Computer Games and Instruction

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Playing computer games has always been the thing for all the people who were born in the XX-XXI century; and even though there might be someone who knows nothing about the true delight of playing a PC/video game, most people within that 50-year sphere surrounding video/computer games industry know what I am talking about. And, even though I have never been the one for spending nights to win a virtual prize, I was pretty surprised to find myself actually being captured into the virtual reality of one of the most famous computer games in entre world – the famous The Sims saga. Even though it is only now that I can interpret the effects of playing the game for hours, The Sims 3 has definitely proven its value as a great way to train some important skills.

I must admit that in my own sandbox, the world seemed incredibly colorful and attractive; filled with adventures and a real exercise for the brain, it had the same effect as a good movie has on the spectators – it is truly impossible to leave the movie theater until you finally see the climax. Even though the designs of the people in the game left much to be desired and most of the characters looked like the Pixar movie rejects, it was still a lot of fun to create my own world and playing God.

However, I soon realized that my new “pets” needed a lot of attention. I was spending hours trying to create a character and help it build its career so hard that I had completely forgotten about mine.

To fight the given problem, I started spending more time in the “sandbox,” which was actually the last thing to do – as a result, I desperately wanted to sleep, but I finally got the Maid’s character right. Moreover, I started looking for online cheats, which took all the fun out of the game.

Nevertheless, it would be unfair to claim that in my own sandbox, there were only unpleasant things to dig up. To my great surprise, I soon realized that The Sims taught me quite a bit about strategic thinking. In a couple of weeks, I understood that I could plan my actions and predict their consequences better. In addition, I felt more self-assured; indeed, being a god of one’s own universe does add some self-esteem.

However, just when I started to feel bored with all those characters that I was in charge of, I found out that the game was finished. There was nothing else to do with The Sims. Indeed, according to what Forbus says, the functions of the self-proclaimed “god” in The Sims are quite restricted:

Each Sim contains behavior calls for each of the possible social interactions (flirt, kiss, etc). When SimSam decides to run the kiss behavior (which is in SimMary) an invisible social interaction object is created. The execution of SimSam’s thread is then passed into this object (as is SimMary’s if she’s not busy). (Access to the parameters of the chosen Sim is provided through a pointer in the Social Interaction object.). (2)

With a toy that simple and that time-consuming, it was rather weird that this game took over me completely. Anyway, it was a narrow escape for me – even though the threats of game addiction are considered to be greatly exaggerated, as Vorderer and Bryant explained (Vorderer and Bryant, 332), I would not want to test how addictive they are.

Thus, like all good things, my adventure with The Sims finally came to an end. And, taking account of this travel, I must admit that it did have its pros and cons. On the one hand, is it has been mentioned previously, the game did teach me a lot of important skills, especially the ones concerning motor function and memorizing essential things, as well as keeping in mind a lot of crucial information.

In addition, I have acquired strategic thinking and the capability of thinking fast and efficiently. To add up, I got pretty interested in the way all these characters work, which probable served as the final argument for learning a couple of things about compute design. According to Tobias and Fletcher, computer games can help even surgeons, developing their skills and offering a decent simulation for real surgery (Tobias and Fletcher, 54), which makes the chances of everyone playing simulation games to train the corresponding skills. However, it is also worth mentioning that the game did take a great lot of time which I could have spent in a more useful way.

Moreover, constant playing the game could have made me dependable on playing computer games; luckily enough, I do not have any desire to start another computer adventure (unless Maxis offers the next part of the Saga instead of the despised spin-offs, which very unlikely). Thus, I am quite even with the Maxis and have escaped the sandbox without suffering great losses.

Works Cited

Forbus, Kenneth D. 2001, Some Notes on Programming Objects in The Sims. Web.

Tobias, Sigmund, and J. D. Fletcher. Computer Games and Instruction, Charlotte, NC: IAP, 2011. Print.

Vorderer, Peter, and J. Bryant. Playing Videogames: Motives, Responses and Consequences, New York, NY: Routledge, 2006. Print.

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Computer Games and Instruction

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