Reading for Monday, Dec. 8th

December 5, 2008

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/wright.html

Posted by Wendy Anderson
Filed in Uncategorized
5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Reading for Monday, Dec. 8th”

  1. plato5990 said
    December 7, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    I thought that the part dealing with how when a kid picks up a controller instead of the game manual was very intersting. It’s so true, I don’t think I have ever taken out the manual before playing a game. The manual is almost not even needed, it only tells you minute details that you may never uncover for yourself. Also, game genres are very similar. If you have played one game in a particular category, you’ve basically played them all. For instance, besides what cars are in a racing game and a few unique parts to each different game, all racing titles are the same. A person sets their own “map” while beginning to play the game, and then continues to play in that way.

  2. profoundperception said
    December 8, 2008 at 3:27 am

    When I begin playing a video game, I indeed pick up the controller and learn to play it as I go along. There are limitations to this though, in my mind at least. I usually find that there are features of a game that I don’t fully understand. So after I feel as though I’ve gotten my feet wet with the game and know the basics, I usually will read the manual.

    Most of the time the game is as rudimentary as it seems and doesn’t offer any new knowledge. However sometimes I learn a great deal about the game and playing it. For example in my experiences, when I was first playing Forza 2, I found it to be an immensely difficult racing game. I was used to the gun-it-and-go racing style games. Forza requires a much lighter gas and brake finger, and requires the driver to keep a delicate balance between the two. The manual offered me some insight towards the dynamics of this and how to perform the best that I could.

    I don’t think we should fully rely on either form of learning as the article identified. I think that we need a hybrid of them, with learning by hands-on learning, as well as a little hard-reading.

  3. ganeagla said
    December 8, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    for most of the games i have played it seems like the first few levels go through everything that is in the manual. almost like a tutorial. so that would kinda be like what profoundperception is talking about i think with the hands on learning. but i usually just kinda glance at the manual to see what all the controls are and then im off to play the game.

  4. jbotalan said
    December 8, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    Just as giving a new driver a classroom session and then expecting him to know how to drive is not going to work, teaching a new student methodology without having any kind of hands-on experience isn’t going to stick with that student as he leaves for the workplace. The player learns controls much faster if the game explains them as they are needed–as the new player comes to an obstacle he must jump over, the game says, “Press L1 to jump!”, and the player is following along, not memorizing. Training muscle memory, not long-term memory.

    It is important to bring this method into our classrooms. If we do not teach by doing, students are getting shortchanged. Volumes of lectures will never teach what a single lab session will. This is why, from what I understand, the University Chem class “sucks”. This generation needs a different education paradigm. Until we teach our students using hands-on techniques, we will not be tapping into the full potential of these young brains.

  5. britdragon said
    December 12, 2008 at 12:32 am

    With anything new, I do not read the manual, I don’t think that there should be any reading involved, if you are going to learn how to work the product or whatever it is you are going to have to just use the thing, trial and error.. it is the best way to learn. If you fail, I am sure that you will not be doing it that way any more, you have to figure something out that will make the game work. We are smart beings I am sure that you can do it. I know that people enjoy reading the manual first to make sure that they do not break anything, which would be a good thing, i am sure that i would be more angry with myself if it was a one try thing and i couldn’t do it again because i failed once, but you have to take into account now there are many things that we get to try again just because it is the best way. there is nothing more to learning something than just doing it yourself. There is where i see when people get’s frustrated with me because i want to figure things out myself and there is really no way that someone is just going to be like “here let me show you” I will ask for help when I want it. Maybe that is why I do not like to use the manual.

    I have just realized an instance of when i use the “manual” if you can call it a manual… when you get a new board game, like Cranium or something like that… you have to read the “manual/directions” to figure out the game, to see what the rules are.. etc…. so there is one instance…

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