James Paul Gee, in his book 'What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy' states that video games are a definite form of learning. He claims that not only are they useful in teaching 'old dogs new tricks (See Baby Boomers,)' but that they also have a social learning aspect to them. In the introduction to his book, he talks about how one father went home and tried to learn how to play a video game, on his own. His son walks in, sees the incredible frustration that his father is having with the game and says "What are you trying to do?" "Trying to learn how to play this damn video game." "Alone? That's stupid." Gee takes what we already know about video games and puts a new light on it, showing that they are a learning medium in their own right, whether it be via social values or through various other means. We want to show how video games have evolved (show a video of pong, and controller) from the simple, to the complex (show a video of WoW or a 360 game and all the buttons associated with either.) At the center of our project, we plan to use content from Youtube related to the design, play experience, and social context of video games in American culture. Using special technology meant to piece Youtube videos together, we will gather clips such as: videogame previews, gameplay demonstrations, game menu and setup demonstrations, and perhaps miscellaneous comments from gamers and non-gamers. We also will potentially take videos of people playing games and have the social interactions that we notice, and discuss them. We might include still images interspersed throughout our presentation in order to provide “anchors” for our discussion, but this is a hypothesis right now. The visual content that we collect will be arranged in a way that opens up themes of Gee’s, including “semiotic domains” and the methods of learning within semiotic domains. The sequence of images will be designed to combine some of the expository elements of a report with some of the narrative elements of a technological history. Our own voices might overlay certain sections in order to help guide our audience through some of the more advanced themes or ideas iterated by Gee.


-explain a few games that are "isolated"--that is, they definitely require learning skills, but they are not socially reinforced because they are unpopular or have a learning curve that is too steep to be rewarding (I have a particular game that might work, and I'm biased because I LOVE it, so it could be interesting...)

-explain how certain kinds of learning can carry over between games (for instance, someone skilled in FPS games has an easier time of learning Halo, Gears of War, Resistance, etc.)

-explain how knowledge is tested within the "semiotic domain" of gaming (for instance, how are we "tested" for our knowledge? Tournaments? Friendly competition between friends? Our ability to teach someone else how to play?)