The only videogame that I have played for several years on a regular basis is Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. It is one of two leading football simulations, which main quality is to be quite realistic (make sure you turn the commentaries off though).
Following Caillois' and Frasca's categories (in Newman 2004), PES is to be categorised as agôn and ludus. In other words, it is a competitive game with a clearly defined objective (and ruleset). The mimicry element plays an important role as well since users often pick their favourite real-world team and players.

The game offers 3 modes which can be divided in 2 categories:

• 1 to 1 competition: player vs computer or player vs player
• collaborative mode: 2 players vs computer

Screenshot: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Competitive mode

The competitive mode is the one I am the most familiar with: it helps develop skills similar to those of arcade games. For instance, in addition to motor skills, the player becomes able to recognise patterns such as possibility to go pass their opponent, scoring opportunity, etc.

Besides, its realism makes it possible to view it as an authentic (virtual) learning environment: according to Bransford et al, this is an important criteria for promoting transfer (2000). Exploring alternatives (using different teams, tactics etc.), watching football on television and playing it for real may all increase the likeliness of transfer to real football.

As with most games, scaffolding is provided through levels of increasing difficulty. However, very good players will soon start feeling bored if they only play alone.

Collaborative mode

The collaborative mode reveals the “true” nature of the game: synchronisation becomes essential.

When playing with a friend of mine (the two of us against the computer), I realised that the single mode tactics which I had used for a long time were ineffective: for example, when I passed the ball to another player of my team, my partner would often lose it. This wasn't because he was a bad player but because he may have thought that I would have played differently. After playing for some time, we improved: basically, we talked to each other and started developing a better understanding.

The similarity with academic collaborative work was striking: during the same week, we had similar problems during our first chat session for the Research Methods group work. It was somewhat ineffective because we didn't set enough rules to be properly synchronised.

I believe that video games played in a social environment can help acquire better real world collaborative skills.

It would now be interesting to see how social games played at a distance would compare against those played face-to-face.

References:


Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L. and Cocking, R.R. (2000). Learning and transfer. In How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school (Washington, D.C., National Academy Press)

Newman, J. (2004). What is a video game? Rules, puzzles and simulations. Videogames. London, Routledge.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (2007). Football game. Konami.