Edu-Gaming: I’m Bored
The first line reads:
Ever since video games were invented, parents and teachers have been trying to make them boring.
in a Slate article about educational gaming. It’s a claim I’ve heard before, and similar to Prensky’s claim “instructional designers suck the fun out of games”. To a degree, I think they are both correct. Let’s examine some other standout lines from the article, shall we?
In taking the fun out of video games, companies like Persuasive make them less alluring to people who love games and more alluring to people who don’t.
I agree, but is this necessarily a bad thing? I think it depends on your target audience. If you’re trying to use small, flash-based games to train repetitive, monotonous tasks to the Net generation…you’re going to have some problems. I think part of the power of flash games is that they can reach anyone with an Internet connection and a Flash player (98%+ of Net users last I heard).
EDIT: Ian Bogost, who runs persuasive games, has a good post under the Slate article worth reading
Animating mindless, boring repetition doesn’t make the repetition any less mindless or boring.
Unfortunately this is the ‘low hanging fruit’ for a lot of decision makers, and they happen to be the easiest games to create. If I’m a 40-yr old executive, and the head of my training department comes to me with an idea to build a Grand Theft Auto-style corporate training environment for $800,000, I’m going to want a LOT of documented research with results that shows me this WILL work. Guess what? That type of research is slim, but growing steadily. Instead of making this $800,000 environment, why not spend $5,000 on a small, Flash-based game that teaches a basic entry-level task to new hires?
Now, I’m not saying this is the right approach, but this is the reality for a lot of people with big educational gaming ideas.
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.
I believe part of the reason involves NON-GAMERS designing and developing these educational titles. That’s a recipe for failure. The Serious Games Initiative has been tirelessly forging relationships with the professional game design and development community, in hopes that some day we’ll have educational designers working on the same team as professional game designers and developers, to weave the educational content into the fabric of the game (exactly like Civilization, which the author mentions several times). There just isn’t enough profit to be made YET, compared to developing commercial titles.
I enjoyed the article quite a bit, and I think the author makes a few great points. I think the serious games community is trying to build the ideal state Justin alludes too…but it will take time.
