[David Hutchison] Playing to Learn Video Games in(Bookos.org)

Play ing to Learn

Video Games in the Class room

Da vid Hutchison

Fore word by James Paul Gee

An im print of Li brar ies Un lim ited Westport, Con nect i cut • Lon don

ÄPlay ing to Learn

Li brary of Con gress Cat a log ing-in-Pub li ca tion Data

Hutchison, Da vid, 1968- Play ing to learn : video games in the class room / Da vid Hutchison ; fore word by James Paul Gee. p. cm. In cludes bib lio graph i cal ref er ences and in dex. ISBN-13: 978-1-59158-492-6 (alk. pa per) ISBN-10: 1-59158-492-2 (alk. pa per) 1. Video games—Study and teach ing. 2. Video games and chil dren. I. Ti tle. GV1469.3.H88 2007 371.33’7—dc22 2006037601

Brit ish Li brary Cat a logu ing in Pub li ca tion Data is avail able.

Copy right © 2007 by Da vid Hutchison

All rights re served. No part of this book may be re pro duced in any form or by any elec tronic or me chan i cal means, in clud ingin for ma tion stor age and re trieval sys tems, with out per mis sion inwrit ing from the pub lisher, ex cept by a re viewer, who may quote brief pas sages in a re view. Re pro duc ible pages may be cop ied for class roomand ed u ca tional pro grams only.

Li brary of Con gress Cat a log Card Num ber: 2006037601

ISBN: 978-1-59158-492-6

First pub lished in 2007

Li brar ies Un lim ited/Teacher Ideas Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881A Mem ber of the Green wood Pub lish ing Group, Inc.www.lu.com

Printed in the United States of Amer ica

The pa per used in this book com plies with the Per ma nent Pa per Stan dard is sued by the Na tional

In for ma tion Stan dards Or ga ni za tion (Z39.48–1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All video game im ages pro vided by www.gamespress.com.

To Mr. Chips and to Mas ter Chief

Contents

Fore word by James Paul Gee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Ac knowl edg ments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

In tro duc tion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Ad ver tis ing Cam paign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The stu dents de sign a full-fledged ad ver tis ing cam paign for an up com ing or newly re leased video game.

Al ter nate His tory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The stu dents write an al ter nate his tory of the world that starts with a de ci sivechange in the out come of a his tor i cal event.

Ar cade vs. Video Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The stu dents com pare and con trast the so cial ex pe ri ence of play ingvideo games in an ar cade ver sus play ing them at home on a video gamecon sole or PC com puter.

Ar tis tic Ren der ing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The stu dents cre ate an ar tis tic rep re sen ta tion of a real-world scene.

Bat tle ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The stu dents as sem ble the ma te ri als for a clas sic game of Bat tle ship,which they then play in pairs.

Best Kids’ Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The stu dents rank and re view their fa vor ite kid-friendly video games.

Body Im age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The stu dents dis cuss the re la tion ship be tween body im age and the phy -siques of both male and fe male video game char ac ters.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Se ries

by Ismini Boinodiris Roby

Book Re view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The stu dents re view an ac a demic or in struc tional book about videogames.

vii

Brand ing the Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The topic of brand ing is in tro duced to stu dents who then com pare andcon trast the pack ag ing of two or more PlayStation 3, Wii, or Xbox 360ti tles.

Bully. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

The stu dents dis cuss the eth i cal is sues sur round ing RockStar’sschool-based video game ti tled Bully.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Video Games May Dull Shock at Vi o lence

by Miranda Hitti

Car Com mer cial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

The stu dents cre ate a car com mer cial us ing in-game foot age cap turedfrom a driv ing game.

Car of the Fu ture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The stu dents de sign and out line the spec i fi ca tions for a tricked-out newcar (or fly ing ma chine) of the fu ture.

Chart Toppers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

The stu dents track the video game sales charts over a one- or two-monthpe riod. They an a lyze and draw con clu sions about the sta tis tics they have col lected.

Cheat Code Cen tral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

The stu dents re view a game’s cheat codes. They pro pose a re vised set ofcheat codes that would make the game eas ier and more fun to play fornov ices and rec re ational gamers alike.

Choose Your Own Ad ven ture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

The stu dents write a choose your own ad ven ture story, a nar ra tive withmul ti ple path ways that can then be adapted for use in an ad ven ture video game.

Com poser Discography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The stu dents re search the discography of an es tab lished video gamecom poser.

Critiquing the Con trol lers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The stu dents com pare and con trast the gamepad con trol lers that shipwith the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PlayStation 3gam ing sys tems.

Dead pan Di a log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

The stu dents write a re view of a video game fo cus ing solely on the el o -cu tion of one or more char ac ters’ di a log.

viii Ä Contents

De sign Your Own Race track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

The stu dents use arts and crafts sup plies to de sign a race track that fea -tures five or more geo graphic land forms.

De sign Your Own Race track (Take Two) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The stu dents use a city map to de sign a sanc tioned street race through anur ban cen ter. They iden tify road haz ards, plot po si tions where pro tec -tive bar ri ers should be erected, and mark off cross streets that should beclosed to traf fic.

Do You Rec og nize This Voice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

The stu dents play a teach ing game in which they lis ten to re corded ex -cerpts of di a log from sev eral video games. They at tempt to guess whichce leb rity’s voice they are hear ing.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Eth ics in Video Game Jour nal ism by Justin Hall

Don’t Be lieve the Hype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

The stu dents com pare and con trast the pre views and re views of a videogame. They look for ev i dence of hype in the pre views for games thatdidn’t quite ful fill ex pec ta tions upon their re lease.

ESRB Rat ings Re view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The stu dents re view the ESRB rat ings sys tem and sug gest what changes(if any) they would pro pose mak ing.

Er go nomic Au dit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

The stu dents con duct an er go nomic au dit of the school’s com puter lab.They pres ent their find ings to the stu dent coun cil, prin ci pal, and schoolstaff.

Fact vs. Opin ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

The stu dents an a lyze and parse one or more re views of a video game forstate ments of fact and opin ion.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Re al ity Bytes: Eight Myths about Video

Games De bunked by Henry Jenkins

Fine Mo tor Count. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The stu dents tally the num ber of times one or more gamepad but tons arepressed dur ing a gam ing ses sion. They then trans fer this data onto achart for fur ther anal y sis dur ing math class.

Fit ness Re gime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

The stu dents pro pose a se ries of fit ness ex er cises for a lead ing videogame or comic book char ac ter.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Ex er cise, Lose Weight with “Exergaming”

by Star Law rence

Contents Ä ix

Foley Ef fects Art ist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The stu dents be come Foley art ists as they re place the sound ef fects in avideo game with their own sounds de rived from ma te ri als they have col -lected in and around their school and home.

Foley Ef fects Art ist (Take Two) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

The stu dents add Foley ef fects to their game cre ations and video pro duc tions.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Soak ing Up the Me dia: Full-time Job for Kids

by Miranda Hitti

For How Long Do I Play? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

The stu dents track the amount of time they spend play ing video gamesover a two-week pe riod. They then an a lyze and per form cal cu la tions onthe data they have gath ered.

Game In ven tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

The stu dents de sign a real-world game or sport that they then teach oth -ers to play in a phys i cal ed u ca tion class.

Gam ing Bud get . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

The stu dents per form a cost-ben e fit anal y sis of the prac tice of buy ingver sus rent ing video games.

Gam ing Sta tion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The teacher sets up a PlayStation 3, Wii, or Xbox 360 gam ing sta tion inthe class room that is to be used for ed u ca tional pur poses in the in struc -tional pro gram.

Graph i cal Anal y sis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

The stu dents con duct a graph i cal anal y sis of a video game. They cri tique the mod els, tex tures, light ing, shad ows, and other graph i cal fea tures ofthe game.

His tor i cal Cam paign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

The stu dents pro pose a new mis sion for an ex ist ing World War II– orViet nam-based wargame. They draw their idea from an ac tual his tor i calcam paign or sce nario that oc curred dur ing the war.

His tor i cal Place Anal y sis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

The stu dents com pare and con trast his tor i cally ac cu rate video game en -vi ron ments with pho to graphs and de scrip tions of the same real-worldset tings.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: The Con ven tion for the Pro tec tion of Vir tual

Ar chi tec tural Her i tage by Mario Gerosa, with the col lab o ra tion

of Sam Shahrani

x Ä Contents

His tor i cal Weap onry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

The stu dents re search the his tory of a weapon that is fea tured in a WorldWar II– or Viet nam-based video game.

I Beg to Dif fer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

The stu dents write a re sponse to a neg a tive re view of a video game theyen joyed.

I Be lieve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

The stu dents write an I Be lieve poem about video games that com prisesten be lief state ments.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Con tra dic tions by Rich ard Bartie

Kid-friendly Grand Theft Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

The stu dents take back the streets as they de sign a vi brant, kid-friendlycity in which there are lots of things to do.

Lay of the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

The stu dents cre ate a top o graphic map of a fic tional bat tle field that fea -tures sev eral of the land forms they have stud ied in class.

Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

The stu dents use a wall map of the world to plot the real-world lo ca tionsin which their fa vor ite video games are set.

Mu sic Critic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

The stu dents cri tique the li censed mu si cal mix that is fea tured in a videogame.

New Multiplayer Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

The stu dents brain storm new multiplayer modes that com prise sets ofgameplay rules and sce nar ios for a pop u lar on line wargame.

News cast Pro duc tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

The stu dents study the struc ture of a tra di tional tele vi sion news cast.They then ap ply what they have learned to the cre ation of a live news -cast of their own that re ports on the video game news of the day.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Why We Need a Cor po ra tion for Pub lic

Gam ing by Da vid Rejeski

Next Gen er a tion Con sole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

The stu dents pick a name and de sign a model for a next-gen er a tion gam -ing sys tem. They also brain storm a list of cut ting-edge fea tures that thesys tem will sup port.

Contents Ä xi

Open World Di rec tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

The stu dents write out the di rec tions for get ting from Point A to Point Bin an open world driv ing game.

Play ing to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

The stu dents brain storm and lead their own video game learn ingac tiv i ties.

Poor Pos ture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

The teacher pres ents a les son on er go nom ics in which a stu dent vol un -teer dem on strates the proper pos ture for sit ting at a com puter.

Race Re la tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

The stu dents dis cuss how dif fer ent cul tural groups are rep re sented invideo games.

Re pet i tive Stress In jury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

The teacher pres ents a for mal les son on re pet i tive stress in jury to the class.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Pro tect Kids from Com puter In ju ries,

Safety Coun cil Urges by the Ca na dian Broadcasting Corporation

Re search ing the Cred its . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

The stu dents re search a spe cific video game–re lated job and its role inthe de vel op ment of a video game ti tle.

Re search ing the Cred its (Take Two) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

The stu dents browse the cred its for one or more video games as a way ofhelp ing them to or ga nize their own in-class game de vel op ment stu diointo as signed roles and tasks.

Re view Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

The stu dents com pare and con trast two or more re views of a videogame. They write a re view roundup that sums up the views of the crit icsplus their own in sights.

Re view of the Real World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

The stu dents turn the no tion of a video game re view on its head and in -stead re view the real world as if it were a video game.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Real Life: The Full Re view by Greg Kasavin

Scary Sto ries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The stu dents dis cuss what makes a story, movie, or video game scary.They then write their own scary story.

xii Ä Contents

Scooby-Doo and the Laws of Phys ics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

The stu dents watch a half-hour Scooby-Doo Mys ter ies ep i sode andcount and/or cat e go rize the num ber of times the char ac ters —bothfriends and foes—do the im pos si ble.

Se ri ous Games Brain storm ing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

The stu dents brain storm ideas for a new se ri ous game that teaches theknowl edge and skill set re quired by a par tic u lar pro fes sion.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Video Game Ther apy: A New Fron tier by Reuters

Spell ing Dic ta tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

The teacher com piles a spell ing list of video game-re lated terms.

Sta tis ti cal Anal y sis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

The stu dents an a lyze and dis cuss a num ber of video game–re latedsta tis tics.

Strat egy Guide Re view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

The stu dents write and then pub lish a re view of a video game strat egyguide.

Strat egy Guide Writ ing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

The stu dents au thor their own strat egy guides for a full video game or asin gle mis sion from a fa vor ite game.

Study of the Fu ture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

The stu dents write an es say that pre dicts what our world will look like inthe fu ture.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Laura’s Story by Da vid Hutchison

Superhero De sign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

The stu dents de sign an orig i nal superhero char ac ter for a video game.

Sur round Sound Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

The stu dents go out side and draw a di rec tional sound-field map thatplots the lo ca tion of nat u ral and hu man-made sounds com ing from thefront, rear, sides, and over head.

Tac ti cal Anal y sis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

The stu dents write about one or more tac tics they have suc cess fully used in a video game.

Tech no log i cal Prog ress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

The stu dents re view the graph i cal fea tures of three video games, re spec -tively pub lished this year, three years ago, and six years ago.

Contents Ä xiii

Tele vi sion Tech nol o gies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

The stu dents re search the sci ence be hind the four ma jor tele vi sion tech -nol o gies: CRT, LCD, DLP, and plasma. They re port on the pros andcons of each.

Test Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

The stu dents de sign a sci ence ex per i ment in which their peers take thecars in a rac ing game for a test drive. They re port on which cars havethe best and worst con trol and han dling ac cord ing to the par tic i pants in the study.

The Gam ing PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

The stu dents de sign the cas ing for a cus tom gam ing PC that op tion -ally fea tures a cus tom paint job, de cals, neon lights, tat toos, and other em bel lish ments.

The In ter view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

The stu dents in ter view their peers about their video game play ing hab its.They then draw ten ta tive con clu sions from the data they have gath ered.

The Obit u ary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

The stu dents write an obit u ary that re counts the life of a lead video game char ac ter who has died.

The Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

The stu dents pre pare a pro posal for a brand-new video game, whichthey then pitch to the class.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Bring ing Back the Dream by Noel Llopis

The Re write. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

The stu dents re write the di a log for a cutscene in a video game that is indes per ate need of im prove ment.

The Re write (Take Two) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

The stu dents re write a video game user re view in an ef fort to im prove itsclar ity and sen tence struc ture.

The Stunt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

The stu dents cap ture some in-game foot age of their char ac ters per form -ing in sane stunts on foot or in ve hi cles.

The Sur vey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

The stu dents de sign a video game sur vey, which they then ad min is ter toother stu dents in the school.

xiv Ä Conents

Ul ti mate Gam ing Bun dle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

The stu dents de sign an ad ver tise ment for the ul ti mate gam ing bun dle,con sist ing of a PC or con sole sys tem and third-party hard ware andgames.

Ur ban Plan ning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

The stu dents choose the lo ca tion for a new city, which they then de signfrom the ground up.

User In ter face Re view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

The stu dents ap ply the prin ci ples of user in ter face de sign to their re viewof a game’s user in ter face, menu sys tem, and/or heads up dis play(HUD).

Video Game Ad dic tion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

The stu dents re search the topic of video game ad dic tion. They de cide ona list of cri te ria for de ter min ing whether some one is ad dicted to videogames.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Doc tor Claims 40 Per cent of World of

Warcraft Play ers Are Ad dicted by Jeremy Reimer

Video Game Da ta base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

The stu dents de sign a da ta base for stor ing in for ma tion about videogames. They pre tend they are open ing a video game rental store andneed to keep track of their in ven tory.

Video Game De bate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

The stu dents de bate a con tro ver sial is sue re lated to video games.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Mas sa cre in Winterspring by Gabe Graziani

Video Game Reenactment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

The stu dents re en act a key scene from a video game that boasts a strongstoryline.

Video Game Re view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

The stu dents write a re view for a video game they are cur rently play ing.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Liv ing in Obliv ion by Jane Pinckard

Vir tual Jour nal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

The stu dents write a se ries of jour nal en tries that chron i cle their vir tuallife in an on line role-play ing or open world video game.

Dis cus sion Ar ti cle: Are Vir tual Worlds the Fu ture of the

Class room? by Steph a nie Olsen

Contents Ä xv

Website De sign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

The stu dents brain storm ideas for a video game website that fea turescon tent not typ i cally found at ex ist ing websites.

Well-Bal anced Diet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

The stu dents pro pose a set of four video games that pro vide a de siredgameplay bal ance and va ri ety of play.

World with out Mu sic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

The stu dents re flect on the per cep tual ex pe ri ence of play ing a videogame with out mu sic.

World’s Best Gamertag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

The stu dents are chal lenged to come up with the most cre ative Gamertag they can think of.

Afterword: Video Game De sign in the Class room. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Ac tiv ity List Sorted by Sub ject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

In dex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

xvi Ä Contents

Fore word

James Paul Gee

The ti tle of Ste ven John son’s pop u lar book, Ev ery thing Bad Is Good for You: How To -day’s Pop u lar Cul ture Is Ac tu ally Mak ing Us Smarter (Pen guin, 2006), nicely res o -nates with the con clu sions reached by more and more re search on young peo ple:Pop u lar cul ture to day is more com plex than ever, and, in some cases, it ap pears thatyoung peo ple are learn ing in more in no va tive and pow er ful ways out of school than in.

Take lan guage, for in stance. One of the big gest pre dic tors of school suc cess is the sizeof a child’s early vo cab u lary and his or her abil ity to cope with the com plex forms oflan guage used in Eng lish lit er a ture, math, sci ence, and other sub ject ar eas. Con sideralso, the text that fol lows, which ap pears on a Yu-Gi-Oh card. Yu-Gi-Oh is a cardgame in volv ing quite com plex rules. It is of ten played face-to-face against one or more play ers, some times in for mal com pe ti tions, more of ten in for mally. It can also beplayed as a video game:

Armed Ninja

Card Type: Ef fect Mon ster

At trib ute: Earth

Level: 1

Type: War rior

ATK: 300 | DEF: 300

Rar ity: Rare

De scrip tion: When flipped, de stroys one magic card on the field. If thiscard’s tar get is facedown, flip it face up. If the card is a magic card, it is de -stroyed. If not, it is re turned to its facedown po si tion. The flipped card is notac ti vated.

This de scrip tion is re ally a rule. It states what game moves the card al lows. It con tains,for in stance, three straight con di tional clauses (i.e., the “if” clauses). Note how com -plex the mean ings are here: First, if the tar get card is facedown, flip it over. Now checkto see if it is a magic card. If it is, de stroy it. If it isn’t, re turn it to its facedown po si tion.Fi nally, you are told that even if you flipped up your op po nent’s card (which in somecir cum stances would ac ti vate its pow ers), in this case, the card’s pow ers are not ac ti -vated. All of this is “logic talk,” a mat ter of mul ti ple re lated “ei ther-or” and “if-then”propositions.

xvii

I have watched seven-year-old chil dren play Yu-Gi-Oh with great ex per tise. They read each card. In de cid ing to trade a card, they end lessly de bate its pow ers by com par ingand con trast ing it with the other cards. They dis cuss and ar gue over the rules us ing spe -cial ist vo cab u lary, syn tac tic struc tures, and dis course fea tures. They log on to websites to learn even more and settle their disputes.

The com plex ity of the logic and lan guage that is cen tral to Yu-Gi-Oh is also cen tral tovideo games. Many video games are deep and dif fi cult. Their gameplay is built on a cy cleof hy poth e size, probe the world, get a re ac tion, re flect on the re sults, and reprobe the world to get even better re sults. This cy cle has much in com mon with ex per i men tal sci ence.

So, too, many video games en cour age play ers to be pro duc ers, not just con sum ers, ofpop u lar cul ture. An open-ended game like The El der Scrolls IV: Obliv ion is es sen tially a dif fer ent game for each player. What hap pens in-game is largely de ter mined by eachplayer’s unique ac tions and de ci sions. To take this point even fur ther, gamers can now“co-de sign” many games they play by “modding” them. Many game pub lish ers en -cour age gamers to pro duce whole new sce nar ios or even whole new (al beit non com -mer cial) games us ing tools pro vided by the de vel op ers them selves (e.g., newciv i li za tions in the Civ i li za tion se ries and new first-per son ad ven ture games us ing the Half-Life engine).

Partly be cause of this, video games have be come a ma jor cul tural force—one basedlargely on ac tive prob lem solv ing—for young peo ple (and many adults, too). Im por -tantly, this in cludes girls and women, who to day play video games in large num bers(e.g., fe males make up 52 pre cent of The Sims player base). As an in dus try, videogames have as much in flu ence on young peo ple to day as do mov ies. In deed, videogames gen er ate as much revenue as movies.

Al though video games have not re placed read ing (the ac tiv ity from which video games take away the most time is tele vi sion), they have changed the na ture of the read ing andwrit ing ac tiv i ties in which many young peo ple en gage. Gamers can be found read ingand writ ing at video game fan sites and fo rums and read ing tech ni cal ma te rial andstrat egy guides on and offline. They write re views and fan fic tion and dis cuss the in tri -ca cies of games and other tech nol o gies with their friends. Some times—as in the caseof a fan tasy game such as Age of My thol ogy—young peo ple are driven to ever widerread ing and writ ing on top ics not directly related to video games.

It is in this spirit that Play ing to Learn: Video Games in the Class room finds its in spi ra -tion. This book is a tes ta ment to the won der ful learn ing op por tu ni ties that pres entthem selves when the pop u lar cul ture young peo ple so value is in te grated into the K–12 cur ric u lum in a ped a gog i cally sound way. Count this book as an in no va tive form of“multi cul tural ed u ca tion,” a place where the cul ture of school meets pop u lar cul ture ina very fruitful and generative way.

Ref er ences

John son, Ste ven. (2006). Ev ery thing bad is good for you: How to day’s pop u lar cul ture is ac tu ally mak ing us smarter. New York: Penguin.

xviii Ä Fore word

Ac knowl edg ments

I am in debted to many peo ple who played key roles in sup port ing the writ ing of thisbook.

I would like to thank all of the teach ers who have re viewed or tested the ac tiv i ties inthis book. Their feed back and sup port has ex pertly guided the book’s de vel op ment.

I am grate ful to Pro fes sor James Paul Gee of the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin, who kindlycon trib uted the Fore word. I would also like to thank all of the schol ars, jour nal ists, and bloggers who so gra ciously con trib uted dis cus sion ar ti cles to the book.

The ed i tors and pro duc tion staff at Teacher Ideas Press and Li brar ies Un lim ited skill -fully han dled the book at the pub lisher’s end and were a plea sure to work with.

Fi nally, I thank my fam ily who have been a con stant source of sup port and en cour age -ment through out the writ ing pro cess.

xix

In tro duc tion

This book is about video games—com mer cial video games played on Playstation 3,Wii, and Xbox 360 con soles, PC com put ers, and handheld de vices, in clud ing cellphones. This book is also about teach ing and learn ing in school. My ba sic goal is tobring to gether the seem ingly di ver gent worlds of video games and ed u ca tion in a ped a -gog i cally sound way that turns play ing—and study ing—video games into an ed u ca -tional and thought ful learning experience.

Like all forms of tech nol ogy, video games are cul tural ar ti facts—al beit com plexones—that in vite all sorts of study, dis cus sion, and anal y sis in school. Some of thisdis cus sion is ap pro pri ately re served for the no ta ble downsides of some video games(e.g., vi o lent gameplay), but there are also lots of ped a gog i cal les sons to be learned inad dress ing the po ten tial of video games to en ter tain, inspire, and teach.

Many stu dents are con sum ers of video games in that they play video games for ex -tended pe ri ods of time each week, but how many young peo ple are crit i cal con sum ersof video games who ac tively re flect on the games they play, how they are made, howthey are mar keted, and how they can be im proved? This book aims to turn younggamers into com men ta tors on ex ist ing video games, as well as cre ators of new games. I see school as one of the last re main ing for mal in sti tu tions that can me di ate pop u lar cul -ture by ex am in ing it closely, hold ing it to ac count, and even trans form ing it at times.Video games are in many ways har bin gers of pop u lar cul ture—some games even try to see into the fu ture—so it is in a Mar shall McLuhan–like spirit of media literacy thatthis book is written.

This book isn’t about play ing video games in school, but it is about in ter act ing withthem as ped a gog i cal re sources that can teach stu dents about vir tual worlds. That said, I don’t have gran di ose vi sions of a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 con sole on ev ery stu dent’s desk—al though set ting up a class room gam ing sta tion is an ac tiv ity you will find inthis book. In stead, I en vi sion a dy namic class room en vi ron ment in which one group ofstu dents is con duct ing a place anal y sis of a video game en vi ron ment, while an othergroup ed its a movie that uses video game foot age, and still an other group draws up de -sign plans for its own video game. Of course, the ac tiv i ties in this book can also beused quite suc cess fully in more tra di tional class rooms, as “one off” les sons that allstudents complete together as a full class.

This book is or ga nized al pha bet i cally by ac tiv ity ti tle. Each ac tiv ity in cludes an in tro -duc tion that sets up the con text for the ac tiv ity plus in struc tions on lead ing the ac tiv ityin class. For nearly all of the ac tiv i ties, a num ber of mod i fi ca tion and ex ten sion ideasare also pro vided. Each ac tiv ity is cat a loged by sub ject and grade level. A to tal oftwelve sub jects are cov ered in this book, in clud ing lan guage arts, math e mat ics, sci -ence, so cial stud ies, his tory, ge og ra phy, health and phys i cal ed u ca tion, drama, mu sic,

xxi

vi sual arts, com put ers, and busi ness. The book also fea tures sev eral con trib uted ar ti -cles that are the per fect start ing points for class room dis cus sions and de bates aboutvideo games. Each is ac com pa nied by fol low-up ques tions. The book closes with anafterword that fea tures ad vice for help ing stu dents to de sign their own video games.Fi nally, the book in cludes doz ens of Web links, pho to graphs, and data tables, all ofwhich can be used to further augment student learning in the classroom.

The teach ers who have re viewed and tested the ac tiv i ties in this book have all re portedex cel lent feed back (and plenty of en thu si asm!) from their stu dents. I hope you, too,will find this book to be a valu able re source in plan ning video game–re lated les sons,ac tiv i ties, and class pro jects. Many of the ac tiv i ties that fol low can also be adapted towork with other me dia, such as books, mov ies, and other forms of pop u lar cul ture.Teach ers and stu dents are en cour aged to share their own ac tiv ity ideas and feed backwith the au thor at the of fi cial website for this book (www. playingtolearn.org).

xxii Ä Introduction

Ac com pa ny ing the roll out of all but the most mod est video games is a sig nif i cant mar -ket ing cam paign that aims to at tract the at ten tion of as many gamers as pos si ble.

Video game pub lish ers ad ver tise on line at video game websites, in print mag a zines,and, oc ca sion ally, on tele vi sion. So too, al most ev ery video game re ceives plenty ofad vance press. In ad di tion to mak ing early de mos of their games avail able for gamersto down load and play, pub lish ers par tic i pate in prerelease in ter views with game jour -nal ists and pro vide ad vance in for ma tion for pre view ar ti cles at websites and in mag a -zines. Fur ther, the prerelease de mos on the DVD disks that ac com pany many videogame mag a zines al low gamers to sam ple the prom ise of an up com ing ti tle, weeks ormonths in ad vance.

The are also op por tu ni ties for cross-pro mo tion as games are mar keted along side mov -ies, mu sic al bums, foods and bev er ages, and other games. Fi nally, there is word ofmouth as jour nal ists and gamers sound off about up com ing re leases in podcasts andon line fo rums.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign a full-fledged ad ver tis ing cam paign for an up com -ing or newly re leased video game.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to mon i tor closely the mar ket ing cam paign for an up com ing videogame in the months or weeks lead ing up to its re lease. En cour age the stu dents to lookfor on line ban ner ads pro mot ing the ti tle at var i ous gam ing websites, as well asfull-page ad ver tise ments in print mag a zines. The stu dents should also look for ev i -dence of cross-pro mo tions and tie-ins with other prod ucts and col lect de vel oper in ter -views and pre view ar ti cles writ ten by jour nal ists who have been given an advance look at the game.

As they re view their re search, ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of the many ways inwhich video games are ad ver tised to con sum ers (e.g., Web ad ver tis ing, pre view ar ti -cles, and cross-pro mo tions).

Next, ask the stu dents to form small groups and choose an other new or up com inggame on which to build a full-fledged mar ket ing cam paign.

1

ÄAd ver tis ing Cam paign

As sign each group a fixed bud get and pro vide them with hy po thet i cal pric ing in for ma -tion for the var i ous mar ket ing strat e gies they have brainstormed. Us ing the bud getavail able to them, as sign stu dents the task of plan ning ei ther a broad-based or tar getedad ver tis ing cam paign that serves to pro mote their video game to consumers.

Have each group pres ent its mar ket ing cam paign to the class in the form of a posterboard that dis cusses each facet of their ad ver tis ing plans. In ad di tion to a for mal as -sess ment, ask the stu dents to pro vide con struc tive feed back on each other’s posterboards.

Dis cus sion

In plan ning their ad ver tis ing cam paign, en cour age the stu dents to pay close at ten tionto:

¸ the pur pose of the ad ver tis ing cam paign (e.g., to sell prod ucts or build brandaware ness)

¸ the tar get au di ence for the ad ver tis ing cam paign (e.g., age, ed u ca tion, gen der,and in come level)

¸ the breadth of the ad ver tis ing cam paign (e.g., fo cused on a niche au di ence ortar get ing a va ri ety of mag a zines and websites)

¸ the length and tim ing of each ad ver tis ing con tract (e.g., for one day prior to re -lease, for a whole week start ing the day of re lease, or for sev eral months in ad -vance of release)

Most print pub li ca tions and com mer cial websites pro vide gen eral mar ket ing in for ma -tion to po ten tial ad ver tis ers at their re spec tive websites. (Print mag a zines also list per -ti nent in for ma tion about their cir cu la tion in side each is sue of the mag a zine.) Theac tual costs of print and on line ad ver tise ments are usu ally avail able on re quest. Tolend this ac tiv ity more au then tic ity, con sider send ing pric ing re quests to a few mar ket -ing con tacts.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to pre pare an ad ver tis ing slo gan ortagline for the video game they are mar ket ing. Sim i lar to mov ies, most video games to -day are mar keted us ing one or more taglines that prom i nently ap pear in print and on -line ads for the game.

Al though bill board ad ver tis ing for video games in the real world is not un com mon,vir tual bill board ad ver tis ing in side the game worlds of video games is a rel a tively newphe nom ena. It is also some what con tro ver sial. In vite the stu dents to dis cuss the mer itsof in-game ad ver tis ing for video games and other prod ucts.

Grades: 8 and higher | Sub ject: Busi ness

2 Ä Play ing to Learn

üCheck listVideo Game Mar ket ing Strat e gies

¨ be hind-the-scenesfeaturettes

¨ bun dle deals

¨ cross-pro mo tions

¨ de vel oper blogs

¨ de vel oper in ter views

¨ fan com pe ti tions

¨ fan site kits

¨ fo rum posts

¨ game de mos

¨ gameplay vid eos

¨ in-game ad ver tis ing

¨mag a zine ads

¨ of fi cial websites

¨ on line ads

¨ preorder deals

¨ pre view ar ti cles

¨ pro mo tional events

¨ prereleasescreenshots

¨ teaser trail ers

¨ tele vi sion ads

¨ vi ral mar ket ing

¨word of mouth

¨ other

Video Games in the Classroom Ä 3

Free dom Fight ers was one of the most crit i cally ac claimed third-per son ac tion gamesof 2003. Set in a mod ern-day New York City, Free dom Fight ers tells the story of ayoung man’s rise from in sig nif i cance to un der ground free dom fighter as he leads other city res i dents in re sist ing the So viet oc cu pa tion of New York City.

That’s right. Free dom Fight ers is set in a mod ern-day but al ter nate uni verse in whichthe So viet Un ion has won the Cold War and ef fec tively rules the world. Ac com pa niedby suit ably om i nous mu sic, the fol low ing ti tle screens pre cede the open ing cred its ofFree dom Fight ers:

1945: So viet Air Force drops the A-bomb on Berlin, end ing World War II inEu rope.

1953: Brit ain re luc tantly joins the Com mu nist Block, the last Eu ro pean coun tryto do so.

1961: De spite U.S. pro tests, mid-range nu clear mis siles are placed in Cuba.

1976: The So viet Un ion sends thou sands of mil i tary “ad vi sors” to Gua te mala and Hon du ras.

1996: Mex i can Com mu nist Party cel e brates dis puted vic tory in pres i den tialelection.

2001: Foiled as sas si na tion at tempt on the U.S. pres i dent. An un named for eignpower is im pli cated.

Yes ter day: Re ports of low-fly ing drones from all over the U.S.A. Gov ern mentdis misses the sight ings as weather bal loons.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write an al ter nate his tory of the world that starts with a de -ci sive change in the out come of a his tor i cal event.

Ac tiv ity

Have the stu dents cre ate a timeline de tail ing the sig nif i cant events they are study ing inhis tory class. Ask the stu dents to flag those his toric events for which the out come, ifdra mat i cally dif fer ent, would have changed the course of U.S. or world his tory.

4

ÄAl ter nate His tory

Now have each stu dent pick a de ci sive event and choose an al ter nate out come for theevent (e.g., the So viet Un ion lands a man on the moon be fore the United States). Haveeach stu dent cre ate a hy po thet i cal timeline that traces the al ter nate his tory that mighthave un folded had the al ter na tive out come ac tu ally oc curred.

Mount the timelines the stu dents have cre ated on a bul le tin board. Have the stu dentsbrowse and of fer feed back on the var i ous timelines their peers have cre ated.

Dis cus sion

Con sider lead ing this ac tiv ity in con junc tion with “The Study of the Fu ture” ac tiv itydis cussed else where in this book.

In stead of cre at ing a lin ear timeline, ask each stu dent to cre ate a branch ing timeline(i.e., a flowchart) that high lights the mul ti ple con se quences of var i ous out comes for asin gle his tor i cal event.

Dis cuss with stu dents the no tion of time travel as pop u lar ized in sci ence fic tion books,tele vi sion shows, mov ies, and video games. What are the po ten tial pit falls of go ingback in time to change (for better or worse) the out come of a his tor i cal event long ago?

For an ex is ten tial take on this ac tiv ity, dis cuss the no tions of fate, luck, and chancewith stu dents. How many of the ma jor world events they have stud ied in class were, intheir view, the re sult of luck, chance, or missed op por tu ni ties? How many were the re -sult of de ci sive ac tions on the part of in di vid u als, groups, and/or gov ern ments?

Grades: 8 and higher | Sub ject: His tory

ÃFYITop Ten List: Video Games

in the Class room

Here are ten top rea sons why teach ers should con sider in te grat ing video games into the class room:

1. Video games are con tro ver sial. Talk ing about them with stu dents will fos ter in -tel li gent de bate and dis cus sion.

2. Video games are news wor thy. Hardly a week goes by that some news item aboutvideo games doesn’t ap pear in the main stream press. And the Web abounds withvideo game blogs and ed i to ri als that can be dis cussed in class.


3. Video games dem on strate new ways of learn ing. Many re search ers who ex plorethe struc ture of video games ar gue that most are in fact learn ing sys tems thatteach. Some of these re search ers ar gue that video games are har bin gers of a newway of learn ing—one that is immersive, in ter ac tive, and vir tual.

4. Video games are in ter dis ci plin ary. As this book shows, there are all sorts of in ter -dis ci plin ary learn ing op por tu ni ties re lated to video games that cross nearly ev erysub ject area.

5. Video games are fu ture ori ented. Many video games imag ine fu ture worlds thatex tend trends we see emerg ing in to day’s world. Fu tur is tic wargames imag ine anin se cure world. Cer tain strat egy games imag ine an eco log i cally de pleted world.The is sues such games raise are di rectly rel e vant to the chal lenges young peo plemay face in the fu ture.

6. Video games are his tor i cal. Many video games as pire to rec re ate as an au then tichis tor i cal ex pe ri ence as pos si ble (of the An cient World or World War II, for ex -am ple). Such games are the per fect launch ing points for his tor i cal re search andplace anal y ses in schools.

7. Video games are cul tural. Many video games serve as so ci etal sim u la tions, com -plete with clan mem ber ship, co op er a tive ven tures, work ing econ o mies, and di -verse cul tural groups. Ac a dem ics and young peo ple alike are, for the first time inthe his tory of our civ i li za tion, ex plor ing the pos si bil i ties (and lim its) of mem ber -ship in a vir tual com mu nity.

8. Video games pro mote play. Many en cour age ex per i men ta tion and the test ing ofnew ideas. Video games will never re place the sandbox and play ground in thereal world (nor should they), but they are al ready open ing up new op por tu ni tiesfor young peo ple to ex per i ment with in no va tive forms of play, un re stricted bytime and space.

9. Video games are in ter na tional. Play ing on line pro vides young peo ple with an op -por tu nity most would oth er wise not have to (safely) in ter act with other youngpeo ple and adults the world over.

10. Video games are fun. They help make learn ing en gag ing and re ward ing andschool some thing to look for ward to.


Al though video game ar cades can still be found in cineplexes and shop ping mallsaround the coun try, their hey day as des ti na tions where gamers con gre gate is long over. Ar cades have been largely sup planted by the con ve nience of play ing video games athome and the interactivity of play ing them on line.

Yet there was a time in the 1980s that young peo ple would spend their eve nings andweek ends (and, yes, some times their school days) drop ping quar ters into the likes ofSpace In vad ers and Pac-Man and then, be gin ning in the 1990s, Dou ble Dragon andMor tal Kombat. The ex pe ri ence of play ing video games in ar cades was in her ently aso cial one and, for a time, a fa vor ite pas time of young peo ple.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents com pare and con trast the so cial ex pe ri ence of play ingvideo games in an ar cade ver sus play ing them at home on a video game con sole or PCcom puter.

Ac tiv ity

Re ac quaint stu dents (as need be) with the no tion of video game ar cades as pop u larmeet ing places for gamers and young peo ple to con gre gate and play to gether in the1980s and 1990s.

Now have the stu dents cre ate a two-col umn chart that lists the pros and cons of play ing video games in an ar cade ver sus play ing them at home. En cour age the stu dents to fo -cus es pe cially on the so cial ex pe ri ence of play ing video games in the two set tings.

What so cial ad van tages does one set ting hold over the other? What are the so cial lim i -ta tions of each set ting? If a player is not on line, is play ing video games at home in her -ently a “lonely” ac tiv ity? What about in vit ing friends over to play?

Does on line gam ing that is not face-to-face but over the Internet count as a so cial ex pe -ri ence? How does add ing voice com mu ni ca tion to on line multiplayer matches changethe so cial ex pe ri ence of gam ing? Can a first-per son shooter be de scribed as in her entlyso cial if the main aim is to frag (i.e., kill) ev ery other player?

Start with these ques tions but al low the dis cus sion to move in var i ous di rec tions as thestu dents be gin think ing more deeply about the so cial na ture of gam ing.

7

ÄAr cade vs. Video Games

Dis cus sion

In some ways, the im me di acy of video game ar cades lives on through the cyber gam -ing ca fes that are now spring ing up in ma jor city cen ters around the world. Cyber gam -ing ca fes go a long way in re stor ing the face-to-face so cial ex pe ri ence of play ing videogames to gether, but only time will tell if they are just a fad or here to stay.

Grades: 8 and higher | Sub ject: So cial Stud ies


Video game de sign ers spend count less hours de sign ing con cept art for the en vi ron ments,char ac ters, and ob jects that will ap pear in a video game. This art work was cre ated for World of Warcraft: The Burn ing Cru sade.

De sign ing con cept art, an ar tis tic ren der ing of a scene, is of ten one of the first steps inbring ing a real-world or imag i nary lo ca tion to life in a video game or movie. Con ceptart ists may pro duce a half dozen or more vari a tions of a scene (each showcasing var i -ous ar chi tec tural mo tifs, tex tures, light ing, and/or weather con di tions) for the pro duc -tion team to choose from. The fi nal art work that is picked then gets mod eled in 3Dde sign soft ware so that it can be in cor po rated into the video game as a vir tual en vi ron -ment for gamers to ex plore.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents cre ate an ar tis tic rep re sen ta tion of a real-world scene.

9

ÄAr tis tic Ren der ing

Ac tiv ity

Pro vide the stu dents with a pho to graph of an in door or out door set ting. Ask each stu -dent to study the pho to graph closely and then sketch or paint a rep re sen ta tion of thescene.

En cour age the stu dents to pay close at ten tion to spe cific de tails such as shapes, tex -tures, pat terns, hues, light ing, shad ows, and depth of field. Each will play an im por tantrole when it co mes time to model the scene in 3D de sign soft ware.

Once they have com pleted their de signs, or ga nize an art show in which the stu dentsshow off their con cept art to each other and a class of their peers.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity uses a pho to graph as the ref er ence source for the stu dents’ art work. Con -sider hav ing each stu dent in stead cap ture his or her own pho to graph of an out doorscene that they wish to sketch or paint, or in stead take the stu dents out side and havethem sketch or paint a land scape. Pro vide the stu dents with a va ri ety of ar tis tic tools towork with, in clud ing pen cils, paint brushes, pas tels, chalk, and char coal.

For a hi-tech vari a tion on this ac tiv ity, chal lenge those stu dents who are ex pe ri encedwith 3D de sign soft ware to cre ate a vir tual model of a his tor i cal or sci ence fic tionbuild ing.

Grades: 4 and higher | Sub ject: Vi sual Arts

ÃFYIVideo Game Gen res:

The One-Min ute Primer

Video games have tra di tion ally been grouped into the fol low ing broad cat e go ries: Ac -tion games are typ i fied by the pop u lar first- and third-per son shooter gen res, whichcome in two va ri et ies: fast-paced run ‘n’ gun shoot ers (e.g., Halo) and slower pacedtac ti cal games (e.g., SWAT). Strat egy games (e.g., Civ i li za tion) also come in two va ri -et ies: turn-based and real-time. In both, play ers are given a grand-scale (usu allytop-down) view of a world in which they man age peo ple, ar mies, ar ma ments, andother re sources. Platformer games (e.g., Pyschonauts) chal lenge play ers to tra verseob sta cles and solve puz zles. Role-play ing games (e.g., World of Warcraft) im mersegamers in a per sis tent liv ing vir tual world in which they live, work, fight, and/or playover time. Role-play ing games are most of ten played on line, but some are sin gleplayer. Casual games (e.g., Tetris) chal lenge play ers to solve puz zles us ing arules-based sys tem. Fight ing games (e.g., Dead or Alive) pit play ers against box ing or


mar tial arts op po nents. Sports games (e.g., Mad den NFL) aim for au then tic ity in sim u -lat ing the on- and off-field ac tion of foot ball, base ball, hockey, and other sports.Rhythm games (e.g., Dance Dance Rev o lu tion) get gamers out of their seats to per form all sorts of dance moves. Driv ing games (e.g., Gran Tu ris mo) sim u late the ex pe ri enceof be ing be hind the wheel in a fast-paced street, rally, or track race. Flight and other ve -hi cle sim u la tors (e.g., Flight Sim u la tor) aim for au then tic ity in sim u lat ing the ex pe ri -ence of travel. Fi nally, ad ven ture games (e.g., Grand Theft Auto) play out anin ter ac tive story in which the gamer takes on the role of the lead char ac ter. Ed u ca -tional games that teach fall into the se ri ous games cat e gory, as do vir tual sim u la torsthat train mil i tary and emer gency ser vice per son nel. Most video games fea ture both asin gle-player storyline plus a va ri ety of multiplayer modes that al low two or moregamers to play com pet i tively against (or co op er a tively with) each other. The re centrise of mas sively multiplayer games (e.g., Sec ond Life) has turned some video gamesinto per sis tent vir tual worlds that ex ist, change, and grow even when gamers turn offtheir com put ers. Many of these vir tual worlds boast their own mon e tary sys tems,econ o mies, com mer cial busi nesses, real es tate ven tures, and laws that gov ern thegameplay ex pe ri ence.


Turn-based strat egy games, such as the ever pop u lar Civ i li za tion se ries, are among themost pop u lar video game gen res. Gamers can play on their own against the com puter,with a friend, or on line against op po nents around the world. Pre sented with a mil i taryor eco nomic sce nario that re quires them to think ahead and make stra te gic de ci sions,play ers take turns as they at tempt to out wit their op po nents and win the day.

Turn-based board games pre date video games by sev eral de cades. Most peo ple havefond mem o ries of play ing Mo nop oly, Scrab ble, Triv ial Pur suit, and other board games grow ing up. In many re spects, these games are as pop u lar as ever. They co ex ist along -side video games, which to day seem to get all of the at ten tion.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents as sem ble the ma te ri als for a clas sic game of Bat tle ship,which they then play in pairs.

Ac tiv ity

Bat tle ship (www.hasbro.com) is a turn-based board game in which two play ers com -pete against each other. For this ac tiv ity, each stu dent will need a pen cil plus twosheets of graph pa per.

The two play ers sit fac ing one an other with a short bar rier erected be tween them. Theyshould be able to see each other’s faces, but the bar rier should hide each player’s graphpa per from the other player’s view. (Con sider us ing a piece of poster board to con -struct a make shift bar rier.)

Prior to be gin ning the game, the play ers la bel each axis on their graph pa per with let -ters and num bers. They also plot the lo ca tion of four “bat tle ships” on one of theirsheets of graph pa per. Each bat tle ship should be five units long and ori ented hor i zon -tally or ver ti cally on the graph pa per.

The game be gins with Player 1 call ing out a grid co or di nate (e.g., “B3”). Player 2 re -sponds by say ing “hit” or “miss” to in di cate whether the stated grid co or di natematches the lo ca tion of one of Player 2’s bat tle ships. If there is a match, Player 2should cross out the called-out grid co or di nate on her bat tle ship-la beled graph pa per.

12

ÄBat tle ship

If the grid co or di nate does not match, Player 1 marks the grid co or di nate on her blanksheet of graph pa per with a “M.” She in stead marks the grid co or di nate with a “H” ifshe has scored a hit. Keep ing care ful notes al lows each player to keep track of the co or -di nates they have called out and thus stra te gi cally plan sub se quent calls.

In ad di tion to re spond ing with “hit” or “miss,” a player must also in di cate when one ofher bat tle ships has been sunk (i.e., when the other player has called out all of the gridco or di nates for a bat tle ship). “You sunk my bat tle ship!” is the stan dard phrase here.

The gameplay pro ceeds with each player tak ing turns call ing out grid co or di nates. Thegame ends once all of a player’s bat tle ships have been sunk.

Dis cus sion

Bat tle ship is ter rific teach ing game for re in forc ing the con cept of grid co or di nates inmath and ge og ra phy, but it is also a good ex am ple of what makes board games (and byex ten sion, turn-based video games) so en joy able. Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu -dents to re flect on the fea tures of Bat tle ship that make the game so fun to play.

Bat tle ship is just one of many board games that share much in com mon with videogames. The clas sic game Snakes and Lad ders is in many ways a fore run ner ofplatformer video games, such as Psychonauts. Sim i larly, there are vir tual edi tions ofmany pop u lar board games, in clud ing, most no ta bly, chess.

Dis cuss with stu dents the pros and cons of play ing board games ver sus video games.Which do stu dents pre fer and why? Which of fers play ers the better so cial ex pe ri ence?Is there some thing to be said for ac tu ally hold ing a board game in one’s hands ver susthe vir tual na ture of video games?

Grades: 4 and higher | Sub ject: Ge og ra phy

!Ac tiv ity QuickieLet ter to the Ed i tor

Ask the stu dents to write let ters to the ed i tor. Have each stu dent give their per sonalopin ion about a cur rent video game–re lated con tro versy that is be ing re ported on bythe press. En cour age those stu dents who are in ter ested to send their let ters (with pa ren -tal per mis sion) to the lo cal news pa per. (Lan guage Arts)


It is a com mon mis con cep tion that vir tu ally ev ery video game is vi o lent, fo cused ongangs or war, and chalk full of pro fan ity and sex ual in nu endo. In re al ity, child- andfam ily-friendly video games are much more com mon than the main stream presswould have the gen eral pub lic be lieve. Kid-friendly games in clude hun dreds ofedutainment ti tles plus var i ous ac tion/ad ven ture games, such as the pop u lar HarryPot ter se ries. The En ter tain ment Soft ware Rat ing Board (ESRB) website(www.esrb.org) lists the rat ings for more than 12,000 video games and fea tures linksto a num ber of fam ily-friendly video game websites on its par ents’ re source page.

As of this writ ing, more than 8,200 of those 12,000 video games have been awarded arat ing of Early Child hood (3+), Ev ery one (6+), or Ev ery one (10+) by the ESRB rat -ings board. Sev eral of these games are top sell ers, and many have re ceived ex cel lentre views in the gam ing press.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents rank and re view their fa vor ite kid-friendly video games.

Ac tiv ity

Pro vide the class with a list of re cently pub lished kid-friendly video games. In cludegames that have re ceived an Early Child hood or Ev ery one rat ing from the ESRB rat -ings board. If pos si ble, group the games by genre (e.g., ac tion/ad ven ture, rac ing, andsports).

Ask the stu dents to choose a fa vor ite video game from the list or one that peaks theirin ter est. If they have ac cess to the video game they have cho sen, ask them to write a re -view of the game.

Al ter na tively, ask the stu dents to read the print and on line re views for the kid-friendlyvideo games they have cho sen. Have them write a round-up re view that sum ma rizeswhat oth ers have said about the ti tle.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to read (and peer edit) each other’s writ ing and work to gether to rank the games they have re viewed ac cord ing to var i ous cri te ria (e.g.,hi lar ity, par ent ap proval, and/or dif fi culty level).

14

ÄBest Kids’ Game

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can be eas ily adapted for use with ed u ca tional games and soft ware ap pli -ca tions that fall out side of the video game cat e go ries re viewed by the ESRB rat ingsboard. This ac tiv ity can also serve as the start ing point for a stu dent run video game re -view site on the Web. Re fer to the “Website De sign” ac tiv ity, which is dis cussed else -where in this book, for de tails.

If you do es tab lish a video game re view site as part of your lan guage arts pro gram, con -sider con tact ing the pub lish ers of the video games your stu dents wish to re view. Re -quest com ple men tary cop ies of these ti tles for re view by the class. Even if yourwebsite doesn’t at tract a lot of vis i tors, many pub lish ers will be happy to sup port anon line re view that they can then link to from their own website. Those pub lish ers thatdo will no doubt high light the fact that these re views were writ ten by young peo ple—the very au di ence to which the games are mar keted.

Grades: 4 and higher | Sub ject: Com put ers


Overexaggerated and su per hu man body phy siques are the normfor both male and fe male char ac ters in ac tion games. The Quake

IV fighter fea tured here is ar gu ably more ma chine than man.

Like car toon and comic book char ac ters, many video game heroes (and her o ines) fea -ture ex ag ger ated body types that are any thing but typ i cal.

The var i ous rep re sen ta tions of Lara Croft, the pop u lar comic book char ac ter, are a case in point. Lara Croft has ap peared in sev eral video games, and in each se quel her bodilyform ap pears to have be come ever-more sex u al ized, and her scant ily clad dress (orlack thereof) ever more re veal ing.

16

ÄBody Im age

With mus cles burst ing out ev ery where, many male video game char ac ters also boastex ag ger ated body types. It is not un com mon for ac tion games to fea ture “brutes” and“hulks” as en emy char ac ters. So, too, the heroes gamers iden tify with look su per hu -man more of ten than not.

But there are ex cep tions. With the grow ing pop u lar ity of games such as the Half Lifese ries, cast ing the “ev ery man” (or “everywoman”) in a lead video game role is not asun usual as it once was. Nev er the less, su per hu man bod ies are still the norm and arelikely to be so in ac tion games for the fore see able fu ture.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents dis cuss the re la tion ship be tween body im age and the phy -siques of both male and fe male video game char ac ters.

Ac tiv ity

Lead a dis cus sion about the un der side of phys i cal con di tion ing in sports and the fash -ion in dus try and the ex ag ger ated rep re sen ta tion of the male and fe male form in videogames and comic books.

Start off by show ing the stu dents se lected pic tures of some of the more ex treme ex am -ples of video game char ac ter phy siques. (Search for these im ages in the screenshot col -lec tions of var i ous video game websites.) What com mon al i ties do the stu dents no ticein terms of the phys i cal at trib utes of these video game char ac ters (e.g., overly mus cu -lar phy siques and sex u al ized bod ies)? Why might video game de vel op ers choose toex ag ger ate the tor sos of their char ac ters? Do gamers ex pect the char ac ters they play toboast such ex treme bodily forms?

Lead the stu dents into a dis cus sion of the ef fects of ex ag ger ated phy siques on gamers’per cep tions of their own bod ies and the ideal body type. How does the de sign of videogame char ac ters re in force ste reo types about male and fe male beauty and the idealbody type? Might the ide al ized bod ies gamers iden tify with (and in habit) in videogames cause some play ers to try and re make their own bod ies in sim i lar ways? Whatare the con se quences and health risks for gamers who choose to do so?

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can lead into a wide-rang ing dis cus sion of closely re lated top ics in clud -ing body build ing, ste roid use in sports, the rep re sen ta tion of the fe male form in thefash ion in dus try, and the dan gers of bulimia, among other top ics.

Grades: 6 and higher | Sub ject: Health and Phys i cal Ed u ca tion


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleLara Croft: Tomb Raider Se ries

by Ismini Boinodiris Roby

Lara Croft is the lead char ac ter of the pop u lar ac tion/ad ven ture game se ries, TombRaider. She was first in tro duced to us in Tomb Raider I as the fe male an swer to In di ana Jones. With a tan ta liz ing Brit ish ac cent, Lara is tough, beau ti ful, in tel li gent, and phys i -cally fit with a killer in stinct. She cap tured many gamers’ hearts early on. How ever,she has been ag gres sively mar keted as a sex sym bol, which has turned off many fe -male gamers.

Pros: In Tomb Raider I, Lara was por trayed as tough, smart, and beau ti ful, a char ac ter I re ally en joyed play ing. She was one of the first fe male char ac ters that I had no prob lem re lat ing to. I thought to my self, “Fi nally!”

Cons: In Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III, Lara be came an ob nox ious sex ob ject,more in tent on steal ing the hearts of men than re lat ing to her fe male fol low ing. Herphy sique be came more and more un re al is tic as the se ries pro gressed. Her at ti tude be -came more de lib er ately sex ual as well. I was very dis ap pointed that in or der to en joythe pos i tive at trib utes of Lara as a pow er ful fe male lead char ac ter in a fun game, I hadto ig nore the fact that she was ob vi ously be ing mar keted to 15-year-old boys.

Over all: I was n’t ini tially dis ap pointed with this char ac ter. In Tomb Raider I, I thinkLara worked well. In the rest of the se ries, she re ally needed an at ti tude change.

The Look (6/10): Since Tomb Raider I, Lara’s phy sique has be come more and morean a tom i cally im prob a ble (e.g., large breasts, an im pos si bly small waist, and longlegs). Also, in Tomb Raider I, her out fits were not ap pro pri ate for the tasks she faced(e.g., go ing up into the snowy moun tains in a pair of short shorts). Lara’s cloth ing isskin-tight and some what re veal ing. Over all, she is cer tainly at trac tive, but her ap pear -ance could have been toned down a notch or two.

At ti tude (8/10): Lara is as tough as In di ana Jones. She can take care of her self and takedown her en e mies and [the game] is ad ven tur ous and fun to play. Through the pro gres -sion of the Tomb Raider se ries, I have no ticed her be com ing pro gres sively tougher and sex ier in at ti tude.

In tel li gence (10/10): Lara is quick-witted and lets peo ple know that she is no fool. Sheis not to be taken lightly.

Stance (7/10): Lara’s move ment is very fluid and well mod eled. She has some greatac tion moves, is ac ro batic, and can hold her own in many sit u a tions. How ever, some of the cam era an gles are ob jec tion able. For ex am ple, when she is swim ming, the cam erazooms in be tween her legs. Ob vi ously, that voy eur is tic lit tle de tail was not de signed toap peal to fe male gamers.


Voice (8/10): Lara’s voice is very well done over all. Her Brit ish ac cent is ap peal ingand suits her as the per fect ro man tic ad ven turer.

Scripts (6/10): In many scenes, Lara speaks in tel li gently and suc cinctly. As the TombRaider se ries pro gressed, I be came a lit tle an noyed at her change of tone. In TombRaider III, when Lara is just about ready to take her clothes off and get into the shower, she says coyly, “Have n’t you seen enough?” That is some thing the Lara Croft fromTomb Raider I would never have stooped to.

Mar ket ing Ef fort (2/10): When Tomb Raider I hit the mar ket, I re ally liked Lara Croft.I felt like I could re late to her In di ana Jones–style per son al ity, in tel li gence, and con fi -dent at ti tude. It was n’t un til Tomb Raider II that the mar ket ing peo ple re ally wentwrong in my opin ion. They had the per fect ac tion fig ure and her first job out in the“real world” of ad ver tise ments was—to steal your boy friend. De spite Lara’s value as a fe male role model, more value was placed on the male mar ket. The de vel op ers madeher out to be a sex sym bol and ba si cally ig nored the fe male mar ket.

About the Au thor: Ismini Boinodiris Roby is the Chief Ed i tor and Cofounder ofWomen Gamers (www.womengamers.com).

Source: Roby, Ismini Boinodiris. 1999. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider se ries.WomenGamers. July 28. URL: http://www.womengamers.com/dw/lara.php

Dis cus sion Ques tions

1. The above ar ti cle was writ ten in 1999. Sev eral Tomb Raider se quels have been re -leased since then. How has the char ac ter of Lara Croft faired since this ar ti cle was writ ten?

2. What ad vice would you give to video game de vel op ers who wish to cre ate a fe -male video game char ac ter who is a strong role model for girls and women?


Books about video games fall into sev eral cat e go ries, in clud ing strat egy guides, gamede vel op ment books, art books, and schol arly works. Of these cat e go ries, schol arlybooks and “how to” in struc tional guides on video game de vel op ment are par tic u larlyap pro pri ate for re view in schools.

In re cent years, ac a demic writ ers have dis cov ered the re search po ten tial of video games.Some schol ars study the so cio log i cal sig nif i cance of video games in so ci ety in terms ofis sues of vi o lence, video game ad dic tion, mem ber ship in vir tual com mu ni ties, and de -mo graphic trends, among other top ics. The di a lec ti cal re la tion ship be tween video games and the psychosocial be hav ior of in di vid u als is of ten of par tic u lar in ter est.

Other schol ars are more in ter ested in the his tory of video games, in clud ing their or i -gins as ar cade games, through to the more re cent rise of mo bile and cel lu lar games andbe yond. The re la tion ship be tween tech no log i cal ad vances in com puter tech nol ogy and trends in video game de sign are of par tic u lar in ter est here.

Still other writ ers ex plore the ed u ca tional po ten tial of video games. Some re search ersfo cus on so-called se ri ous games, which serve as train ing tools in schools, busi nesses,hos pi tals, and the mil i tary. Many of these writ ers see video games as ush er ing in a newway of learn ing for both adults and chil dren.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re view an ac a demic or in struc tional book about videogames.

