I think that identity play is mostly beneficial, though there can be some limitations. In our reading this week, Gee made a strong argument supporting identity play and I agree with him. The identity gamer builds a bridge from their real world being to their virtual being. This allows the gamer to take full responsibility for their character's actions and values. They can choose whether they want their virtual character to have a good or evil reputation. Identity play is also a way for gamers to take risks with lesser consequences. It allows the gamer to be proud of success and learn from mistakes, just like in the real world.
The gamers has instilled much time, thought, and energy into their virtual character and therefore the game is automatically more meaningful and compelling to the player. Gee believes that in identity games, the more effort a player puts forth, the better experience they take out of the game, not to mention the better the reward will be. Success is earned.
As beneficial as identity games can be, there are limitations to them. Certain identity games may cause characters to be faced with moral discrepancies that result in bad behavior. A mature gamer will realize that these poor decisions and behaviors are acceptable only in the sense for the goal of the game. However, it is when gamers cannot distinguish the difference between for the good of the game and real life situations that bad values can be taught. Like when Gee gave the example of the young boy who said the dark sonic was the "good guy".
I have been doing some research for one of my other graduate courses and I came across an article that explained how a middle school language arts teacher introduced the video game Morrowind to teach her students about decision making skills and consequences, "Increasing student engagement by using Morrowind to analyze choices and consequences" by Maya Kadakia. She found that by using the identity game students were able to make decisions that they would not normally make in the real world. They did not feel not threatened by consequences and therefore where able to be more creative. After making decisions for the game character, students analyzed their choices and applied them to everyday situations. The teacher felt that by incorporating the game into her curriculum her students not only understood the concept better, but were more actively involved and motivated to participate in the class.
To read a real-life example of how a teacher incorporated a video game into her classroom and met success is very inspiring and uplifting. Like Gee says, the best way to learn something is to do it and practice at it. That goes for teachers learning how to use video games in the classroom too!
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You mentioned that games allow individuals to take risks with lesser consequences. That is an excellent point. This can be applied to action games as well as role-playing (and other types) of games. In the game that I am learning, Shaun White's Snowboarding Road Trip, I have to do tricks in order to score points. I have learned that if you are doing a flip and holding your board, you need to let go at a certain point in your rotation or you fall in the snow. In real life I would probably break my neck learning this skill, but by learning it through the game I can push myself to do the better tricks because I have the ability to work out the kinks without the fear of getting hurt.
ReplyDeleteI think that using games like Morrowind in the classroom can be extremely beneficial to students. I would love to have the opportunity to discuss the differences between the choices that the students made in the game to the decisions that they make in the real world. In this activity the students would not only have to make choices, but they would learn a lot about themselves based on the choices that they made.