Post # 11, Pearce, Part 1

The first thing I notice about Pearce is how different her approach is from that of Gee and Bogost. Gee, a linguist by trade, took it upon himself to come into the gaming world with no previous experience in order to learn how to be a  gamer and in order to see what videogames could offer the world in a pedagogical sense. Bogost is a programmer who takes a scholarly and theoretical approach to examining games. Pearce is an anthropologist and an avid gamer, so much so that her in-game avatar, Artemesia, is featured as a co-author of her book. Pearce presents many opinions in the first 4 chapters of her book and relies very heavily on citation. I'm not sure if this is a custom of anthropologists, but I found it a bit startling to see the overabundance of citations she uses. Perhaps this is because, as she points out in the first chapter of her book, adult play is always being looked upon with disapproving eyes. So, maybe she decided to quote every source under the sun in order to defend adult play. I can understand her motivation.

A common misconception about adults that I can't believe we persist on perpetuating is that we don't play. This is so far from the truth, at least as far as it applies to me. I'm not embarrassed to say that I play all the time. My imagination takes control from time to time and I literally play in a manner almost identical to the way I did when I was a child. Of course, I'm usually alone in the privacy of my home when I do so. But I'm just playful by nature and, on the spur of a moment, I will engage in play with my friends, as well. So, if playing is such an undeniable part of my personality, I can only assume it part of other adults' as well, and the surge of play communities is indicative of this. Besides these play communities, we have celebrations like Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day (although the latter was never intended to be the holiday of revelry and debauchery that it has become).  As Pearce points out, play and games have always been a part of human society and history. Ancient Africans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Chinese, etc. all had games, and they were mostly multiplayer games. It seems that play is an innately communal activity for humans, thus, play communities have always been with us and always will be.

Of particular interest to me was Pearce's reference of Dungeons & Dragons. What I did not know prior to reading Pearce was just how popular D&D was in the 70's and 80's, although I suppose I should have inferred that based on the fact that there was a rather popular 80's cartoon by the same name that I was particularly fond of as a little child. Either way, when Pearce mentioned the marginalization that adult play suffers in America and Europe, I cringed. I was once one of the people who denigrated D&D players. When I was 24, I befriended and lived with a guy named James. James was a hardcore D&D fan; he had well over 20 D&D books and frequently asked me to play with him. I always declined, and usually with some snide remark (for instance, I always referred to it as Dungeons and Dorks). I’m not sure why I was so opposed to D&D; perhaps it was because of the ridicule the game famously faces. One thing that definitely turned me against the game was seeing, as I put it then, “A bunch of grown ass men and women dressed up in costumes, pretending to be wizards and fairies.” While I resisted playing the game, I was openly fascinated with the mythology and artwork of D&D; that was inevitable, given my fondness for world mythologies and my innate artistic talents. I suppose I resisted D&D out of cowardice. I was too afraid of what the larger portion of my peers would think of me if I played a game that people were ridiculed for. Eventually I got over that and played with James and a few of his friends who didn’t dress up in costumes (not that there’s anything wrong with that, as I know now).

A game of Dungeons & Dragons in progress.

When I finally got over my hangups and played D&D, I was amazed at how much I actually enjoyed the game. It was very rewarding to create a character and live vicariously in another world through him. My character, Hyperion Starwing, was an Aasimar (a human with divine lineage) psion (a being with various mental powers) who joined a band of pirates in order to help them conquer an evil sect of demon worshiping Drows (dark elves). I became so rapped up in my character and his world that I was very much heartbroken when James had a massive falling out with our dungeon master that resulted in him (and me, by association) being banned from our group. I can very much relate to the Uru Diaspora that Pearce mentions. Likewise, I can understand the concept of avatars being perceived as real entities, though I am not sure an avatar deserves rights associated with a living, breathing human being. I am more inclined, however, to believe that play communities constitute valid cultures. I'm interested to see  how Pearce expounds upon these ideas.

Questions:

1) How old were you when you were discouraged from playing with toys and do you think that's a practice that affects how American society views adult play?

2) Do you think avatars should be afforded rights and how would that even be realized outside of play communities?

3) Do you think that game cultures are as valid as the more traditional cultures that we are accustomed to?

Post # 10, Bogost Chapters 8-11

Bogost shifts his message in the final chapters of his book to the actual application (pedagogy) of the theories and principles he's explicated on thus far. He introduces two contrasting methods of learning, the behaviorist method, and the constructivist method. When we speak of education in the Western perspective, we are speaking of a didactic pedagogy in which information is transferred from the teacher and accompanying texts to the student in a classroom setting. The method that is most often used for this in Western society is the behaviorist method.


