Parakletos
New Member
Think computer games are not educational? Read this over your coffee break!
I was sitting in my school’s library the other day. We were supposed to be there over second bell working on our economics essay that was due the following week. Being the model student that I was, I did what I had always done: slack off.
It had taken more over two class periods, but I had managed to install a copy of World of Warcraft onto one of the schools computers and I had finally finished copying over the data from the 4 CDs when a rush of esteemed curiosity came over me. It had just been the night before that I had put in the Org auction house my grand prized Spikersilk Boots, and I just HAD to know if they had sold yet. I knew I could not, as the school library has a strict policy against playing any games because they were deemed “uneducational”. Then a sudden inspiration hit me, and I opened up to the log in screen. I quieted everything around me listening for any signs of the Liberian walking by. With the light taping sound of my keys, I quickly typed my password in to once again assume the role of…
“So, are we having fun over here gentlemen?”
The cold hoarse voice seemed to be the loudest thing in the entire room, although to most people it could hardly be heard. My mind stopped, my heart sank and my body froze. It took my all of my physical and mental might to slowly turn my head over to look into the eyes of Ms. Anderson. Ahh… Ms. Anderson. Ms. Anderson was the school librian, and had been for about as long as God has been in Heaven. A crooked smile came across her face as she peered closer to my screen.
“And how is THIS educational?” she said with a more sleek tone.
I took a deep breath and casually said:
“Actually there are many educational subjects and concepts that I have learned from playing this particular game. As you can see here on the auction screen, I can buy wool cloth form anywhere from sixty silver to one gold. Obviously I learn that I can buy items of the same quality – just as you can in real life. I also know that when I do buy that silk cloth at sixty silver…” I said as I quickly pulled up my Tailoring screen “…I can take that silk, and create a Dark silk shirt, and then sell it for one gold and fifteen silver for a total prophet of forty-five silver. I can make five of those shirts from the silk I bought, giving me a potential prophet of two gold and twenty-five silver. The concept of basic supply and demand, and not only that, if I want to get the word out that I’m selling the shirts I made I just say…” and I quickly typed:
/y WTS: [Dark silk shirt](5) in the AH. Cheep!
“Furthermore,” I continued “I cannot forget the most valuable thing I have learned in this game: sociology. You will notice that I misspelled ‘Cheep’ in my marketing advertisement. I did this because I know that most of the people who play this game at this time of day probably dropped out of Junior High school, and that the only way to communicate effectively with my market is to use language that makes no sense to anyone but them. Furthermore, these are the educational concepts that are in this one game, and I own over thirty other computer games at my house. So therefore I propose” I said with my voice rising with every word “that we remove the current school curriculum and replace it with these very educational tools that not only teach us these concepts, but allow us to apply them in the very world we occupy! And not only that, we might actually have some FUN doing it in the process!!”
Immediately the entire room roared in applause, I raised both of my hands. I felt like a king. I felt like I was on top of the world. I felt that… I was in really big trouble.
An hour later a buddy of mine came up to me and said “Dude! I heard you got banned from the library for life! Well, it was an awesome speech man, really went to the heart.”
My economics paper never did get finished as the paper never left the computers harddive, and I ended up failing the class for the semester.
Oh by the way, my Spidersilk boots never sold.
I was sitting in my school’s library the other day. We were supposed to be there over second bell working on our economics essay that was due the following week. Being the model student that I was, I did what I had always done: slack off.
It had taken more over two class periods, but I had managed to install a copy of World of Warcraft onto one of the schools computers and I had finally finished copying over the data from the 4 CDs when a rush of esteemed curiosity came over me. It had just been the night before that I had put in the Org auction house my grand prized Spikersilk Boots, and I just HAD to know if they had sold yet. I knew I could not, as the school library has a strict policy against playing any games because they were deemed “uneducational”. Then a sudden inspiration hit me, and I opened up to the log in screen. I quieted everything around me listening for any signs of the Liberian walking by. With the light taping sound of my keys, I quickly typed my password in to once again assume the role of…
“So, are we having fun over here gentlemen?”
The cold hoarse voice seemed to be the loudest thing in the entire room, although to most people it could hardly be heard. My mind stopped, my heart sank and my body froze. It took my all of my physical and mental might to slowly turn my head over to look into the eyes of Ms. Anderson. Ahh… Ms. Anderson. Ms. Anderson was the school librian, and had been for about as long as God has been in Heaven. A crooked smile came across her face as she peered closer to my screen.
“And how is THIS educational?” she said with a more sleek tone.
I took a deep breath and casually said:
“Actually there are many educational subjects and concepts that I have learned from playing this particular game. As you can see here on the auction screen, I can buy wool cloth form anywhere from sixty silver to one gold. Obviously I learn that I can buy items of the same quality – just as you can in real life. I also know that when I do buy that silk cloth at sixty silver…” I said as I quickly pulled up my Tailoring screen “…I can take that silk, and create a Dark silk shirt, and then sell it for one gold and fifteen silver for a total prophet of forty-five silver. I can make five of those shirts from the silk I bought, giving me a potential prophet of two gold and twenty-five silver. The concept of basic supply and demand, and not only that, if I want to get the word out that I’m selling the shirts I made I just say…” and I quickly typed:
/y WTS: [Dark silk shirt](5) in the AH. Cheep!
“Furthermore,” I continued “I cannot forget the most valuable thing I have learned in this game: sociology. You will notice that I misspelled ‘Cheep’ in my marketing advertisement. I did this because I know that most of the people who play this game at this time of day probably dropped out of Junior High school, and that the only way to communicate effectively with my market is to use language that makes no sense to anyone but them. Furthermore, these are the educational concepts that are in this one game, and I own over thirty other computer games at my house. So therefore I propose” I said with my voice rising with every word “that we remove the current school curriculum and replace it with these very educational tools that not only teach us these concepts, but allow us to apply them in the very world we occupy! And not only that, we might actually have some FUN doing it in the process!!”
Immediately the entire room roared in applause, I raised both of my hands. I felt like a king. I felt like I was on top of the world. I felt that… I was in really big trouble.
An hour later a buddy of mine came up to me and said “Dude! I heard you got banned from the library for life! Well, it was an awesome speech man, really went to the heart.”
My economics paper never did get finished as the paper never left the computers harddive, and I ended up failing the class for the semester.
Oh by the way, my Spidersilk boots never sold.
