Lunchtime Discussion: Education
Can a game educate and entertain? Discuss.Published: 12:00, 20/07/2010 by Kris [Halbpro].
44I know, I know, education isn’t something we want to talk about. It can be boring and dull, and I know a lot of TSA’s readers have just finished their exams. However this is something interesting that was brought up at one of the panels I attended at last week’s Develop Conference.
In a brilliant panel featuring Ben Hebb, the Art Director at Zoe Mode, John Nash, the Studio Design Director at Blitz, and Neil Thompson, the Studio Art Director at Bizarre Creations, discussion broke out about social and mobile gaming, games as education and even a few bits about the future direction of the gaming industry as a whole. I’ll be dipping back into my notes for this panel over the course of this week, so today it’s the turn of games as a form of education.
The label that comes up when you talk about this topic is one that I can remember from school, edutainment. I have memories of playing games on an ancient BBC that tied into the vaguely educational shows that teachers taped and played back to the class once or twice a week. There was also some terrible PC game I was allowed to play if I did well at my after school handwriting class; neither the class or the game did anything to help me. In fact I think one part of the game had you sorting recycling, which is just kinda weird.
Edutainment basically killed off games as education, something the whole Develop panel agreed on. The concept of teaching with games certainly has potential, but the old edutainment games have pretty much ruined any chances of the gaming industry making a wealth of these games of their own volition.
However John Nash was very keen to say that the games can be made, it just needs to be in conjunction with government or academic institutions. If these groups can provide the backing for the games then the games can and should be made. In fact he revealed that Blitz has talked to several of these group about the possibility of a joint venture and I’ll be very keenly watching to see if anything huge comes out.
Now there was an interesting twist to this discussion, and one that makes a lot of sense in the wake of edutainment. Both Hebb and Thompson seemed fairly convinced that games that educate directly just don’t work, and the best way to educate is with games like Assassins Creed and Red Dead Redemption. If you can build a very realistic world set in an interesting period of history the consensus seemed to be that people will go and educate themselves.
Coming at it from that angle is something I’d never considered, building a world that engages people so much that they want to educate themselves about it is an interesting way of coming at the issue. I suppose you can only really teach history this way, although perhaps physics may be possible if you include some esoteric effects in the game. An interesting concept that came up was perhaps to include in game notes, so that you don’t even have to leave the game to find out about whatever it is that interests you.
So what do you think? Can games be educational or are they just there for fun? Is building education into games historical games the way to go, or can a purely educational game work? Should educational games be relegated to history?
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20/07/2010 at 12:16
Member since: Mar 2009
Cames can have an educational side, and not just the old hand/eye coodination arguments. History is easy. World War II has been covered by FPS numerous times. Rockstars Social Club pages have included relevant history info relating to in game stuff. This could easily have been included in game on an extras page, maybe with video etc. MGS Peace Walker has some great stuff in it on the Cold War period that I didnt know and if youre interested in whats in the game you can go off and look it up. You could argue that games like Elite had basic economics lessons. Little Big Planet provides physics/mechanics 101 and I’m sure you could get some chemistry lessons into a game where you have to combine components to get past specific stages (its not as if thats unknown gameplay). I think games can be educational as a side product, but trying to build a true educational game is going to be pretty difficult as no decent developer that is capable of providing quality games is going to be interested as thats not what sells games.
20/07/2010 at 12:22
Member since: Jul 2009
I feel that games can education but not usually in the “let’s teach them maths” sort of way.
If a good, solid game takes the time to build a realistic world (or base it on something real from history) then the extra features/videos would serve well when people want to find out more about their favourite title.
Only a few days ago, my mate was telling me how utterly awesome parts of Florence were (Assassin’s Creed) as it allowed him to see what it might’ve looked like back-in-the-day and how accurate things looked to when he was over there on holiday. Sure, there’ll be a smattering of artistic license but some of the history detail was very much treasured.
For me, the same goes for RDR. Did Rockstar bundle anything on the disc? If not, for shame on them as they’d built an incredible world and a bit of history would’ve been great.
20/07/2010 at 12:38
Member since: Feb 2009
God of was taught me a lot about greek mythology, sure it’s a little twisted from the real greek mythology but it got me off reading about stuff on the interweb. Then you’ve got things like brain training, and despite what people say, they are good at developing things such as mental maths. The ds has a wealth of educational games like that, scrabble being a particularly good one, my mrs spent a long time on that, and it does develop your vocabulary. I teach and we have a variety of interactive whiteboard software now to make learning more fun, and when i make an attempt to use it in the classroom it does indeed make the lessons more fun. In this day and age when kids can use computers and any other technological device at such a young age, we really have to embrace technology as a means of education. It’s just a matter of finding ways and things that work and that don’t.
20/07/2010 at 12:46
Member since: Jul 2009
Agreed, matey. I think we’ve already moved past the “this game must educate” or “to educate it must play like a game” and developers realise it’s not always possible to crowbar both options into one title. Although to be fair, if most developers included “makings of” on the disc we’d be privvy to their thought processes, their research into physics, art, historical influences, engineering, etc. That’s a shit-load of education right there.
20/07/2010 at 19:49
Member since: Apr 2010
lol “god of was”. Is he the god of the past tense?