Behaviorists posit that learning is all about reinforcement. We respond, according to this logic, to positive and negative incentives (in the case of teaching, these positive and negative incentives come in the form of letter grades--A & B = good, C, D, & F = bad). Because we are also creatures of habit, behaviorist argue, we also learn via repetition. Ergo, put in a child in a classroom, and run through a teaching "drill" that repeats valuable and good knowledge, all the while expressing the necessary positive and negative reinforcement, and that child will come away from the process well educated. It sounds good on paper, but the reality isn't quite so simple. In reality, this method disregards the importance of the personal aspect of learning. Behaviorism, so caught up in it empirical observations, does not account for the subjectivity in our natural learning process. Behaviorism wants to assume that we are all wont to learn in the exact same manner, and this simply isn't true.


Constructivists posit that "the learner 'constructs' knowledge individually, that learning is inseparable from the learner's interaction with the environment." (234). Constructivism focuses education around the individualized cognitive development. We are already very familiar with this type of learning as it is usually the first type of learning we are introduced to in Western schools. Kindergarten (literally "children's garden") is constructivism. In this form or learning, you are encouraged to engage with your environment, to go where your interests draw you, to engage with your surroundings and fellow students. In kindergarten, play was indistinguishable from learning. They were one and the same. It's odd, but until I read Bogost's book, I'd never really given much thought to how kindergarten differed so much from grades 1-12. I mean, I knew there was a difference, but I never focused on what that difference was--that kindergarten made learning fun, and every grade afterwards was less so. The behaviorist take on learning robbed education of much of its inherent fun.

So how does this apply to videogames as educational tools? A behaviorist take on a video game would focus on how a videogame represents a real world process or material, and then judge it based on whether it conveyed these surface aspects adequately, and whether or not what was being conveyed reinforced something that was "good" or "bad." For example, Ninja Gaiden would be said to convey something bad, i.e. killing and overall ninja-badassery. A constructivist look at video games would focus on the abstracts and open engagement that a videogame allows. But the point Bogost makes when pointing out the differences in the two teaching philosophies is not that one is necessarily better than another. In fact, videogames are good learning tools because they combine the best parts of each philosophy. When people play videogames they are learning procedural literacy by way of the abstracts in the game. Those abstracts are models/facsimeles of real world materials or processes. Videogames teach a biased perspective about how these real world materials or processes work. These perspectives are taught via procedural rhetorics that the players “read” through direct engagement and criticism (by playing the game).


The values placed on education can change it drastically from one person or group to the next. Bogost points out that Liberals and Conservatives view the state of education in America very differently. Liberals believe that more money should be spent on education in order to extend equal opportunities to children in poorer districts, and in order to raise the level of pay for teachers to a level comparable to other professionals. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that too much money is being put into a system that doesn't produced the desired results (those results being high scores on standardized tests). Our society immediately favors a behaviorist view of education and any deviation is frowned upon. Thus, we end up with what are known as concentration campuses, where anyone who strays from the rigid norm and learns in a more constructivist manner is somehow punished, ostracized, or singled out.


In chapter 10, Bogost looks at the phenomenon of exergames. He talks a great deal about immensely popular game, Dance Dance Revolution. DDR manages to get players to engage in exercise while enjoying it. This is done primarily because the players don't really consider it to be exercising, which is often boring and too time consuming to be enjoyable, to say nothing of the physical exertion involved. However, by successfully taking exercise and having it presented by the procedural rhetoric of videogames, games like DDR teach players to enjoy something that is undeniably beneficial to them while not always necessarily enjoyable.

Bogost closes his book by stressing that we "recognize the persuasive and expressive power of procedurality." (340). As both players and creators of videogames, we must be aware of procedural rhetoric's ability to help us engage with, comment on, and change our world. Because we create videogames, they reflect back on us and allow us to better understand ourselves, our world, and what we aspire for. This is ultimately the power of videogames in education.


Questions:
1) Would you agree that the curriculum in the M.A.E. (or M.A.P.C.) program at Clemson should be more like the Montessori model of schools?


2) In what ways has No Child Left Behind been counterproductive?


3) Having come to the close of Bogost's book, do you feel that he made a weaker or stronger argument for games as educational tools than Gee?

Post # 9, Bogost Chapters 5-7

As much as I am loathe to admit it, the people in Cupertino, California are masters of advertising. Recently, one of my best friends, Jessica, was in the market for a new smartphone. She needed to replace her dated BlackBerry and she looked to both me (avidly anti-Apple) and our friend, Matt (fanatically pro-Apple), for suggestions. Surprisingly, Matt told her that he didn't really know much about any phone other than the iPhone and that she should probably just ask me. I, on the other hand, gave her a laundry list of reasons why she shouldn't get an iPhone (avoidance of the lemming mentality that Apple encourages, the higher processing power of Android phones, the wider variety of handsets to choose from, and growing momentum of Google's platform). A few hours later when it was all said and done, she called me and apologetically confessed that she'd bought an iPhone 4. "I couldn't help it, man," she said. "All the posters in the store were for the iPhone and all the sales reps had iPhones." I was oddly disappointed, but I was also relieved that she didn't get a Windows phone. I had to begrudgingly respect the power of Apple's advertising. It did its job.

