Studying video games

When considering technology and the study of it seems like video games always get the short end of the stick. Video games have been a scapegoat of American parents for a couple decades now; although we should look at how video games have been an asset to society. I think it would be captivating and educational to do a unit on the history of video games in a high school arts classroom. Video games provide a basis for examining story telling, technology development, intermedium story telling, world making, and creating a personal story through a virtual world.

Video games have served as a catalyst for the expansion of the computer. In “Vide Games: Behind the Fun” by The History Channel points out that we do not need 32 bits of color for word processing or spread sheets. All the way from the first video game, called Space War and invented on the MIT campus for fun through Second Life, humans have sought out virtual worlds where their persona can be altered. In some current cases there have been divorces as a result of a virtual world occurrence. People have invested emotional energy into these worlds making the line between virtual and real blur. This unit could cover specific elements of technology (for instance motion capture), could consider the ethical decisions made during game production, or could follow the interactive story lines of some of the more popular games. The unit could be culminated with a series of observations on various consoles from various points of the evolution of video games. Some people might need some convincing, but I guarantee the students would be engaged.