The Goods On the Game Industry

In the past three decades, video games have established themself as a major entertainment force and what could now be argued as the stimulus for one of the largest public goods cultures in the world; the video game community. As the term ‘public goods’ can be considered as “intangible items…[that] fall into the category of information or knowledge”(Linux Information project, 2006, web), it can be determined that the game worlds themselves are based off an intricate fusion of rules, back-stories and information to be explored, expanded and shared. Even though gaming is mainly supported and hosted by commercial goods, groundbreaking advancements in both game design and social interaction have created a knowledge economy amongst gamers that relies heavily on the circulation of ‘public good’. To understand how this has impacted on not only the way we play games, but the way we live our lives. We can examine the importance of knowledge in games and how games are aiding the expansion of knowledge as visual learning systems.

In order to understand why knowledge and the sharing of information has become such a crucial part of our digital culture, we need look no further than the most popular MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game to date, World of Warcraft. On the surface, the game may seem like a fairly straightforward adventure, but in order to play the game successfully, you must understand more than what is immediately obvious. As Adam Ruch states, "Blizzard's (Developer) primary goal is to regulate the space which they have created, so that the game may function as intended. They seek to protect their rights over intellectual property, as well as provide protection for the rights and expectations of their players." (2009, Web). This suggests that not only is there an entirely new legal system within the game-space itself that must be learnt and abided by, but also a requirement to use information in such a way that does not breach their intellectual property.

Wow...WoW requires a lot of extra knowledge. Lucky it is free, otherwise there would be a lot of poor addicts around.

The knowledge behind how this universe works is not limited to what you get with the software or what you can buy, but a limitless resource that is forever being expanded by its community. There is no charge that applies to the use of this information on how to play the game, what to do at certain points and how to be the best you can be and certainly no lack of producers of such content. It has been recognised that "in order to make sense of how games are used and made sense of, there is a need to analyse learning as an integrated part of participation in social practices."(Arnseth, 2006, Web) That is, the social interaction with social aspects of the game whether it be speaking to other players, reading forums or using a WOW walkthrough (all free) is just as valuable to learning the game as playing the game itself (something you must purchase). This is just one example of the importance of accessible and limitless information in a virtual world; however any game could have been used effectively as an example because the concept of ‘public good’ is universal when it comes to videogame intelligence.

Without 'public goods', nobody would have ever made it past the water temple...

Skills learnt in games don’t always necessarily relate exclusively to the world it was created. Instead, games can also be seen as mass educators for ‘the public good’. This claim is best summed up by The Economist (2005):

Games are widely used as educational tools, not just for pilots, soldiers and surgeons, but also in schools and businesses…Anyone who has learned to play a handful of games can generally figure out how to operate almost any high-tech device. Games require players to construct hypotheses, solve problems, develop strategies, and learn the rules of the in-game world through trial and error. Gamers must also be able to juggle several different tasks, evaluate risks and make quick decisions…Playing games is, thus, an ideal form of preparation for the workplace of the 21^st century, as some forward-thinking firms are starting to realise. (The Economist cited Flew, 2008, p127)

As suggested, videogames almost have an embedded and implicit ability to teach players translatable skills, even if education was not the primary purpose of the game. Once a game is purchased, it is a limitless resource. They can be played in any number of ways and follow any set of governing rules within the bounds of the game. Anybody can then play the game if they have access to it and learn implicitly. It can then be theorised that videogames have the potential to revolutionise education and learning systems by incorporating the ability to subconsciously teach ‘public good’ skills to a broad audience.

"Public good" is more than sharing information as a limitless resource; it is a part of the knowledge economy and digital media society in which we live. Interacting with visual learning systems is growing in popularity and will allow game developers to utilise their tools and creativity to train a more organised and efficient generation of workers and change life as we know it.

References:

Arnset, Hans Christian (2006). Learning to Play or Playing to Learn – A Critical Account of the Models of Communication Informing Educational Research of Computer Gameplay. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 6, Issue 1. Sourced From: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/arnseth

Flew, Terry (2008). New Media: An Introduction (3^rd Edition). Oxford University Press, New York.

Linux (2006). Public Goods: A Brief Introduction. Web. Sourced From:

http://www.linfo.org/public_good.html

Ruch, Adam (2009). World of Warcraft: Service or Space?. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 9, Issue 2. Sourced From:

http://gamestudies.org/0902/articles/ruch

Image Source:


http://geekspodcast.com/2010/03/25/the-wow-infographic/