AspectRain

I want to think a bit on games’ effect on modern and future education, humanities, social sciences, etc.

I’m not interested in adding another brick in the wall of video game controversy-related articles, so I’m not talking about the effect of violence in games, because I like to believe that the majority of parents aren’t complete fools and know when (and how) it’s appropriate to introduce entertainment with adult themes.

Rather, I want to look at the broader changes in a society whose youth is turning in greater numbers to technological entertainment and communication.

Let’s start with those numbers.

Gamespy and eMarketer are using different studies for their numbers, but the gist is the same: 2/3rds or so are male, and the ages range is starting to spread pretty nicely, though most are relatively young. There are over 100 million gamers in the US, though I’m not sure how often those people play. How many consider themselves ‘ hardcore gamers’ and how many just play occasionally? There are quite a few types of gamers out there, and any studies on them really are still in their infancy.

Yet gaming has become not only a common pasttime, but a subculture for millions of people around the world. They connect with their like-minded peers through online PC and console games, the internet, and gaming conventions.

Just as graphic novels and comics have become recognized for their contribution to Arts and Humanities, so have video and computer games. Game studies is the inter-disciplinary approach to critically analyzing games of all varieties for their effect on people, their artistic expressions, and their technological innovation.

Game Studies is a young International journal of computer game research who seek to view games in an academic light. The article ‘Tragedies of the ludic commons - understanding cooperation in multiplayer games‘ by Jonas Heide Smith looks are games such as Counter Strike and considers their broader implications on social order.

To the young gamers of today, I say: Meet the homework of your future children.

In school today, we are reading books and watching movies that created controversy in their time. I personally had to suffer through two separate research reports on Catcher in the Rye during high school. I can imagine what our children might have to deal with.

‘Wolfenstein‘ and the lingering effects of WWII in popular culture.

‘World of Warcraft‘ as a social phenomenon, issues of game addiction.

History of early game-related trade shows and their inevitable evolution to holidays.

And the all-important, Why was the orange box orange? Required 10-page in-depth report on the hidden meanings that the authors and developers and designers obviously meant, in proper format, not including bibliography and introduction.

Or other crap like that.

Maybe student will have more options in their creative presentations. you can do an oral report, a movie skit, make a board game, or program a game that will work on all the student laptops.

There are other changes in our youth. Obesity is on the rise, and as much as we wish otherwise, it is partly due to the popularity of sedentary entertainment. TV, games, internet, and increasingly socially-acceptable masturbation, are all little steps towards making physical sports just that much less cool.

On the other hand, of course, is that gaming is providing us with a new way to educate children. Heck, not just children, but even surgeons are noticing that game play is beneficial, particularly in terms of improved hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Games are introducing generations to old stories and themes (even if things may not particularly historically accurate or relate the book versions perfectly).

We’ll be able to look back at games and see the similar veins of expression and social consciousness through history. Whether or not some academia is actually going to start breaking them down and calling a decade the Romantic Period or not I can’t say, but stories always mimic the times.

Games provide a new medium for pyschology studies, the extent of which is unimaginable. Artificial Intelligence, increasing complexity in game interaction and free play (a concept meaning that the player can go do whatever they want in the game world, devising their own sense of meaning or fun in it), and broadened capabilities in social online games… When given the oppertunity to create and live in a world entirely of their own imagining, what will result? Do we create utopias and exclusive societies, do things run the same cyclical course as historical cultures?

And will I be snickering as my kids learn how to bullshit via school papers on the topic of games, the very thing we had used to get a break from all that crap?

Another thought: Will school curricula be as adept at ruining a good video game just as they excel at making a great book boring?