Your Opinion on learning games

[Jonathan Hexley]

I just wanted to know what everyone thinks of all these learning games, or brain training games.
I don't like them. Those learning games feel a bit like a big middle finger to the educational system. I play games to escape from a boring day of school, not to learn when I'm not inside school. I can sort of understand where Brain Training's coming from, but I just don't see the point of many of these learning games.

 

[sammyfreak]

I used to play similar games as a child and enjoyed them alot, it was alot more interesting then just reading and I learnt stuff. Learning is good, learning in a way that is fun is better.

 

[Rob Sharona]

What do you mean by 'learning' games? Calling them that implies they teach you something new, and they don't really.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

What do you mean by 'learning' games? Calling them that implies they teach you something new, and they don't really.

What he said. I think it might be more accurate to call them "brain exercises". I haven't played many, but I do recall a neat online game I played once where you had to quickly type words to destroy robots. Not the sort of thing I'd play on a regular basis, but a fun little way to sharpen my typing skillz.

 

[Jonathan Hexley]

What do you mean by 'learning' games? Calling them that implies they teach you something new, and they don't really.

What he said. I think it might be more accurate to call them "brain exercises". I haven't played many, but I do recall a neat online game I played once where you had to quickly type words to destroy robots. Not the sort of thing I'd play on a regular basis, but a fun little way to sharpen my typing skillz.

By 'Learning' games I mean those games that are used for teaching kids things. I dunno, it's kinda hard to explain. But yeah, I guess it's better to call them brain exercises.
But those Leapfrog 'game systems'? Completely useless. Just wait until they get into school, that teaches them basic numeracy skills and such.

 

[vede]

By 'Learning' games I mean those games that are used for teaching kids things. I dunno, it's kinda hard to explain. But yeah, I guess it's better to call them brain exercises.
But those Leapfrog 'game systems'? Completely useless. Just wait until they get into school, that teaches them basic numeracy skills and such.

Do they teach vocabulary, too? Just thought it was a bit ironic that you missed something like that in a line about kids and education. (Numeracy is not a word!)

Personally, I don't find them entertaining, and I don't think they can really help. But that's mostly because they never helped me. I'm sure a few of the mindless young-ones have learned a letter or two from them. Maybe.

 

[Jonathan Hexley]

Numeracy isn't a word? My 'Numeracy' teachers use it enough.
Anyway, I'm not sure if they teach vocabulary, and I don't really care. I don't see why a company needs to make a 'game system' that teaches young kids what they should be learning in school.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

My main problem is with Brain Training, which is probably the best known 'brain exercise' game. Having tried it for myself, I realised that the reason it makes your results improve reliably is that you become used to the nuances of the system. For example, you have to draw a single line for an L or else it will mistake it for a C. And don't get me started on the speech recognition.

Also, there is a limited selection of four letter words for the memorisation test, so repeated attempts (which is the point of daily brain training) make it much easier.

 

[Bowstring]

By 'Learning' games I mean those games that are used for teaching kids things. I dunno, it's kinda hard to explain. But yeah, I guess it's better to call them brain exercises.
But those Leapfrog 'game systems'? Completely useless. Just wait until they get into school, that teaches them basic numeracy skills and such.

Do they teach vocabulary, too? Just thought it was a bit ironic that you missed something like that in a line about kids and education. (Numeracy is not a word!)

Personally, I don't find them entertaining, and I don't think they can really help. But that's mostly because they never helped me. I'm sure a few of the mindless young-ones have learned a letter or two from them. Maybe.

Lol wut: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeracy

I think the games are generally just a fun way of keeping your brain upto scratch, and give you a bit of a challenge.

 

[vede]

Its absence in a dictionary is perplexing, then.

 

[Jonathan Hexley]

The absence of gullible is also perplexing. But that's a real word.

 

[Rob Sharona]

Its absence in a dictionary is perplexing, then.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/numeracy


If you take the time with something like Brain Training you would find that they really push your skills to the limit. They are not teaching aids, they are a genuine way to sharpen your mind.

It's also addicitve improving your scores on them. Just like time trials in racing games, you want to go faster.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

As long as their fun, and not crappy knock-offs I'm okay with them

 

[mark_n_b]

In all fairness few things deserve a huge middle finger more than the educational system.

And brain training games are not educational games are not those little cartridges you can get for your DS that teach you French (est-que vous voulez francais?)

Me, I am 100% for all of them. They fill a market gap and further expand the undernourished and much maligned culture of gaming. True, the whole French learning thing turns a gaming device into a text book, but whatever, it's not like they are actually competing with anything and it is about as offensive to the educational system as a franchise book-store.

I find Brain Age amusing, it serves up a daily dose of clever little mini-games that are clever enough not to try to pretend to be anything other than clever little mini games, you aren't fishing in a world of ice spells and hobbits for a new armor upgrade, you aren't trying to foil an alarm system, you're adding. And if you suck, it just tells you.

As for actual educational games. How I long for the days of Number Munchers or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (not that recent action / adventure PS2 idiotness) when I was a kid Carmen taught me about the world and socio-political-economics in an exaggerated cartoon world of mystery. A later installment through a time machine in which added historical events to the mix (and proceeded to make the game way too hard for an eleven year old). And this made school more entertaining and fun for me, social studies became a strategy guide, and much to the school systems dismay, I began to earn better grades.

There are not many actual titles like the latter anymore. The most recent I can remember is the degree to which I learned about human Cell structure from Parasite Eve on the PS1.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

What do you mean by 'learning' games? Calling them that implies they teach you something new, and they don't really.

What he said. I think it might be more accurate to call them "brain exercises". I haven't played many, but I do recall a neat online game I played once where you had to quickly type words to destroy robots. Not the sort of thing I'd play on a regular basis, but a fun little way to sharpen my typing skillz.

By 'Learning' games I mean those games that are used for teaching kids things. I dunno, it's kinda hard to explain. But yeah, I guess it's better to call them brain exercises.
But those Leapfrog 'game systems'? Completely useless. Just wait until they get into school, that teaches them basic numeracy skills and such.

Kids not being able to read or count at all when they enter school is the bane of teachers' lives. The responsibility of educating young people is not solely the purview of schools.

 

[geldonyetich]

I really wish there were more adult-friendly learning games. I think that learning difficult subjects would be a lot more enjoyable if there were a game with high production values teaching me in an adaptive and thoroughly entertaining manner. I'm not talking brain-age mental tests, I'm talking things like advanced calculus or foreign languages. The reason why we don't see games like this is probably because they anticipate a total commercial disaster.