Why should educators care about games?

1. “The people transmitting their stories to the next generation aren’t priests or poets or medicine women. They’re multinational corporations. And they are not trying to appease the gods. They are trying to appease the shareholders”(Herz, 1997, p. 170). Can we reclaim the story medium in one of its contemporary forms—i.e., videogames—to use it in a socially-responsive way and at the same time undo the problems that are currently associated with the use of this form?

2. Why should educators care about games? • Student motivations have been shown to decline from grades 3-9 • Video games are engaging kids • Video game usage can serve as gateway into technology fluency • Unexplored potential of video games as a curricular context • Useful platform for design-based research • Effectively accomplishes theoretical ideals • Provides a truly transactive curricullum

3. Why VideoGames? • Americans now spend more money on videogames than they do going to the movies. Halo2 on day one grossed $125M vs. Spider-Man2 $40.4M Now, over 5 Million copies worldwide, over 900,000 unique users, 28 Million hours of playing Halo 3 grossed US$300 million in its first week. More than 1M people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first 24 WOW on day one had 200,000 player accounts By 5:00pm, over 100,000 concurrent players At peak 11 Million users global, 2-3 Million US Call of Duty Black Ops earned 360M on day one, Huge Veterans Endowment • In U.S. $11 Billion, $30 Billion Global sales • 53% rated (E), 30% (T), <15% (M) • Nintendo console in 600,000 hotel rooms

4. Why VideoGames? • Over 80% of homes have videogames • 40-60% of Americans play videogames 39% are women • Average gamer spends 2 hours per week EverQuest reported 650,000 users staying online an average of 20 hours per week • Pew Report found all college students played games, ½ played multiuser ones—breaking the antisocial myth NOT JUST A FAD (A DEFINING PART OF CHILDHOOD) FOR YOUNGER GENERATION • Over 34, <30% (frequent or moderate experience) • Under 34, >75% (frequent or moderate experience)

5. Gameplay is Not Trivial • Genres: Role-Playing Games, First-Person Shooters, Action, Adventure, Fighting, Sports, MMOs, Racing, Real-time Strategy, Puzzle Games, Flight Simulators, Self-Help … "I couldn't play the game for like a week after that, because I was so depressed." "Friends still talk about their surprise, shock and denial when they reached that point in the game." A father was playing the game with his two young sons, and apparently Aeries' death was too much for them: "For months, we couldn't even listen to the musical theme … without one of the boys bursting into tears."

6. Pew 2009 Internet Report • 97% of American teens ages 12-17 play some kind of video game. • 99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games. • 52% of gamers report playing games where they think about moral and ethical issues. • 43% report playing games where they help make decisions about how a community, city or nation should be run. • 40% report playing games where they learn about a social issue. • 76% of gaming teens play games with others at least some of the time. • A typical teen plays at least five different categories of games and 40% of them play eight or more different game types • While some teens play violent video games, those who play violent games generally also play non-violent games. Moreover, the survey indicates that youth who have these kinds of civic gaming experiences are more likely to be civically engaged in the offline world. They are more likely than others are to go online to get information about current events, to try to persuade others how to vote in an election, to say they are committed to civic participation, and to raise money for charit

7. Ideological Worlds • Scholars have documented the … • discursive richness, • depth of collaborative inquiry, • complexity of game play, • opportunities for consequentiality, • rich perception-action cycles, • opportunities to explore identity, • rich content, and • complex forms of learning & participation.

8. Games as Complex Systems • Affordances of Civilization III • confront political dilemmas such as pursue isolationist politics, build complex alliances, gain resources through force, etc. • use maps, charts, graphs to understand the growth of their civilizations • recreate histories that confront sanctioned narratives • not factual, but rules binding game are realistic and lend insight into how history unfolds (e.g., interrelationships among political, economic, and geography)

9. Games as Ethical Playgrounds

10. Game Concepts • What is a game • Meaningful Play • Designed Play • Rules • Interactivity • Narrative • Games as Systems

11. What is a Game? • A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. • System • Players • Artificial (boundaries between artificial & real) • Conflict • Rules • Quantifiable outcome • Narrative

12. Meaningful Play • Meaningful play in a game emerges from the relationship between player action and system outcome; it is the process by which a player takes action within the design system of a game and the system responds to the action. The meaningfulness of an action in a game resides in the relationship between action and outcome. • Meaningful play occurs when the relationship between actions and outcomes in a game are both discernable and integrated into the larger context of the game.

13. Games as Designed Systems • Games are Systems • Objects – parts, elements, or variables within the system • Attributes – qualities of properties of the system and its objects • Internal Relationships – relations among the objects • Environment – the context that surrounds the system • Social Interactions – the interactions one has with people around the system • Narrative Frame – storyline that provides overall game semiotics

14. Semiotics How meanings are made • A sign represents something other than itself • Signs are interpreted • Meaning results when a sign is interpreted • Context shapes interpretations • Meaning from objects comes from … • Rules • Narratives • Social Interactions • Boundaries

15. Anatomy of Choice • What happened before the player was given the choice? • How is the possibility of choice conveyed to the player? • How did the player make the choice? • What is the result of the choice? How will it affect future choices? • How is the result of the choice conveyed to the player?

16. Tic-Tac-Toe (rules) • Players take turns • One player has x and another o • Any cell can only have one o or x • To win you must have 3 in a row of the same type x or o • One move per turn • A row is horizontal, vertical, diagonal • Game is a draw when no player can move • 3 x 3 grid • Two players • If you win you can go first