Students explore history, gender issues with the help of video games

The syllabus includes Frogger, Pac-Man and Nintendo, but it isn't a blow-off class. F401 "Simulation and Gaming" offered by the School of Education offers students the chance to integrate playing games they love with a more in-depth analysis of those games.\nThe class aims to look at many different angles of video games, including their history, violence and gender issues within the games, why people play video games and how to use video games in a classroom setting.\nKurt Squire, a doctoral student who is instructing the class for a third semester, said he wants to focus on "edutainment," that is, how video games can be used to educate. \nSquire and a friend developed a Web site, Joystick101.org, which Squire described as taking an in-depth look at video games. Squire plans to use the site for holding class discussions in a live forum and might also have online guest speakers.\nOne of the main projects the class will be working on is a three-dimensional interactive space with online activities where kids can do role-play in different cultures and speak different languages. There would also be games involving real-world conflicts in social situations instead of violence. Squire's class will work to make these activities available for kids at the Boys and Girls Club. \nAlthough the class is in the School of Education, Andrea Di Pietro, a junior, said she is one of the few education majors enrolled. She said she is taking it to fulfill a requirement to get a computer endorsement, but she hopes she can apply what she learns in the classroom as a teacher. Di Pietro said she wants to learn how to use video games as a way to make learning fun.\n"For our projects you can pick whatever you're interested in to do it on," she said. "I can relate (video games) to the classroom. Some other people might want to design a game."\nOne student who has already designed a basic game is Ben Jones, a freshman. He said he has been interested in video games since his childhood.\n"Way back when, when Nintendo came out I was like 'We can play Mario Brothers and don't have to put a quarter in it!'" he said.\nAnother student, Eric Satz, a senior, also became interested in video games at an early age. He said that is why he still likes video games and why he is taking the class.\n"I grew up with video games," he said. "They're a great stress release. You take hard classes all week and then can come and take something like this. I mean, it's still class, but it's fun."\nSatz said he did not even mind the 80 pages of reading assigned last week.\n"You read something and it brings you back to your childhood," he said. "You remember when you were five years old and at a friend's house, sitting around playing Atari."\nJones said video games have changed tremendously since the days of Pong, and they continue to change.\n"They're way rowdier on the mind," Jones said. "Marketers do it purposefully because they know once you get to one level they have to make it harder."\nThe technology of video games has also changed over the years.\n"(Game makers) are trying to make everything online," he said. "Now you're playing against a person, not just the computer. It's quite addicting because of the satisfaction of knowing you're beating someone else's intelligence."\nJones's favorite game is Counter-Strike, an online game involving a terrorist reenactment. He said that after playing the game for an hour and having an adrenaline rush, he is mentally and physically exhausted. But Jones likes the game because of the competitiveness.\nAt some point, Squire said, he might like to take a group of students who are really dedicated to learning more about video games to the Gaming Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif. He also might like to take some of his students into classrooms to test the games on children. \nAmong his goals for the students, Squire said he hopes they will gain "a deeper and more critical awareness of how games work, what the effects are of games on people, some deeper knowledge of the electrical entertainment industry and a better ability to communicate those ideas effectively."\n Students said they were enjoying the class while learning. \n Satz said of the classroom, "Listen, and you can hear everyone laughing and having a good time, and that's part of the appeal of video games … Even if it's an old-time game or a new game, the reason people play it is for enjoyment. It gets them out of reality ' they can be someone else. It's the same reason why people read books ' the essence of life is to use your imagination"