Video Game Verbs
Now divide the class into groups. Have each group choose one of the video games from the top five, other than the one you have already discussed, or alternately another video game that everyone in the group is familiar with. (More than one group will end up analyzing each game. This is fine because you will be able to compare the results of their analysis in this activity.)
Have students access the student chapter Video Game Verbs and have the students use the interactive tool to analyze their game in terms of verbs and obstacles.
Once the groups have finished their analyses, have them share the results with the class.
Keep a running list of verbs on the board, indicating with a tally mark or something similar each time a verb is mentioned more than once.
When all of the groups have shared their analyses, ask them to look at the tally on the board:
- Which verbs were mentioned most often?
- Which were only mentioned once or a few times?
- How common were verbs that can be done to someone or something?
- How common were verbs that involved violence of some kind (hurting a living thing or taking something from someone without their permission)?
Now ask students: why do they think the verbs that were mentioned most often were so common, and the ones mentioned infrequently so uncommon?
Let students discuss for a few minutes and make sure the following points come up:
- Most video games fall into genres that have standard conventions about how you play them, such as platformers, shooters, puzzle
games, etc. - Some actions are easier to code in a video game than others, especially because many games are made using premade engines (such as Unity or Unreal) that have some actions already coded for you
- Many people who make video games grew up playing them, and want to make games that are like the ones they played growing up
- Companies market games at particular audiences and give them what the companies think they want in the game.
Ask students if they have ever done a similar exercise, in class or elsewhere. If so, ask them to reflect on what has changed since the last time they did.