Ac tiv ity

In vite those stu dents who are in ter ested to re view an ac a demic book about videogames. A cho sen book might ex plore the his tory of video games, the so cio log i cal sig -nif i cance of video games, the eth ics of video games, the is sue of vi o lence in videogames, or an other video game–re lated topic.

Here are a few sug ges tions of no ta ble books for stu dents to con sider:

Beck, Jock C., and Wade, Mitch ell. 2004. Got game: How the gamer gen er a tion is re -shap ing busi ness for ever. Cam bridge: Har vard Busi ness School Press.

Burnham, Van. 2001. Supercade: A vi sual his tory of the video game age, 1971–1984.Cam bridge: MIT Press.

20

ÄBook Re view

Castronova, Ed ward. 2006. Syn thetic worlds: The busi ness and cul ture of on linegames. Chi cago: Uni ver sity of Chi cago Press.

Gee, James Paul. 2003. What video games have to teach us about learn ing and lit er -acy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Grossman, Dave, and Degaetano, Glo ria. 1999. Stop teach ing our kids to kill: A call toac tion against TV, movie and video game vi o lence. New York: Crown Pub lish ers.

Hal ter, Ed. 2006. From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and video games. New York: Thun derMouth’s Press.

Herz, J. C. 1997. Joy stick na tion: How video games ate our quar ters, won our hearts,and re wired our minds. New York: Lit tle, Brown & Company.

John son, Ste ven. 2006. Ev ery thing bad is good for you: How to day’s pop u lar cul tureis ac tu ally mak ing us smarter. New York: Pen guin.

Juul, Jesper. 2005. Half-real: Video games be tween real rules and fic tional worlds.Boston: MIT Press.

Kent, Ste ven L. 2001. The ul ti mate his tory of video games: From Pong toPokemon—The story be hind the craze that touched our lives and changed theworld. New York: Ran dom House/Prima.

Poole, Ste ven L. 2000. Trig ger happy: Video games and the en ter tain ment rev o lu tion.New York: Ar cade.

Prensky, Marc. 2006. Don’t bother me mom—I’m learn ing! St. Paul, MN: Par a gonHouse.

Rusel, DeMaria. 2003. High score! The il lus trated his tory of elec tronic games, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Shaffer, Da vid Wil liam son. 2006. How com puter games help chil dren learn. NewYork: Palgrave Macmillan.

Tay lor, T. L. 2006. Play be tween worlds: Ex plor ing on line game cul ture. Boston: MIT Press.

Wolf, Mark J. P. 2002. The me dium of the video game. Aus tin: Uni ver sity of TexasPress.

As an al ter na tive to this ac tiv ity, en cour age in ter ested stu dents to re view an in struc -tional book on de sign ing video games. Each year sees new books re leased that fo cuson video game art, 3D mod el ing, game pro gram ming, map de sign, and other game de -vel op ment top ics. A few of these books are spe cif i cally writ ten with ad o les cents inmind. Oth ers are in dis pens able to any one who is de vel op ing a video game fromscratch or de sign ing maps or mod i fi ca tions for ex ist ing video games.


Dis cus sion

The Am a zon website (www.am a zon.com) is an ex cel lent start ing place for re search -ing books about video games. Type in the key word searches “video games,” “videogames ed u ca tion,” “video game de vel op ment,” “video game de sign,” and “videogame re search” and re-sort the book lists that are dis played by pub li ca tion date to pe -ruse the most re cently pub lished books.

If your class has cre ated a video game website, con sider ask ing the pub lish ers of videogame books to send you com ple men tary cop ies of one or more of their ti tles for re -view. Even if your website doesn’t at tract a lot of vis i tors, many pub lish ers will behappy to sup port an on line re view that they can then link to from their own website.

Al ter na tively, a book re view can be pub lished in any num ber of user fo rums at pop u lar video game websites or at the Am a zon website. Some smaller websites even in vite vis -i tors to con trib ute fea tured re views and ed i to rial ar ti cles to the main site.

Grades: 8 and higher | Sub ject: Lan guage Arts


Video games are among the most branded prod ucts con sum ers can pur chase. Thepack ag ing for PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 games have much in com mon witheach other, rang ing from the case it self, to its color, and the var i ous lo gos and in for ma -tion that can be found on the front and back sides of the prod uct box.

In part, this is be cause Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft keep such tights reigns on the li -cens ing of their con soles. Pack ag ing all of a plat form’s games in a sim i lar way helps topro mote a con sole’s brand iden tity and to show off a pleth ora of sim i larly branded con solegames in stores. Be cause most re tail ers have ded i cated sec tions for each gam ing plat form,this es sen tially cre ates a “wall of ad ver tis ing” for each of the con sole man u fac tur ers.

In this ac tiv ity, the topic of brand ing is in tro duced to stu dents, who then com pare andcon trast the pack ag ing of two or more PlayStation 3, Wii, or Xbox 360 ti tles.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce the topic of brand ing to stu dents. Dis cuss its im por tance as a mar ket ingstrat egy for man u fac tur ers and ser vice pro vid ers, as well as the ge neric tech niques ad -ver tis ers use to build up brand aware ness in con sum ers.

Now ask the stu dents to iden tify the brands with which they are most fa mil iar (e.g.,Ap ple, Coke, Mc Don ald’s, and Nike). In vite the stu dents to do some Internet re searchon how these and other well-known com pa nies have suc cess fully mar keted theirbrands to con sum ers.

Next, dis cuss the topic of brand ing in re la tion to video games. Con sider show ing thestu dents some pho to graphs of the in side of a Cir cuit City, GameStop, or Wal-Martstore where con sole video games are prom i nently dis played. In tro duce the no tion of a“wall of ad ver tis ing” as dis cussed in the in tro duc tion to this ac tiv ity.

Pro vide the stu dents with the pack ag ing for two or more PlayStation 3, Wii, or Xbox360 ti tles. Ask them to com pare each ti tle’s pack ag ing, look ing closely at the front,back, and side mat ter. Ask the stu dents to list the var i ous ways in which each ti tle’spack ag ing is sim i lar to and dif fer ent from the oth ers.

Ask the stu dents to dis tin guish be tween the re quired and op tional con tent on the pack ag ing(e.g., the ESRB rat ing is re quired if a game is to be stocked by most re tail ers). Also ask the stu -

23

ÄBrand ing the Box

dents to list the dif fer ent cat e go ries of con tent they find on the packaging (e.g., game name,cover im age, mar ket ing blurb, screenshots, plat form logo, fea ture list, and UPC code).

Dis cus sion

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, brain storm with stu dents the var i ous ways in which a videogame con sole brand is sup ported and main tained (e.g., con sis tent de sign guide lines, afa mil iar logo, and third-party li cens ing re quire ments).

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to de sign a tem plate for the pack ag ingof a video game that in cor po rates each of the cat e go ries of con tent they have listedabove. The stu dents should de ter mine the lay out of the tem plate, how much space tode vote to each con tent item, and the guide lines that should gov ern the choice of font,size of lo gos, other de sign el e ments, and so on.


The box shots for most video games in clude the game’s ti tle, tagline, plat form com pat i bil ity, andrat ings in for ma tion, among other de tails. This pack shot is for the Brit ish edi tion of the game.


Very few ac tion/ad ven ture games take place in schools. In 2006, RockStar, the de vel -oper of the con tro ver sial Grand Theft Auto se ries, set out to change all that. Their video game, Bully, is set in a re form school where play ers take on the role of a stu dent at -tempt ing to nav i gate the com plex so cial pres sures of school life. Some of the pre viewar ti cles (and screenshots) for Bully sug gested that the pro tag o nist might well be ahood lum who reg u larly in tim i dates other stu dents.

Prior to its re lease, some of the crit ics of vi o lence in video games sin gled out Bully as agame that should not be pub lished. Bul ly ing On line (www.bul ly ing.co.uk), a Brit ishwebsite that aims to re duce bul ly ing in schools, also came out against the game. “Thisgame should be banned,” a rep re sen ta tive of the or ga ni za tion was quoted as say ing.“I’m ex tremely wor ried that kids will play it and then act out what they’ve seen in theclass room.... Bul ly ing is not a game by any stretch of the imag i na tion.”

Is Bully, as RockStar’s press re lease ar gues, sim ply about a “trou ble some school boy”who “stands up to bul lies, gets picked on by teach ers, plays pranks on ma li cious kids,wins or loses the girl, and ul ti mately learns to nav i gate the ob sta cles of the fic ti tious re -form school?” Or, is Bully, as crit ics have ar gued, a game that casts the player in therole of a bully who must beat up on other stu dents to win the game? Upon its re lease,crit ics were nearly unan i mous in their praise for Bully, and there was lit tle in the way of neg a tive press for the game in the days and weeks fol low ing its ar rival in stores.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents dis cuss the eth i cal is sues sur round ing RockStar’sschool-based video game ti tled Bully.

Ac tiv ity

Dis cuss with stu dents the con tro versy sur round ing the game Bully. Ask the stu dents toread a num ber of pre view and re view ar ti cles for the game plus news re ports about thecon tro versy sur round ing the game.

Some of the crit ics of Bully have called on the game to be banned. Do the stu dentsagree? What are the pros and cons of ban ning or cen sor ing video games more gen er -ally? Are there some top ics (or set tings) that should never be fea tured in a video game,or should all video games, re gard less of merit, be pro tected by free speech?

25

ÄBully

Is the as sign ment of an ESRB rat ing of Ma ture (thus keep ing it out of the hands of most young peo ple) ap pro pri ate for cer tain games, or just an other form of cen sor ship?Should Ma ture-rated video games even be dis cussed in schools (as some of the ac tiv i -ties in this book call for)?

De bate the above and other eth i cal is sues that arise from the dis cus sion.

Dis cus sion

More in for ma tion about the con tro versy sur round ing Bully can be found here:

¸ http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/ac tion/bully/news.html?sid=6130128

¸ http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/den ver/freePlay/2006/08/bully_as_so cial_met a phor.html

¸ http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/col umn_in dex.php?story=8448


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleVideo Games May Dull Shock

at Vi o lence

by Miranda Hitti

Got a video game on your hol i day shop ping list? New re search shows a pos si ble sideef fect of over load ing on vi o lent video games.

The re port re cently ap peared on line in the Jour nal of Ex per i men tal So cial Psy chol ogy. The study links vi o lent video games to two things: ag gres sive be hav ior and less sen si -tiv ity to vi o lent im ages.

“These find ings, along with other re cent re search, sug gest that chronic ex po sure to vi -o lent video games spe cif i cally—and not just fre quent play ing of any videogames—has last ing del e te ri ous ef fects on brain func tion and be hav ior,” write the re -search ers.

They in cluded Bruce Bartholow, Ph.D., an as sis tant pro fes sor in the Uni ver sity ofMis souri—Co lum bia’s Psy cho log i cal Sci ences de part ment.


Less Shock Value

“Hun dreds of stud ies have shown that ex po sure to me dia vi o lence in creases ag gres -sion,” writes Bartholow and his col leagues.

“Me dia vi o lence is be lieved to in crease ag gres sion, at least in part, by de sen si tiz ingview ers to the ef fects of real vi o lence,” they con tinue.

Bartholow’s team fo cused on vi o lence in video games. They stud ied 39 healthy maleun der grad u ates who were about 19 years old.

The men re ported how of ten they played video games and rated the vi o lence of thosegames. Next, they took tests of their ag gres sive ness and sen si tiv ity to vi o lent im ages.

Grossed Out or Not?

First, the men were shown a se ries of im ages while they wore caps stud ded with sen -sors to mon i tor their brain waves. Re search ers were par tic u larly fo cused on a brainwave that has been linked to neg a tive and vi o lent im ag ery.

Some im ages were vi o lent. For in stance, one showed a man on a sub way hold ing a gun to an other man’s head. Oth ers were neu tral, in clud ing a pic ture of a man on a bi cy cle.A third set were dis turb ing but not vi o lent, such as an im age of a dead dog.

The study showed less of the brain wave re sponse in men who fre quently played vi o -lent video games when the vi o lent im ages were shown.

Those men re sponded sim i larly to other par tic i pants when neu tral and neg a tive butnon vi o lent im ages were shown.

Pun ish ing the Com pe ti tion

Next, the men were told they were com pet ing against other par tic i pants in a com putertest. The win ners were told they could send a blar ing sound into their op po nents’ headsets.

It was a setup, but the play ers didn’t know it. The games were rigged. They were de -signed to test each player’s ag gres sive ness.

Fans of vi o lent video games showed more ag gres sion against their com pet i tors.

More Work Ahead

The study was the first of its kind, and it only in cluded young male col lege stu dents.There’s more work to be done on the topic, the re search ers note.

All tests were done in a lab. The study doesn’t show if par tic i pants be haved ag gres -sively in their nor mal lives.

In Au gust, the Amer i can Psy cho log i cal As so ci a tion called for less vi o lence in videoand com puter games sold to kids. How ever, ex perts noted that not all stud ies have tiedvi o lence to such games.


Sources: Bartholow, B. Jour nal of Ex per i men tal So cial Psy chol ogy, Sep tem ber 19,2005, on line edi tion. WebMD Med i cal News, “Psy chol o gists At tack Vi o lent VideoGames,” Au gust 19, 2005.

About the Au thor: Miranda Hitti is a med i cal writer for WebMD (www.webmd.com).

Source: Hitti, Miranda. 2005. Video games may dull shock at vi o lence. WebMD. De -cem ber 8. URL: http://www.webmd.com/con tent/ar ti cle/116/112050.htm


1. In your view, do vi o lent video games in crease vi o lent ten den cies in gamers?

2. What are the lim i ta tions of the study cited in the ar ti cle? Sug gest two or more fol -low-up stud ies that could yield even more in for ma tion about the ef fects of videogame vi o lence.


Car com mer cials are among the most well-pro duced ad ver tise ments to be found ontele vi sion. They have to be. Ad ver tis ers pay tens of thou sands (if not mil lions) of dol -lars for a sin gle thirty-sec ond com mer cial, de pend ing on the pro gram and time of day.

In the typ i cal car com mer cial, beau ti ful vis tas and cin e ma tog ra phy, daz zling spe cialef fects, a ter rific sense of speed, and one or more driv ing stunts are all wrapped into ahalf-min ute spot that also likely fea tures a cut ting-edge mu sic track. Cin e ma tog ra -phers, stunt driv ers, com pos ers, and other au dio vi sual pro fes sion als work to gether tocre ate what is es sen tially a short film that en cap su lates, in just a few sec onds, the tech -ni cal achieve ments to be found in many full-length mo tion pic tures.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents cre ate a car com mer cial us ing in-game foot age cap turedfrom a driv ing game.

Ac tiv ity

Chal lenge a small group of stu dents to use the class room’s pro ject stu dio to cre ate athirty-sec ond tele vi sion com mer cial that cap tures the es sence of a tricked out new caras fea tured in a fa vor ite rac ing game.

Have the stu dents cap ture in-game foot age of the car at rest plus full-mo tion video ofthe car driv ing at full speed in one or more rac ing events. Many driv ing games fea ture a re play mode that plays back foot age from the most re cent race. To cap ture as manycam era an gles as pos si ble, en cour age the stu dents to cap ture as much re play foot age as they can.

Us ing a video ed it ing tool, have the stu dents im port, edit, and se quence the foot agethey have cap tured and com bine it with pho tos, stock video, and other me dia. Also en -cour age the stu dents to add a sound track to their car com mer cial, as well as voiceovers, ti tles, spe cial ef fects, and tran si tions be tween cuts.

Once pro duc tion on their car com mer cial is com plete, host a for mal screen ing for theclass dur ing which the stu dents show off their thirty-sec ond TV ad spot to their peers.

29

ÄCar Com mer cial

Dis cus sion

As a lead-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to rate, com pare, or cri tique some of thecar com mer cials that are cur rently play ing on tele vi sion. Ask the stu dents to ap ply theprin ci ples of ad ver tis ing that they have been learn ing in class as they eval u ate the com -mer cials un der re view.

Which com mer cial is the most mem o ra ble? Which is the most unique? Which pro -vides view ers with the most in for ma tion about their po ten tial pur chase? Why mightcar com pa nies pre fer tele vi sion spots over still ad ver tise ments such as print ads andbill boards?

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of prod ucts (otherthan cars) that also make for mem o ra ble tele vi sion ad ver tise ments.



Most of the top rac ing games al low play ers to mod, tune, and tweak se lected as pectsof a car’s de sign, in clud ing its per for mance, han dling, and in te rior and ex te rior aes -

thet ics. This car is fea tured in Test Drive Un lim ited.

The abil ity to cus tom ize a car is one of the most sought-af ter fea tures in a rac ing game.Re gard less of whether a driv ing game in cludes real-world li censed ve hi cles or fic -tional cars that are born out of the de vel op ers’ imag i na tions, gamers are ea ger to havethe abil ity to tune, tweak, mod, and “pimp” a ride to make it their own.

Cus tom iz ation op tions in clude vi sual up grades to the ex te rior look of a car and per for -mance tun ing of a car’s en gine, trans mis sion, and other com po nent parts.

Be cause of the high cost of li cens ing real-world ve hi cles (or be cause the game will fea -ture ex ten sive dam age mod el ing), many de vel op ers pre fer to use fic tional con cept cars over li censed real-world ve hi cles that likely come with re stric tions on their us age (e.g., no dam age mod el ing al lowed). In de vel op ing rac ing games, a team of de sign ers maywork for weeks (even months) de sign ing each car in the game, me tic u lously craft ing ave hi cle’s body frame, ex te rior ap pear ance, dash board in te rior, han dling char ac ter is -tics, and so on.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign and out line the spec i fi ca tions for a tricked-out newcar (or fly ing ma chine) of the fu ture.

31

ÄCar of the Future

Ac tiv ity

Prior to lead ing this ac tiv ity, ask a small group of stu dents to re search the wide va ri etyof car tun ing op tions avail able in two or more rac ing games (e.g., the lat est ti tle in theForza Motorsport, Gran Tu ris mo, Mid night Club, or Need for Speed se ries).

Re quest that the stu dents make a list of all of the avail able types of vi sual and per for -mance up grades that are avail able in the games and also group the up grades into cat e -go ries (e.g., ex te rior ap pear ance, per for mance tun ing, and break ing sys tem). For theper for mance up grades, also have the stu dents write out a brief sum mary that de scribesthe ben e fits of each.

Once the up grade list is com plete, dis trib ute it to the full class. Work ing in smallgroups, chal lenge the stu dents to de sign a tricked-out new car that fea tures some or allof the vi sual and per for mance up grades that are listed on the handout. Op tion ally al low the stu dents to also add up grades not fea tured on the list (e.g., ejectable seats) plus newfea tures that per mit their car to fly through the air, float on wa ter, and so on.

In ad di tion to list ing the spec i fi ca tions for its tricked-out new ve hi cle, also have eachgroup draw a scale model of its car. This mock-up should show off the car’s ex te riorap pear ance and, op tion ally, its in te rior dash board view. Also ask each group to as signa sticker price to its ve hi cle.

Once they are ready, have the stu dents share their car de signs with each other in theform of a poster pre sen ta tion.

Dis cus sion

Car man u fac tur ers pub lish slick mar ket ing lit er a ture that shows off their cars’ de signs, fea tures, and un der ly ing tech nol o gies. Con sider hav ing the stu dents use this mar ket ing ma te rial as a tem plate for the lay out of their own car de sign post ers and pam phlets.

Rac ing games are not the only sources of in for ma tion that stu dents can turn to in thisac tiv ity. The stu dents may also wish to browse the Internet for in for ma tion aboutreal-world con cept cars and emerg ing car tech nol o gies (e.g., hy brid fuel sys tems). Fol -low up this re search with a full-class dis cus sion about the fu ture of travel and what“cars” may look like twenty-five years from now.

This ac tiv ity can also be adapted to fo cus on air craft, watercraft, and space ships of thefu ture.



!Ac tiv ity QuickiePlace Anal y sis

Ask the stu dents to per form a place anal y sis on an in te rior or ex te rior video game en vi -ron ment. Have the stu dents cri tique the en vi ron ment us ing a cri te ria list that the classhas brainstormed to gether. En cour age the stu dents to con sider some or all of the fol -low ing en vi ron men tal qual i ties: am bi ence, beauty, com plex ity, flu id ity, orig i nal ity,re al ism, spe cial ef fects, and so on. Also en cour age the stu dents to fo cus on the ba sic el -e ments of de sign (e.g., form, tex ture, color, and light ing) plus the ap pro pri ate use ofsign age and other nav i ga tional as sists. (Ge og ra phy)


In ad di tion to con duct ing place anal y ses of video game en vi ron ments, stu dents can de signnew lev els for ex ist ing games. This is a screenshot of the level ed i tor that ships with the PCedi tion of The El der Scrolls IV: Obliv ion.

The NPD Group (www.npd.com) is one of sev eral com pa nies that track the sales ofvideo games in North Amer ica and col lect data on other in dus try trends and con sumerbuy ing and gam ing hab its. Their re ports and the raw sta tis tics the NPD Group col lectsare not free, but a num ber of video game websites, in clud ing Gamasutra(www.gamasutra.com), reg u larly pub lish sto ries that cite NPD data. Chief amongthese sto ries are monthly round ups list ing the top-sell ing video games in North Amer -ica.

Among some of the re cent re ports the NPD Group has pre pared are the fol low ing:

¸ a study that tracks how chil dren and youth spend their lei sure time, in clud ingplay ing video games, watch ing tele vi sion, par tic i pat ing in af ter-school ac tiv i -ties, and play ing out side

¸ a study that re ports on the de mo graphic and be hav ioral char ac ter is tics of mo -bile gamers who play handheld and cell phone games

¸ a study that re ports on con sumer aware ness of and in ter est in the next gen er a -tion of video game con soles

¸ a study that re ports on the de mo graphic and be hav ioral char ac ter is tics of on -line gamers as well as key shifts and trends in multiplayer gam ing

These re ports are just a few of the many stud ies avail able from the NPD Group andsim i lar busi nesses that track in dus try and con sumer trends re lated to video games andother prod ucts and ser vices. These re ports point to the var i ous ways in which data canbe col lected, an a lyzed, and re ported for schol arly and com mer cial use.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents track the video game sales charts over a one- or two-month pe riod. They an a lyze and draw con clu sions about the sta tis tics they have col lected.

Ac tiv ity

Most of the ma jor video game websites list the top-sell ing video games for each month or quar ter. Some websites pro vide the dol lar to tals for re tail video game sales (or the

34

ÄChart Toppers

to tal num ber of cop ies sold). Oth ers sim ply list the top-sell ing video games in rank or -der with no other de tails pro vided.

Still other websites, in clud ing GameSpot (www.gamespot.com), track their vis i tors’in ter est in par tic u lar games. At the bot tom of the GameSpot home page is a reg u larlyup dated list ing of the most pop u lar video games at the site. At GameSpot, some of themost pop u lar video game ti tles have not yet been re leased. Many are re cent re leases.Still oth ers have con tin ued to top the pop u lar ity (and sales) charts for weeks or monthsfol low ing their re lease.

Ask the stu dents to mon i tor the sales (or pop u lar ity) charts at a video game websiteover a few weeks or months. To help them keep track of the data, have the stu dents de -sign an elec tronic da ta base or cre ate a pa per chart. With each up date of the sales orpop u lar ity chart at a website, have the stu dents up date their own data set with the newsta tis tics.

Once the stu dents have amassed five or more data sets, ask them to be gin an a lyz ingand dis cuss ing the trends (if any) that they see emerg ing. Is there a link be tween thetop-sell ing video games and their pop u lar ity at the ma jor websites? What is the re la -tion ship be tween a ti tle’s peak level of pop u lar ity and its re lease date? Which gam ingplat form (or pub lisher) boasts the top-sell ing video game for a given month? What isthe most and least pop u lar genre of video games for a given month?

Dis cus sion

Sales in North Amer ica are one thing, but the three ma jor gam ing con soles (i.e.,PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360) are also com pet ing for mar ket share in other re -gions around the world—es pe cially Asia.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to an a lyze the sales charts in a re gionother than North Amer ica. Are the top-sell ing video games in North Amer ica also thetop-sell ing games in Brit ain, Ja pan, or Aus tra lia? If not, why not? What ac counts forthe dif fer ent tastes of gamers around the world? Why are some video game ti tles onlyre leased in cer tain re gions of the world (e.g., Ja pan) and not oth ers?



Data Ta ble

On line vs. Offline Play

The fol low ing data set is pro vided cour tesy of the NPD Group (www.npd.com). Itbreaks down the play ing of on line vs. offline video games by age.

Age Play Offline (%) Play On line (%)

13 to 17 33 67

18 to 24 38 62

25 to 34 41 59

35 to 44 40 60

Source: NPD Group. 2006.


What trends (if any) can you glean from the above data set? Do the re sults sur priseyou? Turn this ta ble into a bar chart or pie graph. Does rep re sent ing the above datagraph i cally make it eas ier to an a lyze?


Cheat codes can save im pa tient gamers from end less frus tra tion and re starts by un -lock ing unplayed mis sions or in creas ing a char ac ter’s stats (e.g., am mu ni tion andhealth lev els).

Many a video game has been saved by its cheats. The un for giv ing story mis sions inDriv3r, for ex am ple, were quickly by passed by many gamers who en tered a sin glecheat code and im me di ately had ac cess by foot, car, and boat to the wide open cit ies ofMi ami, Paris, and Is tan bul.

Sim i larly, gamers who were anx ious to ex plore the whole of Grand Theft Auto: SanAndreas from the out set of the game could en able a cheat that equipped the lead char -ac ter with a jet pack. This in turn al lowed play ers to tra verse the road blocks that cutoff cer tain ar eas of the game world early on.

Other video game cheats im prove a player’s fight ing abil ity or equip them with a faster car. The cheats for some games un lock se cret lev els or char ac ters. The cheats for othergames, such as Call of Duty 2, en able gamers to play any of the game’s mis sions fromthe out set.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re view a game’s cheat codes. They pro pose a re vised set of cheat codes that would make the game eas ier and more fun to play for nov ices and rec -re ational gamers alike.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of the most chal leng ing video games that theyhave ever played. Are there cheat codes for these games? Have the stu dents browse the cheat codes at the GameFAQs website (www.gamefaqs.com) to find out.

For those video games lack ing help ful cheat codes, ask the stu dents to brain storm a listof cheats that would make the games eas ier to play for be gin ners.

In com ing up with their cheat list, the stu dents can be as cre ative as they wish. Their list can in clude the more typ i cal cheat codes plus in no va tive cheat codes that are far lesscom mon (e.g., freeze the game and walk through the cur rent level un hin dered).

37

ÄCheat Code Cen tral

Dis cus sion

Fol low up this ac tiv ity by ask ing the stu dents to rank dif fer ent types of cheat codes ac -cord ing to their value. For ex am ple, a cheat code that un locks all of the mis sions in avideo game is clearly more valu able than a cheat code that un locks a new hairdo for the lead char ac ter.

Here is a sam ple list of cheat codes for stu dents to rank:

¸ un lock all mis sions

¸ give in fi nite health

¸ equip all weap ons

¸ give power or speed boost

¸ un lock new char ac ter (or car)

¸ un lock se cret level

¸ fly around cur rent level

¸ walk through walls

Dis cuss with stu dents the rea sons some de vel op ers choose to ship their video gameswith out cheats. One pos si ble rea son is that if a game is easy enough to com plete withcheats en abled, most gamers may choose to rent, rather than pur chase, the game. Thisre sults in far less rev e nue for the video game pub lisher. This is also the rea son manycheat codes are only “leaked” to the Internet weeks or months fol low ing the re lease ofa video game.

Most cheat codes make a game eas ier to play. For a vari a tion on this ac tiv ity, ask agroup of stu dents to in stead pro pose a set of cheat codes that make a game far more dif -fi cult to beat (e.g., no aim as sis tance, no health in di ca tor, and tougher en e mies).



As a young reader, long be fore the rise of the Harry Pot ter phe nom e non, I was ad -dicted to sev eral book se ries: Enid Blyton’s Se cret Seven mys ter ies, Frank lin W.Dixon’s Hardy Boys se ries, Don ald Sobol’s Two Min ute Mys ter ies, and Ed wardPackard’s Choose Your Own Ad ven ture books.

In many ways, this last se ries is the printed word’s an swer to video games—an in ter ac -tive ad ven ture book in which the reader has some say in the out come. At the bot tom ofmost pages in a “choose your own ad ven ture” book is a prompt that asks the reader tomake moral and plot de ci sions that then take him or her to a new page in the book. Here the story is ad vanced fur ther and, at the bot tom of the page, an other reader de ci sionawaits.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write a choose your own ad ven ture story, a nar ra tive withmul ti ple path ways that can then be adapted for use in an ad ven ture video game.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the Choose Your Own Ad ven ture se ries of chil dren’s books. As -sign them the task of read ing one or two of these books. (You may wish to con siderhav ing the en tire class read the same book in de pend ently and then com pare notes onthe dif fer ent ad ven tures they have had.)

Dis cuss with stu dents the struc ture of a choose your own ad ven ture story. In tro ducethe terms: “branch ing storyline,” “de ci sion tree,” “mul ti ple path ways,” and so on. Tellthe stu dents that many video games (e.g., most role-play ing games) also fea turebranch ing storylines in which the de ci sions a player makes early on have an im pact onhow a game’s story un folds.

As sign each stu dent the task of writ ing a choose your own ad ven ture story. Ask thestu dents to pres ent their read ers with a plot choice at the bot tom of each page (or para -graph) that takes the reader to a new page (or para graph) in the story and which ad -vances the plot in some in ter est ing way. Re mind the stu dents that a choose your ownad ven ture tale needs to be some what lon ger than a typ i cal story be cause read ers won’tread ev ery page (or para graph) in the story.

39

ÄChoose Your Own Ad ven ture

Once their sto ries have been peer ed ited and fi nal ized, have the stu dents read eachother’s choose your own ad ven ture tales in class and/or con trib ute their sto ries to theschool li brary.

Dis cus sion

As they plan their choose your own ad ven ture sto ries, en cour age the stu dents toflowchart the de ci sion trees that will form the ba sis of their ad ven ture tales. Thiscan be done offline us ing chalk and a black board (or cue cards and a bul le tin board) or on the com puter us ing brainstorming soft ware, such as In spi ra tion(www.inspirationsoftware.com).

Writ ing a choose your own ad ven ture story is of ten one of the first steps in de vel op inga video game that fea tures a branch ing storyline. Dis cuss with stu dents some of thenext steps that they would need to take in turn ing their choose your own ad ven turetales into full-fledged video games.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieSchool Map

Have the stu dents work to gether to cre ate a map of the school on a large piece of pa per. Have them take a tour of the school, add ing and la bel ing each area of the school as they go. For an ex tra chal lenge, ask a stu dent to use the 2D pa per-based map the stu dentshave cre ated to de sign a 3D rep re sen ta tion of the school on the com puter. Fol low ingthis ac tiv ity, dis cuss with stu dents the role of a level de signer in cre at ing the maps foran ad ven ture video game. (Ge og ra phy)


Video game sound tracks are in creas ingly gar ner ing lots of at ten tion from the press,fans, and dis cern ing lis ten ers. As a re sult of this at ten tion, some video game com pos -ers are en joy ing a grow ing fan base.

As well, more-es tab lished movie and tele vi sion com pos ers are turn ing to video gamesfor a new com pos ing chal lenge. More than ever, there is a sig nif i cant cross over be -tween com pos ers who write mu sic for mov ies, tele vi sion, and video games.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re search the discography of an es tab lished video gamecom poser.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to some of the more well known video game com pos ers and sound -tracks listed at Mu sic 4 Games (www.music4games.net) and other video game mu sicwebsites. Dis cuss each com poser’s works and ask the stu dents to brain storm some ofthe more com mon chal lenges as so ci ated with com pos ing mu sic for video games ver -sus films and tele vi sion shows (e.g., the in ter ac tive and branch ing na ture of the videogame me dium).

As sign each stu dent the task of re search ing the discography of a video game com -poser. En cour age the stu dents to lis ten to their cho sen com pos ers’ works and searchthe Internet for fur ther sources of in for ma tion (e.g., bi og ra phies, in ter views, andsound track re views).

Once their re search is com plete, ask each stu dent to pres ent his or her find ings in theform of a writ ten re port or an oral or mul ti me dia pre sen ta tion that in cor po rates ex -cerpts of the com poser’s mu sic.

Dis cus sion

To ac com mo date the in ter ests of stu dents who do not play video games, ex pand thescope of this ac tiv ity to in clude movie and tele vi sion com pos ers.

This ac tiv ity can also in clude an as sess ment com po nent in which each stu dent judgesthe qual ity of a com poser’s mu sic, per haps critiquing a com poser’s most and least suc -cess ful works.

41

ÄCom poser Discography

Each stu dent can also be asked to list the mu si cal gen res for which a com poser is mostknown (e.g., cho ral, elec tronic, or sym phonic). So, too, each stu dent can list the in stru -ments and sounds a com poser most com monly uses.

Grades: 8 and higher | Sub ject: Mu sic


Prior to bring ing a new gam ing con sole to mar ket, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony each spend mil lions of dol lars and count less months de sign ing, test ing, and tweak ing thegamepad con trol ler that will come bun dled with their new gam ing sys tem.

The size and feel of a gamepad—which will typ i cally be held in a gamer’s hands forhun dreds of hours over the life time of a prod uct—is a key sell ing point for a con solesys tem. A gamepad’s de sign should be at trac tive, sleek, and er go nomic. But tonsshould be easy to reach and press. Trig gers should be re spon sive and the lay out of thegamepad should be easy for gamers to learn and use. The gamepad should be com fort -able to hold for ex tended pe ri ods of time.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents com pare and con trast the gamepad con trol lers that shipwith the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PlayStation 3 gam ing sys tems.

Ac tiv ity

Work ing in small groups, ask the stu dents to com pare and con trast the ex pe ri ence ofplay ing video games us ing the stan dard gamepads that ship with the lead ing con solegam ing sys tems. (Con sider ask ing those stu dents who own a video game con sole todis con nect and bring in, with pa ren tal per mis sion, the gamepad that co mes stan dardwith the sys tem.)

Pro vide the stu dents with an op por tu nity to hold each gamepad in their hands, press itsbut tons, and de press its trig gers as they com pare the de sign and feel of each con trol ler.The stu dents can keep free-form notes for each gamepad or in stead com plete a ques -tion naire that has been brainstormed in ad vance by the class.

In eval u at ing the gamepads, the stu dents should pay par tic u lar at ten tion to 1) the size,weight, and feel of the gamepad in their hands; 2) the qual ity of the gamepad’s crafts -man ship; 2) the de sign, lay out, and er go nom ics of the gamepad; and 3) the ease withwhich but tons and trig gers can be reached, de pressed, held down, and so on.

Fol low ing the ac tiv ity, ask the stu dent groups to write a re port de tail ing the re sults oftheir find ings. Also ask each group to award a star rat ing out of five to each gamepad.

43

ÄCritiquing the Con trol lers

Dis cus sion

In ad di tion to the gamepads that ship with gam ing con soles, there are also third-partycon trol lers that gamers can choose to pur chase sep a rately. As an ex ten sion to this ac -tiv ity, ask the stu dents to re view one or more third-party con trol lers, tak ing price, per -for mance, de sign, and over all value into con sid er ation.

In ad di tion to gamepads, many PC and con sole games take ad van tage of other types ofcon trol lers, such as joy sticks, steer ing wheels, and gam ing mice and key boards. As anex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to dis cuss the ad van tages and dis ad van tagesof us ing a joy stick in lieu of a mouse and key board to con trol a flight sim u la tor for ex -am ple. Also con sider hold ing a de bate on the age-old con tro versy over whether amouse or gamepad of fers better con trol in a first-per son ac tion game.

As an al ter na tive to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to cri tique the con trol in ter faces builtinto handheld gam ing sys tems or other de vices such cell phones, MP3 play ers, andper sonal dig i tal as sis tants (PDAs). As with video game con trol lers, the con trol in ter -faces on these de vices are very of ten com pact. Does the trend to make por ta ble de vices as small as pos si ble have an im pact on the ease with which these de vices can be used?



Hard ware man u fac tur ers spend many months fine-tun ing the con trol lers for their next gen -er a tion con soles. Sony orig i nally in tended to ship the above con trol ler with the Playstation 3. The com pany later re placed this “boomerang” de sign with a more tra di tional con trol ler sim i lar to the one that ships with the Playstation 2.

In magazine and on line re views, nar ra tion and di a log are two of the most com monlycrit i cized el e ments of video games. In deed, some re view ers seem to take great de lightin dis par ag ing the poor voice work of both well-known and un known ac tors (and popstars) who un wit tingly lend their voices to video games.

Com mon crit i cisms in clude poorly writ ten di a log, mono tone speak ing voices, poorvoice in flec tion, and poor lip-sync ing of an ac tor’s voice to his or her char ac ter’s lipmove ments and fa cial ex pres sions. For those video games cre ated in coun tries whereEng lish is not the first lan guage (e.g., Ja pan), gram mar and sen tence struc ture may also prove prob lem atic when it co mes to the at ten tion that is paid to do ing a proper Eng lishtrans la tion.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write a re view of a video game fo cus ing solely on the el o -cu tion of one or more char ac ters’ di a log.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the term “el o cu tion.” Ask them to iden tify the char ac ter is tics ofef fec tive speak ing voices in plays, mov ies, tele vi sion shows, and video games. Dis -cuss the im por tant el e ments of el o cu tion, in clud ing enun ci a tion, pro nun ci a tion, gram -mar, tone, in flec tion, em pha sis, ges ture, and other qual i ties.

Ask each stu dent to choose a fa vor ite video game that fea tures plenty of nar ra tionand/or di a log. As sign each stu dent the task of critiquing one or more of the game’sspeak ing voices. En cour age the stu dents to fo cus on the el e ments of el o cu tion, whichare im por tant to video games.

In pre sent ing their find ings, each stu dent can choose to write a writ ten re port or in steadpre pare an au dio re view that fea tures sam ple di a log outtakes from the video game it self.

Dis cus sion

Af ter com plet ing their re views, ask each stu dent to browse the Internet for on line re -views of the video game they have critiqued. How many of these re views also fo cus onthe el o cu tion of the game’s di a log and nar ra tion? Do these re views con cur with thestu dent’s find ings?

45

ÄDead pan Di a log

For a vari a tion on this ac tiv ity, re fer to “The Re write” ac tiv ity, which is dis cussed else -where in this book.

El o cu tion les sons have played an im por tant role in the his tory of ed u ca tion. In thenine teenth cen tury, it was com mon for stu dents to re cite po etry, de liver speeches, singsongs, and give their an swers to teach ers’ ques tions in uni son as a full class. With theno ta ble ex cep tion of stu dent speech com pe ti tions, el o cu tion les sons are no lon gerprom i nent in schools. Dis cuss with stu dents the mer its of bring ing el o cu tion les sonsback into the class room in the form of po etry re cit als and di a log read ings. In ad di tionto im prov ing stu dents’ speak ing voices, el o cu tion les sons can also en hance feel ings ofself-con fi dence and pride.

Grades: 8 and higher | Sub ject: Drama


Driv ing games that are set on off-road race tracks take full ad van tage of abrupt changes in to pog ra phy and land forms to vary the rac ing con di tions and en hance the thrill of theride.

Al though they may not rec og nize the land forms they tra verse by name, most fans ofrac ing games surely un der stand the emo tional ex pe ri ence of driv ing 170+ mph over an over hang, down a moun tain, or across a level pla teau.

Stu dents study all of these and many other phys i cal land forms in ge og ra phy class, butit nev er the less re mains a con stant chal lenge for teach ers to im press upon young mindsthe sheer di ver sity of phys i cal ge og ra phy that ex ists in the nat u ral world. Ask ing stu -dents to imag ine that they are rac ing over the very same nat u ral land forms they arelearn ing about in class is one way for phys i cal ge og ra phy to be concretized in schools.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents use arts and crafts sup plies to de sign a race track that fea -tures five or more geo graphic land forms.

Ac tiv ity

As part of a unit on phys i cal ge og ra phy, in tro duce the stu dents to a va ri ety of nat u ralland forms, in clud ing some or all of the fol low ing: beaches, bluffs, can yons, caves,cliffs, es carp ments, gul lies, hills, moun tains, over hangs, pla teaus, ridges, river bas ins,val leys, and wa ter sheds.

To concretize the phys i cal char ac ter is tics of these land forms, ask the stu dents to brain -storm a list of ad jec tives that de scribe what it must be like to drive over or through each of these land forms at top speed.

Next, have the stu dents com pile notes on each of the land forms. For each landform,their write-ups should in clude a def i ni tion and a top-down or cross-sec tional di a gramthat the stu dents have drawn by hand.

As an exit pro ject for the les son, in vite the stu dents to work in groups and cre ate anoff-road race track that fea tures five or more of the phys i cal land forms they have stud -ied in class.

Ask each group to start by sketch ing their race track de sign on pa per be fore pro ceed ingto cre ate a 3D model (or re lief map) us ing var i ous arts and crafts sup plies, plasticine,

47

ÄDe sign Your Own Race track

or mod el ing clay. (Al ter na tively, take the stu dents out side on a win try day and in vitethem to cre ate their 3D race tracks in the snow.)

En cour age the stu dents to des ig nate cer tain lo ca tions on their race track as ex pe ri enc -ing var i ous weather con di tions such as rain, fog, snow, or ice.

At the end of this ac tiv ity, set aside some time for each group to pres ent its 3D model to the rest of the class.

Dis cus sion

For a lan guage arts ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to write a de scrip tivecap tion to ac com pany their group’s model. The cap tion should fo cus on the sen sa tionof driv ing on the race track they have cre ated. For ex am ple, the stu dents can in di catethe lo ca tions on their track where cars pick up speed, lift off the ground, or slide dan -ger ously around a tight cor ner.

An in creas ing num ber of driv ing games al low play ers to de sign their own race tracks.The TrackMania se ries and Pro ject Gotham Rac ing 3 are two such ex am ples. Hav ingcom pleted this ac tiv ity offline, con sider ask ing those stu dents who are in ter ested to de -sign a vir tual race track that they can ac tu ally race on and share with oth ers in class orover the Internet.



Vir tual race tracks come in all shapes and sizes. Some are based on real-world race courses, such as this view of the fa mous Nurburgring track as fea -tured in Gran Tu ris mo 4. Oth ers are off-road race tracks or courses that are

sit u ated in the down town core of a ma jor city cen ter.

It is the sheer sense of speed that makes rac ing ti tles one of the most pop u lar gen res ofvideo games. Some rac ing games fea ture off-road courses over rough ter rain, such amud, sand, or snow. Oth ers fea ture li censed race tracks such as the var i ous For mulaOne and NASCAR cir cuits found through out the world. Still oth ers fea ture un sanc -tioned street races through city cen ters. These races, in par tic u lar, put the lives of thevir tual driv ers and pe des tri ans at great risk. They are also il le gal in most ju ris dic tions.

This ac tiv ity fo cuses on sanc tioned street races for which ma jor city cen ters grant of fi -cial per mits. In the real world, sanc tioned street races are planned well ahead withdriver and spec ta tor safety firmly in mind. Each year, a num ber of ma jor city cen tersthrough out the world play host to the Grand Prix and other sanc tioned rac ing events.Course routes are planned well in ad vance, streets are blocked off, spec ta tor view ingstands are set up, and pro tec tive bar ri ers are erected.

49

ÄDe sign Your Own Race track(Take Two)

Here, for ex am ple, are some the sta tis tics for the (last ever) Molson Indy race held indown town To ronto in July, 2005. (The Grand Prix took over the event in 2006.):

Length: 2.824 km (1.755 miles)

Di rec tion: Clock wise

Turns: 11

Es ti mated Top Speed: 300 kph (190 mph) on Lakeshore Bou le vard

Pav ing: 5,000 met ric tonnes of as phalt (ap prox i mately 340 truck loads)

Bar ri ers: 2,000 steel-re in forced con crete bar ri ers (each 12 feet long, 30 incheshigh, 20 to 24 inches wide, and 7,000 pounds in weight)

De bris Fence: 11,000 feet (10-foot-high chain-link fence with three strand halfinch steel ca ble)

Spec ta tor Fence: 19,000 feet (6-foot-high chain-link fence)

Tire Walls: 1,600 feet (five tires high)

Source: http://www.molsonindy.com/to ronto/facts.php

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents use a city map to de sign a sanc tioned street race through an ur ban cen ter. They iden tify road haz ards, plot po si tions where pro tec tive bar ri ersshould be erected, and mark off cross streets that should be closed to traf fic.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the topic of sanc tioned street races. Clar ify the dif fer ences be -tween sanc tioned and un sanc tioned street races and the par tic u lar dan gers (and il le galsta tus) of the lat ter.

As sign stu dents the task of re search ing sanc tioned street races on the Internet. Askthem to fo cus par tic u larly on the lay out and fea tures of the Grand Prix rac ing cir cuits(www.grandprix.com) that are con structed each year in ma jor city cen ters around theworld.

Work ing in small groups, each of which has been pro vided with a city map, ask the stu -dents to map out their own sanc tioned race course through the down town or in dus trialarea of their home town or the near est ur ban cen ter. Each group should choose a lo ca -tion for their street race and care fully plot its course.

Next, have the groups use a large sheet of pa per to cre ate a de tailed map of their racecourse. Ask them to draw and la bel the city streets and note the lo ca tion where pro tec -tive bar ri ers and view ing stands should be erected and cross streets blocked off. Thestu dents should also note po ten tial road haz ards and add a scale and key that in cludesin for ma tion about the length of the track, the num ber of turns, and other de tails.


Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can be as signed as part of a larger ur ban plan ning unit in which the stu -dents are asked to de sign a city from the ground up. Re fer to the “Ur ban Plan ning” ac -tiv ity, which is dis cussed else where in this book.

The of fi cial Grand Prix rac ing website main tains a de tailed his tory of ev ery Grand Prix rac ing cir cuit in the world, in clud ing those which are no lon ger in ex is tence:http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/gpecira.html

In brows ing these list ings, ask the stu dents to pay spe cial at ten tion to the descriptorsthat give de tails about the lo ca tions, turns, track length, and other fea tures of each cir -cuit. (Stu dents will also no doubt note how dan ger ous a Grand Prix race can be be cause many of the en tries also pro vide de tails on some of the most mem o ra ble ac ci dents thathave oc curred on the tracks.)

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, dis cuss with stu dents the dif fer ences be tween sanc tioned andun sanc tioned street races. Flag the im por tant safety is sues that are raised by un sanc -tioned races through city streets. Un sanc tioned street races are il le gal for im por tantpub lic safety rea sons. Talk with stu dents about these rea sons and con sider hav ingthem read a news item on the tragic con se quences that can re sult from street races thatin jure or kill. Why, de spite the risks, do some rac ers in sist on com pet ing in un sanc -tioned and il le gal street races? In vite the stu dents to dis cuss this and re lated ques tions.


!Ac tiv ity QuickiePhoto Anal y sis

Down load and print out a screenshot from a video game. Ask the stu dents to per form aphoto anal y sis on the screenshot. Have them look deeply into the photo for hid den de -tails. Have them look around the pe riph ery of the photo to de ter mine what might behap pen ing just out side the bound aries of the im age. Ask the stu dents to hy poth e sizewhat might have hap pened just be fore the screenshot was cap tured and what mighthap pen next. As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, pro vide the stu dents with two sim i larlook ing screenshots. Chal lenge them to spot the sub tle dif fer ences. (Vi sual Arts)


Many well-known ce leb ri ties rou tinely lend their voices to video game pro duc tions.They may re cord a char ac ter’s di a log or nar rate the story. Many of these voices are rec -og niz able to stu dents, who rou tinely hear the same ce leb rity voices in mov ies, on tele -vi sion, and in mu sic.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents play a teach ing game in which they lis ten to re corded ex -cerpts of di a log from sev eral video games. They at tempt to guess which ce leb rity’svoice they are hear ing.

Ac tiv ity

In ad vance of this ac tiv ity, re cord a se ries of di a log snip pets from video games that fea -ture ce leb rity voice tal ent.

Di vide the class into two teams and run this ac tiv ity us ing a quiz show for mat in whicheach team scores a point for each cor rect an swer.

Play a di a log snip pet for Team A and ask them to guess which ce leb rity’s voice theyare lis ten ing to. For bo nus points, play ers can also guess to which video game the snip -pet be longs. Cor rect an swers score a point and the chance to iden tify the next di a logsnip pet. In cor rect an swers re sult in a loss of turn.

Once all of the di a log snip pets have been heard or the al lot ted time has run out, tallythe re sults to de ter mine a win ner.

Dis cus sion

Con sider adapt ing this ac tiv ity into a Jeop ardy-style trivia game in which each team’sknowl edge of video games is tested.

This ac tiv ity can also be adapted into a group pro ject for stu dents. In vite a group of stu -dents to cre ate a flash-card-like ac tiv ity cen ter (or com puter game) that, in lieu of pos -ing ques tions, in stead plays sound clips of char ac ter di a log. Chal lenge play ers toiden tify which ce leb rity’s voice they are lis ten ing to be fore mov ing on to the next au -dio clip.

52

ÄDo You Rec og nizeThis Voice?

As an al ter na tive to this ac tiv ity’s video game fo cus, in stead re cord a se ries of tele vi -sion com mer cials that rely on ce leb rity voice tal ent to nar rate the ad ver tise ment. Askthe stu dents to guess which ce leb rity’s voice they are hear ing. As a fol low-up to thisac tiv ity, dis cuss with stu dents why some Hol ly wood ce leb ri ties are happy to do com -mer cial voice work and pitches over seas (e.g., in Ja pan) but not in the United States.

Lead a de bate with stu dents in which they dis cuss the eth ics of ac tors do ing videogame or com mer cial voice work for prod ucts they have not used or don’t en dorse inreal life.



Video games are among the most hyped prod ucts avail able for pur chase. For months (ifnot years) many video games re ceive prerelease press well in ad vance of ar riv ing in stores.

Print mag a zines and websites fea ture pre view ar ti cles that high light the prom ise ofwhat is to come. Game de vel op ers give in ter views to the press and talk up theirunreleased games at trade shows. Gamers spec u late about up com ing re leases in videogame fo rums. Video game trail ers, in-game foot age, and play able de mos are posted on websites and dis trib uted on disk to mag a zine sub scrib ers. By the time a video game isac tu ally re leased, most of the keen ers who in tend to pur chase the game prob a bly knowjust about ev ery thing there is to know about the game they’ve been track ing formonths.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents com pare and con trast the pre views and re views of a videogame. They look for ev i dence of hype in the pre views for games that didn’t quite ful fill ex pec ta tions upon their re lease.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to each choose a video game that re ceived plenty of at ten tion in ad -vance of its re lease but that underperformed when it ar rived on store shelves (i.e., thegame was poorly re viewed and/or did not sell well).

Now as sign each stu dent the task of writ ing a com par a tive es say that looks closely atthe press their cho sen game re ceived in the weeks and months lead ing up to its re leasever sus the re views the same game war ranted once it found its way into gamers’ and re -view ers’ hands.

En cour age the stu dents to look for ev i dence of un war ranted hype in the pre view ar ti -cles they read. Is there ev i dence that the writ ers of some pre view ar ti cles were merelyre peat ing the mar ket ing points fed to them by the de vel op ers of the game? Were thewrit ers of some pre view ar ti cles able to ac tu ally play early ver sions of the game and, ifso, did they fairly re port on the game’s pros and cons? Did cer tain games get a “freeride” be cause of the rep u ta tion or in flu ence of the game’s de vel oper in the video gamein dus try? Did the writ ers of pre view ar ti cles clearly de mar cate their own opin ionsfrom those of fered by the de vel op ers in in ter views and press re leases?

As sess the es says the stu dents write us ing the depth of their cri tique and anal y sis as im -por tant cri te ria.

54

ÄDon’t Be lieve the Hype

Dis cus sion

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to com pare the pre view and re view ar ti -cles for a video game that out per formed ex pec ta tions and be came a sleeper hit. Whydid this par tic u lar ti tle take off? What fea tures of the game were play ers most at tractedto? What les sons can be drawn from the un ex pected suc cess of this game?


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleEth ics in Video Game Jour nal ism

by Justin Hall

The video gam ing in dus try has come a long way.

Start ing with the sim ple Pong game three de cades ago and evolv ing into lav ishlydrawn in ter ac tive ep ics, the scale of games and the size of their au di ence has grown ex -po nen tially, with sales in the bil lions of dol lars and ma jor mul ti na tional cor po ra tionsclam or ing for a piece of the ac tion.

But de spite these signs of a fast-grow ing in dus try, the print and on line pub li ca tionsthat cover video games of ten em ploy fans who un wit tingly make poor eth i cal choices.

The first print mag a zine cov er ing video games, Elec tronic Games, was co-founded byBill Kunkel in 1981. Kunkel de scribes those early days in a re cent in ter view: “To anex tent, we were cheer lead ers for the in dus try—we loved these games, we wanted tosee more of them, we wanted to keep writ ing about them.”

Not much has changed in the past 20 years. Game pub li ca tions and websites stillmostly em ploy low-paid hob by ists who are easy tar gets of lav ish mar ket ing events that en cour age in ap pro pri ate ties be tween game mak ers and game crit ics.

These un whole some re la tion ships were put un der the spot light by an ar ti cle in the LosAn geles Times last Au gust, “Gamers’ Perks or ‘Playola’?” by Alex Pham. In an in ter -view with the On line Jour nal ism Re view, Pham said she was mo ti vated to write thepiece when she dis cov ered that game jour nal ists “get to do out ra geously fun things.”She noted that soft ware pub lish ers ar ranged for jour nal ists to shoot guns, skydive, andrace cars—all un der the pre tense of re search ing video games.

Into the Breach

I re cently at tended a game in dus try jun ket hosted by Ubisoft to pro mote their TomClancy mil i tary-in dus trial techno-thriller video games. Ed i tors and writ ers from awide range of game in dus try and main stream me dia were in vited to the Pre sidio, a de -funct mil i tary base in San Fran cisco. There, we had a chance to play the lat est games,


min gle with some of the game de vel op ers, eat de li cious sand wiches and drink at anopen bar. And a lucky few of us were cho sen to “un dergo real counterterrorist op er a -tive train ing” from a dec o rated fed eral mar shal and close-quar ters bat tle in struc tor.

One game on dis play, Rain bow Six 3, in cluded a por tion mod eled af ter part of the Pre -sidio—we were go ing to play that level in real life. We were suited up in flak jack etsand re ceived air ri fles loaded with plas tic pel lets. In small groups, we were sent out tostorm a build ing, shoot hos tiles, lib er ate hos tages and neu tral ize a dirty bomb. It wasan event lifted straight from the screen and real-life game ac tion. The other jour nal ists,all men, all look ing un der 35, were psyched. And when I left in an un marked white van in a black suit with a black gun and a black Rain bow Six 3 ba la clava over my head, pre -par ing to move through a dark ened build ing with bro ken win dows lead by a gruff mid -dle-aged SWAT team mem ber, shoot ing ter ror ists with glow ing plas tic pel lets, I wascom pletely en thralled as well.

Cred i bil ity

Jun kets are noth ing new in en ter tain ment jour nal ism. Writ ers cov er ing the movie in -dus try are in vited to nice ho tels to con fer with stars over ex pen sive meals. Pu lit -zer-prize win ning film critic Roger Ebert says that when he first started work ing at theChi cago Sun-Times, re port ers would ac cept any trip they were of fered. Now, he sayshe pays his own ex penses when at tend ing in dus try events.

Aaron Boulding, ed i tor in charge of IGN’s Xbox cov er age, de fends the pro fes sionalstan dards of his writ ers and ed i tors. IGN is a con glom er a tion of websites, each de voted to a spe cific video game con sole. Boulding says he al lows his ed i to rial staff to go onpub lisher-funded trips and jun kets. The site’s pol icy, he said, is to let each staffer man -age their own con duct: “We all have train ing and enough ex pe ri ence to knowbetter—we lose our cred i bil ity if it be comes ob vi ous that we’re bi ased.”

Boulding ar gues that read ers ul ti mately de cide the proper level of jour nal is tic in teg -rity. If a pub li ca tion pads its scores, fa vor ing pub lish ers, then fans will see that theyhave been lead astray and will seek au thor ity else where.

Greg ory Kasavin, ex ec u tive ed i tor of GameSpot, a multi-plat form game news and re -views site, said that the eco nom ics of video games places re view ers in a touchy po si -tion. “Who cares about a movie re view,” he notes. “If you saw some thing bad, you losttwo hours and 10 dol lars, tough luck. Most video games cost more than $40 or $50,while the sys tems sell for more than $200. With games, the stakes are a lot higher.”

There were two ed i tors from GameSpot at the Tom Clancy party, but GameSpot’sprod uct re views were writ ten by freelancers. Kasavin says that GameSpot does not al -low game re view ers to at tend pro mo tions for prod ucts they are writ ing about. “Our re -view ers are com pletely dis tanced from the de vel op ers and pub lish ers,” he says. “Theyhave no other goal than to scru ti nize a prod uct and de cide whether it’s worth rec om -mend ing to peo ple who spend money and time on games.”

Not all prod uct pro mo tions in volve SWAT team train ing, sports cars or para chut ing.Most are a sim ple in vi ta tion to a game de vel op ment stu dio, an or di nary of fice whereed i tors sit with game de vel op ers and check out the lat est prod ucts over soda pop.


Kasavin says he works to keep re view ers from these events as well, fear ing that suchfa mil iar ity has the po ten tial to breed a con flict of in ter est. Un eth i cal be hav ior, he says,“hap pens much more sub tly. Peo ple be come friends with peo ple in the in dus try andthen give more fa vor able cov er age to their prod ucts.”

In ter views with game de vel op ers yield in sights into game pro duc tion. But more of ten,these ca sual events feed into pre views of up com ing ti tles. These pre view pieces aretyp i cally breath less, up beat, and nearly al ways pos i tive. Some ed i tors think this is only fair. IGN’s Boulding says, “up un til a game is re leased, it has the po ten tial to be per -fect.” Game pub lish ers trust cer tain pub li ca tions to han dle their up com ing games withthis kid-glove ap proach.

Any player can write a re view of a game, but only sanc tioned me dia out lets have ac -cess to games be fore they are avail able to the pub lic. Brokering these agree ments fallsupon an un to ward mix of ed i to rial and pro mo tions. Los An geles Times re porter Mi -chael Cieply, who writes about the film in dus try, says that within en ter tain ment jour -nal ism there are jun ket-driven ce leb rity sto ries, cov er age that is gen er ally fa vor able by un spo ken agree ment, and just-the-facts cov er age that doesn’t take any perks frompub li cists or pub lish ers.

Be tween this, Cieply says, there is a place of com pro mise, where ma jor mag a zinecover sto ries are de cided be tween ed i tors and pub li cists, where pho tos and text mightbe sub ject to con sent by han dlers. He fa vors un com pro mis ing en ter tain ment jour nal -ism. Speak ing of pub li cist-man aged re port ing, he says “peo ple who get on those band -wag ons cheat them selves and cheat their read ers.”

