Poll: Should games be taught at schools?

[Proteus214]

I think that if students are interested, it might be a nice elective. Honestly, I don't know if teaching a game design course at a high school level would be kind of tough since it takes a while to learn the kinds of skills that would be necessary to make it academically worthwhile.

 

[Fellwarden]

As is, my class barely had time to get through the curriculum in the subject where this would be appropriate, and that is with an unusually strict and efficient teacher. And there is a big problem: No teacher I have ever met would be qualified to analyze a game. I think it will take at the very least another generation before teachers in general will be able to acquire the necessary competence to incorporate this in the national curriculum. And it would probably take at least as long before games are accepted enough to actually require everyone to know a few things about them.

 

[BetterSummer]

We had access to 2D game creation software in our middle school computer class. That was awesome. Everyone made unplayable crap. But at least we made something from the ground up. It's something that's really missing in education. Especially in computer classes. It was a creative technical art course disguised as a computer class.

I vote against it. Playing video games doesn't expand anyone's mind. It makes them feel smart without actually being intelligent. Just like watching anime can make people feel artistic without actually being creative. It's a tragedy that the school system can get away with just teaching people things just to "get them out of the way" on top of letting people get away with being complete morons on top of their four wasted years. I held a pretty anarchistic look at the education system here in Montana all through my time in high school, and I felt I'd learned ten times the amount that people that payed attention in class actually were taught. When I got a 1540/1600 on my SATs after failing three years of high school straight, it seemed to be pretty obvious that I was learning pretty well without aid from their system.

I find it impossible to hold a real conversation about a video game with anyone. People are different, and that's the same reason I don't like being taught a sport. I like playing the sport. I like finding out how well my approach can be to problems presented to me. Video games sometimes reward creative uses of game mechanics, and schools seem to really hate obtuse ways of getting an education. Doesn't bode well. I don't see it happening.

I do however find earnest attempts at teaching kids filming and writing techniques by watching movies to be totally perfectly acceptable. How the hell do you see transition and dialogue delivery in a textbook? How well can you see enjoyable and original game mechanics in a text book? How about encourage students to do things outside of school, like start an indie game project? Who thinks they got a valid education from public schooling in the first place?

 

[Rhino923]

IMO what needs to happen in regards to teaching games at schools is to look at them from a cultural and/or artistic standpoint. Analyze video games, both popular and unpopular ones, to draw from it information based on what made certain things work better in certain games, while at the same time allowing for a analysis of culture and society and why games like halo sell so well, while okami does so poorly, at least in Western, specifically American cultures. For all intents and purposes it should be used as a Humanities type class, with maybe a few sections based on what has been deemed necessary to make these games. But hey, what do i know right?

 

[squidbuddy99]

No, but I would love to have a class over the causes and effects of the Great War of 2077, or have to write an opinion essay regarding the Pyro's sex. Realistically, though, I think Little Big Planet could make teaching far more interesting.

 

[nick n stuff]

no, as soon as hobbies become lessons they are crap. i didn't take music as a subject at school even though playing guitar is my favourite thing to do cos the compulsory music lessons i had to take early on were shit. this would be the case with games. if you can't pick the make u can't enjoy the lesson. teacher dictatorships are wrong.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

I heard schools in the UK use certain games to encourage teamwork, but it could lead to negative repercussions in young children leading to addiction and later this:

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Nah. I don't really see the point.

There is no real point in learning about films either (At English in my school we are currently learning film techniques behind Coach Carter ), yet we do it. Games really are becoming more main stream than ever, so I see that if we learnt how for example, the process that goes into making Bioshock is done, it will scare the try hards away and leave us with the real guts of the video gaming industry. I agree with the posts above that is should be an extraciriculum activity.

Oh, I've never learned about film either. Certainly if film is being taught in English, so should games.

 

[BetterSummer]

Nah. I don't really see the point.

