It's unlikely that many video-game reviews mention the theory of stimulus-arrangement, but one of the goals of a new blog by Wake Forest students is to evaluate video games from an academic perspective.
The blog is, VGameU, an offshoot of a freshman seminar on video-game theory and research.
But the blog -- www.vgameu.org/reviews -- includes lots of other information that gamers and parents will find useful, such as the new avatars on Guitar Hero 5.
The bloggers are students in Marina Krcmar's seminar on video games. Krcmar is an associate professor of communication whose research has focused on the effects of media on children. In the past few years, she has shifted her focus from TV to video games.
Most of the students who signed up for her seminar are young men who have slain their share of virtual dragons over the years, but the classes are purely academic. The classroom is barebones, with some desks, tables and a chalkboard. There's not an Xbox in sight.
Krcmar doesn't play video games. "I've always used my students as a resource for my knowledge about mediums," she said.
The class focuses more on behavior and social outcomes of playing video games than the graphics in the new Assassin's Creed game. However, many of the students are well-versed in what consumers like. In classroom discussions, they batted around the idea of starting a blog that would include their reviews of the hottest games.
"We hadn't talked about consumers. What do they like?" Krcmar said. "That's what these students are really good at. The idea of doing it in the context of a blog was exciting to them."
After weeks of playing and testing the games on their own time, the students posted their reviews on the blog, which went live earlier this week, still in time for the holiday shopping season. The blog includes eight reviews of some of the top buzz-generating games, from the new Guitar Hero to Halo 3, and is set up so that consumers, parents and academics can easily find information that is pertinent to them. Each game is given an overall letter grade. Site visitors will find information about objectionable content, how graphic the game is and whether it lends itself well to multiple players.
The reviewers chose the most eagerly anticipated new games and held a draft to determine who would review which game. Everyone's top choice was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Sal Scifo, who has not told his parents that he is taking a class about video games at Wake Forest, chose DJ Hero with his first pick. He liked the game and gave it a B-plus.
"I really like video games and this was a way for me to play them and help people out at the same time," said Scifo, of Washington.
Scifo started playing a Game Boy Color, a handheld game device, when he was 4. A longtime fan of first-person shooter games, Scifo said his interest has shifted to music games.
For the blog, he played each game for about two hours.
"The majority of it was fun, but the writing was a little boring," Scifo said. "But there was a lot of reward for not a lot of work."
Some of the areas the reviewers evaluated were narrative, the social playability and replay value.
Scifo said he liked being able to incorporate some of the language that he learned in the seminar into his reviews.
For example, a game with a lot of "flow" means that the player may quickly lose a sense of time.
Krcmar said she hopes that parents will look at the blog.
"I would like parents to use the blog to make sound media decisions for their kids," she said.
lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
727-7420
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement