{"id":391,"date":"2016-06-28T01:26:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T01:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=391"},"modified":"2016-06-28T01:26:56","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T01:26:56","slug":"classroom-vs-console-gaming-taught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=391","title":{"rendered":"Classroom vs Console: What Gaming Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

H<\/span><\/p><\/div>

ave you ever wanted to be a sportsperson, but can\u2019t muster the will to actually get out of your underground bunker? Or do you think you have what it takes to push your body to the limit, but not be that guy who wears tight tank tops and carries electrolyte replenishment around in a plastic bottle? If your answer is yes, there is hope for you. <\/span>\n\nThe United States is currently playing host to your kind of athlete. This week, thousands of young adults (mostly male) will spectate, and participate in, the finals of the Dota 2 International at an arena in Seattle. Eighteen teams of five members each will compete to win a prize pool of nearly $20 million, which is <\/span>about $19.8 million<\/span><\/a> more than an Indian Olympic gold medallist can hope to make.<\/span>\n\nBefore you pass this off as just one of those dumbass millennial obsessions, you should probably know that Defence of the Ancients is not an easy game, especially at the professional level. It requires a player to be quick with mathematical calculations as well as possess an insane degree of hand-eye coordination, all the while coming up with a complex strategy. Which is why when players excel, they make some serious dough. Last year, a Pakistani boy named Sumail Hassan, who played for the team Evil Geniuses got a proper taste of e-sport stardom, when he made <\/span>over a million dollars<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> He was 16. This year\u2019s winners are likely to make up to four million each. <\/span>\n\nThe success of this game (the 2014 tournament was watched by <\/span>over 20 million people<\/span><\/a>) makes me wonder: If gaming has reached the point where it\u2019s lucrative enough to be a career option, why do we still think of it as something that\u2019s reserved for lonely, overweight, lazy people? <\/span>\n\nScience has provided enough evidence of the benefits of playing games like Dota \u2013 benefits that clearly outweigh copying your classmate\u2019s assignment five minutes before it\u2019s time to give it in, or being able to throw a javelin really far. It\u2019s said to help <\/span>overcome dyslexia<\/span><\/a>, aid problem-solving, memory retention, and, contrary to your mom\u2019s admonishments, even improve <\/span>vision<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\n\n

For me, the game turned a period in history, riddled with negative descriptions (written by Sunni opponents) and orientalist tropes, on its head.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nMeanwhile, all I learnt during our \u201cgames period\u201d in school was how to make fun of the person who had collected the most children in a game of \u201cLife\u201d. By contrast, I learnt a whole lot more playing video games \u2013 knowledge that is invaluable when I go out on a date or vanquish colleagues during an argument. <\/span>\n\nThe one game that was installed on the one computer in my school, <\/span>Amazon Trail<\/span><\/a>, is the reason most of my classmates even know what a Hoatzin is, how scary a frog can actually be, and why no one should ever eat an electric eel. It also taught us that we should not cross the Amazon without professional help, lest we get sucked into a whirlpool. It was our introduction to the Inca civilisation; the fact that it once blossomed in the rainforests of South America and that half its populace suffered from a violently dangerous disease. Unfortunately, my school soon realised that a \u201cvideo game\u201d had been installed on our \u201ceducational computer\u201d (MS Office only, please) and they replaced that class with another Math class \u2013 an affirmation of their pledge to breed as many squares as possible. <\/span>\n\nAmazon Trail is just one of many games that don\u2019t feel the need to draw a line between education and entertainment. Some of the most spectacular games of our times with hours of addictive game-play, mine trivia from history and mythology to ensure that the average 12-year-old playing <\/span>God of War<\/span><\/a> not only manages to hit square and triangle at the same time, but also knows that he\u2019s doing it to kill a <\/span>Harpy<\/span><\/a>, a dinosaur-like winged creature with a woman\u2019s face from Greek myth. <\/span>\n\nI hold that video games teach us so much more than the drab, narrow view of history we are fed at school. Most of what we\u2019re taught either revolves around our struggle for Independence or the Vedic era and its pious men. All that we learn about international history is the two world wars and all the boring treaties signed after.<\/span>\n\nI\u2019d never have heard, or cared, about the Crusades, if it hadn\u2019t been for <\/span>Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/span><\/a>. The game follows the story of an assassin during the Third Crusade, when King Richard the Lionheart decided he would massacre everyone in his path. It taught me about <\/span>Nizaris<\/span><\/a>, a minor Shiite sect of assassins who rose against this foreign invasion, and eventually became a significant political player around the Middle East at the time. All my history teacher did was make me want to learn more about what Linkin Park was up to.<\/span>\n\nFor me, the game turned a period in history, riddled with negative descriptions (written by Sunni opponents) and orientalist tropes, on its head. That is some post-graduate-level of insight to get while stabbing your way to glory. Further instalments of the game went on to explore the Italian Renaissance, the Ottoman Empire, the American Revolution, and the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean. This was after school hours, of course. During my history lessons, I was learning how to draw a perfect moustache on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. <\/span>\n\nSo how about instead of devoting time to teaching us how to write in cursive and march around a field in unison (left-right, left-right, death), schools allowed students to play a video game of their choice? It\u2019s more likely to get done than homework anyway. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d never have heard about the Crusades, if it hadn\u2019t been for Assassin\u2019s Creed. Video games can teach us so much more than the drab, narrow view of history we are fed at school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nClassroom vs Console: What Gaming Taught Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019d never have heard about the Crusades, if it hadn\u2019t been for Assassin\u2019s Creed. 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