Console-based gaming has changed a great deal
since the Magnavox Odyssey came out
in 1971. The Education Software Association (2014) claimed that, “51 percent of
American households own a console, and those that do own on average of 2”
(p.4). In 2016, the Entertainment Software Association reported, “63 percent of
households are home to at least one video game player who plays regularly”
(p.2). The big players in the digital gaming industry, Valve Corporation, Sony,
Microsoft, and Nintendo have created some of the most popular console-based
gaming systems to date. It is classic rhetoric amongst middle students to
debate about which video gaming console is the best. Lately, the argument has
been about whether Xbox One is better
than Playstation 4, or vice-versa,
and the argument usually falls on two students who own opposing consoles or
viewpoints. Such are the conversations that can lead to great classroom
discussions and inquiry as to which console is best, to whom, and why. In my
past classes, personal computer gamers rarely argued about who had the more
capable machine compared to users of different gaming systems. New
technologies, like the Playstation VR,
set to come out in fall of 2016, will create innovative places for researchers
to examine what learning looks like in virtual reality spaces. These devices,
used as learning tools, will be capable of propelling teachers’ and students’
understanding of empathy and storytelling into new realms. Players will be able
to become the character in the video game they are playing, and this new stance
of what it means to play may change what it means to empathize within narrative
spaces and texts. Researchers like Murray (1997) believed that video games
would serve a greater role in developing interactive narratives, and indeed
they have over the years with classics like Mass
Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass
Effect 3. Brown (2008) says, “If videogames, like literature would
transform consciousness and enthrall both critical and popular audiences, its
creators must be artists as well as artisans, trained in the craft of writing,
as well as the use of the complex tools necessary to tell stories in this new
medium” (p.19).
Personal computer gaming, or better known as
(PC gaming) has taken rise and is favored among many experienced and not-so
experienced gamers around the world. The world of computer gaming encases more
users than any other medium of digital-game based learning environments. Using
computing power via laptop, tablet, or desktop, players can access thousands of
games on-demand from STEAM, owned by the Valve Corporation. New to the scene
digital gaming are customizable personal gaming PCs, like Alienware, made
specifically to run STEAM and thousands of other video games that function like
a typical console experience. League of
Legends, owned by Riot Games, has surpassed World of Warcraft in users and as the top cooperatively competitive
massive open online game. Tassi (2014) reported on figures that 27 million
people play the game daily, and 67 million players play the game every month.
Students’ uses of mobile-based gaming have
also increased in recent years. Holden (2012) says, “I believe that mobile,
place-based games provides many opportunities for instantiating powerful
pedagogical techniques that may have been difficult or impossible for individual
instructors to enact previously” (p.43). Mobile-based games like Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Pokemon Go,
Hearthstone, Minecraft: Pocket Edition are considered current favorites
within the scene of players today. These games have come a long way since
mobile-based games began to appear on phones. Schilling (2011) reminds us it
was Tetris that first appeared as a
mobile game in 1994 on the Hagenuk MT-2000. Soon after, Snake appeared on Nokia’s 6110 in 1997. Since Snake, mobile-based games have evolved in their complexity into
games like Clash Royale, which came
out in 2016, and expects its players to understand the use of fifty-eight
different character’s attributes and limitations during gameplay, whereas
Nokia’s Snake required its users to
learn one character’s attributes and limitations during gameplay. Games like Pokemon Go expect players learn about
two hundred and fifty different characters in the game in order to master the
game’s uses of character evolution. Now, smartphones with internet capabilities
are calling researchers to examine these video games and the many hours in
which its users, young and old, are playing and learning. Mobile-based games
like Clash of Clans and Clash Royale are classroom favorites
among my former students. Often our classroom warm-up was to pull out the
smartphones and to play one another in either Clash Royale or Clash of
Clans. This got kids motivated and ready to learn for the period.
Understanding the different DGBL systems that
are used today are important when examining what it means to learn in a DGBL
environment. Smartphones, virtual reality gear, PCs, and console-based gaming
machines are all technologically afforded machines that give us new digital
game-based environments to examine and research what it means to learn within
them. Understanding the different types of technology players use is the first
step towards understanding what it means to learn in a DGBL environment. Dondlinger
(2007) points out there has been a shift in focus as literature reviews in the
last decade have examined what students learned from video games instead of how
we learn using video games (Aguilera
& Mendiz, 2003; O’Neil, Wainess, & Barker, 2005).
By: Miles Harvey Contact me @ mharvey64@gmail.com
By: Miles Harvey Contact me @ mharvey64@gmail.com