[email protected]

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago currently has a blockbuster
exhibit on the history and culture of video games - Game On. It looks like it's
going to be open through the end of April. Most of the exhibit is games to
play. It's pretty incredible. My kids and I went to the first incarnation last
year. Wow. I was amazed at how non chaotic and non overwhelming it was (I have a
hard time in arcades, too much competing stimulus.) It was wonderfully well
organized and there was so MUCH to do that we rarely had to wait long for a
desired spot. My 13yo daughter spent a very long time trying to get past the
opening sequence in the text adventure "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", without
success. She and her twin brother later teamed up to buy a collection of text
adventures from an ebay seller, and spent weeks playing Hitchhiker and Zork. :)

Even if you can't make it to Chicago the online stuff is pretty cool, too.

http://msichicago.org/gameon/index.html

Over the years video games have provided lots of learning for my kids, both
in and out of the game, particularly for my now 13yo son. For instance- he
started collecting older Nintendo systems, controllers, and games for the systems
a few years ago. He budgets for purchases, recalculating future expenditures
as he gains income or spots a new rare item for sale, or a changed price (the
used market being variable and unpredictable). He spends a lot of time doing
research on recent prices so he can recognize a good deal when he stumbles on
it. He's learned to base his ebay bids on what he wants to spend minus the
shipping and handling costs. He's learned to calculate which combination of wanted
used games will be the best bargain when Game Crazy has a buy two get one free
deal. He's done a HUGE amount of research to find information on these games
and systems that are in many cases older than he is, and all of which were new
to him. He reads online and read many books on older game systems. He got
really good at using our library computer catalog to order books in from the
regional system. He started with game guides and progressed through development
and history. Most recently he's been reading about game psychology and the
psychology of gaming, brain research and gaming, culture and gaming - he borrowed
"Joystick Nation" so many times I just bought him his own copy*. And of course
he wants to learn to program his own games.

I haven't done any directing of his "video game" education. My job has been
helping as and when he needed it - helping him learn how to use the library
catalog and how to reserve materials; suggesting how to narrow searches on google
as well as the library systems; supplying transportation to video game
stores, garage sales, thrift stores and rummage sales; discussing with him potential
purchases when he asked my opinion; bidding on items for him from ebay (he
pays me when/if he wins the bid); gifting him with gaming magazines and books;
and most importantly having serious conversations with him about his serious
interest, where he gets to be the expert and I am an interested participant. Oh,
and I play with him, too. It's a real thrill when I win a competitive game
with him, it happens so rarely. :)

*"Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and
Rewired our Minds" by JC Herz

at the same time we ordered two other books we're both slowly working our way
through:

"What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" by James Paul
Gee and "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is
Actually Making Us Smarter" by Steven Johnson

Deborah in IL

Paula Sjogerman

On Feb 13, 2006, at 12:38 AM, DACunefare@... wrote:

> My 13yo daughter spent a very long time trying to get past the
> opening sequence in the text adventure "Hitchhikers Guide to the
> Galaxy", without
> success. She and her twin brother later teamed up to buy a
> collection of text
> adventures from an ebay seller, and spent weeks playing Hitchhiker
> and Zork. :)


That's so funny! Hitchhiker's Guide was the very first text game I
ever saw, right after I met Craig and he had the first personal
computer I ever saw.


Paula

"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that the
child is already someone today. - Stacia Tauscher"

Schuyler Waynforth

There are 2 20th anniversary editions of the original text game (which
I couldn't ever get beyond getting the babelfish in my ear, but was
happy to find complete walkthroughs for when I tried sometime last
year) here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml

And here is the original--without the ability to save
http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html

Schuyler


--- In [email protected], Paula Sjogerman <sjogy@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Feb 13, 2006, at 12:38 AM, DACunefare@... wrote:
>
> > My 13yo daughter spent a very long time trying to get past the
> > opening sequence in the text adventure "Hitchhikers Guide to the
> > Galaxy", without
> > success. She and her twin brother later teamed up to buy a
> > collection of text
> > adventures from an ebay seller, and spent weeks playing Hitchhiker
> > and Zork. :)
>
>
> That's so funny! Hitchhiker's Guide was the very first text game I
> ever saw, right after I met Craig and he had the first personal
> computer I ever saw.
>
>
> Paula
>
> "We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that the
> child is already someone today. - Stacia Tauscher"
>