Pablo Moreno-Ger’s blog

James Paul Gee is an author that has written several essays and books around the concept that games exhibit the purest forms of learning. Not the usual statement that “games could be used for learning”, but a subtler yet absolutely true concept: games are really complex applications and yet, players, learn to play them. Without ever reading the manual. And with a very low tolerance towards studying and learning (after all, they just invested 60$ in a game). Modern games, out of neccessity, have developed in-game tutorials and other learning mechanisms that allow the players to learn the game mechanics as they play, as opposed to first teaching them how to control the game and then starting play. Those games unable to provide successful learning experiences resulted in a failure. Game players don’t offer second chances. They expect to be having fun shortly after launching the game, and boring lessons are out of the question.

Good Videogames + Good Learning is a compilation of essays by James Paul Gee on the topic. I recently purchased a number of books that I did need, but this one was not one of my objectives. However, Amazon returned it as part of the “related books” function, and I simply couldn’t help buying it. Why the impulse?

Well, here is a deep secret. In 2003 I was passionate about games in general and mildly interested in serious games and in the concept of learning while playing. Out of that curiosity, I ordered a book by J.P. Gee. It was called “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy“. The book, as the rest of his writings, was not explicitly about learning with educational games, but about the learning that takes place in comercial games. For me, I admit, reading that book was a life-changing event. I read the entire book in one day, finishing late at night and then pondering about it until even later. Next morning, thinking in the shower (my favourite place for deep thoughts), it dawned on me: I had found the field on which I wanted to base my research. Or, with a special wink to a specific reader of this blog (as if there were many), I had found the shirt on which I would eventually find a spot to clean.

That summer I would graduate and, up to that morning, I was thinking whether to pursue an academic career or try my luck as a developer in the videogame industry. After reading that book, I decided to stay in the university, and try to get a PhD working on this field. As life-changing as it gets.

Among all the books I purchased, Good Videogames + Good Learning may not be the one I needed most for my research, but I have devoured it almost as quickly as the other one, and again loved it. Unfortunately, this time it hasn’t changed my life in a noticeable way (yet), but it is a remarkable read that I recommend. Personally, it has reminded me why I believe in this field and I will actually try to squeeze some time out of my current stay in Portugal to write a couple of posts about this topic.

Research books, educational games, game design