I’ve been asked before (not very often, but “before”
nonetheless) why the Taped Up Glasses crest reads “Play games, get life XP”.
Surely it’s counter intuitive; life experience is earned from interacting in
the real world, not in the virtual. Right?
While to some extent this statement is correct there is a
lot that video games can teach people. The recent rise in ‘edu-tainment’, while
not proving comprehensively that video games can be educational, does prove
that educators are keen to implement them as tools in classrooms. Even developers
are catching on to this idea. In 2012 Valve’s Gabe Newell announced that the
company would be giving away copies of their smash-hit Portal 2 along with its
counterpart level designer to teachers with a steam account in order to assist
with the teaching of physics (Kotaku, 2012).
I know what some of you are thinking: “Yes portal teaches
physics but how often does a game do anything other than rewarding you for
killing things?” The answer is actually all the time. Take one of the most controversial
games of all time. Grand Theft Auto is a game that in 2009 was attacked for its
over sexual and violent content (CBS, 2009). I refuse to go into the debate
that is waiting to be started here of “Parent’s shouldn’t buy 18 rated games
for their kids.” As that’s not what this article is about, and while I will
acknowledge that GTA contains these elements I will not acknowledge that it
portrays this as socially acceptable behaviour. Anyone who has played GTA will
be aware of one fact: if you break the law in the game, if you solicit a
prostitute, then kill her and steal a nearby car, the police will come after
you. Grand Theft Auto actively tells the player that the world deems that
behaviour as unacceptable and that there are consequences for participating in
it. In Fallout the morality system tells you that if you steal something then
you are a bad person and that mankind’s tendency towards war will never change.
Spec Ops: The Line informs us of the true price of war and even Mario echoes a
real life ‘grass is always greener’ message which reminds us of a human tendency; that whenever we get
to our ‘castle’ our ‘princess’ is in a different one.
The main message of this article is that whenever you play a
game there are life lessons to be learned from it. An article by Mark
Griffiths, a professor of Gambling Studies in the Psychology Division of
Nottingham Trent University comments that video games can be useful teaching
tools due in part to how they are attractive to individuals across a wide range
of demographic boundaries and can aid in the development of an understanding of
goal setting, self-esteem, self-concept and individual differences (Griffiths,2002).
I’m not saying that video games are a healthy alternative to
actually experiencing life (there is a reason that we are social animals) but
there is always something that can be learned from a game that can be applied
to real life (and vice versa). With that in mind I encourage you to play games
and then to go out and spend some time with your friends.
Play Games. Get Life XP.
I’ll see you in an article that doesn’t involve so much
heavy reading.
