There is nothing unlikely about gaming being a medium for politics or education. Your attitude, is what keeps the medium in a "creative ghetto" compared to other arts. You should check out the work of Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games for more "gaming with an agenda" and Grand Text Auto to see that gaming has theoretical and literary implications. I also write about gaming semi-regularly on my blog Serial Consign, mainly about how it relates to architecture and simulation.

I guess thanks for the tip about the event, but your half-interested & dismissive preface kind of undermines the medium you are plugging. Good on you for going to the talk though..

Greg,

Thanks for your comments. I'll be sure to check out the links you've included. I definitely take issue though with your accusation of "undermining" and agree with Jerrold's comment. On the contrary, I'm excited about the talk and the work being presented, and honest about my personal interests on this matter. And I'm not "plugging" the medium. I'm previewing a potentially interesting talk by an obviously smart and creative individual.

Either way, I'm definitely looking forward to learning a little more about him this Wednesday. Hope you'll make it out.

I think that for the most part the stereotypical opinions you're referring to are based on lack of experience and lack of penetration of educational games into society.

I don't play video games much at all. I lost interest when the controllers had more than 6 buttons.

But when I think of recent video games that I've played, I don't immediately see much if any valuable knowledge gleaned from the experience. I see hand/eye/timing fun in Guitar Hero, I see smash-up-them-cars and run-over-that-cop in Grand Theft Auto, and I see try-to-repeat-the-exact-same-movement over and over in Wii Bowling. These are the kind of games my friends buy and play, and I think is indicative of the mainstream trend in gaming.

Come ot think of it, the last time I think I learned from a video game was when, in grade school, I played Lemonade Stand on the Apple IIe.

http://www.lemonadegame.com/

I'm an avid gamer who just played COD4 for the first time the other night and was quite amazed by its perspectives and its immersive gameplay. I found it distressing and overwhelming and it left me thankful that I have never been personally subjected to war. This empathy may not have come out of an entirely fictionalized futuristic first-person shooter like Halo.

Medal of Honor: Frontline gameplay starts at Omaha Beach on D-Day in an additionally terrifying scene, critically acclaimed for its verisimilitude. Beyond what I had learned in highschool, I had never taken much of an interest in military history, wasn't well-versed in the literature and cinema that came out of wars, and was relatively detached from the subject matter, despite being the granddaughter of veterans. Consider that a historical wargame might spur someone to take an interest in the actions of their ancestors.

Regardless of the intentions of the developers, I'd leave evaluations of social merit up to the player. "I think part of my brain blew up" ? though you're speaking of your own personal experience watching a certain type of gamer, I can't help but take a bit of offense to your statement as well.

Before you entirely dismiss the utility of gaming, I urge you to consider:

- Viva Pinata, a game about resource management, quite often dismissed as a silly kids game
- Mass Effect, a sci-fi drama with an incredible number of plot permutations ? a giant step in interactive storytelling
- on a non-platform level, amazing casual gaming communities across the web ? Jay is Games being the best of them, providing creative opportunities, support and revenue options for indie developers ? yes, including some developing activist games. As war games made the jump from the tabletop to the screen, all sorts of types of other games and puzzles have as well ? browser-based point-and-click mysteries and logic puzzles are well-represented across the internet, where shoot-em-up games are in the minority. If you've ever forwarded a fun flash puzzle to a friend, you've exercised the social and mind-expanding capabilities of video games. I'd certainly have a hard time believing anyone who would dismiss the artistic merit and immersive power of Mateusz Skutnik's Submachines or the exercise in logical thinking that is Grow Island ? interestingly enough, a publicity tool for a university program.

If you're only happy with games that make a sociopolitical statement or are fun to play with friends at a party, you're neglecting one hell of a world out there.

its ironic that you mention call of duty 4 as an exemplar when call of duty 1 through 3 have great educational value, placing the player in historically accurate situations from world war II. I would go so far as to suggest that these be considered interactive documentaries to some extend providing something which photographs, videos, books, or audio can not.

There are a lot of other people using video games (aka interactice electronic media) as a tool for discource and to dismiss an entire medium in your first paragraph does (as Greg points out) taint your subsequent interest.

While I appreciate that you're enthusiastic about this and want to learn more, I suggest that when you do go and look in to it, you do so with an open mind leaving all your prejudices of the medium at the door, lest you be declared Philistine or Luddite.

haha, It must suck to be you, Trity, lol

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