The issue with being addicted to a game that perhaps has educational potential is that the Sims in its current state is more of an addictive game than it would be a learning tool. It is likely that many more hours will be spent on the Sims due to the enjoyment of playing rather than learning the language (which will not necessarily mean that the language level of the gamer will increase, the correlation between the two remains unknown). If the sims becomes a part of a corriculum, I assure you it will be the favorite part and take time away from more boring yet more efficient methods.
To provide a perhaps more pertinent example, lets take MMORPGs as examples. They are able to teach social skills like teamwork and such, but are those the reasons that keep people tuned in for countless days? No, its the sheer enjoyment of mindless progress that those games allow (and I am not bashing MMOs, I play them too.) The same exact issue arises with the Sims. Although it could potentially teach you the basics of the language, it will be more likely to become an addiction not because of that fact, but because it's a fun game.
I don't think the Sims could provide a sufficient language portion that would allow anyone to get by. Most Sims events occur within the house, when any foreign language use would be required mostly outside of it in public places, which the Sims wouldn't cover.
In addition to that, the Sims would not really provide any kind of advancement since the progression in the storyline does not imply progression in the complexity of the language. As a result the gamer would dive right into the same language level as he will be playing from that point on. Language is difficult to learn when there is no sense of accomplishment and progression which can't exist in a paceless learning.
Lastly, the Sims is quite an addictive game (speaking from experience) and encouraging that from an educational standpoint is kind of like encouraging smoking because its cool while disregarding its health implications (a slight exageration but you get the point).
Yet, cellphone makers claim that such incidents are too rare to care about.
Some of you may be familiar with the Therac-25 incidents, but those were a perfect examples as to why "occational" mishaps cannot be ignored.
The Therac-25 was an inovative cancer treatment machine that shot electrons at the cancerous area. There were very few machines in the country, and they were quite buggy but over 20,000 treatments were successfully administered before any issues occured.
The machine would usually deliver approximatly 200 rads to a patient. However during an unpredictable malfunction it shot over 15,000 rads at the patient. The first women that had recieved such a large amount of radiation had a hole burned through her chest... It took 2 years, and multiple similar accidents resulting in death, for the machine to be taken out of use.
If we agree that this whole cell phone explosion issue can be disregarded, aren't we allowing for worse things to occur in the future?
If anyone wants to read more about the Therac-25, it can be found here:
http://www.ccnr.org/fatal_dose.html
Slashdot Mirror
The issue with being addicted to a game that perhaps has educational potential is that the Sims in its current state is more of an addictive game than it would be a learning tool. It is likely that many more hours will be spent on the Sims due to the enjoyment of playing rather than learning the language (which will not necessarily mean that the language level of the gamer will increase, the correlation between the two remains unknown). If the sims becomes a part of a corriculum, I assure you it will be the favorite part and take time away from more boring yet more efficient methods.
To provide a perhaps more pertinent example, lets take MMORPGs as examples. They are able to teach social skills like teamwork and such, but are those the reasons that keep people tuned in for countless days? No, its the sheer enjoyment of mindless progress that those games allow (and I am not bashing MMOs, I play them too.) The same exact issue arises with the Sims. Although it could potentially teach you the basics of the language, it will be more likely to become an addiction not because of that fact, but because it's a fun game.
I don't think the Sims could provide a sufficient language portion that would allow anyone to get by. Most Sims events occur within the house, when any foreign language use would be required mostly outside of it in public places, which the Sims wouldn't cover.
In addition to that, the Sims would not really provide any kind of advancement since the progression in the storyline does not imply progression in the complexity of the language. As a result the gamer would dive right into the same language level as he will be playing from that point on. Language is difficult to learn when there is no sense of accomplishment and progression which can't exist in a paceless learning.
Lastly, the Sims is quite an addictive game (speaking from experience) and encouraging that from an educational standpoint is kind of like encouraging smoking because its cool while disregarding its health implications (a slight exageration but you get the point).
Yet, cellphone makers claim that such incidents are too rare to care about.
Some of you may be familiar with the Therac-25 incidents, but those were a perfect examples as to why "occational" mishaps cannot be ignored.
The Therac-25 was an inovative cancer treatment machine that shot electrons at the cancerous area. There were very few machines in the country, and they were quite buggy but over 20,000 treatments were successfully administered before any issues occured.
The machine would usually deliver approximatly 200 rads to a patient. However during an unpredictable malfunction it shot over 15,000 rads at the patient. The first women that had recieved such a large amount of radiation had a hole burned through her chest... It took 2 years, and multiple similar accidents resulting in death, for the machine to be taken out of use.
If we agree that this whole cell phone explosion issue can be disregarded, aren't we allowing for worse things to occur in the future?
If anyone wants to read more about the Therac-25, it can be found here: http://www.ccnr.org/fatal_dose.html