From the Games Industry: Ten Lessons for Game-Based Learning

Background

Games consoles, personal computers and other games devices are becoming ubiquitous items within most homes in western society. Over 65% of US Households play video games, globally over 138 million Playstation 2 consoles have been sold and over 155 million console games are sold each year (Online Education, 2009). The video games market in the UK now outsells the film industry (Wallop, 2009). Commercial games designers have the ability to create highly engaging, immersive experiences where players keep coming back to for more (something that is sadly rarely the case in formal education). What constitutes a “good” computer game is arguable; (Koster, 2004) suggests that “fun” is an essential criteria (Prensky, 2007) talks about engagement and immersion, indeed it could be argued (sic) that sales volume measurement is a useful indicator of a good game. Suffice as to say the question of “goodness” is outside the scope of this paper.