This is a review of the literature concerning the use of commercial video and computer games in classroom education. Though focused primarily on academic research published in peer-reviewed journals, the review is supplemented by information available in non-peer-reviewed studies, unpublished academic papers, news stories and other venues. This review is structured to address several key points regarding the pedagogical use of video games. The first section briefly summarizes some of the arguments for the educational use of video games. The second section examines the evidence that commercial games—games created and sold primarily as entertainment products—have pedagogical advantages over games created by educators. The third section describes ways that commercial games are used to teach in the classroom. Finally, the fourth section identifies patterns in the literature and points out opportunities for useful further research. While historical perspectives on this question are interesting, this review focuses primarily on literature from the past ten years.

1. Max Lieberman May 3, 2009
ETCV510
Professor Sue South
Literature Review: Commercial Video Games in Classroom Education
Abstract
This is a review of the literature concerning the use of commercial video and
computer games in classroom education. Though focused primarily on academic research
published in peer-reviewed journals, the review is supplemented by information available
in non-peer-reviewed studies, unpublished academic papers, news stories and other
venues. This review is structured to address several key points regarding the pedagogical
use of video games. The first section briefly summarizes some of the arguments for the
educational use of video games. The second section examines the evidence that
commercial games—games created and sold primarily as entertainment products—have
pedagogical advantages over games created by educators. The third section describes
ways that commercial games are used to teach in the classroom. Finally, the fourth
section identifies patterns in the literature and points out opportunities for useful further
research. While historical perspectives on this question are interesting, this review
focuses primarily on literature from the past ten years
1. Why Teach with Video Games?
Arguments for considering games as pedagogical tools began to appear in the

2. 1980s, following the explosion of the home console game market in first half of that
decade. Early work on the subject was largely speculative, as when Toole, Korienek and
Lucariello proposed that existing games “meet the requirements of laboratory tasks” for
studies of human motor skills (Toole, Korienek & Lucariello, 1983). Other contemporary
work studied the ways that games motivate players, finding that the “challenge, fantasy
and curiosity” at the heart of many games held “dazzling potential…for educational
purposes” (Long & Long, 1984). Silvern was the first to suggest that games were more
valuable as simulations in which students could come to understand rules, patterns,
hypotheses and systems than as mere “electronic worksheets” (Silvern, 1986).
However, the notion that games could be an asset rather than an obstacle to
educators was not universally held. In 1985, in a paper histrionically titled Reversing the
Literacy Decline by Controlling the Electronic Demons, Shenkman railed against the fact
that young children were spending less time reading and more time with electronic media
including video games, “ridiculous soaps” and “video rock” (Shenkman, 1985).
Shenkman’s focus on video games as detrimental to literacy, and particularly her
argument that video game players “are not learning the skills that will help them
understand…the complexities of geopolitics” seem positively quaint given the current
state of research into the educational value of video games.
In the past ten years, the quantity and quality of scholarship on video games, as
well as other game-like technologies, in the educational arena has risen dramatically. A
search within the Education Resources Information Database for the terms “video game”
and “education” returns a total of 125 documents published between 1970 and 1999; the
same search returns 191 published since the year 2000. The reasons for the increased

3. interest in pedagogy and video games are not fully clear, but likely include the increased
mainstream cultural relevance of video games (now rarely described as a “fad” as they
were in the 1980s); the new possibilities opened up by maturing game technology; and
the growing number of educators who are familiar with the medium because they grew
up playing games.
Broadly speaking, the scholarship on video games in education can be broken
down into three categories. The first category is speculative or theoretical literature.
Writers working in this vein tend to outline the potential educational value of games
based on their understanding of the medium, which they connect with some other
personal philosophy or established learning theory; this approach is not without value,
but it does tend to rely on anecdote and theory rather than on research with real students,
games and classrooms. The second category is observational literature. This category
includes some real-world research, such as case studies of classrooms in which games are
being used to teach. However, observational work tends to be somewhat haphazard in its
planning and subjective in its methods of evaluation. The third category is controlled
research. This category, much less common than the others in this young field, includes
mainly surveys and controlled case studies with quantitatively verifiable results.
The theory of “digital nativity” is one of the major arguments for restructuring
modern school systems to better incorporate digital content like video games. This
theory, the brainchild of game designer and author Marc Prensky, contends that people
who have grown up with the Internet and other digital technology at their fingertips are
“digital natives” who learn constantly from technology in ways that “digital immigrants”
are often unable fully to comprehend (Prensky, 2003, 2005; Annetta, 2008). Prensky’s

