Lien 1

Benefits of a Hobby: An Academic Study of Video

Games
Alex Lien

North Dakota State University

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible benefits of video games as a hobby
compared to the socially accepted form of co-learning, reading. Currently video games are seen
as a waste of time or even as a negative hobby with possible violent tendencies influencing the
players. Using a learning log to record detailed notes, from the novel Blindspot and the game
Assassins Creed III, to make an academic comparison of the educational, cultural and moral
benefits of both reading the novel and playing the game, and weighing the overall academic
value of video games to novels. The results show that, while Blindspot had more literary aspects
and tackled more cultural issues, the game Assassins Creed III allowed the player a more
immersive experience into the American Revolutionary War, along with more
entertainment/incentive and surprisingly a more unique perspective on the war through the eyes
of a native.
Introduction
Video game have become so much more than when they were first created. Video games when
from a simple side-scrolling game to immense 3D worlds with complex characters and stories
just like novels. Almost every video game has a detailed campaign (story) that you can follow,
most have multiple paths or characters you can take as you play through the story in your own
unique way. These stories can have deep literary meanings, inspire complex analysis, and be
riddled with fun facts to learn as you play. Just like your favorite book, video games are often
replayed to relive their stories and even catch something you might have missed the first time.
Its the mixture of education and entertainment that I plan to research in this project by studying
the benefits of video games by comparing one to a successful novel.
Video games can give great incentive to players to learn too. From memorizing map layouts or
strategic positioning to puzzle solving, the idea of a mysterious end reward or a need to progress
the story, both get players working hard to beat most games they play. The popular console
game, Destiny, required their players to learn Binary code to obtain one of the most recent exotic
weapons (rare, unique guns of the game). Its this incentive to play for rewards and entertainment
that should be harnessed for education even more. Instead of casting video games off as a waste
of time, both educators and parents should find and embrace certain video games to do promote
a beneficial pass time.
That incentive combined with the deep analytical literary lessons that can be in some more indepth games like Assassins Creed III, can create some awesome learning opportunities while
having fun. Learning about the American Revolution through the eyes of a Mohawk native or the
moral dilemma of trusting your possibly evil father, or working with the colonists to save your
tribes land, all influence the story and make the player think about these struggles the natives
faced, and make you think what would you do in that position? and wonder why the creators

Lien 1
make certain characters to what they do, just like an literary analysis of why the authors make
their characters do what they do.
This project is aimed to shed some light on the benefits of video games to the public and to help
break the negative stigma thats currently against video games and results in them being seen as
a waste of time. This will be an interesting project and hard to prove because the intellectual
nourishment of reading books is so deeply ingrained in our assumptions that its hard to
contemplate a different viewpoint (Johnson 18) I will be comparing the historical game series
Assassins Creed, specifically Assassins Creed III, which revolves around the Revolutionary
War, to Jane Kamensky and Jill Lopores novel Blindspot, that is also about the Revolutionary
War and look at both of their educational value, cultural value and entertainment value. Both can
help with historical understanding, even though theyre fictional, along with possible literary
analysis of the stories and literary techniques. While both of these sources will not be perfect for
education since they are fictional, I will be looking at the literary techniques and historical
accuracy between the novel and game to see what I learn from them and try to piece together as
much of the Revolutionary War from it, showing how much one can learn from both playing a
video game and reading. Along with these observations, I aim to show the deep analytical side of
video games and their similarities to novels in ways that they make the player think. I hope to
use this to show that video games as a pass time can actually be quite beneficial.

Lit Review
As myself and many other gamers have experienced, many parents and educators have labeled
video games as with various negative stigmas like being a waste of time, contributing to
violent tendencies or even being a dangerous addictive hobby. Simon Parkin talks about the
dangers of video games in Death by Video Games published in 2016, including some examples
of people dying because of them. One prominent example is when in 1982 eighteen-year-old
Peter Burkowski walks into Friar Tucks Game Room in Calumet City, Illinois, posts a high
score on the arcade game Berzerk and, moments later, collapses dead (Parkin XI). Now this has
happened a variety of times over the decades and its no laughing matter. The addicting nature of
the games providing incetive to players to get playing for rewards or bragging rights, is a scary
but impressive accomplishment on the developers part.
I am showing this side of the argument to acknowledge the problems and outweigh these
examples with my own research of the benefits of video games. While these games can be seen
as addicting, in extreme cases so addicting that people play until they die, we can all agree that
every activity has its downside, and there will always be those extreme cases were someone
takes it too far. From sports causing injuries to novels causing eye sight issues (similar to video
games), every activity has some consequences. But one thing to think about are the possible
benefits. If video games are becoming so entertaining and successful that they can get players to
play for days on end, why not use them for beneficial purposes? Some games actually have
educational content in them like learning history in Assassins Creed or moral values from
Dishonored or Infamous, where you have a choice to kill and become a monster or be merciful
and become a hero. Shouldnt we encourage those positive games to rise above the violent but
entertaining games like Call of Duty?

