Comments (0)

By The Gamer, September 8, 2009 11:32 am

Some of you remember Omikron. Some of you played Indigo Prophecy (otherwise known as Fahrenheit). Anyone who did knows that Quantic Dream makes really good games. Really good. Heavy Rain, their upcoming PS3 title, is shaping up to be no slouch, either. Check out this “audition” (in HD, though it’s important to note that this was produced a while ago and the graphic quality has likely improved greatly since).

It got me to thinking: could this be used in a Film Studies class? Maybe the trailer will give you more ideas:

Intense, right? Indigo Prophecy was like that, too. I’m really looking forward to this game, but not just because it looks like a lot of fun. Quantic Dream’s games tend to be like interactive movies with sharp focus on interpersonal relationships. They called it “cinematic gameplay.” Can’t blame them. It really is gorgeous.

So, how would one use this in a classroom? Well, anyone studying acting could examine the monologue and critique it. That’s fairly obvious. You could look at the trailer (the second video) and discuss how effective it is at sparking the interest of the consumer. I’m not a film studies person, so I don’t want to get too into it; just throwing out ideas. Lighting, composition, editing, any aspect of study you can apply to a film clip you can apply to these.

Not into film? How about using either the woman in the monologue or the father in the trailer as a case study for a psychology class? Or interpersonal communication? Relationship studies? The applications seem endless. This is the beauty of the direction games are going: they become more than just games.

Look at Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Some gamers complained that the hours of cut scenes were just too much, that they impeded gameplay. I completely disagree. If I pay upwards of $60 for a game, I want as much as I can get for my money. Part of the fun of the MSG games is the storyline (which Kojima himself admits he sometimes gets lost in; I love that fact). Obviously, to gamers who only play Madden and Rockband, this is a turn-off. Also, obviously, I’m not referring to them. The discussion of different types of gamers will have to wait for another post.

I think the word I’m looking for is immersive.

In a future post I’m going to delve deep into two games from the mind of Ragnar Tornquist (The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey) and see just how far down the rabbit hole we can go.
 

Comments (0)

By The Gamer, August 27, 2009 2:30 pm

So this blog is more than just a place for me to push my own agenda (though there will be quite a bit of that, I would imagine). It’s also a place to condense and bring together all the information I can find on the topic of COTS games in the classroom. The most obvious place to start is the Teaching with Games project from the UK-based Futurelab non-profit. Of course, I’m not the first person to blog about this. It happened in 2005 and 2006, but it represents a wonderful step forward in marrying COTS games and the classroom.

Teaching with Games has essentially confirmed any suspicions that COTS games can and should be considered viable pedagogical tools. (All quotes in this post are from a Teaching with Games press release):

Teaching with Games also suggests that there are specific features of game play that could encourage student engagement, such as the opportunity to have autonomous control over a responsive environment, and the ability to use games familiar from home in which they can demonstrate expertise. In addition, findings from an Ipsos MORI survey into teachers’ attitudes to using mainstream computer games in the classroom, published in January 2006 as part of the Teaching with Games study, revealed that 59% of teachers want to use computer games for educational purposes and 53% say they would do so because they are an interactive way of motivating and engaging students.

It seems that whether or not the teacher is an avid gamer is not the key to successfully integrating COTS games into the classroom.

Teachers’ experience, teaching style, familiarity with the curriculum and the culture of the school, rather than gaming expertise, were identified as having the most impact on the successful integration of games into classroom learning. Furthermore, the study revealed that games used in the classroom environment do not have to be fully representative of reality to be useful in a lesson.

So what does that mean, exactly? It means that good teachers have a better chance of making this thing work than good gamers who work as teachers. Then again, good teachers can take just about anything and turn it into a worthwhile pedagogical instrument. While Xbox 360 achievements may be bragging rights, they don’t assume any ability to translate that game into a learning opportunity. It means that a teacher who’s really passionate about and knows how to convey art will be better at using Okami as lesson material than a person who’s gotten all 100 pebbles.

That being said, teachers have been responsive to the idea of using games in the classroom. Remember, these are not games intended specifically for education. Teaching with Games used games like Civilization and The Sims, entirely COTS. However, not all schools have the hardware needed to do this. In fact, one school had the computers but they lacked CD-ROM drives, rendering them essentially dead in the water as far as gaming goes (this was before Steam).

Claire Gemmell, a teacher at St John’s School & Community College in Marlborough, commented: “I can definitely see the potential of using games in the classroom. It proved to be a great tool for motivating students and engaging their interest. I would like to use games for teaching in the future if the technical problems could be addressed.”

Electronic Arts is aware of how useful these games can be to the classroom teacher. If other companies are not careful, they’ll miss out on this burgeoning venture. (coughcoughValveInfinityWardMicrosoftSquareEnixcoughcough) Valve does have an email address devoted to Academic Licensing, but I’ve yet to hear back from them.

“We have long recognised the potential of interactive computer games to stimulate the learning process”, said Gerhard Florin, Executive Vice President and General Manager, International Publishing, EA. “The Teaching with Games study in collaboration with Futurelab has shown that commercial computer games have the potential to support education, which has raised the bar for ongoing collaboration between the industry and education sectors. We look forward to continued initiatives to help pave the way for meaningful integration of computer games into school curriculum.”

So, yes, this was a few years ago, but it sets a wonderful groundwork for the future of this sort of collaboration.

If you can think of a US-based project like Teaching with Games, please let me know.

Comments (0)

By The Gamer, August 26, 2009 3:19 pm

I’ve begun this site as a way to bring all my thoughts, research, findings, etc., together in one place. I will soon begin working on a Ph.D in Instructional Technology during which I will be focusing on using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games as texts. How? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out. Maybe it would be an examination of urban planning and construction in the cities of Assassin’s Creed. Maybe it’s a look at how sound and music incite physical changes and stress while playing Silent Hill 2. Maybe it’s psychoanalyzing Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. Maybe it’s the interpersonal relationship between Alxy Vance and Gordon Freeman in the Half Life 2 Episodes (an interesting prospect, considering Gordon never speaks).

Also, there will be links to journals or other articles/blog posts/reports that focus on gaming or instructional technology.

This site is not about educational games. I am not particularly interested in games that are specifically made to be educational. There may be some references made to them, but it is at its heart about commercial video games and the potential they have in the classroom. Any blogs that wish to be listed here can email me at gamesSYMBOLanamericanintaiwanDOTcom. You know what to do.

Check out the official GAT Twitter feed at the top of the page, as well as the post RSS and comments RSS feeds.

Here we go.