Russell Kirk on Colleges

Mort Weissinger on Brainiac

Kurt Squire: "[G]ames have mostly overlooked by educational technologists because... they privilege functional knowledge over declarative knowledge."

From "Educating the Fighter: Buttonmashing, Seeing, Being" by Kurt Squire

"[G]ames have mostly overlooked by educational technologists because... they privilege functional knowledge over declarative knowledge." [36]

"Expertise in fighting games arises through a rough progression of (yet also interaction among) four phases:

(1) learning to “read” the game as a semiotic system

(2) learning, mastering, and understanding the effects of the range of } possible moves,

(3) understanding the higher order interactions among these rules and the emergent properties of the game system

(4) and a continuous monitoring and reflecting on goals and sub-goals.

"To those used to studying knowledge in formal school settings, which privi- lege declarative knowledge, such embodied, situated gaming “knowledge” may seem foreign. Whereas schools privilege declarative knowledge, (particularly definitions or verbal representations of a “correct” answer), games privilege what it is that the player can actually do. No commercial game (save, per- haps, Full Spectrum Warrior) cares whether or not the player can articulate knowledge of the game world; instead knowledge becomes embodied in per- formance, although this knowledge can be later broken out into declarative statements. [38-39]

"When we look at game playing as an activity system which includes all of the fan writing, reading, analysis, and discussion it produces, it is clear that game playing usually becomes the subject of gamers’ own critical and reflec- tive analysis." [36]

Antonio José Planells de la Maza: [G]ames are considered complex fictional worlds

From POSSIBLE WORLDS IN VIDEO GAMES
From Classic Narrative to Meaningful Actions
by Antonio José Planells de la Maza
Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press Pittsburgh, PA, 2017 http://press.etc.cmu.edu/

[G]ames are considered complex fictional worlds that participate, as cultural objects, in inserted relationships within current social, economic, and political frameworks. And so we wonder “How do these objects bring out the laughter and anger of children and adults?” Or, in other words, “What type of structures and systems of meaning do video games establish from the perspective of fictional worlds designed to create ludic experiences?”

Han, Byung-Chul: Solitary Tiredness

From:  Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society, Stanford University Press, 2015.

Tiredness in achievement society is solitary tiredness; it has a separating and isolating effect. Peter Handke, in “Essay on Tiredness,” calls it “divisive tiredness”: “already the two . . . were irre- sistibly recoiling, each into . . . private tiredness, not ours, but mine over here and yours over there” (8). 

Tiredness of this kind proves violent because it destroys all that is common or shared, all proximity, and even language itself: “Doomed to remain speechless, that sort of tiredness drove us to violence. A violence that may have expressed itself only in our manner of seeing, which distorted the other” (9). 

[L]udofictional worlds may be studied from a Macrostructural Static Dimension, a Microstructural Dynamic Dimension and a Metaleptic Dimension

From POSSIBLE WORLDS IN VIDEO GAMES
From Classic Narrative to Meaningful Actions
by Antonio José Planells de la Maza
Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press Pittsburgh, PA, 2017 http://press.etc.cmu.edu/

[L]udofictional worlds may be studied from a Macrostructural Static Dimension, a Microstructural Dynamic Dimension and a Metaleptic Dimension. 

The Macrostructural Static Dimension involves understanding the ludofictional world as a formal system of linking together possible worlds. It considers a perspective that addresses the element of predestination in the game as a closed world in which the player has different ways of exploring according to possible and/or necessary actions taken at any given time. Thus, it becomes especially useful to analyze the global structure of each video game and the use of narrative worlds (cutscenes) and ingame scenes in the structure of the ludic experience. [6]

On the other hand, the Microstructural Dynamic Dimension analyses how the movement and modification of the characters’ inter-world identities develop throughout the course of the game. To do so, different theoretical categories are based on fictional features defined by characters’ possible and/or necessary actions, their psychological sub-worlds – what they fear, desire and/or imagine, etc. – and the relationships created between them. In this way, this dimension emphasizes the idea that ludofictional worlds are predetermined spaces for action and relationships with other fictional beings that may sometimes become the central axis of the ludic experience. 

The final level of meaning, the Metaleptic Dimension, replaces the idea of interactivity by proposing the narratological concept of metalepsis as the connection between the fictional world and the external user who is provided with certain mechanisms to participate in it. Thus, this perspective studies the physical and symbolic systems between the player and the world and vice versa, the internal leaps between different fictional levels and the sporadic and extraordinary disruptions to fictional boundaries that some characters may undergo. [7]

Value of Simulations

From "Simulation insubordination: How simulation games are revolutionising elearning" by Siobhan Thomas

"If you were given the task of hiring someone to monitor the reactor at your nuclear power station (we’re speaking hypothetically, of course) you’d probably ensure that they’d had hands on training in a simulator (among a whole host of other things) before they assumed their post. A nuclear disaster is, after all, something we’d all like to avoid. The irony is that while we can readily see the benefit of using simulations to train people who deal in matters of life and death—doctors, pilots, bomb disposal experts—we are less able to see the benefit of using simulations to teach content that has traditionally been classroom fare." [92]

"[D]esign gems include such concepts as sim- ulations shouldn’t feature a single system, but a series of subsystems. Simula- tions should leverage the power of modularity. Simulations shouldn’t be slaves to reality, but, instead, be realistic interpretations of the world we live in." [97]

"Worlds are simulated by allowing different systems to interact. As Warren Spector, producer of the massively successful Deus Ex, pointed out in a con- versation with Aldrich: “What you want to do is create a game that’s built on a set of consistently applied rules that players can exploit however they want.... In other words, rather than crafting single-solution puzzles, create rules that describe how objects interact with one another (for example, water puts out fire...) and turn players loose—you want to simulate a world rather than emu- late specific experiences.” (97).

"In order to create these types of situations, you have to make systems that can talk to each other."  [97]

"The perpetual question asked of simulations is “How accurate do they have to be able to teach effectively?” This is referred to as the “issue of fidelity.” The overriding assumption is the more realistic simulations are the better the learn- ing experience will be. In other words, we assume that a high level of fidelity is needed to allow learning transfer to occur. Game designers are incorporating increasingly complex levels of realism into their art forms, continually experi- menting with graphical techniques that ensure, for instance, virtual grass looks like real, live grass. The difficulty with realism though is that the closer you get to “actuality,” the easier it is for players to see the flaws. Players are more than familiar with the nuances of the world around them. Immersion—the holy grail educational designers and commercial game designers alike strive for—is easily disrupted by lighting or shadows that don’t look quite right or discor- dant frame rates.

"Simulations work better when they interpret reality. This requires designers to analyse the base learning required in any given learning situation, rather than blindly modelling real-life. In other words, simulations need to be about the learning rather than about the simulation." [99-100]