While in tro duc tions and ac cess can make for good cov er age, ed i to rial-pro mo tions re -la tion ships can cause writ ers to ne glect their role as crit ics and ar bi ters of game qual -ity. A re cent ex am ple of the rift be tween read ers and re view ers came with the ar rival of one of the game in dus try’s most highly touted ti tles. The Sims On line mar ried a hotcon cept—multiplayer on line gam ing—to The Sims, the best-sell ing PC game se ries ofall time. In ad di tion, it was de signed in part by Will Wright, one of the game in dus try’smost re nowned de vel op ers. All of this com bined into a rich mael strom of hype. TheSims On line was fea tured on the cover of the No vem ber 25, 2002 is sue of Newsweekand GameSpot posted a 13-page be hind-the-scenes fea ture. Main stream press andhard core game pub li ca tions touted The Sims On line as the first mass-mar ket on linegame.

Then the re views came out. A meta-rank ings site that com piles re view scores frompro fes sional game re view ers ranked The Sims On line at around seven out of 10. Butuser re views on the Am a zon website, scored The Sims On line at around four out of ten.

For tu nately, Internet read ers have easy ac cess to mul ti ple view points. Sites likeGameRankings or MetaCritic give re view over views, list ing scores and blurbs from awide va ri ety of game crit ics. Re search ing through Web search en gines or meta-rank -ings sites like these of fers us ers a wider range of sources, in clud ing game crit i cismfrom nonpro fes sional sites.

One lead ing ex am ple of this is GameCritics, an in de pend ent game com men tary site of -fer ing re views that are among the most thought ful on the web. Run by two high school


friends from New York, GameCritics is es tab lish ing a mid dle ground be tween the jun -ket-fed hard core game re view sites and the gen eral au di ence re views pub lished onnews pa per Web sites.

There is a place for in ter views with game de vel op ers and jour nal is tic ex plo ra tion ofgame cul ture out side of prod ucts. Strong sep a ra tion be tween re views and party-fu eled, in flu ence-ped dled pre views is a good way for game jour nal ism to de velop mean ing fuleth i cal stan dards. Then we might see more game in dus try cov er age writ ten, as Ebertput it, “with out ben e fit of the in sights gained from free buf fets.” For tu nately, low-costpub lish ing on the Internet is fuel ing the de vel op ment of in de pend ent game crit i cism,gen er ated by writ ers with only brains, ex pe ri ence, and a de sire to play better games.

About the Au thor: Justin Hall is a free lance writer and the Man ag ing Ed i tor of GameGirl Ad vance (www.gamegirladvance.com).

Source: Hall, Justin. 2003. Eth ics in video game jour nal ism. AUSC Annenberg On lineJour nal ism Re view. April 10. URL: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/eth ics/1049994303.php


1. Which video game mag a zines and websites do you trust the most to pro vide ac cu -rate and fair-minded re views? What is it about these mag a zines and websites thatmakes them trust wor thy?

2. If you ran a video game re view site, what pol i cies would you put into place tomain tain high stan dards of jour nal is tic in teg rity?


Es tab lished in 1994, the En ter tain ment Soft ware Rat ing Board (ESRB) is the or ga ni -za tion in the United States that rates and clas si fies com mer cial video games ac cord ingto their con tent. The ESRB website (www.esrb.org) de scribes the or ga ni za tion as “anon-profit, self-reg u la tory body that in de pend ently as signs rat ings, en forces ad ver tis -ing guide lines, and helps en sure re spon si ble on line pri vacy prac tices for the in ter ac -tive en ter tain ment soft ware in dus try.”

Al though nei ther the ESRB nor U.S. fed eral law at pres ent re stricts the sale of vi o lentvideo games to chil dren, the ma jor play ers in the video game in dus try have taken itupon them selves to sub mit their video games vol un tarily to the ESRB rat ings board,which then rates them, as sign ing each a rat ing sym bol and con tent descriptor. This in -for ma tion is then prom i nently dis played on most mar ket ing ma te ri als for the game and on the game pack ag ing it self. The pur pose of the ESRB rat ing sys tem is to help par ents and other con sum ers make in formed pur chas ing de ci sions about the video games theybuy for themselves and others.

The seven rat ing cat e go ries are as fol lows:

¸ Early Child hood

¸ Ev ery one

¸ Ev ery one 10+

¸ Teen

¸ Ma ture

¸ Adults Only

¸ Rat ing Pend ing

Each of these rat ings cat e go ries is de fined, along with the ESRB con tent descriptors, at the ESRB website.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re view the ESRB rat ings sys tem and sug gest what changes (if any) they would pro pose mak ing.

59

ÄESRB Ratings Review

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the role of the ESRB rat ings board in the United States. Dis cusswith stu dents the quo ta tion that opens the in tro duc tion to this ac tiv ity. What does itmean, and why is it im por tant that the ESRB be a “non-profit, self-reg u la tory body that in de pend ently” rates games?

In vite the stu dents to browse the ESRB website. The site fea tures in for ma tion aboutthe seven rat ing sym bols, the many con tent descriptors, and the rat ings pro cess. Aspart of its man date, the ESRB does much more than sim ply rate games. These func -tions are also dis cussed at the site.

In ad di tion to re view ing the FAQ and other in for ma tion at the ESRB website, in vitethe stu dents to search the site for the ESRB rat ings for their fa vor ite video games. Arethe re sults what they ex pected or are the stu dents surprised?

Once the stu dents have fin ished re search ing the ESRB rat ings sys tem, lead a dis cus -sion with the class in which the stu dents dis cuss the mer its of the ESRB rat ings sys tem, ways in which it could be strength ened (or weak ened), and other changes the stu dentsfeel should be made.

Dis cus sion

Do some of the stu dents in the class play vi o lent video games that are rated Ma ture orAdults Only? This is the burn ing ques tion that will prob a bly come up dur ing thecourse of this ac tiv ity. Con sider ask ing the gamers in the class to re view the ESRB rat -ings for the video games they have re cently played. Then con duct an anon y mous sur -vey to find out how many stu dents have played Ma ture or Adults Only rated games.



Data Ta ble

ESRB Rat ings by Plat form Console

The fol low ing ta ble breaks down the to tal num ber of ESRB rated ti tles (as of Au gust21, 2006) by plat form and rat ing. (Not all plat forms are in cluded.)

Con sole EarlyChild hood

Ev ery one Ev ery one10+

Teen Ma ture Adults Only

To tal

PC 194 3810 59 1538 604 19 6224

Playstation 2

1 588 67 569 236 1 1462

Xbox 0 360 42 381 193 1 977

GameCube 1 313 33 213 46 0 606

GameBoyAd vance

3 808 39 95 9 0 954

DS 0 138 31 23 1 0 193

PSP 0 85 27 62 21 0 195

Source: ESRB. 2006.


The data in the ta ble was col lated by search ing the rat ings da ta base at the ESRB website (www.esrb.org). Use the data to de ter mine a mar ket share for the GameCube,Playstation 2, and Xbox con soles. Now com pare these re sults with the PC plat form.Next, de ter mine the to tal per cent age of video games that are ap pro pri ate for chil drenaged 8, 12, and 16 to play. What rat ings pat terns can you glean from the above data asyou com pare the PC vs. con sole plat forms and the con sole ver sus handheld plat forms(i.e., the GameBoy Advance, DS, and PSP)?


In their book, The Child and the Ma chine (Key Por ter, 1998), Armstrong and Case -ment cite this ex am ple in sup port of their ar gu ment that not enough at ten tion is paid toer go nom ics in schools:

While vis it ing a com puter lab with my daugh ter and her grade two class, Iwatched while the chil dren got a crash course in the use of var i ous soft warepro grams. Al though the chairs swiveled and were ad just able, they had clearlybeen made for adult bod ies.... Miss ing from the les son was any guid ance oncor rect hand and body pos ture at the key board. No one men tioned that thechairs were ad just able and could be made more com fort able for chil dren ofdif fer ent sizes.... The equip ment was com pletely out of pro por tion for vir tu -ally the en tire group of seven-year-olds. Con se quently, all of these chil drenspent the morn ing with their heads tilted up wards at the screen in a pos ture de -signed to put strain on the spine and give them sore necks. (p. 154)

For bud get ary and ef fi ciency rea sons, most el e men tary schools pur chase or repurposege neric fur ni ture that is then used in com puter labs to seat mul ti ple grades of stu dentsof var i ous ages. Yet there is grow ing aware ness of the need to de sign workstations,chairs, and other fur ni ture that are er go nomic and ad just able to ac com mo date stu dentsof var i ous heights and builds.

Con sider, for ex am ple, the re de ploy ment of tra di tional desks and other fur ni ture toserve as com puter ta bles in schools. Many schools spend thou sands or even tens ofthou sands of dol lars an nu ally to equip their com puter labs and class rooms with the lat -est com puter hard ware and soft ware, but the ta bles on which this equip ment sits are of -ten an af ter thought. Al though com puter labs are to day used by both youn ger and olderstu dents for in creas ing amounts of time each year, the desks on which this equip mentis placed are of ten of fixed height, putt ing the com puter key board, mouse, and mon i torat an awk ward an gle for those stu dents who are too short or too tall to work com fort -ably at the com puter for ex tended pe ri ods of time.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents con duct an er go nomic au dit of the school’s com puter lab.They pres ent their find ings to the stu dent coun cil, prin ci pal, and school staff.

62

ÄErgonomic Audit

Ac tiv ity

In vite an older group of stu dents to con duct an er go nomic au dit of the school’s com -puter lab. Ask them to take what ever fac tors they deem to be im por tant in eval u at ingthe er go nomic con di tions of the lab.

Here are some key ques tions: 1) Does the lab have fixed seat ing, or can the chairs beraised and low ered to ac com mo date the vary ing heights of the stu dents? 2) Can themice be moved to ac com mo date left-handed com puter us ers? 3) Is there enough roomand cord length for us ers to ma nip u late the mice and key boards com fort ably? 4) Canthe mon i tors be eas ily raised, low ered, and tilted to ad just to the sight lines of users?

An swers to these and other ques tions can be used as the ba sis for a writ ten re port thatcan then be pre sented to the stu dent coun cil, prin ci pal, and school staff with rec om -men da tions for im prov ing the er go nom ics of the computer lab.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity is an ex am ple of how so cial ac tion lead ing to so cial change can pro videstu dents with a sense of em pow er ment. Real and pos i tive change can re sult from thisac tiv ity if school of fi cials take se ri ously and act on students’ findings.

In con duct ing their au dit, the stu dents may choose to limit their in ves ti ga tion to tra di -tional er go nomic is sues or in stead broaden their anal y sis to in clude the light ing, tem -per a ture, and noise con di tions of the computer lab.

This ac tiv ity is sim i lar to an en vi ron men tal au dit of a school. In an ef fort to pro moteen vi ron men tal aware ness among stu dents and staff and to lower lev els of con sump tion and en ergy use, a grow ing num ber of schools are con duct ing en vi ron men tal au dits that track the flow of en ergy and waste prod ucts through the school. In ad di tion to pro mot -ing en ergy ef fi ciency, such ini tia tives also have the po ten tial to pro mote anenvironmental ethic in students and staff.

With the sup port of out side agen cies, the stu dents, teach ers, and cus to dial staff tracken ergy use pat terns re lated to the flow of en ergy and waste prod ucts (e.g., dis posed pa -per and food scraps) through the school. Re sults are then tal lied, and an en vi ron men talac tion plan is put into place that may in volve re cy cling, com post ing, en ergy and ma te -rial use re duc tion, and other en vi ron men tally friendly reforms.



Re views of video games pro lif er ate the Internet. Some are writ ten by pro fes sionaljour nal ists who work for re spected print mag a zines or websites. Oth ers are writ ten byca sual gamers who con trib ute their thoughts to video game fo rums and user re viewlist ings at GameSpot (www.gamespot.com) and other websites.

Some re views are in-depth. Oth ers are far too short. Some re views are well writ ten.Oth ers ap pear to have been as sem bled with very lit tle care. Re view ers ex press theiropin ions in sup port of or against a video game. Of ten these opin ions are backed up byev i dence, but some times they are not.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents an a lyze and parse one or more re views of a video game forstate ments of fact and opin ion.

Ac tiv ity

As sign stu dents the task of pars ing one or more re views of a video game. For each ofthe opin ions in a re view, ask the stu dents to look for spe cific ev i dence in the re viewthat backs up the au thor’s opin ion. Ask the stu dents to flag those opin ions that are sup -ported by lit tle or no evidence.

Con sider hav ing the stu dents com plete a two-col umn chart for this ac tiv ity. The firstcol umn will list the opin ions the stu dents find in the re views they read. The sec ond col -umn will list the as so ci ated ev i dence the stu dents find in the re views to back up theauthor’s opinions.

Following this ac tiv ity, have the class dis cuss the qual ity of the re views they have readmore gen er ally. Did the stu dents find most of the re views to be well writ ten and ar gued?If not, why not? What com mon mis takes did the re view ers make? How could the stu -dents avoid mak ing sim i lar mis takes when writ ing their own video game re views?

Dis cus sion

Use this ac tiv ity as a ve hi cle for re in forc ing the dif fer ences be tween overt bias andopin ion that is backed up by fact. Solid re views rely on the lat ter, but oc ca sion ally re -view ers in stead re veal a bias for or against a par tic u lar video game, se ries, or genre ir -re spec tive of the mer its of the game itself.

64

ÄFact vs. Opinion

Ask the stu dents to look for ev i dence of bias in the re views they read. Which videogame mag a zines and websites do the stu dents trust the most to of fer fair and bal ancedre views that are free of bias? Which do they trust the least?


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleRe al ity Bytes: Eight Myths

about Video Games De bunked

by Henry Jenkins

A large gap ex ists be tween the pub lic’s per cep tion of video games and what the re -search ac tu ally shows. The fol low ing is an at tempt to sep a rate fact from fiction.

1. The avail abil ity of video games has led to an ep i demic of youth vi o lence.

Ac cord ing to fed eral crime sta tis tics, the rate of ju ve nile vi o lent crime in theUnited States is at a 30-year low. Re search ers find that peo ple serv ing time for vi -o lent crimes typ i cally con sume less me dia be fore com mit ting their crimes thanthe av er age per son in the gen eral pop u la tion. It’s true that young of fend ers whohave com mit ted school shoot ings in Amer ica have also been game play ers. Butyoung peo ple in gen eral are more likely to be gamers—90 per cent of boys and 40per cent of girls play. The over whelm ing ma jor ity of kids who play do not com mit an ti so cial acts. Ac cord ing to a 2001 U.S. Sur geon Gen eral’s re port, the stron gestrisk fac tors for school shoot ings cen tered on men tal sta bil ity and the qual ity ofhome life, not me dia ex po sure. The moral panic over vi o lent video games is dou -bly harm ful. It has led adult au thor i ties to be more sus pi cious and hos tile to manykids who al ready feel cut off from the sys tem. It also mis di rects en ergy awayfrom elim i nat ing the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems tocontinue to fester.

2. Sci en tific ev i dence links vi o lent game play with youth ag gres sion.

Claims like this are based on the work of re search ers who rep re sent one rel a tivelynar row school of re search, “me dia ef fects.” This re search in cludes some 300stud ies of me dia vi o lence. But most of those stud ies are in con clu sive andmany have been crit i cized on meth od olog i cal grounds. In these stud ies, me dia im ages are re moved from any nar ra tive con text. Sub jects are asked to en gagewith con tent that they would not nor mally con sume and may not un der stand.Fi nally, the lab o ra tory con text is rad i cally dif fer ent from the en vi ron mentswhere games are nor mally played. Most stud ies found a cor re la tion, not acausal re la tion ship, which means the re search could sim ply show that ag gres -sive peo ple like ag gres sive en ter tain ment. That’s why the vague term “links”


is used here. If there is a con sen sus emerg ing around this re search, it is that vi o -lent video games may be one risk fac tor—when cou pled with other more im me di -ate, real-world in flu ences—which can con trib ute to anti-so cial be hav ior. But nore search has found that video games are a pri mary fac tor or that vi o lent videogameplay could turn an oth er wise nor mal per son into a killer.

3. Chil dren are the pri mary mar ket for video games.

While most Amer i can kids do play video games, the cen ter of the video gamemar ket has shifted older as the first gen er a tion of gamers con tin ues to play intoadult hood. Al ready 62 per cent of the con sole mar ket and 66 per cent of the PCmar ket is age 18 or older. The game in dus try ca ters to adult tastes. Mean while, asiz able num ber of par ents ig nore game rat ings be cause they as sume that gamesare for kids. One quar ter of chil dren ages 11 to 16 iden tify a Ma ture rated game asamong their fa vor ites. Clearly, more should be done to re strict ad ver tis ing andmar ket ing that tar gets young con sum ers with ma ture con tent, and to ed u cate par -ents about the me dia choices they are fac ing. But par ents need to share some ofthe re spon si bil ity for mak ing de ci sions about what is ap pro pri ate for their chil -dren. The news on this front is not all bad. The Fed eral Trade Com mis sion hasfound that 83 per cent of game pur chases for un der age consumers are made byparents or by parents and children together.

4. Al most no girls play com puter games.

His tor i cally, the video game mar ket has been pre dom i nantly male. How ever, theper cent age of women play ing games has steadily in creased over the past de cade.Women now slightly out num ber men play ing Web-based games. Spurred by thebe lief that games were an im por tant gate way into other kinds of dig i tal lit er acy,ef forts were made in the mid-1990s to build games that ap pealed to girls. Morere cent games such as The Sims were huge cross over suc cesses that at tracted many women who had never played games be fore. Given the his toric im bal ance in thegame mar ket (and among peo ple work ing in side the game in dus try), the pres enceof sex ist ste reo typ ing in games is hardly sur pris ing. Yet it’s also im por tant to note that fe male game char ac ters are of ten por trayed as pow er ful and in de pend ent. Inhis book, Kill ing Mon sters, Gerard Jones ar gues that young girls of ten build upon these rep re sen ta tions of strong women war riors as a means of build ing up theirself con fi dence in con front ing chal lenges in their ev ery day lives.

5. Be cause games are used to train sol diers to kill, they have the same im pact on thekids who play them.

For mer mil i tary psy chol o gist and moral re former Da vid Grossman ar gues thatbe cause the mil i tary uses games in train ing (in clud ing, he claims, train ing sol -diers to shoot and kill), the gen er a tion of young peo ple who play such games aresim i larly be ing bru tal ized and con di tioned to be ag gres sive in their ev ery daysocial interactions.


Grossman’s model only works if:

¸ we re move train ing and ed u ca tion from a mean ing ful cul tural con text

¸ we as sume learn ers have no con scious goals and that they show no re sis tanceto what they are be ing taught

¸ we as sume that they un wit tingly ap ply what they learn in a fan tasy en vi ron -ment to real world spaces.

The mil i tary uses games as part of a spe cific cur ric u lum, with clearly de finedgoals, in a con text where stu dents ac tively want to learn and have a need for thein for ma tion be ing trans mit ted. There are con se quences for not mas ter ing thoseskills. That be ing said, a grow ing body of re search does sug gest that games canen hance learn ing. In his re cent book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us AboutLearn ing and Lit er acy, James Gee de scribes game play ers as ac tive prob lem solv -ers who do not see mis takes as er rors, but as op por tu ni ties for im prove ment. Play -ers search for newer, better so lu tions to prob lems and chal lenges, he says. And they are en cour aged to con stantly form and test hy poth e ses. This re search points to afun da men tally dif fer ent model of how and what play ers learn from games.

6. Video games are not a mean ing ful form of ex pres sion.

On April 19, 2002, U.S. Dis trict Judge Ste phen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that videogames do not con vey ideas and thus en joy no con sti tu tional pro tec tion. As ev i -dence, Saint Louis County pre sented the judge with vid eo taped ex cerpts fromfour games, all within a nar row range of gen res, and all the sub ject of pre vi ouscon tro versy. Over turn ing a sim i lar de ci sion in In di a nap o lis, Fed eral Court of Ap -peals Judge Rich ard Posner noted: “Vi o lence has al ways been and re mains a cen -tral in ter est of hu man kind and a re cur rent, even ob ses sive theme of cul ture, bothhigh and low. It en gages the in ter est of chil dren from an early age, as any one fa -mil iar with the clas sic fairy tales col lected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault areaware.” Posner adds, “To shield chil dren right up to the age of 18 from ex po sureto vi o lent de scrip tions and im ages would not only be quix otic, but de form ing; itwould leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.” Many earlygames were lit tle more than shoot ing gal ler ies where play ers were en cour aged toblast ev ery thing that moved. Many cur rent games are de signed to be eth i cal test -ing grounds. They al low play ers to nav i gate an ex pan sive and open-ended world,make their own choices, and wit ness the con se quences. The Sims de signer WillWright ar gues that games are per haps the only me dium that al lows us to ex pe ri -ence guilt over the ac tions of fic tional char ac ters. In a movie, one can al ways pullback and con demn the char ac ter or the art ist when they cross cer tain so cialbound aries. But in play ing a game, we choose what hap pens to the char ac ters. Inthe right cir cum stances, we can be en cour aged to ex am ine our own val ues by see -ing how we be have within vir tual space.


7. Video game play is so cially iso lat ing.

Much video game play is so cial. Al most 60 per cent of fre quent gamers play withfriends. Thirty-three per cent play with sib lings and 25 per cent play with spousesor par ents. Even games de signed for sin gle play ers are of ten played so cially, withone per son giv ing ad vice to an other hold ing a joy stick. A grow ing num ber ofgames are de signed for mul ti ple play ers—for ei ther co op er a tive play in the samespace or on line play with dis trib uted play ers. So ci ol o gist Talmadge Wright haslogged many hours ob serv ing on line com mu ni ties in ter act with and re act to vi o -lent video games, con clud ing that meta-gam ing (con ver sa tion about game con -tent) pro vides a con text for think ing about rules and rule-break ing. In this waythere are re ally two games tak ing place si mul ta neously: one, the ex plicit con flictand com bat on the screen; the other, the im plicit co op er a tion and com rade shipbe tween the play ers. Two play ers may be fight ing to death on screen and grow ing closer as friends off screen. So cial ex pec ta tions are re af firmed through the so cialcon tract gov ern ing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within thetransgressive fantasies represented onscreen.

8. Video game play is de sen si tiz ing.

Clas sic stud ies of play be hav ior among pri mates sug gest that apes make ba sicdis tinc tions be tween play fight ing and ac tual com bat. In some cir cum stances,they seem to take plea sure wres tling and tou sling with each other. In oth ers, theymight rip each other apart in mor tal com bat. Game de signer and play the o rist Eric Zimmerman de scribes the ways we un der stand play as dis tinc tive from re al ity asen ter ing the “magic cir cle.” The same ac tion—say, sweep ing a floor—may takeon dif fer ent mean ings in play (as in play ing house) than in re al ity (house work).Play al lows kids to ex press feel ings and im pulses that have to be care fully held incheck in their real-world in ter ac tions. Me dia re form ers ar gue that play ing vi o lentvideo games can cause a lack of em pa thy for real-world vic tims. Yet, a child whore sponds to a video game the same way he or she re sponds to a real-world trag edy could be show ing symp toms of be ing se verely emo tion ally dis turbed. Here’swhere the me dia ef fects re search, which of ten uses punch ing rub ber dolls as amarker of real-world ag gres sion, be comes prob lem atic. The kid who is punch inga toy de signed for this pur pose is still within the “magic cir cle” of play and un der -stands her ac tions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent playleads to more violent play.

Sources

En ter tain ment Soft ware As so ci a tion. 2003. Top ten in dus try facts. http://www.theesa.com/press room.html

Gee, James. 2001. What video games have to tell us about learn ing and lit er acy. NewYork: Palgrave.

Grossman, Da vid. 2000. Teach ing kids to kill. Phi Kappa Phi Na tional Fo rum.http://www.killology.org/ar ti cle_teachkid.htm


Heins, Mar jo rie. 2002. Brief Amica Cu riae of Thirty Me dia Schol ars (sub mit ted to theUnited States Court of Ap peals, Eight Cir cuit). In ter ac tive Dig i tal Soft ware As -so ci a tion et al. vs. St. Louis County et al. http://www.fepproject.org/courtbriefs/stlouissummary.html

Jenkins, Henry. 2002. Com ing up next: Am bushed on “Donahue.” Sa lon. http://www.sa lon.com/tech/fea ture/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/

Jenkins, Henry. 2002. Les sons from Little ton: What Con gress doesn’t want to hearabout youth and me dia. In de pend ent Schools. http://www.nais.org/pubs/ismag.cfm?file_id=537&ismag_id=14

Jones, Gerard. 2002. Kill ing mon sters: Why chil dren need fan tasy, superheroes, andmake-be lieve vi o lence. New York: Ba sic.

Salen, Katie, and Zimmerman, Eric. 2003. Rules of play: Game de sign fun da men tals.Cam bridge: MIT Press.

Sternheimer, Ka ren. 2003. It’s not the me dia: The truth about pop u lar cul ture’s in flu -ence on chil dren. New York: Westview.

Wright, Talmadge. 2002. Cre ative player ac tions in FPS on line video games: Play ingCoun ter-Strike. Game Stud ies. De cem ber. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/

About the Au thor: Henry Jenkins is the Di rec tor of the MIT Com par a tive Me dia Stud -ies Pro gram. He is the au thor of Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Ex plor ing Par tic i pa toryCul ture (NYU Press, 2006).

Source: Jenkins, Henry. 2004. Re al ity bytes: Eight myths about video games de -bunked. KCTS/PBS. Au gust 23. (Cour tesy of Video Game Rev o lu tion, KCTS Tele vi -sion, copy right 2005.) URL: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/im pact/myths.html


1. Does the au thor ef fec tively coun ter the ar gu ment that vi o lent games pro duce vi o -lent peo ple?

2. Iden tify and then de bunk an ad di tional myth about video games that is not cov -ered in the ar ti cle.


A great deal of dex ter ity of fin ger move ment is re quired to play most video gameswell. In a typ i cal gam ing ses sion, play ers will de press a con trol el e ment doz ens, ifnot hun dreds, of times—push ing, pull ing, and oth er wise “mash ing” but tons, keys,trig gers, joy sticks, and di rec tional pads on gamepads, key boards, and other gamecon trol lers.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents tally the num ber of times one or more gamepad but tons are pressed dur ing a gam ing ses sion. They then trans fer this data onto a chart for fur theranal y sis dur ing math class.

Ac tiv ity

Ask three or four stu dent vol un teers to come to the front of the class. In vite one of thestu dents to play a fa vor ite con sole video game for a set amount of time us ing aPlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, or sim i lar con trol ler. This ac tiv ity can also be com -pleted us ing a handheld gam ing de vice.

The other stu dent vol un teers are to mon i tor closely the fin ger move ments of theplayer. Each is re spon si ble for count ing the num ber of times a spe cific but ton ispressed. Have the stu dents re cord the fi nal but ton count on a tally chart the class haspre pared in ad vance of the ac tiv ity.

Re peat the ac tiv ity two or three times to ac cu mu late mul ti ple re sults.

The tal lied re sults can be dis cussed, com pared, graphed, and oth er wise ma nip u latedby the class. For ex am ple, the stu dents can to tal the num ber of presses for each but tonin or der to de ter mine which is the most and least used. The stu dents can also use thedata they have col lected to cal cu late the av er age num ber of but ton presses per min ute.

Dis cus sion

Re peat this ac tiv ity with games that be long to a va ri ety of gen res (e.g., ac tion, driv ing,and fight ing games). Tally and com pare the re sults for each genre. Prior to lead ing thisac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to give their hy poth e ses as to which genre will have the low -est and high est fine mo tor count.

70

ÄFine Motor Count

This ac tiv ity can also be adapted to take into con sid er ation for how long a but ton is helddown. For ex am ple, it is com mon in driv ing games for the accelerator but ton to be helddown for ex tended pe ri ods of time, some times for the du ra tion of an en tire race.

Dis cuss with stu dents the var i ous types of fine mo tor move ments re quired by videogames and the er go nomic chal lenges posed by each: quick but ton presses, held downbut tons, quickly re peated but ton presses (known as “but ton mash ing”), push ing con trolsup, down, left, or right, hold ing down mul ti ple but tons at the same time, and so on.

Grades: 4 and higher | Sub ject: Math

Hard ware man u fac tur ers are con stantly ex per i ment ing with new con trol ler in no va tions. Nintendo’s Wii con trol ler, for ex am ple,fea tures mo tion con trol over the gameplay. Swing the con trol lerto hit a golf ball. Flick the con trol ler to cast a fish ing line.


Many young peo ple look to sports, tele vi sion, mov ies, video games, and comic booksfor roles mod els. In their fan tasy lives, some chil dren as pire to at tain the same he roicsta tus that the lead ing char ac ters in these var i ous pur suits have achieved. Many sportsheroes and lead ing video game and comic book char ac ters are in prime phys i cal con di -tion. No doubt they main tain a rig or ous fit ness re gime to keep them selves in such good shape.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents pro pose a se ries of fit ness ex er cises for a lead ing videogame or comic book char ac ter.

Ac tiv ity

Ask each stu dent to choose a fa vor ite sports, tele vi sion, movie, video game, or comicbook char ac ter or other role model who is in ex cel lent phys i cal con di tion. For the per -son they have cho sen, as sign stu dents the task of putt ing to gether a phys i cal fit ness re -gime that will keep the char ac ter in prime phys i cal con di tion.

The ex er cises the stu dents come up with should tar get at least three or four muscle re -gions of the body and in clude a va ri ety of move ments. The stu dents can choose to fo -cus on strength, stam ina, speed, and so on. The ex er cises they choose can be fairlyge neric (e.g., run ning) or unique and cre ative (but safe).

Have the stu dents share their ex er cises with each other. Ask each stu dent to dem on -strate to the class one or more of the ex er cises they have come up with. Al ter na tively,ask each stu dent to teach one of their ex er cises to the class.

Dis cus sion

Op tion ally, ask each stu dent to per form the ex er cises they have come up with oncedaily over a two-week pe riod. Us ing a track ing chart, ask the stu dents to fo cus on im -prove ments to their strength, stam ina, and/or speed as they mon i tor more gen eral im -prove ments to their health and phys i cal well-be ing.

72

ÄFitness Regime

For a hu mor ous take on this ac tiv ity, in vite the stu dents to pro pose a se ries of fic tionalex er cises that es pe cially suit the spe cial pow ers sported by their fa vor ite video game or comic book superheroes. For ex am ple, a stu dent may pro pose a se ries of fly ing ex er -cises to im prove Su per man’s speed and stam ina. An other stu dent might pro pose a va -ri ety of ac ro batic web sling ing ex er cises to im prove Spiderman’s abil i ties.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, con sider lead ing the “Body Im age” ac tiv ity, which isdis cussed else where in this book. This ac tiv ity fo cuses on the un der side of phys i calcon di tion ing in sports and the ex ag ger ated rep re sen ta tion of the hu man form that is of -ten found in video games and comic books.


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleEx er cise, Lose Weight with “Exergaming”

by Star Law rence

As the beeps and whis tles em a nate from the fam ily room, are you afraid Ju nior is go ing to de velop thumbs the size of ba nanas and a belly to match?

Ac cord ing to Ju dith Sherman-Wolin, ex er cise spe cial ist with the UCLA Cen ter forHu man Nu tri tion and au thor of Smart Girls Do Dumb bells, di etary guide lines maycome and go, but the one con stant is ex er cise. Over half of Amer i cans don’t getenough (now pegged at 30 min utes to an hour a day), and a quar ter of us are to tal ta ters.

But—get this—what if play ing video games did pro vide some ex er cise? Some do! It’sa new trend called “exergaming” or “exertainment.”

The jam-packed hit of this year’s Con sumer Elec tron ics Show was a “CardioPlayZone,” fea tur ing some of the new work out and move ment video con trap tions.

Dance Dance Rev o lu tion

DDR, as its many afi cio na dos hiply call it, runs on the Xbox plat form. This started outas an ar cade game, played on a floor dis play, sort of like an amped-up Twister. Thesys tem is loaded with catchy tunes and can be cal i brated to dif fer ent lev els of in ten sityas the play ers dance to the pat tern, ei ther in di vid u ally or com pet i tively. When theman u fac turer, Konami of Ja pan, mi grated it to the PlayStation in April, 1999, 3 mil -lion cop ies flew off the shelves.

“I am fa mil iar with DDR,” Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., chief ex er cise phys i ol o gist for theAmer i can Coun cil on Ex er cise, tells WebMD. “My four boys play it. It can be stren u -ous and can re ally get your heart rate up. It has dif fer ent lev els of in ten sity.” (Re port -edly, there is even a mod ule for the Law rence Welk—make that Rod Stew art—set.)


Nicktoons Movin’

Sherman-Wolin once was asked to do an en ergy ex pen di ture study on NicktoonsMovin’, a game played on the PlayStation 2 EyeToy plat form. “I tried it,” she says. “Itwas fun.”

Atop the TV is a mo tion-sen si tive EyeToy USB cam era that al lows play ers to sort of“jump in side” the game.

The games and char ac ters are based on Nick el odeon char ac ters and “hosted” bySpongeBob SquarePants. Up to eight play ers wildly move their arms to fix Cosmo andWanda’s fishbowl, go for a drive with Mrs. Puff, help Timmy smash ro bots, go bowl -ing with SpongeBob, and other cartoonishly en tranc ing ac tiv i ties.

Did smash ing vir tual ro bots re ally up the heart rate? Sherman-Wolin says yes. Fif teenper cent of kids aged 6 to 19 are over weight, she notes. If sit ting still and watch ing TVcon sumed 16 cal o ries an hour for the av er age 55-pound 8-year-old and stand ing onlyex pended 20 cal o ries, sweat ing with the Spongester burned 50 cal o ries.

“I liken it to Ping Pong,” she says. “You are sort of stand ing there and sort of mov ingat the same time.”

Golf Launchpad

In this one, back off, kid dies, you use your own golf clubs to play 800 of the most chal -leng ing golf courses in the world. The USB game con trol ler pack age runs on the PCand Macintosh plat forms and is com ing to PlayStation. Ti ger Woods gam ing soft wareis in cluded, and it can also be used with Microsoft’s Links.

You play on a mat filled with sen sors and hit a real (teth ered) golf ball with your ownclubs.

The com pany which pro duces it, Elec tric-Spin Cor po ra tion, is lo cated in Can ada, andthus far the prod uct is avail able in the United States only on line or at Edwin Watts golfshops, al though it is ex pected to go wider shortly.

Af ter you pur chase the prod uct, you can use the se rial num ber to down load spe cialanal y sis soft ware that scopes out your swing.

Is play ing vir tual golf real ex er cise? “I have been a golf pro for 20 years,” sales man -ager Shawn Clem ent tells WebMD, “and I can tell you that if you hit a golf ball for anhour, it’s a tre men dous work out.” Wal lop ing the ball uses 200 mus cles, he notes. Andif you un plug and walk the course and carry the clubs, it’s as good ex er cise as cy cling.

Ki lo watt

“My whole body strained to keep a Gran Tu ris mo 3 race car on the road. If I had this inthe gym, I would play it ev ery day,” claims one user of Ki lo watt, a whole-body gam ing sys tem from Powergrid Fit ness in Lau rel, Md.

Ki lo watt is a hefty $800 ma chine with a four-foot joy stick (they call it a steer ing stalk). It runs or di nary video games but re ally makes you ap ply body Eng lish. Ac cord ing to a


white pa per a sports med i cine phy si cian pre pared for the com pany, the stalk is ad just -able to dif fer ent lev els of re sis tance (in ten sity).

The ba sic ben e fit (be sides fun) is iso met ric ex er cise—the flex ing of mus cles with outjoint move ment, mean ing it’s low im pact.

Ac cord ing to Bryant, any time you turn your self into the joy stick, you are get ting ex er -cise. When one set of mus cles fa tigue in fast, com pet i tive play, the body will au to mat i -cally seek other po si tions to work other groups to avoid los ing the game, so a range ofmus cles is flexed.

In one study, heart rate went from 77 at rest to 123 on the Ki lo watt (in fit, col lege-agedmales). Reg u lar, thumbs-in ten sive video gam ing bumped heart rate only two points.

Again, ac cord ing to the com pany-spon sored white pa per, if a 170-pound male playedvideo games us ing the Ki lo watt for 40 min utes a day for five days a week, this wouldre sult in an ex pen di ture of 680 cal o ries. Played once a day for a week, this would burnoff more than a pound of fat.

Would the av er age per son keep it up? Well, many av er age peo ple do keep up play ingvideo games ev ery day. This is just a harder (more ben e fi cial) way to do it.

Last Word

De spite his sons’ pro pen sity for video danc ing, ACE’s Bryant says he does not al lowvideo games dur ing the week. “We use them as a bit of a car rot,” he says, “for ac a -demic as well as ac tiv ity rea sons. Kids tend to be cre ative and want to move and beac tive.”

He sug gests par ents not just throw one of these more ac tive games at kids and thinktheir ex er cise needs are ful filled. “You can use it to get kids to do other ex er cises,” hesays. “Many kids are com pet i tive. If they want to get to the next level on one of these,sug gest more strength or stam ina train ing such as jump ing, run ning, and hop ping.”

Run ning and play ing? Like we par ents used to do as kids? “I think par ents need toteach kids what it’s like to run around out side,” he says. “Play Cap ture the Flag. It’sback to the fu ture.”

If you do that, maybe Ju nior will move over and let you take the stalk.

Sources: Ju dith Sherman-Wolin, Ex er cise Spe cial ist, UCLA Cen ter for Hu man Nu tri -tion; Au thor, Smart Girls Do Dumb bells. Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., Chief Ex er cise Phys i -ol o gist, Amer i can Coun cil on Ex er cise. Shawn Clem ent, Sales Man ager, Elec tric-Spin Corp., Wood bridge, On tario.

About the Au thor: Star Law rence is a med i cal jour nal ist based in the Phoe nix, Ar i -zona, area.

Source: Law rence, Star. 2005. Ex er cise, lose weight with “exergaming.” WebMD. Jan. 18. URL: http://www.webmd.com/con tent/Ar ti cle/99/105236.htm?pagenumber=1



1. Do you agree with the ar ti cle’s con clu sion that “exergaming” can pro vide some(but not all) of the reg u lar ex er cise that chil dren re quire? Why or why not?

2. Is “exergaming” a tem po rary fad or here to stay?


Foley art ists re cord many of the sound ef fects that we hear in mov ies, tele vi sion shows, and video games. Sounds such as a per son walk ing in high-heel shoes or a door creak -ing open are re corded af ter film ing (in postproduction) so that di a log, sound ef fects,and mu sic can be ed ited and mixed sep a rately.

The hall mark of Foley work in the golden age of Hol ly wood was the ra dio dra mas andfirst nonsilent films of the early twen ti eth cen tury. Foley art ists would of ten re cordtheir sound ef fects on sound stages that af forded them plenty of free dom of move mentand lots of stor age space for all of the (of ten bulky) ma te ri als they were apt to use tocre ate sounds.

A seg ment of a film would re peat edly play over and over again in full view of a Foleyart ist who would then pre cisely time and re cord the Foley ef fects for the movie. Com -mon ef fects in cluded kiss ing the back of one’s hand to sim u late two peo ple kiss ing,thump ing wa ter mel ons to sim u late a punch, and clap ping co co nut shells to gether tosim u late horses hooves. Among the first Foley art ists was Jack Foley (1891–1967),from whom the ti tle of Foley art ist is de rived.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents be come Foley art ists as they re place the sound ef fects in avideo game with their own sounds de rived from ma te ri als they have col lected in andaround their school and home.

Ac tiv ity

In ad vance of this ac tiv ity, re cord some video game foot age of an ac tion scene into acom puter. The class will play back this foot age re peat edly (and si lently) as they ex per -i ment with add ing their own Foley ef fects.

Be gin this ac tiv ity by in tro duc ing stu dents to the role that Foley art ists play in the pro -duc tion of films, tele vi sion shows, and video games. Em pha size the four pri mary tasks of a Foley art ist: 1) ex plor ing the world of sound; 2) col lect ing ma te ri als that sim u latereal-world sounds; 3) cre at ing new and in ter est ing sounds; and 4) re cord ing sound ef -fects for films, tele vi sion shows, and video games.

77

ÄFoley Effects Artist

Play back the video game foot age you have cap tured, first with sound and then with -out. Brain storm with stu dents a list of sound ef fects that should ac com pany the foot -age. Pay close at ten tion to ob jects col lid ing, doors open ing, and other mo tion andcol li sion el e ments.

Over the course of the next few days, ask the stu dents to ex per i ment with the au di toryprop er ties of items in the world around them, in clud ing school, home, the out doors,and other places they rou tinely visit. Ask the stu dents to col lect those items that bestsim u late the sound ef fects needed for the video game foot age they have watched inclass.

Once all of the Foley ma te ri als have been as sem bled, play back the video game foot -age with out sound. In vite the stu dents to use the ma te ri als they have col lected tore-cre ate the sound ef fects that ac com pany the foot age. Op tion ally re cord the soundef fects for dub bing into the video it self.

Be pre pared for this ac tiv ity to lead to nu mer ous out bursts of laugh ter and hi lar ity.This is meant to be a fun and en joy able ac tiv ity, one that brings the class to gether as acom mu nity of learn ers and mu si cians.

Dis cus sion

In lieu of ask ing the stu dents to bring in ma te ri als from home, in stead ask them to usetheir voice, hands, and body to sim u late the sounds they wish to cre ate. This can bepar tic u larly ef fec tive for youn ger stu dents or stu dents who are strug gling with the tim -ing of the Foley ef fects.

Al ter na tively, con sider ask ing the stu dents to use their voice, hands, and body to sim u -late the Foley ef fects be fore col lect ing and ex per i ment ing with real-world ma te ri als ina sub se quent les son.

For a high-tech ver sion of this ac tiv ity, re fer to the “Foley Ef fects Art ist (Take Two)”ac tiv ity that fol lows.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieStory board Se quence

Pro vide the stu dents with a ran domly or dered se ries of screenshots cap tured mo mentsapart from the same gameplay ac tion. Now ask the stu dents to per form a photo anal y -sis on the screenshots as they put them back into the cor rect or der. Next, have each stu -dent cre ate his or her own story board se quence and then chal lenge a peer to put thescreenshots back into the cor rect or der. (Drama)


Foley art ists re cord many of the sound ef fects that we hear in mov ies, tele vi sion shows, and video games. Sounds, such as an ex plo sion in space or a door slam ming shut, arere corded af ter film ing (in postproduction) so that di a log, sound ef fects, and mu sic canbe ed ited and mixed sep a rately.

A big part of a Foley art ists’ work is ex plor ing the world around them—lis ten ing, au di -tion ing, and col lect ing ma te ri als that il licit unique, in ter est ing, or fa mil iar sounds. Al -though Foley art ists also rely on pre fab ri cated sound li brar ies, many spendcon sid er able time ex plor ing and re cord ing sounds in the real world. Some even go tothe far cor ners of the Earth to find just the right sound. Still other Foley art ists workwith sound de sign spe cial ists to cre ate en tirely new sounds by com bin ing, dis tort ing,and oth er wise morphing ex ist ing sounds us ing a com puter syn the sizer.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents add Foley ef fects to their game cre ations and videopro duc tions.

Ac tiv ity

Prior to in tro duc ing this ac tiv ity, in vest in a sound ef fects li brary for your school orclass room’s pro ject stu dio. You may wish to pur chase an in ex pen sive sound ef fectsCD or DVD li brary or a soft ware tool that gen er ates and mod i fies raw wave forms orsam pled sounds. Some sug ges tions are pro vided in the dis cus sion sec tion that fol lows.

Dis cuss with stu dents the role that Foley art ists and sound de sign spe cial ists play in the mak ing of a movie, tele vi sion show, or video game. With out sound ef fects, a videogame might well seem life less and un re al is tic. Sounds ef fects add ex cite ment to thegameplay and re in force and punc tu ate the ac tion oc cur ring on screen.

En cour age the stu dents to use the sound ef fects li brary that you have pro vided to aug -ment their own video game and movie pro duc tions. Sim i lar to tele vi sion sports casts,com mer cials, and movie and TV pro duc tions, sound ef fects can be used as tran si tionalel e ments be tween scenes or as Foley ef fects for mo tion and col li sion el e ments in thefoot age it self.

Also en cour age the stu dents to use the pro vided sound de sign tools to cre ate newsounds, par tic u larly for space and fan tasy themed video game ti tles.

79

ÄFoley Effects Artist(Take Two)

Dis cus sion

The study of Foley ef fects is a great way to in tro duce stu dents to mu si cal syn the sis andsound de sign tech niques us ing hard ware- or soft ware-based tools that gen er ate uniqueand in no va tive elec tronic sounds. Stu dents can ex per i ment with the prin ci ples ofsound de sign by ma nip u lat ing sam ples and wave forms, add ing spe cial ef fects, andlay er ing and mod u lat ing the sounds they cre ate.

No lon ger do mu sic teach ers need to in vest in ex pen sive hard ware syn the siz ers. If your pro ject stu dio is pow er ful enough, you can in stead pur chase a soft ware syn the sizerthat al lows stu dents to ex per i ment with sound de sign tech niques on a Macintosh orWin dows com puter.

Absynth (www.na tive-in stru ments.de) and X-Treme Ef fects (www.ilio.com) are twopop u lar sound de sign tools for pro fes sion als, but there are also less ex pen sive al ter na -tives aimed at con sum ers, in clud ing GarageBand (www.ap ple.com) and SONAR(www.cake walk.com).

For a non-tech take on the work of Foley art ists, re fer to the pre vi ous ac tiv ity, “FoleyEf fects Art ist.”


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleSoak ing Up the Me dia:Full-time Job for Kids

by Miranda Hitti

Many Amer i can kids are grow ing up with me dia as a con stant com pan ion.

“Young peo ple to day live me dia-sat u rated lives, spend ing an av er age of nearly 6.5hours a day with me dia,” says a new Kai ser Fam ily Foun da tion re port. That equalsabout 44.5 hours per week, as much as a full-time job, says the re port.

Kids’ Me dia Use

The study looked at a wide range of me dia in clud ing TV, mu sic, com put ers, and videogames. TV and mu sic were the top me dia sources among kids and teens. In ter ac tiveme dia came next, fol lowed by read ing. Here’s how each source ranked, with par tic i -pants’ av er age daily hours:

¸ TV: 3 hours (nearly 4 hours with DVDs, vid eos, and pre re corded shows)

¸ Mu sic: 1.4 hours


¸ Com put ers: 1 hour (not count ing school work)

¸ Video games: 49 min utes

¸ Read ing: 43 min utes (books, mag a zines, and news pa pers not re quired forschool)

When it co mes to TV, the Amer i can Acad emy of Pe di at rics (AAP) rec om mends nomore than one to two hours of qual ity TV or vid eos for older chil dren per day, and noscreen time for chil dren un der 2 years.

The Kai ser Fam ily Foun da tion’s re port is based on a na tional sam ple of 2000 chil drenaged 8–18 years. Par tic i pants filled out anon y mous writ ten ques tion naires de tail ingtheir me dia use on the pre vi ous day. Ad di tional in for ma tion came from me dia di a rieskept for a week by nearly 700 young peo ple.

Re search ers in cluded Stan ford Uni ver sity com mu ni ca tion pro fes sor Don ald F. Rob -erts, Ph.D., who has stud ied chil dren and me dia since the 1960s. Rob erts has alsoserved as an ed u ca tional con sul tant for some chil dren’s TV pro grams and helped de -velop the rat ing and pa ren tal ad vi sory sys tem adopted by the com puter game in dus try.

How Many Me dia De vices Are in Kids’ Homes?

The chil dren and teens in the study had many ways to ac cess the me dia. The typ i calpar tic i pant lives in a home with:

¸ 3.6 CD or tape play ers

¸ 3.5 TVs

¸ 3.3 ra dios

¸ 2.9 VCRs/DVD play ers

¸ 2.1 video game con soles

¸ 1.5 com put ers

Al most one in four live in homes with five or more TVs. In 63% of the kids’ homes, the TV usu ally stays on dur ing meals. The TV is left on most of the time—even if no one is watch ing it—in half (51%) of the kids’ homes, says the re port.

Race, Class Gaps

Most chil dren of all ma jor eth nic and so cio eco nomic groups had Internet ac cess athome. How ever, some gaps re main.


For in stance, 80% of white par tic i pants had Internet ac cess at home, com pared with61% of black youth. In ad di tion, about half (54%) of kids go ing to school in com mu ni -ties with av er age in comes of less than $35,000 per year go on line daily, com pared with 71% of those from com mu ni ties with an av er age in come of more than $50,000 peryear.

Wired Bed rooms

Many of the par tic i pants had me dia equip ment in their bed rooms:

¸ 68% had a TV

¸ 54% had a VCR/DVD player

¸ 49% had a video game con sole

¸ 31% had a com puter in their bed room

Me dia Multitasking

Kids and teens of ten dab ble in more than one type of me dia at a time, says the re port.For in stance, they may play mu sic while read ing, or go on line while also keep ing aneye on the TV.

“Given that about a quar ter (26%) of the time young peo ple are us ing me dia, they’reus ing more than one me dium at a time, they are ac tu ally ex posed to the equiv a lent of8.5 hours a day of me dia con tent, even though they pack that into less than 6.5 hours oftime,” re search ers write.

The Foun da tion says it’s not sure how multitasking af fects kids. “Kids aremultitasking and con sum ing many dif fer ent kinds of me dia all at once,” says DrewAltman, Ph.D., pres i dent and CEO of the Kai ser Fam ily Foun da tion, in a news re lease.“Multitasking is a grow ing phe nom e non in me dia use and we don’t know whether it’sgood or bad or both.”

How Do Kids Di vide Up Their Time?

Here’s how the par tic i pants spent the rest of their time on an av er age day:

¸ Hang ing out with par ents: 2 hours, 17 min utes

¸ Hang ing out with friends: 2 hours, 16 min utes

¸ Phys i cal ac tiv ity: 1 hour, 25 min utes

¸ Hob bies or other ac tiv i ties: 1 hour

¸ Talk ing on the phone: 53 min utes


¸ Do ing home work: 50 min utes

¸ Work ing at a job: 35 min utes

¸ Do ing chores: 32 min utes

Most Par tic i pants Say They’re Happy, Ac tive

“Con trary to most ex pec ta tions, it does not ap pear that spend ing time with me dia takesaway from the time chil dren spend in other pur suits,” says the re port. “In fact, it seemsthat those young peo ple who spend the most time us ing me dia are also those whoselives are the most full with fam ily, friends, sports, and other in ter ests,” the re port notes.

Most of the kids re ported be ing largely happy and well ad justed. How ever, the 18%who ranked low est in “con tent ed ness” spent more time with me dia (nine hours and 44min utes of to tal daily me dia ex po sure, com pared with about eight hours for otherkids). That doesn’t mean that the me dia is to blame for those par tic i pants’ dis con tent.

The study also showed no dif fer ence be tween the amount of time the kids said theyspent in phys i cal ac tiv i ties be tween heavy and light TV us ers. That was also true forthose spend ing the most time with all me dia and those spend ing less time with me dia.

How ever, other re search has in di cated that me dia may be linked to kids’ weight prob -lems, in ac tiv ity, vi o lence, and other is sues.

The re sults sug gest that fam i lies may watch TV to gether. Is that qual ity time? Thestudy isn’t sure.

“It’s un clear how much real in ter ac tion oc curs be tween par ents and their chil drenwhen they’re watch ing TV to gether,” says the study. “Young peo ple who live inhomes where the TV is left on dur ing meals or is sim ply left on most of the time are less likely to say they talk to their par ents about prob lems than other kids.”

Rules Aren’t Al ways Es tab lished

Just more than half (53%) of the par tic i pants said their fam i lies had no rules about TVwatch ing. An other 46% said their fam i lies have some rules, but only 20% said thoserules are en forced most of the time.

Of the study’s youn gest par tic i pants—aged 8–10 years—55% said there were TVrules in their homes.

It can be tough to keep up with kids’ me dia use. Not sure where to start? The Amer i canAcad emy of Pe di at rics (AAP) of fers these tips for par ents:

¸ Make a me dia plan. Sched ule me dia times and choices in ad vance.

¸ Set me dia time lim its. Try us ing a timer.


¸ Set fam ily guide lines for me dia con tent. Check con tent rat ings and pa ren talad vi so ries. Help chil dren and teens make ap pro pri ate choices.

¸ Be clear and con sis tent with chil dren about me dia rules.

¸ Keep TVs, VCRs, video games, and com put ers out of chil dren’s bed rooms.In stead, place those items where you can be in volved and mon i tor their use.

¸ Make me dia a fam ily ac tiv ity. When ever pos si ble, use me dia with your chil -dren and talk about what’s pre sented.

¸ En cour age kids to ask ques tions about me dia mes sages. Dis cuss and com pareme dia mes sages to the val ues you want your child to learn.

¸ Look for me dia “side ef fects.” For in stance, no tice any in crease in night -mares, ag gres sive be hav ior, poor school per for mance, in creased eat ing of un -healthy foods, smok ing, drink ing, or drug use. Me dia may—or may not—be a fac tor, but it helps to be aware of all pos si ble in flu ences, in clud ing me dia.

Sources: Kai ser Fam ily Foun da tion, “Gen er a tion M: Me dia in the Lives of 8-18Year-Olds.” News re lease, Kai ser Fam ily Foun da tion. Amer i can Acad emy of Pe di at -rics, “Me dia Guide lines for Par ents.”

About the Au thor: Miranda Hitti is a med i cal writer for WebMD (www.webmd.com).

Source: Hitti, Miranda. 2005. Soak ing up the me dia: Full-time job for kids. WebMD.March 10. URL: http://www.webmd.com/con tent/Ar ti cle/101/106496.htm?pagenumber=1


1. Re view the many sta tis tics that are cited in this ar ti cle. Which one sur prises youthe most? Which one sur prises you the least?

2. Con sider rec re at ing the sur vey for your class mates to com plete. Then com parethe re sults with those given in the ar ti cle.


Data Ta ble

Playday Sur vey

The ta ble be low com prises part of the re sults for a sur vey that was com mis sioned bythe Chil dren’s Play Coun cil in the United King dom. Con ducted in July 2006, the sur -vey polled more than 500 chil dren aged 7–14. The chil dren were asked “If you had thechoice, would you rather play a com puter game or ….” Here are their re sponses, bro -ken down by age and gen der.

Response Male Fe male Age 7–10 Age 11–14 To tal

Hang out with myfriends out side

73 118 57 133 191

Play with wa ter/swim

35 63 60 38 98

Build a den 39 11 33 17 50

Get dirty/muddy 16 12 16 12 28

Climb trees 13 12 15 9 25

Go to thewoods/for est/fields

11 9 9 12 20

Play in the play ground

5 6 6 5 11

Other out door ac tiv ity

30 13 14 30 43

I would rather play a com puter game

54 17 48 23 71

Don’t know 2 4 5 2 6

Source: Chil dren’s Play Coun cil. 2006. Play, nat u rally: Sur vey of chil dren’s views. Lon don:Chil dren’s Play Coun cil.


An a lyze the re sults in the ta ble. How does video game play ing fair in com par i son tothe other rec re ational pur suits? Are there rec re ational ac tiv i ties that are not cov ered bythe above ques tion? If so, list them. Could the sur vey be im proved in other ways? De -sign and ad min is ter your own sur vey to some of the stu dents in your school. How dothe re sults of your study com pare with the re sults of this British study?


Many par ents are con cerned about the amount of time their chil dren spend play ingvideo games, watch ing tele vi sion, and/or us ing the com puter. Ask ing stu dents to trackthe amount of time they daily de vote to these ac tiv i ties can help them to be come moreaware of their rou tines even as they learn math e mat i cal and re search skills.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents track the amount of time they spend play ing video gamesover a two-week pe riod. They then an a lyze and per form cal cu la tions on the data theyhave gath ered.

Ac tiv ity

As a full class, cre ate a chart that the stu dents will use to track the amount of time theyspend play ing video games each day over a two-week pe riod. The track ing chartshould ide ally be a ta ble that com prises eight col umns across and three rows down (re -fer to the data ta ble that fol lows for an ex am ple). In the first row of the chart, have thestu dents write out the days of the week fol lowed by the head ing “To tal.” Also in clude a blank line out side of the chart where the stu dents can in di cate their gen der.

Us ing the track ing chart they have cre ated, ask the stu dents to track the amount of timethey spend play ing video games each day over a two-week pe riod. (You may first need to se cure the per mis sion of par ents and guard ians prior to col lect ing this data. It is alsoad vis able to col lect the data anon y mously—i.e., don’t have the stu dents write theirnames on their in di vid ual track ing charts.)

Ask the stu dents to use the timer on a wrist watch to keep track of the num ber of min -utes they spend play ing video games each day. At the end of the day, the stu dentsshould re cord the to tal num ber of min utes they’ve spent play ing video games in the ap -pro pri ate box on the chart. At the end of each week, have the stu dents to tal the num berof min utes for the whole week.

Once the data col lec tion is com plete, ran domly re dis trib ute the track ing charts to theclass. Ei ther have the stu dents an a lyze the charts they have be fore them or in stead have the class com pile a mas ter chart to an a lyze to gether.

Here are some key ques tions the stu dents may wish to ask as they an a lyze the data: 1)On which day did the stu dents play video games the most? On which day did they playthe least? 2) What was the av er age daily play ing time for video games each week? 3)Did the stu dents spend more time play ing video games on school days or week ends? 4)

86

ÄFor How Long Do I Play?

Did the boys spend more time play ing video games than the girls? If so, how muchmore time?

Con sider hav ing the stu dents write out their hy poth e ses to these ques tions prior to col -lect ing the data. Also con sider hav ing the stu dents graph the re sults of their data anal y -ses into bar, line, and pie charts.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can be adapted to work with other lei sure ac tiv i ties such as tele vi sionview ing, com puter and Internet us age, eat ing, read ing, play ing out side, spend ing timewith friends, par tic i pat ing in or ga nized sports, prac tic ing a mu si cal in stru ment, and soon. In deed, the stu dents could track more than one ac tiv ity at a time and then com parethe re sults.

As they com plete this ac tiv ity, dis cuss with stu dents the im por tance of main tain ing an -o nym ity in the study. There are likely to be one or more stu dents in the class who playvideo games a lot more than the rest of the class. There are also likely to be stu dentswho never play video games. These and other stu dents may not wish oth ers to knowabout their play ing hab its. Pro tect ing a per son’s pri vacy is ar gu ably the most im por -tant ob li ga tion a re searcher has. That’s why it is im por tant to de lete the names of stu -dents from the col lected data prior to shar ing and an a lyz ing it.


Data Ta ble

Video Game Play ing Track ing Chart

Fill in the fol low ing chart over a two-week pe riod as you track your video game play -ing time.

