I thought I'd post this since it is so NOT my experience. It's a quote from an email I received from Discord.
"The best relationships in our lives were built around playing games. Memories of staying up late playing Warcraft 3 with friends or sharing creations in The Sims mean so much to us. "
Is there anyone else here who has not previously played ANY video games? It seems to be an accepted part of life today...like having a cellphone. I don't do either.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the "no cell phone" bit... I think they were the worst thing ever invented. I really don't see the appeal. Only the negative impacts. Gaming on the other hand, I def. come down on the pro-gaming side. I acknowledge that there can be negative impacts, but I have found, overall, very positive outcomes/effects from games in my life.
ReplyDeleteI'm not anti-gaming per se, and my adult children spend hours on it, just pointing out that it's never been a part of my life. Programming actually appeals to me more (though I don't do that either). More my point was that I STRONGLY suspect that the ability to use MC is predicated on skills already learned in other games. The most obvious example is that the ADWS movements seem almost universal, but I had to learn them here. Ditto for spacebar to jump. And more generally the ability to "use keys to do stuff." I'd be happier, personally, with an all-mouse interface. BTW, I'm starting to get the feeling that my Mac "magic mouse" (which I've always hated) is working against me in a gaming environment. One false swipe of a finger and I'm chopping down trees with Orange Wool. (How is that even possible in the game?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I don't want to create a negative vibe here so I'm just going to "go dark" for a while until I've learned some basic MC skills.
ReplyDeleteDakotah Redstone ahahha I totally agree about the game part but when comes to cellphones.... I get the comparison though, games and cellphones are popular and pretty much part of a lot of people's lives. The appeal of cellphone used to be only for communication, nowadays it goes beyond that. I for one, use it for work and study. With Google apps I can work collaboratively from anywhere. I can't live without my smartphone. :) As for games, I played when I was 13 Atari but was never really interested in games until Emanuel, my third son. We always had video games in the house and the older ones played from time to time but were never really gamers. My 7-year-old boy, Emanuel, play computer games since he was 3 1/2. Guess who introduced me to minecraft and was my mentor when, a year later, I started playing because of EVO? I know the feeling of looking at games with a certain prejudice. I know I didn't see the point. Jeff Kuhn's advice to me was "start playing". I did and my view changed. Then, I started observing my son and started seeing the advantages.
ReplyDeleteDon Carroll I learned the skills through MC. That was my first game. I have played others after that and you right that once we learn we can use them in any game.
ReplyDeleteWhat were the skills you learned?
ReplyDeleteDon Carroll manual skills, hand-eye coordination and problem solving.
ReplyDelete+Don Carroll if you want I can help you when online? Let me know what timezone if interested.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a video gamer but I love games otherwise so I see the point of Minecraft if it's a puzzle we can do together. However I still haven't seen how I can use it in my teaching (like Don, adult TESOL / EAP) but I'm keeping an open mind. I just wish I had more time to explore - can only give small snippets here and there. A doodle would be really useful to ensure meeting other people at the right time.
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