Eye-Opening Article Exhorts Us to Take Gaming Seriously

This April’s issue of Wired Magazine features a fascinating article about how multiplayer games can provide excellent on-the-job training. (Yes, folks, this is for real.)

Gaming has long been derided as an activity that at best is little more than a diversion, and which in excess has been proven to bring out the worst in gamers. However, say the authors of the article, these criticisms ignore gaming’s potential for experiential learning. Gaming, say they, is learning to be – accidental learning – which comes about naturally as a result of having to adjust to a new culture, as opposed to learning about – experiential learning – which is what takes place in schools.

To quote from the article, where traditional learning is based on the execution of carefully graded challenges, accidental learning relies on failure. Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. And unlike in school, the chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate. Think of games as a trial version of real life, then, in the same vein as simulation games – but games that build flexibility in thinking, sensitivity to social cues and, in the case of multiplayer games, leadership training.

What we find most intriguing, though, is this particular point: The fact that [players] don’t think of gameplay as training is crucial. Once the experience is explicitly educational, it becomes about developing compartmentalized skills and loses its power to permeate the player’s behavior patterns and worldview. Or, in short, if it’s seen as learning-related, or akin to school, it won’t be taken seriously.

Interesting, eh? It makes a strange kind of sense if you think about it, and something maybe your parents may understand – however, don’t bank on playing games instead of going to school just yet, that may be a long way off, if ever.
This April’s issue of Wired Magazine features a fascinating article about how multiplayer games can provide excellent on-the-job training. (Yes, folks, this is for real.)

Gaming has long been derided as an activity that at best is little more than a diversion, and which in excess has been proven to bring out the worst in gamers. However, say the authors of the article, these criticisms ignore gaming’s potential for experiential learning. Gaming, say they, is learning to be – accidental learning – which comes about naturally as a result of having to adjust to a new culture, as opposed to learning about – experiential learning – which is what takes place in schools.

To quote from the article, where traditional learning is based on the execution of carefully graded challenges, accidental learning relies on failure. Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. And unlike in school, the chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate. Think of games as a trial version of real life, then, in the same vein as simulation games – but games that build flexibility in thinking, sensitivity to social cues and, in the case of multiplayer games, leadership training.

What we find most intriguing, though, is this particular point: The fact that [players] don’t think of gameplay as training is crucial. Once the experience is explicitly educational, it becomes about developing compartmentalized skills and loses its power to permeate the player’s behavior patterns and worldview. Or, in short, if it’s seen as learning-related, or akin to school, it won’t be taken seriously.

Interesting, eh? It makes a strange kind of sense if you think about it, and something maybe your parents may understand – however, don’t bank on playing games instead of going to school just yet, that may be a long way off, if ever.