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“The reward, in other words, doesn’t have to be a useful or fun thing in itself, it need only be an obvious outward sign that the wearer of it has done some difficult work to get it.”

- Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds : The business and culture of online games (2005)

This is a screengrab of my wow avatar (my “main toon”) and my brand new staff I acquired from Festergut, a challenging boss in the Plagueworks wing of the ICC raiding series.  It is worth noting that my guild has spent two weeks (well, 4 evenings over two weeks) completing this wing via watching videos, sharing strategy, improving our gear and rotations. Today’s guild message confirmed the significance of our achievement along with a reminder to “study” the next wing in preparation for next week’s raid. I’m proud of my accomplishment though it is not “real” in somebody else’s notion of accomplishments and this got me thinking about the value of grades in learning. If you’ve read Edward Castronova (or play videogames) you already know why this “unreal” achievement is meaningful to me. But let me explain it in my own way – and as it relates to education.

Rules lawyers v. rule breakers

As Castronova so eloquently explains, “scarcity,” along with fun and status/reputation and accomplishment of a difficult task is part of what makes such signifiers like my epic staff so valued. It’s not the item itself (or how it might improve my dps – although that DOES have value) but the awareness – for myself and my peers – that this achievement took knowledge, work and cooperation to obtain.  Like an A+ or a medal for completing a marathon, it isn’t something you can just buy in a store, it’s something you have to earn. But unlike an academic grade, the achievement also included a depth of sensory, social and experiential pleasures that are specific to interactive game design and transmedia. Also, a letter grade doesn’t come with its own pet – who detaches and re-attaches its arm just for your amusement.

Clicking on my staff releases a grotesque “pet” who oozes and shuffles around for a minute or two then drops his arm.

This is not to say that the learning we do in school isn’t or cannot be “fun” but that, at this time in history, what we’re doing in the classroom does not even begin to approach the kind of complex sensory experiences we have in simulated and experiential (offline) game play. This isn’t intended to dismiss classroom learning or create a false comparison between the two, but merely to pose a question about the nature of “fun” and achievement in school as it is currently defined and how it might be radically reconfigured (my current project).

Though my epic staff isn’t going to work for me in the same way as a grade or monetary reward (i.e., get me into a college, get me a job or help me pay my bills), it does serve to satisfy a more intrinsically meaningful need (that might lead to the others in the form of dividends). It seems that for the vast majority of kids out there, grades are not personally, intrinsically, meaningful – nor is the reward and/or punishment or the inhuman alphanumerical culture of assessment that pervades education. This is why 90% of the accomplished young gamers I talk to can achieve epic status in a game but be checked out and disengaged in the classroom – or, at least, a piece of it. So how do we get that same kid to put equal energy and effort into their school work?  I know many parents who’d like to know this as well ;)

I’m not sure if the question is “what is the epic loot of learning” or “why are we still using assessments that have no intrinsic value to learners”? It’s not that assessment and evaluation structures don’t have value to learners but that the people who create these structures live in a galaxy far, far away from the world of game developers, creative interactive developers and other people who design experiences human beings truly enjoy.

For example, the people I worked with in new media were largely rule breakers (people who would be more likely to hack a website or game to do more with it). In fact, a few of the most accomplished transmedia producers I know didn’t even finish high school (because they hated the cultures of achievement that rewarded obedience and existing power relations rather than originality, innovation or creativity).  These people are quite the opposite of “rules laywers,” which describes those educators whose love of rules for rules sake (and top down structures) makes learning suck. Rules have an important role to play in life and learning (and gaming), but in and of themselves do not constitute a very meaningful expression of the human pleasure principle.

In my question to figure out why the classroom isn’t as engaging as the game environment, I’ve come up with a few basic observations.

Some things I’ve observed so far about the value of “real time” human gaming culture

• Game “play” is part of the excitement – including the entire structure and all related skills
• Knowledge and literacy (lore) inspires a sense of mastery/expertise
• Shared language, codes and cultural signifiers between players builds belonging and community
• Sensory pleasure is alive in almost every activity – sound, color, movement, touch, voice, cognition
• Self directed and collaborative team activity that involves complex and simple strategy building
• Personally meaningful cultural/communication signifiers (a rich cultural context beyond the practical)
• Unconventional etiquette and room for “dissent/disruption/critical commentary”

Teachers: How many of the above features are present in your classroom learning activities? To what depth/complexity? And furthermore how do they connect to your learner’s cultures, identities and backgrounds? Are you creating learning experiences with new tools or just repurposing old material  in an interactive format? In what ways can your students respond, critique or comment on the value of the learning experience (that won’t reward or punish them in the process)?

In the coming months I hope to build on this initial post with interviews and research I’ll be doing with my gamer colleagues about the use and philosophies of transmedia and gaming in our classrooms.

Why I game (other than getting phat loot)

If you had asked me my thoughts on World of Warcraft two years ago I would have said it seems like a meaningless waste of time and probably a bad thing for your intellectual and mental health.  I had many battles with my husband, an avid MMO player, author and teacher, about his gameplay. One day he simply turned to me and pointed to the shelf of children’s books he’s written (30 titles in all) . And when asked about my social media use I realised that I’d found similar dividends for activities I put to strategic use.

As I connected more with gaming cultures I realised that an inordinate of the geeks and digital creatives I engaged online were avid (serious) gamers as well as thinkers/makers. And only last year I joined a World of Warcraft Guild for educators and learned that many more all over the world are taking games seriously.  In fact, I met a history teacher last year who told me he played the very first version of Warcraft in the mid nineties.  Since I started gaming 1o years ago (a relative newcomer), I have gained enormous insight from the history, canonical figures – like Gary Gygax, social cultures,  literature and literacies that inform gaming – from tabletop role playing to persistent worlds. This particular literacy has provided me with enormous pleasure as well as many friendships and ties with others who understand, often instinctively, why this culture matters to so many people. And it has given me some of the words to express why it matters to me.

CONTRIBUTE

Here is a Google doc I created to gather some ideas about the features of WoW (or any MMO for that matter) that might be of learning value. I’ve only just started to gather information so there’s a lot of room to contribute! LINK