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun To tal

Gen der: ___ Fe male ___ Male To tal: _________


At their heart, many video games are all about rules of play and mov ing around setgame worlds. In these and other ways, video games have much in com mon withreal-world games and sports that have their own rules of play and game worlds wherethe ac tion takes place (e.g., soc cer fields and base ball di a monds).

There is even di rect cross over be tween sports and video games. Base ball, bas ket ball,foot ball, hockey, and other sports sim u la tions are among the most pop u lar videogames on the mar ket.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign a real-world game or sport that they then teach oth -ers to play in a phys i cal ed u ca tion class.

Ac tiv ity

Lay out ex am ples of all of the var i ous types of sports equip ment stored in the school’sgym na sium.

Chal lenge the stu dents to work in small groups to cre ate a brand-new sport or gamethat uses some (or none) of this equip ment. Work ing to gether, each group should de -ter mine whether their new game is in di vid ual- or team-based, the play ing field for thegame, the rules of play, a scor ing sys tem, and other de tails. Ad di tion ally, each groupshould name its new game.

As the stu dents de sign their new game, en cour age them to con sider the at trib utes ofboth sports and video games that make for ef fec tive gameplay (e.g., set bound aries,clear goals and ob jec tives, fair rules of play, and in creas ing lev els of com plex ity andchal lenge).

Once the stu dents are ready, have each group share its new game with the class. Op -tion ally, have the class play the game and then pro vide the game’s de sign ers with feed -back to help them fine-tune the rules of play.

88

ÄGame Invention

Dis cus sion

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to brain storm the char ac ter is tics of agood game. A game should be fun and chal leng ing (but not too chal leng ing), ac tive,rel a tively easy learn (but dif fi cult to mas ter), safe, and re ward ing. The rules should beclear to all and, above all, fair.

What other char ac ter is tics of good games can the stu dents think of?


!Ac tiv ity QuickieEx er cise Games

Ask the stu dents to play test two or three ex er cise-based video games that re quire play -ers to move and/or dance as they play the game (e.g., Dance Dance Rev o lu tion). Havethe stu dents re port back on the health ben e fits of each, fo cus ing par tic u larly on im -prove ments to their gross mo tor abil i ties and car dio vas cu lar sys tems. (Health andPhys i cal Ed u ca tion)


As with DVDs, there are many gamers who take great pride in build ing a per sonal li -brary of the video games they own, but also many other gamers who are con tent to rentvideo games for a few days and then re turn them to the store. Rent ing a video gamecosts a lot less than pur chas ing it out right, but gamers who pur chase a game do havethe lux ury of play ing it when ever they wish (even on a whim) with out hav ing to leavetheir home to rent the game a sec ond or third time.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents per form a cost-ben e fit anal y sis of the prac tice of buy ingver sus rent ing video games.

Ac tiv ity

Dis trib ute a worksheet to the stu dents that in cludes vari a tions on the fol low ingsce nario:

John has dis cov ered a new video game that he re ally likes. It costs $49.95 tobuy and $4.95 to rent for three days. John is pretty sure that he is go ing to en -joy the video game and will want to play it re peat edly over the next fewmonths. John can buy the game out right or rent it sev eral times. If he buysthe game out right, he will be able to sell it back to the store as a used game.How ever, the game will de pre ci ate in value by 10% each week.

Pro pose three pur chas ing, rent ing, or buy-back op tions that John shouldcon sider. Now choose the best op tion and give your rea sons for choos ing it.

Us ing this or a sim i lar sce nario, have the stu dents de ter mine for how many days Johnwould need to play the video game to make pur chas ing it out right a more cost-ef fec -tive de ci sion than rent ing it for three days at a time.

Also ask the stu dents to de bate the best time to sell back the used game. Sell ing thegame a week af ter it has been pur chased will earn John the most money, but he willonly have a short pe riod of time to play the game. On the other hand, if John waits toolong to sell back the game, it will have lost most of its value.

90

ÄGaming Budget

Dis cus sion

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to brain storm their own math sce nar ios. Thestu dents can draw on all sorts of video game sta tis tics, in clud ing leaderboard rank ings, rac ing time tri als, and per sonal high scores.



Com put ers are play ing an in creas ingly im por tant in struc tional role in many schoolsacross the United States. Most school dis tricts spend many hun dreds of thou sands (ifnot mil lions) of dol lars an nu ally, pur chas ing desk top com put ers and other hard wareand soft ware for school labs and in di vid ual class rooms.

In creas ingly, school dis tricts are also in vest ing in lap top pro grams in which teach ersand stu dents are pro vided with pur chased or leased por ta ble com put ers. Some schoolsare equip ping their staff and stu dents with per sonal dig i tal as sis tants (PDAs) in lieu ofdesk top or lap top com put ers.

As this book ar gues, there is also much to be learned through video games. Videogames can, of course, be pur chased for Macintosh and Win dows com put ers, but thereare also many gam ing ti tles, some with con sid er able ed u ca tional po ten tial, that areonly avail able for con sole sys tems.

In this ac tiv ity, the teacher sets up a PlayStation 3, Wii, or Xbox 360 gam ing sta tion inthe class room that is to be used for ed u ca tional pur poses in the in struc tional pro gram.

Ac tiv ity

A num ber of the ac tiv i ties in this book re quire stu dents to have ready ac cess to adesk top com puter or video game con sole. Some of these ac tiv i ties can be com pletedat home where some (but not all) stu dents have ac cess to such sys tems, but if ateacher’s aim is to pro mote a col lab o ra tive, hands-on learn ing ex pe ri ence within theclass room, set ting up an in-class gam ing sta tion may also be war ranted. It will cer -tainly be in no va tive.

Ide ally, a gam ing sta tion will be po si tioned close to a com puter work sta tion and con -nected to the com puter via a video and au dio ca ble. This will al low gameplay foot ageto be cap tured. (The com puter screen can also dou ble as a mon i tor for the gam ing sta -tion if the ap pro pri ate video adapter is used.)

De vote enough space to the gam ing sta tion so that two or three stu dents can col lab o -rate around it at the same time. Con sider re quir ing the stu dents to use ste reo head -phones (sur round-sound head phones can also be used) so as not to dis rupt otherclass room ac tiv i ties.

92

ÄGaming Station

As with the com puter workstations in a class room, it is ab so lutely crit i cal that theground rules for use of the gam ing sta tion be clear to all and that they be seen as fairand worth while by the stu dents. As a gen eral rule, the gam ing sta tion should not beused as a re ward for stu dents. Quite the con trary, a stu dent should have a sound ed u ca -tional rea son for sign ing up to use the class room’s gam ing sta tion. Valid rea sons mayin clude the need to 1) cap ture video game foot age or screenshots, 2) re view a game, or3) col lect data about a video game.

For those gam ing con soles that do not sup port mul ti ple ac counts, there should also be a rule in place that only the teacher may de lete (or over write) saved games. This willavoid in stances in which stu dents in ad ver tently de lete each other’s prog ress in a game.

Prior to es tab lish ing a per ma nent class room gam ing sta tion, con sider test ing the fea si -bil ity of this idea by set ting up a tem po rary gam ing sta tion as one of sev eral ac tiv itycen ters for a short unit on video games. If the gam ing sta tion is a hit, es tab lish a per ma -nent gam ing sta tion that the stu dents can ro tate through for the du ra tion of a term. Ide -ally, the stu dents will soon learn to man age their own time with a gam ing sta tion, onlyus ing it when they need to, for sound ed u ca tional pur poses, in com plet ing the ac tiv i ties in this book for ex am ple.

Dis cus sion

A gam ing sta tion is one of sev eral pos si ble com puter work sta tion con fig u ra tionsworth con sid er ing. Oth ers in clude a scan ning work sta tion for scan ning text and pho tos into a com puter, a sci ence work sta tion with an at tached dig i tal mi cro scope and sci ence probes, a video work sta tion for cap tur ing, ed it ing, and ex port ing dig i tal video foot age, and a mu sic work sta tion that fea tures a MIDI key board, mi cro phone, and sound li -brary. Also con sider set ting up a pub lish ing work sta tion that fea tures a qual ity colorprinter for out put ting the fi nal drafts of stu dent writ ing, com plete with art work. Theseand other spe cial ized workstations can be lo cated in in di vid ual class rooms or com mon spaces, such as the school’s com puter lab or li brary.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieCar Tun ing Guide

Ask a stu dent who is fas ci nated with cars to write a car tun ing guide for a rac ing gamethat helps play ers to up grade and tune their ve hi cles. The guide should in clude text and pho tos plus clear ex pla na tions for each of the per for mance parts that gamers can in stall and tweak. (Lan guage Arts)


As this screenshot from Crysis shows, video games are be com ing ever more photorealistic andlife like as graphics tech nol o gies grow more pow er ful. The next rev o lu tion in com puter graphicscould well be ho lo grams and vir tual-re al ity sys tems.

Cut ting-edge vi sual ef fects are at the heart of many suc cess ful video games. In deed, agame can suc ceed or fail in large mea sure be cause of its graph i cal prow ess alone. Thevery best games boast re al is tic out door and in te rior en vi ron ments, highly de tailedbuild ing and char ac ter mod els, com plex tex tures, and au then tic light ing, shadow, andpar ti cle ef fects.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents con duct a graph i cal anal y sis of a video game. They cri -tique the mod els, tex tures, light ing, shad ows, and other graph i cal fea tures of the game.

Ac tiv ity

Have each stu dent choose a re cently re leased video game that fea tures ei ther cut -ting-edge or ab so lutely ter ri ble graphics. As they play their cho sen games, en cour agethe stu dents to fo cus on a game’s vi su als. Ask them to con duct a graph i cal anal y sis ofthe video game’s en vi ron ments, char ac ters, build ings, vi sual ef fects, and other graph i -cal fea tures.

94

ÄGraphical Analysis

As they con duct their anal y ses, the stu dents should pay close at ten tion to a game’smod els, tex tures, light ing, and par ti cle ef fects. Are the game’s graphics im pres sive,ter ri ble, or just plain av er age? Are the char ac ter an i ma tions re al is tic or stilted? Are thegame’s en vi ron ments de struc ti ble or fixed in place? Do the light ing, shadow, and re -flec tive ef fects add a sense of re al ism to the game? Do the char ac ters’ fa cial ex pres -sions look re al is tic?

Have the stu dents write a re port on their find ings.

Dis cus sion

As they com plete their graph i cal anal y sis, also en cour age the stu dents to take the sys -tem re quire ments for the PC games they re view into con sid er ation. Graph i cally im -pres sive video games nearly al ways re quire ex tra sys tem re sources, such a fastcom puter and/or a cut ting-edge graphics card. Are the graph i cal bells and whis tles apar tic u lar game prom ises worth the ex tra ex pense? Does the Win dows Vista op er at ingsys tem, with its sup port for DirectX 10 graphics, far out pace what was pos si ble withWin dows XP and DirectX 9?

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to re search the graph i cal fea turesboasted by one or more of the lead ing video game en gines, such as Havok(www.havok.com), OpenGL (www.opengl.org), and RenderWare (www.renderware.com), or the em bed ded en gines used in pop u lar first-per son shooter games such asDoom, Far Cry, Half-Life, Quake, and Un real.

If the stu dents were to de velop a no-holds-barred pro fes sional video game from theground up, which of the en gines would they most likely choose to use? Have the stu -dents de ter mine the li cens ing costs for their cho sen en gine by search ing the game en -gine list ings at the DevMaster website (www.devmaster.net).



World War II and the Viet nam War are very pop u lar set tings for wargames. More thana dozen World War II video games have been re leased in re cent years, and 2004 was inmany ways the year of Viet nam with no less than three Viet nam wargames hit tingstore shelves within weeks of each other.

With each new re lease, the chal lenge for game de vel op ers is to keep their pe riod shoot -ers fresh. To this end, World War II games have led play ers through the oc cu pied vil -lages of France, chal lenged gamers to root out snip ers in built-up cit ies such asSta lin grad, pit ted play ers against each other in the desert re gions of North Af rica, andlanded gamers in the mid dle of the D-Day in va sion, among other sce nar ios.

Have video games milked all they can from World War II, the Viet nam War, and otherhis tor i cal cam paigns? Some video game jour nal ists would seem to think so, but justthen an other World War II or Viet nam game co mes along that ups the ante with a newtake on a his toric bat tle.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents pro pose a new mis sion for an ex ist ing World War II– orViet nam-based wargame. They draw their idea from an ac tual his tor i cal cam paign orsce nario that oc curred dur ing the war.

Ac tiv ity

This ac tiv ity is ide ally com pleted as an exit pro ject for a his tory unit about World WarII, the Viet nam War, or an other his tor i cal con flict.

Hav ing re searched sev eral of the most fa mous bat tles that oc curred dur ing the war,chal lenge the stu dents to work in pairs as they flesh out a gameplay sce nario that is setdur ing the war they have stud ied.

Pos si ble sce nar ios for World War II in clude: the In va sion of Po land, the Bat tle forFrance, the Bat tle of Brit ain, the North Af ri can Cam paign, the Bal kans Cam paign, theEast ern Front, the At tack on Pearl Har bor, the Bat tle of Sta lin grad, the Ital ian Cam -paign, the D-Day In va sion, and the Bat tle of the Bulge.

As they re search their gameplay sce nar ios, en cour age the stu dents to col lect in for ma -tion re lated to the lo ca tion(s) of their cho sen bat tles; the weap ons, ve hi cles, and tech -nol o gies de ployed; the chro nol ogy of the bat tles; the num ber of sol diers en gaged,killed, and in jured; and other per ti nent in for ma tion.

96

ÄHistorical Campaign

Most World War II video games fo cus on the her o ism of the Amer i can, Brit ish, Ger -man, and/or So viet forces. As they choose a sce nario to fo cus on, en cour age the stu -dents to fore ground the con tri bu tions of sol diers from other na tions, such as Aus tra lia,Can ada, and China.

To close this ac tiv ity, have the stu dents pre pare poster boards that ex plain thegameplay sce nar ios they have come up with. Re quire each poster board to in clude amap of the the ater of op er a tions, in for ma tion about each side in the con flict, a chro nol -ogy of the bat tle, a list of the weap ons used, and other rel e vant in for ma tion.

Dis cus sion

Al though World War II and the Viet nam War are by far the most pop u lar set tings forhis tor i cal wargames, there are also many other con flicts that could make for com pel -ling video game ti tles, in clud ing World War I, the Ko rean War, the Gulf War, and theWar in Iraq, as well as var i ous UN peace keep ing op er a tions around the world.

A few of these con flicts have been chron i cled in lesser known video games, but manyoth ers (e.g., the Ko rean War) have not. As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dentsto pro pose a brand-new video game that is set in a his tor i cal or pres ent-day con flictthat is as of yet un tapped by game de vel op ers.



For the Broth ers in Arms se ries of World War II video games, the de vel op ers ac cu ratelymod eled the farm steads, vil lages, and built-up ar eas of the pe riod. They also aimed for au -

then tic ity in the sol diers’ uni forms and weap ons.

Some video games are set in puz zle worlds all their own, while oth ers take place in fan -tasy en vi ron ments in some far off dis tant fu ture. This ac tiv ity fo cuses on video gamesthat are set in his tor i cally ac cu rate real-world lo ca tions that aim for au then tic ity in thegame world in which the player is im mersed.

One such game is the crit i cally ac claimed Broth ers in Arms se ries, a Ma ture-ratedWorld War II tac ti cal shooter fran chise that is set in the ac tual French vil lages andcoun try side where al lied and axis forces en gaged each other in bat tle.

In plan ning the Broth ers in Arms games, the de vel op ers combed the Na tional Ar chives in search of old pho to graphs, maps, and first-per son ac counts of the French towns andfarm steads they in tended to model. The ter rain of the ac tual vil lages was also sur veyed in per son by a team of de sign ers. On line pre views of the first Broth ers in Arms gameshow com par a tive be fore and af ter pho tos of the orig i nal build ings and the near iden ti -cal build ings mod eled in the game it self.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents com pare and con trast his tor i cally ac cu rate video game en -vi ron ments with pho to graphs and de scrip tions of the same real-world set tings.

98

ÄHistorical Place Analysis

Ac tiv ity

Pro vide the stu dents with a se lec tion of screenshots from a World War II video gamethat strives for au then tic ity in terms of its vir tual en vi ron ments. Also pro vide the stu -dents with ac tual pho to graphs of the bat tle fields, cit ies, vil lages, and countrysideswhere World War II was fought. Many World War II pho to graphs are readily avail able on line and in books.

Ask the stu dents to per form a com par a tive anal y sis of the his tor i cal pho to graphs andthe video game screenshots. How ac cu rate are the screenshots to the real-world en vi -ron ments they are mod eled af ter? Are the types of build ings and struc tures in thescreenshots in keep ing with the types of build ings and struc tures found in the his tor i cal pho to graphs? Do the ar chi tec tural styles and ma te rial makeup of the real-world andvir tual en vi ron ments match up? Is the choice of tex tures for the video game en vi ron -ments ap pro pri ate for the lo ca tions?

Per form the com par a tive anal y sis as a full class, or in stead ask the stu dents to form smallgroups and pres ent their find ings to the class along with the ac com pa ny ing vi su als.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can be adapted to fo cus on other mil i tary con flicts such as the Viet nam orGulf War, as well as non-war video game sce nar ios.

In ad di tion to study ing a se lec tion of his tor i cal pho to graphs, ask the stu dents to per -form a com par a tive anal y sis of his tor i cal and mod ern-day pho to graphs of the same orsim i lar set tings. Ask the stu dents to list the sim i lar i ties and dif fer ences they see interms of the types of struc tures, ar chi tec tural styles, de sign mo tifs, build ing ma te ri als,and other vi sual el e ments. How has the his tor i cal set ting changed in the in ter ven ingyears? How has the size and ma te rial makeup of the build ings changed over time?What ev i dence, if any, re mains of the his tor i cal set ting in the mod ern-day pho to graph?


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleThe Con ven tion for the Pro tec tion of

Vir tual Ar chi tec tural Her i tage

by Mario Gerosa, with the col lab o ra tion of Sam Shahrani

Since the Re nais sance there has been a strong de sire for ideal cit ies and imag i nary ar -chi tec ture. They of ten were ide al is tic and uto pian vi sions that traced new di rec tionsfor ar chi tec ture. Some were avant-garde ar chi tec tural pro jects, while oth ers re flectedthe so cial as pi ra tions of a par tic u lar cul ture.


From the paint ing of La città ideale in the Urbino Pa laz zo Ducale to the draw ings ofLequeu and Sant’Elia, these pa per and can vas rep re sen ta tions of ar chi tec ture tell us agreat deal about a his tor i cal pe riod.

Now there is a new form of ideal ar chi tec ture, that of video games, ei ther sin gle playeror multiplayer net worked video games. This ar chi tec ture is not phys i cal and in deed isim ma te rial but these con struc tions are not com pletely imag i nary, as they can be con -sid ered a form of ar chi tec tural draw ings. In a cer tain sense, they ex ist as real ar chi tec -ture, but not on a nor mal phys i cal plane. They ex ist only in side the com put ers that runthem, and the stor age me dia that con tain their data.

In par tic u lar, in the last de cade many new syn thetic worlds have been born, the socalled MMOG (Mas sively Multiplayer On line Games) and MMORPGS (Mas sivelyMultiplayer On line Role-play ing Games). In these new worlds one can find many newforms of ar chi tec ture. Some are based on de signs that re call the ar chi tec tural forms ofreal life; there are also worlds of a wholly orig i nal style.

For this rea son, they are orig i nal and evo lu tion ary ex pres sions of art and must be pre -served. In fact, in these worlds, there is an in tense and cha otic ur ban de vel op ment,largely un con trolled by any form of au thor ity, and there is the risk that ar chi tec ture and en vi ron ments cre ated to pop u late these worlds will dis ap pear and be lost for ever.

At first glance, the ar chi tec ture of syn thetic worlds is more ab stract than the pa perblue prints and rep re sen ta tions of tra di tional ar chi tec ture, but in fact they are just asreal, be cause peo ple live in and in ter act with these con structs just as they do in the realworld, though in a man ner re flect ing the dif fer ences be tween real-world and syn thetic- world.

Tra di tional draw ings and rep re sen ta tions of imag i nary ar chi tec ture are not in hab ited,and thus are static be yond changes that the orig i nal de signer may make. The vir tual ar -chi tec ture of video games, par tic u larly MMOG’s, ei ther are or have the po ten tial to becon stantly evolv ing. The ar chi tec ture of sin gle player games is also de pend ent on thepeo ple who play them and sub ject to mod i fi ca tion and ad di tion by these same play ers.

Here is a cru cial point: some will say that we don’t need a con ven tion for the pro tec tion of the vir tual ar chi tec tural her i tage be cause video games are al ready col lected by some in sti tu tions that keep a copy of ev ery video game pub lished, sim i lar to mov ies, etc.There is, how ever, a strong dif fer ence: here we don’t re fer to the video game it self as awhole cre ative prod uct, but rather to the ar chi tec ture and en vi ron ments con tainedwithin the video games. They rep re sent valid and new aes thet i cal forms that re flect thespirit of our time. They are also an ex am ple of the new di rec tions taken by con tem po -rary ar chi tec ture.

A cen tral con cept for the ar chi tec ture of video games is that they are part of the ac tion.They live to gether with the char ac ters. They are of ten the at ri cal ar chi tec ture, withtraps, mov ing walls, and pit falls etc. They re spond to ev ery move of the player: in thatway, they are liv ing, or ganic crea tures. But they also live be cause they are vis ited, ad -mired and in ter acted with by peo ple.


The first prob lem is to de ter mine what ar chi tec ture and en vi ron ments are wor thy of be -ing pre served. In fact, not all the ar chi tec ture of video games is in ter est ing, and wemust de fine some aes thetic rules. These rules do not nec es sar ily need to re flect therules ap plied to art and ar chi tec ture in the real world. It is a whole new form of ar chi -tec ture, with its own chro nol ogy and some new typologies.

The ar chi tec ture of video games is not nec es sar ily the same as that of the phys i calworld. In gen eral we find some fairly di ver gent ar chi tec ture. Here are some of the most re cur ring ar chi tec tural typologies:

¸ of fices

¸ sci en tific lab o ra to ries

¸ space bases

¸ for tresses

¸ cav erns

¸ ware houses and other stor age fa cil i ties

Def i ni tion of the Vir tual Ar chi tec tural Her i tage

For the pur poses of this con ven tion, here are the prop er ties to be pre served.

Mon u ments: All build ings and struc tures of ar tis tic in ter est. In this group there are: houses, ho tels, re sorts, dis cos, bars, night clubs, mad doc tors’ lab o ra to ries, re gen er a tion points,teleporters, lab y rinths, space bases, air con di tion ing sys tems, churches, and cas tles etc.

Sites: Ar eas that are top o graph i cally de fin able and have a spe cial in ter est ei ther for so -cial or ar tis tic rea sons or for the gameplay.

We should con sider ini tially doc u ment ing des ig nated sites with high-qual ityscreenshots from mul ti ple an gles. We should also in clude, if nec es sary, in for ma tionon where in-game the screenshots were taken.

Ide ally, we would also seek to col lect raw mod els, tex tures, and other data for thestruc tures, al low ing closer study on de mand, out side the con text and gameplay lim i ta -tions of a spe cific game.

The ideal so lu tion would be to cre ate a sort of “dig i tal ar chi tec ture mu seum,” whereinpeo ple could walk around and through ex act rec re ations of the dig i tal ar chi tec ture.

For ma tion of a Sci en tific Com mit tee for the Pro tec tion of Vir tual Her i tage

We should de fine a sci en tific com mit tee to de ter mine an aes thetic for video games, sothat peo ple can un der stand and eval u ate what ob jects and en vi ron ments are re ally in -ter est ing ar chi tec ture. This in ter na tional com mit tee could in clude art his to ri ans, ar chi -tects, game de sign ers, and video games art di rec tors.


Iden ti fi ca tion of the Her i tage

The sci en tific com mit tee will also pre pare an in ven tory of the most rel e vant places, ar chi tec ture, and en vi ron ments in MMOGS, a sort of at las that will be con stantlyup dated.

We should not limit our selves just to the struc tures that ex ist within a game world, butalso in clude the en tire gamespace. That is, if it’s part of the world ar chi tec ture, be itland scape, struc ture, model, crea ture, or sound ef fect, we should en deavor to rec re ateand cap ture it.

End of a World

In the case of a vir tual world that is closed by the de vel oper or pub lisher, a dig i tal ar -chive of the vir tual en vi ron ments of that world should be pre pared, al low ing rec re ation of the world on non-of fi cial serv ers for the pur pose of study. Al ter nately, a pro gramcould be de vel oped that would al low ex plo ra tion of the world it self on an in di vid ualcom puter with out the need to con nect to a larger world.

There should also be as much doc u men ta tion made of the “live” world as pos si ble, in -clud ing mov ies and screenshots with de scrip tions. The pro tec tion of sin gle playerworlds is more straight for ward, since all that is needed is a valid and up-to-date copyof the game. In or der to fa cil i tate this, when a game reaches a cer tain age, a noncopy-pro tected ver sion of the ti tle should be made avail able to ar chi vists, al low ing forthe dis tri bu tion and play of the ti tle when it is no lon ger a com pet i tive com mer cialprod uct and/or the agreed upon time limit af ter re lease has passed.

About the Au thors: Mario Gereosa is the Ed i tor-in-Chief of Ar chi tec tural Di gest It alyand the au thor of Mondi Virtuali (Castelvecchi, 2006), a book about vir tual worlds.Sam Shahrani is a Mas ter’s can di date at In di ana Uni ver sity.

Source: Gerosa, Mario and Shahrani, Sam. 2006. The con ven tion for the pro tec tion ofvir tual ar chi tec tural her i tage. Mario Gerosa Blog. July 7. (Abridged) URL: http://mariogerosa.blogspot.com/2006/07/con ven tion-is-back.html


1. Do you agree with the au thors’ view that so ci ety should pre serve the dig i tal ar chi -tec ture found in video games? Why or why not?

2. What are some of the chal lenges that ar chi vists might face in pre serv ing the dig i -tal worlds of video games?


As graphics tech nol o gies grow ever more com plex, so does the in tri cacy of the weapon and vehicle mod els fea tured in his tor i cal wargames. This Pan zer Tank is drivable in Call of Duty 3.

As ev ery gamer knows, weap ons lie at the heart of any good shoot ing game. Somevideo games boast fu tur is tic weap ons that are born solely out of a de vel oper’s imag i -na tion. Other games fo cus on con tem po rary or near-fu ture weap ons that are cur rentlyin use (or be ing prototyped) by mil i tary forces around the world.

Still other games aim for au then tic ity in their choice of his tor i cal weap onry. Videogames that are set dur ing World War II, for ex am ple, likely fea ture the M1A1 Car bineand Brown ing Au to matic Ri fle that were in com mon use by U.S. forces at the time.Sim i larly, Viet nam-based video games are likely to fea ture the AK-47 and M60 Ma -chine Gun, as well as var i ous de vices for rig ging jun gle-based booby traps.

103

ÄHistorical Weaponry

Not only should the his tor i cal weap onry in video games look just like their real-worldcoun ter parts, they ide ally should also func tion in much the same way. For ex am ple, ari fle’s sim u lated weight, han dling, and re coil should be sim i lar to that ex pe ri enced bysol diers who han dled the gun in the real world. More over, the ri fle’s am mu ni tion ca -pac ity, re load time, rate of fire, and weapon’s range should be as re al is tic as pos si ble.

In de sign ing au then tic video games, many de vel op ers field test the ac tual weap ons that will be fea tured in the game. This gives them a real-world feel for what it is like to holda pis tol, ri fle, or ma chine gun and fire off sev eral rounds.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re search the his tory of a weapon that is fea tured in a World War II– or Viet nam-based video game.

Ac tiv ity

As part of a unit on World War II or the Viet nam War, ask each stu dent to re search aweapon that was in com mon use dur ing the war. Each stu dent can choose a his tor i calweapon that is fea tured in a fa vor ite World War II– or Viet nam-based video game orin stead pick a weapon from a list that has been pro vided by the teacher.

As part of their re search, ask each stu dent to clas sify the weapon they have cho sen(e.g., side arm, ri fle, or ex plo sive de vice), draw and la bel a scale model of the weapon,and list the weapon’s prop er ties, in clud ing its weight, am mu ni tion ca pac ity, re loadtime, rate of fire, range, and so on.

If all of the stu dents fill out the same tem plate, a ref er ence book can be cre ated that lists the de tails for all of the weap ons that were in com mon use dur ing the war. This bookcan then be used a shared re source for fur ther re search on the war in class.

Dis cus sion

In ad di tion to small arms weap ons, en cour age the stu dents to re search large ve hic u larweap ons such as tanks, air planes, and sub ma rines.

Keep in mind that Al lied and Axis forces re lied on dif fer ent weap ons dur ing World WarII. En cour age the stu dents to re search the weap ons used by each side in a armed con flict.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to per form a com par a tive anal y sis of the his tor i -cal weap ons they have re searched and their mod ern-day equiv a lents, as used to day bymil i tary forces around the world. Are some of the weap ons that were in com mon usedur ing past wars still in use to day? What new weap ons have re cently been in tro duced tothe bat tle field, and what ad van tages do they hold over the ag ing weap ons they re place?

Use this ac tiv ity as a launch ing point for a dis cus sion about the na ture of war fare dur -ing World War II or the Viet nam War com pared with to day. New and emerg ing tech -nol o gies re lated to ro bot ics, tele com mu ni ca tions, and sat el lite sur veil lance arechang ing the way mod ern wars are fought. Dis cuss with stu dents the mer its of thesetech no log i cal de vel op ments.



Have you ever read a video game or movie re view and con cluded that the re viewer hasno idea what he or she is talk ing about? It is some times sur pris ing how widely di ver gentopin ions can be when it co mes to mov ies, games, books, and many other things as well.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write a re sponse to a neg a tive re view of a video game theyen joyed.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to each choose a fa vor ite video game that has not faired too well in the eyes of crit ics or other gamers. As sign each stu dent the task of read ing the print and/oron line re views for their cho sen game, in clud ing the of ten can did user re views in on line fo rums.

Ask the stu dents to write a re sponse to one or two of the neg a tive re views they havefound. Their re sponse should ad dress each of the crit i cisms made by the re view ers. A

105

ÄI Beg to Dif fer

Most video games fail to sur pass the hype that pre cedes their re lease. Gears of War,

the 2006 win ner of many Game of the Year awards, is a rare ex cep tion.

stu dent can choose to chal lenge each crit i cism (and of fer con trary ev i dence to sup porttheir opin ion) or in stead con cede the point.

This ac tiv ity can be com pleted as an open-ended writ ing as sign ment or in stead re -quire the stu dents to com plete a worksheet that com prises claim and re sponse sec -tions (e.g., “re viewer’s crit i cism” and “stu dent’s re sponse”) for each of the neg a tivepoints in a re view.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can also be re versed. Ask each stu dent to write a re view re sponse for avideo game they loath but that has re ceived stel lar re views in the press.

Most video game websites, such as GameSpot (www.gamespot.com), in vite gamers to con trib ute their own re views and/or pro vide feed back in re sponse to a website’s of fi -cial re view of a video game. Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, en cour age those stu dents who arein ter ested to sub mit their re view re sponses to the user fo rums of the orig i nal websitesthat pub lished the re views they are critiquing. In the days that fol low, ask the stu dentsto track the re sponses to their re view in the on line fo rums.



Al though not as pop u lar as they once were, val ues clar i fi ca tion ac tiv i ties were oncecom monly used to teach so cial stud ies. Stu dents would be asked to re flect on their per -sonal be liefs and val ues as they made de ci sions about hy po thet i cal moral di lem mas orranked a list of val ues ac cord ing to per sonal pri or ity.

This ac tiv ity is a carryover of the val ues clar i fi ca tion ap proach. It asks the stu dents tobrain storm a list of per sonal be liefs re lated to video games.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write an I Be lieve poem about video games that com prisesten be lief state ments.

Ac tiv ity

If the can did com ments in on line user fo rums are any in di ca tion, many gamers havestrong be liefs about video games. So do many non-gamers. Ask the gamers andnon-gamers in your class to each write an I Be lieve poem that ex presses their per sonalbe liefs about video games.

An I Be lieve poem has ten lines, each of which be gins with the phrase “I be lieve …”Have each stu dent com plete each of the ten phrases with a per sonal be lief state mentabout video games.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to pres ent their I Be lieve po ems to the class.Do the stu dents share a com mon set of val ues when it co mes to video games, or is there a wide di ver gence in the kinds of be lief state ments the stu dents have ex pressed?

Dis cus sion

Here is an ex am ple I Be lieve poem that you may wish to share with stu dents:

I be lieve there should be cheats for ev ery video game.

I be lieve we should be able to save our prog ress at any point in a video game.

I be lieve mov ies that are in spired by video games should be out lawed.

I be lieve video games can have both pos i tive and neg a tive in flu ences on gamers.

107

ÄI Be lieve

I be lieve stu dents can learn a lot from video games.

I be lieve teach ers should be en cour aged to talk with stu dents about video games inclass.

I be lieve kids should be en cour aged to write about the video games they play.

I be lieve kids should be en cour aged to de sign their own video games.

I be lieve gamers should play video games for no more than one hour a day.

I be lieve in turn ing off my video game con sole and go ing out side to play.

To ex tend this ac tiv ity fur ther, ask the class to group the doz ens of I Be lieve state ments they have writ ten into cat e go ries. What is the most pop u lar I Be lieve cat e gory? What is the least pop u lar? Have the stu dents tally and graph the re sults of their cat e go ri za tionef forts and then per form more sta tis ti cal anal y ses.

In ad di tion to video games and other “con sump tive” prac tices, I Be lieve po ems canalso fo cus on top ics that have a some what more re deem ing value, such hol i day be liefs(e.g., Thanksgiving), moral val ues (e.g., help ing oth ers), and ef forts to pro mote worldpeace (e.g., learn ing about other cul tures). Here is an ex am ple I Be lieve poem that ex -presses such sen ti ments:

I be lieve in learn ing about the world around me.

I be lieve in watch ing the news ev ery night.

I be lieve in pro mot ing di a log across cul tures.

I be lieve in pro tect ing the en vi ron ment and other spe cies.

I be lieve in help ing oth ers less for tu nate than my self.

I be lieve in get ting to know peo ple from other na tions.

I be lieve in pro tect ing re li gious free dom around the world.

I be lieve in peace ful pro test as a means for so cial change.

I be lieve in war only as a last re sort.

I be lieve in con sid er ing how my ac tions to day will af fect fu ture gen er a tions.



ODis cus sion Ar ti cleCon tra dic tions

by Rich ard Bartie

Here’s some thing that’s been both er ing me for a while about com puter games in gen -eral and vir tual worlds in par tic u lar.

For many years, sug ges tions have been made by pol i ti cians and in the me dia that thereis a link be tween the play ing of com puter games and the com mit ting of acts ofreal-world vi o lence. They feel that if you play a vi o lent com puter game, it teaches youto be vi o lent in real life. Game-savvy peo ple like us will typ i cally re gard these opin -ions as founded on ig no rance and ar gue that they should not be given cre dence.

One of the larger sub-branches of game re search con cerns ed u ca tional gam ing. Itsprem ise is that kids don’t al ways like tra di tional teach ing meth ods, but they lovegames, so we should de sign games that help teach them things. That way, learn ing willbe fun, so chil dren will want to learn.

Now, isn’t there a con tra dic tion here? On the one hand, we’re say ing that no no no,games don’t teach peo ple all those bad things, but on the other hand we’re say ing thatyes yes yes, games do teach peo ple all these good things. Can we re ally sus tain both ofthese po si tions? Is there some thing about how games teach (or how peo ple learn) thatgen u inely does sep a rate de sir able from un de sir able re sults? Or are we chang ing ourstory de pend ing on whether we’re be ing threat ened with ban ning or be ing prom isedku dos?

About the Au thor: Rich ard Bartie is the au thor of De sign ing Vir tual Worlds (New Rid -ers, 2003) and a reg u lar con trib u tor to the Terranova blog (www.terranova.blogs.com).

Source: Bartie, Rich ard. 2005. Con tra dic tions. Terranova. June 3. URL: http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2005/06/con tra dic tions_.html


1. Do you agree with the au thor’s view that there is a con tra dic tion in how videogame pro po nents judge the pos i tive ver sus neg a tive in flu ences of video games?

2. How can the con tra dic tion iden ti fied by the au thor be re solved? (Hint: Check outthe Henry Jenkins dis cus sion ar ti cle lo cated else where in this book.)


Open world games (some times re ferred to as “sandbox games”) are one of the mostpop u lar gen res of video games. They typ i cally fea ture non-lin ear gameplay, the abil ity to roam the game world freely any way the player chooses, un scripted in ter ac tion withnon-player char ac ters (NPCs), and a liv ing, breath ing city, coun try side, or fan tasy en -vi ron ment to ex plore.

Sadly, many of the most pop u lar open world video games—most no ta bly the in fa mous Grand Theft Auto se ries—are in ap pro pri ate for chil dren. Many fea ture overt sex ualthemes, gang vi o lence, drug use, and ex ces sive pro fan ity. Some even re ward as saultsagainst the po lice. Not sur pris ingly, such ti tles are among the most con tro ver sial videogames on the market.

Yet that doesn’t mean open world video games per se can’t be ap pro pri ate for chil dren. Just the con tent and gameplay needs to change—not the open world for mat that de -fines the genre. In stead of reck lessly driv ing cars around the city, stu dents can betasked with the chal lenge of bik ing or skate board ing around town, all the while pay ingat ten tion to the rules of the road (and get ting pe nal ized for not do ing so). Sim i larly,stu dents can take on odd jobs, such as re turn ing a li brary book in re cord time or mak -ing change at the corner store.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents take back the streets as they de sign a vi brant, kid-friendlycity where there are lots of things to do.

Ac tiv ity

Dis cuss with stu dents (in a gen eral way) a few of the con tro ver sies sur round ing theGrand Theft Auto se ries and other open world video games that fea ture overt vi o lenceand il le gal ac tiv ity. Al ter na tively, in tro duce stu dents to a few of the open world driv -ing games that are some what more ap pro pri ate for a youn ger au di ence (e.g., The Simp -sons: Hit & Run).

Also in tro duce stu dents to the open world gameplay me chan ics that are fea tured insuch ti tles. Play ers can go any where; travel by foot, car, mo tor cy cle, boat, or plane; en -ter build ings; in ter act with other char ac ters; com plete var i ous side mis sions; take onchal lenges; and find se crets hid den through out the gameplay world.

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ÄKid-friendlyGrand Theft Auto

Tell the stu dents that it is time for them to take back the streets. In vite them to sug gestways in which RockStar (the de vel oper of the Grand Theft Auto se ries) and other video game de vel op ers can adapt the gameplay they have honed so well for adult gamers tosuit the fun things that kids like to do. Work ing in small groups, ask the stu dents tobrain storm as many gameplay tasks as they can think of that would suit a kid-friendlyver sion of an open world game.

Dis cus sion

Here are just a few of the kid-friendly open world tasks the stu dents might wish tocon sider:

¸ fol low ing the rules of the road as they bike from one end of the city to theother

¸ skate board ing in des ig nated skate board parks around the city

¸ vis it ing a res tau rant, fash ion store, or hair sa lon

¸ plan ning the quick est (or saf est) route from Point A to Point B

¸ buy ing candy and mak ing change in a cor ner store

¸ vis it ing a bank to de posit or with draw their al low ance

¸ man ag ing a bud get for their pur chases

¸ bor row ing a book from the pub lic li brary

¸ tak ing on the role of a firefighter or para medic in putt ing out a fire or help ingsome one who is in jured

¸ play ing a pick-up game of bas ket ball or street hockey

¸ de liv er ing news pa pers or other items to var i ous lo ca tions in re cord time

¸ pick ing up a list of in gre di ents for a meal they will cook

¸ play ing hide and go seek

¸ build ing a tree house or fort

¸ run ning a mar a thon through the city streets

¸ trad ing base ball cards, comic books, and other col lect ables

¸ clean ing up their bed room in re cord time


Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, con sider send ing the list of kid-friendly open world tasks thestu dents have brainstormed to RockStar and other pub lish ers. Have the class pre pare acover let ter that po litely re quests a re ply. Your stu dents may be sur prised by how ap -pre cia tive the de vel op ers are of the feed back and sug ges tions they have received.


Grand Theft Auto is ar gu ably the most con tro ver sial and in fa mous videogame fran chise ever. With le gions of fans, it is also one of the most pop u lar and com mer cially suc cess ful.


Mil i tary ge og ra phy is a subdiscipline of ge og ra phy that gets very lit tle at ten tion inK–12 schools, even though it pres ents teach ers with a nat u ral bridge be tween the phys -i cal ge og ra phy cur ric u lum and the his tor i cal bat tles stu dents study in history class.

Mil i tary ge og ra phy fo cuses on the im por tant role that land forms, wa ter sys tems, soilcon di tions, and weather all play in mil i tary en gage ments. (There are also branches ofcul tural and po lit i cal mil i tary ge og ra phy.) As com mand ers plan and carry out theirmil i tary cam paigns, they need to take the lay of the land into con sid er ation lest theirforces get bogged down in a fight by hos tile geo graphic con di tions. Phys i cal land -forms and river sys tems also pro vide trans por ta tion routes, nat u ral cover and con ceal -ment, overwatch and sur veil lance po si tions, as well as rally points where units canmeet up and camp.

All of these fac tors are es sen tial, not only to the plan ning of bat tles in the real world,but also to the de sign of wargames, in clud ing first-per son shoot ers and mil i tary strat -egy games. To nav i gate an en gage ment area suc cess fully, play ers need to know the lay of the land, what nat u ral fea tures pro vide the most ef fec tive cover and con ceal ment,and the best overwatch po si tions. Game de vel op ers also need to take these points intocon sid er ation as they design the maps for a wargame.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents cre ate a top o graphic map of a fic tional bat tle field that fea -tures sev eral of the land forms they have stud ied in class.

Ac tiv ity

As part of a phys i cal ge og ra phy unit, as sign small groups of stu dents the cu mu la tivetask of de sign ing a top o graphic re lief map of an unpopulated fic tional lo ca tion. Askthe stu dents to cre ate a la beled two-di men sional con tour map or a three-di men sionalre lief map us ing plasticine or mod el ing clay. Their maps can in clude hills and moun -tains, flatlands, veg e ta tion and brush, for ested ar eas, wide open spaces, wa ter bod ies,and other topographic features.

As they cre ate their map, ask the stu dents to look at the map from the van tage point of a mil i tary com mander. How might a com mander take the lay of the land into con sid er -ation in plan ning of fen sive and/or de fen sive mil i tary op er a tions? En cour age the stu -dents to take into ac count the need for cover and con ceal ment, safe ap proach routes,

113

ÄLay of the Land

ideal sur veil lance po si tions, fresh wa ter sources for drink ing, and other geographicconsiderations.

Once they have cre ated and la beled their re lief maps with the names of each landformand the mil i tary pur poses to which each might ide ally be put, ask the stu dents to sharetheir top o graphic maps with the rest of the class.

Dis cus sion

Dis cuss the hobby of wargaming with stu dents. Al though vir tual wargaming is asubgenre of turn-based and real-time strat egy video games, tra di tional wargamers in -stead opt to play out the his tor i cal bat tles they rec re ate on the real-world bat tle fieldmod els they de sign and build (of ten in the base ments or spare bed rooms of theirhomes). Each and ev ery quad rant of the ter rain is care fully re con structed as are the sol -dier fig u rines, trees, brush, and build ings that pop u late the bat tle field. Tra di tionalwargaming is truly a la bor of love that of ten re quires years of devotion and plenty ofpatience.


Most strat egy games fea ture a top-down view of the bat tle field ac tion. In Com mand & Con -quer: Gen er als, play ers need to take both the built and nat u ral en vi ron ments into con sid er -ation when re po si tion ing units on the bat tle field.


The city of Las Ve gas, as en vi sioned by Tom Clancy’s Rain bow Six: Ve gas, is a rel a tively new set ting for an ac tion game. Other pop u lar U.S. des ti na tions in clude Los An geles, New York,and San Fran cisco.

Some video games are set in puz zle worlds all their own, while oth ers are set in fan tasyen vi ron ments in some far-off place or fu ture world. This ac tiv ity fo cuses on a thirdcat e gory—video games that are set in real-world lo ca tions around the world.

Pop u lar real-world lo ca tions for video games in clude the cit ies of Los An geles andNew York, as well as Lon don, Paris, and To kyo. Ev ery con ti nent (in clud ingAntarctica) has been rep re sented in some way in one or more video games.

In deed, many video games take play ers to a wide va ri ety of lo cales as the mis sionsprog ress. This helps to vary the en vi ron ments in which the gameplay oc curs. In a sin -gle ac tion game, for ex am ple, mis sions may take place in the United States, Eu rope,the Mid dle East, Asia, and elsewhere.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents use a wall map of the world to plot the real-world lo ca tions in which their fa vor ite video games are set.

115

ÄMap of the World

Ac tiv ity

Mount a wall map of the world on a bul le tin board in the class room. Over the course ofthe school year, ask the stu dents to use thumb tacks to pin point the cit ies, re gions, andlo cales where the real-world ac tion in the video games they play occurs.

La bel each thumb tack with the name of the video game with which it is as so ci ated. For those video games that take play ers to mul ti ple des ti na tions over the course of thegame, use a piece of yarn to con nect the var i ous des ti na tions in the or der that play erstravel to them.

At the mid point of the school year (or once a va ri ety of lo ca tions have been plot ted onthe wall map), have the stu dents form small re search groups. As sign each group thetask of re search ing one of the plot ted lo ca tions on the map. For the lo ca tion they are re -search ing, ask the stu dents to fo cus on sev eral of the ma jor themes in phys i cal and hu -man ge og ra phy, such as to pog ra phy, cli mate, re sources, eco nom ics, food, dress, andother cultural characteristics.

How closely does the re search the stu dents have con ducted match up with the rep re -sen ta tion of these lo ca tions in the video games the stu dents have played? Do thereal-world and video game lo ca tions look sim i lar to each other? Do the res i dents dresssim i larly? Does the to pog ra phy in the video game match up with the phys i cal ge og ra -phy of the real-world location?

Dis cus sion

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to each choose a real-world city or re -gion that, to the best of their knowl edge, has not been fea tured in a video game. As signeach stu dent the task of writ ing a short pro posal for a new game that is set in this lo ca -tion. (As an added chal lenge, ask each stu dent to choose a city or re gion ran domly outof a hat.)

In com plet ing this ac tiv ity ex ten sion, en cour age the stu dents to re search the phys i caland cul tural con di tions of the cit ies or re gions they have cho sen. For ex am ple, thegameplay that is likely to oc cur in a tem per ate cli mate will be far dif fer ent from thatwhich oc curs in a colder re gion. Sim i larly, the ar chi tec tural style, cul tural at trac tions,and lo cal dress of a re gion will largely de ter mine the makeup of the game world andthe cloth ing worn by ci vil ians. So too, the po lit i cal, eco nomic, and se cu rity con di tionsof the cho sen lo ca tion are apt to have im por tant im pli ca tions for the storyline andmission goals of the game.



If there is one thing young peo ple are into more than video games and com put ers, it ismu sic. MP3 down loads, the Ap ple iPod, and the lat est CD re leases are all the rage and,along with fash ion trends, form much of the ba sis of youth cul ture.

Yet even here there is a cross over be tween the most pop u lar mu sic groups and thesongs that are fea tured in video games. Many mu si cal art ists li cense their songs for in -clu sion in video games, es pe cially driv ing games in which races are of ten ac com pa -nied by up-tempo musical tracks.

The li censed mu si cal tracks for cer tain video games have even helped pre vi ously un -known in de pend ent art ists gain a foot hold in the mu sic in dus try and a world wide fol -low ing over the Web.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents cri tique the li censed mu si cal mix that is fea tured in a videogame.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to each choose a fa vor ite video game that fea tures sev eral li censedmu si cal tracks. As sign them the task of writ ing a re view of the mu sic mix. Their re -view should note the size of the playlist, the best and worst songs, the mu si cal genre(s)that are showcased most prom i nently, and the ap pro pri ate ness of the tracks to thestyle(s) of gameplay fea tured in the video game.

As they com plete their re views, ask the stu dents to also note any in-game op tions thaten hance the lis ten ing ex pe ri ence, such as ran dom play and cus tom sound track sup port, the lat ter of which al lows gamers to pro gram their own mu si cal mix us ing songs intheir CD or MP3 collection.

Dis cus sion

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to re search the pro cess by which mu -sic gets li censed for video games. Who are the stake holders in such a deal? Who getspaid? Who trans fers money to whom? How much are the typ i cal roy al ties for li censedmu sic? What mu si cal gen res are the most sought-af ter li censes for video games?

117

ÄMusic Critic

Which mu si cal art ists and groups are the cur rent fa vor ites when it co mes to licensedmusical tracks?

The type of mu sic that is li censed of ten de pends on the time pe riod in which a videogame is set. For ex am ple, ti tles that are set in the 1970s, the 1980s, or the 1990s arelikely to have very dif fer ent mu si cal mixes, each of which en hances the ex pe ri ence ofbe ing im mersed in a spe cific time pe riod. The same holds true for the lo ca tion in which a video game is set.

Con sider fo cus ing this ac tiv ity on video games that take place in a par tic u lar de cade orre gion of the world. This will pro vide both mu sic and his tory teach ers with a seam lessen try point for in tro duc ing stu dents to mu si cal styles and lyr ics that they have per hapsnot heard before.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieFlight Con trols

Pro vide the stu dents with two or more pho tos of a cock pit in a real air plane and theflight con trols in a flight sim u la tor video game. Ask the stu dents to com pare the im -ages to de ter mine how ac cu rate the sim u lated flight con trols are to the real thing.(Com put ers)


Most first-per son shoot ers in clude two ba sic modes of play: sin gle player andmultiplayer. The sin gle player mis sions typ i cally weave to gether a tightly scriptedstory in which a gamer is led through a se quence of lev els that prog ress in dif fi cultyand ad vance the sin gle player storyline to its in ev i ta ble cli max. In con trast, a shooter’smultiplayer modes typ i cally drop gamers into a wide-open en vi ron ment in which theywork alone or in teams to de feat other play ers in on line com pet i tive matches. Somemultiplayer games also of fer co op er a tive modes in which play ers work to gether todefeat computer controlled enemies.

Ask any on line gamer and they will tell you that multiplayer gam ing is where it’s at.While the scripted ar ti fi cial in tel li gence of sin gle player games is im prov ing all thetime, many gamers have the most fun on line, in ter act ing with other gamers and theran dom ness of the ex pe ri ences such hu man-to-hu man action affords.

The ba sic multiplayer mode in shoot ers is called “deathmatch.” This “ev ery man forhim self” sce nario pits each player against ev ery other player. The goal is to frag (i.e.,kill) other play ers while keep ing your own char ac ter alive for as long as pos si ble. Ifyou frag an other player, you score a point. If you are fragged, you lose a few sec ondsof valu able gameplay time be fore you respawn (i.e., ap pear again in the game). Insome deathmatch games, you don’t respawn at all but in stead sit out un til the nextround begins.

Al though deathmatch is by far the most pop u lar multiplayer mode, there are nu mer ousother modes that gamers can choose to play. It all de pends on the video game. Somegames sup port “team deathmatch” and/or “cap ture the flag” matches, while oth ers fea -ture unique multiplayer modes that are finely tuned to match the style of gameplay fea -tured in the game (e.g., stealth or squad control).

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents brain storm new multiplayer modes that com prise sets ofgameplay rules and sce nar ios for a pop u lar on line wargame.

Ac tiv ity

In vite one or more of the multiplayer gamers in the class to in tro duce the rest of theclass to the phe nom e non of on line wargaming. Fo cus on four or five of the most pop u -lar multiplayer modes fea tured in first-per son shoot ers. Clar ify with stu dents the sce -nar ios and rules of play that un der lie each mode.

119

ÄNew Multiplayer Mode

Now chal lenge the class to work in pairs and come up with their own orig i nalmultiplayer modes for a pop u lar first-per son shooter (e.g., Bat tle field or Call of Duty).En cour age the stu dents to bal ance chal leng ing sce nar ios with fun gameplay and toclar ify the rules of play as best they can.

Have each pair of stu dents pres ent the spe cif ics of their new multiplayer mode to theclass. Fol low ing the pre sen ta tions, have the stu dents vote for their fa vor ite multiplayer mode.

Dis cus sion

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, sur vey the multiplayer gamers in your class as to theirfa vor ite multiplayer modes. Ex tend the sur vey to also in clude their fa vor itemultiplayer games and/or maps. Re fer to “The Sur vey” ac tiv ity dis cussed else where in this book for more sug ges tions re lated to this activity extension.

First-per son shoot ers are not the only video games that boast unique multiplayermodes. Con sider ex pand ing this ac tiv ity to fo cus on a va ri ety of multiplayer modes, asfea tured in rac ing, strat egy, and mas sively multiplayer on line role-play ing games(e.g., World of Warcraft).



With doz ens, if not hun dreds, of video game sites on the Web pre view ing and re view -ing games and pub lish ing reg u lar news up dates, there is cer tainly no short age of dailyvideo game news.

In ad di tion to the lead ing gam ing news sites (see the list be low), there are many doz ens of third-party sites that of ten fo cus on a sin gle gam ing plat form, genre, or video gameseries.

Some PC gam ing sites es chew highly pub li cized in dus try news in fa vor of reg u lar up -dates from the mod com mu nity—groups of us ers who are mod i fy ing PC games us inggraphic de sign, 3D mod el ing, and pro gram ming tools (some times pro vided by agame’s pub lish ers). Still other sites op er ate user fo rums where gamers can dis cuss(and rant about) re cent video game news or re cently released and upcoming games.

Most websites still rely on static text and im ages to get the news across. How ever,video foot age is quickly gain ing pop u lar ity, es pe cially at ded i cated full mo tion videowebsites such as GameTrailers (www.gametrailers.com).

Tele vi sion news re port ing about video games is gen er ally rel e gated to spe cialty chan -nels and pro grams, al though the ma jor news casts on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and theca ble news chan nels do cover ma jor video game news events. Of par tic u lar in ter est totra di tional news out lets are con tro ver sial is sues re lated to video games, such as the“hot cof fee” con tro versy that em broiled the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas videogame in the summer of 2005.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents study the struc ture of a tra di tional tele vi sion news cast.They then ap ply what they have learned to the cre ation of a live news cast of their ownthat re ports on the video game news of the day.

Ac tiv ity

As as signed home work, ask the stu dents to watch a full tele vi sion broad cast of thenightly news. Pro vide each stu dent with a ques tion naire to com plete or the moreopen-ended task of tak ing free form notes on what they see. Ask the stu dents to payclose at ten tion to the struc ture of the news cast, the types of sto ries which are cov ered,the struc ture of a typ i cal news story, and the role of the an chor, re port ers, and other

121

ÄNewscast Production

pro duc tion staff (on and off cam era) in pro duc ing the news cast. Dis cuss the stu dents’find ings when they return to class the next day.

As sign stu dents the task of cre at ing their own video-game-fo cused news cast. (Forthose stu dents who are not in ter ested in video games, sug gest an al ter na tive fo cus. Afew sug ges tions are listed be low.) Di vide the class into small groups and have eachgroup de cide on a role for each mem ber (e.g., an chor, re porter, in ter viewee,videographer, or director).

Now ask the stu dents to search the Internet for some break ing video game news. (Vir -tu ally ev ery week day, there is break ing news in the world of video games.) Have thestu dents pick two or three news sto ries to cover. Each group should pre pare a script fortheir cho sen news sto ries. Once the script is ready, each mem ber of the group shouldact out his or her as signed role in dra ma tiz ing cov er age of the news story.

Once they are suf fi ciently pre pared, have each group pres ent its news cast live to theclass in the form of a play. Al ter na tively, the news casts can be vid eo taped for later ed -it ing and play back on a computer.

Dis cus sion

Be sides video games, stu dent-cre ated news casts can fo cus on any num ber of top ics,in clud ing hap pen ings in the school, in the lives of the stu dents them selves, or their take on world news or events in the lo cal com mu nity. Stu dent-cre ated news casts can alsofo cus on news from the fash ion world, pop u lar cul ture, and the en ter tain ment in dus trymore gen er ally. The stu dents can con trib ute book, movie, and video game re views tothe news casts. The pos si bil i ties are end less be cause a news cast es sen tially serves as anopen-ended frame work for cre at ing a stu dent-di rected play or video production onalmost any topic.

In de ter min ing the con tent for game-fo cused news casts, ask the stu dents to browse thelat est news at 1Up (www.1up.com), Gamasutra (www.gamasutra.com), GameSpot(www.gamespot.com), IGN (www.ign.com), and other lead ing video game websites.

In ad vance of this ac tiv ity, con sider in vit ing a tele vi sion news re porter to visit theclass. Ask the re porter to in tro duce stu dents to the pro cess of pre par ing a news item fortele vi sion broad cast (e.g., con duct ing in ter views, cap tur ing and ed it ing video foot age,and re hears ing in tro duc tory and closing comments).



ODis cus sion Ar ti cleWhy We Need a Cor po ra tion for

Pub lic Gam ing

by Da vid Rejeski

Some where be tween the sum mer of 1946, when RCA put their first black-and-whitetele vi sion sets on the mar ket, and 1951, when I Love Lucy ap peared in Amer i can liv ing rooms, tele vi sion took off. The pen e tra tion of the tech nol ogy was breath tak ing, ris ingfrom 4.4 mil lion fam i lies with TVs in 1950 to over 50 mil lion just ten years later (over85 per cent of all Amer i can homes). In 1950, with only two chan nels avail able, TVview ing time by chil dren had al ready reached 2.5 hours per day in some cit ies, prompt -ing re search ers to raise ques tions about the ef fects of this new mass me dium on the de -vel op ing per son al ity of the child as well as impacts on relationships within the family.

From the very be gin ning there were con cerns about the psy cho log i cal and so cial im -pacts of tele vi sion, and sus pi cions that TV was sim ply a tech no log i cal fun nel used tode liver ad ver tis ing into the liv ing rooms of mil lions of Amer i cans. There was sometruth to this as ser tion, since in the early days of TV, cor po ra tions lit er ally ownedshows, such as Mil ton Berle’s Tex aco Star The ater. A for mu laic ap proach to pro gram -ming gave us thirty west ern se ries by 1958 (from Gunsmoke to Have Gun—WillTravel) as well as the half-hour win dows into the ide al ized mid dle class Amer i canfam ily of Ozzie and Har riet or the Cleav ers in Leave It to Bea ver. In 1961, New tonMinow, head of the Fed eral Com mu ni ca tions Com mis sion, made his now fa mousremark comparing TV programming to a “vast wasteland.”

Though at tempts were made to cre ate al ter na tive pro gram ming free from com mer cialin flu ence, these proved dif fi cult to sus tain. A few dozen sta tions strug gled to ex ist inthe mid-1950’s, de pend ent largely on mil lions of dol lars of Ford Foun da tion fund ingfor Na tional Ed u ca tional Tele vi sion (NET), which pro vided non-com mer cial pro -gram ming to around 200 stations nationwide.

