Poll: Should video games be studied in schools as texts?

[Robbio]

Video games have certainly come a long way in recent years, and they've started to gain increasing recognition in academia. However in schools, video games are more or less ignored. During my studies this year, I found myself thinking about whether games have reached the sophistication needed to be used in schools. New forms of literacy like blogging, fan-fiction writing and gaming offer benifets to students, such as students learning about some parts of history through Age of Empires, or younger children gaining some basic reading improvement through games like Pokemon. But yet games are still considered 'distractions' by most people. In my state of early-holiday boredom, I made a Youtube video detailing my thoughts. (Because when you're bored and you're shaped, what else are you going to do?)

Spoiler

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLVhgaN4EXU&feature=plcp[/link]

However I'd like to know others' thoughts and opinions. Do you think video games have a place in schools? Do you think they can serve as texts for study? Or do you think video games have yet to achieve the required sophistication?

 

[Zhukov]

I struggle to think of any games worth studying in school.

Yes, some games are attempting to be intellectually or emotionally engaging. Some of them are even having some success at it.

However, even those games, the cream of the crop, tend to be mostly based on, "Hurr hurr, I shot that guy right in the face, and it made my balls feel big!"

 

[DoPo]

Erm, just to note - advertisement, especially of your own work, like YouTube videos, is frowned upon. You can stick a link to your channel in your profile, though.

OT: I dunno, we didn't really study films in school, either, so can we justify the study of games? Also, if they become required thing to study, would they become more boring and turn away people from the medium?

Then again, I know a guy who is trying to bring video games to schools. Well, more as a side learning tool, though - he mentioned using the Total War series to help students with history, for example.

Dunno, perhaps video games do have their place in schools. Maybe they don't really need it. I can't really say.

 

[PanasonicYouth]

Even as someone who is very outspoken on the topic of games being an important medium, I can't think of a single game story that merits study as an equivalent to literature.

That's not to say we never will, but I don't think we do yet.

Games can certainly be studied, but offer a very narrow field of compatible careers, I.e, working in the games industry. Much as studying film only really has its benefits in the film industry.

 

[mgirl]

I wrote one of my assignments at university discussing Half Life 2. Got me a first in that course. So yeah, it could work, although I'm not sure how to do it en masse, but it's definitely possible.

 

[dimensional]

I believe scripting languages at least should be studied in schools but as for game stories nah just stick to books and forget games and films as story wise they are inferior. Then again a good story is a good story dosent matter what medium its from so I wouldnt object to opening up to games and films but I dont think its worth focusing solely on the writing in films and games.

 

[Robbio]

Erm, just to note - advertisement, especially of your own work, like YouTube videos, is frowned upon. You can stick a link to your channel in your profile, though.

Sorry, its not intended to be an advertisement of my amazing and glorious channel with its single video. =p More just as background and summary of some of my ramblings for those interested. If a mod feels as though the link should be removed then go around ahead =)

I struggle to think of any games worth studying in school.

I'm thinking of games like Bioshock, filled with objectionist philosophies,the Witcher 2, based on a series of novels and featuring incredible political intrigue, Deus Ex, building on real-life conspiracy mythos tied together, Half Life 2 dealing with symbols of authority and control or even something like Morrowind, with an incredibly deep and complex world filled with dozens of characters with their own philosophies, motives and beliefs.

While there are indeed a lot of "boom boom bang bang" games out there, there are a few interesting ones around.
The problem is that many gamers would rather play something exciting and face-paced like Black Ops 2, and so developers and publishers are more likely to focus on those sorts of games.

 

[aguspal]

WE should study about GTA, Action 52 and Superman 54 in school.


It would seem like an interesting school.

 

[Sharp Blue]

Every book I have had to read for school I ended up hating. I think this is because they were forced upon me and I was not allowed to enjoy them, we were too busy dissecting the story or memorizing character summaries that I never had the time to read them like I would normally read a book. I would hate for the same thing to happen to a game.

 

[Eddie the head]

Even as someone who is very outspoken on the topic of games being an important medium, I can't think of a single game story that merits study as an equivalent to literature.

That's not to say we never will, but I don't think we do yet.

Games can certainly be studied, but offer a very narrow field of compatible careers, I.e, working in the games industry. Much as studying film only really has its benefits in the film industry.

I don't know Mass Effect pulls off the tragic and elegiac hero's pretty well. But Mordin and Wrex are not the main protagonists so I could still see that as a reason.

Anyway I think in time they could be but not right now. The amount of good writing in games is well small.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

I wrote an English essay on Alan Wake once. I got a 2 (which is good, btw) and without it I wouldn't be in higher English so yes, I think videogames can be studied as texts...

EDIT: In fact, looking back I've done 3 pieces on videogames in English. The Alan Wake essay, a speech on Skyrim and a discursive (I think that's the word) essay about videogames altering the minds of youngins and what not, or more appropriately, the fact that it doesn't do that...

Oh and I wrote a DNF poem...

Got credit grade for all of them so yes, definitely...

 

[BishopOfBattle]

During my studies this year, I found myself thinking about whether games have reached the sophistication needed to be used in schools.

If you've played The Oregon Trail in school, then video games have been used for study and education in your school.

