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Play Makes Jack a Smart Boy

Abitur 2012 Topic 1: “Can peo­p­le actual­ly learn for real life by play­ing simu­la­ti­on games? Choo­se an exam­p­le or a gen­re that you are fami­li­ar with and explain its merits and limi­ta­ti­ons.” Von Kon­rad Heid­ler

Play Makes Jack a Smart Boy

Of cour­se you have read about tho­se video game addicts that play their favo­ri­te game 24/7 while at the same time negle­c­ting any other needs. And of cour­se I don’t have to tell you that the­se are not­hing but rare excep­ti­ons, whe­re­as mode­ra­te video gam­ing can actual­ly make you smarter.

To begin with, simu­la­ti­on games can impro­ve stra­te­gic thin­king. If a game forces you to plan ahead and take the con­se­quen­ces into con­side­ra­ti­on, you will most pro­ba­b­ly start doing so in real life as well. “Sim City” for exam­p­le is about estab­li­shing and orga­ni­zing your own city. To suc­ceed, you have to anti­ci­pa­te your citi­zens’ needs and react accor­din­gly. Once you have caught on to that, you will car­ry this way of thin­king into your ever­y­day life.

Ano­ther aspect of how simu­la­ti­on games can affect your life is that they let you expe­ri­ment in a clo­se-to-real envi­ron­ment. You are able to tam­per with para­me­ters that you could never modi­fy in real life. To come back to our city simu­la­ti­on game, you can see what hap­pens to a city if you don’t estab­lish a poli­ce depart­ment or if you rai­se taxes immense­ly. You gain insight into big­ger sys­tems that are hard to grasp other­wi­se becau­se they are so complex.

The most important thing you will achie­ve from gam­ing is the impro­ve­ment of social skills. It may sound weird at first becau­se the cli­ché is that gamers sit in front of their com­pu­ter or game con­so­le all day, not even noti­cing how their social rela­ti­onships are withe­ring. But most games are based on a com­plex com­mu­ni­ty of play­ers that inter­act and rely on each other. So simu­la­ti­on games will teach you how to take respon­si­bi­li­ty for others and how to coope­ra­te well in a team.

All in all simu­la­ti­on games can­not replace real life, but they can be a gre­at aid in lear­ning and edu­ca­ti­on. And thus we should not see them as a thre­at to men­tal deve­lo­p­ment but rather as an enrich­ment to everybody’s real life.

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The Bright Side Of Sims

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Witty Excuses

  1. Konrad Heidler

    Wow what a won­derful com­po­si­ti­on, it was a plea­su­re to read.
    You should real­ly give this guy an A in Eng­lish! Also he should­n’t have to do his Eng­lish home­work anymore.

  2. > You should real­ly give this guy an A in English! 

    In Ger­ma­ny we have gra­des from 1–6 and points from 0–15 respec­tively. So giving an „A“ would­n’t be of any use for him, I’m afraid. 

    > Also he shouldn’t have to do his Eng­lish home­work anymore.

    That would be a total­ly wrong signal. I’m con­vin­ced that guy can beco­me even bet­ter. You cer­tain­ly know the pro­verb „Prac­ti­ce makes perfect“ 😉

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