advanced classes commonly used games or videos to teach. The fact of the matter is that these are the few things I remember learning in Elementary School. We had one cool game about rafting down the Amazon (I still know the region's geography, wildlife, and native tribes fairly well). We also used an Oregon Trail game, which taught a bit of history, and a fair amount of planning. Another fun one had us mantain a hypothetical ecosystem. I think that exposing us to interactive games, and teaching us planning/foresight at such a young age was immensley helpful. Everyone in that class with me got accepted (some couldn't afford to go) to a school that excels in their area of interest. I'm in the Electrical Engineering program at UIUC (best school for the price since I'm instate) Most of us had over 1400 on the SAT (Average is closer to a 1000), and are suceeding at what we do.
There has to be at least 100,000 Slashdotters who played the crap out of that game and got damn good at math as a direct result of associating math with fun.
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...I learned how to pick locks from Splinter Cell :-)
This sig is false.
Am I the first to point out "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego"?
I first played it on my Commodore 64, and it was a teriffic game that tricked me into learning about world geography, currencies, art, history, etc. I remember thinking that I was getting away with something... playing a video game instead of being outside riding my bike... little did I know.
"Instructional Video Game an Oxymoron?" - Hell no!
Those of you with subscriptions to Game Dev Mag or the Gamasutra website (free for industry) can read their article on the same theme.
That author claims that a "teaching game" is an oxymoron, based on a narrow semantical interpretation: games can illustrate concepts, not teach them.
hehe... Reader Rabbit... *nostalgic moment.... now*
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