Using games in school is not a new thing and its already going on. Games as edutainment have been around for a long time and plenty of schools use them to inform and educate students.

Now if you mean, should we be studying Skyrim or Mass Effect 3 in school... then no. We don't and we shouldn't. Very few mainstream games lend themselves to educating students about particular historical events or other educational needs. Studying the newest Call of Duty as it relates to modern conflicts and politics would be akin to watching Harry Potter to learn about London. Of those games that do accurately portray history in a way that students could learn from, consider the amount of time it would take to teach those lessons. Its all well and good if you learn something about the 100 Years War in a game of Age of Empires, but its going to take you all day to play through a long game of it and you'll gain only a cursory overview of the history. Books may not always be the most enjoyable way of covering history, but they certainly contain much more information and can convey it in a much more reasonable time frame.

 

[AngloDoom]

If it was about how the game has been influence by modern events I can perhaps imagine a case for that.

However, using the same logic I could argue a case for studying the evolution of Kit-Kat advertisements. This is not widespread need-to-know and useful knowledge such as what i supposed to make up compulsory schooling. If you want to study videogames you can, but not until you leave 'general school' and move on to 'specialist schools' such as Universities.

 

[lord.jeff]

The video game format just doesn't work that well, first you most make sure every student has a way to play the game, which would limit you to older PC games only, and then there is the time factor, movies take 2 hours and most books can be finished in under 10 but games tend to take around 30, games are the least functional way to convey a story quickly.

 

[The_Great_Galendo]

I think it depends what you mean by "in school". Are we talking high school or college? I'm pretty sure at least a few colleges offer classes that study certain video games in depth for one reason or another, and this is exactly how it should be.

If you're talking high school, though, it's way, way too early to be talking about "studying" game texts, if indeed we ever get there. This is because:
a) Even the best video game script is currently on par with a mediocre novel, and schools tend to study texts which are considered rather better than mediocre.
b) The school system tends to go with tried-and-true works rather than modern ones. For instance, I think the most modern novel I was required to read in high school was To Kill a Mockingbird, which was about forty years old at the time. At this rate, current video games could be studied as early as 2050 or thereabouts.
c) Books are way shorter than video games. I thought reading Moby Dick was a pretty miserable experience in high school -- I didn't particularly like the story, it was rather long, and I had to write a two-page journal entry every chapter or so. Still, reading it cover to cover probably only took a dozen hours or so (and I'm betting that only about 2/3 of my class even did that). Now replace that with a 40 hour game. You see the problem?
d) We're still not studying movies in high school to any appreciable extent, and film is older, more established, and more socially acceptable than video games.

Long story short, some high schools may eventually offer a class for video games roughly comparable to current high school classes for film, but we'll never get to the point where we're studying Mass Effect in English class rather than The Grapes of Wrath.

 

[Therumancer]

Computers are already being used in school, but mostly with media specifically developed for it. There have been articles about this periodically.

The problem with "games" as a form of education is that for everyone to get the same experience out of them to teach a specific, and verifiable, lesson, there isn't going to be much "game" there. Especially if it's intended to be done in a specific time frame (as is going to apply to a class). There is also the issue of games usually involving some degree of challenge, and that means not all students are nessicarly going to be able to proceed at the pace expected.

It might get to the point someday where games could be used in a more straightforward fashion for education, but I think that's a long way off, and probably involves other technology like VR (allowing for time condension) that doesn't exist right now.

Also when it comes to history, there is the whole problem with the subject being contreversial due to various political groups (namely left wing) trying to re-invent history to match their current messages, or demanding that things be viewed and judged exclusively through a modern morality.

 

[Olas]

Well if by "studied" you mean analyzed like we typically analyze literature in english class then I'm afraid that's not going to happen any time soon. Videogames are NOT at that level of artistic credibility yet.

However, if you mean using videogames as a teaching method to educate them about other things I imagine it's probably already happening. I was forced to take a personal finance class in highschool where we played a finance game which was a bit like a really lame version of the Sims.
You created a character, bought a house, had to find a job, manage money. I wouldn't call it fun, but it was way better than the other assignments in the class.

 

[legend of duty]

be hard to grade for people that arn't good at games at all. Not to mention parents breathing down your neck on wether or not little timmy should be playing or even watching games that they have not approved of.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I think it depends. Studying video games as an elective sounds great; there is a lot of interesting stuff that can be done there and there are a lot of interesting games to study. I am not sure it should be required like studying literature is, however. I don't think that games have as big an effect on society as literature does quite yet. Given time I think they will, but I do not believe our society is at that point, yet. Hell, we aren't even at the point that studying film is required; we still have a ways to go.

 

[skywolfblue]

No.

There's only one game I'd nominate for the role. Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. I have yet to see any other "educational" game be even a tenth as educational, and normal games aren't based around teaching kids useful classroom skillsets.

As far as literature goes, the stories in games tend to be rather poor shadows of their book counterparts. Even Bioshock and Half Life 2, are hardly as deep and enriching as say, Dune.

In addition there are problems with teaching using a game because a lot of games don't play the same way twice. Teacher asks "did you hear the conversation between so-and-so?" and the student says "nope, I got into a firefight and with all the sound of guns I missed it.".