Types of Advertising

According to Bogost, there are three types of advertising. The first is demonstrative advertising. As the name implies, this form of advertising "demonstrates" a product to the potential consumer via facts and tangibles; the consumer is being directly told why there is a need for the product being pitched. In this type of advertising, the product is presented as a commodity; as such, the functionality of the product being represented is very important. When Intel comes out with a commercial that details the specifications and processing power of its latest computer chip, that is demonstrative advertising. The second type of advertising is illustrative. Illustrative advertising shows, rather than tells, a potential consumer why the product being pitched is necessary. This form of advertising illustrates tangibles and intangibles and focuses more on  social and cultural context. Take the following picture, for example:

This ad features the music superstar, Beyonce, and her younger sister, Solange, looking absolutely gorgeous and trendy. They are both sporting Samantha Thavasa purses and the ad features only a little text, which communicates that the purses are part of a debut collection and in very limited supply(research revealed that this was just a marketing ploy and the purses were never in limited supply). The effect of having the two gorgeous creatures in the ad is that subconsciously women will think that owning this particular purse will make them equally as attractive (an unfortunate lie). The final type of advertising is associative, which communicates only indirect information. This advertising type eschews the mass market appeal of a product and instead focuses entirely on a niche category of the market. The following ad, which shows a frumpy business man in casts and a wheel chair as a metaphor for a crashed Windows PC, is an example of associative advertising:

Oddly enough, even though videogames are more noted for their procedural rhetoric, advertisers rely on the older and simpler visual rhetoric to take advantage of the medium. 

Licensing and Product Placement

Licensing and product placement has been a part of games for as long as I can remember. One of the very first games I had on the original Nintendo Entertainment System was Total Recall, based on the movie by the same name. Over the course of the 22 years that I've been a gamer, I've played countless games based on the intellectual properties of movies, sports franchises, novels, comic books, etc. While putting players in the role of one of their favorite fictional characters (like Harry Potter) is a selling point for game producers there is a negative side to this somewhat shameless exploitation of licenced material. It is almost universally accepted amongst serious gamers that games based on movie adaptations are of poor quality. And games based on game franchises like the Madden football games push out a new game every year with little noteworthy changes except for updated rosters. Along the same lines, product placement in our entertainment mediums is almost always met with cynicism and disdain. When Bogost references the shameless product placement of the Ford F-150 and Mustang in the hit show, Alias, he points out that the plug was ridiculed and drew laughter for being so obvious. Advertisers don't really care about subtlety, though. As long as the product gets seen, that's enough to justify the lack of advertising tact.

Advergames

Advertisers are unscrupulous creatures, and they will invade every part of our lives if we aren't diligent and actively resist them (they're not unlike a cancer in this respect). When game developers allow advertisers to blatantly pitch to gamers in videogames, they risk the ire of the gamers. More and more, developers are opting not to allow advertising in their games. The high costs of current generation games developed for PS3 and Xbox 360 aren't offset by the fees the advertisers offer the developers. It's just not worth it for the developers anymore. Likewise, advergames--simulations of products and services (200)--are also facing a backlash. Not only is it because of the overt advertising, but also because of the poor procedural rhetoric that these games employ.

Questions:

1) Advertising is really just a form of rhetoric. It is meant to persuade you to buy or support a product. Is there any way for an advertiser to effectively pitch a product in a game without it being invasive?

2) Do you think the practice of making sub-par videogames based on movie properties reflects poorly on the developer or the original intellectual property? And if there is such a negative reaction to these types of games, why are they so persistent?

3) What was the first game you played where you noticed overt advertising and/or product placement? Did it affect your opinion of the game as a whole?

Post # 8, Gee, Chapters 5-6

This is how I felt about math in high school.

I have mentioned before that I am horrible at math, and that I had an especially hard time with it from middle school onward whenever I started learning algebra and more complex mathematics. The thing is, I don't remember always having such an aversion to math. In fact, as far as I can recall, I actually enjoyed it when I was in elementary school. I'm not sure exactly why I became less proficient in math as I advanced through the grade levels; it is a oddity for me, especially since I became more proficient in every other subject as I advanced through grade levels. One thing I do know is that once I started doing poorly in advanced math, I started questioning why I needed to know it in the first place. When would I ever need to know how to calculate a hypotenuse? When would I ever have a practical use for an x and y axis on a plane? Gee makes two points in the beginning of chapter 5 that applied to me when I asked those questions: "Humans tend to have a very hard time processing information for which they cannot supply such simulations. They also tend readily to forget information they have received outside of contexts of actual use, especially if they cannot imagine such contexts." (113). I had a hard time processing advanced math partially because I couldn't imagine a context in which I would need it. I also forgot (perhaps eagerly so) all but basic math skills once I managed to pass those classes, almost always with C's, but occasionally with an A or B.

