The Insider Principle

Last week I wrote about Gee's Principles, and I figured that I would stick with the same theme for this week's post. The principle I wanted to talk about this week is "The Insider Principle", which states that the learner is an insider, teacher and producer.... not just a consumer and that they are able to customize their learning experience and domain/game from the beginning and throughout the experience.

My experience playing NBA2k10 is unique and personal to me. Each person who plays the game derives their own personal life lessons and educational values. In some sense, my fate and my learning experience was determined at the startup screen when I customized the settings of my dynasty and my team. If I had selected to remove the injuries option during simulation, I wouldn't have had to experience the frustration of simulating a series of games without a pop up screen stopping my simulation. Additionally, my learning experienced would have been altered had I picked the Los Angeles Lakers or Oklahoma City Thunder instead of my beloved team. Hypothetically, had I chosen the Los Angeles Lakers, my learning experience would have been greatly different because their roster was incredible and I would have been able to simulate a season and offseason without the difficulties of financial problems and losing. Further, had I elected to be the Thunder, I may have struggled in the preliminary season but the youth on my team would naturally progress over time without having to worry about finances, team chemistry, or trading.

While the NBA2k game itself is the same for everyone who purchases it, everyones playing experience is greatly different. No two people have played the exact same game, made the exact same trade, or drafted the same exact player. Thus, when we progress our teams and make basic decisions in the game we are customizing our own learning experience. Just like my trade that I talked about last week in acquiring Kobe Bryant, had I not made that trade I wouldn't have learned the importance of team chemistry and synergy.

The Psychosocial Moratorium Principle

When we first read Gee's book and learned about his principles of learning, one of the concepts that truly resonated with me was his psychosocial moratorium principle. In short, Gee summarizes his principle by stating that "learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered." I really liked this principle because it illustrates the notion that video games act as real world simulations without the dangerous life consequences. In my video game playing this past week, I saw firsthand this principle come to fruition.

Everything was going great with my Chicago Bulls dynasty when I realized that I needed to make some monetary transactions in order to resign a key player. In my attempt to shed salary, I realized that I could make a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers that would bring me Kobe Bryant and a few minor players while simultaneously keeping Derek Rose, my star youngster Omar Chavez, and the rest of a team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. Reluctantly, I accepted the trade, thus taking the risk of destroying a team that was on the verge of winning a championship.

The new season began and we were off to a great start. Derek Rose's play continued to improve while Kobe Bryant proved he was still the same all-star he was with the Lakers. However, as the season progressed, our play began to decline and slide down a slippery slope. Currently, about halfway through the season, we find ourselves in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and on the outside looking in on the playoff race.

This example is a perfect illustration of Gee's 6th principle. In life, all of us have the common sense to keep things the way they are when they are going well. Because of the fact that there no life altering consequences in playing video games, I was willing to take a risk of changing up a team. In real life, this simple mistake would have cost a GM his job and the prospect of being hired again in the future. For me, my mistake simply cost me one unfortunate season of basketball.

Updating Technology

Recently we have read articles and books about the use of modern technology and how schools need to keep up with modern technology so that they can keep pace with the technological levels of their students. This concept really got me thinking about the importance of technology and keeping up to date with your target market (in this case video game lovers). In my opinion, the thing that sets NBA 2k1o apart from all the other games is the fact that this years version has all the updates that satisfy its audience. Whether its the consistent use of the appropriate advertisements from T-Mobile and Sprite, to the names and voices of the announcers, to Lebron James throwing the chalk in front of the scorers table before tip off, NBA 2K10 has successfully adapted to fit the needs of its fan base.

The other day while I was playing, a friend of mine walked into the room, looked at the TV and had to do a double take before he realized that I was playing a video game and not watching NBA on TV. The graphics and player characteristics are so accurate and precise that one would question how long it takes the producers to make the game. To me, the most remarkable thing about video games is the fact that the price of X-Box and Play Station games has remained fairly consistent over the past few years even though the graphics and technology in the games has greatly advanced. I think it's fair to assume that the graphics and use of modern technology costs considerably more then the old input prices and I would be interested to see how video game revenues have faired over the past few years.

I can only imagine how video games will change change and adapt in the near future. With the use of "online" downloading capabilities, graphics, and gameplay features, game companies (sports in particular) will have to compete with themselves, let alone the rest of the market share, to create new games that satisfy the desires of the gaming world.