Jennifer Cronk, of Computer Teachers, Teach Thy Self!, was a bit bummed out the other day when I posted my podcast interview of my son while he was playing World of Warcraft. She’d been planning to record a similar interview with some of her New York students in much the same fashion. Sorry!
She went on to say, in Teen Gaming — for Profit:
You see one of my student has used WOW to make about $5,000. He is in 9th grade! The way he has done it was to spend several weeks developing certain characters and getting them desirable items to use (weapons, spells, armor). Once he has taken the character to a certain point he sells it on ebay.
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| This is the first time I’ve thought to actually look. Here is a World of Warcraft account, up for bid on eBay. The account provides three level 60 crusade-ready characters. Level 60 is evidently the cat’s meow. At least shipping is FREE. |
I shared this story with the audience in my video games session yesterday, and as I told it, I thought to myself, and then commented, “This is just too weird!” Heads nodded in unison. And it does seem really weird, the idea of an economic community that exists virtually — and one that seems not to discriminate by age, education, credential, or in any other way.
However, this morning (when I should be sleeping), I got to thinking about the first slide in that presentation, where I distinguish between the time of my grand father, where most people’s focus was on agriculture, and my father and my time, when focus was on material goods, getting stuff, and my children’s time, where they focus more on the experiential. They spend no time tending crops, less time playing with stuff, and more time playing with experiences.
Should it seem so weird that they can build and sell experiences?
Has it happened before?
A hundred years ago, did the idea of performing, recording, and selling music on a phono album seem just as weird?
Or go back a few more centuries. Did it seem just as weird to take a story, set type and print that story, and then sell the story as a book?
Are we lucky to be living in a time that is characterized by the really weird? Or are we unlucky. What do you think?
Your information is soooo yesterday.
At midnight last night, the Dark Portal opened in World of Warcraft. Level 70 is the new 60.
In my guild, students are excused from school today, a priest is delivering morning prayers and heading a committee meeting on no sleep, and more than a few white collar workers having mid-January vacations scheduled. They were at the stores at midnight and have been playing all night long.
Pop me an email when you are ready for your experience. 🙂
Seeing that I replied on your podcast I feel it necessary to do the same here. David you are commenting on a part of society that is growing by leaps and bounds. Blizzard Entertainment posted a HUGE gain based mainly in part to the World of Warcraft MMORPG. With all of these games that are out there, there are HUGE economic forces and byproducts going on. Being ‘farmers’ who’s sole purpose is to get money and sell for profit. Selling of “pixels” for profit has been going on for close to the last 10 years.
Is gaming the answer to education? I would say at a point earlier in my career no. But as of late I’ve been changing my mind ever so slightly. When my son was 2 he had ear tubes placed to help drainage. For the first 2 years he couldn’t hear so his speech was delayed. Since his procedure, he’s grown by leaps and bounds with his speech and learning. One of his favorite things to do when we aren’t working with him is playing on Noggin (http://www.noggin.com). Not having him in a preschool, working with my wife and these great programs, both on the television, and the internet has boosted his ability level in just a short amount of time.
Based on that information I do believe there is a niche out there that gaming can improve student success.
There is an interesting article on this subject from a few months ago on the BBC news. There are people in asian countries (China and Korea) making a living from playing these games and selling of the ‘spoils’ of their game play on the open market to players who do not have the same skill level.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4360654.stm
A good book about this is Play Money by Julian Dibbell. See link below to amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Play-Money-Millions-Trading-Virtual/dp/0465015352/sr=1-1/qid=1168997302/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-7143150-5793222?ie=UTF8&s=books
Well my World of Warcraft server just crashed so I thought….Blizzard cares about me and wants me to go to bed at a decent hour. =-P Sooooooo, I thought I’d check in here before I turned in and the topic is World of Warcraft.
*waves to Tom who is in my guild, even though he isn’t actively playing atm*
I think there is a lot going on in gaming that could potentially be advantageous in education. You attempt to complete a task. You fail. But you want the virtual reward learning that task will bring. So you go back. You practice your skill. You try different approaches to completing the task. You team up with others and discuss how best to tackle the problem. You research how others have approached this problem. You form a team and after multiple attempts you succeed!! You get a reward. You get an adrenaline rush. Your endomorphs are pumpin’ You are proud of your accomplishment and now get to carry around a virtual sign of your worthiness (an uber sword, the special armor, etc.)
Okay, in WoW the task is to slay some virtual monster, but why couldn’t it be to use skills in math to resolve a complex issue. Then you can use the sword of ultimate uberness you received as a reward to fight player vs player in the Arena….so your peers can see just how l337 you are. Kids might be clamoring to do their math homework, heh.