Can Games Be Entertaining, Educational, and Profitable?
October 27th, 2008 | Written by Anthony Perez | Topic: Industry News
Apparently the answer is no. At least according to Microsoft’s Neil Thompson, who believes hugely popular “edutainment” games such as Brain Age are exceptions rather than the rule. Thompson argues that game publishers and developers must realize that their first and only priority is to entertain their audience. Any educational value that someone might get from a game should kind of happen as a happy accident, where the educational value of a game comes about unintentionally.
“We’re in the business of producing fun, not education,” offered Thompson. “It so happens that certain products we produce have educational value. We’re in the business of creating fun entertainment and the moment we try to pretend we’re in the business of education we’ve crossed the line and it’s dangerous for us as a company and as an industry.
While it’s pretty obvious that most educational games have no chance of topping the sales of Halo 3, I do think there are people who are interested in games that make learning new facts or skills a more fun and interactive experience. It may be presumptuous, but I’m sure we all remember being kids in class and having a teacher play a game with us rather than lecture us. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I sure learned quite a bit that way.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Not everyone needs a formal education, including some of the most renowned game designers. Check out who didn’t finish school in our feature: 6 of Gaming’s Most Successful Dropouts
Games, be it videogames or otherwise, certainly can be a helpful educational tool, and it removes monotony and boredom from the learning process. In a recent survey from Project Tomorrow, a national non-profit educational organization, kids showed a ton of interest in the prospect of using games to learn. Among the findings:
- More than half of students in grades 3 through 12 believe educational gaming would help them learn;
- Only 16% of teachers, 15% of administrators and 19% of parents are on board today — although there was significantly more support for further exploration of the potential;
- And, 11% of teachers say they’re already using video games in class, no matter how much you roll your eyes.
With the recent use of the Nintendo DS in schools in Japan, EA’s new game adaptions of the “For Dummies” series, and the obvious success of games like Brain Age, it’s hard to agree that there are no possibilities for educational games to actually make money. There are certainly enough people to support at least a few fast-selling “edutainment” games, and schools could sign fairly lucrative contracts to bring those same games into classrooms around the world.
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Comment by RYErnest on the November 29th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Nice post u have here
Added to my RSS reader