I am learning a new thing. How does the learning of this new thing take place within me? How do my fingers learn how to move, how do I recognize the clues? My new thing will be learning video games. This will be the third time in my life I have learned video games. The first time was the summer of 1974 Pong was in the arcade at the campground that summer. The next time I learned video games was Christmas 2002, our Nintendo Game Cube was new, and the games of Luigi’s Mansion, Pacman or Harry Porter my son and I played that Christmas vacation was the last time I played video games.
I think the learning ‘how-to’ of the game had not changed all that much from Pong to Luigi’s Mansion. Learning the controls of motion is click and try, risk taking – you make a few stumbles of the controller and soon you’re walking. Later as the player I discovered and become an active participant in a quest, it was at that point then learning began to take place and the purpose of the play became more nuanced from one of learning unnatural physical movements to one of intellectual ones in figuring out the solution of the game. In the game I am learning today I am first trying to learn the controls of motion, which key performs which function all while negotiating though a war-ravaged apocalyptic landscape carrying the weapon of my choice and trying not to get someone killed. I am a raw recruit in this free game developed by the U.S. Army. The controls of motion within the game is the first thing I have to learn, WSDA SHIFT SPACEBAR basic steps, the tutorial shows about a hundred other keys and combinations, how will I learn them all. Oh no I have to learn how to crouch, low-crawl and climb, more keys to learn. Pop-up box, I think, comes up, says I’m sure press F1 I hit escape by accident – the game is gone… I am barely a few minutes into the tutorial. There is at first shock but I then realize I did not plunge the eastern U.S. into an electrical blackout by pressing the escape key. Probably a novice gamers first mistake, or at least I’d like to think so. But it was a perfect first stopping point to reflect on what the last three minutes were in my learning of the game. I am by all accounts a complete novice which means that WSDA Shift and Spacebar are new language for me, a language I seem to be having trouble interpreting in this fast paced world of combat simulation.
The controls of motion within the game are the first steps I had to take into the digital make-believe and I did not learn the controls before going in and people were going to die and students were not going to be learning. The combination of keys I used to move my character felt foreign to the muscles in my fingers and hands that were playing the game, but I was in the game my heart rate has gone up when I couldn’t remember the control key for low crawling through a culvert full of muddy water, people could be dying, there was gunfire. Using my left hand to manipulate six primary keys in conjunction with the mouse and taking in the visual input from the unfamiliar setting of the game environment meant overload for me, and it culminated quite humorously in the hitting of the ESC key by accident, for some pushing a button and having the screen go blank is the computer equivalent to test anxiety. I hit another random button and it was back again. Nothing worse than downtime in the classroom waiting for the teacher to figure out technology.
I chose this game, America’s Army: Proving Ground for a couple of reasons. First it was a sophisticated game that was free. Second it was something I had experience with. This was not necessary but I felt if I already had some experience I might be better able to judge what the learning experience was, as it turns out it was not at all pertinent. I have not yet learned what the game is about because I’m still learning the controls. I would never use a hyper violent game in the classroom but I looked at this exercise as how do I learn a video game. What processes does my mind go through that assist or hinder learning. And once I learned the mechanics of the game how does real learning take place?
I reside by choice in a technologically quiet world. I have avoided gaming. I believe in and have no doubt that games are powerful learning tools. I lack any prior knowledge of gaming, there is very little to activate. I am in the context of the game I am learning a raw recruit. Reflecting on how I learn something is one that I guess takes a deeper reflection of the process of learning. Just getting to the tutorial for this game was a challenge for me – I had no clue what I was doing.
The game setup and configuration was easy enough if time consuming. Loading the game maker software and then loading the actual game was a learning process for me. I don’t want to bore you with details but every single aspect of the experience was new for me, I don’t play games, I don’t download games so for me remembering pages of keyboard commands, learning how to move using the mouse and the keyboard and which key command to use will test my faculties. I found the game did not support a controller. I installed a mouse but I wasn’t sure at first how the mouse and the keys worked together. Meanwhile bullets were whizzing and machine guns were buzzing. And I kept locking up the computer, pretty sure I won’t last long once I start playing the game.
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