Video games and Learning.

In my last post I mentioned that not all games could possibly have a take away message of the game maker’s perspective as Bogost had described. There being a perspective to every game just sounded to complex. Weren't some games designed to simply just be a game? As I thought about all the games that I had played in my childhood such as Donkey Kong, Mario, Aero Arco-Bat and even the games the little games that I play now such as fruit ninja and draw something, I never stopped to think that there was a perspective that the maker wanted me to see. In class, Kyle had brought up my last blog post and how I stated that I didn’t believe that all games had a perspective/meaning behind it and that games were simply just games. But through Squires article, Videogames and learning, it opened my eyes to something else. Although I couldn’t see Bogost’s argument about perspective in video games 100%, I could definitely see Squires argument in several video games. A lot of games require so much skill and in that players are able to learn. When we played Mario Brothers in class and Kyle mentioned that the game taught cause and effect, it was mind blowing for me. I would have never guessed or even thought that a game like Mario could teach such a key concept in education. Even with the game fruit ninja I felt like I was able to learn more hand-eye coordination as sad as that sounds. I think video games will soon enough make its way up to being a respectable way of teaching and learning in schools.