A Five-Year-Old in Debt: Learning with Video Games
Complete video at: fora.tv Video game designer Ian Bogost argues for the educational power of video games. He illustrates his point by remembering how his young son grappled with the responsibility of long-term debt in the Nintendo game Animal Crossing. —– Video games are usually viewed as a form of escapism: pure entertainment and shoot-em-up fantasy. But increasingly, games are being recognized as educational tools, or as deliverers of social or political messages. This evolving medium is taking on complex environments and issues, and providing a platform for people to explore a world or situation in an interactive way. In this talk at the X Media Lab in Sydney, video game theorist and designer Ian Bogost gives an overview of how video games can benefit human existence. – Australian Broadcasting Corporation Dr. Ian Bogost is a video game designer, critic, and researcher. He is Assistant Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His research and writing considers video games as an expressive medium, and his creative practice focuses on games about social and political issues. Bogost is author of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism (MIT Press 2006), recently listed among “50 books for everyone in the game industry,” and of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (MIT Press 2007), along with several other books and many other writings. He is a popular speaker and widely considered an …
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i fuckin love animal crossing!
video games have always been good for children.
they constantly require quick decisions, multi tasking, memory, logistic balancing, etc.
since your brain is always adapting, strengthening pathways that are critical for said abilities.
;d
sheeple: These games are designed to brainwash you and want to put it into your children s hands, as soon as there little hands can hold the controller? Very sad. This country is very lost with no hope of waking up. The term hopelessly brainwashed really does not cover what is happening. Sense there are millions of gamers most of those brainwashed don’t even have the slightest clue on how they are being brainwashed. Sleep well kids by the time you wake up you will be in checkmate.
increased gaming time for kids, less time spent outdoors and developing relationships/ social interaction.
then again, here i am on youtube….
lol. love the nervous laughter from the audience every time he make a weak joke.
as for this “teaching” kids smt abt debt, call me a skeptic, but i see kids running up debt and then restarting the game rather than working their way out of it. what does that teach them?
Brainwash us to do what?
HIS EYES HIS CROSS EYED EYES!
I loved Animal Crossing in High School. Now I am craving to play it right now.
So perceptive of your.
But then they would never get anywhere in the game. The whole point of playing games like that is to build yourself up finacially – there are other games to like sim city for example, where your goal is to turn a small town into a metropolis. The only way you can do that is through time and careful spending, restarting the game would be pointless.
well said 2xtream
i dont kno man. WoW is pretty addictive. and games tend to promote instant gratification.
of course. but when they do end up making mistakes/ bad strategy choices, they would just restart rather than work their way thru the problem.
eg) say they decided pig farming was better than corn farming, and sell all their corn. later, they realise that was a bad move. they won’t accept the consequences of their actions and stick with pigs until they earn enough $ to recover/ pay debt. they would just restart and try to avoid making the strat mistake they made last time.
@Mastikator Brainwashed to consume. Did you even listen to the description of the game?
cont…
…or they would restart from a saved pt, and hav a clean slate again.
the idea here is that there’s always a “back”/ “resumed from saved” button. life has no such button.
Seemed like it “brainwashed” the kid to know when it was a good idea to consume by letting it learn from its mistake.
But hey, anything to bash capitalism and the gaming industry right? :/
You’re assuming that the player doesn’t feel a negative effect of having to load the game. Even though the effect is not physical, the feeling of having wasted time and effort into doing something and then failing can be quite considerable.
This is how the military and law enforcement train people, by simulating an otherwise dangerous environment in a riskfree zone. If what you said is true than practice wouldn’t make perfect.
lol
WoW.
and i’d disagree that instant gratification is prevalent in games.
games are about getting to the end, solving puzzles and unlocking shit.
besides, that has nothing to do with the fact that games train your brain.
reading is bullshit next to playing games, for your brain.
;d
that’s fucking stupid.
hate to break it to you, but the reason our species consume products, is because we’re a social ape who attain status within our group by attain that which others don’t.
you people are dumber than dirt… should played more games!
;d
don’t mind vivek slug, he knows jack shit about gaming.
i don’t think he’s ever held a controller.
and if he has….
dumbest
gamer
ever
;d
“…but the reason our species consume products, is because we’re a social ape who attain status within our group by attain that which others don’t…”
LOL
This video is nothing more than an ad for a video game. It lowers my opinion of Foratv. As for 666norton – he spews so much scorn & hatred. It’s sad how hateful these types of men are. He exhibits sociopathic behavior – behavior characterized by asocial or antisocial behavior. 666 rejects courtesy, kindness & humanity is. He insults everyone, curses & belittles them even though he knows nothing about who he is addressing!. He’s like an animal. It’s sickening, like watching someone vomit.
I suppose, but that’s the beauty of video games. They allow you act out virtual situations and give you the freedom to make mistakes. When you make mistakes you learn and move on. Let’s take strategy games for example, because its just a game, the player is allowed to make tactical choices without having to worry about whether or not people are dying because of their choices. As they are allowed to explore, they can learn what works and what dosn’t without having any real consequences.
Continued…
I know your going to say that players wont learn hard work or that life has consequences, but I would argue that games are supposed to teach that. And that’s ok. Life itself can and will teach people that.
Wow, that’s great info.