A Reflection on the readings for 7/20 class

Ok, I must admit I have never been one to sit around and play video games all day.  I recall when the first game system came out which I believe was Atari.  Since that time there have been many others, PlayStation, x-box, kinect, etc. . . . I have never owned any of these gaming systems.   I have played, and enjoyed immensely, Pac-Man, Tetris, Centipede, and Galaxian at arcades, amusement parks, and movie theatres; but to play them for hours on end . . . no.   These particular games, which are probably nothing like the ones discussed by Gee, I found relaxing – a nice way to unwind and mildly engaging.  So a lot of what elements that were covered in the assigned readings or the Ted video, I cannot relate to personally.  But I do know of family members and friends (youth and adult men) who spend a lot of time playing video games, and now on-line games where they play with others (people whom they often have never met) throughout the US.  It is astounding how this area continues to expand. 

Willingham (2009), in his book Why Don’t Students Like School? Talks about how we as humans are what I term, “lazing thinkers”.  He states that when possible we do not think we work from memory, drawing upon prior experience.  He goes on to say that humans enjoy thinking, however if there is a problem that requires too much thinking or too little thinking we do not do it.  These notions explain why lots of people spend lots of money on video games – video games that Gee describes as hard, long and complex in his article, “Good Video Games And Good Learning.”  Like Willingham, Gee talks about the games meeting the perfect balance – they cannot be too hard or too easy otherwise people would not buy them.

Jane in “Gaming can make a better world” addresses how people sometimes use gaming to escape the real world.  They are not successful in real life, yet they can be successful in in the world of games – and with little to no risk.  If as much time was spent on solving world problems that is currently spent playing games she feels that the world would be a better place.  Based on some of the elements that Gee describes of good video games, I can see why people get caught up in playing them.  For example, they are interactive.  The players not only interact with the game but with other players outside of the household through on-line gaming.  For some individuals who may not have a lot of friends or are shy, this form of gaming is a less threatening way to socialize.   Another example is the ability to take risks, even life threatening risks at no real cost.   Such risks are of course avoided in real life because people tend to shy away from risk.   Not to mention there is the ability to customize player/character selection.  In the world of gaming you can truly be whomever you want (with the caveat that you select from the available game characters).  Sadly some people are not happy with who they are and as a result they can for a while escape that unhappiness by being someone else, even though that someone else is fictional.