Baron i CSC 385-001 Essay 3: Outline Thesis: Computer gaming has significantly changed society and culture for the better as it enables users to learn through a unique educational environment, promotes individuals personality growth and development and their social interactions, and provides a unique industry for people to apply their creativity through developing games. I. Cultural improvement through an educational focus of video games A. Success of using games in classrooms 1. Lack of digital media in courses 2. Time and technological restraints B. Simulation video games in academic courses 1. Learning games and what they are not a. Not learning games i. Virtual realities ii. Jeopardy and edutainment games b. Computer game simulations 2. Theoretical situations of simulations a. Biology example 3. Unique freedom of expression when learning with simulations a. Ecology example b. Physics example 4. Visual learning C. Responsibility in playing games for learning 1. Games outside of the classroom for gaining skills and insight
Baron ii 2. Video game media literacy courses II. Individual development and production through gaming A. Personality development and role-playing video games 1. Relearning 2. Reflection B. Production 1. Nintendo a. Brain Age b. Wii Fit c. Nintendo DS cooking games 2. Adult users III. Social interaction development through video games A. Subcultures from games B. LAN parties 1. Definition 2. Shared experience a. Problem-solving in-game b. Problem-solving out-of-game 3. Group structures a. Group leaders b. First-time players 4. Reflection on society C. Social practices from in-class video games
Baron iii IV. Gaming industry as an opportunity for developers and creators A. Creative industry structure B. Studio environments for creativity 1. Massive Entertainment AB flowcharts C. Creative challenges 1. Employees familiar with gaming 2. Aging and growing game audience 3. New innovations Conclusion: Culture and society has changed for the better through the use and creation of computer games. Video games can be used as a unique and effective learning tool, for promoting individual development such as personality development and production through personal goals like improving fitness, and as a means of people socially interacting with one another. Computer games also provide an industry in which creativity is uniquely expressed and applied.
Baron 1 Jessica Baron Dr. Eric Patterson CSC 385-001 11 February 2015 Far from Game Over : How Video Games Have Changed Society for the Better Video gaming has become a large part of modern society, from, for example, people playing on small handheld mobile apps, to engaging themselves in digital role-playing, to using games to learn academic material, to interacting with other players through online or local network games, and so on. Computer gaming has significantly changed society and culture for the better as it enables users to learn through a unique educational environment, promotes individuals personality growth and development and their social interactions, and provides a unique industry for people to apply their creativity through developing games. Video games provide cultural improvement through using the games with an educational focus, and simulation games are an example of how this can be achieved. Firstly, though, the success of using games in classrooms is affected by the lack of digital media in courses and certain restraints such as time and technological ones. According to Johannes Fromme, one of the editors of the handbook collection of essays, Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies, digital media use currently in classrooms often is not high due to teachers themselves not being familiar with digital media, especially computer games. On the other hand, though, the subject is becoming a more common topic among research and in training future teachers (Fromme 651). In their essay on using simulations for learning games in the Computer Games and New Media Cultures handbook, MIT professor Eric Klopfer and MIT graduate Ravi Purushotma describe that the success of using video games as learning tools for
Baron 2 academic courses can also be affected by the way it is incorporated into courses due to teacher time restraints, teachers understanding of the technology and their confidence in computer programming (as Fromme had mentioned), and access to technology and lack supporting curricular materials (Klopfer and Purushotma 608). Klopfer and Purushotma present the case that simulation video games make a starting point in learning games for academic courses. They note that computer games can be used as a learning tool as they naturally facilitate problem solving and deep thinking, and the ways in which acquiring new knowledge can be stimulating and enjoyable (Klopfer and Purushotma 605). Learning games tightly and effectively link course learning objectives to the game-play. Types of games that are not learning games are virtual realities, and jeopardy and edutainment games. Virtual, open-world realities like Half Life are not considered learning games as they do not have content to work through or a goal to reach towards, though learning games could potentially be made within the virtual realities by adding certain elements to the open worlds. Jeopardy games are also not learning games because they are ultimately test questions in a game form, and neither are edutainment games where, for example, you can shoot math equations instead of writing them on paper. These kinds of games do not link learning objectives with course content as simple edutainment games are focused on simple goals like memorization, and the subject content could easily be swapped from one topic to the next which is not a means of achieving rich learning (Klopfer and Purushotma 606). Rather, teachers should strive for deep learning, and simulation video games could provide that. Simulations provide a means of learning a subject (particularly a science) by working through theoretical situations; they provide explanations of the material and could also lead to developing predictions and discoveries (Klopfer and Purushotma 607). As an example, in
