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Josh
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Jun 15 2012, 10:45 PM
Post #1
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Video games are the pastimes of many, many individuals around the world. People play video games to have a good time, play with friends, relieve some stress, or (a more and more prevalent kind of game) a casual weekend afternoon with your family. In all of these cases, the main reason video games are being played are because they are enjoyable. Players want to play their games. The only real value games have are in enjoyment, they don't teach the player anything, other than perhaps obscure puzzle solving skills depending on the game. What if games did teach though? Some educational games already exist, but they aren't very popular. There is this book called Sophie's World. It is a fictional story about a girl who starts a correspondence with a mysterious man who teaches her philosophy by snail mail and dog. What if this book were turned into a game? The player would play as the main character of the book, Sophie. As the player plays the game, they would learn about the history of philosophy, namely historical philosophers and their different thoughts. One part of the book has the mysterious man somehow magically taking Sophie back in time to meet with philosophers Socrates and Plato. Gameplay could utilize this mechanic, so there would be two main parts of the game: Sophie's house and the past. In the past, you would gather information about philosophers and what they believed in, such as Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

When you return to the house, you are able to look at your surroundings in a new way; because of what you learned in the past. With this new sight power you would be able to find special items, or sidequests, or whatever else gets put into the game. Having students in school apply their knowledge and not just remember it seems to work well for most, so why not in games also? Educational games are going to become a more and more accepted thing as schools embrace technology at the tools it provides. The ones that are out now are too focused on filling the players head with information instead of trying to capture the player's interest. The solution to this is to make sure that the game is still a game, with game elements that keep the experience fun and enjoyable. If school boards are going to choose to use games as teaching tools (and some already have, look up Minecraft Teacher), us gamers need to make sure that they keep a high quality standard. We don't want potential gamers getting turned off of gaming by some lame math game, now do we?
Edited by Josh, Jun 15 2012, 10:47 PM.
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