I just finished Prensky’s book this morning and I’m not moving on to A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster. I got this book at the same time as Don’t bother me… but now I’m more interested after comments made in Prensky’s book about IDs taking the fun out of games/learning.
My nutshell review of the book:
A very informative and interesting read that offers some simple solutions to issues that are being raised about games and their place in the lives of our children. I believe that Prensky hits the nail on the head when he talks about adding an “Instructional Designer” to a game team killing the fun. ID is about a long process with fewer decisions that are worth more, and game design is about numerous decisions that are not worth as much and therein is the problem with the way that many children are being taught. Prensky also does well in exploring the idea that games are not the be all and end all, but that they are merely a gateway to additional skills and literacies, many of which are increasingly important today and even more so by the time the children of today enter society in some productive manner, perhaps earlier than before and with better compensation as a result of skills acquired through gaming and it’s related cloud of exploration.
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