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The Games Industry Perspective

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Book cover Graduate Skills and Game-Based Learning

Part of the book series: Digital Education and Learning ((DEAL))

Abstract

When considering the use of video games in education, it is common to focus on the students and educators involved. Less well documented is how those responsible for producing video games view the educational potential of the medium. Do game developers think their games have the capacity to develop useful skills in players? Do they believe games present players with opportunities to learn something about the world? Might developers consciously include such opportunities in their games? To explore these questions, industry personnel responsible for the commercial titles used in the previously described study were interviewed, revealing that developers do see educational potential in the games they create. The potential they identify aligns with much of the research on game-based learning, including the study on which this book is based, and the theories put forth by James Paul Gee. Developers identified a range of skills that games may exercise, including critical thinking and collaboration, and highlighted the affordances of games that facilitate learning, such as the provision of a safe space in which to fail and develop confidence. It is equally apparent, however, that commercial game developers are reluctant to make claims about any such potential that cannot be verified.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, the official Gearbox Software Borderlands 2 discussion forum at https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/c/borderlands-2.

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  1. Centre for Computing Science Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Matthew Barr

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  1. Matthew Barr
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Correspondence to Matthew Barr .

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Barr, M. (2019). The Games Industry Perspective. In: Graduate Skills and Game-Based Learning. Digital Education and Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27786-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27786-4_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27785-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-27786-4

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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