Professor Von Croy

There is a conflict in our educational systems between telling and immersion. To illustrate this conflict, Gee uses the game Tomb Raider as an example. In the classic Playstation adventure/exploration game, the main character, Lara Croft, is on an archaeological expedition with her mentor, Professor Von Croy. Von Croy, represents the traditional method of learning; he instructs Lara to stay by his side at all times and not to venture anywhere he does not lead. He presumes to teach Lara how to become an archaeologist by telling and showing her. The game designers, however, in an ingenious display of good game design, make it so that Lara pretty much has to disobey Von Croy in order to learn the game mechanics and her role as an archaeologist. It is only by breaking away from the constraining traditional method that the player learns the necessary skills to successfully navigate Lara Croft through her game world. The important thing to take away from this example is not that one method is necessarily better than the other, but that it is important to have both, and that a system that relies too heavily (or exclusively) on telling/showing is not likely to produce the most optimal results in a learning environment. In order for things to truly sink in with humans, we must have personal experience with them.

"Good" Cole

In chapter 6, Gee moves his focus towards games that present us with moral options. I know many people cringe at the idea of a videogame teaching us ethics, especially when so many videogames rely so heavily on unethical behavior, but there are a number of games that make good use of moral dilemmas. The last game I played where my moral decisions factored into the game play was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. If you follow a path of righteousness then you may visit the temples of the various beneficent gods and pray for blessings that will boost your avatar's attributes. If you do something to scorn a god, like killing woodland animals for sport, then you must make amends to the god before he will bless you. If you follow a path of evil then the gods will refuse to bless you at all, which is very detrimental since the only way to remove a curse in Oblivion is  by praying in a temple. Another game that takes the emphasis on a players' moral choices even further is inFamous, for the Playstation 3. In this game you play Cole, an urban messenger who survives an apocalyptic cataclysm that grants him electrical powers. In the ensuing chaos, it is up to Cole to either become the hero that saves the citizens of the demolished city from gangs and warlords, or to become a source of terror, himself. The game works on a karma system, where certain abilities are only available to Cole depending on his moral alignment, much like the contrasting abilities of Jedi and Sith in Starwars. If Cole follows the path of righteousness, his powers take on a calming blue glow, his appearance is clean and healthy looking, and the citizens of the city will cheer him on when they see him in the streets. Conversely, if he follows the path of evil, his powers take on a menacing red glow, his clothes and skin become dark and dirty, and the citizens of the city will alternate between booing him and running away from him in fear.

"Evil" Cole

I don't presume to suggest that videogames should be the first method of teaching anyone the lessons of morality, and neither does Gee. However, I do believe that they can provide a unique and first-hand experience with making such choices and seeing how they have repercussions that affect other aspects of our lives.

Questions:

1) Do games with dynamic ethical decisions cheapen their real life applications?

2) If a student persistently fails at a traditional learning method should that student be encouraged to "rebel" against it?

3) Are there any videogames that you felt catered to your cultural identity too much?

Post # 7, Gee Chapters 3-4

Learning and Identiy




The cover for Arcanum


Gee opens chapter 3 by saying, "All learning in all semiotic domains requires taking on a new identity and forming bridges from one's old identities to the new one." (45). To that end, he writes of how he took on the virtual identity of a female half-elf named Bead-Bead in the game, Arcanum. Videogames like this promote identity work and reflection, a trait that would make modern schools much more successful. What makes these games such great tools for learning is that you basically put yourself in the role of someone else and have to successfully navigate the virtual world as this other person. It is a very good example of the aphorism, walk a mile in another man's shoes and you will truly know him (other variations say "before you criticize him"). While I've never played Arcanum, I have played a very similar game that Gee also mentions, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion is a game that so engrosses the player in its world that I can't think of a more apt name for it; I am figuratively oblivious to just about everything that's around me while I'm playing it, particularly time. But what makes a game like this so compelling is the multiple identities at work while playing it.

Gee speaks of three identities at play in a role playing game: virtual, real, and projective. As I play Oblivion, my three identities are part of what make the experience so rewarding for me. First, there is my virtual identity, Zion, a Breton who is by racial virtue, not only adept at magic, but resistant to it as well. Because I wanted Breton to be more versatile than the average mage, I split his class (skill set) between a mage and a knight. As such, Zion is proficient in magic and combat. The second identity, the real Antonio, lives vicariously through Zion. I am able to experience and do things as Zion that I could not in my real world. Finally, the third identity is something like a projection. This projection is what I expect Zion to do, how I imagine he should act and behave, and everything that I hope to accomplish with him (I've already accomplished a lot. Within this virtual world, I am not only the leader of the mages guild and the most powerful mage in the world, I am also the savior of the land, and the god of chaos, Sheogorath.) How is something like multiple identities good for learning? It allows students to take on various roles in their learning. By putting themselves in different roles--doctor, lawyer, scientist, etc.--there are better able to appropriate the knowledge a skill set of each role. They can also harness their pre-existing identies when learning, thus making the experience deeper and more rewarding.



