the gamers’ mindset
Will Wright,the creator of the Sims, and the guest editor of the latest issue of Wired, has written an essay on the future of games, called Dream Machines. To quote “In an era of structured education and standardized testing, this generational difference might not yet be evident. But the gamers’ mindset - the fact that they are learning in a totally new way - means they’ll treat the world as a place for creation, not consumption. This is the true impact videogames will have on our culture.”.
Wright says ” games have the potential to subsume almost all other forms of entertainment media. They can tell us stories, offer us music, give us challenges, allow us to communicate and interact with others, encourage us to make things, connect us to new communities, and let us play. Unlike most other forms of media, games are inherently malleable. Player mods are just the first step down this path.
Soon games will start to build simple models of us, the players. They will learn what we like to do, what we’re good at, what interests and challenges us. They will observe us. They will record the decisions we make, consider how we solve problems, and evaluate how skilled we are in various circumstances. Over time, these games will become able to modify themselves to better “fit” each individual. They will adjust their difficulty on the fly, bring in new content, and create story lines. Much of this original material will be created by other players, and the system will move it to those it determines will enjoy it most.”
Games for learning, excellent, love it. I play games often, LAN parties, wired workplaces my friends own where on Friday night we all tap in. Headphones on, giving instructions to each other all over the country and even the world. But most of the games are first person shooters (think Doom on steroids, also called POV or Point Of View games). Net comms using VOIP is standard. Looking for the 24/7 hook? try ORB (www.o-r-b.com/info/Overview.asp) - its not a game, its a universe.
But, and here’s the catch, I can tell the difference between a cartoon and reality, I can tell the difference between a real gun and Grand theft Auto (GTA - a disturbing shooting in the US recently was based on GTA, where the ‘player’ shot 3 police in the head after stealing one of their guns, see http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261.shtml). Games can teach, and most that are played are killers. Just try ‘iplay’ in Manner street Wellington. I do, and trust me, it aint the sims. Its counter strike, Call of duty, medal of honour, Battlefield 1942 (with modern mods), flashpoint, command and conquer, warcraft… no peace and love here. Reading on this are is very disturbing. Combat studies by S. L. A. Marshall (www.warchronicle.com/us/combat_ historians_wwii/marshallfire.htm) found that 2% of combat soldiers had pyschosis before they went to battle, after 60 days of comabt all did. Furthermore only 20% of the soldiers fired their guns. Training technqiues were changed as a result. Pop up targets, fire on command, etc. Net result - up to 55% of soldiers were shooting in Korea, 95% in Vietnam, and notice the huge increase in post traumatic stress disorder post Vietnam. Now you can play the US military’s training program online with America’s Army (www.americasarmy.com/). Give it a go, I have, and so have thousands of others. Reading Lt Col. David Grossman (www.killology.com/) it now starts to become very chilling. These games are teaching military tactics with disasociations for killing. So what games are your kids playing? do you know? and what are we really teaching them? And that 2% psychotic part, they’re most definitely learning how to kill.