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USING RPGMAKER TO TEACH R.E. TO KIDS
Posts
Saya
30
Saya
View playlists
CloseChristianity is hard to find in gaming in a pure form.
Which in turn, brings up the problem of gaming itself. Have you ever considered the possibility of the kids therefore becoming addicted to video games and spending more time with them instead of trying to find spiritual enrichment?
Because games are naturally sources of escape from reality. They take away from outside stress, and give the player a world they can easily master or beat. They create the false feeling of power within an individual, if only for the time they are playing.
Of course, there are other reasons for playing games, namely, for the story. Perhaps it's the desire for catharsis that we play games, for the experience. We play games because they are thought-provoking. Is it good or bad?
And yet, ultimately, it becomes another habit to spend time in. For the long 60 hours spent killing things and going places, only about 4 are actually relevant to the plot or enriching in anyway. So-- we have a contrast between richness and mind-numbing grinding.
Then there's the question of exploration. Exploration is fun, everyone likes good scenery and mapping, but how much of it is actually "good" for you? What does it really give us? It does in fact, fall in comparison to actually being somewhere new and seeing a place for real. You could play a game that's set in Rome, but it never really compares to actually being in Rome.
However, with technology improving these day, we could very well have more and more visual beauty, and let's face it-- we like fantastical scenery. I've heard that Red Dead Redemption has incredibly good graphics, and that people like to play it just to see what goes on in the game. Beauty is a good thing, human beings are naturally drawn to it. However...
There is the question of time management. How much time should people spend on games. Too much of a good thing is still too much. I wonder if your game can encourage the children to good read the Bible more, or to seek God out more in prayer?
Ultimately, I have no conclusion. I'm not trying to say that you will corrupt the minds of the young by introducing them to gaming(not all of them will like it that much, people are different), but it's something to think about. I myself have issues with the fact that I'm using a technically illegal program in the form of RM2k but it's so fun. The only thing that's stopping me from downloading RM2k3 is the fact that I might get viruses in my computer.
/end filibuster
Which in turn, brings up the problem of gaming itself. Have you ever considered the possibility of the kids therefore becoming addicted to video games and spending more time with them instead of trying to find spiritual enrichment?
Because games are naturally sources of escape from reality. They take away from outside stress, and give the player a world they can easily master or beat. They create the false feeling of power within an individual, if only for the time they are playing.
Of course, there are other reasons for playing games, namely, for the story. Perhaps it's the desire for catharsis that we play games, for the experience. We play games because they are thought-provoking. Is it good or bad?
And yet, ultimately, it becomes another habit to spend time in. For the long 60 hours spent killing things and going places, only about 4 are actually relevant to the plot or enriching in anyway. So-- we have a contrast between richness and mind-numbing grinding.
Then there's the question of exploration. Exploration is fun, everyone likes good scenery and mapping, but how much of it is actually "good" for you? What does it really give us? It does in fact, fall in comparison to actually being somewhere new and seeing a place for real. You could play a game that's set in Rome, but it never really compares to actually being in Rome.
However, with technology improving these day, we could very well have more and more visual beauty, and let's face it-- we like fantastical scenery. I've heard that Red Dead Redemption has incredibly good graphics, and that people like to play it just to see what goes on in the game. Beauty is a good thing, human beings are naturally drawn to it. However...
There is the question of time management. How much time should people spend on games. Too much of a good thing is still too much. I wonder if your game can encourage the children to good read the Bible more, or to seek God out more in prayer?
Ultimately, I have no conclusion. I'm not trying to say that you will corrupt the minds of the young by introducing them to gaming(not all of them will like it that much, people are different), but it's something to think about. I myself have issues with the fact that I'm using a technically illegal program in the form of RM2k but it's so fun. The only thing that's stopping me from downloading RM2k3 is the fact that I might get viruses in my computer.
/end filibuster
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Saya: As a gamer, my opinion is that as bad habits go people can do a lot worse than gaming. I am obviously slightly biased, but there are way worse things than entertainment for people to spend their free time doing. And regardless of how much time people spend doing things that are productive, they're always going to have free time. If they don't have free time, they're going to make free time, because that's human nature. Might as well give them something harmless to do with it.
Also, it would be by far the most effective form of pro-abstinence education you could think of. All you have to do is turn these kids into video game geeks and they will not have sex until their late twenties at the earliest!
...
I have nothing else intelligent to add to my first paragraph, in case it wasn't apparent.
Also, it would be by far the most effective form of pro-abstinence education you could think of. All you have to do is turn these kids into video game geeks and they will not have sex until their late twenties at the earliest!