In-game screenshots for a mage and knight in
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. My character was, Zion,
was a hybrid of these two classes.


It is very important that a student identify with the role they are being asked to play within a semiotic domain. If a student does not identify with what they are being asked to be (i.e., a good student) then he or she will not strive to be what is asked of them. They have to have the desire in order to put forth the effort. One way that video games create this desire in players is the amplification of input principle. This is basically the principle that what ever effort is put into something becomes amplified in the results. With just a few pushes of some buttons, a gamer's effort is amplified in the corresponding actions of the character on the screen. Another way videogames create the desire to learn/play  in gamers is by operating within the player's regime of competence. In short, a goal must be difficult to achieve, yet rewarding. A student will not benefit from a teaching program that has easy goals, likewise, a program with goals that are too far outside the realm of a student's abilities will fail to produce the desired result.

Situated Meaning and Learning





When I was in high school I hated math. I particularly hated having to learn drawn out theorems in order to solve equations on tests. I have since avoided math to the best of my ability, so I'm not exactly sure on the particulars of these theorems, but I do remember that there was always a long way to get the answer my teacher was seeking and a shorter, easier way. Of course, she always insisted on the longer way. I always wanted to know why she cared which method I used as long as I got to the same conclusion (I also wished my teacher subscribed to Gee's "material intelligence principal" and would let me use my calculator on tests). When Gee points out in chapter 4 that good videogames allow for multiple ways of getting to the same goal, I could relate. Learning should also allow for multiple methods to get to the same goal.

Past experiences, says Gee, are what guide humans in how to proceed through new situations. When we learn, our thinking is rooted in embodied experiences. We can sometimes just use recall of a particular situation and apply it to a new one in order to deal with a new situation. Other times, however, we need to be able to adapt and modify our experiences in order to find the solution to a new problem. Gee spends the vast majority of chapter 4 talking about the game, Deus Ex, which requires using multiple routes, and experience, and adaptation to beat the game. In order to navigate through a game like Deus Ex gamers must first learn to deconstruct the meaning of the various signs within the game, likewise with learning, students must learn to take the various signs they are presented with and desconstruct them in a meaningful way. Finally, texts that students read are not only understood verbally. They are embodied in the students' experiences.

Questions:
1) Kids are often discouraged from having imaginary friends, but if we apply Gee's ideas on identity and learning, shouldn't they be incouraged to have imaginary friends, at least when younger?

2) Is Gee's "Material Intelligence" principle cheating?

3) If a student doesn't believe that he is capable of succeeding in a particular subject then he likely won't. I frequently made C's and D's in math class because I just didn't think I a mathematically capable student. To this very day, I feel incapable of doing anything but very basic arithmetic. If I were to suffer a head injury that caused me to forget how bad I am at math and had someone tell me that I was actually very talented at it, would I suddenly be better with numbers?

Post # 6, Bogost Chapters 2-4

Bogost opens chapter 2 by referencing a game, BioChemFX, that is a first-responder simulation for various bioterror attacks conducted in an urban environment. The simulation is supposed to train someone the proper procedures for containing and/or mitigating the effects of a bioterrorist attack, and the responder then has decide whom to save based on a bird's eye view of the University of California, Berkeley landscape that shows a cloud of sarin gas spreading through the streets and campus. While the simulation may be good at giving the responder a working knowledge of HAZMAT protocols and an idea of how to handle a bioterrorist attack, that's really all the simulation can offer--an idea of how to react. Knowing the proper procedure to handle a disaster is no guarantee that the procedure will be carried out properly when the time is needed. Furthermore, even if the procedure is carried out exactly as planned there is still no guarantee of success. Deciding whom to save in such scenarios involves politics, and those politics can often lead to greater catastrophe. Bogost points to the failed evacuation of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. There were safe guards and procedures in place for a sufficient evacuation of New Orleans and the surrounding area, but thousands of people died, nonetheless. In order for a simulation like BioChemFX to be more effective it needs to take into consideration politics and ideology. Bogost defines ideology as "hidden procedural systems that drive social, political, or cultural behavior..." (72). A videogame can provide greater insight and understanding of political systems and situations by exposing their procedural rhetorics.

Two HAMAT responders handling anthrax.

