Video Games Entertain and Educate

An industry veteran discusses the "positive benefit" model for game design, an approach welcomed by consumers, who (consciously or not) learn as they play.




Recently, I've begun to consider whether there's something more to games than just convenient entertainment. In more than 25 years of making games, I realize that I've thought primarily about the game playing, the gamer's reactions, the technology, and the marketing of games more than anything else. In other words, I saw games as entertainment products to be consumed, not as socially defining phenomena. I didn't often see, firsthand, how players responded to my games, and I rarely thought about how video games might impact players in an educational way. Now I do.

Now games are a legitimate academic subject, with many university courses around the world offering degrees in video game design and development. And many game designers and researchers are seeing how games influence cognitive and other skills. This summer, the MacArthur Foundation board announced it will give a $1.1 million grant to fund the Institute of Play, a new middle/high school in New York City focused on making video games. Why? The foundation has found that games are an effective tool to teach information management and other critical skills.

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