The sac cha rine sweet fam ily shows of the 50s and 60s gave way to harder bit ing so cialcom men tar ies like All in the Fam ily. In 1967, the same year that CBS tele vi sion endeda 17-year black list ing of folksinger Pete Seeger, Pres i dent John son signed leg is la tionto es tab lish the Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Broad cast ing (CPB), as sert ing that “we haveonly be gun to grasp the great prom ise of the me dium” and not ing that non com mer cialtele vi sion was reach ing only “a frac tion of its po ten tial au di ence—and a frac tion of itspo ten tial worth.” As part of the leg is la tion, the De part ment of Health, Ed u ca tion, andWel fare was to launch ma jor re search on in struc tional tele vi sion in the class room. The$9 mil lion in vest ment in CPB in 1967 (about $47 mil lion in to day’s dollars) has grown to over $300 million in annual funding today.


Un like tele vi sion, the me te oric rise of com puter and video games over the past de cadehas gone largely un no ticed ex cept by the digiteratti and cul tural an thro pol o gists cruis -ing web zines and blogs. This may be be cause games are not a tech nol ogy per se, butap pli ca tions that slip into our lives on the backs of ex ist ing tech nol o gies, from com put -ers, to tele vi sions and cell phones. They are less hard ware and more soft ware. Likemany mass cul ture phe nom ena, games are un der stood more on the ba sis of pre vail ingmyths than re al ity. Few peo ple re al ize that the av er age gamer is 30 years old, that over40 per cent are fe male, and that most adult gamers have been playing games for 12years.

One rea son myths shape pub lic per cep tions is be cause few uni ver si ties have seen com -puter games as wor thy of se ri ous ac a demic study, rob bing the dis course around gamesof ro bust data on their use char ac ter is tics, ef fects, and po ten tial value. There is, ofcourse, the an nual Con gres sio nal at tack on the game world and its den i zens, call ing for more con trol of vi o lent games and, like our TV-ad dicted forbearers, warn ing of direcon se quences to mind and fam ily. Pol i ti cians have con ve niently made com putergames a tar get of de ri sion rather than a pedagogical ally or tool for public engagement.

The best kept se cret in the world of com puter and video games is the rise of amovement—now in the thou sands—of gamers ded i cated to ap ply ing games to se ri ouschal lenges such as ed u ca tion, train ing, med i cal treat ment, or better gov ern ment. These ri ous games move ment is in many ways to day’s equiv a lent of yes ter day’s ad vo catesfor non-com mer cial, ed u ca tional TV, who knew that the po ten tial of the me dium wasun re al ized and went far be yond pure en ter tain ment.

With small amounts of foun da tion money, and a lot of sweat eq uity and in ge nu ity, ad -vo cates of se ri ous games are get ting prod ucts built and used. A fa ther with a di a beticson cre ated GlucoBoy, a handheld game that helps chil dren better man age their bloodglu cose lev els. A state sen a tor from Mas sa chu setts worked with grad u ate stu dents tocre ate MassBalance, and chal lenged peo ple to bal ance the state’s bud get on line. TheUnited Na tions World Food Pro gram re cently launched Food Force, a game with over3 mil lion play ers world wide who work to save and re build the fic tional is land ofSheylan, rav ished by drought and war. A num ber of peo ple—or their vir tualselves—come to gether in an on line, multiplayer game called Sec ond Life to help de -sign a park for Queens, New York. The in ter ac tive na ture of games, their abil ity topres ent com plex and dy namic in for ma tion, and, in creas ingly, to al low thou sands ofpeo ple to meet in so phis ti cated vir tual en vi ron ments means games can ac com plishwhat TV never could in terms of ad dress ing ed u ca tional and so cial chal lenges.

How ever, se ri ous games, like se ri ous TV, are likely to re main a sidebar in the his toryof mass me dia. Non-com mer cial tele vi sion floun dered, de spite mil lions of dol lars ofin vest ment by the Ford Foun da tion, un til the gov ern ment stepped in and cre ated a vi a -ble and long-last ing al ter na tive. With sim i lar vi sion and fore sight, and a rel a tivelysmall amount of fund ing, this could hap pen with video and computer games.

A Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Gam ing (CPG) could be es tab lished that would op er ate on amodel sim i lar to its broad cast ing equiv a lent, pro vid ing grants to de velop a di ver sity ofgames for the pub lic good. Like CPB, the goal of the CPG would be to pro vide highqual ity games, which “in form, en lighten and en rich the pub lic.” A $15 mil lion an nual


in vest ment would be made for a three-year pe riod with a re view con ducted at the endof year three fol lowed by rec om men da tions for con tin u ance, mod i fi ca tion, or ter mi na -tion of the pro gram. Grants would be made avail able to qual i fied non-profit groupswho could part ner with com mer cial game de vel op ers, uni ver si ties, mu se ums, schools,or gov ern ment en ti ties. All grants would re quire a 15 per cent set aside to sup port a rig -or ous eval u a tion of the game’s im pact. A por tion of the over all fund ing would go touni ver si ties to con duct re search on how to im prove the con tent, im pact, and eval u a tion of such games. An al ter na tive model would be to sup port se ri ous games within the ex -ist ing Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Broad cast ing, by in creas ing the ap pro pri a tion andchang ing the al lo ca tion for mula from the 75–25 percent split between television andradio to one that reflected the additional funding for games.

Granted, it would take vi sion and cour age to cre ate such an en tity, es pe cially to daywhen the con cept of pub lic broad cast ing has be come po lit i cized and com pro mised.But with out such a com mit ment to se ri ous games, we may find that in twenty years wehave man aged to cre ate an other “vast waste land” out of a prom is ing new massmedium.

About the Au thor: Da vid Rejeski is the Di rec tor of the Fore sight and Gov er nance Pro -ject at the Woodrow Wil son In ter na tional Cen ter for Schol ars in Wash ing ton, DC.

Source: Rejeski, Da vid. 2006. Why we need a cor po ra tion for pub lic gam ing. Se ri ousGames Source. April 11. URL: http://seriousgamessource.com/fea tures/fea ture_041106_pub lic_gam ing.php


1. Do you agree with the au thor’s view that we need a Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Gam -ing? Why or why not?

2. Sug gest two or three video game pro jects that the Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Gam ingshould fund.


As this book was be ing writ ten, the big three video game con sole com pa nies—Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony—were all roll ing out their en tries in the next gen er a -tion of con sole gam ing. Var i ously boast ing high-def i ni tion graphics and in no va tivemo tion con trol lers, the Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3 gam ing sys tems were lit er -ally years in the mak ing—from ini tial con cept de sign to prod uct de liv ery in retailstores around the world.

All three com pa nies faced crit i cal de ci sions re lated to the de sign of their sys tems.What fea tures and cut ting-edge tech nol o gies would their sys tem sup port? What would the con sole and ac com pa ny ing con trol ler look like in terms of shape, color, and formfac tor? What mul ti me dia func tions would the con sole sup port? What on line gam ingfea tures would play ers have ac cess to? How much would the con sole cost to make, and what would it sell for at re tail? What first- and third-party games would be ready forlaunch?

Now that the new con soles are in stores, no doubt all three com pa nies are look ing tothe fu ture and mak ing their ini tial plans for the next gen er a tion of gaming.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents pick a name and de sign a model for a next-gen er a tion gam -ing sys tem. They also brain storm a list of cut ting-edge fea tures that the sys tem willsupport.

Ac tiv ity

Work ing in small groups, chal lenge the stu dents to come up with an orig i nal de sign for a next-gen er a tion video game con sole. The stu dents will need to de cide on the newcon sole’s fea ture set, on line func tion al ity, mul ti me dia ca pa bil i ties, form fac tor, colorscheme, gamepad de sign, con nec tiv ity op tions, and many other factors.

As the de signs for their con sole be gin to crys tal lize, in vite each group to pre pare a mar -ket ing pam phlet, com plete with mouthwatering vi su als, cut ting-edge tech ni cal spec i -fi ca tions, and for ward-look ing pro mo tional text. To help get them started, pro vide thestu dents with a se lec tion of the pro mo tional ma te ri als avail able for the Playstation 3,Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles.

Ask each group to give their new con sole a name prior to un veil ing their next gen er a -tion de sign to the class.

126

ÄNext Generation Console

Dis cus sion

Al though this is pri mar ily a vi sual arts ac tiv ity, it can eas ily be turned into a busi nessand math ac tiv ity by as sign ing a pric ing struc ture to the var i ous com po nents and fea -tures that make up a gam ing sys tem. For ex am ple, the stu dents can be pro vided with aprice list that de tails the costs of sev eral CPU, graphics chip, hard drive, and DVDdrive com po nents, among other tech nol o gies. The stu dents can then per form a cost/ben e fit anal y sis of equip ping their next gen er a tion con sole to the hilt with cut ting-edge tech nol o gies ver sus keeping the manufacturing costs under control.



Some open world games, such as Test Drive Un lim ited, aim to model ac cu rately a real-world lo ca -tion, such as the Ha wai ian is land of Oahu. Other open world games cre ate an en tirely fic tionalworld for play ers to roam and ex plore.

Open world driv ing games, such as the long-run ning Mid night Club and Need forSpeed se ries, drop play ers in a wide-open en vi ron ment that they are then able to nav i -gate any way they wish.

Some games of this type pro vide mul ti ple means for get ting around the of ten sprawl -ing city (e.g., on foot, bike, car, or skate board). Ide ally, play ers can go any where, overcurbs and side walks, through parks and park ing lots, and per haps even through the odd build ing or two. So, too, open world driv ing games ide ally fea ture street names, work -ing traf fic lights, and cars and pe des tri ans that obey the rules of the road (even if theplayer doesn’t).

A de tailed in-game map that pin points the player’s ex act lo ca tion and var i ous nearbyland marks is an ab so lute must. Most open world video games also fea ture a mini-mapas part the game’s heads up dis play (HUD), some times with an in te grated GPS sys tem. This helps play ers to nav i gate the world even as they are rac ing through the city, giv -ing chase, or evading the police.

128

ÄOpen World Directions

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write out the di rec tions for get ting from Point A to Point Bin an open world driv ing game.

Ac tiv ity

In ad vance of this ac tiv ity, choose an open world driv ing, bik ing, or skate board inggame that fea tures an au then ti cally mod eled city en vi ron ment, com plete with streetnames, work ing traf fic lights, a va ri ety of lo cales, and cars and pe des tri ans that obeythe rules of the road.

Set up this ac tiv ity as a learn ing cen ter in the class room. Pre pare an ac tiv ity card thatasks a stu dent to write out the di rec tions for driv ing, bik ing, or skate board ing fromPoint A to Point B in the game. Now have a sec ond stu dent test these di rec tions by fol -low ing them to the let ter in trav el ing from Point A to Point B. Once this sec ond stu dent has ar rived at Point B, ask them to pro vide the first stu dent with feed back on thedirections they have given.

For those games that fea ture la beled city streets, en cour age the stu dents to cite the ac -tual street names when giv ing di rec tions. Oth er wise, the stu dents can in di cate thenum ber of city blocks (or traf fic lights) to pass through be fore turn ing left or right.

The stu dents can also re fer to land marks, such as un der passes and bridges, in their di -rec tions. For those open world video games that fea ture au then ti cally mod eled cit iesde rived from the real world (e.g., L.A. Rush), en cour age the stu dents to cite the ac tualnames of the build ings and at trac tions in the city.

Dis cus sion

For a math ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to cal cu late the dis tance be tweenPoint A and Point B based on their av er age speed and the time it takes to reach theirdes ti na tion (i.e., Dis tance = Speed x Time). (A car’s speed om e ter is of ten shown on agame’s HUD.)

Dis cuss with stu dents the chal lenge of main tain ing a con stant rate of speed as theydrive to their des ti na tion. How does slow ing down or speed ing up af fect their dis tancecal cu la tion? How could the ac cu racy of their dis tance cal cu la tion be im proved (e.g.,prac tice the route be fore hand or clear the roads of cars and pe des tri ans using anin-game cheat)?



The doz ens of ac tiv ity ideas in this book are just the tip of the ice berg when it co mes toin te grat ing video games into the class room. Vir tu ally ev ery ac a demic sub ject—fromas tron omy to zo ol ogy—has at least one strong tie to video games that teach ers can take ad van tage of. For ex am ple, in as tron omy class, stu dents can con duct in ter stel lar re -search us ing the tools and ad ven ture games pub lished by Imaginova (www.starrynight.com). In zo ol ogy class, stu dents can con duct re search on one or more ofthe an i mals they in ter act with in a zoo-themed video game, such as Zoo Ty coon(www.zootycoon.com).

Stu dents can also be chal lenged to come up with their own ed u ca tional ac tiv i ties thatin ter sect with video games. They can pro pose a re search pro ject that is con nected to afa vor ite video game or that feeds into their own am bi tions to cre ate a video game fromthe ground up.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents brain storm and lead their own video game learn ingac tiv i ties.

Ac tiv ity

Pro vide one or more of the stu dents in your class with an op por tu nity to browsethrough the ac tiv ity ideas in this book.

In vite the stu dents to brain storm a half dozen or so more ways of in te grat ing videogames into the class room. Ask the stu dents to fo cus on one of the thir teen sub ject ar eascov ered in this book or to in stead choose a fa vor ite topic area that is not covered.

Have each stu dent choose one of their brainstormed ac tiv ity ideas to write up as an ac -tiv ity plan us ing the “In tro duc tion,” “Ac tiv ity,” and “Dis cus sion” for mat uti lizedthrough out this book. (Al ter na tively, the class can come up with its own ac tiv ity tem -plate or use a tem plate that is pro vided by the teacher.)

In vite the stu dents to lead their ac tiv i ties with the rest of the class. Fol low ing each ac -tiv ity, ask the class to pro vide con struc tive feed back on the ac tiv ity, in clud ing whatwent well and how the ac tiv ity could be improved.

130

ÄPlaying to Learn

Dis cus sion

Teach ers and stu dents are in vited to con trib ute their video game-re lated teach ing ideas to this book’s website (www.playingtolearn.org). This site is main tained by the au thorof the book.



The sci ence of er go nom ics has emerged from rel a tive ob scu rity in the early de cades ofthe twen ti eth cen tury to high light one of the most im por tant tech nol ogy-re lated healthis sues of the early twenty-first cen tury. As in creas ing num bers of adults spend moreand more time in front of com put ers in of fices and other work place en vi ron ments,there has emerged a press ing con cern for the ris ing num ber of of fice work ers who areaf flicted with er go nomic in ju ries. Al though it is the day-to-day im pact of er go nomicin ju ries on the work place that has re ceived the most at ten tion, there are also importantlessons for schools.

In this ac tiv ity, the teacher gives a les son on er go nom ics in which a stu dent vol un teerdem on strates the proper pos ture for sit ting at a computer.

Ac tiv ity

Ask a stu dent vol un teer to come up to the front of the class. Have an ergonomically de -signed com puter work sta tion and chair ready for the stu dent to sit at.

Lead a dem on stra tion les son in which the stu dent dem on strates a se ries of both properand im proper pos tures for sit ting at a com puter. Pay close at ten tion to the height of thechair, the straight ness of the stu dent’s back, the place ment of the key board, and thesight line of the com puter monitor.

Many books and websites about er go nom ics fea ture pho to graphs or il lus tra tions thatvi su ally de pict both good and bad seated pos tures. Con sider pho to copy ing a few ofthese im ages and dis trib ut ing them to the class prior to or fol low ing the lesson.

Also talk with stu dents about com mon bodily stress points (e.g., the lower and up perback, shoul ders, and wrists) and the im por tance of tak ing reg u lar breaks from com -puter use.

Next, ask the stu dents about their video game play ing hab its. What types of gam ingsys tems do the stu dents reg u larly play (e.g., PC, con sole, and/or handheld), and whatis their pos ture like when they are play ing games (e.g., sit ting, slouch ing, or ly ing onthe floor)? En cour age the stu dents to take reg u lar breaks from gam ing and to pay closeat ten tion to aches and pains. These are im por tant phys i cal mes sages that their bodiesare sending them.

132

ÄPoor Posture

Also use this dis cus sion as an op por tu nity to in tro duce stu dents to the topic of re pet i -tive stress in jury. Re mind the stu dents that most video games fea ture lots of re pet i tivefine motor movements.

Dis cus sion

Here are two Web links that can serve as ex cel lent start ing points for re search ing er go -nom ics in the class room:

¸ http://www.galtglobalreview.com/ca reers/com puter_er go nom ics.html

¸ http://www.orosha.org/cergos/

As an ex ten sion to this ac tiv ity, ask a group of older stu dents to re search the sci ence ofer go nom ics. En cour age the stu dents to re view websites and books that pro vide in for -ma tion re lated to the his tory of er go nomic re search, the di ag no sis and treat ment of er -go nomic in ju ries, and er go nomic tech nol o gies that serve to al le vi ate stress and in juryto the body (e.g., er go nomic chairs, back sup ports, and wrist-supporting mouse pads).

This ac tiv ity can lead nicely into the “Er go nomic Au dit” ac tiv ity dis cussed else wherein this book.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieMachinima

Ask the stu dents to use the Internet to re search and find ex am ples of machinimafilmmaking. Machinima in volves the cap tur ing and ed it ing of video game foot age,which is then ren dered as a fin ished movie short that oth ers can view over the Web.En cour age the stu dents to cre ate their own machinima pro duc tions us ing foot age cap -tured from a fa vor ite video game. (Com put ers)


Video games, like other forms of pop u lar cul ture, of ten em bed not-so-sub tle ref er ences to race,class, and gen der in the gameplay. Ra cial ste reo types re lated to gang vi o lence, drugs, and turfwars are com monly fea tured in ur ban games, such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Ra cial ste reo types un der lie many of the most suc cess ful com mer cial video games thatare set in ur ban en vi ron ments such as New York, Los An geles, and other cul tur ally di -verse cities.

Some of these games ar gu ably ex ploit race as they turn cul tural ste reo types and ra cialdi vi sions into gameplay sce nar ios that pi geon hole one or more cul tural groups andthen pit these groups against each other.

This may make for great gameplay, but it can also make for crit i cally important—al beit con tro ver sial—dis cus sion in the class room.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents dis cuss how dif fer ent cul tural groups are rep re sented invideo games.

134

ÄRace Relations

Ac tiv ity

Dis trib ute to the class a re cently pub lished news pa per ed i to rial or ac a demic ar ti cle onthe topic of race in video games. Use the ar ti cle as a launch ing point for a wide-rang ing dis cus sion of the rep re sen ta tion of race and cul tural groups in video games andmovies.

In the en su ing dis cus sion, en sure that ev ery opin ion is heard and re spected. Also askthe stu dents to cite spe cific ex am ples wher ever pos si ble to sup port their views.

Dis cus sion

There are many con tro ver sial is sues re lated to video games and race/class/gen der thatteach ers can dis cuss with stu dents. Here are a few sug ges tions:

¸ the use of the “N” word in video games and mov ies

¸ La tino and Af ri can Amer i can ste reo types in video games (e.g., crim i nal be -hav ior, vi o lence, drug use, and gang membership)

¸ the rep re sen ta tion of Af ri can, Asian, La tino, and Mus lim coun tries as the “en -emy” in wargames

¸ the low num ber of His panic, Af ri can Amer i can, and fe male game de vel op ers

¸ the rep re sen ta tion of women and the fe male form in video games

¸ the ap peal of video games to males ver sus fe males

¸ the rep re sen ta tion (or lack thereof) of gays and les bi ans in video games

¸ the pro lif er a tion of rac ist, sex ist, and ho mo pho bic com ments in on line forums



Gamers who reg u larly play video games for hours at a time are at risk of suf fer ing arepetitive stress in jury. Re pet i tive stress in ju ries are among the most com mon work-re lated in ju ries that af flict adults, but chil dren and teens are also at risk, es pe cially ifthey play lots of video games, spend lots of time at the com puter, or oth er wise en gagein re pet i tive mo tion (e.g., in the work place or play ing sports).

A re pet i tive stress in jury can oc cur when a body part un der goes too much stress. Thiscan re sult in in flam ma tion and swell ing of the sur round ing area, pain, dis com fort,mus cle strain, and/or tis sue dam age. Re peat ing the same move ments over and overagain on the job, at the com puter, in com pet i tive sports, or even play ing a mu si cal in -stru ment can cause such injuries.

In this ac tiv ity, the teacher pres ents a for mal les son on re pet i tive stress in jury to theclass.

Ac tiv ity

Teach a for mal les son on the topic of re pet i tive stress in ju ries. Dis cuss with stu dentsthe dif fer ent con texts in which re pet i tive stress in ju ries can oc cur, in clud ing play ingvideo games, work ing for long pe ri ods of time at the com puter, play ing sports, play ing mu si cal in stru ments, and per form ing re pet i tive movements in the workplace.

In tro duce or have the stu dents brain storm some of the pre ven tive mea sures they cantake to re duce the risk of re pet i tive stress in jury. These in clude sit ting prop erly whenplay ing video games, in vest ing in an er go nomic chair and com puter work sta tion, tak -ing reg u lar breaks, stretch ing, ex er cis ing reg u larly (e.g., swim ming), vary ing theirmove ments, and lim it ing their video game playing and computer use.

Dis cus sion

The Kids Health website (www.kidshealth.org) has pub lished an ex cel lent re source on the topic of re pet i tive stress in ju ries in ad o les cence:

http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/safety/first_aid/rsi.html

136

ÄRepetitive Stress Injury

Fol low ing this les son, ask the stu dents to list any ac tiv i ties they reg u larly en gage inthat are com monly as so ci ated with re pet i tive stress in jury. Now ask the stu dents tocon sider the life style changes they could make to these ac tiv i ties to lessen theirchances of ex pe ri enc ing a re pet i tive stress in jury (e.g., tak ing reg u lar breaks from thecom puter and/or lim it ing their video game playing).

Ask the stu dents to com mit to mak ing these life style changes over a two-week pe riod.At the end of the two weeks, check in with the stu dents. Have their video game play ingor other hab its changed? If so, are these changes hold ing? If not, what strat e gies mightbetter mo ti vate the stu dents to make the changes they’ve iden ti fied as healthy?


ODis cus sion Ar ti clePro tect Kids from Com puter In ju ries,

Safety Coun cil Urgesby the Ca na dian Broad cast ing Cor po ra tion

Re search ers fear the pop u lar ity of com put ers and video games is re spon si ble for an in -crease in in ju ries among children.

The Can ada Safety Coun cil says chil dren are get ting strain in ju ries from sit ting infront of com put ers and video games for hours.

Chil dren should be en cour aged to take fre quent breaks when play ing video games.

Coun cil pres i dent Emile Therien said long-term health prob lems can de velop if worksta tions are not set up prop erly. He gave as an ex am ple the use of din ing-room ta blesin stead of com puter desks.

Phys io ther a pists say an ec dotal ev i dence sug gests sit ting in one po si tion re peat ing thesame mo tions over and over again can lead to prob lems in children.

“Now is the time to re ally nip this prob lem in the bud be fore it be comes a very, veryhuge and se ri ous con cern,” said Therien.

Par ents should in vest in desks and chairs that are the right height for chil dren, ad visedWayne Al bert, a kinesiology pro fes sor at the Uni ver sity of New Bruns wick.

He said par ents should also en cour age chil dren to take fre quent breaks. And the chil -dren should pay at ten tion to their pos ture.

“They don’t al ways think about their pos ture,” said Al bert. “They’ll sit in front of thecom puter screen or in front of the TV for hours in an awk ward pos ture. This can causelong-last ing in ju ries.”

Al bert said par ents should watch for signs that com puter-screen time is hurt ing theirchil dren—neck pain, wrist pain, and eye strain.


Sit ting at a com puter with the head for ward puts stress on the neck and shoul ders, andre peat edly fir ing a video game but ton or us ing an adult-sized com puter mouse can putmore stress on the wrist, agreed Mark Duggan, a phys io ther a pist in Toronto.

This could cause pain, ir ri ta tion and in flam ma tion in the thumb, arms, hands, andneck, he said.

Source: CBC News. 2006. Pro tect kids from com puter in ju ries. CBC News. Jan u ary 6.Re printed cour tesy of CBC. URL: http://www.cbc.ca/story/sci ence/na tional/2006/01/06/com put ers-kids060106.html


1. Poll the gamers in your class. Do they some times ex pe ri ence the bodily aches and pains dis cussed in the ar ti cle when play ing video games for long stretches oftime?

2. Brain storm what an er go nomic gam ing sta tion might look (and feel) like.


Gamers some times take for granted the tre men dous amount of work that goes into thede vel op ment of a video game. Al though it is pos si ble for a sin gle in di vid ual to cre ate amod estly suc cess ful PC game, most com mer cial games in stead rely on de vel op mentteams com pris ing doz ens (and oc ca sion ally hundreds) of people.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re search a spe cific video game–re lated job and its role inthe de vel op ment of a video game title.

Ac tiv ity

Most video games in clude ei ther in-game cred its or a list of cred its in the printed man -ual that ac com pa nies the game. In a trib ute to the in flu ence of mov ies on video games,roll ing cred its are also avail able as a menu op tion in many games.

Ask the stu dents to browse the full list ing of cred its for a fa vor ite video game. Fromthe credit list, ask each stu dent to pick ei ther a job they know lit tle about or one that in -trigues them in some way.

Now ask the stu dents to use the Internet to re search the jobs they have cho sen. (Theposted job list ings at the websites for video game de vel op ment stu dios are a goodplace to start.)

Here are some of the key ques tions that stu dents should ask as they re search their cho -sen job: 1) Does this job re quire team work and col lab o ra tion, or does it mostly in volvework ing on one’s own? 2) What level of ed u ca tion does this job re quire? 3) What is the scope of this job? What does this per son do, and what does he or she not do? 4) Howhas this job changed over the course of the last ten years or so? 5) Does this job en tail alead er ship role in the de sign of a video game, or is it more of a sup port role? 6) Arethere plenty of em ploy ment list ings for this job on the Internet? What are the pros pectsfor se cur ing a position doing this job?

Ask each stu dent to pres ent his or her find ings in the form of a writ ten re port or an oralpre sen ta tion to the class.

139

ÄResearching the Credits

Dis cus sion

At the end of this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to pick the video game–re lated ca reer theybe lieve they would most en joy based on the stu dent pre sen ta tions they have heard.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask each stu dent to re search work-re lated con texts,other than video game de vel op ment stu dios, where their cho sen ca reer plays a keyrole. Also en cour age the stu dents to list those at trib utes of their cho sen ca reer that theythink they would most en joy. What as pects of the job would they least en joy? Arethere other ca reers that share sim i lar at trib utes which the stu dents may also wish toconsider?

Many of the lead ing video game websites reg u larly post in ter views with game de vel -op ers in which they talk about their con tri bu tions to a spe cific pro ject. The Gamasutrawebsite (www.gamasutra.com) is par tic u larly note wor thy in this re gard. Among otherar ti cles, this website fea tures video game “post mor tems” in which game de vel op ersre flect on the games they have helped to design.

On a re lated note, the bo nus fea tures on DVD mov ies of ten fea ture be hind-the-scenesin ter views and doc u men ta ries on the mak ing of films. The Star Wars DVDs are ex cel -lent ex am ples of this and pro vide a pleth ora of movie-re lated job in for ma tion for stu -dents to re search. Al though still catch ing up, an in creas ing num ber of video games(e.g., F.E.A.R.) also fea ture be hind-the-scenes bo nus con tent (in clud ing director’scommentaries).



Gamers some times take for granted the com plex man age ment of hu man re sources thatgoes into the de sign of a video game. Doz ens (some times hun dreds) of peo ple con trib -ute to the de vel op ment of ma jor video game ti tles. These in di vid u als may all be housed in a sin gle stu dio in Los An geles, Mon treal, Shang hai, or else where, or in stead spreadthroughout the world.

To man age all of the per son nel who con trib ute their skills and know how to a game,most stu dios main tain a strict hi er ar chy of re spon si bil ity and line of au thor ity. Theyalso or ga nize their game de vel op ers into teams. Each team has one or more spe cific re -spon si bil i ties re lated to the design of a video game.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents browse the cred its for one or more video games as a way of help ing them to or ga nize their own in-class game de vel op ment stu dio into as signedroles and tasks.

Ac tiv ity

As part of the plan ning for their own video game cre ations, ask the stu dents to browsethe in-game or printed cred its for one or more video games. As they spot job ti tles withwhich they are un fa mil iar, have the stu dents look up ba sic in for ma tion about the jobson the Internet.

As they re view the cred its, en cour age the stu dents to sort the var i ous pro duc tion rolesthey un cover into re lated cat e go ries such as writ ing, mod el ing, pro gram ming, com -pos ing, and directing.

Ask the stu dents to re search some or all of the de vel op ment roles they have un cov eredprior to form ing their own in-school de vel op ment stu dio. What are the es sen tial rolesthat are needed re gard less of a stu dio’s size or com mer cial or am a teur sta tus? Who, inthe class, is best suited for each de vel op ment role based on their interests and skills?

Also en cour age the stu dents to use the Internet to re search the or ga ni za tional struc tureof a video game stu dio. The Gamasutra website (www.gamasutra.com) is a great placeto start be cause most of its con tri bu tors are ac tive game de vel op ers who work for com -mer cial video game studios.

141

ÄResearching the Credits(Take Two)

Dis cus sion

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to cre ate a flowchart that tracks theprog ress of a game’s de vel op ment from in cep tion to post-pro duc tion, mar ket ing, anddis tri bu tion. At which point in the pro duc tion pro cess does each of the de vel op mentjobs the stu dents have flagged play a key role in a game’s design?


!Ac tiv ity QuickieMas sively Multiplayer Eth ics

Ask the stu dents to search the Internet for in for ma tion about “gold farm ing.” In mas -sively multiplayer on line role-play ing games (MMORPGs), gold farm ing is a con tro -ver sial prac tice in which un scru pu lous play ers ex ploit a game’s weak nesses to ac quire(and then sell in the real world) the valu able in-game items they have ac cu mu lated.Many video games out law gold farm ing. Once they have com pleted their re search, dis -cuss with stu dents the eth i cal is sues sur round ing the prac tice of gold farm ing, in clud -ing the ex ploi ta tion of la bor in some de vel op ing coun tries. (So cial Stud ies)


One of the most im por tant re search skills that stu dents learn in school is how to pullout the main points of an ar ti cle and com pare and con trast these points with those thatthey find in other ar ti cles on the same topic. This is an es sen tial skill if stu dents are tohone their re search abil i ties as they take notes from books and news pa per ar ti cles andcon duct Internet searches that re turn doz ens (if not thou sands) of results.

Video game re views are the per fect test ing grounds for build ing stu dents’ note-tak ingabil i ties. Print and on line re views tend to be only a few hun dred words long, and thereare mul ti ple well-writ ten re views to draw from for al most ev ery video game ti tle that is released.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents com pare and con trast two or more re views of a videogame. They write a re view roundup that sums up the views of the crit ics plus their ownin sights.

Ac tiv ity

Ask each stu dent to col lect two or more print or on line re views for a re cently re leasedvideo game. En cour age the stu dents to choose video games that they have par tic u larlystrong feel ings about (i.e., a game that they re ally en joyed or did not en joy playing).

Ask the stu dents to take notes on each of the re views they have col lected. Their notesshould sum ma rize the main points of each ar ti cle, par tic u larly the pos i tive and neg a -tive as pects of the video games un der re view. The stu dents can use a two-col umn chartto or ga nize their points (i.e., pros and cons) or take free-form notes instead.

Ask each stu dent to use the notes they have amassed to write a re view roundup thatsum ma rizes the main points of each ar ti cle. The stu dents can be re quired to only re porton the con tents of each ar ti cle (us ing their own words) or in stead be given the op por tu -nity to in ject their own views into the essay.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to peer edit each other’s writ ing and also shareboth the orig i nal re views and re view round ups in pairs. En cour age the stu dents to pro -vide con struc tive feed back to one an other on any ma jor points that were missed in theoriginal reviews.

143

ÄReview Roundup

Dis cus sion

The GameRankings website (www.gamerankings.com) is an ex cel lent on line re source for re views. This site serves as a clear ing house for video game re views at otherwebsites and is an ex cel lent start ing point for this activity.

For an added chal lenge, ask each stu dent to pick the high est and low est scor ing re -views for a video game at the GameRankings website. As part of their re view roundup, chal lenge the stu dents to clar ify (and, if pos si ble, rec tify) the sharp dif fer ences of opin -ion that ex ist be tween the two reviews.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, in tro duce stu dents to the terms “an no tated bib li og ra phy” and“re view of the lit er a ture.” Sim i lar to a re view roundup, these terms re fer to es says thatsum ma rize the dis cus sion in the lit er a ture for a particular topic.

In ad di tion to re views of the lit er a ture, some re search ers per form “meta-anal y ses” ofpar tic u lar top ics in which they com pare, con trast, cri tique, and/or re-an a lyze the find -ings in the lit er a ture for a par tic u lar is sue (e.g., the ef fects of video game vi o lence onag gres sive tendencies in gamers).



It should come as no sur prise that many video games aim to em u late the real world asbest they can. From sim u la tions, such as The Sims, to wargames, such as the Rain bowSix se ries, it is a pri mary goal of many video games to rec re ate the most re al is tic set -tings, char ac ters, and gameplay ex pe ri ences that are pos si ble with to day’stechnologies.

Yet what if the real world as we know it was it self (in a Ma trix-style way) a videogame? How would an out side critic re view The Real World. What score out of tenwould The Real World earn?

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents turn the no tion of a video game re view on its head and in -stead re view the real world as if it were a video game.

Ac tiv ity

Con sider lead ing this ac tiv ity with stu dents who have writ ten their own video game re -views or who have pe rused and an a lyzed the game re views at pop u lar video gamewebsites.

Tell the stu dents that you have some ex cit ing news. You have been given an ad vancelook at a top-se cret up com ing game that is sure to be come the next big hit. The char ac -ters are so life like, they are al most too good to be true. Al though lim ited to a sin gleplanet, play ers can travel al most any where in the world. And on this world, it seemsthat al most any thing can (and will) hap pen. The game is called The Real World and allof us are liv ing it right now.

Fol low ing this hook, ask the stu dents to turn their crit i cal re view ers’ eye to the realworld they are liv ing in right now. Chal lenge each of them to write a bal anced and hon -est re view of the real world—from a per sonal per spec tive or a more ob jec tivestance—that takes some or all of the fol low ing fac tors into account:

¸ the real world’s multiplayer fea tures

¸ the real world’s com pet i tive and co op er a tive modes

¸ the qual ity of the en vi ron ments

145

ÄReview of the Real World

¸ the qual ity of the graphics and an i ma tion

¸ the qual ity of the di a log and sound ef fects

¸ op tions for char ac ter cus tom iz ation

¸ the level of ar ti fi cial in tel li gence

¸ the learn ing curve

¸ the mu sic sound track

¸ other fac tors

Once they have com pleted their re views of the real world, ask each stu dent to as signthe game an over all score out of ten. Then have the stu dents share their re views of thereal world with the rest of the class.

Dis cus sion

Prior to lead ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to read the ac com pa ny ing dis cus sion ar ti -cle, “Real Life: The Full Re view,” which was writ ten by a pro fes sional video gamejour nal ist. (If you would pre fer that the stu dents not be in flu enced by this piece in ad -vance of the ac tiv ity, in stead have them read and dis cuss the ar ti cle af ter completingthis activity.)

To help the stu dents get started, con sider ask ing them to be gin their re views of the realworld with the fol low ing phrase: “The Real World is a mas sively multiplayer videogame that...”


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleReal Life: The Full Re view

by Greg Kasavin

Vol umes have al ready been writ ten about real life, the most ac ces si ble and mostwidely ac cepted mas sively multiplayer on line role-play ing game to date. Fea tur ing be -liev able char ac ters, plenty of last ing ap peal, and a lot of chal lenge and va ri ety, real lifeis ab so lutely rec om mend able to those who’ve grown weary of all the cookie-cut tergames that have tried to em u late its pop u lar ity—or to just about anyone, really.


Real life isn’t above re proach. In one of the stranger de sign de ci sions in the game, forsome rea son you have no choice in de ter min ing your char ac ter’s ini tial start ing lo ca -tion, ap pear ance, or gen der, which are cho sen for you seem ingly at ran dom. How ever,over the course of your char ac ter’s life, you have tre men dous op por tu ni ties to cus tom -ize and de fine a truly unique ap pear ance for your self—not only can you fine-tune your hair style and hair color, but you can also pur chase and wear a seem ingly in fi nite va ri -ety of cloth ing and in flu ence your body type us ing var i ous in-game mech a nisms. Forex am ple, if your char ac ter ex er cises fre quently, you will ap pear fit and mus cu lar. Youmay also choose from a huge va ri ety of tat toos and body piercings, and later you caneven pay for cos metic sur gery, though this is ex pen sive and there’s a small chance thatthe op er a tion will back fire. At any rate, real life of fers a truly re mark able amount ofva ri ety in de ter min ing your char ac ter’s out ward ap pear ance, and this depth isn’t onlyskin deep. The only prob lem is you’re rel e gated to play ing as a hu man char ac ter,though the game does ran domly choose one of sev eral dif fer ent races for you (whichhave lit tle bear ing on gameplay and mostly just affect appearances and your standingwith certain factions).

The gameplay it self is ex tremely open-ended, though it’s struc tured in such a way thatyou’ll have a fairly clear path to fol low when you’re just start ing out. Real life fea turesa great sys tem whereby newbie play ers will au to mat i cally be guided along through theearly lev els by one or more “par ent” char ac ters who elect to take newbie char ac ters un -der their wing. This is a great sys tem, as these older, more ex pe ri enced char ac ters reaptheir own ben e fits from do ing a good job of guid ing the newbie char ac ter along. Thesys tem does have some prob lems though—some times you’ll en coun ter “griefer” par -ents who shirk their re spon si bil i ties or, even worse, seem con tent to ha rass newbieplay ers. Such a sit u a tion could, in the ory, ir rep a ra bly dam age your ex pe ri ence in reallife. For tu nately, chances of this are rel a tively slim, as a harsh pu ni tive sys tem is inplace to pre vent the vast ma jor ity of players from experiencing or engaging in this sortof behavior.

Typ i cally, a char ac ter will learn of the nu mer ous vi a ble ca reer paths avail able by un -der go ing school ing. This can be a long and te dious pro cess, equiv a lent to the sort of“level tread mill” mo not ony that char ac ter izes al most all MMORPGs. Nev er the less,many play ers do man age to en joy them selves in this phase, es pe cially if they band to -gether—real life def i nitely re wards play ers who join groups, though so lo ing is cer -tainly an op tion as well. At any rate, through the school ing pro cess, as you en gage invar i ous ac tiv i ties, you even tu ally set tle on a ca reer path, and this is when you can startmak ing a good amount of money and really taking matters into your own hands.

There are a few known ex ploits for mak ing money, but gen er ally the game’s fi nan -cial sys tem is well bal anced, com plex, and re ward ing for those who put forth pro por -tion ally more ef fort. You can use money to ac quire new and better cloth ing, yourown cus tom hous ing (a tre men dous va ri ety of op tions are avail able here as well), and new means of trans por ta tion rang ing from bi cy cles to au to mo biles and be yond, andyou can even em ploy other play ers and some non-player char ac ters to do your bid -ding. Most no ta bly, cer tain ac tions in real life are nec es sary and yet re quire a con sid -er able amount of ex per tise to per form, or are sim ply bor ing. Ad di tion ally, even if


you do have ex per tise in a field, that doesn’t mean you can per form a given task foryour self—in this way, real life en cour ages and even forces player in ter ac tion, so thosewho pre fer to go solo might find them selves in a bind at times. For ex am ple, even ifyour char ac ter spe cial izes in den tistry, that doesn’t mean you can per form a root-ca nalop er a tion on your self. For tu nately, den tistry is one of many lu cra tive pro fes sions inreal life, and its prac ti tio ners can eas ily af ford to pay for the var i ous re quired main te -nance tasks, free ing up their own free time for more in ter est ing ac tiv i ties.

One is sue with real life is that it gives you very lit tle spe cific feed back on char ac ter ad -vance ment. To give a cou ple of ex am ples, a highly pro fi cient player might re ceive asud den pay raise or might be come a cham pion boxer, but there’s no clear way to tellex actly how smart or how strong you re ally are. Clev erly, there are in-game ways of atleast get ting a sense of these and other key at trib utes. You may at tempt to lift weightsto roughly de ter mine how your strength com pares with that of other char ac ters. Var i -ous tests are avail able to gauge your over all in tel lect and ex per tise and knowl edge in ava ri ety of fields, though an noy ingly, you need to pay a con sid er able fee to take someof these—and if you fail, of ten you aren’t al lowed to re take the exam for a while, orsometimes at all.

The game’s player-run econ omy and well-bal anced ca reer sys tem are ex tremely welldone, but sim i lar to what’s found in other games. On the other hand, a par tic u larly in -no va tive as pect of real life is the way in which it forces you to gain cer tif i ca tion to usecer tain ob jects. This feels much less con trived than the level caps or class re stric tionsfound in other games (there are no “lev els” or “ex pe ri ence points” per se in real life),and it also pre vents play ers who “twink” money from their par ents from au to mat i callyget ting ac cess to all the best fa cil i ties and equip ment—though it’s cer tainly true thatplay ers of good par ent age have an in her ent and ar gu ably un fair ad van tage. Nev er the -less, it’s stan dard prac tice to have to qual ify for cer tain pro fes sions, to en gage in cer -tain ac tiv i ties, to use cer tain equip ment, and so forth. This sys tem is quite mod u lar. For ex am ple, even if you’ve be come cer ti fied to drive a mo tor cy cle, that doesn’tautomatically qualify you to drive an automobile.

This ex am ple is ev i dence of some of the amaz ing depth of fered by real life—there areso many dif fer ent op tions and vi a ble de ci sions for a char ac ter to make that it’s justabout im pos si ble for any one char ac ter to see ev ery thing and visit all the col or ful andsome times dan ger ous lo ca tions. Un like in other MMORPGs, com bat ac tu ally isn’t ama jor fac tor for most play ers in real life, though play ers are bound to en gage in a fewskir mishes early in their lives. In ter est ingly, though, real life does of fer an amaz inglyin tri cate com bat sys tem, fea tur ing com plex hand-to-hand and ranged com bat op tionsthat a character may learn and even specialize in.

That be ing the case, you’d think more play ers would be drawn to com bat in real life,and in some ter ri to ries, they are. How ever, the player ver sus en vi ron ment (PVE) as -pect of real life is rel a tively un pop u lar and the player ver sus player (PVP) por tion,while in ter est ing, is far too risky for most of the pop u la tion. That’s on ac count of thegame’s very strict death pen alty and pu ni tive sys tem—you may freely at tempt to harmor kill any other player at any time, but you will then likely be heavily pun ished by thegame’s player-run au thor i ties. The pu ni tive sys tem has loop holes and other prob lems,


al low ing cer tain play ers to elude pun ish ment and con tinue to en gage in var i ousplayer-kill ing ac tiv i ties. But for the most part, real life does a good enough job of mak -ing the pun ish ment fit the crime, as it were, so in most regions there’s a relative senseof order.

Player death is a se ri ous is sue in real life and cause for con tin ued de bate among play -ers, who of ten di rect un an swer able ques tions on the sub ject to the game’s de vel op ers,who are ap par ently (and un der stand ably) so busy that they gen er ally keep si lent. Inshort, play ers who die—at the hands of other play ers, by the oc ca sional en vi ron men talhaz ard, or when their ac count ex pires—are es sen tially re moved from the game worldand ap par ently can not re turn at all. This fur ther dis cour ages play ers from en gag ing inPVP com bat, but it does help real life’s rap idly grow ing player pop u la tion from get ting too out of hand (though even tu ally there will be a need for additional servers).

Real life looks in cred i ble, to say the least. To be sure, cer tain ar eas ap pear drab andcol or less, even un pleas antly so. But some of the out door en vi ron ments and even someof the player-made ur ban set tings are truly a sight to be hold, and var i ous en vi ron men -tal and weather ef fects only add to the charm. The char ac ter mod els, mean while, are asim pres sive and de tailed as they are var ied. Some are in cred i bly strik ing and beau ti ful,while oth ers ap pear hid eously ugly—it’s great that you can more or less de cide foryour self on which side of the spec trum you wish to be. Real life also fea tures some ofthe most be liev able am bi ent ef fects and foot step sounds to date, and it of fers an in cred -i ble va ri ety of mu sic for good mea sure. In one of the game’s best touches, play ers canac tu ally com pose, con duct, and per form their own mu sic, and this is vi a ble ei ther forsolo play ers or for groups. Es pe cially skilled mu si cians go on to be come some of thewealth i est and most pop u lar char ac ters around. The mu sic ca reer path is more com plex and chal leng ing than you’d ex pect and it’s an other one of real life’s re ally im pres siveand well-im ple mented fea tures. One of the cool est ex pe ri ences in the game is trav el ing to dif fer ent re gions and lis ten ing to how dif fer ent the mu sic sounds for that territory.For that matter, architecture and even player languages differ depending on the re gion.

Real life can oc ca sion ally feel like a chore. Some play ers le git i mately dis like it, de -spite hav ing at tempted and even ex celled at nu mer ous ca reer paths. Oth ers ex ter nal izetheir frus tra tions by harm ing other play ers or, in some cases, even harm ing them -selves. These play ers do have ac cess to var i ous sup port fo rums, and of ten end up whil -ing away the time by en gag ing in var i ous avail able minigames or other com pet i tiveac tiv i ties. So cial iz ing is al ways an op tion, and as with other on line role-play inggames, real life is cer tainly at its most re ward ing when you man age to find and con sortwith other like-minded com pan ions. At any rate, it’s hard to fault the game for lack ofcon tent or vi a ble ac tiv i ties, and even when cer tain play ers try to sub vert the sys tem orharm oth ers, it still makes for some ex cit ing and spon ta ne ous events for other play erswho hap pen to be in the area or just hear of the event. Be yond that, real life can in deedbe very time-con sum ing, and some of the less ex cit ing moments, such as when yourcharacter is tired or injured, can be annoyingly so.

It’s also true that real life is con stantly be ing re fined. Some play ers ar gue that many ofthe nu mer ous changes con stantly be ing made are for the worse. For ex am ple, play ersrunning once-prof it able to bacco com pa nies, as well as play ers who are addicted to


us ing pop u lar to bacco prod ucts, of ten com plain that the to bacco busi ness is be ing“nerfed” for no good rea son. But ei ther way, it’s good to know that play ers are able toac tively im prove cer tain fea tures that re quire finer tun ing. This keeps the de vel op ersfree to fo cus on big ger is sues.

Ul ti mately, if you take a step back and look at the big pic ture, you’ll see that real life isan im pres sive and ex cit ing ex pe ri ence, de spite its oc ca sional and some times no tice -able prob lems. It says a lot for real life that, even with these is sues, it’s still very highlyrec om mend able. Sim ply put, those miss ing out on real life are doing just that.

Score: 9.6/10

About the Au thor: Greg Kasavin is the for mer Ed i tor-in-Chief at GameSpot(www.gamespot.com).

Source: Kasavin, Greg. 2003. Real life: The full re view. GameSpot. July 11. URL:http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/fea tures/all/gamespotting/071103minusworld/1.html


1. Do you agree with the au thor’s re view of real life? What score would you givereal life and why?

2. Pick an at trib ute of real life not cov ered in the ar ti cle (e.g., space ex plo ra tion).Now write a para graph that de scribes this at trib ute from the per spec tive of a video game reviewer.


Sur vival hor ror video games, such as the pop u lar Res i dent Evil se ries, are a sub set ofthe ad ven ture game genre. Most have an ESRB rat ing of Ma ture (or higher) and are not ap pro pri ate for children.

Yet, as we all know, well-loved chil dren’s sto ries, such as Han sel and Gretel and Lit tle Red Rid ing Hood, are scary in them selves. The el e ment of fear is a com mon theme that also runs through many pop u lar chil dren’s book se ries (e.g., Harry Pot ter andGoosebumps).

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents dis cuss what makes a story, movie, or video game scary.They then write their own scary story.

Ac tiv ity

To pre pare the stu dents for this ac tiv ity, lead a class dis cus sion on what makes a storyscary. Ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of scary sto ries, mov ies, and/or videogames they en joy. What spe cif i cally makes them scary? What are the char ac ter is tics of a scary story that evokes fear in a reader?

Pos si ble an swers in clude the fol low ing: the fear of what is about to hap pen (i.e., an tic i -pa tion), sus pense, sur prise, emo tional and de scrip tive ex po si tion, weird char ac ters,and, in mov ies and video games, mu si cal cues, cam era an gles, and light ing andshadow effects.

Now ask the stu dents to write their own scary sto ries. En cour age them to in cor po ratesome or all of the char ac ter is tics they have brainstormed. (You may need to lay downsome ba sic ground rules if you are wor ried that some of the scary sto ries the stu dentswrite may be in poor taste.)

When it co mes time to share the stu dents’ sto ries orally, con sider clos ing the blindsand turn ing off the lights. Now have the stu dents read their scary sto ries us ing flash -lights alone. En cour age the stu dents to use in flec tion in their voices in or der toheighten the sense of fear and fore bod ing in the story they are telling.

151

ÄScary Stories

Dis cus sion

Con sider lead ing this ac tiv ity just prior to Hal low een—if you dare :)


Video games il licit a wide range of emo tions from ut ter ju bi la tion to sheer ter ror. The hor rorgame Con demned: Crim i nal Or i gins strands play ers in a dark and run-down build ing in whichdoz ens of zombified en e mies lie in wait.


Be cause they ex ist in a vir tual space, video games have the lux ury of break ing thephys i cal laws of the uni verse that are a given in the real world. Weight, speed, andmany other phys i cal prop er ties that have set lim its in the real world can be bent or ig -nored all to gether in the world of video games.

Sim i larly, car toon pro grams of ten es chew the phys i cal laws of the uni verse. Car toonchar ac ters move at the speed of light, lift and throw ob jects many times their weight,and blow up and then in stantly re ap pear on screen. Per haps no car toon pro gram breaksthe phys i cal laws of the real world more of ten than the ever pop u lar Scooby-Doo Mys -ter ies, a sta ple on Amer i can television since 1969.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents watch a half-hour Scooby-Doo Mysteries ep i sode andcount and/or cat e go rize the num ber of times the char ac ters—both friends and foes—dothe im pos si ble.

Ac tiv ity

As part of a sci ence unit that in tro duces the phys i cal prop er ties of the real world (e.g.,grav ity, force, and mo tion), in vite the stu dents to view an ep i sode of the an i matedScooby-Doo Mys ter ies se ries. (View ing the ep i sode in class re quires pub lic per for -mance per mis sion. You may in stead wish to as sign stu dents the task of com plet ing this ac tiv ity at home dur ing a scheduled broadcast of the show.)

Ask the stu dents to note each time a char ac ter breaks the laws of phys ics by run ning,spin ning, climb ing, jump ing, or fall ing faster than they pos si bly could in the realworld. Pro vide each stu dent with a tally chart for keep ing track of the re sults of theirfind ings or in stead ask them to keep free-form notes.

Fol low ing the broad cast, ask the stu dents to share their find ings. Use this dis cus sion as the launch ing point for a sci en tific study of those phys i cal laws of the uni verse (e.g.,grav ity) that place lim its on what can be done in the real world.

Use sci en tific ter mi nol ogy and ex am ples to re in force the con cepts un der dis cus sion.

153

ÄScooby-Doo and theLaws of Physics

Dis cus sion

Ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of other tele vi sion shows, mov ies, and videogames that also reg u larly bend or break the laws of phys ics. Ask the stu dents to groupinto cat e go ries (e.g., weight, speed, and force) the var i ous ways car toon pro grams,mov ies, and video games skirt the phys i cal prop er ties of the universe.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, dis cuss with stu dents some of the more in no va tive gameplayme chan ics that have been in tro duced into video games. Some gameplay me chan ics, by their very na ture, break the phys i cal laws of the uni verse. For ex am ple, the Max Paynese ries is fa mous for the abil ity of its lead char ac ter to slow down time. Sim i larly, somerac ing games also fea ture the abil ity to slow down time. This al lows driv ers to nav i gate more eas ily sharp corners and other driving hazards.

Slow ing down time is only one ex am ple of a gameplay me chanic that breaks the phys i -cal laws of the uni verse. Ask the stu dents to come up with some other ex am ples (e.g.,walk ing or see ing through walls, rocket launcher jump ing, and in stan ta neously trans -port ing be tween locations).

Grades: 4 and higher | Sub ject: Sci ence

Ad ven ture games, such as Psychonauts, rou tinely break the laws of phys ics. Char ac ters leapgreat dis tances, push through ob sta cles many times their weight, and oth er wise con found thelaws of the real world.


In ad di tion to the main stream com mer cial games that are cited in this book, there is awhole cat e gory of video games that stu dents won’t typ i cally find in lo cal re tail stores.So-called “se ri ous games” be long to a spe cial ized genre of video games that aim to ed -u cate and train, even as they en ter tain. Nor mally de vel oped in-house or in part ner shipwith in de pend ent game de vel op ers, this genre of video games is grow ing ever morepop u lar as uni ver si ties, hos pi tals, the mil i tary, com mer cial busi nesses, and many other in sti tu tions turn to video games as train ing grounds for the knowl edge and skills theiremployees, clients, and students require.

Ex am ples of se ri ous games in clude the fol low ing: video games that serve as vir tualtours of mu seum or art gal lery col lec tions, lead er ship train ing sim u la tions that teachde ci sion-mak ing skills, mil i tary wargames (e.g., Amer ica’s Army), and emer gencyman age ment sim u la tions (e.g., In ci dent Com mander).

Se ri ous games aim to take full ad van tage of the fun and com pel ling na ture of videogames, even as they teach and re in force a spe cific field of knowl edge and skill set.Many se ri ous games func tion as sim u la tions of real-world places, such as war zones,hos pi tals, and emer gency man age ment com mand cen ters. As they make their waythrough these vir tual worlds, play ers are re quired to make key de ci sions that af fect theout come of the sim u la tion. For ex am ple, an emer gency man age ment sim u la tion mayre quire play ers to de ploy and man age a half dozen emer gency ser vices dur ing aweather-re lated cri sis. A mil i tary sim u la tion may re quire play ers to make sound tac ti -cal decisions in moving troops through enemy territory.

These sce nar ios are com mon ex am ples of sim u la tion games, but se ri ous games havealso been used in hos pi tals to treat pa tients’ psy cho so matic symp toms, by com mer cialbusi nesses to mar ket their prod ucts, and by ed u ca tors to teach scientific principles.

Ed u ca tional games (some times re ferred to as “edutainment”) are a type of se ri ousgame. How ever, un like other se ri ous games, ed u ca tional games are long es tab lished in K–12 class rooms (long be fore the term “se ri ous games” was in vented), whereas videogames that ser vice the mil i tary, med i cal, and other pro fes sions have only re centlybegun to gain prominence.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents brain storm ideas for a new se ri ous game that teaches theknowl edge and skill set re quired by a par tic u lar pro fes sion.

155

ÄSerious GamesBrainstorming

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce the genre of se ri ous games to stu dents. Pro vide the stu dents with a few ex -am ples of se ri ous games that are now in pro duc tion or cur rently in use in the mil i tary,med i cal, and emer gency ser vice professions.

Now have the stu dents brain storm as a full class a list of the ca reers they are most in ter -ested in pur su ing. Di vide the class into small groups. Ask each group to choose one ofthe ca reers the class has brainstormed. Chal lenge each group to brain storm a list of thevar i ous types of knowl edge and skills that are re quired by their cho sen profession.

How might a video game be used to teach the knowl edge and skills the stu dents havebrainstormed? Have the groups sum ma rize a se ri ous game sce nario for their cho senpro fes sion and then share it with the class.

Dis cus sion

En cour age those stu dents who are in ter ested in de vel op ing their own video gamesfrom the ground up to con sider se ri ous games as a pos si ble genre for their pro ject. Notonly are se ri ous games more di rectly tied to ed u ca tion, they are also eas ier to mar ketthan re tail games, which jockey for mar ket share in a highly com pet i tive com mer cialmar ket place. Once their se ri ous game is com plete, the stu dents can mar ket their ti tle tothe spe cific au di ence for which the game is intended.

In ter ested stu dents can learn much more about se ri ous games by vis it ing the Se ri ousGames Source website (www.seriousgamessource.com). This site ex plores the phe -nom ena of se ri ous games as an emerg ing genre of video games.


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleVideo Game Ther apy: A New Fron tier

by Reuters

Doc tors pro nounced Ethan Myers brain dead af ter a car ac ci dent dealt the nine-year-old a se vere brain in jury in 2002. Af ter he mi rac u lously awoke from a nearlymonth-long coma, doc tors de clared he would never again eat on his own, walk or talk.

Yet, thanks partly to a video game sys tem, Myers has caught up with his peers inschool and even read a speech to a large group of stu dents.

“I’m do ing the ex act same things as them. I’m get ting bud dies and stuff,” said Myers,who had re learned to walk and was read ing at a sec ond-grade level be fore his videogame ther apy be gan in May 2004.


“I could n’t re mem ber where I put stuff and now I can. I re mem ber school stuff andpeo ple’s names,” he said in a tele phone in ter view from his fam ily’s home in Col o rado.

More fun da men tally, Myers can now fully open his right hand, which pa ral y sis hadcurled closed. His brother and sis ter, who were in the car with him dur ing the ac ci dentand who each suf fered mild brain in ju ries, have also shown im prove ment in theirmem ory and other functions.

Ethan and his par ents at trib ute his most re cent prog ress to neurofeedback train ing onthe CyberLearning Tech nol ogy sys tem, which is of ten used to play car rac ing videogames.

“In the last year, we’ve seen the Ethan we knew be fore the ac ci dent,” said HowardMyers, the teen ager’s fa ther.

Neurofeedback is a form of con di tion ing that re wards peo ple for pro duc ing spe cificbrain waves, such as those that ap pear when a per son is re laxed or pay ing attention.

While this form of treat ment has been around for de cades, in cor po rat ing video gamesmarks a new fron tier that taps young peo ple’s fas ci na tion with an i ma tion and elec tron -ics to sweeten of ten fright en ing, lengthy, and te dious med i cal treatments.

Video games are be ing used, for in stance, to help sick chil dren man age pain and anx i -ety dur ing hos pi tal stays.

A young leu ke mia pa tient in spired Ben’s Game, which let him fight the can cer cells in -vad ing his body. A pri vate is land called Briga doon in Lin den Lab’s Sec ond Life vir tual world is open only to peo ple with Asperger’s syn drome and autism.

West Vir ginia’s pub lic schools are bat tling obe sity by mak ing Dance Dance Rev o lu tion— a step-to-the-beat video game—part of their cur ric u lum, while Nintendo has made a splash with its new Brain Age mind-ex er cis ing game.

