Your Intellect Depends on Your TV
Your Intellect Depends on Your TV
Knowledge is power…
Do games have the inherent ability to educate? Greg Giddens sure thinks so and shares his thoughts on the subject.
THOSE OF you who enjoy good music may well recognise the title I’ve chosen for this article, it’s a line from the Bad Religion song “It Must Look Pretty Appealing”, a truly excellent song and band that the UK often fails to recognise the genius of. You may think I’m a bit off topic at the moment – considering this is a gaming website and all – but wait one second and I’ll explain my fan service. You see the moment I heard that line
I knew it to be true, because it was true for me and my knowledge. A great deal of the general knowledge I had stored in my noggin had been siphoned from a bunch of different mediums, specifically books, TV, music, and games. So hearing the lyrics “Your intellect depends on your TV” instantly rang very true, with the exception of TV being replaced by entertainment in general. However, the lyrics made this out to be a detrimental effect of media, but the way I see it is that it’s a wonderful bi-product, and rather than this knowledge being limited or false it’s often accurate and vast. If you know where to look.
My TV is huge
Initially I thought “sure my intellect depends on my TV but my TV is bigger than most other people’s so bow down to me you bunch of stupids.” Of course now I see the errors of ways and know not to proclaim such things, not out loud anyway. In reality, however, entertainment is such a huge part of everyone’s lives that of course it’s going to influence intellect, you only have to watch a couple of episodes of The Weakest Link to increase your general knowledge for instance. Although many of the contestants on that show somewhat disprove my point, and why do so many of them fancy Ann Robinson? Perhaps she reminds them of their mums and they all suffer from a slight case of Oedipus complex – by the way did I mention how large my TV is? Sorry I lost my train of thought, oh yeah, so I stand by those lyrics but not the intended detrimental message, and I want to specifically talk about the education benefits of games – see, I told you I had a relevant point.
It’s an interesting time for games at the moment. With a new generation entering positions of influence the world over there’s a good chance the stigmatic view of games and gamers will change to be more accepting of their legitimate value to entertainment and society. In fact it’s a change we’re already starting to see and if people can understand the point I’m trying to make about game’s inherent educational value then things can
only improve for our gaming community. You see, games educate in many different ways, some which are obvious but many more that people disregard or simply don’t notice.
Grand strategy titles such as the Europa Universalis or the Hearts of Iron series’ are obviously educational, especially with the implementation of the many mods available for these and similar titles. They teach both geography and history, often to a high degree of accuracy and not to mention being generally more entertaining than many books and documentaries. Even when historical accuracy takes a back seat and an alternative history unfolds within the game, it teaches people something. The amount of effort made in these titles to deliver a realistic outcome for player actions and their nations shows the many twists and turns of history, and with a little guidance from say a history teacher, these fictitious events in-game can be used as example for actual historical events.
Metal Gear Solid taught me that Zimbabwe was once called Rhodesia. Pity Hideo’s grasp of genetics wasn’t as good as his history.