Last week my son raced past me on the stairs just as I was coming up to tell him, as usual, to turn off the TV.
"I gotta find out what was Shakespeare's most popular comedy," he called out, by way of explanation.
"Is this for homework?"
"No. My player is writing his exams. If he fails he'll be cut from the team."Again I trailed after him for more explanation. This time he was playing NCAA 07. In this one, he takes on the character of a college player on a scholarship.
"You pick your degree and subject but if you don't have a grade point average higher than 2.0 you don't play."
"So you're telling me you have to take classes as well as play football?"I'm dumbfounded by this idea.
"Yeah, you get a schedule, with classes and games. You have mid-terms and finals. Multiple choice. They're hard."
"How do you study for them?"
"Once you choose your topic--I'm doing English--facts in your topic pop up on the screen and you have to memorize them. If you flunk, you can't play, and if you can't play your popularity on campus goes down. Your goal is to be the greatest in school history--if you do well, you can import the player to Madden 07 [pro ball]."His eyes dart to the screen. "Can I just finish writing my exam?"
I check my watch. "Dinner's going to be a little while. Why don't you play some more?"
From Why Your Kids Should Play More Videogames. I had no idea all that cool stuff was in the NFL and Madden games. Wild.
That's great, although most of my childhood knowledge came from trying to answer the Baby Boomer specific questions that you had to answer to play Leisure Suit Larry on PC...thanks to that game, I now know who Spiro Agnew was and why he was significant in history...
Posted by: Christian | October 25, 2006 at 16:45
Woah. Good job EA! I'm surprised and impressed.
Posted by: Deg | October 29, 2006 at 01:39