Monday, August 19, 2013

Gone Home: A Model for SLA Games?

A few months ago I became interested in Gone Home, a first-person story exploration video game, on the Game Profiles page at Unity. The idea of a game that does not involve shooting and killing intrigued me. There's not even any non-player characters (NPCs) to interact with. Rather, the game only involves careful investigation of (a rather small) game world and the unfolding of narrative embedded within this space:


I think, in a way, games like Gone Home can serve as a model for 3D digital game-based language learning (3D-DGBLL) environments, which perhaps can also be seen as an archaeological investigation of a simulated real-world space. What could possibly be more exciting, challenging, and intriguing than discovering a different culture and language for the first time? What better platform than a well-designed first-person story exploration video game? Anyway, the game has received excellent reviews in The New York Times and GameSpot. I'm looking forward to downloading my own game soon, as soon as the start-of-the-semester crush has passed.

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