Baron 3 biology courses, simulation games have been made for students to learn about and see systems. The games cover how biological traits of a species can affect the population and how predatorprey systems are shaped. This enables students to learn about the material and make hypotheses on, for instance, population patterns (Klopfer and Purushotma 607). Elements in simulation games can also give students a unique freedom of expression to approach their own goals and deep learning. In an example concerning how a game simulation can be used in an ecology course, students may have to design their own worlds in a simulation, and in order to do so, they would need to research and understand ocean concepts such as fluid dynamics and tide flows, and weather systems. This kind of game simulation would allow students to creatively explore the various effects on endangered animals caused by warming oceans (Klopfer and Purushotma 610). Another example is applying simulation games to physics courses. For these classes, simulations can be used to explore physics demonstrations such as understanding how projectiles travel; also, if the students have programming freedom in the simulation, they can include creative aspects, like zombies being the projectile targets, to become more engaged in the game simulation (Klopfer and Purushotma 614). Additionally, the computer games provide visual explanations to learning concepts. For instance, a physics class simulation game may teach concepts of physics through a swimmer in the game moving at one velocity, and the current of the river he or she is swimming in moving against the swimmer with a different velocity. Students could be required to solve motion problems on paper, and later use the simulation to prove their conclusions. The simulation could further be enhanced by including modifiable factors such as changing river conditions and obstacles in the water (Klopfer and Purushotma 614).
Baron 4 Matthias Bopp in his essay School-Related Computer Game Pedagogy: Core Subjects and Tasks in the Computer Games and New Media Cultures handbook discusses the responsibility in playing games for the purpose of learning. One means of achieving this responsibility is encouraging students to play certain games beyond the classroom so that they gain certain skills and insights. Computer games are intended to act like interactive textbooks. According to Fromme, skills encountered in computer gaming can be linked to core curriculum. For example, using mathematical algorithms in strategy games such as through calculating how much collective damage across all military units a player can deal in a battle, or determining how many of which kind of resources would support a player s units helps people learn how to find creative solution in mathematics and natural sciences (Fromme 656). Also, to learn and understand aspects of social sciences, students can play historical strategy games like Civilization. Additionally, in the future, more video games could promote discussions on themes such as youth-oriented issues, like any possible problems while growing up; games such as Heavy Rain (2010) present typical modern family issues (Bopp 622). These games promote players to think about and gain insights on certain topics such as what a nation should focus on to thrive, like in Civilization, or how family issues can be prevented. Responsibility in learning through computer games can also be influenced through educating students on media and games. This method considers media literacy classes, encouraging students through the courses to critically analyze and reflect on the use and effects of video games. Being educated in this topic, people can work towards social goals of reducing any negative impacts or fears of possible negative social influences from games (Bopp 622). In addition to being a learning tool, video games can promote individual development, such as personality growth, and personal production, like learning how to cook. Katharina
