Wizard101 and the Benefits of Educational Games

In a previous post I discussed some of the benefits that

can come from online games. That post was driven
primaril b the e!perience I had spea"ing at a
conference and being concerned that so much of the
press and academic focus was on the potentiall negative
aspects of gaming. I was thrilled to read a recent article
on #enture Beat where $ean Ta"ahashi had a chance to
have a conversation with %ar" $e&oura' the senior
adviser for digital media at the White (ouse. I highl
encourage all of our fans to read the article and leave
comments as it is wonderful to see this "ind of focus on
the )*+ITI#E+ that can come from gaming. If ou hear
cheering as ou read this it ,uite possibl could be me still sitting in m office vigorousl
applauding. -. This has been a message I have been tring to e!plain to the press for almost si!
ears now. )erhaps more accuratel stated this has been a message that we have heard from
our plaers for the last si! ears. It is wonderful to finall see a well/"nown outlet cover the
educational benefits of gaming. )erhaps 0ust as e!citing is to see the focus at the highest level of
our government.
*ne uphill battle I1ve faced in relating our plaers stories was 2Wizard101 isn1t a true
educational game3. I guess in the most technical sense that rings true. Wizard101 isn1t a 2%ath
Game3 or a 2+pelling Game3 that was designed specificall as a game to teach math or to teach
spelling. *f course' neither are some of the games that $e&aura references including %ine 4raft
5a wonderful building game.. But the root of that argument is that if it isn1t a game specificall
designed to 2teach math3 then it cannot help plaers obtain increased mathematical s"ills and
thus is not an educational game. That argument seems about as flawed to me as to tell a
teacher it was bad to assigning (arr )otter to "ids as a summer reading e!ercise. (arr )otter
isn1t written specificall as a te!tboo" to teach grammar or spelling. It1s not a technical boo" to
teach English fundamentals so does it have no learning or educational benefit to the reader6 I
would argue that the (arr )otter series is a wonderful stor that "eeps people of all ages
engaged' stretches the imagination and certainl helps oung readers improve their reading
s"ills. Thus' it has 2educational value3 to the reader. I1m not sure how man people realize the
e!tent of reading in Wizard101 but there over 70'000 lines of te!t in Wizard101. I feel confident
tal"ing about the educational value of Wizard101 because of the huge number of letters'
comments' emails we have received from parents and plaers telling us how much our games
have helped them improve their reading' spelling and grammar s"ills.
It1s the same stor with math. While not technicall a math game we hear countless stories
about how plaer1s math and reasoning s"ills have improved. The card game behind Wizard101
has a huge component of statistics and our plaers learn this as the progress. The are taught
to solve problems' to reason out solutions' to understand which combinations of spells lead to
the best outcomes.
This same concept seems even more so when it comes to teaching creativit. Is Wizard101
technicall an art game6 8ope. But tell that to the thousands of fans who1s art submissions we
receive 5we have entire walls in our office decorated with fan art.. (ow about to the plaers
that have written thousands of pages of creative stories inspired b Wizard1016 In an era where
programs li"e creative writing and art are being cut from our school sstems our children need
an outlet and an inspiration for creativit. Whether that is Wizard101 or other forms of
inspiration.
There last area I would li"e to touch on that was discussed in the #enture Beat article is the
growing opportunit in our econom and wor"force for actual technical s"ills. +"ills li"e
computer programing' digital art and engineering. While games li"e Wizard101 don1t reall
2teach3 these s"ills I thin" it1s ver hard to discount that passion that can be driven b
e!periencing an amazing virtual li"e Wizard101. I firml believe that man of the future
emploees in these fields will get their 2start3' their 2passion3 to pursue those careers b
engaging with games li"e those that we ma"e here at 9ingsIsle.
I would highl encourage ou to share our views on this topic. 4learl leaving a repl here is
great but if ou are willing' please go to the #enture Beat article and leave a repl. )erhaps %ar"
$e&oura will read our comment and help him continue to position the values of these tpes of
games at the highest levels. Who "nows' mabe if enough positive comments are left )resident
*bama himself ma read a few -.
https-::www.wizard101.com:game:"id/safe/game