...
I have nothing else intelligent to add to my first paragraph, in case it wasn't apparent.
author=LockeZ
Saya: As a gamer, my opinion is that as bad habits go people can do a lot worse than gaming. I am obviously slightly biased, but there are way worse things than entertainment for people to spend their free time doing. And regardless of how much time people spend doing things that are productive, they're always going to have free time. If they don't have free time, they're going to make free time, because that's human nature. Might as well give them something harmless to do with it.
Also, it would be by far the most effective form of pro-abstinence education you could think of. All you have to do is turn these kids into video game geeks and they will not have sex until their late twenties at the earliest!
...
I have nothing else intelligent to add to my first paragraph, in case it wasn't apparent.
My mum goes: "VIDEO GAMES ARE WORST HOBBY EVER".
I go: "Would you rather i do drugs as a hobby??"
mellytan
995
author=Saya
Christianity is hard to find in gaming in a pure form.
This is true; but then you could say that "Christianity" is hard to find anywhere in a "pure" form. ;)
(Insert off-topic discourse on the semantics of the words "Christian" and "pure" here.)
But yeah, though there are a few overtly Christian games out there (while Super Noah's Ark might be cute, I've heard some horrifying things about the Left Behind games), I can't think of many games that indirectly but deliberately employ Christian themes. And I don't mean games that find inspiration from Christian mytholoy (every JRPG ever). I mean, I'd really like to see the video game version of C. S. Lewis' Narnia series (no, not that kind), a game with Chrisitan undercurrents used not so much with the goal of proselytizing, but of telling a good story, imparting some wisdom, and just making a good game. If that makes sense.
author=Saya
And yet, ultimately, it becomes another habit to spend time in. For the long 60 hours spent killing things and going places, only about 4 are actually relevant to the plot or enriching in anyway. So-- we have a contrast between richness and mind-numbing grinding.
Then there's the question of exploration. Exploration is fun, everyone likes good scenery and mapping, but how much of it is actually "good" for you? What does it really give us? It does in fact, fall in comparison to actually being somewhere new and seeing a place for real. You could play a game that's set in Rome, but it never really compares to actually being in Rome. There is the question of time management. How much time should people spend on games. Too much of a good thing is still too much. I wonder if your game can encourage the children to good read the Bible more, or to seek God out more in prayer?
This is something I've been struggling with myself, especially as I've gotten older. Video games are just another hobby like reading books or sports to me, but they tend take up an inordinate amound of my time, especially to finish. (Not to mention how much time I sink into making games...)
As LockeZ and Idida1 bring up, yeah, you could say games are better than drugs, in that game playing isn't illegal and is arguably a more healthy recreational activity. However, people can get addicted to anything, and such a hobby becomes a problem when other "more important" areas of your life are negatively affected by it. So, I would say that kids should be able to play games, but should be guided in finding out what their priorities should be (development, human relationships, physical/mental/spiritual health, etc). :3
To veer back on topic a little...um...make the game short so that the kids don't get addicted? :V
Faenon
3489
So, I guess I could have been more clear from the start. The game itself is not going to be a simple virtual Bible story. I'm making a regular game with them but using the process to teach Religious Education.
So this week we did the
bit and decided that the plot of the game is going to be about the kids in the class being transported to a magical setting (a bit like Narnia or The Philosopher's Stone (rpgmaker version not Potter)) where they have to overcome a villaiin to escape. Nice and simple, and it exploits the fact that many of them, though by no means all, have designed characters based on themselves.
I am most interested in exploring teaching parallels between the process of game creation and theological material, as listed above and hopefully made clearer.
I think that could actually make a pretty good game, maybe the first decent overtly Christian video game...
Noted. Great idea, will read the article.
Ok, I'll make a page when it's done in a couple of months. May have to change names of characters though for data protection, I don't think the school would be very impressed if I distirbuted it on the internet with characters the kids have named after themselves.
No, but interestingly enough my own rpgmaker game, The Cerebral Symphony, uses this and has a multiple personality system.
This is something I think about a lot. Video games and video game making is very addictive. I love it. As a result I have to limit the amount of time I spend doing it and watch that the habit doesn't get out of hand.
Funnily enough, part of my job involves teaching at Sunday School for my employer, with 10-12 year olds, and this semester we're looking at "cultural issues" and how they relate to faith. Last Sunday I taught on video games. I said I wasn't going to point the finger at them and say "Don't play video games!" but that I wanted them to make informed decisions about them based on the principles of their faith.