4. terminology has gained wide currency with academics concerned with the digital divide,
but his theory has also been criticized as a sort of inverse “moral panic” (Vaidhyanathan,
2008). The theory tends to rely heavily on anecdote, as when Prensky quotes a student of
his acquaintance as saying of educators, “Don’t try to use our technology…you’ll only
look stupid” (Prensky, 2008).
Another major argument for the use of video games in education is the notion that
playing is inherently a learning process, and that therefore the pedagogical use of games
is a natural fit (Annetta, 2008). In order to succeed in the marketplace, a commercial
video game must teach players its rules and interface, and must progressively introduce
new mechanics in a way that suggests strategy to the player. Linguist and games theorist
James Paul Gee contends that the profit motive has helped game developers to hone a
“theory of human learning” that rivals “the best theories of learning in cognitive science”
(Gee, 2007). There is in fact a remarkable compatibility between the ways that games
teach players to pay and the constructivist theories of learning which are currently very
much in vogue. Games teach players through experience, requiring them to construct
knowledge for themselves (Shaffer, Squire, Halverson & Gee, 2005; Squire, 2006).
Sophisticated games frequently train players using methods reminiscent of Vygotsky’s
concept of “scaffolding” (Oblinger, 2004; Gee, 2007; Rice, 2007a; Schrader &
McCreery, 2007; Annetta, 2008; Lim, 2008; Papastergiou, 2009).
Many other arguments for the increased use of video games in education have
been advanced. The possibility that games can be used to motivate students is often
mentioned (Oblinger, 2004; Squire, 2008; Papastergiou, 2009). Related to the idea of
“digital nativity” is the notion that students today will need a different set of skills later in

5. life than previous generations. This concept of “21st
century skills” and “new media
literacy”—that is, literacy with digital technologies—also comes up repeatedly in the
literature (Gee, 2007; Annetta, 2008; Squire, 2008; Papastergiou, 2009). The argument
that schools should reflect and incorporate the activities students engage in outside of the
classroom is another common thread (Annetta, 2008; Lacasa, Martínez & Méndez, 2008;
Lim, 2008).
Ultimately, the question of whether video games have a place in the classroom is
already settled—games are studied as cultural artifacts, taught to aspiring game
designers, and used as simulations, conversation-starters, forums for collaboration and in
countless other ways that are not always reflected in the academic literature. Even when
teachers are not using games in the classroom, students are: in a 2003 survey, 32% of
college students admitted to playing a game unrelated to “instructional activities” during
class time (Jones, 2003). What the speculative and theoretical academic writers are doing
is constructing frameworks for how best to use games now that they are here.
2. Why Commercial Games?
Like entries in other mediums, video games differ greatly from each other in
genre, scale, difficulty, setting, tone, cost, quality and other respects. Much of the
academic work that has been done to date focuses on video games designed by
professional educators, rather than games created to compete for players’ dollars, time
and attention. As researchers have discovered, this is a significant distinction.
Van Eck identifies three approaches that educators have taken to “digital game-