Lien 1

Video games can have cultural values that both reflect the creators and create cultural
understanding for the players. When talking about the orginal Assassins Creed, which takes
place in the Middle East, and its influences with culture, a multi-ethic group of researchers
played it and Magy Seif El-Nasr said we discovered that each one of us had a different
experience with the game (El-Nasr 1). And these experiences can help reflect from the game to
the players. They marveled at the complex literary text and its multiple variations of
experiencing the game.
In Assassins Creed III, you play as a native American during the Revolutionary war, taking a
unique perspective of history and throwing the player into a different culture to experience.
Putting yourself in anothers perspective is something novels and video games commonly do, but
in video games you play as a character and follow their story/culture and lead them through it,
instead of simply following the character in a novel. These choices can influence the character,
story, relationships and much more. Its a way more interactive world for the player to
experience and live in.
Assassins Creed III not only has the main character as a native, but you also interact with racists
white colonist, a freed African mentor, various French men fighting with the colonist against the
British and loyalist in the colonies. Its a large melting pot of race and perspective all clashing,
each with its own ideals to follow, personalities and interactions.
One of the main problems that video games face is the older generation. While its not only older
educators or parents that are against video games, the generational gap does bring up some
issues. According to Prensky, without growing up in the technological era, digital immigrants
have troubles connecting to digital natives (those who were born into the technological era and
easily understand it) when it comes to technology. When talking about the problems that new
technology like video games face he states But this is not just a joke. Its very serious, because
the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who
speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that
speaks an entirely new language (Prensky 2).
A great outside perspective of video games is when Dr. James Gee tries a video game for the first
time he states As I confronted the game I was amazed. It was hard, long, and complex. I failed
many times and had to engage in a virtual research project via the Internet to learn some of
things I needed to know. All my Baby-Boomer ways of learning and thinking didnt work (Gee
1). He had to work his mind in new ways to solve problems. This is something most gamers do
on a daily basis and this project aims to show the positives to video games that are often over
looked, like problem solving, and to help them be more accepted, possibly even encouraged as a
positive hobby.
Bogost focuses on the expressive power that video games can have on the players and those
watching. He creates the term procedural rhetoric since video games are basic
representational mode of procedurally (rule-based representations and interactions), open a new
domain for persuasion; they realize a new form of rhetoric (Bogost ). He explains that the rules
and experiences that video games require the players to follow to win, can influence their ways
of thinking. And that these new ways of thinking are a deep cognitive response similar to what
readers experience when reading literature.

Lien 1

Methods
I have not only researched others opinions and research, but also done my own research through
a learning log. In this learning log, I made detailed notes as I read through the novel and the
game. Each note was made to record anything I might have learned like historical knowledge or
literary techniques. I made a comparison between a novel, an already accepted form of pastime
and education, with video games a controversial form of education and pastime. The novel I
chose is Blindspot: By a Lady in Disguise & A Gentleman in Exile, a historical fiction based
around the revolutionary war of America. The video game I chose to compare it to, is Assassins
Creed III, also a historical fiction based around the American Revolutionary war. The learning
log tracked my notes about the novel and video game as I played. Here is an example of a note
made in the log talking about the moral dilemma I faced in Assassins Creed III:
Sequence 9:
Next we witness the signing of the Declaration of Independence, June 16, 1775. Along with some inspiring/ famous
quotes, like We must all hang together
We scout out lands to possible basecamps for the army, only to run into Haythem Kenway, he tries to convince us
that they are working for the betterment of the colonies. He brings up George Washingtons faults and valley forge,
which was a fort that the Continental army stayed in to train for a variety of months, but the conditions were truly
awful. This is a moral dilemma for us as we have to option to work with a man without morals to get the job done
and accomplish our goal or do it on our own and risk failing.
We work with Haythem for the moment. But continues to show his dark side, killing its not necessary, and furthering
his own agenda. Haythem even admits to longer have the childish affection that Conner has. This is a lesson in
morality, that killing is not the only answer as an assassin.
As we continue to work with Haythem, another plot bomb is dropped. Haythem asks how our mother is doing, and
we bring up that she is dead due to Charles Lee (Haythems right hand man) burning the village she lived in.
Haythem is astonished, as he did not know.

The notes were around 125 to 250 words and about 28 notes were made. A total of 12 notes from
Assassins Creed III, mainly because it the most sense to make the notes according to the games
sequences (missions). And 16 notes from Blindspot as it was a little longer (although there were
more gaps between notes throughout the novel). This research took about two months to
complete.

