I recently had a thought which arose when I was having a discussion with people about various forms of entertainment and how educational/not educational they are. Most people seemed to agree that games, as a whole, are not educational. Now this instantly drove me into defensive mode because after all, I am Pike, Tireless Defender of the Vidya. But then I got to thinking and realized that perhaps my experience is different from others. After all, most of the games that I play are historical strategy games or simulation games, which are educational by nature.
Cheerilee approved.
I realized that this had given me a different view on games than other people might have. I’m a hands-on learner and so I’ve learned more about, say, historical geography from Paradox games than anything else ever. This is an interesting experience that maybe not everyone has had. So maybe other people have a point when they say that games aren’t very educational for them. Huh.
…of course, then I went back to being Pike, Tireless Defender of the Vidya. Hey, someone’s got to be.
Sometimes I’ll be driving down the road in town and I’ll see a sign outside an area that’s being developed. It’ll say something on it like “2 acres, zoned commercial.”
And I know exactly what they’re talking about. I mean, why wouldn’t I? I’ve played SimCity.
In fact, 99% of what I know about city development and planning comes directly from SimCity.
Just like everything I know about Europe in the 15th century comes from Europa Universalis 3. They don’t teach you about this sort of thing in school– not here, anyway. You get one year– nine months– of “World History” and they have to cram everything from pre-history to the present era in those nine months. Do you think they have the time to tell you about a bunch of dinky little countries in Europe that have since disappeared or merged into larger ones? They don’t.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is responsible for the rest of my knowledge of pre-19th century European History.
Now, some games, of course, expressly set out to be educational. Some of them succeed, and some of them don’t. The Oregon Trail is one of the ones that succeeded. Thanks to that game I am expert on dozens of landmarks dotting the midwestern US, as well as several other interesting tidbits, such as: how to use 19th century first aid to treat a variety of illnesses, when it is appropriate to ford the river or caulk the wagon when crossing a river, and how to identify a wide variety of poisonous plants. Whether or not any of these skills will come in handy some day remains to be seen, but one can only hope.
Strategy games have taught me a good deal about war through the ages. I can’t claim to be at the same point that Mister Adequate is (the chap actually has a master’s degree in this sort of thing, thanks to an interest in it that was sparked by video games), but where else would I have learned about various types of war doctrines or crazy sounding terms like “amphibious invasions”? The History Channel, maybe.
Next up, on the History Channel!
Actually, I was recently flipping through a coffee table book my mom had lying around; it was called “The 100 Most Important Ideas in Human History” or something. Reading it was like reading an enhanced version of the Civilization tech tree. I mean, you literally could have released this book as an addon to a Civ Special Edition package or something and no one would have questioned it because the game and the book cover the exact same material.
You know, I could go on and on with sort of thing all day. Just like all other media, video games teach us things and mold us into who we are. Sure, we all love to relay that infamous Pac-Man joke:
