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"Experience through gameplay?"

Every now and then I come across articles in the newspaper about how much time kids waste away playing computer games. I’ve often had arguments with my parents about the amount of time I’ve sat in front of the television or P.C. and how it wasn’t going to be any benefit to me when I was “older and in the real world”. I’d like to think that now at the age of 20, I have perhaps proved to my parents that playing computer games aren’t always a waste of time.

Without ever realising it at the time, I gained a great deal of knowledge from playing games such as the SimCity, Settlers, and Zoo Tycoon series’. My favourite subjects when I was in secondary school were geography and biology, and next year I am going on to college to study zoology. My strong point in geography exams was the Ordnance Survey maps, where the questions were always about where it was best to build settlements and why, and I am in no doubt that years of playing “The Settlers” gave me a keen eye for picking a good location, and that playing “SimCity 2000 and 3000 gave me a firm grasp of how a city works and of a city’s’ needs so that I could develop my answers in an exam.

I was never much good at geography in primary school, but ever since my brother bought me “The Settlers” when I was 11 I fell in love with all things geographic, and grew to love geography as an exam subject, feeling I could relate to the subject easily from playing games whose basis were the topics I was learning in school.

When “Zoo Tycoon” came out I have to say I was beside myself with joy and excitement. I’ve always had a passion for animals, and living only fifteen minutes from Dublin Zoo, I have been a regular visitor there and have applied for work experience in the zoo. So “Zoo Tycoon” was my idea of the perfect game for me. I personally think it is a game that should perhaps be integrated in some way into science or geography classes in schools, because aside from the fact that it is an enjoyable game, it also offers a fun way to learn about many different animals and their habitats, and would invariably help children to become familiar with animals that perhaps they would never hear of or see otherwise. I came across animals in “Zoo Tycoon” that I had never heard of before but would probably recognise in a zoo now, and I hope to see some of these animals and learn more about them through my college course. The game very definitely sparked my interest in them.

So I argue that parents like mine should not be so firm as to dismiss computer games altogether, but perhaps try to encourage their child by adding a game or two of some educational value to their collection, without taking away any of the fun of a well developed game. You never know, one day your child might just appreciate the gesture as much as I appreciate my brother’s purchase.

Thanks gerrid. I have no idea what to claim. Any suggestions?

Well done for winning, Cub. What are you going to claim?

Drunk Cow wrote:
> Um...congrats. I guess SR thought different than we did on this guy's
> post...

I don't understand what you're saying about SR thinking different than you did, but thanks for the congrats!

Um...congrats. I guess SR thought different than we did on this guy's post...

Anyone else got any opinions on this?

I'm reporting him

He is, indeed, a fool.

he's trying to raise his word count. Check my piracy topic, 1000+ words and he quoted the whole message

Alan Rudd wrote:
>plus i wasn't spamming

umm, by copying a whole message ONCE is bad enough, just to type "I do agree" underneath is best confirmed as spamming

Why did you write "original message"?
And then just write a couple of words at the end?
It was spamming, no matter what your intentions were.