Half-Life 2
(picture from nvnews.net)
I’ve been writing about different margins for appropriation as an important (perhaps the most important?) feature in video games for learning. Games with a narrow margin for appropriation (e.g. with only one way to do things) end up imposing a single way of being on the learner; games with a wider margin for appropriation (e.g. allowing and encouraging many ways of being in the world) are challenging to design. Personally, I find that Half-Life 2 is closer to the former (playing this game feels like walking through a very long tunnel to me) and Civilisation is closer to the latter.
The focus on margins for appropriation is highly relevant to learning. Paulo Freire (1998), a firm advocate for progressive education, wrote:
By “progressive” I mean a point of view that favors the autonomy of the students (p. 21)
I speak of a universal human ethic in the same way I speak of humanity’s ontological vocation, which calls us out of and beyond ourselves (…) It means we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined. (p. 26)
For the game to be valuable for learning, the game should hence frame the player’s experience without being deterministic. While playing Half-Life 2, for example, I didn’t feel that I had the autonomy to be different kinds of Gordon Freeman. I look forward to play more games where I can choose to be different kinds of governors, journalists, or guitar player.
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: ethics, democracy, and civic courage. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
