Video games are typically not regarded as an educational tool. Recent research has started to challenge these traditional notions of gaming as 'bad' and have started to see gaming as an important agent in learning. Too often, the negative aspects of gaming become the focus of conversation and often individuals are thought to be 'wasting their lives' playing these types of games. Research that Gee and others have completed has started to concentrate on the benefits that gaming can have on learning. Gee begins to decode gaming and simplify what happens when people participate in gaming.
One statement that Gee makes in this chapter that captivated my interest and it was the notion of a surrogate in gaming; ''In a video game the real-world player gains a surrogate, that is, the virtual character the player is playing. By "inhabit" I mean that you, the player, act in the game as if the goals of your surrogate are your goals." Reading this statement made me think about the role I had while playing video games and how it has evolved as video games have matured. My gaming experiences began with playing Super Mario World. I was forced to be a man and my overall goal was to save the princess. I guess I was not really represented in this game but I still found it fun to play. Maybe part of me thought that I was the princess so I had to get someone to save me. I am not completely sure where my head was at that time but I knew I enjoyed playing games. More recently we have seen video games that incorporate the choice of characters. I am excited to see that game players now have options available in their character selection such as sex, hair colour, skin colour etc. This helps making gaming more appealing for a larger group of people. The surrogate that a player selects can now better represent them as a person. It helps make gaming more equitable for everyone. I have frequently found myself paying much detail to the persona of the characters I use when I play Rockband. I try to recreate myself in my character, or maybe more specifically a ‘better’ version of myself. By creating your own character you can manipulate their looks to suit your own taste. A form of self expression and self exploration happens when creating these characters. In the past I have tended to create characters that tend to be thinner than myself. Maybe I am trying to recreate the past but I am definitely trying to create a better surrogate of myself.
Creating a surrogate of oneself allows for a player to explore scenarios that may not happen in real life and are sometimes completely fantastical. These unreal worlds allow people to live in surreal moments. Gee discusses Thief: Deadly Shadows and how players take on the roles of the characters that they are playing. Players receive superpowers and are on a mission to complete certain tasks. Realistically, most people are never going to be able to do the things that the character in this game does, but individuals can live vicariously through game play. Video game playing in many ways mimics the idea of imaginary play that society seems to force us to lose as we get older.
Video game playing often forms communities with other game players, especially with the emergence of online game play. Players are able to communicate with one another in new ways like via a headset, and players are able to form communities based on their interest in gaming. Gaming helps develop many critical literacy skills through play such as prediction, reading, inferring etc. These online communities that form also promote discussion and can often lead to players seeking out additional information on the games they play. Many forums online exist to help players find secrets in their gaming or simply talk about different games. All of these sites help individuals practice and gain more literacy skills. Traditionally, players were able to buy gaming magazines that included these stories, secrets and hints of game play but these online forums provide a more interactive means to players to discuss their game and develop their literacy skills.
The overall larger question that I am left with after reading this is how can we implement the successful aspects of gaming into educational gaming? Commercial gaming has been incredibly successful but educational gaming lacks the flair that is so prevalent in commercial gaming. Gee has introduced us to some of the benefits that game playing has and it could be such a powerful tool to use in our classroom. How do we convince administration of these benefits and how can we implement it into our own teaching practices? I think that efforts should be spent to create a game, using the successful elements of design found in commercial gaming, to create educational games based on curriculum expectations of each grade level. If this type of game could be create and engage our students, it would provide them with opportunities to be practicing the skills that they learned during the day when they go home. It could create communities in the classroom and encourage students to participate in collaborative learning processes. It would be a successful tool in practicing the skills learned during a traditional school day. If this type of gaming were available to students from home, the question of access and equity arises. How can we ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to participate, especially if they do not have a computer or internet access? There are a lot of factors that need to be considered to implement this type of game and the benefits of student engagement and learning opportunities would be plentiful. Hopefully in the future we can see a system like this implemented to further our students’ learning opportunities.
http://www.soe.jcu.edu.au/sampler/
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Your comments about creating a better self through your surrogate reminded me of my middle son when he was about 9 years old. He was playing an online game (runescape) and he created a female surrogate. When I asked him why (because I often watched him play so that I could offer counter-discourse) he replied that "people give stuff to girls all the time." So he was getting gifts from male surrogates (presumably male players) because he was female in the game. Imagine figuring that out at 9 years old! I'm of the opinion that even gender to a large degree is socially constructed. We often become what we are expected to become because we are constantly bombarded by those expectations. I do think a lot of counter-discourse is necessary when kids are gaming. Your comment regarding the princess who needs to be saved, or the farmer in Harvest Moon who can only be successful if s/he marries (someone of the opposite gender too), reminds us that many assumptions are built into these games -- the assumptions held by the creators. Just as we use a critical lens to examine picture books and novels, we need to spend time deconstructing games.
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