The biggest argument for choosing to spend my relaxation time with video games for me is that they are an art form. The best rpgmaker games I've played have been lovingly-crafted, immersive, compelling, moving works of art. Videogames are an art form, albeit not a very highly recognised one. In being artistic we are affirming our idenities as made in the image of God, since creativity is a divine quality, I believe. So that keeps me doing it, crafting characters, writing stories, designing experiences. As long as it doesn't become an obssessive idol I think that's ok.
So this week we did the
Quest of game - the search for existential meaning/telos
bit and decided that the plot of the game is going to be about the kids in the class being transported to a magical setting (a bit like Narnia or The Philosopher's Stone (rpgmaker version not Potter)) where they have to overcome a villaiin to escape. Nice and simple, and it exploits the fact that many of them, though by no means all, have designed characters based on themselves.
I am most interested in exploring teaching parallels between the process of game creation and theological material, as listed above and hopefully made clearer.
author=BurningTyger
Hmm, Feanon, consider a frame story of newly-minted Christians attempting to survive persecution, and have each of the sub-sections be a tale told around the fire that then can be played through- like the Canterbury tales. That way you kind of get an enhanced perspective. Or for that matter an " Adventures from the Book of Virtues" like setup where the tales told reflect on the problems the characters are having.
I think that could actually make a pretty good game, maybe the first decent overtly Christian video game...
author=mellytan
And on that note, there is also an emphasis in games on getting more power, to the point of becoming god-like or invincible. I would suggest that you have there should be points where the player cannot rely on his/her strength of beefy stats alone--the player must call on His strength to progress, to overcome evil, etc.
Noted. Great idea, will read the article.
author=mellytan
this game is relevant to my interests, please make a game page
Ok, I'll make a page when it's done in a couple of months. May have to change names of characters though for data protection, I don't think the school would be very impressed if I distirbuted it on the internet with characters the kids have named after themselves.
author=saya
Are you going to have a system like that of Fable, good deeds/bad deeds?
No, but interestingly enough my own rpgmaker game, The Cerebral Symphony, uses this and has a multiple personality system.
author=saya
Which in turn, brings up the problem of gaming itself. Have you ever considered the possibility of the kids therefore becoming addicted to video games and spending more time with them instead of trying to find spiritual enrichment?
This is something I think about a lot. Video games and video game making is very addictive. I love it. As a result I have to limit the amount of time I spend doing it and watch that the habit doesn't get out of hand.
Funnily enough, part of my job involves teaching at Sunday School for my employer, with 10-12 year olds, and this semester we're looking at "cultural issues" and how they relate to faith. Last Sunday I taught on video games. I said I wasn't going to point the finger at them and say "Don't play video games!" but that I wanted them to make informed decisions about them based on the principles of their faith.
The biggest argument for choosing to spend my relaxation time with video games for me is that they are an art form. The best rpgmaker games I've played have been lovingly-crafted, immersive, compelling, moving works of art. Videogames are an art form, albeit not a very highly recognised one. In being artistic we are affirming our idenities as made in the image of God, since creativity is a divine quality, I believe. So that keeps me doing it, crafting characters, writing stories, designing experiences. As long as it doesn't become an obssessive idol I think that's ok.
LOLninja
35
I kind of wonder to what extent a 10 year old child should be encouraged to search spiritual enrichment. At that age I was just listening to bible stories with great interest, but probably because I liked to be read stories, not for spiritual enrichment. Spiritual enrichment happened only recently, when I was like 23 - and it's not particularly Christianity. On hindsight it was useful to know the stories because it is culturally 'normal' to at least know a bit of it.
I think that games are good to make abstract teachings very concrete in a simulated situation. I assume that Christianity ultimately propagates living in peace with your environment and with yourself, and the ten commandments being a simple list of living in peace with your environment. In real life, when I get in a conflict situation or find money on the street, I'd probably choose to break those commandments. So what a game could offer me is a simulation of what would ultimately happen if I would remain friendly and honest - or not.
Well maybe this is too farfetched or very complex to realize but this is how I'd say a game could actually be useful in getting children to think about the contents of spiritual teachings. You may possibly apply it to bible stories so they also get the cultural background.
I think that games are good to make abstract teachings very concrete in a simulated situation. I assume that Christianity ultimately propagates living in peace with your environment and with yourself, and the ten commandments being a simple list of living in peace with your environment. In real life, when I get in a conflict situation or find money on the street, I'd probably choose to break those commandments. So what a game could offer me is a simulation of what would ultimately happen if I would remain friendly and honest - or not.
