PlayMaker Gamifies Middle School Experience

1 Comment

1. Lewis Pulsipher on 12.09.2012 at 09:05

   The problem with “gamification” is, video games nowadays tend to be reward-fests, not consequence-based. Video games reward persistence, not skill or smarts. You can’t lose. Is this what we want to teach children? I don’t think so. This is a result of the broadening of the market, and of the influence of free-to-play games. And it’s often the reward-fests that are used as the basis for gamification.

   Classes in schools need to be consequence-based, because the real world is consequence-based, and because many children (and a lot of adults, really) are generally going to be absolutely unproductive unless they have an incentive to be productive. They’re kids, after all, we no longer expect kids to be productive in their everyday lives, so they’re not in the habit of being productive for school.

   Much of “gamification” seems to be turning something that people do into a contest. So that they have easy ways to compare both with other people and with themselves, easy ways to recognize one kind of progress. This is accomplished using the trappings of video games, such as scores, achievements, and perks. And that’s not necessarily bad in itself, if there are still consequences, still failure to get it done.

   But if we base our real-world on reward-fests that have no failure, what are we doing? Ultimately, getting our lunch eaten by the Chinese.

   Which is not to say this Playmaker is a bad thing, not enough information available.

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