College Professor Requires Students to Study Portal

Recommended Videos

General Ken8

New member
May 18, 2009
1,260
0
0
That would be awesome, if the teacher did that alone I'd probably love college.
Now, if they can do that with Portal, I bet he could do something like that with Bioshock. . .
Terminate421 said:
Second greatest teacher ever.

The first one is the one that let us bring in COD4 and Halo 3 and kick each others asses all period (He also played too)

As for people who haven't played portal, Im going to imagine some girl who isn't going to know what the fuck they are doing.
You're a very lucky individual, scarcely do I hear of a teacher that cool. (BTW was he good at Halo or COD4?)

I heard one of the teachers in my high school brought Guitar Hero in towards the end of the year and destroyed all his students at it on EXPERT, that's my claim to fame
 

Danpascooch

Zombie Specialist
Apr 16, 2009
5,230
0
0
Ok, this is awesome, and I am all for this, but I have to ask one question.

Are they requiring people to beat the game? Because that seems a bit crazy, what if someone can't manage to beat it? Do they fail the course!?
 

SimuLord

Whom Gods Annoy
Aug 20, 2008
10,075
0
0
Fun fact: The very mention of Portal makes me whistle "Still Alive" as a Pavlovian response. It's really quite uncanny. You do what you must because you can, Tom Goldman.
 

Hopkins

New member
Jul 3, 2008
91
0
0
HT_Black said:
Hm. Classy. I approve whole-heartedly. Get em' reading Watchmen(or playing Deus Ex) and we'll have something really going there.
Funny, my English class this past year had to do our thesis papers on a graphic novel (we had a choice of 5: Maus, Stitches, Persepolis, American Born Chinese, and - you guessed it - Watchmen."
 

Someperson307

New member
Dec 19, 2008
264
0
0
He should have started them off with Limbo. It's way simpler than Portal, and the meaning of the game would be a great debate topic.
 

Muertos

New member
Aug 20, 2010
4
0
0
The Austin said:
.... Really?

Why Portal?
Portal has no deep meaning, it doesn't focus of humanity, it's just a damn puzzle game!
Someone was not paying attention during their playthrough. There was some meaty stuff under those puzzles.

And no, it wouldn't be at home in a physics class, because really at this point momentum and gravity are things we should get by now.
 

Miumaru

New member
May 5, 2010
1,765
0
0
Tom Goldman said:
MrPop said:
Ok I didn't really understand the 'backstage' stuff but that seems pretty cool I guess. What does it have to do with the course though. I don't understand really...

I'm guessing I'll take a peep at the guys book and then maybe be put off if it's too long.
The cake. It was a lie.
I would love a test on portal in a college, where a question is "What is the cake?" and every non gamer just gives some deep meaning to it...and only the gamers actually get it correct.
 

Space Jawa

New member
Feb 2, 2010
551
0
0
Crono Maniac said:
If a person doesn't play video games, and is required to play Portal, it is no different than a person who doesn't often read being required to read Hamlet, or a person who rarely listens to music being required to analyze Bach.
Not really. It's expected that anyone who's gotten through high school, let alone get into college, should be able to read. And if you get into college, you should be able to read at a level required to get through Hamlet. Even if you don't read very often, you still possess the capability.

Though in most cases, I'd imagine that a majority of the people getting into the class have read books often over the past few years, because a majority of those people have recently graduated from high school where they needed to read the textbooks there to graduate the first time around.

Contrast that to the fact that there are some people who will hardly ever play videogames at all, let alone a first-person puzzle game. Plus the challenge required to get through Hamlet, where you simply need to read the words, is nowhere near the same thing as being required to solve puzzles using a mechanic that has little-to-no real life application.

And on a side note, someone who's deaf might have a wee bit of trouble trying to analyze Bach.
 

kamikazekaninen

New member
Aug 23, 2010
2
0
0
About time someone realised the learning potential in interactive medias like videogames. Up 'till now it seems that videogames has been a scapegoat for violent actions. "Oh, so he blew away his school, you say? It's because of all those darn videogames."
 

joshuaayt

Vocal SJW
Nov 15, 2009
1,988
0
0
...
You know, over here I tried to use the Silent Hill series in a semi-important essay about the human psyche, and the teacher auto-failed me without reading it. "I said artistic medium, not video games. Grow up", was the analysis from the esteemed professor. Who knows? Maybe when this gen grows up, more professors will be like this Michael Abbott.
EDIT: Although I do think that maybe this as a *requirement* was a bad idea. I know us gamer types don't really notice, but it is as that one guy said- for non gamers, the disconnect between user input and 3d motion in a gameworld can be really offputting, and difficult to adapt to. And portal, being a game that (near the end) requires good timing, isn't the best place to start. He should at least allow those unable to complete it to watch a Let's Play, or something.
 

ArMartinez02

New member
Mar 10, 2010
260
0
0
they should make the american education more like this, imagine studiying history while playing a ww2 game lol, so much to learn
 

duchaked

New member
Dec 25, 2008
4,450
0
0
so not just America's Army now :]
Portal for physics? whooo
or...philosophy. that works too lol
 

Withall

New member
Jan 9, 2010
553
0
0
Well... I suppose that from a narrative perspective, GLaDOS and Chell are actors on a very intentional stage. GLaDOS, as the director, and Chell as the protagonist?

I'd imagine that it also feature elements of mankind's neverending quest to "find out what's there", even if there is no reason for it- which GLaDOS "gleefully" notifies you several times in the game (though I can only remember one such instance, but also that we can adapt to a given situation, and that when we have adapted, we are rewarded with progress?

'Course, it's awesome that a game is made into a college course: but I'd really like to know what made the professor decide that "Hey! I can use this game a metaphor to really sink in these philosophical concepts!".
 

OceanRunner

New member
Mar 18, 2009
1,145
0
0
How about game journalism classes where you write reviews, features and so on. They should also try a videogame art class where you play Okami and Okamiden.