Well maybe this is too farfetched or very complex to realize but this is how I'd say a game could actually be useful in getting children to think about the contents of spiritual teachings. You may possibly apply it to bible stories so they also get the cultural background.
LightningLord2
230
Intelligent Design - for those who believe in Creationism, but can't decide what the heck they want to worship.
Enker
1572
Interestingly I used RPGMaker 2000 at a Primary School with year 3 (7-8 year olds) to teach them the basics of story writing, with a clearly deffined 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end'. In groups of three they each selected characters from printouts of Charsets I made for them, named and gave them jobs, then told their stories in simple terms. The final thing had seven stories in the game and clearing them all allowed you as the player to walk around the school and talk to staff / pupils avatars. It looked great up on an interactive whiteboard on the wall of the classroom, and when they ended the year I burned 32 copies for the kids and their parents to play at home. Stories ranged from as simple as 'Tim must find all his items at home for his schoolbag before leaving for the day' to an epic quest to 'Rescue the school flag from a neighbouring school'. I don't know if they remember it now (this was 5 years ago) but I sure do.
WolfCoder
3554
author=Enker
Interestingly I used RPGMaker 2000 at a Primary School with year 3 (7-8 year olds) to teach them the basics of story writing, with a clearly deffined 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end'. In groups of three they each selected characters from printouts of Charsets I made for them, named and gave them jobs, then told their stories in simple terms. The final thing had seven stories in the game and clearing them all allowed you as the player to walk around the school and talk to staff / pupils avatars. It looked great up on an interactive whiteboard on the wall of the classroom, and when they ended the year I burned 32 copies for the kids and their parents to play at home. Stories ranged from as simple as 'Tim must find all his items at home for his schoolbag before leaving for the day' to an epic quest to 'Rescue the school flag from a neighbouring school'. I don't know if they remember it now (this was 5 years ago) but I sure do.
Can you upload this as a game profile? I'm kind of curious about what resulted.
AABattery
732
I'm curious as well. I usually enjoy kid's work. Kids make the darnest things.
I'm also curious about all the characters the kids made for themselves in Faenon's game.
I'm also curious about all the characters the kids made for themselves in Faenon's game.
Enker
1572
I'd love to - but unfortunatly given that the children put themselves into the game in a literal sense, and make comments when spoken to, I'd have to get a lot of parent permission. The education system in the UK has a lot of child-safety clauses.
Faenon
3489
Howdy all.
Does anyone remember his topic? I'm not trying to pointlessly bump it up to the front page, I actually have some relevant new information to present.
So, people were interested in seeing the game I used to teach R.E. to kids, as discussed in this topic:
Long story short, I never posted that game because it did contain too much personal information and because it wasn't that fun to play in the end (unless you were a kid in the class -I hope)
BUT
later on I reused my idea with a different group that I was working with, a church youth group made up of 10-14 year old guys called 'Boys Cell'. I have posted the resulting game (which was used to teach Christian material and for which the boys designed all of the main elements) in a gameprofile for Release Something 11. Get it here if you're interested. Cheers.
Does anyone remember his topic? I'm not trying to pointlessly bump it up to the front page, I actually have some relevant new information to present.
So, people were interested in seeing the game I used to teach R.E. to kids, as discussed in this topic:
author=Faenonauthor=mellytan
this game is relevant to my interests, please make a game page
Ok, I'll make a page when it's done in a couple of months. May have to change names of characters though for data protection, I don't think the school would be very impressed if I distirbuted it on the internet with characters the kids have named after themselves.
author=AABattery
I'm curious as well. I usually enjoy kid's work. Kids make the darnest things.
I'm also curious about all the characters the kids made for themselves in Faenon's game.
Long story short, I never posted that game because it did contain too much personal information and because it wasn't that fun to play in the end (unless you were a kid in the class -I hope)
BUT
later on I reused my idea with a different group that I was working with, a church youth group made up of 10-14 year old guys called 'Boys Cell'. I have posted the resulting game (which was used to teach Christian material and for which the boys designed all of the main elements) in a gameprofile for Release Something 11. Get it here if you're interested. Cheers.
Shinan
4314
I will lock this for necroposting. Not that this topic couldn't still be cool and all. But any comments about the game in question could probably go to the gameprofile.
I think it's a pretty cool project. Not that I remember what I may (or may not) have commented back in February.
I think it's a pretty cool project. Not that I remember what I may (or may not) have commented back in February.