20/07/2010 at 12:43
Member since: Jul 2009
When I read the title of this discussion, I instantly thought of Assassins Creed as being a good example where you learn stuff whilst playing – however the game isn’t aimed at teaching you stuff, it’s cheif purpose is to be a game which has some interesting stuff tacked on. I’ve always found the Total War games on the PC to be quite good at this as well.
Games that set out to be educational (that I remember as a kid) were truly awful, they set out to be eductational first rather than a game. However, my 7 year old plays a lot of games off the BBC site, Cartoon Network etc, and whilst a lot are purely games, there are some educational ones thrown in – these feel much more like games, but have got puzzle solving built in (the puzzle being the educational bit) – you still get to beat up bad guys/aliens/monsters though which makes it fun.
I think producers of educational games are getting better at realising what the game needs to be fun – although some of those that my kid’s school subscribes to are of really boring, heavy-learning type (despite the fact the games are relatively new), and this is quite disappointing really.
20/07/2010 at 12:44
Member since: Dec 2008
I think many videogames can educate, but only if the user is willing to learn. For example, 5 years of gaming taught me how to speak english well enough so that people could understand. If you look close enough in some games, you can learn some programing tricks, or even learn to animate or creat 3d objects.
20/07/2010 at 13:21
Member since: Jul 2009
Fair point. Varied gaming can teach you a lot about a language. At least you didn’t just play Duke Nuke’Em and greet all English speaking folk with “Blow it out your ass!”.
20/07/2010 at 13:08
Member since: Sep 2009
They can educate in the same way movies can educate – but that education can be twisted to suit the entertainment value. Much like you can watch a well researched docu-film about a certain historical event or watch the Hollywood film version – which will be inaccurate but more entertaining.
However games can be educating in other ways too – I was playing Ratchet & Clank ACiT last night finishing off the last few golden bolts from the Great Clock and the puzzles using the time-pads really stretch your lateral thinking to the max. I believe games can have a positive effect on things like hand/eye coordination and problem solving skills, things that are hard to teach in a traditional classroom environment.
There are obviously ways to use games directly to educate – like the hi-tech flight simulators used to train pilots, but these will only ever be niche (imagine a version of GTA where you had to obey the speed limits and road signs as practice for your driving test – although I remember my instructor saying to me her best pupil used to practice using Gran Turismo and a wheel on his PS2)! But there’s definitely scope to educate you ‘by stealth’ by building elements into a detailed game world, GT5 probably does wonders for your knowledge of cars for example!
20/07/2010 at 13:20
Member since: Forever
I learned some very basic driving from Gran Turismo. It taught me about camber and gearing. Technical stuff that certainly wasn’t required to pass my test but definitely did help me get my head around it all in a practical way (I know nothing about cars except what to feed them and how to drive them).
I also learned the general rules of Ice Hockey, American Football, Baseball and Basketball from video games. Not immediately recognisable as a beneficial skill but it has come in handy a few times when my family ask confused questions about “icing” when watching the winter olympics.
I think that video games as a reference point (among many others such as books, movies and music) can be very educational. There is a danger that the creative license used in games can taint their educational quality and leave people with wild misconceptions (as the fiction of Braveheart has done for Scottish history) but as long as people are aware that all entertainment media comes with a healthy dose of dramatisation then they can be a wonderful compliment to the other mediums.
20/07/2010 at 13:24
Member since: Nov 2009
Educational games are unlikely to be great. Their main aim to to educate not have fun. However if it gets you to do something while learning then it may give you a better chance of holding on the information.
My 2 year old plays the alphabet and number games on Ceebies and Fisher Price websites and it helps him in his learning. Repeating the games are strengthening his learning, but not of them look fun, but more for his own sense of achievement. Playing Eyepet on the PS3 is far more about fun. It develops his co-ordination, but is more about fun and he likes it more.
20/07/2010 at 14:21
Member since: Sep 2009
Modern video games have immense potential to educate, from the likes of Assassins Creed showing us the world of Italy during the Renaissance, or God of War III giving us a more visual inclination of the Gods and Titans, educational video games are already out there, and I hope more developers follow suit. Many existing games have the potential to be incredibly educational, while sticking to their core game play. a new Uncharted game could teach people about other treasures, while being fun in it’s core game play and graphics it is still leading the player on this journey and narrating(teaching) you about these turn of events. Gran Turismo 5 is to have like-for-like driving physics in all their cars so team that up with a Logitech G25 racing wheel and I think it can help some people drive better in real-life, the potential is there.
Give me an Assassins Creed III to teach me about Japan in the time of the real Assassins, an Uncharted 3 that can teach me about the legends of other treasures like the Aztecs, there is many opportunities for games to educate people in many ways, some being explored either directly or indirectly now and I hope this trend continues.
20/07/2010 at 14:50
Member since: Jan 2010
Assassins creed taught me about the crusades ect…
Portal made me think in ways i couldn’t have done on my own
And most of all, I know just about everything to do with the Greek gods thanks to the God Of War trilogy. All these things are interesting and enjoyable, and i would never have learnt about these things if they weren’t implemented in games. Not to mention the countless movies that have taught me things. Games and films win. Purposely made games don’t.
20/07/2010 at 14:53
Member since: Jan 2010
oh also, the tips from ModNation helped me win my Go karting race. No joke, You go wide and cut in the corners, you draft to get speed, but i did try to fire lightning bolts off the front of my kart to no avail. :P