6. based learning” (Van Eck, 2006). These are to “have students build games from scratch”;
to “have educators and/or developers build games from scratch to teach students”; and to
“integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games into the classroom.”1
Van Eck
concludes that the first approach can be fruitful, but is not generally viable because it
requires teachers with specialized technical skill sets, as well as school systems willing to
support a nontraditional interdisciplinary project and able to devote the time and
resources to large-scale game development. Lim likewise describes major technical,
structural, and cultural obstacles to this type of project (Lim, 2008).
Van Eck’s second approach appears to hold out the hope of games that “address
[education] and entertainment equally, and to do so with virtually any domain,” but the
problems here are also significant (Van Eck, 2006). The main hurdle is the incredible
concentration of talent and resources necessary to make a game that approaches the
quality of commercial offerings. The literature repeatedly mentions the need for
educational games to compete with their commercial brethren on fun and production
values (Rosas et al, 2003; Lim, 2008; Warren, Dondlinger & Barab, 2008). Tüzün, whose
research group designed three games for use in Turkish primary, secondary and higher
education, found that teachers “demanded specific content” be included in the games,
while students weighed the entertainment value of the games against that of commercial
products (Tüzün, 2007). Poor quality graphics and unsophisticated interfaces are often
particular sticking points for students (Roubidoux, Chapman & Piontek, 2002; Eikaas,
Foss, Solbjørg & Bjølseth, 2005; Rice, 2007b; Simpson & Clem, 2008; Papastergiou,
1
Although the “COTS” nomenclature has been adopted by several researchers, I
prefer to refer to commercial games as such, since the acronym ignores the
increasing prevalence of digitally distributed commercial games (Martin, 2009).

7. 2009). Will Wright, designer of the games SimCity, The Sims and Spore observes that
“All games are educational… Good games are hard to design. But designing a good game
around specific subject matter is really difficult” (Prensky, 2008).
One advantage of commercial games is that they tend to be more complex than
games developed for educational purposes. Prensky makes the case that complex games
are far more suitable for education than “mini-games” because they are more immersive
and focus more deeply on strategy and decision-making (Prensky, 2005). Several studies
make the case that complex games allow players to achieve the state of focused
engagement known as “flow” in a way that mini-games never will (Prensky, 2005; Van
Eck, 2006). According to Rice, complexity is a prerequisite for a game to “address the
upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy,” and most complex games “are commercially
developed software games” (Rice, 2007a). Other advantages include the availability and
relatively low cost of commercial games (Van Eck, 2006; Simpson & Clem, 2008).
The primary drawback noted of commercial games as tools for classroom
teaching is the dearth of content that can be easily integrated into an existing curriculum
(McFarlane, Sparrowhawk & Heald, 2002; Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Van Eck,
2006; Rice, 2007b). Violence and other inappropriate content are particular concerns for
teachers working with young students (Rice, 2007b; Simpson & Clem, 2008). Yet there
are commercial games that mesh well with educational standards, and creative educators
are finding ways to incorporate non-explicitly educational games in surprising ways.
3. How are educators using commercial games in the classroom?

8. Information about how commercial games are being employed in the classroom is
available, generally, from three types of sources: government- or nonprofit-sponsored
surveys; reports by educators who undertook pilot or case studies; and non-academic
accounts, such as news reports, blog posts, and in one case, audio recordings of a college-
level course. The available sources are far from uniform in the level of detail they supply
about how the games were used in the classroom, but some clear concordances do
emerge.
Teachers are understandably concerned with the content of video games, and the
commercial games used in classroom teaching are often selected because they are easily
retrofitted to existing curricular standards. One study described the use of Restaurant
Empire, a business simulation game, in a Wyoming 8th
grade computer skills course
(Simpson & Clem, 2008). The game was selected to conform to state vocational
standards, and the activities built around the game focused on the realism of the
simulation. A 2002 survey conducted by the British Educational Communications and
Technology Agency (BECTA) found that games in the SimCity and Rollercoaster
Tycoon series were the most common commercial games used by the teachers surveyed
(Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2003). SimCity games are frequently cited as appropriate for
classes studying civics and city planning (British Educational Communications and
Technology Agency, 2006; Charsky & Mims, 2008). Similarly, games in the Civilization
and Age of Empires series are often used to teach history and social studies (Van Eck,
2006; Gros, 2007). Squire’s work with the turn-based historical strategy game
Civilization III began with a case study using the game in a 9th
grade humanities class
studying human cultures (Squire, 2004, 2006, 2008). Squire found that players’

