I used to enjoy video games a lot! I remember the first time I was bought a Playstation by my dad. Several nights after that, I stayed up late trying every game CD which I purchased then ended up being late for school. Perhaps due to the fact that games seemingly affected my performance at school that eventually both of my parents took some small actions such as reminding me to sleep early and checking whether or not I was working on my homework. Honestly evaluating myself back then, the video games did to a certain degree influence my behavior at school. Due to the sleeplessness, sometimes I was left behind the teacher's explanation and I tended to do the exercise more slowly. Since I was aware of this, I did not talk back when my parents kept raising their concerns about my new addiction.
Nevertheless, the console they gave me was not all bad influence nor a useless habit. I have to admit that much of my English lesson occurred outside the school. Yes, games particularly RPG (Role-play Game) has significantly helped
improve my linguistic ability. Playing the Playstation 1 rpgs in which characters' speech was displayed as text rather than audio did not do much with my listening and speaking comprehension skills. But my learning was taken to the next level when Playstation 2 introduced many rpgs with animated cut-scenes; that is, some parts in the game when players stop controlling the main character for a while and get to watch the game plot's development. It then began to train my listening skills, and as time went on, I also started to be familiar with common English dialogues. Actually it was not only my language skills that were improved thanks to video games, but also my understanding of some concepts in social studies. It is true that most of the games I played took place in a fictional world, yet their geographical and historical settings were inspired by the real world. For example, one of my rpgs told a story of war between different races. After inquiring about what was behind that scene, I eventually realized that the game's scriptwriter was telling a different version of many racism conflicts happening on Earth. As a high schooler majoring in science program, I found myself gained some glimpses of interest toward geography and world history because of the rpgs.
The birth of internet which influenced many aspects of human life, game included, has introduced me to another kind of game namely MMORPG. It is the abbreviation of multiplayer massively online rpg. Maintaining the basics of rpg, mmorpg expanded its fascination with the online feature. By that time I could play together with my friends - the very people with the same interest and mindset as mine. I no longer worked alone to fight monsters and complete the plot but I got the chance to chat, compete as well as collaborate by joining groups or guilds. Games still taught me something that time. In fact, what I learned was beyond content-related stuff I experienced when I played offline rpgs. In playing online rpg, I started to realize the different types of characters; not the characters in game, but the traits everyone possesses. I witnessed many kinds of unique capabilities as reflected by the role they played in the game. Some were good as leaders, daring to take risk by invading the enemy's castle in the front line. Others preferred to work behind the scene, just like the wizard or paladin archetypes while the rest enjoyed being faithful supporters or buffers, healing the guild members whose health point almost ran out. Alas, this euphoria occurred around the end of my eleventh grade. Needless to say, my parents were worried whether I would properly face the series of exams in the Indonesian education system and consequently I had to bid farewell to this entertainment until I had my school break.
In the end, I regret not having the chance to properly explain what benefits did those games yield to me. Well, I am not to be fully blamed either because at that time we the Y-generation did not have as good reputation as what the current Z-gens have. I mean back then people's paradigm towards games and internet was still negative. Parents more likely saw them as threats to their children. Even until recently, I realized as a teacher that at least in my country parents are still overprotective toward their kids. Some of my homeroom students even told me their folks completely banned them from touching video games unless their grades were satisfactory. Therefore, I came to a conclusion that a reformation should be made regarding the Indonesian parents' stereotype of video games. I am not in any means being a defender or endorsing games to the whole students in the nation. I just take pity on them because I used to wear their shoes and knew exactly how it was to be forbidden from your passion. Video games can even be means to learn lessons from various subjects along with soft skills such as communication and collaboration. This then has led me to include video games as a key phrase in my master's research and thesis later on. About the detailed title, I am still thinking about it. Perhaps I will try discovering other correlations between games and learning-themed concepts, or even developing an rpg which includes more elaborate lessons than language, geography and history.
Images taken form:
https://gamefabrique.com/storage/screenshots/ps2/suikoden-5-09.png