Sometimes the lesson takes little practice…

I want to say, first, that I really liked Gee’s book. My husband is a huge gamer (we’re talking won-a-free-XBox 360-has-friends-who-write-gaming-software gamer) and it’s been both amusing and annoying to see his adult fascination with this world that he inhabits with his guy friends. While I think that Gee conveniently avoids the fact that games are essentially escapist/fantasy experiences and are, as such, much more attractive than the boredom of school, I appreciate his thoughtfulness about why games attract people so much and how we can harness that power to do good rather than evil.

I was struck, however, by my own experience playing the game September 12th. I was a little thrown by the opening statement that I couldn’t win or lose and that I could shoot or not shoot. As the game began, I exercised logic (like – I’m supposed to shoot bad guys) and took aim at some terrorist-like “meeples” (as my husband calls them). The rocket missed its mark, blew up a house, and caused a group of sobbing civilian mourners.

I tried two more times and then closed the game. The point had been made. I think it took sixty seconds. If we can invent lessons that are this impactful, we can stop worrying about recursiveness. You know…when feasible!

One thought on “Sometimes the lesson takes little practice…

  1. nikki

    I absolutely agree! I had the same reaction to playing September 12th, though I continued for about five minutes thinking I would eventually be able to aim better. Eventually I remembered the opening statement and realized the circumstances weren’t going to change (though I thought I began to see more terrorists than civilians after a while). I got the message loud and clear. I agree that such straightforward games could be very helpful in the English classroom, but I can’t quite imagine what such games would look like. Maybe something like the choose-your-own-adventure style games…?

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