Persuasive Games

For the final part of our project we have been asked the question can games change the world? This is a very wide and open topic, as it can be explored in many different areas. To begin with I was interested in how modern games now (especially the first person shooter genres) have to contain multiplayer. This seems (to be mostly Call of Duty) unique selling point. Along with that factor I was also going to debate about how when it comes to multiplayer social playing is more important than being a full on rival competitor.

However as I have taken such a massive interest in War with my first project I have decided to write and debate about how could gaming advance to produce sufficiently engrossing, valid experiences.
I want to explore what possiblities games have, as a media, to create a documentry. History documentaries are used in every other form of media yet it has only barely touched the gaming industry with the original Call of Duty series and Medal of Honor. Games may have had help create a realistic feel with level designs from ex military forces but it is always from the point of the Allies in WWII. Why can we not have level designs from the Axis point of veiw?

Learning with video games

There are lofty expectations for the potential of video games to disrupt schooling in the near future. Video games are based on good learning principles and they can create deep learning experiences that significantly develop student understanding. They also teach vital skills that counteract the short-sightedness of high-stakes tests. As a subject, History stands much to gain from the use of video games as they encourage strategic thinking through decision-making, weighing evidence, and assessing consequences. However, the hype around the educational potential of video games does not match the reality of the classroom experiences. The complexity and depth of many video games results in them being difficult to institute in a traditional factory-model school setting. Video games are not the answer that they are often made out to be in the popular press, and disciples of games are likely to be disappointed. Momentous reform would be needed to the use of time and physical space in schools, and to the conventional roles of teachers and students.
http://learningshore.edublogs.org/2010/12/16/learning-history-with-videogames/

Educational appeal of video games

Video games teach vital skills like teamwork, decision-making and digital literacy, which are often overlooked in the age of high-stakes tests. Research (Van Eck, 2006) has consistently found that games promote learning and reduce teaching time across multiple disciplines and ages. Van Eck comments that, “a cursory review of the experimental research in the last five years shows well-documented positive effects of DGBL across multiple disciplines and learners”. Most teachers only dream of their students spending the amount of motivation, attention, passion, and critical thinking on their classes that some students do playing videogames. Research is also showing how gamers are different as employees and leaders in their attitudes towards the value of experience, their own capabilities, decision-making, risk, and achievement (Beck & Wade, 2004).
http://learningshore.edublogs.org/2010/12/16/learning-history-with-videogames/

Limits to the educational use of video games

Games are usually advocated as part of a blended learning process and therefore the role of the teacher is essential. According to Cuban (2001), introducing technology into the classroom without appropriate teacher training is a waste of money. Teachers need evidence of the effectiveness of video games, how to use them, and how to successfully integrate them into teaching practice. Teachers need sufficient sandpit time to develop their own confidence in using games and understand how games relate to curriculum goals. The most important consideration from a teacher’s perspective is how much the game will make their life easier (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2007). The game must easily enhance their teaching. This involves more than just assuming games will motivate and engage learners. Some work has commenced on designating the best pedagogical roles for teachers when they use games within their classroom: instructor, guide, explorer or playmaker (Hanghøj & Magnussen, 2010).
http://learningshore.edublogs.org/2010/12/16/learning-history-with-videogames/

Hitler: The Rise of Evil

The Rise of Evil is a Canadian TV mini-series in two parts, directed by Christian Duguay and produced by Alliance Atlantis. It explores Adolf Hitler's rise and his early consolidation of power during the years after World War I and focuses on how the embittered, politically fragmented and economically buffeted state of German society following the war made that ascent possible. The film also focuses on Ernst Hanfstaengl's influence on Hitler's rise to power. The miniseries, which premiered simultaneously in May 2003 on CBC in Canada and CBS in the United States, received two Emmy awards, for Art Direction and Sound Editing.
The film's subplot follows the struggles of Fritz Gerlich, a German journalist who opposes the rising National Socialist German Workers Party. He is portrayed as to fulfill the essence of the quotation disputably attributed to Edmund Burke, which is displayed at the beginning and at the end of the film:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hitler_-_The_Rise_of_Evil.jpg

JFK shooting game provokes anger


A Scottish firm has been criticised by the family of John F Kennedy for producing a game which recreates the president's assassination in Dallas.
"JFK Reloaded" was released on Monday to coincide with the 41st anniversary of the president's assassination.
David Smith, a spokesman for Senator Ted Kennedy, the brother of JFK, said the PC-based game was "despicable".
A spokesman for Traffic Games said it was encouraging youngsters to take an interest in history.
The Stirling-based company argued that the game was aimed at disproving theories that a conspiracy, rather than lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, was responsible for the assassination.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4031571.stm

Movie Review: Saving Private Ryan 68

When you watch the first 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, I'm reminded of a story that I heard from an old lady who was tired of playing her umpteenth round of "Housie" at the Catholic Club (in Bangalore, India) a few years ago.

speak... and to see a countless number of them waste away, thanks to this demon that is known as war through the ages.

And in watching the first 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, I saw for a brief period what the old lady saw, for it throws you right into the thick of it all. Normandy, that is.

And

She was a nurse for the Red Cross in Africa during WorldWar II, and spent many a sleepless night nursing the wounded and near-dead soldiers. It's a life-changing experience as she mentioned briefly, while hearing the groans of the living dead, so to  you can't help but identify with atleast one of the soldiers regardless of whether they breathed their last or lived to tell the tale. This is the magic of and genius of Steven Spielberg with whom I share a fascination for all things World War II.

But whatever happens during that 25 minutes, the movie will leave even the most trigger happy individual shaken (if not stirred). And I mean, right from the word go till the end...

http://danielchakraborty.hubpages.com/hub/Movie-Review-Saving-Private-Ryan