In chapter 3, Bogost continues his focus on ideology and politics by looking at ideological frames. Framing something that is real and factual in a particular way can yield results that may not have been the logical outcome. In other words, ideology and rhetoric can trump what is real. Speaking on the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Bogost mentions the political maps on websites and news stations that showed an apparent division in how different areas of the country voted, with the west coast, northeast, and Great Lakes sections of the country voting Democrat (blue), and the mid-west and south voting Republican (red). After the election was over and Bush emerged victorious, the two political parties attempted to frame the outcome of the election, with the Democrats coming to a realization that their rhetoric failed. As such, Democrats wanted to change their strategy by avoiding candidates from the northeast and having a stronger focus on domestic issues. However, while those things might have helped, the bigger change would come from effective ideological framing of reality. As Bogost says, "political success draws less from reality and more from representation." (99).

Videogames are not only good at exposing ideological process, they are also an effective tool to utilize if you want to recruit people to your cause or belief, or even if you just want to make a political statement just like many other forms of media. Both Democrats and Republicans have appropriated the various forms of media in our world--news channels and programs on TV, columns and stories in newspapers and magazines, documentaries (a common liberal outlet), internet sites like The Huffington Post, and talk radio (which is largely dominated by Republicans). Videogames, unlike documentaries and talk radio are not yet strongly aligned with one political ideology or the other. As such, videogames--like TV, printed media, and the internet--can reach people of either political inclination.

When CJ eats too much he becomes a Tubby-Thuggy

A political game need not deal with government politics, either. As an example, Bogost references Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In this game, which is set in a world meant to be a metaphor for Los Angeles, you play a gangbanger named CJ. In order to carry out his various missions, crimes, ho-beatings, etc., CJ must eat food. However, the only food available to him is fast food; if he eats too much, he becomes obese and less effective in his endeavors. Conversely, if he works out and exercises he becomes stronger and fitter. Someone who plays this game, then, could take from it many political meanings, from the dangers of high-fat diets, to the benefits of exercise, to the disparities in America between race and class. In chapter 4, Bogost mentions a number of games that move towards political ideologies. These games are effective because they allow the player to talk part in the procedural rhetoric of politics. But, as Bogost says, "political opinion itself is rarely black and white" (143). Political issues are often very complex and affected by various other political issues. Because of their ability to both express and allow players to experience those procedures, videogames can be an invaluable new addition to what Bogost calls a Digital Democracy.

Questions:
1) Bogost mentions the game September 12 as a game that effectively uses the rhetoric of failure because the game has no winning condition and even says so when you first start it up. While the game does employ rhetoric to show that USA's response to 9-11 is counterproductive, it doesn't offer a better solution. So, is the rhetoric of failure in this case an effective method of initiating change?

 2) Personally, I'm glad that videogames are mostly free of political rhetoric (the kind that involves our government) and think it would be a step back for the media if it did become highly politicized. Do you agree or disagree?

3) Politicians are fond of taking swipes at the gaming industry, blaming it for (among other things) high crime rates and children who go out and commit heinous acts. The few political games that Bogost cited notwithstanding, how likely do you think politicians are to try and tap into a genre that they've spent so long bashing?

Post # 5, Bogost Chapter 1

The first chapter of Ian Bogost's book, Persuasive Games: the Expressive Power of Videogames, is launched by Bogost's extensive explication of the terms procedure and rhetoric, in order to familiarize the reader with his term procedural rhetoric. Procedure, he says, has a negative connotation in our society. It is often equated with bureaucracy, stifling laws, and bending to someone else's authority.  In other words, procedures are understood to structure our behaviors and actions, often seeming obsolete. In actuality, a procedure is really much more benign; it is merely a means of executing processes, and those processes are what define the way things work. Procedures, then, are much more helpful than we are wont to give them credit for. To illustrate this point, Bogost offers a scenario of a consumer who buys a DVD player that turns out to be defective. The consumer only discovers the DVD player is defective after the two week maximum on returns to the retailer has passed. In one part of this scenario, the consumer takes the defective DVD player back to the retailer and is engaged by a human customer service representative who--swayed by empathy, logic, or expediency--alters the procedure and allows the return. In the alternate scenario, the defective DVD player is purchased from an online retailer and the return process is handled by a computational program. The return is denied because it is handled by a computer, which is inflexible and incapable of empathy. The more important point that Bogost is trying to make with these two variations on the same scenario is not that you will get a different result for the same procedure depending upon whether you engage a person or a computer; instead, the more important point being made is that if it weren't for a (return) procedure, it might never even occur to the consumer that an unwanted or defective product could be returned to a retailer. Thus, procedures don't just limit behavior, they can also encourage it.