Planes, Brains and Au to mo biles

CyberLearning’s Smart BrainGames sys tem, which Myers still uses, tar gets symp -toms aris ing from brain in ju ries, at ten tion-def i cit hy per ac tiv ity dis or der (ADHD) andlearn ing disabilities.

Priced at $584, the sys tem is built on NASA tech nol ogy that used video games andneurofeedback to train pi lots to stay alert dur ing long flights and calm dur ing emer gen -cies. It is com pat i ble with Sony’s PlayStation 1 and 2 con soles as well as Microsoft’sXbox, which video game-crazed kids are quite fa mil iar with.

Us ers wear a hel met with built-in sen sors to mea sure brain waves. That data is re layedto a neurofeedback sys tem that af fects the game con trol ler.

Car rac ing games work best with the sys tem, which re wards us ers by tell ing the con -trol ler to al low them to go fast and steer with con trol, doc tors said. When pa tients’brain waves aren’t in “the zone” the con trol ler makes it harder to ac cel er ate and steer.


Fam i lies gen er ally pay $2000 to $2500 for a six-month su per vised pro gram with oneof CyberLearning’s 55 li censed health pro fes sion als trained on the Smart BrainGames sys tem.

De spite the dem on strated ben e fits of neurofeedback, one pe di a tri cian said better de -signed stud ies are needed to help par ents of chil dren with ADHD make in formeddecisions.

“We have some very ef fec tive treat ments for kids with ADHD,” said Dr. An drewAdesman, chief of de vel op men tal and be hav ioral pe di at rics at Schnei der Chil dren’sHos pi tal in New Hyde Park, N.Y. “I’d be con cerned about par ents pur su ing ex pen siveand not very es tab lished treat ments in lieu of more proven therapies.”

Tra di tional treat ments, such as pre scrib ing the stim u lant Ritalin, be hav ioral ther apyand ed u ca tion, are of ten cov ered by health in sur ance, while neurofeedback usually isnot.

Last year, Mar ga ret Mac Don ald, a San Jose, Cal i for nia doc tor, fo cused her prac tice onneurofeedback af ter her son’s at ten tion-def i cit symp toms im proved within threemonths of us ing CyberLearning’s system.

She starts pa tients with 20 to 25 min ute ses sions, at least two times per week, and rec -om mends that they work with a trained pro fes sional to en sure they are re in forc ing theright brain wave ac tiv ity to pro duce the de sired result.

“This isn’t some thing you can just play with ... You could train the wrong thing andcause some one to be come more anx ious and ir ri ta ble,” she said.

Ste ven Stock dale, the li censed psy chol o gist in Col o rado Springs, Colo., who treatsEthan Myers, said he has seen some nice changes come about from the video gamether apy.

“Kids can be come less ag i tated, more calm and less an gry,” he said. “It’s much moreen gag ing.”

Source: Reuters. 2006. Video game ther apy: A new fron tier. Reuters News Ser vice.March 18. URL: http://news.com.com/Video+game+ther apy—a+new+frontier/2100-1043_3-6051269.html?tag=nefd.top


1. This ar ti cle high lights the po ten tial med i cal ben e fits of video games, but somecrit ics ar gue that video games are in fact harm ful to chil dren, not help ful. Who isright?

2. Think about the video games you reg u larly play. Could some of these videogames be adapted to serve med i cal goals sim i lar to the ex am ples given in the ar ti cle?


159

Spell ing dic ta tion is a sta ple of many el e men tary school class rooms. Why not poll the stu -dents on their in ter ests and then com pile a list of spell ing words that ex tend from the re sults?

In this ac tiv ity, the teacher com piles a spell ing list of video game–re lated terms.

Ac tiv ity

Pre pare one or more spell ing lists that con sist solely of video game re lated terms. Hereare some ex am ple words:

ac cel er ateachieve mentac tionac ti vatead dic tionad ven turead ver saryalienam bi enceam mu ni tionan i ma tionar cadearenaar ma mentar ti fi cial in tel li gencear tis ticav a tarblogbotbound arybroad bandbut toncam eracam paignchal lengechar ac ter

chasecheatcheck pointcin e maticcom mandcom pe ti tioncon solecon trol lercon tro ver sialco op er a tivecor ri dorcrea turecrosshaircrouchcutscenedam agedemodes ti na tionde struc ti bledet o natede vel operdi a logdown loaddroneedutainmentelec tronic

en emyen gineen ter tain menten vi ron menter go nomices capeex pan sionex ploitfan tasyfea turefirst-per sonflankforce feed backforce fieldfor ti fi ca tionfo rumfraggedfran chisefu tur is ticgamepadgameplaygenreglitchgraphicsgrav ityhan dling

ÄSpelling Dictation


hard wareheads up dis playhealthheroher o ineho lo graphichypeim mer sionin doorin stal la tionin ter ac tivejoy stickland scapeleaderboardlevellife likelight inglin earloadlo ca tionma neu vermapmay hemme diamedicmini-gamemis sionmodemodelmod i fi ca tionmorphmove mentmul ti me diamultiplayermu sicmys terymy thol ogynar ra tivenav i ga tionnem e sisnet workob jec tiveon lineop po nent

oth er worldlyout doorpath wayper for manceper spec tiveplat formpower-upprac ticepre viewpro gram mingprog resspro jec tilepronepro tag o nistprox im itypub lisherpur suitpuz zlepy ro tech nicrac ingrangerankrat ingre viewro boticrole-play ingsandboxsavesce narioscenescorescreenshotscriptse cretse quelse riesset tingshadowsim u la tionskir mishsoft warespace shipspawnspec i fi ca tions

squadsta tis ticsta tusstealthstorylinestrad dlestrafestrat egystu diostuntsuperherosur vivalswitchtac ti caltar getteamteam mateteam worktech no log i caltech nol ogyteleportter rainter ri torytex turethird-per sontrailertrans porttrig gertun nelturn-basedtu to rialuni formunitun lockur banuser in ter faceve hi clevil lainvi o lencevir tualvi sualwalkthroughwaypointzoom

If you are un sure of the mean ing of some of these terms (as they re late to video games), con sider ask ing the stu dent gamers in your class to help you for mu late def i ni tions us -ing their own words.

Dis cus sion

In ad di tion to us ing these and other video game-re lated words in spell ing dic ta tion, as -sign stu dents the task of writ ing a de scrip tive para graph or short es say about videogames in which they use five or more video game-re lated terms. Also en cour age thestu dents to use for mal video game–re lated ter mi nol ogy when ever they write videogame reviews or essays.

Con sider ex tend ing this ac tiv ity even fur ther by chal leng ing a group of older stu dentsto cre ate the first ever video game dic tio nary of com mon gam ing ter mi nol ogy. Ask thestu dents to pin point the or i gins of some of the more ob scure video game–re lated termsthey brain storm (e.g., bunny hop ping). The Wikipedia on line en cy clo pe dia (www.wikipedia.org) is a ex cel lent re source for re search ing video game ter mi nol ogy. (Trylook ing up “bunny hop ping” for start ers.)



Video games af ford plenty of op por tu ni ties for teach ers and stu dents to col lect datathat can then be an a lyzed, charted, and oth er wise ma nip u lated in math class.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents an a lyze and dis cuss a num ber of video game–re latedsta tis tics.

Ac tiv ity

Here are three en gag ing math ac tiv i ties that work with the num bers gen er ated by video games:

1. Leaderboard Math: Many multiplayer shoot ers and driv ing games pre ciselytrack each gamer’s sta tis tics as they play a video game. Most wargames, for ex -am ple, keep care ful track of a gamer’s to tal num ber of frags (i.e., kills), deaths,play ing time, and fa vor ite weap ons, for ex am ple. Gamers can browse their ownsta tis tics and also com pare their sta tis tics with the sta tis tics of other gamers. Sta -tis tics for the very best play ers ap pear at the top of the leaderboard. In this ac tiv -ity, have the stu dents an a lyze the leaderboards for a pop u lar ac tion or driv inggame and then per form a va ri ety of cal cu la tions on the sta tis tics that are listed(e.g., sums, av er ages, differentials, and comparisons).

2. Gas Ex penses: Have the stu dents cal cu late the dis tance from Point A to Point B in an open world driv ing or rac ing game (i.e., Dis tance = Speed x Time). Now havethe stu dents use the cur rent cost of gas and an es ti mate of a car’s fuel ef fi ciencyrat ing to de ter mine how ex pen sive the trip would be if ac tu ally driven. (Stu dentsmay have to es ti mate the fuel ef fi ciency rat ing for the con cept cars in a rac inggame, but they can find the cor rect in for ma tion on line for real-world cars.) Somerac ing games list the length of a race track prior to the start of a race. As an ex ten -sion to this ac tiv ity, have the stu dents cal cu late the time it will take for three carstrav el ing 80, 100, and 120 MPH to com plete three laps of a circuit race forexample.

3. Play Time: Have two or more stu dents com pete to com plete the same level of avideo game in re cord time. (Use a stop watch if the game it self does not keep trackof the elapsed time.) Now com pare the re sults. By how many min utes and/or sec -onds did the win ner beat the chal lenger? Have each stu dent play the level two orthree more times. Graph the re sults to show the rise and/or de cline in how long it

162

ÄStatistical Analysis

took each gamer to com plete the level af ter mul ti ple tries. What do the re sultssug gest? Does prac tice make per fect? Or does play ing the same level too manytimes cause gamers to takes risks that cost them time?

Dis cus sion

Hav ing com pleted sev eral of the math ac tiv i ties in this book, ask the stu dents to brain -storm three other ways a video game’s “num bers” can be uti lized in math class. En -cour age the stu dents to con sider var i ous num bers, in clud ing a weapon’s am mu ni tionca pac ity and rate of fire, a player’s high score, to tal play ing time, and other gameplaystatistics.


Data Ta ble

Sam ple Rac ing Leaderboard

The fol low ing leaderboard is a mock up of sta tis tics for the five best play ers in a fic -tional rac ing game. Most on line video games track nu mer ous player sta tis tics. Thesesta tis tics can be an a lyzed in math class.

Gamertag Wins 2ndPlaces

3rdPlaces

To talPoints

Dis tance Trav eled (Miles)

RevenueWare 301 521 421 2366 3729

HeatStrum1 313 458 255 2110 3078

Fullstory333 258 421 423 2039 3306

Reactory31 222 328 301 1623 2553

NuffAlready11 198 289 246 1418 2199


An a lyze the re sults in the above ta ble. Why does the player with the most wins placesec ond over all and not first? (An swer: This player has less to tal points.) As sume thatthere are only three driv ers com pet ing in each race. Cal cu late the win per cent age foreach player. Now cal cu late the av er age dis tance trav eled per race for each player. Tryto fig ure out how the to tal points in this game are cal cu lated. (An swer: First place earns 3 points, sec ond place earns 2 points, and third place earns 1 point.)


Third-party strat egy guides are of ten re leased along side video games. Some, but cer -tainly not all, gamers pur chase strat egy guides to help them com plete mis sions, nav i -gate the game world, and un cover hid den secrets.

Strat egy guides range in length and de tail. Vir tu ally all of them fea ture mis sion brief -ings and screenshots. Some strat egy guides are very de tailed and in clude high-res o lu -tion im ages, ve hi cle and/or weapon sta tis tics, de tailed maps of the game world, and the lo ca tions of se cret pas sage ways and pickups.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write and then pub lish a re view of a video game strat egyguide.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to re view an of fi cial strat egy guide for a fa vor ite or newly re leasedvideo game.

Each re view should take a num ber of fac tors into con sid er ation. These can in clude thefol low ing: 1) The ac cu racy of the strat egy guide: Is it well writ ten? Are there sig nif i -cant er rors or omis sions? 2) The length of the strat egy guide: Is it too short to be of help or too long-winded? 3) The at trac tive ness of the strat egy guide’s lay out and de sign. 4)The qual ity of the screenshots and im ages. 5) The breadth of the strat egy guide: Does it cover the whole game and in clude lots of be hind the scenes in for ma tion and/or bo nuscon tent that will in ter est ex pe ri enced play ers? 6) The re tail price of the strategy guide.Is it worth the cost?

Dis cus sion

Most video game strat egy guides are pub lished by one of two com pa nies—BradyGames (www.bradygames.com) and Prima Games (www.primagames.com).

Be cause most video game websites don’t pub lish re views of strat egy guides, there is aniche op por tu nity here for schools to ap proach one or both of these pub lish ers with theof fer to write and pub lish strat egy guide re views as part of a lan guage arts pro gram atthe up per el e men tary or sec ond ary school level.

164

ÄStrategy Guide Review

As an al ter na tive to re view ing a com mer cial strat egy guide, each stu dent could in steadre view a fan-cre ated strat egy guide that is posted to GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) or an other website.

Hav ing re viewed an other au thor’s strat egy guide, next ask each stu dent to write his orher own strat egy guide for a video game. Re fer to the “Strat egy Guide Writ ing” ac tiv -ity that fol lows for more in for ma tion.



Does play ing video games lead gamers to write less? The an swer to this ques tion maynot be known for all gamers, but for those who choose to write strat egy guides for theirfa vor ite video games, the an swer is a re sound ing no.

Player-cre ated strat egy guides abound on the Internet. In a carry over from the earlydays of the Web, most are plain text doc u ments that fea ture some or all of the fol low -ing sec tions: ta ble of con tents, gen eral game in for ma tion, char ac ter bi og ra phies,weapon and/or ve hi cle over views, mis sion walkthroughs, Easter eggs/se crets,glitches, cheats, and fre quently ask questions (FAQs).

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents au thor their own strat egy guides for a full video game or asin gle mis sion from a fa vor ite game.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to visit the GameFAQs website (www.gamefaqs.com) and down loadtwo or three fan-cre ated strat egy guides for one or more video games. Now ask the stu -dents to re view these strat egy guides and take note of the dif fer ent con tent sec tions fea -tured in each. The stu dents should also note how the strat egy guide is for mat ted andorganized.

Dis cuss with stu dents some of the writ ing tech niques strat egy guide au thors rou tinelyuse (e.g., clear and pre cise di rec tions and nav i ga tional as sists such as “turn left” or“walk to the other side of the room”) . En cour age the stu dents to use sim i lar tech niques as they au thor their own strat egy guides for ei ther a full game or a sin gle level or mis -sion from a favorite game.

Once they have com pleted their first drafts, ask each stu dent to share their work with apeer who has also played the game they are writ ing about. En cour age the stu dents toso licit feed back on what they have writ ten and to peer edit each other’s work. Are thein struc tions in the strat egy guide clear, pre cise, and ac cu rate? Is any crit i cal in for ma -tion miss ing? What bo nus con tent could be added to the strat egy guide in or der tomake it even more appealing to readers?

166

ÄStrategy Guide Writing

Dis cus sion

GameFAQs is the most pop u lar website for host ing strat egy guides. En cour age thestu dents to re view the sub mis sion guide lines care fully be fore con trib ut ing a strat egyguide to this or any other website. GameFAQs and other sites re quire strat egy guidesto be for mat ted in cer tain ways, and they only ac cept a cer tain num ber of strat egyguides and walkthroughs for each video game.

As a way of cel e brat ing their role as young au thors, con sider de vot ing a sec tion of theschool li brary to stu dent-writ ten strat egy guides for video games. To help them com -plete a video game, al low the school’s stu dents to sign out a stu dent-authored strat egyguide as they would any other book.



Some ac tion games are set in the past, while oth ers take place in the pres ent. Many, how ever, are set in the fu ture and of ten on dis tant plan ets. The view of Earth in this im age, as en vi sioned inHalo 3, is set sev eral cen tu ries into the fu ture, fol low ing a dev as tat ing alien in va sion.

While some video games aim for his tor i cal or pres ent-day re al ism in the game worldsthey en vi sion, other games in stead imag ine fan tasy en vi ron ments set in some dis tantfu ture or faraway place.

In de sign ing such games, con cep tu al iz ing the game world—its en vi ron ments, peo ples, tech nol o gies, and so on—is a crit i cal first step in the de vel op ment pro cess. The act ofen vi sion ing helps a game’s de sign ers to es tab lish what the fan tasy world will look like, as well as the pos si bil i ties and lim its of the gameplay that will occur.

Not sur pris ingly, many fu ture-ori ented video games (e.g., the Halo se ries) place play -ers in a post-apoc a lyp tic world at war where they play a war hero (or her o ine) whoalone has the only chance of sav ing the day. (Such games in vari ably place a great dealof em pha sis on what the weap ons of the fu ture will look, sound, and feel like.)

168

ÄStudy of the Future

Other fan tasy-themed games (e.g., the Myst se ries) in stead stress ex plo ra tion overcom bat. These games em pha size the unique cul tural and tech no log i cal char ac ter is ticsof some fu ture or dis tant world, as well as the in her ent chal lenges that ac com panymem ber ship in that world.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write an es say that pre dicts what our world will look like in the fu ture.

Ac tiv ity

Dis cuss the term “fu ture stud ies” with stu dents. Schol ars who are en gaged in fu turestud ies en deavor to ex trap o late what the world may look like in the fu ture basedlargely on facts and trends that can be gleaned by study ing the world at present.

For the pur pose of this ac tiv ity, in vite the stu dents to be come fu ture stud ies schol ars.Ask each stu dent to write an es say that ex plores what the world will look liketwenty-five or so years into the future.

In com plet ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to pay close at ten tion to what some or allof the fol low ing will look like in the fu ture: ar chi tec ture, cars, cloth ing, com put ers, ed -u ca tion, en ter tain ment, food, homes, the mil i tary, sci en tific re search, space ex plo ra -tion, sports, tech nol ogy, travel, and so on.

Op tion ally, al low the stu dents to nar row their fo cus to just one or two of these top ics or to pick their own orig i nal topic to fo cus on.

Dis cus sion

Con sider ask ing the stu dents to limit their fo cus to one of the fol low ing fu ture ori en ta -tions: pos si ble, prob a ble, or pre ferred. Pos si ble fu tures en vi sion the va ri ety of fu tureworlds that we may see. Prob a ble fu tures en vi sion the world a stu dent thinks we willsee. Pre ferred fu tures en vi sion the world a student hopes we will see.

Use this ac tiv ity as a launch ing point for ex plor ing the stu dents’ as pi ra tions and fearsfor the fu ture more gen er ally. At a time of in creas ing global un cer tainty, this ac tiv itycan be used as a ve hi cle for dis cuss ing en vi ron men tal and se cu rity is sues, emerg ingeco nomic chal lenges, and rapid tech no log i cal change, among other topics.

As an al ter na tive to writ ing an es say, ask a class of youn ger stu dents to each draw andthen de scribe a pic ture of the fu ture. In vite a class of older stu dents each to draw athree-panel pic ture that com prises the pos si ble, prob a ble, and pre ferred fu ture ori en ta -tions defined above.



ODis cus sion Ar ti cleLaura’s Story

by Da vid Hutchison

In the not-too-dis tant fu ture, a ten-year-old girl – let’s call her Laura – wakes up onemorn ing ex cit edly an tic i pat ing the com ing day. It is 3 a.m. but Laura is obliv i ous to the dark ness out side. Ho lo graphic win dows in her bed room make it seem like a brightsunny morn ing and, af ter all, she did re tire early yes ter day at 16:00 GMT. (GMT isnow the agreed upon stan dard for time the world over.) Laura’s first meet ing of the day is with a 13-year-old pen pal halfway around the world. It is too late to wash and dress,so rather than con nect ing via real-time video conferencing, she in stead chooses a 3Dav a tar from her dig i tal char ac ter col lec tion to ap pear at the meet ing in place of her self.The av a tar will per fectly trans late all of Laura’s fa cial ex pres sions, ver bal in flec tions,and body lan guage with out any ef fort on Laura’s part. As Laura has dou ble booked an -other meet ing for the same time, she as signs an in tel li gent av a tar to rep re sent her (withapol o gies) at this sec ond meet ing. This av a tar has been given spe cific tasks to ac com -plish and ques tions to ask. It will re port back to Laura, at her con ve nience, once themeeting has concluded. Now Laura is effectively in three places at once.

6:00: As she slept, Laura’s com puter was busy col lat ing data for a re search pro ject shehas ne go ti ated with her teacher-men tor. (Laura’s on line men tor has 50 pu pils in some14 coun tries. Each is pur su ing an in ter est-driven in di vid ual/col lab o ra tive learn ingplan of one’s own de sign.) The data which her com puter has col lected, or ga nized, re -worded and sum ma rized is all set for pre sen ta tion to Laura when ever she is ready. Us -ing a ho lo graphic white board, Laura pushes and pulls the tex tual, vi sual, and au di torydata—Mi nor ity Re port–style—from one place to an other un til she is sat is fied with itsor der, dis card ing what is not needed, and priv i leg ing the most im por tant. Laura knowsthat her teacher-men tor will eval u ate her, not on her abil ity to para phrase and graph i -cally “re-pres ent” the con tent she has col lected (her com puter will han dle this task noprob lem), but on the orig i nal ity of the syn ap tic bind ings she forges, as she con nects to -gether seem ingly dis pa rate con tent cat e go ries to cre ate new net worked bind ings nothosted on the Internet to date.

10:00: The “real world” is just now wak ing up and Laura has sched uled the daily phys i calR&R re quired by law for all chil dren for the next two hours. (This law was en acted al mosta de cade ago to guard against the mus cu lar at ro phy, obe sity, and ques tion able psy cho log i -cal ef fects of to tal vir tual im mer sion.) She par tic i pates in a time less game of hide-and-seek with some lo cal chil dren at the play ground some two blocks away from home.

12:00: In Laura’s day, phys i cal play and meal times are pretty much the onlyreal-world ac tiv i ties that re main. Work, lei sure and learn ing are now all con ducted on -line. Rarely is there the need for Laura or her par ents to travel by air for busi ness orplea sure, nor are there many (so lar-pow ered) cars on the road as al most all work is


con ducted from home. 10-year-old Laura meets with friends at a lo cal res tau rantwhere she spends some of the pin money she has made de sign ing in tel li gent av a tars for girls her own age through her small business.

13:30: Laura ar rives home with plans to en ter her fam ily’s “CAVE,” a ded i cated roomin her house with full cov er age ho lo graphic pro jec tion screens for walls, ceil ing, andfloor. From the menu of fifty places that her par ents have leased, Laura chooses an as -ter oid ad ven ture space to ex plore and map. As she moves through the space, the vir tual con veyor belt for a floor un der foot moves back wards, for wards, and side ways, en sur -ing that Laura is al ways cen tered in the scene. The re al ism is just too tempt ing. Laurareaches out to grab some space dust that she has kicked up from the rocky sur face be -low, but there is noth ing to grab hold of. One day, Laura knows, ho lo graphic tech nol -ogy will have ma tured to the point where a child can grab hold of that space dust andslowly let it seep through her fin gers, feel ing the fine gran u lar tex ture of each speck.How Laura wishes she were living a hundred years in the future!

15:00: Laura has now been awake for twelve hours. Grow ing tired, she re turns to herroom and ver bally in structs her com puter to per form an “over night” Internet search.She care fully lays down the search rules her com puter should fol low as it links to andcol lates the found con tent for a new sub-topic her re search pro ject will ad dress. As sheslips un der the cov ers, re lax ing sur round sound mu sic fills the room and the ho lo -graphic win dows fade into a night time prai rie scene. Laura claps her hands twice toturn off the lights :)

About the Au thor: Da vid Hutchison is an As so ci ate Pro fes sor in the Fac ulty of Ed u ca -tion, Brock Uni ver sity and the au thor of this book.

Source: Hutchison, Da vid. 2004. A nat u ral his tory of place in ed u ca tion. New York:Teach ers Col lege Press, pp. 124–126.


1. In your view, how ac cu rate is Laura’s story in fore tell ing what our world mightlook like fifty or so years in the fu ture?

2. What are the pros and cons of liv ing in Laura’s world?


An in creas ing num ber of video games, in clud ing City of Heroes, al low playersto cus tom ize their char ac ters’ look and dress. In mas sively multiplayer games,players per son al ize their av a tars’ ap pear ance and then show off their char ac ter to other gamers.

What would video games be like with out superheroes to lead the way through evermore chal leng ing mis sions? Pop u lar video game char ac ters such as Mas ter Chief,Sam Fisher, and Solid Snake have taken on lives of their own, a few even in spir ingfilm ad ap ta tions.

So, too, many pop u lar comic book char ac ters, in clud ing Bat man, Spiderman, Su per -man, and the X-Men, have found their way into video games (with vary ing suc cess).

172

ÄSuperhero Design

The video games that these superheroes in spire take full ad van tage of each char ac ter’ssuperpow ers in forg ing new gameplay me chan ics that var i ously in tro duce stealth, web sling ing, and fly ing be hav iors into the gameplay mix.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign an orig i nal superhero char ac ter for a video game.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the class to brain storm a list of superhero char ac ters with which they are fa mil iarfrom read ing comic books, watch ing mov ies and tele vi sion shows, and play ing videogames. As they brain storm their list, also ask the stu dents to note each superhero’s spe -cial pow ers. Fol low ing the brain storm ing, have the stu dents browse the Web anddown load im ages of sev eral of the char ac ters they have listed.

Us ing the char ac ter de signs they have down loaded for in spi ra tion, chal lenge the stu -dents to work in small groups to de sign an orig i nal superhero character.

Each group should de cide what their superhero will look like, in clud ing his or herbuild, face, cos tume, mask, and other fea tures. Each group should also brain storm oneor more spe cial pow ers for their superhero and give the new char ac ter a name. The stu -dents may also be asked to iden tify a spe cific weak ness for their superhero (e.g., Su -per man is weak ened by kryp ton ite) and write a short fic tional bi og ra phy that de tailstheir char ac ter’s back-story. Fi nally, en cour age each group to come up with an idealvideo game scenario for its character.

To show case their superhero, ask each group to de sign a poster board that shows off its superhero’s de sign. Also have the stu dents use the poster board to de scribe theirsuperhero’s spe cial pow ers and other de tails. Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, have each groupshare its poster boards with the rest of the class.

Dis cus sion

An in creas ing num ber of video games, most no ta bly City of Heroes (www.cityofheroes.com) and City of Vil lains (www.cityofvillains.com), al low play ers to cre -ate a hero or vil lain char ac ter from scratch. Prior to lead ing this ac tiv ity, in vite one ortwo stu dents to visit these websites and re port back to the class on the var i ous char ac ter cus tom iz ation op tions that are avail able in the two games.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to de sign their own vil lain char ac tersfor a video game. Vil lains have many of the same fea tures as superheroes, but, as theirname sake sug gests, they are prone to das tardly deeds. They of ten also have a hid denvil lain ous lair for a home base.



Next to ex cel lent gameplay me chan ics and cut ting-edge graph i cal ef fects, high-qual -ity sur round sound is per haps the most sought-af ter tech ni cal fea ture de sired bygamers, par tic u larly fans of rac ing and tac ti cal wargames in which di rec tional soundcan pro vide an im por tant clue as to which di rec tion a car or enemy is approachingfrom.

Sur round sound im merses lis ten ers in a mul ti di rec tional sound field where mu sic em a -nates from all around, in clud ing the front, rear, sides, and per haps, too, over head. With doz ens of speak ers lin ing their walls, movie the aters fea ture built-in sur round sound,as do many home the ater set ups. Speak ers are placed in front of the lis tener, as well asto the rear and sides.

The most com mon sur round sound for mats are Dolby Dig i tal and DTS, each of whichfea tures be tween five and ten dis crete sound chan nels that im merse lis ten ers in a mul ti -di rec tional sound field.

Al though cer tainly not as pop u lar as down load able MP3s, sur round sound mu sic hasalso gained in creas ing at ten tion in the form of DVD-Au dio and SACD mu sic disks.Live mu si cal per for mances are par tic u lar fa vor ites for the sur round sound treat ment. A sur round sound re cord ing of a rock band or or ches tra’s live per for mance has the po -ten tial to en velop lis ten ers in the mid dle of the sur round sound field, al most as if theyare in the au di ence, listening to the performance live.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents go out side and draw a di rec tional sound-field map thatplots the lo ca tion of nat u ral and hu man-made sounds com ing from the front, rear,sides, and overhead.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the con cept of sur round sound and then take them out side on tothe play ground for this ac tiv ity. Pro vide each stu dent with a pen cil and a large, un linedcue card to draw on.

Ask each stu dent to find a spot to work on their own. Their task is to draw a sound-field map that plots the lo ca tion of ev ery thing they hear, in clud ing both nat u ral and hu man-made sounds.

174

ÄSurround Sound Map

The stu dents should start by draw ing a small dot in the cen ter of their cue card that de -notes their lo ca tion.

Next ask the stu dents to use a va ri ety of sym bols and di rec tional ar rows to plot the lo -ca tion and ori en ta tion of the nat u ral and hu man-made sounds they hear em a nat ing allaround them. Sounds that are far ther away should be plot ted far thest from the cen terpoint of the cue card. Sounds that are nearby should be plot ted closer to the centerpoint.

Ask the stu dents to re main si lent through out this ac tiv ity. This will help them fo custheir lis ten ing skills.

Dis cus sion

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to share with the class the sounds that theyheard and how they rep re sented those sounds on their cue cards. How did the stu dentsrep re sent over head sounds on a two-di men sional cue card? Might there be other waysof rep re sent ing en vi ron men tal sounds on pa per (e.g., tra di tional no ta tion, po etry, ordraw ings)? Con sider re peat ing this ac tiv ity later in the year us ing one of the al ter na tive no ta tional systems the students suggest.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, in tro duce stu dents to some of the prin ci ples of sur round sound. These in clude di ver gence, the Dopp ler ef fect, and ra dial sounds that ro tatearound the listener.

Have the stu dents brain storm a list of the best-sound ing video games they have everplayed. Dis cuss the role that well-pro duced sound plays in a va ri ety of video gamegen res, in clud ing rac ing and ad ven ture games.



Good tac tics are cen tral to the gameplay ex pe ri ence of most video games that areplayed well. Mil i tary wargames re quire play ers to have good sit u a tional aware ness, toal ways know what’s go ing on all around them. Rac ing games re quire play ers to ne go -ti ate sharp turns and cor ners quickly, at top speed, with out los ing con trol. Strat egygames re quire play ers to be able to think well ahead and make sound strategicdecisions.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write about one or more tac tics they have suc cess fullyused in a video game.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dent gamers in the class to pick a video game that they are re ally skilled atplay ing. Now ask each stu dent to write a short es say that ex plains sev eral of the tac ticsthey reg u larly use when play ing the game.

En cour age the stu dents to fo cus on tac tics re lated to the fol low ing:

¸ le ver ag ing the gameplay to their ad van tage

¸ “load ing out” their char ac ter at the start of the game

¸ tun ing their car prior to the start of a race

¸ an tic i pat ing the en e mies’ moves

¸ ef fec tively us ing the game’s heads up dis play (HUD)

¸ other tac tics

Have the stu dents teach each other some of the tac tics they have writ ten about. How ef -fec tive are these tac tics in im prov ing an in ex pe ri enced player’s gam ing skills?

176

ÄTactical Analysis

Dis cus sion

Dis cuss with stu dents the pro cess by which gamers “get good” at a game. How manyread a video game’s man ual cover to cover? How many pur chase the of fi cial strat egyguide for a game? How many con sult with other play ers in on line fo rums and dis cus -sion boards or at school? How many prac tice a game for hours at a time? How manycare fully plan how they will go about learn ing a game? If one is to mas ter a game, howim por tant is it to know a game inside out?



Com pare this screenshot of PGA Cham pi on ship Golf 1999 with the photo real ism achieved inre cent golf games. The clear trend in com puter graphics is to fea ture more highly de tailedmod els, greater draw dis tances, mul ti lay ered and an i mated tex tures, de struc ti ble en vi ron -ments, and com plex light ing and par ti cle ef fects.

The theme of prog ress runs deep through out the study of his tory, but no where is thiscon cept more ev i dent than in the his tory of tech no log i cal in no va tion.

The speed of com put ers, for ex am ple, their size, mem ory, and stor age ca pac i ties, aswell as their graphic and sound ca pa bil i ties, have all made tech no log i cal leaps andbounds over the last half cen tury. To day’s cut ting-edge com puter con fig u ra tion willbe noth ing more than an “also ran” a year or two from now.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re view the graph i cal fea tures of three video games, re spec -tively pub lished this year, three years ago, and six years ago.

178

ÄTechnological Progress

Ac tiv ity

In ad vance of this ac tiv ity, choose three PC or con sole video games that were re spec -tively re leased this year, three years ago, and six years ago. Con sider choos ing threevideo games that be long to the same genre or even the same video game se ries (e.g.,Tomb Raider).

In stall the games on a PC com puter or, if pos si ble, bring in the leg acy con sole hard -ware on which the older games run (e.g., PlayStation 1).

In vite a group of stu dents to play the video games and take free-form notes on each ofthe game’s graph i cal fea tures. Ask the stu dents to com pare the res o lu tion of thegraphics, the load times for the var i ous lev els, the com plex ity of the mod els, the tex -ture de tail, the qual ity of the an i ma tions, the light ing, spe cial ef fects, and othergraphical features.

As sign stu dents the task of pre par ing a slideshow pre sen ta tion that in cludesscreenshots from all three games plus the re sults of their find ings. Ide ally, theslideshow will pres ent the three video games in chro no log i cal or der and clearly de lin -eate the graph i cal im prove ments to video game tech nol o gies that have oc curred overthe last six years.

Dis cus sion

Ide ally, in com plet ing this ac tiv ity, the stu dents will have an op por tu nity to play allthree video games on a PC com puter or leg acy video game con sole. If this is not pos si -ble, in stead ask the stu dents to per form a photo anal y sis us ing screenshots from allthree games. Screenshots for older games are readily avail able on the Internet.GameSpot (www.gamespot.com), for ex am ple, ar chives screenshots for video gamesgo ing as far back as 1996.

With older stu dents, use this ac tiv ity as a launch ing point for dis cuss ing the idea of his -tor i cal prog ress more gen er ally. As with tech no log i cal prog ress, many of our mostcher ished cul tural val ues have strong his tor i cal roots that point to a fu ture that is in ev i -ta bly better than the past. The prom ise of the “Amer i can Dream,” a faith that sci encewill even tu ally solve all prob lems, and the prom ise that each suc ces sive gen er a tionwill have a better qual ity of life than the pre vi ous gen er a tion are but three ex am ples.Dis cuss with stu dents the mer its of hav ing faith in his tor i cal prog ress. Do the stu dentsshare this faith? In their view, do other young people have this faith?

The no tion of prog ress that is ex em pli fied in this ac tiv ity also has deep philo soph i calroots that run more sub tly through other his to ries, tech no log i cal and oth er wise. Doesthe no tion of prog ress that the stu dents have chron i cled in this ac tiv ity (in re la tion totech nol ogy) also ap ply to other his tor i cal themes, such as chil dren’s rights, in ter na -tional de vel op ment, or the promise of social democracy?



Plan ning to buy a tele vi sion for play ing video games and/or watch ing DVD mov ies?Walk into any home elec tron ics store, and you are sure to come face-to-face with awide va ri ety of tele vi sion mod els and tech nol o gies from which to choose.

Long gone are the days of the stan dard 4:3 20-inch CRT TV. Con sole gamers andmovie buffs now have mul ti ple tele vi sion tech nol o gies from which to choose. Thesein clude large-screen rear pro jec tion CRTs, flat and rear pro jec tion LCD TVs, plasmadis plays, and DLP pro jec tion TVs. And this list does not in clude the wide va ri ety offront pro jec tion sys tems that are also on the market.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re search the sci ence be hind the four ma jor tele vi sion tech -nol o gies: CRT, LCD, DLP, and plasma. They re port on the pros and cons of each.

Ac tiv ity

This ac tiv ity is ap pro pri ately in tro duced dur ing a sci ence unit on light. Ask the stu -dents to ap ply the ba sic sci en tific prop er ties of light they are learn ing about in class(e.g., spec trum, re frac tion, and op tics) to fo cused re search on the un der ly ing tech nol o -gies that power mod ern tele vi sions (and computer displays).

In ad di tion to mar ket ing in for ma tion on their prod ucts, many man u fac tur ers of tele vi -sions also make avail able (on line and in re tail stores) tech ni cal de tails and ba sic sche -mat ics on how their tele vi sions work. Ask the stu dents to browse the websites of thema jor TV man u fac tur ers (e.g., Hitachi, Sony, and Toshiba) for in for ma tion on howCRT, LCD, DLP, and plasma dis plays work. Also en cour age the stu dents to search foron line ar ti cles that fo cus on the ad van tages and dis ad van tages of each tech nol ogy, aswell as the pros and cons of the 4:3 ver sus 16:9 as pect ra tios, flat ver sus rear pro jec tionver sus front pro jec tion tech nol o gies, and other competing features of moderntelevisions.

As sign each stu dent the task of writ ing a re port that de tails the dif fer ences be tween thefour com pet ing tele vi sion tech nol o gies and the ben e fits and draw backs of each. Which tele vi sion tech nol ogy is best for play ing video games? Which is the most ideal forwatch ing DVD mov ies? Which of fers the best bang for the buck? Where might tele vi -sion tech nol o gies be headed in the com ing years (e.g., ho lo graphic technologies or 3Dvisors)?

180

ÄTelevision Technologies

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can also be ex tended into his tory class. Ask the stu dents to re search thehis tory of tele vi sion, in clud ing the his tory of tele vi sion tech nol o gies, the first livebroad casts, the rise of tele vi sion news, and the so cial his tory of ra dio and tele vi sionpro gram ming through out the twentieth century.

Also con sider ask ing the stu dents to com pare the mag a zine and on line re views of spe -cific tele vi sion mod els or search the Web for the best HDTV deals. By con struct ing acom par a tive chart in math class, the stu dents can per form a cost-ben e fit anal y sis us ingscreen size and other tele vi sion spec i fi ca tions as factors for comparison.

The U.S. broad cast ing in dus try has been grad u ally transitioning to HDTV over the last sev eral years. Ask a group of older stu dents to re search the FCC reg u la tory is sues un -der ly ing this tran si tion (www.dtv.gov), the steps broad cast ers are tak ing to meet thenew re quire ments, and the sta tus of the HDTV tran si tion in the United States com -pared with other coun tries, such as the United Kingdom and Japan.



Head-to-head rac ing, in Forza Motorsport 2 and other games, can lead into all sorts of math ac -tiv i ties that cal cu late the to tal dis tance trav eled, rate of ac cel er a tion, top speed, best lap time,and many other driv ing sta tis tics.

Rac ing games are gen er ally grouped into the fol low ing sub cat e go ries: ar cade, sim u la -tion, and tuner. Some driv ing games fit nicely into one of these cat e go ries. Oth ers in -cor po rate fea tures that are drawn from two or three of these subgenres.

Ar cade games em pha size fun and speed over re al ism. They fea ture cars that are easy to drive and whip around cor ners at top speed, but the car han dling in ar cade games is theleast re al is tic of the three cat e go ries.

Sim u la tion games em pha size re al ism over easy car han dling. In these games, play ersrace real-world cars on real-world race tracks.

Tun ers al low play ers to tune, mod, and “pimp” vir tu ally ev ery as pect of their car, in -clud ing its ex te rior ap pear ance and var i ous tun ing and per for mance parts, such as thecar’s en gine, trans mis sion, brakes, and other components.

182

ÄTest Drive

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign a sci ence ex per i ment in which their peers take thecars in a rac ing game for a test drive. They re port on which cars have the best and worst con trol and han dling ac cord ing to the par tic i pants in the study.

Ac tiv ity

Ask a group of stu dents to choose three of their fa vor ite rac ing games for this sci enceac tiv ity. They are go ing to de sign an ex per i ment in which sev eral of their class matestake the same cars in each game for a test drive. The par tic i pants in the ex per i ment willbe asked to re port in di vid u ally on which cars have the best and worst control andhandling.

Key ques tions for this ex per i ment in clude: 1) Did the par tic i pants gen er ally agree onwhich cars had the best and worst con trol and han dling, or did their opin ions vary sig -nif i cantly? 2) Were there dif fer ences in the pref er ences ex pressed by nov ice ver sus ex -pe ri enced gamers? 3) Were there gen der dif fer ences in the results?

Prior to be gin ning this ex per i ment, ask the stu dents to fill out a sci en tific method formthat in cludes the fol low ing sections:

¸ the pur pose of the ex per i ment

¸ a hy poth e sis de scrib ing the ex pected out come(s) of the ex per i ment

¸ the ma te ri als needed to com plete the ex per i ment

¸ the pro ce dure that will be fol lowed to per form the ex per i ment

Once the ex per i ment is com plete, have the stu dents fill out two ad di tional pieces of in -for ma tion on the form:

¸ the re sults of the ex per i ment

¸ a dis cus sion of the re sults

For a more com plex ver sion of this ex per i ment, have each par tic i pant com pare the ex -pe ri ence of rac ing each car us ing a key board, a con trol pad, and a driving wheel.

Dis cus sion

Con sider re quir ing the stu dents to com plete the sci en tific method form de scribedabove prior to con duct ing other video game–re lated ex per i ments, in clud ing “The Sur -vey” ac tiv ity de scribed else where in this book.

This ac tiv ity can be adapted to also work with flight sim u la tors, the most pop u lar ofwhich is the Flight Sim u la tor se ries. Ask the par tic i pants in a flight sim u la tor ex per i -ment to re port on the re spon sive ness of the flight con trols and the ease with which a


flight sim u la tor’s planes can be flown by nov ice and/or ex pe ri enced gamers. Is it eas -ier to use a key board, a con trol pad, or a flight stick to con trol the planes in a flyinggame?

Also have the stu dents re port on the breadth of the con trol op tions sup ported in com -pet ing flight sim u la tors. Some flight sim u la tors sup port only ba sic flight con trols.Hence, they ap peal mostly to nov ice and rec re ational gamers. Other flight sim u la torsaim for ab so lute re al ism and au then tic ity in their sup port for doz ens of in stru ment con -trol panel set tings that mon i tor and ad just many take off, landing, and in-flightparameters.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieVir tual Econ omy

An in creas ing num ber of mas sively multiplayer on line role-play ing games(MMORPGs) fea ture com plex econ o mies in which goods, ser vices, and real es tateare reg u larly bought and sold. Ask the stu dents to con duct an eco nomic au dit of a vir -tual com mu nity (e.g., Sec ond Life) to de ter mine how the game’s econ omy is struc -tured, how cap i tal is val ued and trans ferred, and the most prof it able busi nessven tures. (Busi ness)


Many hard core PC gamers are not con tent with the ge neric PC com put ers widely avail -able in con sumer elec tronic stores. In stead, they de mand even more power and evenbetter look ing PCs that epit o mize the “cool fac tor” of be ing a cut ting-edge gamer.

A small num ber of spe cialty shops are happy to oblige such gamers. These shops spe -cial ize in build ing cus tom gam ing PCs that have all the trim mings and in ter nal com po -nents to en sure an op ti mum gam ing experience.

Yet just hav ing the lat est graphics card and the fast est pro ces sor is not suf fi cient. Hard -ware ven dors such as Fal con North west (www.fal con-nw.com) and VoodooPC(www.voodoopc.com) also build com puter workstations that boast unique case de -signs, cus tom paint jobs, the matic tat toos, trans par ent side win dows, and in ter nal neonlights. Here, for ex am ple, is an ex cerpt from the mar ket ing ma te rial for a cus tom paintjob at the Falcon Northwest website:

The fast est PCs in the world now have the looks to match! Imag ine your fa -vor ite color. Now imag ine it with bril liant me tal lic spar kles, float ing un derlay ers of rich clearcoat.... on your fa vor ite dream car. That’s what Mach VExotix painted cases are. Real au to mo tive fin ishes, ap plied by an awardwin ning Cer ti fied Mas ter Tech with over 20 years of auto paint ing ex pe ri -ence. Mach V Exotix have 10 lay ers of base coats, col ors, tints andclearcoats—baked-on in an au to mo tive ther mal downdraft oven.

And that’s just the paint job! Cus tom PCs also boast the lat est in in ter nal cir cuitry,fanless cool ing tech nol ogy (to re duce noise), and graph i cal em bel lish ments on boththe out side and in sides of the PC en clo sure itself.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign the cas ing for a cus tom gam ing PC that op tion allyfea tures a cus tom paint job, de cals, neon lights, tat toos, and other em bel lish ments.

Ac tiv ity

In vite the stu dents to search the Internet for pho tos and spec i fi ca tions of cus tom gam -ing PCs from Fal con North west, VoodooPC, and other on line spe cialty PC ven dors.As they browse the Web, en cour age the stu dents to down load the pho tos they find to afolder on their com puter and take notes on the wide va ri ety of case de signs that areavail able for custom gaming PCs.

185

ÄThe Gaming PC

Draw ing from their on line re search, ask small groups of stu dents to de sign a cus tomcase for a gam ing PC. En cour age each group to come up with a unique case de sign,color scheme, and gam ing theme (e.g., Star Wars). Their cus tom PC can also in cludeneon lights, sten cil de signs, trans par ent win dows, and other cut ting-edge fea tures such as fanless cool ing and wire less connectivity.

Have the stu dents pres ent their cus tom gam ing PCs to the class in the form of a posterses sion. In ject a lit tle friendly com pe ti tion into this ac tiv ity by award ing gold, sliver,and bronze med als to the top designs.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can be adapted to work with car de signs. Many rac ing games al low play -ers to mod ify the look of their cars via cus tom paint jobs, trims, de cals, and a va ri ety ofother em bel lish ments. As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to de sign the ex -te rior look of a cool new con cept car. Re fer to the “Car of the Fu ture” ac tiv ity, dis -cussed else where in this book, for details.



What makes gamers tick? Do they see the world dif fer ently from the rest of us? Aretheir hopes and dreams for the fu ture that much dif fer ent from those of non-gamers?Can they feel vi o lent ten den cies grow ing ever stron ger within them as they play videogames? These and no doubt many other ques tions lie at the heart of count less re searchstud ies that en deavor to un lock the in ner most se crets of hardcore gamers.

In an ef fort to learn more about the life style and play ing hab its of gamers, re search ersask both quan ti ta tive and qual i ta tive ques tions of gamers rang ing from the num ber ofhours they spend play ing video games each week to per son al ity tests that aim to iden -tify the key psy cho log i cal at trib utes that at tract young peo ple to video games in thefirst place.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents in ter view their peers about their video game play ing hab -its. They then draw ten ta tive con clu sions from the data they have gathered.

Ac tiv ity

Cast the stu dents in your class into the role of re search ers. Ask them to brain storm a list of ques tions they would most like to pose to gamers in an ef fort to learn more abouttheir daily rou tines and video game play ing hab its. Help the stu dents to nar row downand hone in on a man age able set of well-formed ques tions that they could com fort ablyask their peers in another class.

With the per mis sion of the teacher and par ents of the stu dents in an other class, haveyour stu dents con duct one-to-one in ter views with their peers. Con sider hav ing thestudent-re search ers work in pairs. One stu dent con ducts the in ter view, while the othertakes notes.

Once the in ter views have been com pleted, have the stu dents col late the data they havecol lected. En cour age them to or ga nize the par tic i pants’ state ments into cat e go ries.Have them pull out state ments of agree ment be tween the par tic i pants and also pointsof con ten tion. Also an a lyze the re sults by age, gen der, and other cri te ria. As they dis -cuss the re sults, en sure that the stu dents main tain the an o nym ity of the students whowere interviewed.

187

ÄThe Interview

Now have the stu dents draw ten ta tive con clu sions from the data they have col lected.What re search ques tions have been left un an swered? How might the stu dents go aboutor ga niz ing a new re search pro ject that aims to an swer these questions?

Dis cus sion

Con sider lead ing this ac tiv ity as a fol low-up to “The Sur vey” ac tiv ity, dis cussed else -where in this book. “The Sur vey” ac tiv ity also lists a sam ple set of ques tions that thestu dents may wish to pose in their interviews.

Fol low ing both ac tiv i ties, ask the stu dents to list the pros and cons of each re search ap -proach. What are the ad van tages and dis ad van tages of con duct ing a face-to-face in ter -view ver sus a sur vey ques tion naire that is ad min is tered im per son ally to mul ti plepar tic i pants? Which re search meth od ol ogy poses the most chal lenges? Can sur veysand in ter views be used in con junc tion with one an other? If so, how? Fi nally, howwould this ac tiv ity have turned out dif fer ently if, in stead of con duct ing one-on-one in -ter views, the stu dents had fa cil i tated small group discussions with four or five of theirpeers at a time?



Lead char ac ters in a video game die many times over through out the life of videogame. Yet to re store life to a char ac ter, all a player need do is hit the re set but ton and re -play the cur rent mis sion. Al though mov ies oc ca sion ally kill off the lead char ac ter forgood early on (e.g., Psy cho) or have the lead char ac ter sac ri fice oneself at the end ofthe movie, few, if any, video games sur prise play ers with such a turn of for tunes. Thiswould surely leave the pros pect of a sequel in grave doubt.

What would hap pen if the lead char ac ter in a video game were to die? How would thehero or her o ine who saved the day be re mem bered? How would the world con tinue onwith out his or her lead er ship and strength?

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write an obit u ary which re counts the life of a lead videogame char ac ter who has died.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of lead char ac ters from their fa vor ite video games(e.g., Lara Croft, Mas ter Chief, and Solid Snake). Now ask the stu dents to con sider theim pos si ble. How would these char ac ters be re mem bered if they were to die? What sto -ries would be told about them? How would their many feats and vic to ries be im mor tal -ized? Who, if any one, would miss them? Who would take their place?

In tro duce the term “obit u ary” to stu dents. Con sider bring ing some news pa pers into the class room and hav ing the stu dents read a few of the obit u ar ies for peo ple who have re -cently passed away. Ask the stu dents to list the cat e go ries of in for ma tion most obit u ar -ies in clude (e.g., date of birth, cause of death, life achieve ments, and surviving familymembers).

Now as sign each stu dent the task of writ ing an obit u ary for a lead char ac ter in a videogame who has died. Ask each stu dent to fo cus on the char ac ter’s ac com plish ments inlife, his or her leg acy, and how the char ac ter is likely to be re mem bered, both byfriends and foes.

189

ÄThe Obituary

Dis cus sion

For a vari a tion on this ac tiv ity, ask each stu dent to write a mem o ra ble ep i taph for thegrave stone of a lead video game char ac ter who has died. Each char ac ter’s ep i taphcould be gin “Here lies ....”

This ac tiv ity can also be ex tended to in clude sec ond ary char ac ters, or the evil nem e sisof a lead char ac ter.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, you may wish to ask the stu dents to write their ownobit u ar ies (sev enty or so years into the fu ture) as a way of help ing them to frame a setof life goals for them selves.

It is im por tant that this ac tiv ity be han dled very sen si tively. Prior to lead ing this ac tiv -ity, be aware of any re cent deaths in the fam i lies of the stu dents you teach and how thisac tiv ity might stir up sad mem o ries for those stu dents who have ex pe ri enced loss intheir lives, ei ther re cently or a long time ago. Se ri ously con sider con sult ing with par -ents prior to hav ing stu dents write their own obituaries.



It is prob a bly fair to say that most gamers have had fan ta sies about de sign ing abrand-new video game or a fol low-up ti tle for a se ries they en joy. No doubt mostgamers have also con sid ered the im prove ments they would make to an ex ist ing videogame were they able to go back in time and di rect the de vel op ment team that orig i nally designed the game.

Be fore a video game can be green-lighted (i.e., ap proved for de vel op ment), it mustfirst be pitched to those who con trol the purse strings, as well as the per son nel, andother re sources needed to en sure the pro ject’s suc cess. Game pub lish ers make de ci -sions about which pro jects will go for ward on the ba sis of what has faired well in thepast, the rep u ta tion of the de vel op ment team, and the strength of the game proposalitself.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents pre pare a pro posal for a brand-new video game, whichthey then pitch to the class.

Ac tiv ity

Chal lenge the stu dents to work in pairs or small groups to de velop a pro posal for abrand-new PC, con sole, or handheld video game. Once their pro posal is fi nal ized, askeach group to pitch it to the class.

Once they’ve formed their groups, the stu dents should be gin by brain storm ing a list ofpo ten tial game ideas. En cour age the stu dents to keep in mind the wide va ri ety of videogame gen res from which they can draw (e.g., ad ven ture, driv ing, puz zle, role-play ing,and strat egy). From the list they have brainstormed, have the stu dents nar row downtheir choice to the game idea that they feel has the best chance of be ing picked by theclass based on its orig i nal ity, fun fac tor, and other criteria.

Next, the stu dents should flesh out the de tails for the video game they are pro pos ing.What gameplay me chan ics (e.g., driv ing, puz zle solv ing, or stealth) will be used? Who are the lead char ac ters? What will the game’s en vi ron ments look like? What weap ons,ve hi cles, and other tech nol o gies will be fea tured? How many lev els or mis sions willthere be? Will the game sup port both sin gle and multiplayer gameplay?

191

ÄThe Pitch

With many of the game’s de tails ironed out, the stu dents now need to pre pare the pre -sen ta tion ma te ri als they will rely on as they pitch their game idea to the class. This may in clude a mul ti me dia pre sen ta tion, a poster board, a one- or two-page hand out, or other pre sen ta tion media.

Be gin the pre sen ta tions once each group has fi nal ized their pitch and is ready to shareits game idea with the class. Fol low ing each pre sen ta tion, have the stu dent au di encecom plete feed back forms for each pitch. Once all of the pre sen ta tions are com plete,ask the stu dents to vote for the pitch that they be lieve has the most merit (not in clud ingtheir own).

An nounce the re sults of the com pe ti tion to the class.

Dis cus sion

In stead of pro pos ing a brand-new video game, ask the stu dents to pro pose a se quel to atop-sell ing video game, thus turn ing the orig i nal game into a video game fran chise.

Al ter na tively, the stu dents can cri tique an ex ist ing game and in stead put for ward sug -ges tions on what changes, im prove ments, and new fea tures they would have in sistedon had they been in charge of the game’s development.


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleBring ing Back the Dream

by Noel Llopis

A lot of peo ple have a par tic u lar mo ment or ex pe ri ence that de fined their fu ture. It canbe any thing: read ing a par tic u lar book, trav el ing through a dif fer ent coun try, meet ingsome body spe cial, or go ing through a very pain ful (or happy) ex pe ri ence. For me, thefu ture crys tal lized on a fall af ter noon in 1985, when I sat in front of an 8-bit com puterat a friend’s house. It was the be gin ning of a long per sonal jour ney. With out it, Iwould n’t be de vel op ing games to day, and I cer tainly wouldn’t be writing this article.

The com puter was laugh ably prim i tive by to day’s stan dards: a Z80 4MHz CPU with64KB of RAM. What made it stand out from other com put ers at the time was a whop -ping 16 si mul ta neous col ors (as long as you gave up half your hor i zon tal res o lu tion),

three-chan nel square wave sound gen er a tion, and 3′′ floppy disks. Cell phones thesedays are hun dreds of times more pow er ful than that com puter. Heck, the chip in side ami cro wave oven is probably more powerful!


What was it that caused love at first sight with that com puter? Im pres sive as they wereat the time, it was n’t the tech ni cal specs that at tracted me. It was n’t the silly games ei -ther, even though those were fun for a few days. It was be ing able to give com mands tothe ma chine and have it ex e cute them immediately.

The com puter booted di rectly into a BASIC in ter preter. I started ex per i ment ing with afew PRINT state ments, then moved to FOR loops, get ting in put and solv ing al ge braprob lems as if by magic. I spent end less hours typ ing game list ings that came in mag a -zines (usu ally with a few print ing er rors, which made them so much more fun to getwork ing cor rectly). I ex per i mented with graphics, sounds, and animations.

Be fore I knew it, the BASIC in ter preter was too slow and bloated and I had to grad u ateto as sem bly. Pro gram ming be came a bit slower (es pe cially since for some rea son Icould only save the as sem bly onto tapes, not disks), but the pro grams be came thou -sands of times faster. I was fi nally able to draw sprites with out the an noy ing flicker,use all avail able mem ory, and even over write part of the ROM jump ta ble to squeeze in a few extra KB.

I was hooked.

That ex pe ri ence to tally changed the rest of my life. It caused me to study com puter en -gi neer ing and com puter sci ence and even tu ally to write games pro fes sion ally (much to my par ents’ dismay).

About the Au thor: Noel Llopis is an au thor and game pro gram mer.

Source: Llopis, Noel. 2006. Bring ing back the dream. Games from Within. Au gust 16(Ex cerpt). URL: http://www.gamesfromwithin.com/ar ti cles/0608/000111.html


1. What is the old est tech nol ogy that you can re mem ber see ing or us ing? De scribe itto the class.

2. Do you have a hobby or pas sion to which you think you might like to de vote yourca reer? If so, what is it, and why is it so en joy able?


One of the most com mon com plaints that is lev eled at video games by re view ers is thepoor di a log. The “Dead pan Di a log” ac tiv ity, dis cussed else where in this book, ex -plores the el o cu tion of the spo ken word, but of ten the cul prit is the screen play it self,which fea tures poorly writ ten con ver sa tions be tween characters in the game.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re write the di a log for a cutscene in a video game that is indes per ate need of im prove ment.

Ac tiv ity

As sign one or two stu dents the task of cre at ing a writ ten tran script for a sin gle cutscene in a video game. Choose a game that fea tures lack lus ter di a log. (Sadly, it will not bedif fi cult to find many video games fit ting this criteria.)

Pho to copy and dis trib ute the writ ten tran script to a class of stu dents. Work ing in pairs,ask the stu dents to re write the scene in an ef fort to im prove the di a log. Their aimshould not be to al ter what hap pens in the scene or to change the mean ings of the words used. Rather, they should fo cus on im prov ing the con ver sa tions that un der lie what isal ready hap pen ing by re work ing and en hanc ing the phrases that are spoken.

Ask the stu dents to share their re writes orally in front of the class.

Dis cus sion

This ac tiv ity can be adapted to work with movie di a log, the at ri cal scripts, and quotedcon ver sa tions in books.


194

ÄThe Rewrite

Most gamers have very well-formed opin ions about the video games they play. In -deed, one look at the user re views at GameSpot (www.gamespot.com) and other lead -ing video game websites, sug gests that many gamers are more than will ing to sharetheir strong views with oth ers. Yet many user re views also re veal in her ent weak nesses, such as ex treme brev ity, poor spell ing and gram mar, and less-than-well-formedthoughts.

Many user re views are in des per ate need of a copy editor who can spot and cor rect thenu mer ous spell ing, sen tence struc ture, and gram mat i cal er rors that are strewn through -out. Im prov ing the writ ing style of a re view lends the re view more cre dence when vis i -tors read it. Hence copy edit ing is an ac tiv ity stu dents should reg u larly en gage in withtheir own writ ing and the writing of their peers.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re write a video game user re view in an ef fort to im prove its clar ity and sen tence struc ture.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the job re spon si bil i ties of a copy editor who works in a book,news pa per, or mag a zine ed i to rial de part ment. (Also note that copy editors work inmany other in dus tries.) Copy editors proof read and im prove the leg i bil ity, spell ing,gram mar, and sen tence struc ture of books and news pa per and mag a zine ar ti cles. Theymark up a draft of a book or ar ti cle with corrections for the author to review.

