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Serious Games - World of Borecraft?
Slate has up a piece right now talking, in a somewhat frustrated tone, about the mixed message that serious or education games can pass on. The article recognizes that serious games have a great deal of power, and can be useful ... but do they have to be boring? "The basic issue here is that it's easier to make a fun game educational than it is to inject fun into an educational game. In his 2005 book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson argues that games like The Sims and Grand Theft Auto make us smarter by training the mind in adaptive behavior and problem-solving. Most overtly educational software, though, ignores the complexities that make games riveting and enriching. The serious-gaming types think they can create educational software from whole cloth. In reality, they have a lot to learn from Grand Theft Auto." Coincidentally, Gamasutra is running an article entitled Who Says Videogames Have to be Fun?, which looks at the same issue from a slightly different point of view.
I think the point was that by starting with the idea "educational software" and trying to turn it into a game, you're more likely to get crap because people underestimate how difficult it is to make a fun game.
On the other hand once you already know you have something fun, it's pretty easy to add a few educational elements to it.
This game will waste your life. Don't clicky!
If serious games aren't fun, people won't play them. It's really that simple. As TFS mentions, games not labelled as serious are learning tools as well; in fact, Raph Koster theorizes that we find games fun because we are learning, and constantly challenged (see his book's website). People in "serious" games (a moniker that I despise) have a lot of work to do before their games will be as widely played as mainstream games. I hope they succeed though; games have such a great potential to teach, and people are more willing to learn than they think.
I've played a ton of games that could be considered purely fun and weren't intended for educational purposes, but I ended up learning simply because I was drawn in by the fun aspect.
:)
For instance, Popcap games are brilliant in that they are simple, fun, and for the most part, educational. Word worm can help out vocabulary skills, and typer shark is a great way to improve your typing skills and speed without feeling like the goal of playing it is to improve your typing skills. I've always felt like I needed to save the diver!
Another good example is the Myst series. The first few games in the series were plenty challenging, and the puzzles caused the player to think analytically, using mathematical approaches without asking the player to actually compute anything (mostly).
And of course I can't leave out Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego! I learned all sorts of state capitols and information about various places because I wanted to catch Carmen. Of course, when I played that game, I probably wasn't old enough to differentiate between playing a game for fun and education. If I played now, I'd probably quit rather quickly because I realized that it was a definite educational tool, but at the time it was just fun.
If the geography of Warcraft was the same as the geography on Earth, there would be no need to teach most teens geography. Better yet, name the flightpaths after real airports. Then we'd have a generation that never got lost.
Ah, I can see it now. "Grand Theft Auto - Oregon Trail". "Where in the Halo is Carmen Sandiego?" "Mavis Beacon Teaches Ganking".
How could it possibly go wrong?
As the father of a 2 year-old I can assure you that you learned many things from Sesame Street. My boy learns tons of things from Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. From sharing and telling the truth to letters and manners etc etc etc. He's an absolute sponge. Heck he even learned about getting lost from Finding Nemo. When we go out he does NOT want to get lost like Nemo. And NO of course he doesn't learn those things just from the TV. But the day I scolded him about something and he told me he was mad at me and going to run away to Nana's house I knew for SURE he was learning things on TV. He's freakin 2! Somebody had run away on Mr. Rogers, one of the Make-Believe puppets. Granted, TV is the last resort for things educational, but when it does get turned on, he's learning something.
>I don't remember learning anything from things like Sesame Street
How many things at all can you remember from when you were 2? 3? I don't remember learning to read. Heck I don't remember learning to type either. I remember when I couldn't do either. But the learning part..it happens so insidiously that it's just not a memorable event.
As someone who is working on their PhD you should know that the entire concept of play is based on learning. Just look at animals playing. Now look at kids playing. They are learning everything from refined motor skills to problem solving to empathy, character judgement, following directions, cause & effect, etc etc etc etc.
Learning is the root of all play. Just ask a kitty. Hence, good games are educational whether they mean to be or not.
The important question is this: How can we make good games more educational? Because currently, we suck at it.
An interesting example, one of my gamer buddies lives in Quebec. He spoke no English but now attributes his decent mastery of English to an FPS game! He learned it in game, on the forums, on TeamSpeak, etc etc. He taught himself English to get along in an English Language game. And I was there for most of the process and can vouch for it.
Anybody know a great game with a predominantly Spanish speaking or Mandarin speaking community? I'm in!
Now how can we better promote game learning by design?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Grand Theft Auto V Mission #1: Tony Pinetti's ho owes him $230. She's been dodging him for 3.2 days. Tony charges an interest rate of %0.1 interest per hour a ho dodges him. Tony has instructed you to smack her for every $3.50 she owes him. How many times will you have to smack Tony's ho?