The term rhetoric, also carries negative connotations in our society. When people think of rhetoric, they may be inclined to think of corrupt businesses with spin-doctors who try to limn shady practices positively, or academics who use esoteric language to obfuscate what they're saying. Probably the most relevant example of negative rhetoric comes courtesy of American politicians who toss the word around as a way of denigrating their political rivals. But rhetoric has a very long history and was not originally seen the way that it tends to be today. Bogost states that, "Rhetoric in ancient Greece--and by extension classical rhetoric in general--meant public speaking for civic purposes." (15). Rhetoric was a very necessary skill for the ancient Greeks, particularly because they had to defend themselves in public courts; in this respect, I liken rhetoric to eloquence. But in the grander sense of the word, rhetoric is the skillful and effective use of communication. This communication can be oral, written, visual, and multimodal. As an undergrad, I double majored in English and Visual Arts. My art focus was graphic design. By the time I graduated in 2007, the art department changed the name of the focus from graphic design to visual communication. My coursework included learning typography, design principles, page layout programs, web design, and a number of other programs all for the purpose of creating effective and compelling communication: rhetoric.

Bogost uses the combined term procedural rhetoric to describe the practice of using processes persuasively. Persuasive games, he reasons, are "videogames that mount procedural rhetorics effectively." (46). It is not enough for a game to have compelling visual rhetoric, which is what most current-generation games focus. A truly persuasive game must have strong procedural rhetoric. In fact, it seems to me that Bogost believes that a game can be persuasive at the expense of being visually appealing, but that the converse may not also hold true. Bogost gives the game Tax Avoiders as an example of a game with unimpressive visual rhetoric but very strong procedural rhetoric. The game effectively employs process, in that it conveys at the very least a basic understanding of tax procedures.

Questions:

1) Do you agree with Bogost about the negative connotations behind the word procedure?

2) How can video games help remove the stigma associated with the word rhetoric?

3) If a game employs outstanding procedural rhetoric but lacks impressive visual graphics, how likely would you be to play it?

Post # 4, Gee Chapters 7-8

(In order to engage the class properly, I will be posting this blog out of chronological order.)

     The seventh chapter of Gee’s book, The Social Mind: How Do You Get Your Corpse Back After You’ve Died?, posits that learning is a social endeavor.  As an example, he tells the story of a young gamer named Adrian, who had logged countless hours into the game EverQuest, a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) that predated World of WarCraft (although the Warcraft franchise technically existed first in the form of the game, WarCraft: Orcs and Humans). Adrian recounts to Gee how he and his online gaming clan went to a particular level in EQ called the Plane of Fear. Due to the extremely high difficulty of the challenges and enemies within this level of the game, there was a prerequisite that all of the player’s in-game avatars be at least level 45. Adrian’s character was level 46 before it ended up getting killed. In the process of dying in-game, Adrian’s character also lost 2 levels, dropping him down to level 44 and effectively booting him from the Plane of Fear. According to Adrian, 2 levels in EQ is equivalent to a time investment of 12 hours. Using the principles of social and distributed knowledge, Adrian’s character was revived and he regained his 12 hours of investment immediately. Adrian also uses his knowledge of the inner workings of EQ to modify the game, blog about the game, and create a database of shared information in order to help other players advance more quickly within the game. The argument here, I think, is that social learning trumps individual learning.

     Any tool (technology) and knowledge of one person becomes the tool/knowledge of another person within the same affinity group. We are already familiar with this concept when we think about a professor teaching his students. His knowledge then becomes their knowledge. After a point, the students can go on and become scholars in the same field as their professor. Likewise, if someone invests the time into developing a program that aids in research, that program then becomes a part of the collective knowledge of anyone else who learns how to utilize it. This is distributed knowledge. A perfect example of distributed knowledge is the internet, a tool billions of people use each day to access information that they may not already have within themselves. When the information is accessed by people who are outside of the intended audience or affinity group for the knowledge, it then becomes dispersed knowledge.  

     Extensive knowledge and intensive knowledge are integral to the cohesion of an affinity group. “Extensive” implies that an individual within the group is involved in many stages of the overall group goal. I liken this to being a jack of all trades within your particular group. “Intensive” implies that a person is a specialist in one or more areas, devoting a much more concentrated and focused effort into those realms of knowledge than in the extensive model. When Gee talks of the “jigsaw” method of teaching, it is essentially a method of intensive knowledge being distributed amongst a group. In this method, students are put into particular groups and given a subcategory of a class lesson to focus on. The groups learn their subcategories as deeply as they can and then the class reconvenes and each group teaches its subcategory of the lesson to the class.

     In the final chapter of the book, Gee stresses that he is not advocating the use of video games in education, but the learning principles of good video games. Furthermore, not everything that a person learns while playing a video game is necessarily “good,” but that is a moot point when we consider that “bad” knowledge and influences can come from any source of information. An effective teaching method should strive to be more like a good video game: it should encourage active and critical thinking, allow for performance before competence, and be challenging and rewarding at the same time.

