Game Experience Summary
For my “game,” I decided to use JacksonPollock.org. Even though this is not your typical game, it can become a game with yourself to create the artwork that you desire. When you enter the website, a blank screen appears. However, whenever you move your mouse paint splatters and creates different lines and shapes based on how quickly the mouse is moved. Whenever you click the mouse, the line color changes, ranging throughout the entire color spectrum. This is more of a form of art than gaming, but the interaction that you have with the screen can classify it as a game.
Summary
“Semiotic Domains: Is Playing Video Games a Waste of Time?” is the second chapter in a book released to justify video games and their benefits to society. Gee uses the term “literacy” and argues that it goes beyond its traditional meaning of “the ability to read and write” (17). In order to be literate in society today, one needs to be able to go beyond decoding and be able to link outside information to understand a concept on a deeper level and produce results in this context, this can be seen in multimodal texts. This gives rise to semiotic domains. Gee explains these to be different forms of signs in different realms of communication (19). For each semiotic domain, there are two ways for it to be viewed—internally and externally. Internally meaning the type of content the domain addresses and externally “in terms of people engages in a set of social practices (27). Gee’s main points go beyond his application to video games. They can be applied to learning in any semiotic domain (41). His arguments are based off of five learning principles: active, critical learning, design, semiotic, semiotic domains, and metalevel thinking about semiotic domains.
He concludes that video games are not a waste of time because they teach the player how to become literate in another domain than what is natural. He gives an example of how the grandfather of a six-year old boy misunderstands video games as a problem on content (22). In reality, “the game encourages him to think of himself as an active problem solver, one who persists in trying to solve problems even after making mistakes, on who, in fact, does not see mistakes as errors but as opportunities for reflection and learning” (36). Even though the content of the video game many be a “waste” to some, the skills learned can be applied to other semiotic domains, making you better off than non-players.
Inquiry
Prior to this reading, I would have agreed with many others that playing video games are a waste of time. However, Gee makes many compelling arguments that have made me agree with him (for the most part). I do think that critical learning can take place when playing video games, although in some not as much as others. Growing up without a gaming system, I think what held me back the most from playing video games was that I was not “in” the affinity group. With every semiotic domain, comes a different content that needs to be understood in order to produce in the domain. Since I did not know the gaming language, I did not succeed or have fun playing games. This held me back from experiencing the learning that Gee says comes with video games.
Although learning can take place when gaming, there are times when it becomes a negative asset opposed to a positive one. An example of this is when the player spends more time in his game world rather than learning in the actual world. Even though with technology improvements communication to other humans occurs when gaming, in each semiotic domain a different kind of learning takes place. In order to succeed in society, one needs more than to just be fluent in gaming. Therefore, even though it is a type of learning process, other types of learning process take precedence.
One of Gee’s main arguments is that in order to be well off in the world today, one needs to be literate in more than just reading and writing of a language. It can be semiotic domains that do not even include words, or it can simply be knowledge needed to understand a written document. Since text messaging has become popular, a new type of language has emerged—text shorthand. If you ask any teenager what “btw,” “brb,” “lol,” etc. mean, many will be able to answer without hesitation. Nowadays, in order to understand an email, text, etc. one would have to be able to decipher this language. Even though a message may be in a familiar language, one would need to be able to decode more than just words.
Questions
1. As a result of New Media, what other types of literacy are needed to understand commonly faced phenomenon?
2. After playing the online video games, do you agree with Gee's thoughts on critical thinking within this semiotic domain?
3. Do you think that the literacy gained from playing video games is useful in society today? Will this change in the future?
2 comments
My brother spends copious amounts of time playing RPG video games and majority of the time my parents write his constant playing off as being just a creative outlet. Watching him play Halo for example, I realize that first player RPG games require different spatial manipulation than say super mario bros where your entire schematic is displayed on the scene because you "control," your mario avatar from an outside perspective. People who engage in video games today are gaining skills in critical thinking, strategy, and teamwork that goes beyond the classroom or a group project as this "project," is never-ending. Lose a round, gamers won't give up because they've already played this level. Instead they persistently play the game until they beat it, collecting their mental award. Thus this ability to repetitively respond to similar tasks over and over again in a virtual setting could change the future, for if businesses are able to perhaps replicate some of the addicting features of video games in their workplace they could in theory increase productivity. However this could also lead to decreased societal bonding, and we already live in a society that is quickly losing its group culture.
Like Katrina, I did not grow up playing video games. I have never really seen video games as something more than a form of entertainment. However, I was thinking about this 3 year old that I babysit, and he loves to play this video game where you have to match items together, learn words, colors and shapes, and grow your own plants. I think that it is fun to watch him playing this game because at such a young age he is problem solving, and developing a vocabulary. For me, when I see him struggle with an idea in the game, I obviously know the answer, but I don’t say anything and watch him work out the problem and learn something on his own. When I think of video games like this, I think they can be useful, and actually be tools for learning. The way that children are learning and interacting is changing, and I think that children in the future might enter pre-school being able to read or do basic math.
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