This Steven Colbert interview allows Stephen Johnson to outline his book “Everything Bad is Good For You”, which makes the assertion that perhaps the popular culture that is seen as so damaging to today’s youth is actually making them smarter.
Civilization 4… the first Civ (board game) came out in 1980, this isn’t anything new. The idea that we are more intelligent based on more challenging games, they require more involvement on our part.
The Sims, chores, etc? To be honest, no one I knew liked this game, it was a flop in "real" gamer circles.
Spore sounds incredibly interesting, I would probably play that, I’m not so sure why Johnson believes we wouldn’t be able to understand the game play though. I have never come across a game that most people could not play, the learning curve can be significantly different in some cases, but never so much so that a person gives up completely.I have to agree that because technology is coming to a point with gaming systems that we may find it hard to distinguish reality from the game, yet this enables game makers to improve upon the idea of a game. We can now see that there are multiple purposes that games can be used for, not just entertainment, but for educational purposes, even if the players don't know they are learning.
3 comments:
First of all I LOVE the Sims and I have been a gamer my whole life! Don't make assumptions.
Any way, all I have to say about this one is I agree. As video games get smarter so do we.
One thing that this interview doesn't mention that the "...World of Warcraft..." piece did is the importance of not thinking of it as learning. Sure, everyone can learn a little about the Great Wall of China or some military warfare from Civilization, but by just calling it a game everyone assumes it's fun. I "played" The Sims OBSESSIVELY for a large portion of my high school years (realizing now mostly while listening to early Bright Eyes records, and that this combination of depressing music and a game wherein you essentially create a new life may have had something to do with my anti-social behavior and withdrawal from society in general) and I can't really think of anything game-like about it: Sure you could pull a few laughs out of lighting someone on fire or throwing a party, but I mostly balanced budgets, designed houses, and inflicted seemingly painful responsibilities onto my digital denizens for hours upon hours as my adolescence passed me by.
Look at me now.
There is something fun, though, even about games that aren't playful. SimCity and SimTower were both very entertaining to me in junior high and high school. The challenge of possible failure and the elation of success are the same componants that make baseball or capture the flag fun games. Once you practice and get the hang of it, you can throw a nice changeup and have the advantage over the other player, just like once I figured out how to configure a working water system, I gained an advantage over the computer programming and my little world began to thrive.
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