In form the stu dents that they are go ing to copy edit a few of the user re views posted at avideo game website. Ask the stu dents to browse the user re views for a fa vor ite videogame at GameSpot or an other website.

As sign each stu dent the task of pick ing a poorly writ ten user re view to proof read andedit. With out al ter ing its in tent or mean ing, each stu dent should re write the re viewthey have picked to ex press the re viewer’s points more clearly, us ing better sen tencestruc ture and im proved spell ing and grammar.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, have the stu dents share with a peer the be fore and af ter ver -sions of the user re views they have copy edited.

195

ÄThe Rewrite (Take Two)

Dis cus sion

User re views tend to be on the short side, so they are ex cel lent choices for fo cused les -sons on gram mar and sen tence struc ture. Con sider print ing out a dozen or more videogame user re views for the stu dents to cri tique, edit, and im prove. Have the stu dents re -port back on the most com mon gram mat i cal and sen tence struc ture er rors they havefound.

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask each stu dent to re write an of fi cial print or on line re -view of a video game, movie, or book. Are pro fes sional jour nal ists and movie crit icsmore or less likely than ev ery day gamers to pub lish well-writ ten re views? Whichvideo game and movie websites fea ture the most well-writ ten re views? Which pub lishthe least well written?

Copy editors use a com mon set of markup sym bols when proof read ing books and ar ti -cles. As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, con sider in tro duc ing stu dents to a few of the morecom mon sym bols copy editors use. An ex pla na tion of the var i ous copy edit ing sym bols can be found here: http://www.col o rado.edu/Pub li ca tions/styleguide/sym bols.html



In sane stunts, such as this view of a para trooper motorcycling off a cliff in Just Cause, are part and par cel of the over-the-top gameplay that is fea tured in most ac tion games.

In first-per son shoot ers, rocket jumps are an in creas ingly pop u lar gameplay move,par tic u larly in on line matches in which the com pe ti tion is at its most fierce. An ex plo -sive pro jec tile (e.g., from a handheld rocket launcher) is fired at the ground, caus ingthe player’s char ac ter to re coil and leap high into the air, gain ing the ad van tage of el e -va tion or a quick escape.

In the real world, this ac tion would of course kill a per son in stantly, but in the world ofvideo games, it is an ef fec tive tech nique for ac cess ing ledges and other el e vated lo ca -tions that are nor mally off lim its. Rocket jumps can also be adapted to work with ve hi -cles in an ef fort to pro pel them for ward over long dis tances as part of a dra matic stuntsequence.

197

ÄThe Stunt

The Internet is ripe with cap tured video game foot age of super jumps and other in sanestunts. In deed, some gamers make it their pri mary mis sion to cap ture foot age of theirchar ac ter per form ing in-game stunts in Bat tle field, Halo, and other ac tion-packedvideo games.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents cap ture some in-game foot age of their char ac ters per form -ing in sane stunts on foot or in ve hi cles.

Ac tiv ity

Chal lenge the stu dent gamers in your class to cap ture on foot or in ve hi cle stunt foot -age from their fa vor ite video games. In vite the stu dents to edit the foot age they havecap tured into a movie reel that show cases an ac tion-packed se quence high light ing themost in sane stunts they have filmed.

Next ask the stu dents to write out short cap tions that ex plain how each stunt was per -formed. At the stu dents’ dis cre tion, these cap tions can be ed ited into the com piledvideo game foot age as ti tles that pre cede or fol low each stunt.

Dis cus sion

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, have the stu dents work to gether to cre ate a stunt reelthat show cases the ex ploits of sev eral gamers. Screen the stunt reel for the full classand in vite the rest of the stu dents to vote for their fa vor ite stunt.



Sur veys are one of the most com mon means by which re search ers col lect in for ma tionabout the life style hab its of video game en thu si asts. Among other things, re search ersare in ter ested in the types of video games young peo ple are drawn to, for how longthey play each week, and how they con struct their iden ti ties as gamers.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign a video game sur vey, which they then ad min is ter toother stu dents in the school.

Ac tiv ity

This is a three-part ac tiv ity in which the stu dents de sign a video game–re lated sur vey,con duct the sur vey with their peers, and then tally and an a lyze the results.

Work ing as a full class, have the stu dents brain storm a list of ques tions that they would like to ask their peers about their video game play ing hab its. Once the brain storm ing iscom plete, have the stu dents nar row down their list of ques tions to the best ten ortwenty. En cour age the stu dents to hone in on each ques tion, en sur ing that each is wellworded, pre cise, and un bi ased. (Re fer to the dis cus sion sec tion that fol lows for a list ofsample questions.)

Once the ques tions have been fi nal ized, have the stu dents con duct their sur vey withan other class in the school. They can choose to in vite a class of sim i larly aged peers tocom plete the ques tion naire or in stead ad min is ter the sur vey to a group of older oryoun ger stu dents (or both). The sur vey can be con ducted as a one-to-one in ter view orcom pleted on pa per on a vol un tary ba sis. (To en sure the an o nym ity of the par tic i pants,be sure that no in for ma tion that iden ti fies the par tic i pants is collected during thesurvey.)

Once the sur vey sheets have been col lected, have the stu dents tally the re sults of theirsur vey. In vite them to an a lyze their find ings and be gin draw ing ten ta tive con clu sionsfrom the data. Also en cour age the stu dents to cre ate dot, line, bar, and pie graphs us ingthe data they have collected.

199

ÄThe Survey

Dis cus sion

Here are some ques tions that stu dents may wish to pose in their sur vey:

1. How many hours a week do you play video games?

2. How old were you when you first started play ing video games?

3. Do you mostly play video games alone, with your friends, or both?

4. How many hours a week do you play video games on line?

5. What is your fa vor ite video game?

6. What is your fa vor ite video game genre (e.g., driv ing games)?

7. What is your fa vor ite video game con sole?

8. Do your par ents al low you to play video games that have a Ma ture rat ing?

9. Do you con sider your self to be ad dicted to video games?

10. When you are not play ing video games, what fun things do you like to do?

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to con sider what changes to their sur vey (if any)they would make with the ben e fit of hind sight. What new or fol low-up ques tions wouldthey have liked to ask the par tic i pants in the study? In what ways might the re sults of theques tion naire be dif fer ent had they posed the same ques tions to a youn ger or older groupof stu dents or more girls or boys or adults in stead of young peo ple? What fol low-up re -search might the stu dents con sider un der tak ing given the find ings in their study?

In lead ing this ac tiv ity, take full ad van tage of the op por tu nity to dis cuss the re li abil ityof sur vey in stru ments and the prob lems posed by sur veys that have lim ited par tic i pa -tion or pose vague, lead ing, or bi ased ques tions. Also ask the stu dents to take note ofthe way sur veys are re ported in the news me dia. The num ber of par tic i pants sur veyedand the re li abil ity of the sur vey (e.g., “plus or mi nus five per cent age points, nine teentimes out of twenty”) are often cited along with the results.


!Ac tiv ity QuickieFan Fic tion

Ask the stu dents to each write a fic tional story that ex tends the storyline in a fa vor itevideo game. The stu dents’ sto ries can fea ture both new and re turn ing char ac ters and be writ ten as ei ther a prequel or se quel to the game. Op tion ally, chal lenge the stu dents toset their fic tional story in an al ter na tive uni verse that fol lows a dif fer ent timeline.(Lan guage Arts)


When Microsoft’s Xbox 360 con sole was re leased in late 2005, many on line re tail ersquickly an nounced bun dle deals for the new con sole. These bun dles var i ously in -cluded the new Xbox 360 con sole, ex tra con trol lers, a head set, a bat tery charger, and ava ri ety of games. Xbox play ers all over the world got out their cal cu la tors and be gancrunch ing the num bers to de ter mine the best value for their money.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign an ad ver tise ment for the ul ti mate gam ing bun dle,con sist ing of a PC or con sole sys tem and third-party hard ware and games.

Ac tiv ity

In tro duce stu dents to the no tion of a prod uct bun dle in which the cost of pur chas ing allof the bun dled items to gether as a sin gle pack age deal is less than the cost of pur chas -ing all of the items sep a rately. Show the stu dents ex am ples of sev eral bun dle deals forvideo games, home the ater set ups, cars, and other com monly bundled products.

Work ing in small groups, as sign stu dents the task of cre at ing a bun dle deal for a PC orvideo game con sole. Their pack age deal can in clude hard ware, in ter nal up grades,third-party ac ces so ries, bun dled games, and so on. Also as sign stu dents the task of de -ter min ing a price point for the bun dle deal. This price should be at trac tive to con sum -ers but not money los ing for re tail ers and manufacturers.

To mar ket their pack age deal, have the stu dents cre ate an ap peal ing print ad ver tise -ment that will grab the at ten tion of con sum ers.

Cre ate a dis play area in the class room where all of the print ad ver tise ments can bebrowsed. Ask the stu dents to vote for the bun dle deal that they be lieve is the best valuefor cus tom ers (not in clud ing their own). Tally the re sults to de ter mine a winner.

Dis cus sion

Dis cuss with stu dents some of the other mar ket ing ploys ad ver tis ers use to draw in cus -tom ers. These in clude mail-in re bates, in-store spe cials, two-for-one deals, cross-pro -mo tions (e.g., movie the aters and movie rental stores), ex tended war ran ties, vi ralmar ket ing, and free de liv ery and installation.


201

ÄUltimate Gaming Bundle

Among the most am bi tious of video games are those that model an en tire city for play -ers to walk, drive, bike, skate board, or oth er wise travel through. Some of these videogames al low play ers to move freely through out the city. Oth ers re quire play ers to com -plete mis sions or races in dif fer ent parts of the city as the gameplay proceeds.

In ei ther sce nario, the city needs to be mod eled right down to each in di vid ual dis trict,build ing, road, lamp post, and pe des trian. The game’s de sign ers es sen tially ap ply theskills of an ur ban plan ner in do ing so, al though they never lose sight of the need to alsoen sure that their vir tual city is fun, in vit ing, and ac ces si ble for gamers.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents choose the lo ca tion for a new city, which they then de signfrom the ground up.

Ac tiv ity

Prior to lead ing this ac tiv ity, in tro duce stu dents to the term “ur ban plan ning.” Dis cussthe role of an ur ban plan ner in de sign ing or im prov ing the phys i cal lay out and in fra -struc ture of a city or town. (Ur ban plan ners also play a lead role in en hanc ing the so cial and eco nomic life of a city.) Also in tro duce stu dents to some of the map ping and sur -vey ing skills ur ban plan ners use daily in their jobs.

Next, have the stu dents sur vey the maps of two or three real-world cit ies or towns, aswell as a few of the vir tual maps that can be found in most open world video games.(The of fi cial strat egy guides for such games of ten fea ture de tailed printed maps.) What types of dis tricts are rep re sented on these maps (e.g., res i den tial, com mer cial, and in -dus trial)? What ame ni ties are shown on these maps (e.g., houses, stores, po lice sta -tions, air ports, and parking lots)?

In vite the stu dents to be come ur ban plan ners. Work ing in small groups, ask them toap ply all of the geo graphic skills they have learned to the chal lenge of de sign ing theplans for a new city. Their first task will be to lo cate the city in a top o graphic area oftheir choos ing (e.g., be side a lake or on top of a moun tain). Next, they will need to de -cide which types of dis tricts to fea ture and the rel a tive lo ca tion of each. The road sys -tem co mes next, as do the var i ous build ings that will be located in each district.

202

ÄUrban Planning

Pro vide the stu dents with large pieces of pa per on which to draw up the plans for theircity. En sure that the stu dents prop erly la bel the map they cre ate and add a key andcom pass rose. Al ter na tively, in vite the stu dents to cre ate a 3D scale model of their cityus ing con struc tion pa per, clay, pasticine, or other arts and crafts supplies.

Dis cus sion

Con sider lead ing this ac tiv ity at the end of a ma jor unit on map ping in ge og ra phy class. This way the stu dents can ap ply all of the geo graphic skills they have learned, in clud -ing their new found map ping skills, top o graphic knowl edge, and ur ban plan ning skills,to the task of de sign ing a new city.

As they plan their city, en cour age a group of older stu dents to take the fol low ing fac -tors into con sid er ation:

¸ nat u ral haz ards such a flood ing and soil ero sion

¸ the need to clearly de mar cate res i den tial, busi ness, and in dus trial ar eas intosep a rate build ing zones

¸ the ame ni ties most com monly found in res i den tial ar eas. These could in cludea cor ner store, an el e men tary and sec ond ary school, a pub lic li brary, a po liceand fire sta tion, and so on.

¸ a well-thought-out road sys tem that eases traf fic con ges tion. Large cit iesshould in clude an in ter state and rail sys tem plus multilane roads. All cit iesshould ide ally have a pub lic trans portion sys tem of some kind.

¸ the rel a tive prox im ity of the air port to the near est res i den tial area. The stu -dents should con sider the is sue of noise pol lu tion ver sus the con ve nience ofhav ing an air port located nearby.

¸ the des ig na tion of pub lic ar eas such as town squares, pub lic parks, and othernat u ral spaces

¸ the growth po ten tial of the city. For ex am ple, will the city be able to ac com -mo date new res i den tial ar eas in the future?

In ad vance of this ac tiv ity, con sider ask ing the stu dents to cat a log all of the dif fer enttypes of ame ni ties found on the real-world and video game maps they are brows ing(e.g., ho tels, hos pi tals, and rail way sta tions). De ter min ing a lo ca tion for each of theseame ni ties in their city plans could be made a re quire ment for suc cess ful completion ofthe activity.



This pro to type of a menu in Gran Tu ris mo HD ex per i ments with a styl ish new de sign that ismade es pe cially for widescreen dis plays. A video game’s user in ter face of fers play ers a first

im pres sion of a game’s over all qual ity.

A gamer’s first im pres sion of a video game of ten co mes from the game’s user in ter -face, es pe cially the main menus that serve to guide the player through the tasks of cre -at ing, sav ing, and load ing games, man ag ing user pro files, and chang ing othergameplay op tions and preferences.

A video game’s menu sys tem of fers gamers a crit i cal first clue as to the qual ity andwork man ship that went into the de sign of the game. A well-de signed user in ter facetrans lates into early player con fi dence in the game as a whole. On the other hand, apoorly de signed user in ter face does not bode well for the rest of the game.

User in ter face de sign is both an art and a sci ence. The prin ci ples of user in ter face de -sign are ap pli ca ble not only to video games but also com puter soft ware, websites,handheld de vices, and home ap pli ances—vir tu ally any prod uct with which hu mans in -ter act. User-friendly in ter faces are both at trac tive and func tional. They are easy on theeyes but also sim ple to navigate and use.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents ap ply the prin ci ples of user in ter face de sign to their re view of a game’s user in ter face, menu sys tem, or heads up dis play (HUD).

204

ÄUser Interface Review

Ac tiv ity

Ask a group of stu dents to choose a re cently re leased video game to re view. In stead ofre view ing the whole game, as sign stu dents the task of critiquing the game’s user in ter -face, es pe cially its front end menu sys tem that ap pears when the game is first launched.

In eval u at ing the game’s user in ter face, the stu dents should fo cus on both the at trac -tive ness of the in ter face and also its func tion al ity. Is the user in ter face easy on the eyesand at trac tive to look at? For con sole games, is the menu text large enough to beviewed from a dis tance? Is the menu sys tem well or ga nized, re spon sive to mouse orcon trol ler clicks, and easy to nav i gate? Are there any miss ing menu items that the stu -dents would have expected to see?

Have the stu dents write up a brief re port on their find ings and then share the re sults oftheir re view with the class.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, ask mul ti ple groups of stu dents to brain storm some of the com -mon al i ties in their find ings. Were most of the user in ter faces the stu dents re viewedwell de signed or did most leave a lot to be de sired? What ad vice would the stu dentsgive to the de vel op ers of video games on ways to im prove the user in ter face ex pe ri -ence more generally?

Dis cus sion

In stead of re view ing a video game’s menu sys tem, ask the stu dents to cri tique agame’s HUD, the in-game user in ter face that is over laid on top of the gameplay ac tion(e.g., the mini map and char ac ter stats).

Al ter na tively, en cour age the con sole gamers in your class to ap ply the prin ci ples ofuser in ter face de sign to a re view of the Xbox 360 dash board or the Playstation 3interface.

For a vari a tion on this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to re view the lay out and in ter face of apop u lar gam ing website or an ed u ca tional soft ware title.

There are lots of print and on line re sources on user in ter face de sign that the stu dentscan re view in ad vance of this ac tiv ity. Have them per form an Internet search for thephrase “user in ter face design.”



Data Ta ble

Video Game Play by Age

The fol low ing data set is pro vided cour tesy of the NPD Group (www.npd.com). Itbreaks down young chil dren’s video game play ing hab its by age.

Age Don’t Play Video Games (%) Play Video Games (%)

5 to 6 48 52

7 to 8 32 68

9 to 10 25 75

11 to 12 27 73

Source: NPD Group. 2006.


What trends (if any) can you glean from the above data set? Are the re sults what youex pected? Use the above data to ex trap o late a trend line that con tin ues the data set intothe teen age years.


Video game ad dic tion ranks near the top of many adults’ con cerns when it co mes toyoung peo ples’ video game play ing hab its. Most of us prob a bly know at least one teenor early adult gamer who spends far too many hours a week play ing (or think ing about) video games.

In ac tual fact, the term “ad dic tion” is of ten mis used in de scrib ing those who spendhours surf ing the Web, chat ting on line with friends, watch ing tele vi sion, or play ingvideo games. Ad dic tion has a clin i cal mean ing that raises the bar high in de ter min ingwho is ad dicted and who is not.

De spite this ca veat, there is no de ny ing that many of the most ded i cated gamers—bothyoung and old—play video games for long stretches of time each day—far too long,some would ar gue. Some times a gamer’s play ing hab its in ter fere with his or her re la -tion ships with fam i lies and friends as he or she gets in creas ingly cut off from so cialcon tact with peo ple in the real world.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re search the topic of video game ad dic tion. They de cide on a list of cri te ria for de ter min ing whether some one is ad dicted to video games.

Ac tiv ity

As sign stu dents the task of con duct ing some on line re search re lated to video game ad -dic tion. Ask them to search for def i ni tions of video game ad dic tion, as well as cri te rialists for di ag nos ing this ad dic tion. The stu dents should also seek out strat e gies forhelp ing those who are ad dicted to video games.

The stu dents may also wish to broaden their re search to look at other forms of ad dic -tion, such as gam bling and Internet ad dic tions, which have many things in com monwith video game ad dic tion.

Once they have com pleted their re search, ask the stu dents to work to gether to sortthrough all of the in for ma tion (some of it no doubt con tra dic tory) that they have col -lected. Their task is to come up with a de fin i tive list of cri te ria for di ag nos ing videogame ad dic tion. Here are some starting points:

¸ the gamer dis plays com pul sive be hav ior to ward video games

¸ the gamer thinks about video games even when he or she is not play ing them

207

ÄVideo Game Addiction

¸ the gamer plays video games for long stretches of time and vir tu ally ev ery day

¸ the gamer has fewer and fewer so cial con tacts with peo ple in the real world

¸ the gamer ex presses a crav ing for video games and ex pe ri ences feel ings ofwith drawal when he or she stops play ing them

As the stu dents com pile their list, ask them to con sider some of the fol low ing ques -tions: 1) For a per son to be ad dicted to video games, must he or she meet ev ery one ofthe cri te ria the stu dents have listed, or just a pre pon der ance of the cri te ria? 2) How arethe cri te ria the stu dents have listed sim i lar to or dif fer ent from the cri te ria that stu dentswould nor mally as so ci ate with other ad dic tions, such as gam bling or Internet ad dic -tions? 3) How can video game ad dicts be helped? Ask the stu dents to try and come upwith a rem edy for each of the addiction criteria they have listed.

Dis cus sion

Any genre of video games can at tract ad dicts, but it is mas sively multiplayer on linerole-play ing games (MMORPGs), such as Everquest and World of Warcraft, that haveproved to be the most “ad dic tive.”

In these games, play ers are com pet ing against one an other for re sources and skills asthey ded i cate ever in creas ing amounts of time (of ten months) to “lev el ing up” in an ef -fort to gain as much power for their char ac ter as pos si ble. Sup port ers of these gameswould coun ter that MMORPGs are in her ently so cial worlds in which play ers are con -tin u ally in ter act ing with one an other. There fore, a gamer’s par tic i pa tion in an on linerole-play ing game falls out side of any no tion of ad dic tion that includes a socialisolation criterion.


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleDoc tor Claims 40 Per cent of

World of Warcraft Play ers Are Ad dicted

by Jeremy Reimer

A few years ago, when I was work ing at Elec tronic Arts, a co-worker of mine had aprob lem. He spent much of his time play ing Sony’s mas sively multiplayer on linerole-play ing game EverQuest, and when he was n’t play ing it, he was talk ing about it,post ing to on line fo rums about it, or dream ing about the next time he could log on. Heplayed ob ses sively, of ten sign ing on as soon as he got home from work. Pre dict ably,


his be hav ior had a neg a tive im pact on his fam ily and so cial life, and even tu ally costhim his job.

Many of us have known peo ple like this. The prob lems of on line gam ing ad dic tiondate back to the days of text-based MUDs, but in more re cent years terms like“Evercrack” and “World of Warcrack” have en tered the pop u lar lex i con. Now, Dr.Maressa Hecht Orzack, a clin i cal psy chol o gist at McLean Hos pi tal in Mas sa chu setts,has come for ward to claim that up to 40 per cent of World of Warcraft play ers are ad -dicted to the game.

Dr. Orzack, who is the founder and co or di na tor of the Com puter Ad dic tion Ser vice,ex plains in an e-mail that the 40 per cent fig ure came from “a fo rum that Nick Yeeruns” but did not re veal any ad di tional meth od ol ogy for ar riv ing at this num ber. Sheadded that “even if the per cent age is 5 to 10 per cent which is stan dard for most ad dic -tive be hav iors, it is a huge num ber of peo ple who are out of con trol.” Orzack states that she has been study ing the prob lem for the last 11 years. She claims to be swamped with peo ple ask ing for her help, usu ally con cerned par ents, ne glected spouses, andsometimes the players themselves.

She points out that MMORPGs typ i cally use what is known in psy cho log i cal cir cles as vari able ra tio re in force ment. Vari able ra tio re in force ment is the idea that the best wayto op ti mize the de sired be hav ior in the sub ject is to hand out re wards for cor rect be hav -ior, and then ad just the num ber of times the sub ject is re quired to ex hibit that be hav iorbe fore a re ward is handed out. For in stance, if a rat must press a bar to re ceive food,then it will press faster and more of ten if it doesn’t know how many times it needs topress the bar. An equiv a lent in World of Warcraft would be pur ple (epic) loot drops:you never know when they are go ing to hap pen, but that just in creases the an tic i pa tionof get ting them.

Orzack feels that the games are at fault more than the play ers. “This isn’t about will -power or re straint,” she said in an in ter view. “These games are very elab o rately de -signed to ease you in gently, en tice you, and keep you there. And it’s a cy cle. Peo plebe gin to spend too much time play ing and their ca reers and per sonal re la tion ships be -gin to deteriorate.”

So what’s her so lu tion? She be lieves that MMORPGs should come with warn ing la -bels on the box, much like cig a rette boxes do to day. In ad di tion, she feels that com -puter-re lated ad dic tion (not just gam ing, but also ex ces sive chat and Internet use)should be con sid ered le git i mate men tal dis or ders, and thus be el i gi ble for health in sur -ance. Cur rently, there is no en try for gam ing or Internet ad dic tion in the Amer i can Psy -chi at ric As so ci a tion Di ag nos tic and Sta tis ti cal Man ual of Men tal Dis or ders.

Orzack isn’t the only one wor ried about peo ple play ing too many on line games. TheChi nese gov ern ment re cently in sti tuted time lim its for MMORPG play ers, cit ing con -cern that its cit i zens were spend ing too much time play ing games such as World ofWarcraft. A re cov ery clinic for video game ad dic tion was re cently opened in Am ster -dam.

There are def i nitely peo ple who fall into the MMORPG trap, but I’m not sure it’s anep i demic. With World of Warcraft’s player base at 6.5 mil lion and climb ing, if 40 per -


cent of those peo ple are ac tu ally ad dicted, that’s 2.6 mil lion peo ple doomed for thepsych ward. Ei ther there are more men tally ill peo ple in the world than I thought, orOrzack’s fig ures are some what ex ag ger ated.

This story is also a per sonal is sue for me, be cause I avoided MMORPGs for manyyears over con cerns about their ad dic tive qual i ties, yet fi nally suc cumbed to World ofWarcraft be cause many of my friends were al ready play ing it. (I sus pect many otherpeo ple also fall into this cat e gory.) While I ad mit to the game’s ad dic tive na ture, Isome times won der if the word “ad dic tion” is be ing spread too thinly, and per haps be -ing ap plied to ar eas where it is not nec es sar ily rel e vant. In life, we all do things that op -er ate on the vari able ra tio re in force ment prin ci ple. Work, for ex am ple. Bo nuses,raises, and pro mo tions are handed out at a vari able rate. Yet we don’t worry too muchabout be com ing ad dicted to work. Get ting ex cited about vari able ra tio re wards seemsto me to be very much a part of the hu man con di tion.

Still, there are peo ple who we would con sider workaholics, just as there are peo ple ad -dicted to work ing out, or other ac tiv i ties gen er ally con sid ered pos i tive. And, yes, peo -ple who spend too much time on these ac tiv i ties, to the ex clu sion of all oth ers, riskneg a tive real-world con se quences. But in my opin ion, the an swer to these is sues is notto sim ply la bel them as ad dic tions and blame the ac tiv ity it self, or to get the phar ma -ceu ti cal com pa nies all ex cited about new prod ucts that they can push on the gen eralpop u la tion. The so lu tion is to pro mote greater aware ness about the ne ces sity of bal -ance in our lives. That, per haps, is the greatest variable ratio reward of all.

About the Au thor: Jeremy Reimer is a fre quent con trib u tor to Ars Technica(www.arstechnica.com).

Source: Reimer, Jeremy. 2006. Doc tor claims 40 per cent of World of Warcraft play ersare ad dicted. Ars Technica. Au gust 9. URL: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060809-7459.html


1. Are cer tain video games in her ently ad dic tive? If so, what makes them ad dic tive?

2. How can we dis tin guish be tween peo ple who are ad dicted to video games andthose who sim ply spend a lot of their free time play ing video games?


Some of the stu dents in your class may own a large col lec tion of video games at home.Oth ers may fre quent movie and video game rental stores that main tain their own ex -ten sive col lec tion of video games.

Keep ing track of these games is a big job. Video game rental stores, for ex am ple, needknow which games are in stock and which are out on loan. They also need to be able toas cer tain quickly the ESRB rat ings for games prior to rent ing them to youth who areun der age. Video game stores need to know the rental and pur chase price for eachgame, how much in ven tory they have on hand, the dis counted prices for used games,plus the con tact in for ma tion for a game’s dis trib u tor. This last piece of in for ma tion isneeded to re stock the game once it has sold out. And that’s just the tip of the ice bergwhen it co mes to keep ing track of a store’s video game holdings.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de sign a da ta base for stor ing in for ma tion about videogames. They pre tend they are open ing a video game rental store and need to keep trackof their inventory.

Ac tiv ity

Da ta bases can ei ther be cre ated on pa per, in the form of a ta ble, or de signed on thecom puter us ing one of the da ta base soft ware tools listed in the dis cus sion sec tion thatfollows.

In ei ther sce nario, the stu dents first need to brain storm the fields (i.e., cat e go ries of in -for ma tion) their da ta base will store. At a min i mum, a da ta base will have fields for stor -ing the ti tle of each video game, the names of the pub lisher and dis trib u tor, and thegame’s price. Ask the stu dents to brain storm a list of the fields they wish to in clude intheir da ta base as a full class. Then have them cre ate ei ther an elec tronic da ta base or atab u lar chart that fea tures a column heading for each field.

Once the struc ture of the da ta base is set, the next step is to be gin pop u lat ing the da ta -base with re cords (i.e., fill ing in the chart with in for ma tion about each video game).The stu dents can bring in the games they own from home and then browse each game’s pack ag ing for the rel e vant in for ma tion or they can col lect the same in for ma tion fromthe list ings at an on line video game store, such as GameFly (www.gamefly.com) orGameStop (www.gamestop.com).

211

ÄVideo Game Database

Here are sev eral of the fields that the stu dents should con sider in clud ing in their da ta -base. Al though some of these fields are more im por tant than oth ers, all hold vi tal in for -ma tion that would be use ful to a video game rental store:

¸ Ti tle (e.g., Harry Pot ter and the Gob let of Fire)

¸ Plat form (e.g., PlayStation 2)

¸ Pub lisher (e.g., Elec tronic Arts)

¸ De vel oper (e.g., Elec tronic Arts)

¸ Dis trib u tor (e.g., Elec tronic Arts)

¸ Re lease Date (e.g., 2005)

¸ Genre (e.g., Ad ven ture)

¸ ESRB Rat ing (e.g., Ev ery one 10+)

¸ List Price (e.g., $19.99)

¸ Rental Price (e.g., $5.95)

¸ Sell Price (e.g., $17.95)

¸ Used Price (e.g., $10.95)

¸ Quan tity in Stock (e.g., 4)

Dis cus sion

In stead of cre at ing a fic tional da ta base for a video game rental store, en cour age thosestu dents in your class who own large video game col lec tions to in stead cre ate a da ta -base that stores and or ga nizes their en tire video game li brary. This ac tiv ity can also beadapted to or ga nize col lec tions of books, CDs, DVDs, and other assets.

FileMaker Pro (www.filemaker.com) is a good cross-plat form tool for cre at ing da ta -bases. Macintosh us ers may also wish to con sider iList Data (www.lakewoodstudios.com), which was de vel oped by the au thor of this book. Microsoft Ac cess (www.microsoft.com) is a pro fes sional da ta base tool for Win dows users.

In ad di tion to these ge neric da ta bases, ded i cated soft ware ap pli ca tions are also avail -able for or ga niz ing video games, books, CDs, and DVDs, as well as pho tos, mu sic, and other mul ti me dia files. Con sider ask ing the stu dents to write a com par a tive re view that looks at the demo ver sions of two or more of these ap pli ca tions. The Down load


(www.down load.com) and VersionTracker (www.versiontracker.com) websites areex cel lent on line re sources for Windows and Macintosh software.

A grow ing num ber of ded i cated cat a log ing tools fea ture barcode scan ning sup port.Con sider in vest ing in a barcode scan ner for your class room. Also, take the op por tu nity to in tro duce stu dents to how barcodes work. The fol low ing website has some in tro duc -tory in for ma tion about barcodes that should prove useful:

http://elec tron ics.howstuffworks.com/upc.htm



Video games—par tic u larly vi o lent video games—are con tro ver sial in the eyes ofmany teach ers, par ents, and other adults. For this rea son alone, some teach ers un -doubt edly choose not to dis cuss video game–re lated is sues in their classrooms.

Yet the con tro ver sial na ture of video games makes them the per fect fod der for in tensede bates over their place in so ci ety. Be cause so many of their peers ac tu ally play videogames, the stu dents can en ter into mean ing ful de bates and dis cus sion over the mer itsof video games and their im pact on in di vid u als and society.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents de bate a con tro ver sial is sue re lated to video games.

Ac tiv ity

Prior to lead ing a de bate, di vide the class into two teams. An nounce the videogame–re lated is sue that will be de bated. (If pos si ble, for mu late the is sue as “it is re -solved that ....”) As sign one group of stu dents to be in fa vor of the res o lu tion. The other group will be op posed to the resolution.

Al low each group to meet and re search the res o lu tion for an ap pro pri ate length of time. The task of each side is to gather ev i dence and for mu late ar gu ments in sup port of theirside and to pre pare re but tal state ments to the points that they an tic i pate the other sidewill make. The groups should as sign each mem ber the task of pre sent ing one or moresup port ing and/or rebuttal arguments.

Con vene the de bate. Set up the class room so that the stu dents’ desks are di vided intotwo groups fac ing one an other. Po si tion your self at the head of the room, be tween thetwo sides.

Once it is for mally con vened and the res o lu tion read out, the de bate can pro ceed as fol -lows: 1) The IN FAVOR side pres ents its first ar gu ment in sup port of the res o lu tion; 2) The OPPOSED side pres ents its re but tal to this ar gu ment; 3) The OPPOSED side pres -ents its first ar gu ment in op po si tion to the res o lu tion; and 4) The IN FAVOR side pres -ents its rebuttal to this argument.

The de bate can con tinue in this fash ion (fa cil i tated by the teacher) un til all of the ar gu -ments have been pre sented or the al lot ted time has run out. Al low each side to make acon clud ing state ment to sum up its position.

214

ÄVideo Game Debate

Dis cus sion

Here are some video game–re lated res o lu tions that should make for good de bates:

1. It is re solved that play ing video games in creases vi o lent ten den cies in gamers.

2. It is re solved that no topic should be off lim its to video game de vel op ers.

3. It is re solved that the ESRB rat ings sys tem should be abol ished.

4. It is re solved that chil dren should be able to pur chase any video game they wish to.

5. It is re solved that PC games are better than con sole video games.

6. It is re solved that first-per son games are better than third-per son games.

7. It is re solved that chil dren who play video games play out side less of ten with their friends.

In in tro duc ing and lead ing a de bate, use words such as “res o lu tion,” “re but tal,” “in fa -vor,” and “op posed” to for mal ize the de bate. You may also wish to as sign stake holderroles to the in di vid ual mem bers of each team (e.g., par ent, gamer, gov ern ment rep re -sen ta tive, and health ex pert). Con sider as sign ing three stu dents to be the of fi cialjudges for the de bate. Fol low ing the de bate, they will vote to determine the winner.

Prior to or fol low ing the de bate, op tion ally as sign older stu dents the task of writ ing afor mal es say on the de bate topic. This will help them to hone in on the es sen tial ar gu -ments that sup port each side of the issue.


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleMas sa cre in Winterspring

by Gabe Graziani

A dis turb ing in-game video from World of Warcraft (WoW) re cently cir cu lat ing on line shows an or ga nized, pre med i tated at tack on an in-game fu neral held for a real girl whohad passed away. The in ci dent sent shockwaves through the WoW com mu nity andsparked heated de bate about mas sively multiplayer on line eth ics and be hav ior.

It all be gan on the pub lic WoW fo rums, with a posted an nounce ment re gard ing the reallife pass ing of a mem ber of the Horde fac tion on the Illidan server. It stated that thegirl, known on line as Fayejin, had died from a stroke and that all were in vited to a vir -tual me mo rial ser vice in Winterspring—an area deep in side con tested ter ri tory—where peo ple could meet and mourn.


On the day of the fu neral, as both Horde and Al li ance play ers queued up to pay their re -spects to Fayejin’s av a tar (logged on by friends for the event), a large guild of Al li anceplay ers de scended upon the peace ful gath er ing. Catch ing ev ery one off guard, the raid -ers slaugh tered ev ery last Horde player in at ten dance. The group re spon si ble, a guildcalled Se ren ity Now, then re leased a video of the at tack, elic it ing a hell-storm of pub lic out cry over the de prav ity and lack of respect the massacre showed.

We sought out a pink-haired Gnome War rior known as Bronnieman, the ac knowl -edged leader of the Se ren ity Now raid party, to un cover the mo ti va tions be hind what,on the sur face, ap pears to be a case of griefers as sault ing grievers. But Bronniemanclaims there was an un der ly ing mes sage bur ied within the offensive.

“Es sen tially, it was to en cour age Player vs. Player (PvP), which has been lack ing onIllidan since the in tro duc tion of Battlegrounds,” he ex plains. The raid ing party, he as -serts, was try ing to pro voke a re sponse from Bliz zard (the pub lish ers of World ofWarcraft). “We feel that Bliz zard has yet to ad dress the is sue of PvPers and in stead just shrugs them off as a small voice.”

The de sired re sult of the “Fu neral Bomb ing,” as Se ren ity Now has dubbed the event,ap pears to have been achieved, as count less fo rum threads can at test. While most findthe guild’s ac tions rep re hen si ble, the topic of PvP is cer tainly hot ter than ever. “For oragainst doesn’t mat ter much, [so long as] peo ple [have been] made more aware thatPvP still ex ists,” says Bronnieman. “We achieved our goal.”

Bronnieman is quick to point out that ev ery mem ber of the raid was sorry to hear of thereal life girl’s death. Nev er the less, Se ren ity Now stands by its ac tions, re it er at ing thatIllidan is a PvP server and that Winterspring is a con tested zone where PvP is al lowedand en cour aged. No one dis putes that the me mo rial could have been held in a zonewhere the mas sa cre would have been im pos si ble. How ever, the or ga niz ers have statedthat Winterspring was cho sen be cause it was the girl’s favorite zone.

While flame wars con tinue to rage over the is sue, it’s clear that Se ren ity Now has ac -com plished the goal of in spir ing a full-swing PvP dis cus sion. How ever, the achieve -ment may be bit ter sweet—mem bers of Se ren ity Now now find them selves oncount less Horde fac tion kill-on-sight lists. Deservedly so?

About the Au thor: Gabe Graziani is a reg u lar con trib u tor to GamesRadar (www.gamesradar.com).

Source: Graziani, Gabe. 2006. Mas sa cre in Winterspring. PC Gamer. 13(7). July. p. 80.


1. Dis cuss the eth i cal is sues raised by the event chron i cled in this ar ti cle. Did the Se -ren ity Now guild cross a moral line or were their ac tions jus ti fied given the Player vs. Player rules in effect?

2. Search the Internet for other ex am ples of eth i cal di lem mas in the world of mas -sively multiplayer on line role-play ing video games (MMORGs). Share one ortwo ex am ples with the class.


Video games that boast strong storylines have been lik ened to in ter ac tive nar ra tives inwhich the player gets to con trol what hap pens next. The very best story-driven videogames fea ture ma jor plot twists, deep char ac ter de vel op ment, well-acted cutscenes,and dra matic cli maxes to top off the games.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re en act a key scene from a video game that boasts a strongstoryline.

Ac tiv ity

For this ac tiv ity, have the stu dents work to gether as ac tors in small groups. Have eachgroup choose a fa vor ite video game that boasts a strong plotline. Ask each group tochoose a key scene or plot twist from the game to dra ma tize for the rest of the class.Op tion ally, al low the stu dents to de sign cos tumes and cre ate set pieces for theirdramas.

When they are ready, have each group pres ent their dra mas to the class. Con sider film -ing the dra matic reenactments for in clu sion in a school film fes ti val at the end of theac a demic year.

Dis cus sion

As an al ter na tive to a dra matic reenactment, in stead ask each group to cre ate a tab leauthat com prises three or four key scenes from a video game. To cre ate a tab leau, a group of ac tors strike a se ries of still poses, each of which il lus trates a key scene or plot de vel -op ment in a video game. These poses are pre sented to the au di ence in chro no log i calor der, ei ther si lently or with the ben e fit of an offstage narrator.

Af ter each tab leau has been pre sented to the class, ask the au di ence to of fer guesses asto which video game the tab leau is drawn from.


217

ÄVideo Game Reenactment

The no tion that gam ing and read ing don’t mix is coun -tered by the sheer num ber of mag a zines and websitesthat pro lif er ate the world of video games.

Per haps the most ob vi ous video game–re lated learn ing ac tiv ity teach ers can as sign tostu dents is the task of writ ing a video game re view. Next to break ing news, re views are by far the most pop u lar ar ti cles at video game websites. So, too, it is most of ten the re -views to which sub scrib ers first turn when they open a new is sue of a video gamemagazine.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write a re view for a video game they are cur rently play ing.

218

ÄVideo Game Review

Ac tiv ity

As sign each stu dent the task of writ ing a re view for a newly re leased video game.

Once the first draft of their re view is com plete, have each stu dent ask a peer who is also fa mil iar with the video game to of fer feed back and sug ges tions on im prov ing the re -view. (Some video game mag a zines pub lish sec ond opin ions for each of their re viewsas a sidebar to the main re view. Con sider ask ing the stu dents to in cor po rate the sec ondopin ion they have so lic ited alongside the main review.)

As they com plete their video game re views, en cour age (ide ally, re quire) the stu dentsto peer edit each other’s writ ing and of fer sug ges tions for im prov ing each re view’sspell ing, gram mar, and sen tence struc ture. Each peer ed i tor should also check that a re -view has the fol low ing: 1) a solid in tro duc tion that cap tures the at ten tion of the readerwhile in tro duc ing the game; 2) a mid dle sec tion that cri tiques a game’s graphics, au -dio, gameplay, and sin gle and multiplayer fea tures; and 3) a con clu sion that sums upthe review.

Once fi nal ized, ask the stu dents to type up their re views and add one or twoscreenshots to the text. They can also award the re view a star rat ing out of five, a scoreout of ten, or a per cent age grade out of 100.

En cour age those stu dents who are in ter ested to sub mit their re views to on line videogame fo rums and then track the feed back their re views re ceive. Some websites, suchas GameSpot (www.gamespot.com) also in vite read ers to sub mit for mal reader re -views, which are then linked to the of fi cial re view of the game.

Dis cus sion

In stead of re view ing a full video game, in stead ask each stu dent to re view a sin gle mis -sion or level or a fan-cre ated mod i fi ca tion to a PC game.

Also en cour age the stu dents to write com par a tive re views that look at two or moresim i lar ti tles that be long to the same genre. The stu dents can also write re views thatcom pare the same video game ti tles run ning on dif fer ent plat forms (e.g., PlayStationvs. Xbox or PC vs. console).

Prior to lead ing this ac tiv ity, con sider ask ing the stu dents to de sign a re view tem platethat the class will use when ever they write video game re views. A re view tem platecould in clude the fol low ing sec tions: ti tle, genre, ESRB rat ing, de vel oper/pub lisher,of fi cial website, plat forms, plat form the re view was com pleted on, in tro duc tion,gameplay, sin gle player, multiplayer, graphics, au dio, bo nus features, score, and so on.

Here’s an other sug ges tion for the stu dent gamers in your class. In vite them to cre ate aded i cated video game re view website that is per haps hosted at the school’s website.Re fer to the “Website De sign” ac tiv ity, dis cussed else where in this book, for details.

Fol low ing this ac tiv ity, lead a dis cus sion with stu dents in which they de bate the mer itsof var i ous video game scor ing sys tems (e.g., thumbs up or down vs. a star rat ing out offive vs. a let ter grade vs. a per cent age grade out of 100). In re cent years, some lead ing


video game mag a zines and websites have ex per i mented with the idea of not award inga review score at all.

Grades 6 and higher | Sub ject: Lan guage Arts

ODis cus sion Ar ti cleLiv ing in Obliv ion

by Jane Pinckard

Like so many oth ers, I have a se cret life. By day I toil in a cu bi cle, sur rounded by thebanal trap pings of mod ern life, lit tle elec tronic emit ters that tie me to meaninglessre spon si bil i ties—an swer ing phones, emails, gen er at ing dig i tal reams of con tent forephem eral con sump tion. And all I can think about, ev ery day, is that at 8 PM I willthrow off this dis guise as an or di nary mor tal and em bark in a world (aka The El derScrolls IV: Obliv ion) be set with peril as This tle Rose, wood land elf and ranger.

This tle is an at trac tive crea ture, with brown eyes and dark hair, skin tanned nut-brownfrom spend ing her days in the woods and fields among for est crea tures. She’s made alife long study of re gional plants, driven by her na tive cu ri os ity for ecol ogy, which hasal lowed her to try her hand at al chemy. She pre fers to make po tions that help ratherthan hurt, al though she’s not above dip ping her ar rows in a lit tle poi son against the evil that stalks innocent people.

Re cent events have forced her to leave her nat u ral home and deal with the towns folkand all their con fus ing cus toms. This tle’s not very good at talk ing to peo ple, and notvery good at read ing them—she’s a bit awk ward and some times tact less. But times arechang ing, and she re al izes she needs to learn to live with the ur ban en croach ment.She’s also been (ac ci den tally?) sent on a strange quest by the late em peror that re quires her to be come better at ne go ti a tion and information gathering.

Al though she’s not nat u rally gifted in the mag i cal arts, she joined the Mage’s Guild inor der to ad vance her study of the Il lu sion school, which she has learned will helpcharm surly cit i zens into tell ing her what she needs to know. Il lu sion spells also helpcon ceal her as she hunts by starlight.

This tle has a moral sense of right and wrong—it’s just not ex actly aligned with the Im -pe rium’s laws. She does not hes i tate to steal if she thinks it will have a low im pact, or if the use ful ness of the item out weighs the evil of the act. So, for ex am ple, she did stealthe mage’s Guild key be fore she joined the guild and got her own copy, but that wasonly so she could look around the li brary. She did steal some mut ton from a wealthyhome where it was sim ply left on the din ing room ta ble, un eaten, and would have goneto waste—but she then placed that mut ton in a beg gar’s sack while he was sleep ing. Inher own way, she tries to do good.


As much as I like This tle, her ad ven ture in Obliv ion is a lonely en ter prise, as it was inMorrowind. There are no par ties, not one con stant com pan ion to lighten the hours oftravel, not even a wolf com pan ion or horse that will fol low be hind you and nuz zle your hand. It’s a mostly si lent game of stalk ing a sol i tary path. Which is per haps why I feeldriven to share my ex pe ri ences ev ery day with some one else who is play ing the game:“Last night, I did this...went there...saw this...” In that, at least, I’m not alone, as themes sage boards are noisy with gamers wish ing to share their ex pe ri ences, too. This is a game that is like an MMO with out the other peo ple; peace ful, sure, but oddly emptyand mean ing less. At least my real life, as ba nal as it may be some times, has ac tual peo -ple liv ing in it, with all the at ten dant ex cite ment and frus tra tions that come along withthat.

It’s just that some times, it is tempt ing to run away from it all and wan der alone un derfor eign stars.

About the Au thor: Jane Pinckard is the Ed i tor-in-Chief at Game Girl Ad vance(www.gamegirladvance.com).

Source: Pinckard, Jane. 2006. Liv ing in Obliv ion. Game Girl Ad vance. April 5. URL:http://www.gamegirladvance.com/ar chives/2006/04/05/liv ing_in_obliv ion.html


1. This ar ti cle is, in many ways, a char ac ter study. Hav ing read the ar ti cle, de scribethe This tle Rose char ac ter us ing your own words.

2. Write and then share your own de scrip tion of a video game char ac ter you closelyiden tify with.


Ev ery day, mil lions of gamers—young and old—log into the vir tual world of theirchoice where they form last ing friend ships, com pete against other play ers, start busi -nesses, buy and sell vir tual real es tate, and en gage in other life ex pe ri ences that are, inmany ways, sim i lar to those life ex pe ri ences which oc cur in the real world.

The most pop u lar vir tual worlds (e.g., Sec ond Life) in cor po rate ma ture con tent, sothey mostly ap peal to adult gamers. But there are also safe and ac ces si ble vir tualworlds that ca ter es pe cially to chil dren. The most suc cess ful of these worlds isWhyville (www.whyville.net), a free spon sor-sup ported on line vir tual com mu nity,with more than 1.7 mil lion mem bers. Whyville was de signed from day one to serve asan on line vir tual meet ing place for chil dren.

Here is how the Whyville website in tro duces it self to teach ers:

Whyville was launched in 1999 by Numedeon, Inc. to ap ply over 20 yearsof re search in ed u ca tion and co op er a tive learn ing to [the de vel op ment of]new Web-based tools for ed u ca tion.... We launched Whyville as a vir tualcity which en gages young peo ple in con struc tive ed u ca tional ac tiv i tieswhile pro mot ing so cially re spon si ble be hav ior. It is an out growth of thecom pany’s ex ten sive re search and prac ti cal ex pe ri ence re lated tolearner-cen tered, hands-on, in quiry-based ed u ca tion.

In side Whyville, cit i zens learn about art his tory, sci ence, jour nal ism, civ ics,eco nom ics, and re ally so, so much more. Whyville works di rectly with theGetty, NASA, the School Nu tri tion As so ci a tion, and Woods Hole Ocean o -graphic In sti tu tion (to name just a few) to bring in cred i ble ed u ca tional con -tent to kids in an in cred i bly en gag ing man ner....

In creas ingly, Whyville is find ing its way into the class room, from el e men -tary schools to post-grad u ate courses for pre-ser vice teach ers.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents write a se ries of jour nal en tries that chron i cle their vir tuallife in an on line role-play ing or open world video game.

Ac tiv ity

With the per mis sion of their par ents, in vite the stu dents in your class to join the Whyvillecom mu nity or an other child-safe vir tual world. Al ter na tively, ask those students whoare al ready mem bers of an on line vir tual com mu nity to com plete this ac tiv ity.

222

ÄVirtual Journal

In vite each stu dent to keep a vir tual jour nal or di ary that chron i cles their stay in the vir -tual world. En cour age the stu dents to keep track of their ex pe ri ences, the lo ca tionsthey visit, and the peo ple they meet. Also ask the stu dents to share their thoughts aboutlife in a vir tual world, what they look for ward to, and what they dis like. In vite the stu -dents to use their jour nals to com pare life in the vir tual world with life in the realworld.

Dis cus sion

Life in an on line vir tual world is not un like life in the real world. In many vir tual com -mu ni ties, stu dents will be con fronted with eco nomic, moral, and po lit i cal choices thatthey will need to make as they so cial ize with oth ers and grow their av a tar in the vir tualworld. As stu dents delve ever deeper into the life of a vir tual com mu nity, ask them todis cuss in class some of the chal lenges and moral de ci sions they have faced. How arethe chal lenges they con front and the choices they make in the vir tual world sim i lar toor dif fer ent from those that they face in the real world? Was there ever a time that theyfelt un com fort able in an on line vir tual com mu nity? What kinds of things do they most(or least) en joy do ing in a vir tual world? What cut ting-edge fea tures would stu dentslike to see sup ported by the next generation of virtual worlds?


ODis cus sion Ar ti cleAre Vir tual Worlds the Fu ture

of the Class room?

by Steph a nie Olsen

This sum mer, as many as a mil lion vir tual kids could catch an in fec tious vi rus knownas Whypox, caus ing them to break out in red welts and spout “Achoo” when ever chat -ting with friends.

Mean while, at the beach, crowds of “tweens,” 8- to 12-year-olds, will see their pop u lar hang out be set with so-called red tides, as the sea shore changes from blue to red withphytoplankton blos soms.

Are these two signs of a crum bling world? No, they’re learn ing tools for Whyvillains,the res i dents of an on line vir tual world whose pop u la tion of kids has grown to about1.6 mil lion since its in cep tion in 1999. Chil dren in Whyville earn “clams” through ac -tiv i ties and games, and use that vir tual money to buy face dec o ra tions for their oth er -wise plain av a tars. Then, they typ i cally so cial ize with peers via chat, bul le tin boardsand the city’s mail sys tem.


“When Whypox first hits, they start say ing ‘Achoo,’ and it in ter feres with their chat,which is ob vi ously very im por tant. So they are in ter ested in find ing out what it is andwhat they can do about it,” in Whyville’s Cen ter for Dis ease Con trol, said Cathleen Ga -las, a teacher who helped a class of sixth grad ers through a bout of the pox last year byin struct ing them about ep i de mi ol ogy, the study of in fec tious dis eases.

In ed u ca tional cir cles, Whyville’s pri vate uni verse is known as a multiuser vir tual en vi -ron ment, or MUVE, a genre of soft ware games cre ated to in spire chil dren to learnabout math and sci ence, among other sub jects. Un like most game soft ware and so cialnet works, which elicit neg a tive as so ci a tions for some par ents and teach ers, MUVEsare struc tured en vi ron ments with rules for be hav ior, yet no pat for mula for ac tion. De -signed to pro vide prob lems to solve that don’t in volve slay ing mon sters, MUVEs com -pel kids to fig ure out the is sues to suc ceed in the en vi ron ments or have time toso cial ize.

Learn ing-based vir tual worlds are grow ing more pop u lar in schools and among chil -dren, thanks to on go ing ef forts by uni ver si ties and pri vate companies.

For ex am ple, Har vard Uni ver sity’s River City is a MUVE that in volves a so ci ety in thelate 1800s that’s in po lit i cal and en vi ron men tal dis re pair. The kids must fig ure out why res i dents are fall ing ill. Har vard’s School of Ed u ca tion is in talks with sev eral ur banschool dis tricts to in tro duce the soft ware to tens of thou sands of school chil dren thisfall.

Quest Atlantis, a down load able MUVE de vel oped at In di ana Uni ver sity that fo cuseson an an cient cul ture, will be in tro duced to 50 new class rooms, or be tween 10,000 to20,000 stu dents, in New Jer sey next fall, ac cord ing to In di ana As so ci ate Pro fes sorSasha Barab, who spe cial izes in learn ing sci ences and in struc tional sys tems tech nol -ogy.

Pri vately held com pa nies like Pas a dena, Cal i for nia, Numedeon, mak ers of Whyville,are also find ing it eas ier to lure new spon sors. In the next month, Toy ota Fi nan cial Ser -vices will host a Whyville loan cen ter to help kids learn about FICO scores and in ter estrates in or der to bor row money to buy a vir tual Toy ota Scion to drive around the world, ac cord ing to the site’s co-founder and pres i dent, Jennifer Sun. (Driv ing a Scion be -came a pop u lar ac tiv ity when the cars were in tro duced in Whyville in April.)

Wider adop tion of MUVEs raises the ques tion: Are vir tual worlds the fu ture of learn -ing for the wired gen er a tion?

Ask some ed u ca tors and they’ll tell you yes. That’s be cause re search has shown thatkids en gage deeply in vir tual en vi ron ments, gain ing a con cep tual and eth i cal un der -stand ing of school sub jects, ac cord ing to ed u ca tion ex perts. And many kids are al ready com fort able so cial iz ing on line, so ed u ca tion ally ori ented vir tual worlds can of fer thatsame sort of stim u lus and use that po ten tial to aid learn ing. There’s one big ca veat,how ever: Vir tual worlds must have knowl edge able and motivated teachers driving thetrain.

Chris Dede, Har vard pro fes sor and cre ator of River City, has re searched the ef fects ofMUVEs in schools for the last six years. “Based on our re sults thus far, we’re ex cited


about how MUVEs can pro vide immersive, en gag ing sim u la tions that com ple mentlec tures, text books, labs and field trips as part of an ef fec tive sci ence cur ric u lum,”Dede says in a video pro mot ing the pro ject.

“As a (teach ing) sup ple ment, this is the wave of the fu ture,” said Numedeon’s Sun.

Still, pro po nents have an up hill bat tle when it co mes to dis pel ling neg a tive pre con cep -tions of video games and so cially ori ented com put ing en vi ron ments. They say manypeo ple au to mat i cally fear that games can’t teach kids any thing valu able, or worse, thatthey’re a waste of time. With the rise of MySpace, many par ents are also wor ried thatkids aren’t safe against pred a tors in digital communities.

“One of the things for us is how do we deal in this fear ful cul ture?” said Barab. “Doclass rooms want to in no vate and make it ed u ca tional and en ter tain ing?” He added thatthere’s also some ten sion around how ed u ca tors en list kids in a fan tasy world so that ithas real-world value.

In re gard to teach ing an in ner-city kid about Rome and its an cient art, pol i tics and so ci -ety, for ex am ple, a vir tual world can spark the child’s imag i na tion more than a text -book filled with beau ti ful pic tures can, Gallas said. Vir tual en vi ron ments, iron i cally,of fer the feeling of reality.

River Raft ing

Har vard pro fes sor Chris Dede de vel oped River City nearly six years ago, seek ing toan swer two sim ple re search ques tions: Can kids learn from this type of vir tual in ter -face? And if so, how much can they learn? He an swered these ques tions by eval u at inguse of the MUVE in schools around the greater Boston area.

Kids in River City have av a tars and can walk, run, or swim through the city, which con -tains a pol luted river and mos quito-rid den bogs. Stu dents work in teams to in ves ti gatethe vir tual town, click on ob jects to in ter view sub jects, and col lec tively form hy poth e -ses about what’s af fect ing the city and mak ing peo ple sick. In side the city, they canalso ac cess li brary ma te ri als and other data sources—and each les son is up to the na -tional stan dards for bi ol ogy and his tory. Kids must also han dle tasks like an a lyz ingwa ter sam ples at a vir tual treat ment plant.

“In stead of teach ing slash-and-slay men tal ity, River City teaches kids to be sci en tiststhrough the tech nol ogy,” said Ed ward Dieterle, ad vanced doc toral can di date in learn -ing and teach ing at Har vard’s Grad u ate School of Ed u ca tion.

In one ex am ple, kids who ex pe ri enced River City found that peo ple in densely pop u -lated ten e ments were much more likely to be stricken with the ill ness than wealth ierpeo ple liv ing far ther apart. They sought to change vari ables in the city, such as add ingmore ten e ments, which the MUVE al lows through ad min is tra tors, but then one change set off a dom ino ef fect that didn’t nec es sar ily fix the city. The kids learned that be cause of the com plex ity of the world, it takes many changes to solve its prob lems.

“In ways, many adults don’t un der stand this,” said Gallas.

Deede and his team have also found that les sons in River City can sig nif i cantly aidlearn ing for kids who aren’t usu ally en gaged in the class room, or who have a his tory of


ab sen tee ism. Low-scor ing kids typ i cally do as well in River City as high scor ers.“Underperforming stu dents come alive by learn ing in River City,” said Dieterle.

Gallas, who’s done some re search with River City, put it like this: “If you’re mo ti vatedto spend a lot of time do ing some thing, that’s where the learn ing hap pens. If you lookat snowboarders or skate board ers—these may be kids that don’t do well in tra di tionalschool en vi ron ments—if they want to learn a trick, they go through a hun dred to 200it er a tions to do it.”

Now the Har vard team is re search ing whether the lo cal suc cess of River City will carryover to a broad num ber of schools. Funded with $4 mil lion in grants from the Na tionalSci ence Foun da tion, the pro gram has been im ple mented in seven states. Last year, itwas in tro duced to about 100 teach ers and 10,000 stu dents across the United States, and was found to work well with large school dis tricts such as Mi ami Dade and Mil wau -kee. In the next two years, the Har vard team hopes to bring River City to other dis tricts, in clud ing those in Wash ing ton, D.C., and Chi cago.

Whyville—The Anti MySpace?

Numedeon was founded in 1999 by a bi ol ogy pro fes sor at CalTech, along with twoPh.D. stu dents. The three, in clud ing Numedeon pres i dent Sun, wanted to re vamp theway sci ence was taught in schools, shift ing it to in quiry-based ed u ca tion, in which ed -u ca tors con struct en gag ing ex per i ments to teach sci ence through in ter ac tion, ratherthan through books. Whyville launched in 1999.

