World of Warcraft

After I read the post on what some schools and professionals are trying to do with World of Warcraft I spent some time reading the wowinschool website. One video I watched was of Jane McGonigal, a game designer and expert in teaching skills through video games, and she extolled the virtues of the feelings of success that video games give you. She explains that this success in game, also called the "epic win", inspires confidence in ones ability to accomplish anything. Just as a tidbit of background information I have played World of Warcraft over the years a total of 3 months worth of hours. It has been a long time since I have played but I am very familiar with the game and I have contributed my fair share to the 6 million years that game has been played since it's inception. In the forum discussion I was a little harsh against WoW, and video games in general, as a medium for education. I just tend to really think they aren't. They haven't been for me and I see the world through my own eyes after all. But, after watching McGonigal's speech my mind was taken back to a principle my dad taught me about guns. "Guns", he said "can save as many lives as they can take, it depends on the motives of the finger"... or something like that. A gun can be a weapon or a tool and which incarnation it takes depends on how it is used. The same can be true of video games. I have seen a lot of people waste their lives away as slaves to video games and rarely have I seen the opposite. But, as I have pondered the people I admire in my life, I am surprised to find that many of them are awesome gamers and I can't help but wonder how those games have contributed to their skills. If Jane can engineer it correctly it is an exciting concept for people who love video games.

Referenced from http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/