Can Games Be Serious?

While waiting for some new books to arrive in the mail for my thesis, I decided to browse the web over the weekend to see if I could find some material to work with.  So, after I got bored with mindlessly clicking through peopleofwalmart.com, I got down to business, and found some wonderful articles at gamestudies.org.  I am both surprised and encouraged at how well-written and deeply thought out the pieces on here are.  However, the article I wanted to discuss today, which can be found here, isn't really an article at all.  Rather, it is a transcript of a dialogue that had been performed at the 2009 Interacting with Immersive Worlds Conference at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada.  This transcript is amazing right off the bat simply because it has a jpeg of Reader Rabbit smack dab in the middle of it.  Between that game, Number Munchers, and the Oregon Trail, I was able to continue learning spelling, addition, and what dysentery meant, all outside of the classroom curriculum.  

80s computer games aside, I also loved this piece because of the speakers' use of Socratic Dialogue to try and persuade one another through rhetoric whether or not "serious games" could exist, and if they had a place in a school curriculum.  It was almost reminiscent of Plato's Gorgias, had Socrates been visited by people from the future and handed an XBox 360.  While it is a lengthy read, I would highly recommend it if you have the time.  In the meantime though, for my own selfish purposes, I am going to be applying some of their points to my own research on Adolescent themed games in order to show that not only can serious games exist, but even games that are rooted in fantasy and even humor can be incredibly serious:

1)  One of the goals of the Serious Games Initiative is to "play a greater role in helping to organize and accelerate the adoption of computer games for a variety of challenges facing the world today."  One of the challenges that we may not pay enough attention to can be found in the human mind, particularly with young men and women who are so distraught or mistreated that they believe suicide is the only course of action.  There have been so many high profile teen suicide instances over the past couple of years, and as a result, several different resources have been created aimed at helping teens seek another alternative.  I'm not foolish enough to think that a teenage boy who is bullied all day at school will suddenly feel better because he plays Rockstar Games' Bully when he gets home. But couldn't the game help in a way?  Even though the controversial game has an interesting take on resolving bullying to say the least (outbully the bullies in order to stop the violence), it does not shirk away from the subject.  No one can die in the game as the objective isn't to kill anyone, and the player will be punished if they go around bullying students at will.  The game manages to address bullying in a way that doesn't make the experience feel like an after school special.   I believe this title would work perfectly in a classroom setting:  Discussing the protagonist's behavior at length and what alternatives he could have taken to prevent becoming somewhat of a bully himself, or discussing what the students like and dislike about the story, the characters, the mechanics, the themes and dialogue- all of which will create healthy discussion on a sensitive topic, even if the game's handling of the subject matter isn't perfect.   Just look at books like Whale Talk and The Chocolate War, which deal frankly with bullying, and sprinkle in some humor and sadness in order to make realistic books that allow teens to see that their issue is not theirs alone.  As reward for making these honest novels, the authors continue having their books banned from schools repeatedly even now in 2011.   Just like these two novels, Bully has received numerous complaints and protests for covering a serious topic in a straightforward and accessible manner. I believe we can go ahead and classify it as a very serious game, even despite its humor and violence, because it can easily promote discussion in a classroom setting or in the comfort of our own homes concerning one of the most difficult challenges facing teens of the world today. 

2)  "The good ones are accurate, deep, engaging and ethically persuasive. They will stand the test of teaching time and have a place in the curriculum once teachers learn to use them."   I am a bit troubled by this statement, because while it is meant to be about video games, I feel like it applies more to books.  There are several YA novels that have been in the curriculum for so long (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer), but the medium was always the same: Print.  With video games, can a title stand the test of time as technology continuously advances?   Trust me, Final Fantasy VI for Super Nintendo will always hold a place in my heart, as it was the first time that I was actually invested in these video game characters and their fates.  Each character has a  layer of depth, both in terms of narrative (his or her individual storyline) and game mechanics (his or her unique battle ability which no one else possesses).  But the fact of the matter is that I don't own a Super Nintendo anymore as the technology is outdated.  Yes, I can still download and play the game on my Playstation 3 now as a classic title, but when the next gaming console comes out, I will just have to buy it again.  How will this limitation technologically impact trying to incorporate games into the classroom if we are spanning across several years of different gaming systems?


I just looked at the clock and realized I have been on this computer for way too long.  I will continue looking at this article, and will continue posting on it if anything else strikes me.


And you didn't think I could make a reference about Socrates and people from the future without posting this, did you??