Questions:

1) Gee states that the most important thing about thinking is not that it’s mental and happening inside of our heads, but that it’s social. Assume a person has been isolated from other humans for his entire life. Is his form of thinking inferior to those of us in society?

2) According to Gee, what we know to be right and wrong is based entirely on the influence of the people around us and the groups we belong to. To use a historical example, the citizens of Germany during the World Wars thought that their persecution of Jews was “right.” Assume that Germany had won WWII and gone on to dominate the entire world. Would the simple fact that the Nazi movement had a majority following still make their prejudices and ethnic-cleansings “right?”

 
3) I would argue that enough extensive knowledge can make up for a lack of intensive knowledge, but that the converse of this is not true. Do you agree or disagree?

Post # 3, Gee Chapters 1-2

    In the Western world, we are indoctrinated into a system of learning (called the hermeneutic method) that is not inherently natural for us. We go to class, we sit in front of a teacher who presumably has all the knowledge that we are seeking and all the knowledge we are told that we need to have in order to successfully navigate our lives in Western society. In this model of learning, the students are empty vessels that need to be "filled" with the knowledge of the teacher and various assigned texts and educational supplements.

     We are then tested on our knowledge and discouraged to fail.  This method of learning relies heavily on reprimands in the form of bad grades.  To be a good student one has to make as few mistakes as possible.  Once we have been sufficiently filled with knowledge, we are then expected to go out into the real world and execute all the knowledge and theories that we've learned in class.  This system of learning is hopelessly impractical and outdated in today’s world where there is such a profound emphasis on technology and multiple streams of ever-changing information. 
     
     A much more natural method of learning is the heuristic learning method.  The basic premise of this method is that you cannot acquire the knowledge of how to do certain things simply by taking notes in class, reading a book, and then taking a test on all the knowledge you’ve just acquired. In the heuristic learning method, in order to learn how to do something you have to actually attempt it. In this method, failure is not punished, but rewarded. Learning how to play a video game is a heuristic learning method, and therefore, a much more natural learning process than what we are traditionally taught in Western schools. 

     One of the many aspects of video games that make them the tools for learning is that video games stress strategic thinking and problem solving.  Another aspect of video games that make them good learning tools is that video games can teach people how to think from multiple perspectives and to read through various lenses. Gee provides an example of the MMORPG game World of Warcraft. In his example, Gee points out that he played as three distinctly different character types. Each persona that he appropriated required that he modify his actions and behaviors in the game in order to succeed. Finally, video games, particularly the multi-player varieties, encourage collaborative learning. When the act of learning becomes a group activity, the experience often yields better results than going about it alone.

   Active learning does more to imprint knowledge on the minds of students. There is no substitution for experience, and video games are excellent at providing experience within their specific semiotic domains. A semiotic domain is, according to Gee:

…any set of practices that recruits one or more modalities (e.g., oral or written languages, images, equations, symbols, sounds, gestures, graphs, artifacts, etc.) to communicate distinctive types of meanings. (19)

If we take into account that video games are semiotic domains, then we must also naturally see that video games are a form of literacy and that the many symbols, graphs, and various other images within a video game compose part of that game’s language. This language is multimodal, by definition a text that combines both images and text. In order to successfully play a game (it is important to point out that for the purpose of this entire premise, the words “play” and “learn” are synonymous) one must become familiar with and adept at the game’s language. Most games that I am familiar with start off with a tutorial that walks you step by step through the basic functions and actions of the game. By imputing specific button sequences at the necessary and/or proper times, the player is engaging the game world. The very best video games, however, take things a step further by requiring that their players also employ critical learning.

     An excellent game that comes to mind when I think about critical thinking in video games is Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Playstation 3. MGS 4 is a thrillingly realistic, detailed, and difficult covert espionage first person shooter. What sets it apart from other first person shooters is that, while you can theoretically function in the game on the basics of “see enemy, shoot enemy, repeat,” you won’t even make it past the first level if you rely on just this active engagement. You must think critically. You must take into account your enemies’ locations, their firepower, and often a time limit. Add to this the fact that your go-to weapon is a tranquilizer gun and that you are much more likely to succeed in your mission if you remain undetected by the enemies, and you can see how critical thinking in games has the potential to be a great learning method. You must learn to operate in MGS 4 by its rules while also stepping outside of the box and figuring out various means to succeed. So, too, must you do in the semiotic domains of education and life.

Questions:

1)      1) Gee says that our experiences with other people is what determines how we read a text. Do you think this is mostly because of  or in spite of those other people?

2)    2) Would more people be inclined to look favorably on video games if they had more experience with instructional forms such as flight simulators or military simulations?

3)    3)  If your child’s school wanted to replace all text books with educational games instead, would you be for or against this and why?