English 431 Game Memo

I remember the day my parents first brought home their new Super Nintendo Game System. They, of course, purchase Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, and Sims City along with it. At the time (c. 1998), the Super Nintendo had already been out for years. It was something that my family could now afford and thought would be a great way to spend time together. They were absolutely right! My mom and grandmother were absolutely crazy about Donkey Kong. They loved the giant bee that turned red when you threw barrels at him. I personally liked the giant flamingo whose head you needed to bounce on. My father enjoyed playing Sims City. For as long as I could remember, my dad has always been a store manager so I imagine him running a city like he would a store – setting up displays, dealing with natural disasters, focusing on finances, etc. It made perfect sense why he loved Sims City. My sister and I were Super Mario Brother fans. We would play for hours, collecting as many green mushrooms as possible so that we didn’t have to restart. The Super Nintendo truly did provide some amazing family time.

Within a year my parents got divorced.

By the time my mom got remarried, she married a man that enjoyed playing computer games. This was a complete advancement to the games she once remembered playing with her children and ex-husband. In fact, we didn’t even own a computer until my mom remarried around 2000. My step really enjoyed playing Diablo and Warcraft, and eventually World of Warcraft. Before the family new it, my stepdad would play for hours. He took from family time and disrupted his career. My mom stood by her belief that my stepdad was “addicted” to computer games. To prove her otherwise, my step dad sold all of his computer games… but instead bought a Wii with the money he made. My mom had hope, she though that game consoles were different since he didn’t have one at work to play. Our family loved playing bowling, tennis, etc. It was something that brought real, honest fun to the family… until the Xbox 360 was released. Once we added the Xbox to our family, all hell broke loose. We were back to same problem. My stepdad would play for hours in the living room. We would have family over for Thanksgiving and he would still play video games all day. It brought my mom great embarrassment and before we knew it, gaming began to tear a newly repaired family apart.

Growing up around a mom who grew to hate video games encouraged me to also develop a negative attitude towards video games. I never saw them as joyful as I did once before. It breaks my heart thinking that my mother once LOVED Donkey Kong, and now she refuses to play it solely because gaming is what ruined her second marriage. I brought this attitude with me to college. In English 130: Academic Writing, Kim first introduced the idea of including games into your lesson plan. My initial thought was “absolutely not!” It took a while for me to get used to the idea but once we watched and read pieces from Jane McGonigal, my mind was willing to open up to a whole new perspective. Since then, my thoughts grew rapidly. I could not stop thinking about different ways to incorporate gaming into my classroom – but was it the right thing to do?

English 431 definitely asked all of my pondering questions. Reality is Broken shined light on a though that I had frequent battles with. Jane McGonigal explained how gaming bring value to your work. It rewards you in a way that life could not – and that is exactly what I wanted my class to ever be. McGonigal emphasized that a system of “do-over” encourages gamers to continue and not give up – which is what I would like my students to understand. She mentions how collaborative gaming gives people a purpose, as if they contributing to something larger than themselves and to a group more meaningful than their individual efforts – that is what I would like group work in my classroom to look like.

Throughout my education, I have never been one to highlight in textbooks. A little OCD kicked in when I saw other people high light in books – the text was no long clean. But once I started reading Reality is Broken, I wanted to make sure I remembered exact quotes from Jane McGonigal so I can incorporate some of her ideas in my own classroom. I couldn’t help but highlight and get to work. I learned so much from reading her text. This book was a giant piece of understanding for me. I understand now how fun and benefical adding gaming into my classroom will be. I understand now that gaming allows people to take risks that they otherwise wouldn’t in reality. I understand now that gamers have the chance to take on an identity that is different from their own – and they embrace it! Most importantly, I learned that gaming fulfills a part of person’s life that they feel their current reality can’t offer and I truly believe that that was the sole purpose of my step father’s “addiction.” It is sad to think that he may have turned to video games because there was something in his reality that he felt was missing – whether that was happiness, enjoyment, collaboration, social interaction, or whatever. I really like how Jane McGonigal ended with her book by saying that regardless how broken it is, reality is still better. If you are going to level up and become better at something, why not do it in reality? If you are going to try to save a princess despite the amount of times you have to try, why not do it in reality?

I hope that I can teach my mom what I have learned. I hope that together, her and my stepdad can come to an understanding as to why gaming is more important that what does on in life. But most importantly, I hope that she can erase the negative attitude she has against gaming just as I did. Despite all of her bad emotions to games, I know deep down inside there are good memories surrounding games that she and I share. It was about a month ago that I saw my mother pull our old Super Nintendo out of the closet, sneak it into my brother’s room, pulled out Donkey Kong, blew into the bottom of the game to remove dust, and plugged it in. Her and my brother played for hours. He never ever knew what a Super Nintendo was before that day and now he has the same memories to share that I also have with my mother.