Valid Difficulties in Gaming

I wasn't fully aware of the extent to which mobile games had been seeking to monopolize the free time of children until I was standing in the lobby of a Korean academy ready to start my first shift as an ESL instructor. Jet-lagged and beginning my first adventure abroad,  I was a bystander as my new students entered the academy. Each one entered with the same composure: smartphone held in both hands horizontally, head down and incredibly focused on the screen. If the academy owners were lucky, they'd get a bow and a greeting from these students. There would be a degree of interaction between students, but it all seemed secondary to the main task at hand; whatever was on those screens.  "Smartphones" by Alberto Mari is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Naturally, I assumed they were glued to YouTube - it's what I would do. Cut to my first few classes. I'm shadowing two American women who've been doi

Welcome to Valid Difficulties in Gaming Valid Difficulties in Gaming is a series of blogs designed to promote the benefits of gaming to the general public. There are many negative stereotypes regarding "gaming" and "gamers". The most common perceptions that come to mind are "video games cause violence" or "video games are a waste of time". As the gaming industry gets bigger, it is important to remember that it is harder to view the entire medium as monolithic. This blog will attempt to categorize the various types of gaming in terms of how useful they are to individuals. We will consider how addictive these games are, if they are "free to play", if there is an end game, a problem to solve, or a learning curve that must be navigated. Hopefully, this will help us understand gaming from a perspective that transcends traditional genre classifications.