9. knowledge of basic geography and history improved dramatically, and that they became
comfortable with the game’s college-level vocabulary. A slightly different example of a
commercial game matching school standards is the dance-pad game Dance Dance
Revolution, which has been integrated into physical education programs across the United
States (Trout & Zamora, 2005; Schiesel, 2007).
Another apparent trend is the use of a game to teach skills and subjects that are
not inherent to its setting or narrative. Gros, in a well-structured case study, used the
historical strategy game Age of Empires II in a social sciences class “while, in parallel,
the mathematics teacher used the same game to work on a reading of statistical graphs”
(Gros, 2007). Rollercoaster Tycoon games are often used to teach physics and
engineering principles despite the fact that these concepts exist only as part of the game’s
behind-the-scenes simulation, rather than as an overt game mechanic (Charsky & Mims,
2008). The BECTA Computer Games in Education project, a large-scale case study
following on the organization’s 2002 survey of games in education, used several
commercial games in interdisciplinary ways (McFarlane et al, 2002; BECTA, 2006). For
example, SimCity 3000 was used not as a city simulator, but as a tool to teach 11-16 year-
old special needs students about models, simulations and computer interfaces. Other
examples from the BECTA study include the use of people simulator The Sims to teach
budgeting skills and discuss emotional and relationship issues with the same special
needs demographic; the use of soccer management simulation Championship Manager
00/01 to teach 11-13 year-olds about databases; and the use of Age of Empires to teach
computer skills and strategic thinking. The researchers found that the games motivated
students and provided “powerful learning experiences” by presenting learning

10. opportunities in contexts that were inherently attractive to students. The study further
concluded that the role of the teacher “remains crucial” when using games in the
classroom: teachers who were not themselves knowledgeable about the games being used
had less positive results overall.
Some studies have investigated the use of commercial games to stimulate student
creativity, often by having students modify the games to create new scenarios, quests,
dialogue, art assets and even game mechanics. Neverwinter Nights, a fantasy role-playing
game, ships with a robust content development toolset. One Canadian case study tasked
high school students in two tenth grade English classes with creating interactive stories
using these tools, along with a programming tool of the researchers’ own design
(Carbonaro et al, 2007). A British study, conducted as part of a voluntary summer
workshop for high school students, also used the Neverwinter Nights tools to enable
students to tell interactive stories, and reported strong enthusiasm for the project from
participants (Robertson & Good, 2006). Both studies concluded that students found this
new form of expression both challenging and rewarding.
Even when no element of game modification is involved, games may still be used
to aid students with creative expression. Researchers in Spain designed a “multimedia
workshop” for children ages 8-9 centered around the action-adventure game Tomb
Raider: Chronicles (Lacasa et al, 2008). The students played the game and undertook
projects based on the experience, including writing stories, writing and performing a
play, drawing pictures and creating web pages. The researchers found that the teacher of
the class had a great deal of difficulty with the project. The teacher was unprepared for
the enthusiasm that the students showed for the game, and felt that the class was spiraling

11. out of control. The teacher also interpreted the game’s narrative much differently than her
students, framing it in terms of a traditional fairy tale (even using the phrase “once upon a
time” in her summary of the plot) and focusing far more on the game’s violence than her
charges. Overall, the researchers were pleased with the study’s outcomes, arguing that the
students employed a “meta-cognitive process” to translate the motives and actions of the
game’s heroine Lara Croft into several different mediums.
The final and least common model for integrating commercial games into
classroom education involves immersing students deeply into a game world. This may be
done in order to use the fiction of the game’s narrative to explore real life issues, as was
the case with a pilot study undertaken with a 7th
grade language arts and social studies
class in Wisconsin (Kadakia, 2005). The study introduced the concept of choices and
consequences using traditional media (a novel), and then asked the students to play the
first-person role-playing game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind over the course of three
days, analyzing the choices and consequences available to players during that time. The
instructor behind the project reports that it was “highly successful in raising the
engagement level in my classes,” and that students were able both to connect the lessons
to their real lives and to distinguish the elements of the game that they perceived as
unrealistic.
Another, far more ambitious example of this approach was the freshman college
English class “Worlds of Warcraft,” offered in 2007 and 2008 at Vanderbilt University.
Worlds of Wordcraft incorporated two commercial games into its syllabus: the massively
multiplayer online role-playing game Lord of the Rings Online and the smaller-scale
online role-playing game Neverwinter Nights 2 (Clayton & Hall, 2008a). Students played