There is no real point in learning about films either (At English in my school we are currently learning film techniques behind Coach Carter ), yet we do it. Games really are becoming more main stream than ever, so I see that if we learnt how for example, the process that goes into making Bioshock is done, it will scare the try hards away and leave us with the real guts of the video gaming industry. I agree with the posts above that is should be an extraciriculum activity.

Oh, I've never learned about film either. Certainly if film is being taught in English, so should games.

Okay, I have a gripe.

Film came from the background of photography and stage production and animation. Games came from a background of computer programming and skill-based competitive action. I don't see any artistic merit in either. There's right ways to play games and there's wrong ways to play games. There is no right way to look at a photograph, no right or wrong way to appreciate a play, and no wrong way to enjoy art.

I'm really sure that games are vapid products. Really frustrating to think about it for myself. I've enjoyed so many games, from Shadow of the Colossus to Bioshock to Final Fantasy XII, but I honestly don't think they hold the digestible quality that you see in film. You can present an issue or an idea and have it presented in the way you intended in film. In games? Players will distract themselves from the story just so they can have fun. They can downright completely ignore what you're intending and still enjoy your game.

Presenting ideas is something schools do with films, whether its how they filmed a certain scene, the way the lines are written and read, or the general theme of the piece. I find it worthwhile to do that.

 

[masher]

I said "yes", but my morals and/or common sense told me "no", but I guess it all boils down to what type of game. Gears of War or Halo obviously would be avoided, unless one is specifically looking for blood and rust, while maybe Okami would fare OK.

But why? Halo and Gears of War are perfectly valid examples of game design. Hell, if anything, Okami would be a bad example because it didn't sell too well. You don't want to teach students to make games that won't succeed and while artistic is good, for fundamentals and basics you'll want to go with things like Halo or Final Fantasy X because they are popular and they hit plenty of bases.

In that light, those would be great, but I was speaking from a purely artistic side. My ideas are for literal drawing artist, not game artists, and yours are for actual game makers. While Halo and such sell great, its art and animation is kinda generic, more so Call of Duty and Gears of War type games, being all brown and gritty. However, using those games as ways of learning what the advantage consumer wants, those would work fine. I guess I was being a little single-minded there.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I go to Chapman university. There is a game development programing minor. Yeah, we teach games. The are actually quiet a few colleges that teach the skills to make games. I haven't heard anything about high school classes, but I know colleges have already teach games.

 

[gigastrike]

I don't think movies should be tought at school. Why would I change my mind about games? Game design, maybe, but that should be part of a larger course (unless it's a technical school).

 

[Dango]

My love for video games leads me to say no. Video games are what I use to forget about school and all that, and quite frankly, mixing the two could have disastrous effects.

 

[mokes310]

Yup, without a doubt they should be taught in schools. Perhaps more of a focus on game theory, but nevertheless, it's a subject worthy of discussion and instruction.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Yeah because it's about as useful as anything else you'll learn at school. More so.

 

[Snarky Username]

Are movies taught about at school? They're not at my school, at least. The closest thing I can think of are college courses about making movies, and they have game development courses for that.

The reason books and art classes are taught about in school are that they've been around for centuries, where video games and movies have been around for decades. There really hasn't been enough time for video games to have that many classics, or movies for that matter. Especially when compared to the other arts like literature and music.

 

[Guy32]

What is one good reason that it should?

 

[Firetaffer]

What is one good reason that it should?

Nah. I don't really see the point.

There is no real point in learning about films either (At English in my school we are currently learning film techniques behind Coach Carter ), yet we do it. Games really are becoming more main stream than ever, so I see that if we learnt how for example, the process that goes into making Bioshock is done, it will scare the try hards away and leave us with the real guts of the video gaming industry. I agree with the posts above that is should be an extraciriculum activity.

What's a good reason we have drama classes? And we have music courses? Well to learn about acting and music. I'm just saying that since games and computers are becoming very big in a lot of peoples lives, we should at least look into what happens in the making of these games.