Baron 5 Stephenson-Mittlböck, a doctorate student of the University of Vienna, discusses in her essay in the Computer Games and New Media Cultures handbook that role-playing video games help internal personality development through relearning objects or ideas and reflecting upon decisions. Role-playing computer games offer a means of relearning an object, which is overcoming a negative view on an object (due to, for example, experiences or expectations), through the games being immersive and fun (Stephenson-Mittlböck 241). Relearning allows a person to override any prior incomplete judgments and beliefs, and learn from the object in a new, clean light. Since a computer game creates an immersive, fun environment, a passion is invoked within the player. Humans must have passion in order to learn and develop personality, thus enabling role-playing video games to invoke relearning (Stephenson-Mittlböck 241). Internal personality is also developed through reflecting upon decisions. A role-playing video game player faces decision-making situations. The decisions a player makes causes him or her to bounce back and forth between the intermediate environment of the game that allows personality development to his or her internal self. The player first acts within the game, then has a reaction to something, and later he or she evaluates and reflects on that reaction (Stephenson-Mittlböck 243). Computer games also advance individual production, and these games pull in more adult users. In their book Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap, David Wesley and Gloria Barczak note that the unique innovations of the video game company Nintendo have promoted individual production through the Nintendo DS and Wii consoles. Mental training games such as the handheld DS game Brain Age simulate brain activity and increase mental sharpness if used daily (Wesley and Barczak 88). Some Nintendo games are centered on being family friendly, sport and fitness titles like Wii Fit. These
Baron 6 games can focus on helping people achieve personal goals such as improving fitness and reducing obesity. The Wii Fit Balance Board used to play the game can also be used for other video games such as sports games and puzzle games (Wesley and Barczak 164). Nintendo s president, Satoru Itwata, believes that video games can work as tools of productivity, lessening the time and energy needed to complete tasks. He notes that he uses a DS cooking game to help him prepare meals (Wesley and Barczak 90). The focus of Nintendo s development efforts is to make games that are appealing to new audiences and expanding the gaming community. Computer games such as Brain Age, Wii Fit, and various cooking games have drawn more adult players into using the games. Brain Age, for example, appeals to people who enjoy puzzle games (Wesley and Barczak 90). Additionally, Wii Fit would appeal to people, particularly adults, who wish to improve their fitness levels, and since the Wii Fit Balance Board can be used for other kinds of games, a more broad audience uses this innovation (Wesley and Barczak 164). Video games can be a learning tool and improve personal development and production, and they can develop social interactions, one example being through LAN parties. The editors of the Computer Games and New Media Cultures handbook, Alexander Unger and Johannes Fromme, describe in the introduction to the handbook that computer games are often considered simply leisure activity, but they have social and cultural aspects. Video games have created subcultures through practices and networks characterized by specific patterns of interaction, communication, and shared meanings, like clans, guilds, fan communities... or modding. These subcultures may change the original meaning of the game by expanding it into a cultural and social dimension (Fromme and Unger 4). Dr. Judith Ackermann in her essay in the Computer Games and New Media Cultures handbook analyzes LAN parties as a demonstration of how playing computer games is a social
Baron 7 interaction. LAN parties, first of all, are gatherings of people who come together to play multiplayer video games (players using a local area network, a LAN), ranging from small, private groups of friends to large event hosted by an organization with over a thousand participants attending. These events are largely social in that the computer games require other players to be present, but also between gaming, the participants interact with one another. They are connected by a common desire for social contact and learning more about games, rather than solely competition (Ackermann 466-467). Participants of a LAN party are bonded by a shared experience. They continuously face problem solving together, both in-game and out-of-game. Game players have a shared goal of facing and solving problems in the game together, which enhances their social abilities. Members of groups who play together additionally solve problems outside of the game together, such as ordering a pizza between games (Ackermann 472). These gaming gatherings can also rearrange group structures, from switching leaders of the group to integrating outsiders. In a game at a LAN party, group leaders stand out from being self-confident. Leadership can change as players start presenting solutions to group problems (Ackermann 472). First-time players at a LAN party receive plenty of help from more experienced players, and rules and teams are established to account for beginning players. These special conditions allow newcomers to be integrated into the gaming experience (Ackermann 471). Ackermann notes that involving outsiders in this manner can be useful in a school setting as students who are not the most socially accepted by the class have a chance to integrate themselves. She reflects, LAN parties can be seen as a kind of mirror image of society, where the members pull together even though, according to the game plot, they are meant to be enemies (475). Participants of the parties create a shared experience by working together,
