Simulation & Gaming

Blog post by:  Rhonda adams

 

Journal:  Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 36 No. 4, December 2005 442-446; Myers

 

Guest Editorial; Video Games: Issues in research and learning by David Myers

 

 

This journal is dedicated to research, education, and training dealing with simulation and gaming electronics. The journal has been in publication for over 30 years. Every article has different features to appeal to anyone interested in the field of simulation and gaming technologies.

 

The article that I chose refers to issues in research and learning in the field of simulation and gaming, more simply referred to as video games. The main question explored during this editorial is how has research on video games been done in the past, and how does it help advance the education and socialization of gamers. David Myers, the guest editorial writer, analyzed researchers works in the field of video game use. One such researcher, Dmitri Williams, wrote an article stating that video game research has not offered a specific solution as to why it seems to segregate video game users from other social groups.  There is no explanation as to why games are the social outcasts.

 

Myers then went on to reference other researches like Diane Carr who offered the theory that video games are gender specific and showed a trend in marketing towards female users with a promotion of “pink games”. Her findings showed that there is no differentiation between male and female game use and marketing “pink games” had no relevance on the types of games each gender preferred. 

 

Another area that was discussed by Myers was the research done with a team of people, Habgood, Ainsworth and S. Benson, in which they explored the popularity of fantasy and learning games. These three discovered, with the help of Thomas Malone’s research, that fantasy role playing is not the underlying appeal, that fantasies often interrupt the “flow” of gamers work, and it is the “flow” of one task to the next that is the main appeal, not the role playing in a fantasy. 

 

Other researchers were referenced in Myer’s editorial, and each discussed different areas of how research has applied to the relevance of video game use. One researcher, Thomas Apperley, wrote that video game research has been incorrect, to an extent when applied to marketing, or critiquing, based on what is popular with gamers. Basically, the gamers play what they want, and the market and critiquing hasn’t been matching the demand. 

 

The most interesting (to me) research was done by Siobhan Thomas in which he looked at the social context involved with gaming, particularly the online collaborative gaming. Thomas looked at the social structure involved in online group gaming. He discovered that although it seems superficial and insufficient for developing “proper” social skills, that in fact the gamers do use a hierarchy of social skills, just as a “normal” society would. 

 

In the end, Myers concluded in his editorial that there is a large number of researchers exploring all outlets of video game use, but the underlying fact for all research is that unless you actually play video games, you cannot research it properly.

 

The reason I chose this article is because of my observations during my teaching career. I have increasingly more students who are the social outcasts. You know the ones I’m talking about. The quiet ones who every student knows and likes, but nobody hangs out with. The student who, in any conversation, finds a way to relate anything to either a video game they have played, or a movie or television show they have watched. They are often bright, funny, but unmotivated to “dig in” with their school work. They often migrate towards other gamers, and in their free time either play games together, or research codes to propel their success on a particular level of a game, or they are comparing their accomplishments with other gamers. They often seem out of sorts in a group setting, but one on one are charming and “quirky”. 

 

As a teacher, I believe that these students who are often termed “loners” are the brightest students we have. They are the most intelligent and often labeled to have “wasted” their gifts on video game use by most of societies standards. However, if we can find the right way to reach these students, by video games or other means, they can be the most successful and productive human beings on the planet. We could in fact find the next Bill Gates and propel him to even more greatest than their predecessor.