12. Lord of the Rings Online extensively, approaching it as an interactive text which they
compared to versions of the same story told in books and film (Clayton & Hall, 2008b).
Students and professors compared the narrative techniques available to authors working
in these various mediums, and contrasted the experience of “player” from that of reader
or viewer. Students in the class also used Neverwinter Nights 2 to adapt a section of the
romantic poem The Fairie Queene into a quest-based role-playing game. This project
built on what students had learned over the course of the semester about romantic
narrative, game design and the complex nature of online and virtual identities. Listening
to the podcasted audio recordings of this class, two things are clear: first, that the students
cared a great deal about the material they were learning, and as a result learned a great
deal; and second, that a college-level class incorporating video games in such a
sophisticated and integral way would be impossible without instructors who were
incredibly well-versed in the medium. A paper from professors Jay Clayton and Matthew
Jett Hall evaluating Worlds of Wordcraft as a pilot study, or simply discussing the
process of developing the course curriculum, would be a valuable contribution to the
scholarship on games and pedagogy.
Conclusions and suggestions for further research
Although the literature reflects multiple approaches to using commercial games in
the classroom, many teachers and researches drew similar conclusions about what
worked and what did not. Numerous publications drew on these conclusions to propose
best practices for using games in classroom education (McFarlane et al, 2002; Kirriemuir
& McFarlane, 2003; Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Shaffer et al 2005; Van Eck, 2006;

13. Rice, 2007b; Charsky & Mims, 2008).
Some perceived obstacles to the use of commercial games in education come up
again and again in the literature. Concerns that commercial games are not content-
appropriate for classroom teaching have already been discussed. Related to this concern
is the opinion that games are mindless exercises filled with violent and sexual imagery
(Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Shaffer et al, 2005; Rice, 2007b; Lacasa et al, 2008).
Several writers articulate the notion that games promote a freeform, experiential
style of learning that is a good fit for digital natives, but is inherently challenging to the
“social organization” and “social boundaries” of traditional schools (Shaffer et al, 2005;
Lacasa et al, 2008; Lim, 2008; Brown, 2008). Although this is often presented as a reason
why administrators may object to the deep integration of games into classroom learning,
some researchers were pleased by the challenges games presented. Tüzün describes a
“positive, messy classroom culture, in which students were active participants” (Tüzün,
2007). Simpson and Clem likewise describe the need for teachers to respond to “on-
demand learning moments” (Simpson & Clem, 2008). The root of this messiness may lie
partly in the nonlinear nature of games, which means that students who begin in the same
place will almost certainly pursue a succession of divergent paths (Squire, 2008). If
games are truly disruptive to institutionalized modes of teaching and learning, acceptance
of them will take time; however, the extensive use of game-like simulations in military
training suggests that games need not turn the classroom into a circus (Prensky, 2003;
Oblinger, 2004; Shaffer et al, 2005). Teaching educators about what makes games
valuable and different is an important first step (Shaffer et al, 2005).