The com mu nity cre ates ac tiv i ties that sim u late ques tions in sci ence, such as how doice skat ers spin so fast? Whyville’s Spin Lab lets kids fig ure out the an swer. NASA’sJet Pro pul sion Lab has spon sored WASA, a cen ter where kids can be come cer ti fiedspace en gi neers. In side a vir tual lab, zero grav ity con di tions teach kids to throw pro -jec tiles in or der to move, in the pro cess teach ing them about New ton’s Third Law: Ev -ery ac tion has a re ac tion. This sum mer Whyville will add a spec tro graph game that willlet kids an a lyze a spec i men like car bon or so dium.

The Uni ver sity of Texas has also spon sored a pro gram in Whyville, called WhyEat, toteach kids about nu tri tion in an age of ram pant child obe sity. Kids who play mustchoose nu tri tious foods, or they could get ill.

As for red tides, chil dren at the beach can visit Wood’s Hole Ocean o graphic In sti tuteon Whyville—spon sored by the real Ocean o graphic In sti tute—to learn about the al gaeout breaks and what they can do to fix their warm-weather hang out.

A ma jor side ef fect of Whyville is a thriv ing busi ness econ omy that’s cre ated wealthycit i zens.

Whyville kids love face dec o ra tions and other av a tar ac ces so ries enough that they canpay a clam fee to cre ate and pro duce a dec o ra tion or ac ces sory of their own to sell toother kids. In or der to do that, chil dren must fac tor in profit mar gins and learn aboutad ver tis ing and mar ket ing to pro mote their stores. The wealth i est kids, with mil lionsof clams, have de vel oped a hot-sell ing item. Kids also trade goods like fur ni ture or art


work, which they col lected on trea sure hunts at the Getty, a vir tual mu seum hosted bythe real J. Paul Getty Mu seum.

“All of that re ally taught us and en forced the idea that when you al low the pro cess to be driven by the user, they al ways come back and sur prise you,” said Sun. “They learnabout life. And some times they learn about them selves.”

Kid Safety in the Age of MySpace Pho bias

The econ omy has also taught kids a harder les son in life: how to pro tect them selvesagainst scams. For ex am ple, rogue cit i zens have been known to pose as “city work -ers”—staff mem bers of Numedeon who wear spe cial hats in Whyville—to send e-mailto other kids and try to get their pass words. When they get them, they steal the user’svir tual pos ses sions.

Whyville cit i zen ship isn’t easy to come by, cre at ing a chal lenge for pred a tors. To gainthe priv i lege to chat with other mem bers, send “in ter nal city e-mail” or post mes sageson bul le tin boards, kids must have their par ents send a fax that ver i fies the child’s ap -pli ca tion to join Whyville and ap proves those ac tiv i ties. With out such per mis sion, kidsmay play games or join ed u ca tional ac tiv i ties, but they can’t talk to oth ers.

What’s more, the com mu nity re quires new mem bers to get their “chat li cense,” whichin volves tak ing a mul ti ple-choice quiz that tests their knowl edge on how to act withstrang ers, what in for ma tion to give out to other mem bers (no per sonal in for ma tion), andother such things. And kids must log in on three dif fer ent days be fore they can chat.

Ar ti fi cial-in tel li gence tech nol ogy also fil ters out bad words or sug ges tive words, like“pants,” and asks chat ters to re phrase their sen tence. If the per son per sists, he or shecan lose chat privileges.

As for River City, its cre ators say it’s 100 per cent safe, given that it’s dis trib uted onlyto K-12 schools, pass word-pro tected, and over seen by teach ers. Stu dents’ dig i tal char -ac ters can only com mu ni cate with mem bers of their team via chat or e-mail. Teach ersalso of ten sift through chat logs to en sure that no child is ha rass ing oth ers.

Dis ease De tec tives

Gallas used Whyville for a class room of sixth grad ers at Uni ver sity El e men tary School, in side the Uni ver sity of Cal i for nia at Los An geles’ School of Ed u ca tion and In for ma -tion Sci ence. The stu dents used butcher pa per in class to chart how the in fec tion spread from child to child with in for ma tion on Post-It notes about symp toms, who talked towhom, where and when they got the in fec tion and how long the symp toms lasted.

The kids wrote pa pers on the sub ject and be came phil an thropic, do nat ing money andland for uni ver si ties and hos pi tals.

“They started com ing up with the o ries, like be cause the beach was so denselycrowded, that’s where they might have caught it,” or that the vi rus has a seven daylifecycle, she said.


“None of this in for ma tion was given to them. They were the dis ease de tec tives. And Iwould lead the dis cus sion.”

About the Au thor: Steph a nie Olsen is a Staff Writer who cov ers sci ence and tech nol -ogy top ics for CNET News.

Source: Olsen, Steph a nie. 2006. Are vir tual worlds the fu ture of the class room? CNETNews. June 12. URL: http://news.com.com/Are+vir tual+worlds+the+fu ture+of+the+class room/2009-1041_3-6081870.html?tag=st.num


1. Hav ing read the ar ti cle, does the pros pect of join ing an on line vir tual world ap -peal to you? Why or why not?

2. Pick a topic that you are cur rently study ing in school. Now out line an ac tiv ity thatyou could com plete in Whyville or an other vir tual com mu nity to help you learnmore about this topic.


Video game websites are among the most pop u lar on line des ti na tions on the Internet.The lead ing websites (e.g., 1Up, GameSpot, and IGN) are com mer cial ven tures thatem ploy doz ens of writ ers, news gath er ers, art ists, and other con tri bu tors, in ad di tion to man age ment teams. These websites gen er ate most of their rev e nue through on line ad -ver tis ing and mem ber ship fees that un lock pre mium con tent that is un avail able to non -pay ing visitors (e.g., strategy guides).

Yet for ev ery lead ing website, there are doz ens (if not hun dreds) of smaller websites,many of which fo cus on a sin gle gam ing plat form (e.g., PlayStation or Xbox) or genreof video games (e.g., wargames). There are also non com mer cial fan sites ded i cated topar tic u lar video game fran chises, a sin gle game, or fan-cre ated mod i fi ca tions to a spe -cific game. In most cases, these websites rely on the good will and vol un tary ef forts ofthe site’s con tri bu tors who are in vari ably big fans of the video games they write about.

More re cently, other types of video game websites have started to gain pop u lar ity.Video game blogs (e.g., www.terranova.blogs.com) and schol arly websites (e.g.,www.gamestudies.org) are but two ex am ples of the in creas ing di ver sity of videogame-re lated con tent to be found on line. There are also on line des ti na tions for videogame de vel op ers (e.g., www.gamasutra.com).

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents brain storm ideas for a video game website that fea turescon tent not typ i cally found at ex ist ing websites.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to browse sev eral of the lead ing video game websites. Have them listthe var i ous types of con tent that are com monly found at these websites (e.g., news,pre views, and re views).

Now ask the class to brain storm a list of ad di tional con tent that video game websitescould also fea ture to dis tin guish them selves from com pet ing websites.

As they brain storm their list of ideas, ask the stu dents to fo cus on the kinds of con tentthat are most likely to ap peal to gamers (e.g., opin ion ar ti cles, game down loads, andgameplay vid eos).

229

ÄWebsite Design

Dis cus sion

As a fol low-up to this ac tiv ity, ask the stu dents to put their ideas into ac tion and cre atea website (that is per haps hosted at the school’s website) for showcasing the re sults ofthe video game ac tiv i ties they have com pleted in class. This website could fea turevideo game re views, the re sults of school sur veys, the stu dents’ superhero de signs, and much more.

As they com plete this ac tiv ity, the stu dents will prob a bly dis cover that video gamewebsites tend to fo cus heavily on news and press re leases, as well as pre views and re -views of up com ing and newly re leased video games. Yet there is plenty of ad di tionalcon tent that video game websites could also fea ture. For example:

¸ re views of video game-re lated books

¸ re views of of fi cial strat egy guides

¸ pro pos als for new video games or se quels to ex ist ing games

¸ re views of player-cre ated maps or mod i fi ca tions

¸ com par a tive re views of two or more video games

¸ video game in spired fan fic tion

¸ place anal y ses of video game en vi ron ments

¸ fan con trib uted gameplay vid eos

¸ news feeds from other video game websites

¸ re views of game de vel op ment tools

Some of the above ideas are dis cussed else where in this book in the form of ac tiv ityideas. These in clude the “Book Re view,” “Car Com mer cial,” “Don’t Be lieve theHype,” “His tor i cal Place Anal y sis,” “I Beg to Dif fer,” “Re view Roundup,” “Strat egyGuide Re view,” “Strat egy Guide Writ ing,” “Tac ti cal Anal y sis,” “The Stunt,” “VideoGame Re view,” and “Vir tual Journal” activities.


230


üCheck listVideo Game Website Check list

¨ ac tiv ity write-ups

¨ ad ver tis ing

¨ blogs

¨ book re views

¨ in ter views

¨ fan fic tion

¨ FAQs

¨ game da ta base

¨ game mods

¨ game rank ings

¨ game trail ers

¨ game trailer re views

¨ gameplay vid eos

¨ in ter views

¨ links

¨ news

¨ news feeds

¨ on line store

¨ opin ion ar ti cles

¨ podcasts

¨ pre view ar ti cles

¨ reader ar ti cles

¨ re lease cal en dar

¨ re views

¨ screenshots

¨ strat egy guides

¨ strat egy guidere views

¨ user fo rum

¨ user polls

¨ other


Gamers are a mixed bunch. Some will try out ev ery demo that be comes avail able butrarely (if ever) ac tu ally pur chase or rent a game. Oth ers will stick to a sin gle videogame for months (or even years) at a time. Still oth ers will play mul ti ple ti tles butchoose to stick to a sin gle genre of video games (e.g., rac ing games).

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents pro pose a set of four video games that pro vide a de siredgameplay bal ance and va ri ety of play.

Ac tiv ity

Lead the class in a brain storm ing ses sion in which they list all of the dif fer ent gen res of video games: ac tion games, driv ing games, mas sively multiplayer games, sportsgames, strat egy games, and so on. (Re fer to the open ing pages of this book for a briefex pla na tion of these and other genres.)

Now dis cuss with stu dents the in her ent qual ity of ex pe ri ence that ac com pa nies thesegen res: the rush of speed ing 180 MPH through a rac ing game, the in tense con cen tra -tion re quired by a strat egy game, the tre men dous com mit ment of time re quired to level up in an mas sively multiplayer on line role-play ing game, and so on.

Re mind the stu dents that many gamers stick to just one game or video game genremost of the time. But just what would a “well-bal anced” video game diet look like ifgamers played a va ri ety of video games that be longed to a va ri ety of gen res?

Ask each stu dent to brain storm a list of four video games that, in their view, pro vide ade sired gameplay bal ance and va ri ety of play. Have the stu dents give rea sons for theirchoices and de fend their gameplay diet to other stu dents.

Dis cus sion

Just as it may be un healthy for gamers to play only one video game for months at atime, so, too, it is un healthy for gamers to play only video games for hours at a time and never go out side to play or pur sue other rec re ational hob bies. Gamers who do so are atrisk of ex pe ri enc ing a re pet i tive stress in jury and other health prob lems re lated to alack of ex er cise (e.g., obe sity). They are also at risk of los ing their non-gamer friends

232

ÄWell-Balanced Diet

and miss ing out com pletely on the real world that ex ists quite apart from the world ofvideo games.

With this in mind, con sider adapt ing this ac tiv ity to ex plore the wide va ri ety of rec re -ational pur suits that stu dents can en joy quite apart from video games. Ask the stu dentsto pro pose a set of four rec re ational ac tiv i ties (only one of which can be play ing videogames or watch ing tele vi sion) that pro vide a de sired rec re ational bal ance be tween fun, sport, art, mu sic, learn ing, rest, and other rec re ational and learning pursuits.



Un like mov ies and tele vi sion shows, many video games al low play ers to con trol themu sic vol ume in de pend ent of other sounds such as di a log and sound ef fects. This pres -ents mu sic teach ers with a unique op por tu nity to high light (through its ab sence) theim por tant role mu sic plays in a movie, tele vi sion show, or video game title.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents re flect on the per cep tual ex pe ri ence of play ing a videogame with out music.

Ac tiv ity

Ask the stu dents to play a fa vor ite video game with the mu sic vol ume turned off or allthe way down to its low est set ting.

Now ask the stu dents to re flect on the ex pe ri ence of play ing a video game with out mu -sic. Here are some key ques tions for the stu dents to con sider: 1) How does the ab senceof mu sic al ter the emo tional qual ity of the video game? 2) Does the ab sence of mu sicmake it any harder to an tic i pate key game events (e.g., the ap pear ance of an en emy)?3) Does the ab sence of mu sic lead to more or less dis trac tions when play ing the videogame? 4) Once this ac tiv ity ends, how likely is it that you will con tinue to play thevideo game without music?

Dis cus sion

Dis cuss with stu dents the aes thetic and the matic roles that mu sic plays in video games. Ask the stu dents to list the video game sound tracks they most en joy or view as es sen -tial to the gam ing ex pe ri ence. Dis cuss why some game de vel op ers may choose not tohave mu sic ac com pany the gameplay.

This ac tiv ity can also pro vide mu sic teach ers with a wel come op por tu nity to in tro ducestu dents to the topic of mu si cal cues. Im por tant events in video games (sim i lar to hor rormov ies) are of ten pre ceded or ac com pa nied by mu si cal cues. If an en emy is lurk ingaround the next cor ner or an am bush is about to take place, the player is of ten alerted tothe change in con di tions by a sud den mu si cal ac cent or change in tempo. Dis cuss withstu dents the im por tance of mu si cal cues, why com pos ers use them, what forms theytake, and what the ex pe ri ence of play ing a video game might be like with out them.


234

ÄWorld without Music

When gamers play on line against other play ers, they are rarely iden ti fied by their realnames. For the sake of pro tect ing each gamer’s pri vacy, most on line gam ing sys temsre quire gamers to choose a unique username or Gamertag that will then be used toiden tify them online.

In many multiplayer games, play ers’ Gamertags float above their av a tars’ heads. Thisway, other play ers can iden tify them in the game world as they work to gether or com -pete against each other. Gamertags are also used to iden tify gamers in dis cus sionboards and on line leaderboards that track each gamer’s per for mance in a video game.

In this ac tiv ity, the stu dents are chal lenged to come up with the most cre ativeGamertag they can think of.

Ac tiv ity

Visit the dis cus sion fo rums at the Xbox website (www.xbox.com) and make note of afew of the more cre ative Gamertags you find. Share these Gamertags with the stu dentsand talk more gen er ally about the im por tance of a Gamertag in es tab lish ing a gamer’siden tify on line. Also ask the stu dent gamers in the class to share their own Gamertagnames should they wish. Of ten, the choice of a Gamertag name is quite per sonal. Itmay ex press some thing about the per son it be longs to, and it serves as a per son’s “for -mal name” in the gaming community.

Chal lenge the stu dents to work to gether in small groups to brain storm ten of the mostcre ative Gamertags they can think of. Then have each group share their list with therest of class. Op tion ally, have the stu dents vote for the best Gamertag the class hascome up with.

Now have one stu dent go on line to find out if that Gamertag is al ready in use.

Dis cus sion

It is im por tant that teach ers lay down clear ground rules prior to start ing this ac tiv ity.Some stu dents may wrongly equate the qual ity of a Gamertag with its abil ity to shock(or of fend) other play ers. Most on line gam ing sys tems do not per mit gamers to chooseGamertags that dis par age a so cial group or that in clude curse words (or trade marked

235

ÄWorld’s Best Gamertag

names). Dis cuss with stu dents the rea sons these pol i cies might be in place and then en -force them as stu dents complete this activity.

In ci den tally, the most mem o ra ble Gamertag this au thor has en coun tered on line is“urmomsanoob.” In the realm of com pet i tive gam ing, call ing an ad ver sary a “noob”(i.e., a newbie) is the ul ti mate in sult. Call ing a gamer’s mother a noob is just ask ing fortrou ble :)

This ac tiv ity can also be adapted to work with website do main names. Chal lenge thestu dents to come up with a mem o ra ble do main name for a video game website or a fic -tional prod uct they have de signed. Then have a stu dent go on line to find out whetherthat do main name is al ready in use.



Afterword: Video GameDe sign in the Class room

This book has ex plored doz ens of ac tiv ity ideas that help teach ers in te grate videogames into the class room, but per haps the most im por tant—and am bi tious—ac tiv ityidea has only been hinted at: chal leng ing stu dents to de sign their own video gamesfrom the ground up. That’s what this Afterword is about—the joy and re wards of tak -ing on a video game de vel op ment pro ject, ei ther on one’s own or as part of a smallteam of like-minded stu dents with sim i lar goals. Al though by no means ex haus tive inscope, these clos ing com ments do serve to high light some of the most im por tant points to keep in mind when in tro duc ing video game de sign into the class room.

So where to start? Per haps with the fol low ing nine-step method that takes stu dentsthrough the very same de vel op ment pro cess that even am bi tious com mer cial games go through.

1. Ex plor ing Video Game De sign

In many ways, the ac tiv i ties in this book are all about this im por tant first step. There isno sense in ini ti at ing a video game de sign pro ject with stu dents un less all in volvedhave a pretty good un der stand ing of the chal lenges that lay ahead. Be gin by ask ing thestu dents to turn a crit i cal eye to the video games they rou tinely play. What works andwhat doesn’t in their view (and in the view of pro fes sional re view ers)? What makes agame fun to play but also suc cess ful in the marketplace?

Even as the stu dents be gin look ing crit i cally at the games they play, in tro duce them tosome of the be hind-the-scenes roles and tasks that go into cre at ing a video game, suchas col lect ing and/or de sign ing the game’s as sets (e.g., mod els, tex tures, and sound ef -fects) and pro gram ming the gameplay. In tro duce stu dents to the im por tant rolesplayed by art ists, mod el ers, pro gram mers, and other pro fes sion als who con trib utetheir ex per tise to a video game pro ject. En cour age older stu dents, in par tic u lar, to be -gin learn ing and ex plor ing the video game de sign tools they will need to mas ter shouldthey wish to cre ate orig i nal content for their games (e.g., 3D design software).

2. Gen er at ing an Idea

Com ing up with an in trigu ing and orig i nal idea for a video game is the next step. De -pend ing on the na ture of the pro ject, the game’s sub ject mat ter may be as signed by theteacher, de ter mined by the topic un der study, posed as a chal lenge by an other group ofstu dents, or gen er ated through a brain storm ing ses sion led by the teacher or a stu dent.

237

Even at this early stage, the stu dents should have some sense of the time and re sourcesthat are avail able to de velop the game. Both will heavily in flu ence the scope and com -plex ity of the game ideas the stu dents con sider and the soft ware tools they choose to use.

Per haps the most im por tant ad vice is to pick a video game idea that has legs. The cho -sen sub ject mat ter should have room to grow and de velop. It should sus tain the in ter est of the stu dents over time. And it should have ed u ca tional merit.

Any num ber of the ac tiv i ties in this book can be used to help stu dents brain storm ideasfor new video games. The “Al ter nate His tory,” “Best Kids’ Game,” “Choose YourOwn Ad ven ture,” “Game In ven tion,” “His tor i cal Cam paign,” “Kid-friendly GrandTheft Auto,” “Scary Sto ries,” “Se ri ous Games Brain storm ing,” “Study of the Fu ture,”“Superhero De sign,” and “The Pitch” ac tiv i ties are particularly noteworthy.

As they brain storm ideas, en cour age the stu dents to also be mind ful of the var i ousvideo game gen res they can choose from: 2D puz zle games, 3D plat form games, ac -tion/ad ven ture games, driv ing/rac ing games, flight sim u la tors, math drill games, openworld games, sci ence sim u la tion games, the list goes on …

3. Choos ing a Game En gine

There are lit er ally doz ens of game en gines from which to choose. The most ba sic arees sen tially point-and-click game build ing tools. The most com plex re quire ad vancedpro gram ming skills. The best game en gines for schools prob a bly fall some where in the mid dle. The ideal ed u ca tional game en gine is sim ple enough for K–12 stu dents tolearn, but flex i ble enough to ac com mo date their most cre ative ideas. Some en gines re -quire no pro gram ming or script ing what so ever. Other en gines re quire min i mal script -ing. They are ideal for teach ers who wish their stu dents to learn ba sic math, logic, andcom puter pro gram ming skills as they develop their games.

For a com pre hen sive list of 3D game en gines, search the DevMaster website(www.devmaster.net) for the fol low ing in for ma tion. Each en gine’s:

¸ ed u ca tional price

¸ game dis tri bu tion li cense (i.e., roy alty free is ideal)

¸ pro gram ming re quire ments (e.g., none, ba sic script ing, or C++ pro gram ming)

¸ fea ture set (e.g., in te grated 3D mod el ing and multiplayer sup port)

¸ bells and whis tles (e.g., graph i cal ef fects and phys ics sys tem)

¸ im port and ex port sup port (e.g., for mod els and graphics)

¸ pub lish ing op tions (e.g., Win dows, Macintosh, and/or Web)

¸ level of de vel oper and com mu nity sup port


Also visit the websites for these stu dent-ori ented video game en gines: 3D GameStudio (www.3dgamestudio.com), Ad ven ture Game Stu dio (www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk), Al ice (www.al ice.org), Blitz Tools (www.blitzbasic.com), DarkBasic (www.thegamecreators.com), FPS Cre ator (www.fpscreator.com), Game Maker (www.gamemaker.nl), Games Fac tory (www.clickteam.com), Rev o lu tion (www.runrev.com), RPG Toolkit (www.toolkitzone.com), Unity (www.unity3d.com), and XNAGame Stu dio Ex press (www.microsoft.com). Also con sider Hyperstudio (www.hyperstudio.com) and the LOGO lan guage as ideal en try points for in tro duc ing youn -ger stu dents to mul ti me dia de sign and com puter programming respectively.

It is ad vis able for teach ers and stu dents to take their time in choos ing a game en gine.Many hours will be de voted in class to learn ing and us ing the soft ware. There fore, it iscrit i cal that a cho sen en gine’s re quired level of ex per tise, user in ter face, and fea ture set are all ap pro pri ate for the grade and ex pe ri ence level of the stu dents. Se ri ously con -sider, in par tic u lar, those game en gines that are de signed with chil dren and teach ers inmind or that fea ture in te grated ed i tors for mod el ing, tex tur ing, an i mat ing, and pub lish -ing games, with out the need to add third-party software to the workflow.

In truth, the choice of a game en gine will of ten drive the rest of the game de sign pro -cess in many class rooms. Some easy-to-use tools are op ti mized for par tic u lar gen res of video games (e.g., 2D plat former games), whereas oth ers have only a lim ited fea tureset. These game en gines may be in ap pro pri ate choices for com mer cial game de vel op -ment, but they are of ten the ideal rapid ap pli ca tion de vel op ment tools for am a teur,hob by ist, and student developers.

En cour age the stu dents to fa mil iar ize them selves with both the strengths and weak -nesses of the var i ous game en gines avail able to them in class. En sure that they aremind ful of each tool’s in tended us age as they brain storm com pel ling gameplay ideasfor their video games.

4. Pitch ing the Game Idea

Once the stu dents have come up with an en gag ing idea, ar tic u lated its most im por tantel e ments, and cho sen a de vel op ment tool within which to cre ate their game, ask themto pitch their idea to the class. (Con sider lead ing “The Pitch” ac tiv ity as part of thispro cess.) The stu dents can be asked to pitch their video game idea to an in for malroundtable or in stead make a for mal mul ti me dia pre sen ta tion—com plete with con cept art—to the entire class.

The pur pose of the pitch is to en sure that the game idea is com pel ling, fea si ble (giventhe time con straints, choice of de vel op ment tool, and level of ex per tise of the stu -dents), and well thought out. Also en sure that the pro ject is chal leng ing, but not tooam bi tious. Im me di ately fol low ing the pitch, the teacher and stu dents should ask ques -tions of the stu dent de vel op ers. These ques tions should aim to glean fur ther in for ma -tion about the de vel op ment team’s plans and timelines, as well as the con tri bu tionseach mem ber of the development team will make to the game.


A pitch can end with a sim ple up or down vote on the game pro posal plus some con -struc tive feed back for the de vel op ment team to keep in mind as their pro ject moves onto the next stage.

5. Writ ing a Story or Sce nario

Com ing up with the ba sic idea for a video game is im por tant, but many games also re -quire well de vel oped char ac ters and an en gag ing storyline. The sce nario for a rac ing or math drill game may be very sim ple and lack ing in even a ba sic story, but for manyoth ers gen res—ad ven ture games es pe cially—a well-ar tic u lated storyline is practically essential.

A good ad ven ture game story can be set in ei ther a fa mil iar or oth er worldly place, inthe herein now or in some fu ture or past world. The cho sen set ting should be com pel -ling enough for gamers to want to spend con sid er able time there. An ad ven ture gamewill also need one or more lead char ac ters plus a nem e sis of some kind for the leadchar ac ter to be pit ted against. The lead char ac ter will al most surely face a se ries ofprob lem atic cri ses (e.g., sole re spon si bil ity for sav ing the world) and may be equippedwith spe cial pow ers to help him or her in that quest. Each level of an ad ven ture gamewill typ i cally chal lenge the lead char ac ter to make one’s way through a hos tile en vi -ron ment, solv ing puz zles along the way, and/or fight ing en e mies. Writ ing a good story for an ad ven ture game re quires the stu dents to flesh out the var i ous set tings, char ac -ters, di a log, and plot de vel op ments that will be fea tured in the game. All of this needsto be set against a well-honed story arc that takes gamers on a compelling journey.

As they write the story or sce nario for their game, en cour age the stu dents to fol low thefive ba sic stages of the authoring cy cle: plan ning, draft ing, re vis ing, ed it ing, and pub -lish ing. At each stage of the writ ing pro cess, ask the stu dents to so licit feed back fromtheir peers. They should also reg u larly meet with the teacher and other stu dents to keep their ad ven ture story on track.

6. Col lect ing and De sign ing As sets

By far the two most time-con sum ing tasks of game de vel op ment are as set de sign andgameplay pro gram ming. Un less the stu dents are re ly ing on a pre pro grammed gameen gine, the lat ter can not be avoided. But the for mer can if the stu dents are pre pared tosearch for and use premade 3D mod els, char ac ters, tex tures, im ages, de cals, skyboxes,sounds, and so on that are widely avail able on the Web. No doubt the stu dents will find many on line as sets that re quire pur chas ing, at Turbo Squid (www.turbosquid.com),for ex am ple, but there are also many websites with as sets that are free to down load anduse (but per haps not free to use in a commercial video game).

Col lect ing (and giv ing credit to) as sets that oth ers have made is one op tion, but manystu dents will no doubt wish to cre ate their own vi sual and au dio as sets. To do so, thestu dents will need to use spe cial ized 3D mod el ing and sound de sign tools. As with thegame en gine, the choice of 3D soft ware ranges from free, in ex pen sive, and sim -ple-to-use, all the way up to thou sands of dol lars to pur chase and very com plex to


learn. In the case of 3D Stu dio Max (the most pop u lar pro fes sional 3D de sign soft ware) and other lead ing tools, look for spe cial ed u ca tional pric ing.

As set col lec tion and de sign are not only po ten tially ex pen sive, they are also time-con -sum ing. In choos ing a game en gine, se ri ously con sider those tools that ship withplenty of mod els, tex tures, and au dio as sets for the stu dents to im me di ately use. Or in -stead pur chase one or two rea son ably priced as set col lec tions that the stu dents canquickly import into their games.

7. Pro gram ming the Gameplay

Pro gram ming or script ing the ba sic gameplay lies at the heart of the de vel op ment pro -cess. Con sid er able time should be set aside for this stage, es pe cially if the stu dents aresi mul ta neously de sign ing the game and learn ing how to use the game engine.

There will be mo ments of frus tra tion as the stu dents pro gram the gameplay. The stu -dents will dis cover “bugs” in their game, and they will need to find workarounds forfea tures the game en gine doesn’t ad e quately sup port. There will be times that the stu -dents aren’t sure about what to do next. En cour age the stu dents to be pa tient, to take abreak, and to so licit the help of their peers. Putt ing the game pro ject aside for a fewdays and then re turn ing to it with fresh eyes is also advisable.

Once the main pro gram ming is com plete, the de vel op ment team should de vote sometime to build ing a user-friendly menu in ter face for the game. The stu dents may alsowish to cre ate an open ing wel come screen for the game and a sim ple help sys tem oruser’s guide. Fi nally, if the game is des tined for the Win dows or Macintosh plat form,the stu dents may need to cre ate an installer.

8. Test ing the Game

Prior to re leas ing their game, it is crit i cal that the stu dents not only test their game thor -oughly but also so licit the feed back of their peers, es pe cially mem bers of the tar get au -di ence the game is in tended for (e.g., rac ing game fans).

Most im por tantly, the de vel op ment team should en sure that play ers who pick up theirgame for the first time are able to get up to speed quickly on how to play the game. Thestu dents should also be on the look out for gameplay bugs and things that don’t quitework as ex pected. Iron ing out these bugs should be a top pri or ity dur ing the test ingphase.

One way to so licit the feed back of other stu dents is to con duct a beta test in which asmall group of gamers are in vited to play the game and then give their feed back to thede vel op ers. Based on the feed back they re ceive, the de vel op ment team may de cide toal ter cer tain el e ments of the game, en hance the game’s ar ti fi cial in tel li gence, im provethe help sys tem, re de sign a few of the assets, and so on.


9. Shar ing and Cel e brat ing the Game

Now that all of the hard work has been done, the de vel op ment team will no doubt beanx ious to share its com pleted video game with oth ers. The stu dent de vel op ers have awide va ri ety of dis tri bu tion op tions to choose from. With per mis sion, they can sim plyin stall the game on the school’s com puter net work for other stu dents to down load andplay or in stead burn the game to a CD or DVD for their peers to take home.

The de vel op ment team could also post their game on line to a website they have cre ated to mar ket their game or to a pop u lar down load site for video games, such as FileFront(www.filefront.com).

If the stu dents plan to sell their game com mer cially (per haps as a school fund-rais ingpro ject), they will need to en sure that they have the right to dis trib ute com mer cialgames cre ated with the en gine and as sets they have used.

And, of course, it goes with out say ing that the whole class should hold a launch partyto cel e brate the game’s re lease!

Con clu sion

These nine steps are just the be gin ning when it co mes to de sign ing video games in theclass room. Each school year, most teach ers will have at least a few stu dents in theirclass who are ea ger to cre ate their first (or sec ond or third) video game. En gag ing these stu dents and the rest of the class in the study of video games is what this book is allabout. For some stu dents, com plet ing the ac tiv i ties in this book could lead di rectly into a ca reer in the video game in dus try. For oth ers, the ac tiv i ties will serve as realeye-open ers to the po ten tial of video games—to day and in the fu ture—to en ter tain, in -spire, and teach, as game de sign ers around the world forge brave new vir tual worldsfor people to explore.


Ac tiv ity List Sortedby Sub ject

*Ac tiv ity Quickie

Busi ness

Ad ver tis ing Cam paignBrand ing the BoxChart Toppers

Re search ing the Cred itsThe PitchUl ti mate Gam ing Bun dle

Vir tual Econ omy*

Com put ers

Best Kids’ GameCar Com mer cialCheat Code Cen tralCritiquing the Con trol lersFlight Con trols*Foley Ef fects Art ist (Take Two)

Gam ing Sta tionMachinima*New Multiplayer ModeRe search ing the Cred its (Take Two)The Stunt

Video Game Da ta baseWebsite De signWell-Bal anced Diet

Drama

Dead pan Di a logDo You Rec og nize This Voice?

News cast Pro duc tionStory board Se quence*The Re write

Video Game Reenactment

Ge og ra phy

Bat tle shipDe sign Your Own RaceTrackDe sign Your Own Race Track (Take Two)

Lay of the LandMap of the WorldOpen World Di rec tionsPlace Anal y sis*

School Map*Ur ban Plan ning

Health and Phys i cal Ed u ca tion

Body Im ageEr go nomic Au ditEx er cise Games*

Fit ness Re gimeGame In ven tionPoor Pos ture

Re pet i tive Stress In juryVideo Game Ad dic tion

243


His tory

Al ter nate His toryHis tor i cal Cam paign

His tor i cal Place Anal y sisHis tor i cal Weap onry

Tech no log i cal Prog ress

Lan guage Arts

Book Re viewCar Tun ing Guide*Choose Your Own Ad ven tureDon’t Be lieve the HypeFact vs. Opin ionFan Fic tion*

I Beg to Dif ferLet ter to the Ed i tor*Play ing to LearnRe view RoundupScary Sto riesSpell ing Dic ta tionStrat egy Guide Re view

Strat egy Guide Writ ingTac ti cal Anal y sisThe Obit u aryThe Re write (Take Two)Video Game Re viewVir tual Jour nalWorld’s Best Gamertag

Math

Fine Mo tor CountFor How Long Do I Play?

Gam ing Bud getSta tis ti cal Anal y sisThe Sur vey

Mu sic

Com poser DiscographyFoley Ef fects Art ist

Mu si cal CriticSur round Sound Map

World with out Mu sic

Sci ence

Scooby-Doo and the Laws of Phys ics

Tele vi sion Tech nol o giesTest Drive

So cial Stud ies

Ar cade vs. Video GamesBullyESRB Rat ings Re viewI Be lieveKid-friendly Grand Theft Auto

Mas sively Multiplayer Eth ics*Race Re la tionsRe view of the Real WorldSe ri ous Games Brain storm ing

Study of the Fu tureThe In ter viewVideo Game De bate


Vi sual Arts

Ar tis tic Ren der ingCar of the Fu tureGraph i cal Anal y sis

Next Gen er a tion Con solePhoto Anal y sis*Superhero De sign

The Gam ing PCUser In ter face Re view

In dex

Absynth, 80ac tion games, 10, 16, 17ad dic tion, video game, 20, 207–10Adesman, An drew, 158ad ven ture, choose your own, 39–40Ad ven ture Game Stu dio (website), 239ad ven ture games, 11, 151, 154, 175, 191,

240ad ver tis ing, 1–3, 29–30, 66, 201, 229.

See also mar ket ingage, video game play by, 206ag gres sion, 26, 27, 65–66, 68, 144. See

also vi o lenceAl bert, Wayne, 137Al ice, 239al ter nate his tory, 4–6Altman, Drew, 82Am a zon (website), 22Amer i can Acad emy of Pe di at rics (AAP),

81, 83Amer ica’s Army, 155an i ma tion, 146, 179an no tated bib li og ra phies, 144ar cade games, 73, 182ar chi tec ture, 99–102Are Vir tual Worlds the Fu ture of the

Class room? (dis cus sion ar ti cle),223–28

Armstrong, Alison, 62ar ti fi cial in tel li gence, 146, 227, 241ar tis tic ren der ing, 9–11as sets, 240–41, 242at ten tion-def i cit hy per ac tiv ity dis or der

(ADHD), 157

bal ance, 232–33Barab, Sasha, 224, 225Bartie, Rich ard, 109Bat man, 172

Bat tle field, 120, 198Bat tle ship, 12–13Beck, Jock C., 20bed rooms, me dia equip ment in, 82be hav ioral char ac ter is tics, 34Ben’s Game, 157bias, 64–65Blitz Tools (website), 239blogs, 229board games, 12–13body im age, 16–19, 73books about video games, 20–22Boulding, Aaron, 56, 57Brady Games, 164Brain Age, 157branch ing storylines, 39, 40brand ing, 23–24Bring ing Back the Dream (dis cus sion

ar ti cle), 192–93Broth ers in Arms, 98Bryant, Cedric, 73, 75Bully, 25Bul ly ing On line (website), 25bun dles, gam ing, 201Burnham, Van, 20busi ness, 1–2, 24, 34–36, 127, 139–40,

184, 191–92, 201buy ing vs. rent ing video games, 90–91

Call of Duty se ries, 37, 105, 120Can ada Safety Coun cil, 137–38car com mer cials, 29–30car tun ing guides, 93ca reers, 139–40, 242car toons, 153–54Case ment, Charles, 62cases, cus tom, 185–86Castronova, Ed ward, 21cen sor ship, 26

247

char ac terscre ation of, 240cus tom iz ation of, 173death of, 189–90

cheat codes, 37–38, 129check lists

video game mar ket ing strat e gies, 3video game websites, 231

chess, 13Child and the Ma chine, The, 62child-friendly games, 14–15, 110–12chil dren, 66, 222Choose Your Own Ad ven ture se ries,

39–40Cieply, Mi chael, 57cit ies, plan ning, 202–203City of Heroes, 173City of Vil lains, 173Civ i li za tion se ries, 10, 12Clem ent, Shawn, 74Com mand & Con quer: Gen er als, 114com poser discographies, 41–42Com puter Ad dic tion Ser vice, 209com put ers, 14–15, 29–30, 37–38, 43–44,

79–80, 92–93, 118, 119–20,141–42, 197–98, 211–13, 229–30,232–33

con cept art, 9–10con cept cars, 31–32, 162, 186Con demned: Crim i nal Or i gins, 152con soles, 126–27, 201Con tra dic tions (dis cus sion ar ti cle), 109con trol in ter faces, eval u at ing, 44con trol op tions, 184con trol lers, 43–44, 126, 201Con ven tion for the Pro tec tion of Vir tual

Ar chi tec tural Her i tage, The(dis cus sion ar ti cle), 99–102

copy editors, 195, 196Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Broad cast ing

(CPB), 123, 125Cor po ra tion for Pub lic Gam ing (CPG),

124cost-ben e fit anal y sis

of buy ing vs. rent ing video games,90–91

of equip ping con soles vs.man u fac tur ing costs, 127

for tele vi sion com par i sons, 181cred its, 139–40, 141–42CRT dis play, 180Crysis, 96cus tom gam ing PCs, 185–86cus tom iz ation

of cars, 31–32of char ac ters, 173

CyberLearning Tech nol ogy sys tem,157–58

Dance Dance Rev o lu tion, 10, 73, 157DarkBasic, 239data ta bles

ESRB rat ings by plat form, 61on line vs. offline play, 36playday sur vey, 85sam ple rac ing leaderboard, 163video game play by age, 206video game play ing track ing chart, 87

da ta base, video game, 211–13Dead or Alive, 10death of lead char ac ters, 189–90deathmatch, 119de bates, 214–15de ci sion trees, 39, 40Dede, Chris, 224–25Degaetano, Glo ria, 21de mo graph ics, 20, 34De sign ing Vir tual Worlds, 109de vel op ment teams, 139–40, 191, 241,

242DevMaster (website), 95, 238dex ter ity, 70–71di a log, 45–46, 52, 77, 146, 194, 234Dieterle, Ed ward, 225, 226di rec tions, 128–29dis tri bu tion, 142, 242DLP dis play, 180Doc tor Claims 40 Per cent of World of

Warcraft Play ers Are Ad dicted(dis cus sion ar ti cle), 208–10

Dolby Dig i tal sound, 174do main names, 236

248 Ä Index

Don’t Bother Me Mom—I’m Learn ing!,21

Doom, 95Down loads (website), 212–13drama, 45–46, 52–53, 78, 121–22, 194,

217Driv3r, 37driv ing games, 11, 31, 37, 47–48, 128–29,

162, 182, 191drug use, 110, 134, 135DS (handheld plat form), 61DTS sound, 174Duggan, Mark, 138DVD-Au dio mu sic disks, 174

eco nomic au dit, 184ed u ca tional games, 11, 109, 155“edutainment,” 155Elec tric-Spin Cor po ra tion, 74Elec tronic Games, 55el o cu tion, 45–46, 194em pa thy, 68en gines, 238, 240, 241, 242En ter tain ment Soft ware Rat ing Board

(ESRB), 14, 23, 26, 59–61, 211,215

en vi ron men tal au dit, 63er go nom ics, 62–63, 71, 132. See also

re pet i tive stress in juryeth ics, 20, 25, 53, 55–58, 67, 215–16Eth ics in Video Game Jour nal ism

(dis cus sion ar ti cle), 55–58Everquest, 208Ev ery thing Bad Is Good for You: How

To day’s Pop u lar Cul ture IsAc tu ally Mak ing Us Smarter, 21

ex er cise, 72–76lack of, 232

Ex er cise, Lose Weight with“Exergaming,” 73–75

ex er cise video games, 89exergaming, 73–75ex pres sion, video games as form of, 67

Fal con North west, 185fam ily-friendly games, 14–15

fan tasy, 168, 169Far Cry, 95F.E.A.R., 140Fed eral Trade Com mis sion, 66feed back, 241fe males, 66, 135fight ing games, 10FileFront (website), 242FileMaker Pro, 212fine mo tor count, 70–71fin ger move ment, 70–71Fisher, Sam, 172fit ness, 72–76Flight Sim u la tor se ries, 11, 183flowcharts, 5, 40, 142foley art ists, 77–78, 79–80Foley, Jack, 77Food Force, 124Ford Foun da tion, 124Forza Motorsport se ries, 32, 182FPS Cre ator (website), 239fragging, 119, 162free speech, 25Free dom Fight ers, 4From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video

Games, 21fu ture, 5, 168–71fu tur is tic games, 6

Gallas, Cathleen, 224, 225, 226, 227Gamasutra (website), 34, 122, 140, 141game de vel op ers, 140, 141, 229game de vel op ment books, 20game en gines, 238, 240, 241, 242Game Girl Ad vance, 58, 221game in ven tion, 88–89Game Maker (website), 239Game Stu dio Ex press (website), 239GameBoy Ad vance, 61GameCritics (website), 57–58GameCube, 61GameFAQs (website), 37, 165, 166, 167GameFly (website), 211gamepads, 43–44, 126GameRankings (website), 57, 144“Gamers’ Perks or ‘Playola’?”, 55

Index Ä 249

gamertags, 235–36Games Fac tory (website), 239GameSpot (website), 35, 56, 57, 64, 106,

122, 150, 179, 195, 219, 229GameStop (website), 211GameTrailers (website), 121gam ing bud gets, 90–91gam ing sta tions, 92–93gangs, 110, 134, 135GarageBand, 80Gee, James Paul, 21, 67gen res, video game, 10–11, 232, 238, 239ge og ra phy, 13, 33, 40, 47–48, 49–51,

113–14, 115–16, 128–29, 202–203Gerosa, Mario, 99–102girls, 66, 135GlucoBoy, 124gold farm ing, 142Golf Launchpad, 74Got Game: How the Gamer Gen er a tion Is

Re shap ing Busi ness For ever, 20GPS sys tems, 128grade level

4 and higher, 9–10, 12–13, 14–15,39–40, 43–44, 70–71, 72–73,77–78, 85–87, 107–108, 115–16,126–27, 128–29, 136–37, 151–52, 153–54, 159–61, 168–69, 172–73, 174–75, 185–86, 199–200, 217,232–33, 234, 235–36

6 and higher, 16–17, 23–24, 29–30,31–32, 34–36, 37–38, 47–48,49–51, 59–60, 64–65, 79–80,88–89, 90–91, 92–93, 94–95,105–106, 110–12, 113–14,121–22, 130–131, 143–44,145–46, 162–63, 166–67, 176–77, 182–84, 187–88, 189–90, 191–92, 194, 195–96, 197–98, 202–203,205–206, 211–13, 214–15,218–20, 222–23, 229–30

8 and higher, 1–2, 4–6, 20–22, 25–26,41–42, 45–46, 52–53, 54–55,62–63, 96–97, 98–99, 103–104,117–18, 119–20, 134–35,139–40, 141–42, 155–56,

164–65, 178–79, 180–81, 201,207–208

Gran Tu ris mo se ries, 11, 32, 49, 74, 204Grand Prix se ries, 49–51Grand Theft Auto se ries, 11, 25, 37, 110,

112, 121, 135grants, 124, 125graphics, 94–95, 146, 178Graziani, Gabe, 215–16Grossman, Dave, 21

Half Life, 17Half-Life, 95Half-Real: Video Games be tween Real

Rules and Fic tional Worlds, 21Hall, Justin, 55–58Halo se ries, 10, 168, 198Hal ter, Ed, 21hap pi ness, 83Harry Pot ter se ries, 14Havok, 95HDTV, 181heads up dis plays (HUDs), 128, 129, 205,

206Health, Ed u ca tion, and Wel fare,

De part ment of, 123health and phys i cal ed u ca tion, 16–17, 62–63,

72–73, 88–89, 136–37, 207–208Herz, J. C., 21High Score! The Il lus trated His tory of

Elec tronic Games, 21his tor i cal au then tic ity, 103–104his tor i cal prog ress, 179his tory, 4–5, 6, 96–97, 98–99, 103–104,

113, 118, 178–79, 181Hitti, Miranda, 26–28, 80–84ho lo grams, 96How Com puter Games Help Chil dren

Learn, 21“how to” in struc tional guides, 20Hutchison, Da vid, 170–71Hyperstudio (website), 239

iden ti ties, 199IGN (website), 56, 57, 122, 229iList Data, 212

250 Ä Index

Imaginova, 130In ci dent Com mander, 155in come and Internet ac cess, 82interactivity, 124in ter views (with gamers), 187–88

Jenkins, Henry, 65–69, 109John son, Lyndon, 123John son, Ste ven, 21Jones, Gerard, 66jour nal ism, video game, 55–58jour nals, 222–23Joy stick Na tion: How Video Games Ate

Our Quar ters, Won Our Hearts,and Re wired Our Minds, 21

jun kets, 55–58Just Cause, 197Juul, Jesper, 21

Kai ser Fam ily Foun da tion, 80–84Kasavin, Greg ory, 56, 57, 146–50Kent, Ste ven L., 21kid-friendly games, 14–15, 110–12Kids Health (website), 136Kill ing Mon sters, 66Ki lo watt, 74–75Konami, 73Kunkel, Bill, 55

LA Rush, 129land forms, 47, 113–14lan guage arts, 13, 15, 20–22, 39–40, 48,

54–55, 64–65, 93, 105–106,130–31, 143–44, 151–52, 159–61,164–65, 166–67, 176–77, 189–90,195–96, 200, 218–20, 222–23,235–36

Lara Croft, 16Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Se ries

(dis cus sion ar ti cle), 18–19Laura’s Story (dis cus sion ar ti cle), 170–71Law rence, Star, 73–75LCD dis play, 180leaderboards, 162, 163, 235learn ing sys tems, video games as, 6lei sure time, 34

let ter to the ed i tor, 13li cens ing costs, 95light, 180Limbaugh, Ste phen N., Sr., 67Links, 74Liv ing in Obliv ion (dis cus sion ar ti cle),

220–21Llopis, Noel, 192–93lo ca tions, real-world, 115–16

Mac Don ald, Mar ga ret, 158Macintosh plat form, 74Mad den NFL, 10man u als, 177maps

in open world games, 128, 202–203real world, 115–16re views of, 230of school, 40in strat egy guides, 164sur round sound, 174–75in wargames, 113–14

mar ket ingand brand aware ness, 23by car man u fac tur ers, 32and ESRB rat ings, 59and game de vel op ment, 142of ma ture games, 66of orig i nal con soles, 126of orig i nal video games, 242and pre views/re views, 54, 55of se ri ous games, 156strat e gies, 3, 201

Mas sa cre in Winterspring (dis cus sionar ti cle), 215–16

MassBalance, 124mas sively multiplayer on line role-play ing

games (MMORPGs), 11, 232and ad dic tion, 208–10ar chi tec ture in, 100, 102char ac ter cus tom iz ation in, 173eco nomic au dit in, 184and eth ics, 142, 215–16gamertags in, 235re view of real life, 146and so cial ac tion, 124

Index Ä 251

Mas ter Chief, 172math, 13, 70–71, 85–87, 90–91, 127, 129,

162–63, 181, 199–200Ma trix, 145Max Payne se ries, 154med i cal treat ments, video games and,

156–58Me dium of the Video Game, The, 21menu in ter faces, 241menu sys tem, 205meta-anal y ses, 144MetaCritic, 57Microsoft, 23, 43, 126, 157, 201Microsoft Ac cess, 212Mid night Club se ries, 32, 128mil i tary ge og ra phy, 113–14mil i tary train ing, 66–67Minow, New ton, 123MMOGS (Mas sively Multiplayer On line

Games), 100, 102. See alsomas sively multiplayer on linerole-play ing games (MMORPGs)

MMORPGS (Mas sively MultiplayerOn line Role-play ing Games). Seemas sively multiplayer on linerole-play ing games (MMORPGs)

multiplayer games, 119–20, 124. See alsomas sively multiplayer on linerole-play ing games (MMORPGs)

multitasking, 82multiuser vir tual en vi ron ment (MUVE),

224, 225mu sic, 41–42, 77–78, 117–18, 174–75,

234Mu sic 4 Games (website), 41mu sic workstations, 93MySpace, 225Myst se ries, 169myths about video games, 65–68

Na tional Ed u ca tional Tele vi sion (NET),123

Na tional Sci ence Foun da tion, 226Need for Speed se ries, 32, 128neurofeedback, 157–58news up dates, 121–22

news cast pro duc tion, 121–22Nicktoons Movin’, 74Nintendo, 23, 43, 126, 157NPD Group, 34, 36, 206Numedeon, Inc., 222, 224, 226, 227

obe sity, 83, 232obit u ar ies, 189–90Olsen, Steph a nie, 223–281Up (website), 122, 229open world games, 110–12, 128–29, 162,

222OpenGL, 95opin ions, 64, 105or ga ni za tional struc ture, 141Orzack, Maressa Hecht, 209

pack ag ing, 23–24, 59par ents, 66PC plat form, 61, 74per sonal be liefs, 107PG Cham pi on ship Golf 1999, 178Pham, Alex, 55photo anal y sis, 51phys ics, laws of, 153–54Pinckard, Jane, 220–21pitch ing ideas, 239pitch ing new video games, 191–92place anal y sis, 33, 98–99, 230place au then tic ity, 115–16plasma dis play, 180platformer games, 10play, video games and, 6Play Be tween Worlds: Ex plor ing On line

Game Cul ture, 21PlayStation, 23, 43, 61, 70, 73, 74, 92,

126, 157, 206, 229po ems, “I Be lieve,” 107Poole, Ste ven L., 21Posner, Rich ard, 67pos ture, 132, 137Powergrid Fit ness, 74pow ers, 240Prensky, Marc, 21pre views, 54–55, 98, 230Prima Games, 164

252 Ä Index

pro fan ity, 14, 110pro gram ming gameplay, 241Pro ject Gotham Rac ing 3, 48Pro tect Kids from Com puter In ju ries,

Safety Coun cil Urges (dis cus sionar ti cle), 137–38

PSP (handheld plat form), 61Psy cho, 189Psychonauts, 10, 13, 154psychosocial be hav ior, 20pub lish ing workstations, 93puz zle games, 10, 191

Quake se ries, 16, 95Quest Atlantis, 224

race and Internet ac cess, 82race re la tions, 134–35race tracks, 47–48, 49–51rac ing games, 31–32, 47–48, 93, 154,

157, 162, 163, 174, 175, 176, 182,183, 186, 232

Rain bow Six se ries, 56, 145rat ings, 59–61Real Life: The Full Re view (dis cus sion

ar ti cle), 146–50real world, 145–50Real World, The, 145real-world lo ca tions, 115–16re al ism, 182, 184Re al ity Bites: Eight Myths about Video

Games De bunked (dis cus sionar ti cle), 65–69

rec re ational ac tiv i ties, 233reenactments, 217Reimer, Jeremy, 208–10Rejeski, Da vid, 123–25RenderWare, 95rent ing vs. buy ing video games, 90–91re pet i tive stress in jury, 136–38, 232. See

also er go nom icsre search

books about video games, 22vs. per cep tion of video games, 65stu dent, 143, 207

Res i dent Evil se ries, 151

re viewsof books, 20–22and eth ics, 55–58fact vs. opin ion, 64–65, 105–106of kid-friendly video games, 14–15of the lit er a ture, 144of maps, 230mu sic, 117and news cast pro duc tion, 122and pre views, 54–55of real world, 145–50re search ing, 143–44re writ ing, 46and spell ing dic ta tion, 161of strat egy guides, 164–65, 230of tele vi sion mod els, 181tem plates, 219of user in ter faces, 205–206by us ers, 195–96on video game websites, 230writ ing, 218–20

Rev o lu tion (website), 239rhythm games, 11River City, 224, 225–26, 227Rob erts, Don ald F., 81Roby, Ismini Boinodiris, 18–19rocket jumps, 197RockStar, 25, 111, 112role mod els, 72role-play ing games, 10, 191, 222RPG Toolkit (website), 239rules

for ar chi tec tural pres er va tion, 101for Gamertag ac tiv ity, 235for gam ing sta tion use, 93for me dia us age at home, 83–84

Rusel, DeMaria, 21

SACD mu sic disks, 174safety, 227sales of video games, 34–35“sandbox games,” 110scale mod els, 103. See also 3D mod elsscan ning workstations, 93scary sto ries, 151–52schol arly websites, 229

Index Ä 253

sci ence, 153–54, 180–81, 182–84sci ence fic tion, 5sci ence workstations, 93Scooby-Doo Mys ter ies, 153screenshots, 179Sec ond Life, 11, 124, 157, 222sen si tiv ity/desensitivity to vi o lence, 26,

27, 68se ri ous games, 11, 124–25, 155–58Se ri ous Games Source (website), 156sex ual in nu endo, 14, 16, 18, 110Shaffer, Da vid Wil liam son, 21Shahrani, Sam, 99–102Sherman-Wolin, Ju dith, 73, 74shoot ing games, 98, 103, 119–20, 162,

197Simp sons, The: Hit & Run, 110Sims, The, 57, 66, 67, 145sim u la tions, 88, 145, 155, 182, 225sim u la tors, 11, 118, 183–84Smart BrainGames, 157–58Smart Girls Do Dumb bells, 73Soak ing Up the Me dia: Full-time Job for

Kids (dis cus sion ar ti cle), 80–84so cial ac tion, 63, 124so cial ex pe ri ence, 13so cial iso la tion, 68so cial stud ies, 26, 59–60, 107–108,

110–12, 134–35, 142, 145–46,155–56, 168–69, 187–88, 214–15

soft ware, 239Solid Snake, 172SONAR, 80Sony, 23, 43, 126, 157sound ef fects, 77–78, 79–80, 146, 234sound tracks, 41, 146, 234spe cial ef fects, 179spell ing dic ta tion, 159–61Spiderman, 172sports games, 10, 88Star Wars, 140sta tis tics, 80–84, 162–63ste reo types, 134Stock dale, Ste ven, 158

Stop Teach ing Our Kids to Kill: A Call toAc tion Against TV, Movie andVideo Game Vi o lence, 21

sto ries, 200story board se quences, 78storyline, 217strat egy games, 6, 10, 12–13, 176, 191,

232strat egy guides, 20, 164–65, 166–67, 177,

202, 230street races, sanc tioned, 49–51stunts, 197–98Sun, Jennifer, 224, 225, 226Supercade: A Vi sual His tory of the Video

Game Age, 1971–1984, 20superheroes, 172–73su per hu man bod ies, 17Su per man, 172sur round sound, 174–75sur veys, 120, 183, 188, 199–200sur vival hor ror video games, 151SWAT, 10syn the siz ers, 80Syn thetic Worlds: The Busi ness and

Cul ture of On line Games, 21sys tem re quire ments, 94

tab leau, 217tac tics, 176–77Tay lor, T. L., 21tele vi sion, 123tele vi sions, 180–81Terranova (blog), 109Test Drive Un lim ited, 31, 129test ing, 241Tetris, 10Therien, Emile, 1373D de sign soft ware, 9–103D GameStudio (website), 2393D mod els, 47–48, 203, 2403D Stu dio Max, 241time, di vi sion of, 82–83time spent on video games, 85–87time travel, 5timelines, 4–5, 239

254 Ä Index

Tom Clancy’s Rain bow Six: Ve gas, 116Tomb Raider se ries, 18–19Toy ota Fi nan cial Ser vices, 224TrackMania se ries, 48Trig ger Happy: Video Games and the

En ter tain ment Rev o lu tion, 21tuner games, 182Turbo Squid (website), 240turn-based games, 12–13

Ubisoft, 55Ul ti mate His tory of Video Games, The:

From Pong to Pokemon—The Story Be hind the Craze That TouchedOur Lives and Changed the World,21

United Na tions World Food Pro gram, 124Unity (website), 239uni verse, phys i cal laws of, 153–54Un real, 95ur ban de vel op ment, 100ur ban plan ning, 51, 202–203user in ter faces, 204, 205–206

val ues, 107vari able ra tion re in force ment, 209, 210ve hic u lar weap ons, 104VersionTracker (website), 213Video Game Ther apy: A New Fron tier

(dis cus sion ar ti cle), 156–58video games

con tro ver sial na ture of, 214de sign of, 237–42gen res, 10–11, 232, 238, 239as learn ing sys tems, 6med i cal ben e fits of, 156–58myths about, 65–68and play, 6rea sons to in te grate into the class room,

5–6ways to in te grate into the class room,

130Video Games May Dull Shock at Vi o lence

(dis cus sion ar ti cle), 26–28video workstations, 93vil lains, 173

vi o lence, 14, 20, 25, 26–28, 59, 60, 65,67, 68, 83, 109, 110, 134, 135, 144, 215

vir tual com mu ni ties, 6, 20, 184vir tual maps, 202vir tual race tracks, 48vir tual-re al ity sys tems, 96vir tual worlds, 11, 155, 222–28vi sual arts, 10, 32, 51, 94–95, 126–27,

172–73, 185–86, 205–206vi sual ef fects, 94voices, 45–46, 52–53VoodooPC, 185

Wade, Mitch ell, 20wargames, 96–97, 105, 113–14, 119, 134,

145, 155, 174, 176, 229weap ons, 163, 168weap ons, his tor i cal, 103–104website de sign, 22, 219, 229–31websites

for char ac ter cus tom iz ation, 173check list, 231de sign, 22, 229–31for news casts, 121and re views, 218for soft ware, 213for this book, 131video game, 35, 164for video game de vel op ment, 239, 240for video game de vel op ment stu dios,

139What Video Games Have to Teach Us

About Learn ing and Lit er acy, 21,67

Why We Need a Cor po ra tion for Pub licGam ing (dis cus sion ar ti cle),123–25

Whyville, 222, 224, 226–27Wii, 23, 43, 70, 71, 92, 126Win dows Vista op er at ing sys tem, 94Wolf, Mark, 21World of Warcraft se ries, 9, 10, 208,

209–10, 215Wright, Talmadge, 68Wright, Will, 57, 67

Index Ä 255

X-Men, 172X-Treme Ef fects, 80Xbox, 61, 73, 157, 229, 235Xbox 360, 23, 43, 70, 92, 126, 201, 206XNA (website), 239

Zimmerman, Eric, 68Zoo Ty coon, 130

256 Ä Index

About the Au thor

DAVID HUTCHISON is an As so ci ate Pro fes sor in the Fac ulty of Ed u ca tion, BrockUni ver sity. He is the au thor of Grow ing Up Green: Ed u ca tion for Eco log i cal Re newaland A Nat u ral His tory of Place in Ed u ca tion.

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[David Hutchison] Playing to Learn Video Games in(Bookos.org)

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