Comments on: They’re using our game for what now?

By: Ariel Leroux

Ariel Leroux — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:31:40 +0000

I hadn’t thought about that in particular as a viable educational use of the game. Sometimes it’s hard to see things right in front of you, and it’s exciting to hear/read that others are beginning to use the games as unintended for educational purposes. This just adds more clout to gaming as being something other than a waste of valuable time.

By: Online Gaming Radio » EverQuest 2 = English Tutor?

Online Gaming Radio » EverQuest 2 = English Tutor? — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:28:06 +0000

[…] would be one of those days and I’m over looking at Scott’s blog to read about a very interesting use of the game he is the producer for (EverQuest 2 - for those who didn’t […]

By: Moorgard

Moorgard — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 04:33:47 +0000

I was thinking MMOs were great for sex ed, but I guess that language stuff works, too.

By: Vargen

Vargen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:35:42 +0000

The potential for using these games in education is vast. The problem however is twofold: it’s expensive to build something like this (that’s why we’re excited about Metaplace) and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of overlap in people who know good game design and people who know education. And that’s forgetting the problem of selling something like this to The Powers That Be™. ESL is an excellent place to start because commercial games are already well suited to the subject, but with a bit of customization and scripting there are all kinds of possibilities.

By: Cuppycake

Cuppycake — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:22:36 +0000

Honestly, things like this are what have grown me to be almost as interested in the virtual-worldy web industry as I am with the hardcore MMO gamer segment of the population. Also, the educational opportunities that games and worlds present has been totally magnified in my experience so far with Metaplace. The number of universities and private parties who are looking to become involved in virtual education is astronomical.

By: srand

srand — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:22:21 +0000

“Any coder who’s written a system for someone else’s use can tell you at least one tale of a horrific stretch of functionality that pushed a system far outside what it was ever meant to accomplish.”

On AC1, one of my designers mutilated the simple quest scripting behaviors to implement an entire fishing system. I still shudder every time I see a blue cube.

“Why stop with ESL?”

And there are some available niches even without changing game design. For example, look at all the statistics and math that goes into theorycrafting and armchair balancing. And you can learn a lot about the scientific method by designing tests to calculate miss rates …