14. The large time investment necessary to successfully integrate video games into a
curriculum is mentioned repeatedly. Games can require a great deal of time to set up, and
students must be allowed to explore the game’s narrative, environments and mechanics
before meaningful learning can take place (Gros, 2007; Rice, 2007b; McFarlane et al,
2002; Lim, 2008). Sometimes, only certain sections of a game are deemed to be relevant
to instruction, and accessing specific content within a larger game can also take time.
Proposed solutions to this dilemma include “lite” versions of commercial games and
teacher-created saved games that drop players into a game at a specific geographic or
narrative place (McFarlane et al, 2002; Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Kadakia, 2005;
BECTA, 2006). Hopes that commercial game developers will create dedicated
educational versions of their products appear unfounded, given the low penetration rate
of games in the educational arena. However, the experience of Kadakia, working with
Morrowind save game files, suggests that proper teacher preparation can save a
significant amount of actual class time (Kadakia, 2005).
Technical issues can exacerbate the problem of limited time for game-based
instruction. Researchers either anticipated or encountered a number of technical problems
when using games, from unreliable Internet connections to underpowered computer
hardware to security programs that interfere with the installation and maintenance of
game software (Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; Van Eck, 2006; Rice, 2007b; Charsky &
Mims, 2008; Lim, 2008; Simpson & Clem, 2008; Tüzün, 2008). Computer security is
incredibly important, but it is not incompatible with having games on computers—school
IT departments can install games as easily as they can install word processors (Van Eck,
2006). Rice suggests limiting the use of newer games in classrooms, given that classroom

15. computers tend to be underpowered, but the fact that students fixate on graphical quality
suggests that this approach is problematic (Rice, 2007b). Research into the costs, benefits
and disadvantages of dedicated console hardware, as opposed to mixed-use computer
hardware, would help to clarify the available options.
The need for teachers to know a game very well before using it in the classroom is
presented variously as an obstacle to the use of games (learning a game takes time) and as
a best practice for their use. There is a consensus among academics writing about
commercial video games in education that teachers must design instructional activities
that contextualize game content and gameplay within the course and subject being
studied (McFarlane et al, 2002; Kirriemuir & McFarlane, 2004; BECTA, 2006; Van Eck,
2006; Gros, 2007; Charsky & Mims, 2008). Teachers must also know a game well in
order to answer technical and gameplay questions from students (BECTA, 2006; Charsky
& Mims, 2008; Simpson & Clem, 2008).
All of the case studies on the use of commercial games were generally positive
regarding the games’ effects on student learning (Kadakia, 2005; Robertson & Good,
2006; Squire, 2006; Carbonaro et al, 2007; Gros, 2007; Simpson & Clem, 2008). Several
studies mentioned the beneficial effects that games have on students’ level of motivation
and enthusiasm for schoolwork—Squire describes this enthusiasm spilling over into
voluntary learning and studying outside of school (Rosas et al, 2003; Oblinger, 2004;
Kadakia, 2005; BECTA, 2006; Robertson & Good, 2006; Schiesel, 2007; Squire, 2008).
Writers concerned with educational theory frequently reiterate that games are a good fit
for classrooms modeled on constructivist philosophies (Oblinger, 2004; Gee, 2007; Rice,
2007a; Schrader & McCreery, 2007; Lim, 2008). Finally, a number of theorists

16. speculated that games could stimulate student creativity, a hypothesis borne out by those
studies concerned with creative expression (Robertson & Good, 2006; Carbonaro et al,
2007; Lacasa et al, 2008; Lim, 2008; Prensky, 2008; Squire, 2008).
Despite the increase in scholarship focusing on pedagogy and video games in
recent years, this review exposed some significant gaps in the literature. One problem is
that many academics writing about games are not themselves very experienced with or
knowledgeable about games, gaming culture or the video game industry. This leads to all
sorts of issues, including a lack of understanding of the relationships between content,
narrative, genre and game mechanics; an inability to distinguish between separate games
in a series; and in one case, the misidentification of the game that was the subject of a
case study (Lacasa et al, 2008). Ignorance of the gaming space also has less concrete
effects on the field of study around games. For example, no publications focus on the
significance of major industry trends such as the increased prevalence of console gaming
and digital content distribution. The solution to this knowledge and culture gap is to
encourage scholarship by writers who know games as well as educational theory and
related subjects, something that is likely to happen naturally as people who grew up
playing games move into college and beyond.
Another issue is the surprising relative scarcity of academic literature on the
actual use of commercial games to teach. Far more researchers create their own subject-
specific games than use existing games. Knowledgeable and thoughtful academic
analyses of specific commercial games do exist, and some of these works speculate
convincingly about how to use these games in traditional school settings. However, this
sort of speculation is more common than studies or reports on the real-world use of