Baron 8 which happens in social situations outside of gaming, even if some people are not focused on the same exact goal or are on the same side of a video game battle. Relating to Klopfer and Purushotma s essay on using simulations in classrooms, social practices also emerge from in-class video games. For example, some simulation games go beyond desktop computers and onto mobile devices, promoting social collaboration by engaging students in social simulations (Klopfer and Purushotma 609). Game simulations in classrooms provide social practices in addition to learning components, such as students working together through experimentation and problem solving (Klopfer and Purushotma 615). This idea is similar to Ackermann s point that game players at a LAN party create a shared experience through the social interaction of problem solving. Video games provide an industry for expressing creativity. Computer games influence culture and development through working as learning tools, promoting individual development and productivity, and being a means of social interaction, but they also provide an industry that is an opportunity for developers and creators. Alessandra M. Corrigan, in the chapter Creativity in the Video Game Industry of her book Creativity: Fostering, Measuring and Contexts, describes that the computer gaming industry is structured similarly to other creative industries such as the film or music industries. Corrigan states that: When creating video games, most development studios aim at creating an environment that supports the creativity of the people working in the organization, i.e. one that provides a place where this creativity can grow and thrive. (Corrigan 114)
Baron 9 For example, one medium-sized game developer, Massive Entertainment AB, displays its project organization with a flowchart. This chart depicts various individual parties of the project such as the manager and producers, the design team and design lead, the art team and art lead, the programming team and programming lead, and the audio team and audio lead. Each of these continuously interacts with at least one other group. This whole process is focused on developing a game centered on both aesthetic and technical creativity (Corrigan 115-116). Game developers face creative challenges in the growing game industry. One is that filling in positions in the industry with people familiar with gaming. For instance, someone who has been exposed to the creative aspects of gaming would better fill a position in gaming development than a person with solely technological skills who had come from other, noncreative industries. Also, the computer gaming audience is aging and growing game audience, as described with the goals of Nintendo s Wii and DS innovations. This change leads to the call for the gaming industry to create many different kinds of video games to encompass the changing audience. Another challenge is creating new innovations. The convergence of technology and new innovations forming new combinations, which affect how and where games are played, and the creative nature of the industry demand new, unique creations (Corrigan 118-119), such as Nintendo s focus on fitness and motion through using the Wii. Video games as an industry allows developers and creators to express and test their creativity through these challenges. Culture and society has changed for the better through the use and creation of computer games. Video games can be used as a unique and effective learning tool, for promoting individual development such as personality development and production through personal goals
Baron 10 like improving fitness, and as a means of people socially interacting with one another. Computer games also provide an industry in which creativity is uniquely expressed and applied.
Baron 11 Works Cited Ackermann, Judith. Playing Computer Games as Social Interaction: An Analysis of LAN Parties. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Eds. Johannes Fromme and Alexander Unger. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. 465-476. Print. Bopp, Matthias. School-Related Computer Game Pedagogy: Core Subjects and Tasks. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Eds. Johannes Fromme and Alexander Unger. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. 619-632. Print. Corrigan, Alessandra M. Creativity: Fostering, Measuring and Contexts. Hauppauge, N.Y: Nova Science Publisher's, 2010. Print. Fromme, Johannes, and Alexander Unger, eds. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. Print. Fromme, Johannes. Digital Games and Media Education in the Classroom: Exploring Concepts, Practices, and Constraints. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Eds. Johannes Fromme and Alexander Unger. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. 647-663. Print. Klopfer, Eric and Ravi Purushotma. Using Simulations as a Starting Point for Constructing Meaningful Learning Games. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Eds. Johannes Fromme and Alexander Unger. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. 603-617. Print. Stephenson-Mittlböck, Katharina. Personality Development Through Immersion into Intermediate Areas of Digital Role-Playing Games. Computer Games and New Media
Baron 12 Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Eds. Johannes Fromme and Alexander Unger. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. 233-247. Print. Wesley, David, and Gloria Barczak. Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap. Farnham: Gower, 2010. Print.