Self Deluded Gamer Rationalizations
December 2nd, 2005
Jon Wood’s Gaming for Grades in the latest edition of The Escapist sounds exactly like the self-deluded rationalizations I would use to convince myself it was ok to postpone writing that term paper in order to play one more round of Marathon back in my college days.
Don’t get me wrong, his arguments are tantalizing for a teacher like me who’s also something of a closet gaming geek. How cool would it be to play video games in class? That’s about all it would be though: cool… as in nifty rather than useful. Make a case for the actual educational benefits of games in school and I’ll be the first in line to champion the cause. But just because some games might possess narrative elements does not make them stories worth studying. Heck, there are countless stories in print form that would be a waste of class time to discuss… and they’re better written than 99% of the dreck that passes for narrative in today’s video games.
What the heck — why not replace literature with video games? We’ve already replaced math with graphing calculators. I guess I better make sure my kids learn how to speak Punjabi so they can have a shot at a McJob in twenty years.