17. games. What literature does exist along the latter lines suggests that most teachers are
using the same few games, in the same few genres, in the same few ways (Kirriemuir &
McFarlane, 2003, 2004; Van Eck, 2006; Charsky & Mims, 2008; Simpson & Clem,
2008).
The existing speculative literature on the use of commercial games in classrooms
suggests that this is a promising avenue for further research. The positive outcomes
reported by case studies that reached beyond frequently used games such as Civilization
III and Neverwinter Nights should lead teachers and researchers to experiment with more
games in different ways. There are countless possible avenues for further research. Super
Monkey Ball, a first-person take on the traditional marble labyrinth, “demonstrates (and
allows experimentation with) the concepts of velocity, friction, acceleration and
gravity”—ideal for an elementary or middle school science class (Kirriemuir &
McFarlane, 2004). Brothers in Arms, a realistic World War II first-person shooter series,
could be used to teach high school history (Brown, 2008). The aptly named business
simulator Capitalism II could be used to teach about budgeting, business, and
macroeconomics. The cycles of hype and controversy surrounding the release of every
Grand Theft Auto game since 2001 would make an excellent object lesson for journalism
students. Particularly dismaying is the fact that few teachers devote classroom time to
examining narrative games as literature: the sci-fi shooters BioShock and Half Life 2
would fit right into any serious examination of dystopian genre fiction. The existing
research could be greatly diversified by a few well-designed case studies using games
that are apparently as yet unknown to the inside of any classroom, anywhere.
Part of the problem may be that teachers are reluctant to experiment with games

18. about which they know little, and have limited time to devote to learning more about
games (McFarlane et al, 2002; Gros, 2007). Charsky and Mims suggest that teachers
should not only play a game before incorporating it into the curriculum, but should also
purchase a strategy guide and research the game on websites and discussion boards
(Charsky & Mims, 2008). Researching a game across such a fragmented media
landscape, where the available resources are targeted towards recreational players rather
than the special concerns of educators, is a prohibitively costly proposition for most
teachers.
Providing teachers with information about games in a way that drastically limits
their time and energy investment in research and preparation holds promise as a solution
to this problem. As of this writing, there is no prominent website devoted to cataloging
information about games from the educator’s perspective. A well-designed website might
include a user-editable wiki for relevant information about a game (including alignment
to state standards and age-appropriateness), space for teachers to share game-based lesson
plans, and forums for interaction between educators, administrators and even students.
One possible model for such a site is “What They Play” (www.whattheyplay.com), a
website founded in 2007 which acts as a comprehensive resource for parents seeking to
learn about the games their children are playing. What They Play reaches out to parents
in a variety of ways—including through feature articles on gaming trends, a database
assessing the content and quality of thousands of new and existing games, newsletters, a
podcast and a blog—and is a rare example of a site dedicated to covering games whose
audience is not exclusively or even predominantly composed of gamers.
The rising interest in the use of commercial games in classroom settings has led to

19. a wealth of theory and speculation about how this exciting field could develop.
Hopefully, teachers and researchers will now apply this body of theory, along with the
lessons learned from previous pilot and case studies, in an effort to integrate more games
into classrooms in more ways. Only through continued real-world practice will games
move past something that we could be doing to something that is making a positive
difference in students’ lives.
References
Annetta, L. A. (2008). Video games in education: Why they should be used and how they
are being used. Theory into Practice. 47 (3), 229-239.
Brown, H. J. (2008). Videogames and education. History, humanities, and new
technology. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
BECTA Curriculum Software Initiative. (2006). Computer games in education project:
Report. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php?
section=rh&catcode=&rid=13595&pagenum=1&NextStart=1.
Carbonaro, M., Cutumisu, M., Duff, H., Gillis, S., Onuczko, C., Siegel, J., Schaeffer, J.,
Schumacher, A., Szafron, D., Waugh, K. (2008). Interactive story authoring: A
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