Research
look at the operating literary levels that both the book and video game operates on like class,
race, domestic or action, gender. What do the different mediums do differently?
There were a variety of features and criteria that I looked at as I reviewed the learning log. To
cover the literary aspects and ways both the game and the novel made me think while completing
them that Bogost focuses on, I categorized those moments as Literary Analytical Content. I also
focused on the perspectives of both and weighed them for the issues they bring up and the
uniqueness of the experience from playing/reading from that perspective. I also weighed the
incentive I had to finish Blindspot and Assassins Creed III to know their overall entertainment
value and addictiveness. While these two categories are not the same, I compared the immersion
of the video game to the vocabulary of the novel, as they are both unique aspects that I
experienced/ received while completing them. I also compared Assassins Creeds procedural
rhetoric to Blindspots literary rhetoric.

Lien 1
As far as literary aspects go, both achieve high standards. Blindspot is a refreshing twist of a new
colonist trying to make it in the colonies as he wittily comments to the reader every once in a
while. Along with the emotion filled letters between Fanny and her friend. Blindspot brings up
the issues of gender inequality of the revolution, the idea of mental blind spots causing characters
to miss obvious issues because theyre too focused on other issues and issues between the
colonies and England. Where Assassins Creed brings up race/native relations issues during the
revolution, the experience of being betrayed, the experience of death/killing and the effects it has
on a person, and the overall idea that right and wrong is based on perspective. Both the game and
the novel really made me think about important aspects of life and helped me experience parts of
history I would not normally get to learn. I gave Assassins Creed III a 3 out of 5, as it did have
many amazing issues brought up and experiences, but not nearly as many as the novel. Blindspot
received a 5 out of 5 as it continued to bring up deep quotes, literary techniques, and cultural
issues.
Blindspot looks to bring up the issue of gender with Fanny being a protagonist, showing what it's
like to live as a woman in a man's world during the revolution. She must even disguise her
gender to obtain the skills she needs to become an independent woman and artist. Assassin's
Creed bring up the issue of race and class, playing as both a powerful Englishman, and later as
his native American born son. The native American side of the story allows for a deep immersion
into the Mohawk culture that allows the player to see garments, hear the language and work with
the native culture. Text can only explain so much, but the game allows you experience it and a
whole new way. This perspective is heightened even more as you must enter into the
Revolutionary war and pick a side from which, both have attacked your people and lands. I have
given Assassins Creed III a 5 out of 5 as its perspective was a unique experience as most players
cannot experience native culture very easily in the present day, and it teaches the players an
important lesson in American history, showing how native cultures were constantly abused and
betrayed by European settlers. Blindspot received a 4 out of 5, as its perspective was also an
interesting experience of a new colonist and a woman in disguise. It received a slightly lower
score than the game because its perspective does not have as much historical influence and the
perspective of a struggling woman during colonial/revolutionary times is common in many other
novels. But it is still an interesting perspective to follow. All of these perspectives offer different
cultural views of the world at this time and every player/reader could have a different experience
while completing them, just like Magy Seif El-Nasr and her team noticed.
One of the key features of this study is the entertainment value/ addictiveness of these products.
If they are being sold as a form of entertainment or an educational tool, they have to have some
form of incentive to keep the person going so they complete it. Assassins Creed III received a 4
out of 5, as they constant cliffhangers at the ends of missions, combined with the incentive to
level up and get in-game rewards gave plenty of incentive to keep playing. Blindspot received a
2 out of 5, as it gave very little incentive to continue reading. Other than to continue the story,
there were not many reasons to keep going, and the story lacked excitement or action that keeps
readers hooked and wanted to read more.
Next is the immersion of the game compared to the vocabulary of the novel. Both of this are
unique aspects to their respective medium and while the game does have some vocabulary and
the novel does have some immersion, neither excel in those fields and are not equal when them.
So I will compare the games excellent of immersion into the Revolutionary colonies to the
colonial dialect/vocabulary of the novel. Assassins Creed III received a 5 out of 5 for its in-

Lien 1
depth immersion into the game world. While playing through it, I was able to see, hear and
interact with colonial Boston, colonist, soldiers and historical figures. A truly unique experience
to video games. Blindspot received a 4 out of 5 for its vocabulary throughout the novel. It
excelled in this field of colonial terms, but did not compare to the overall value of the games
immersion aspects.
Both Gee and Bogost talk about the procedural and literary rhetoric and when comparing the
novel and the game, both excelled in their correlating section for rhetoric and I weighed them as
equal, both receiving a 5 out of 5. The game forced players to replay and master difficult
missions that varied from not being allowed to be seen (as an assassin) to diplomatic envoys for
perfect sequences. The novel continuously brought up various literary techniques and interesting
rhetoric as the reader followed the story.
In the end, I would have to say that both the novel and video game came out as equal in the terms
of academic benefits to the participants. While video games received a higher score of overall
benefits, possible bias and lack of variety in participants limit this study.

The Last Level/Chapter

While the results showed that the game had a small lead over the novel, one must always
remember that bias might be present and that this study could be done with many more
participates for more results and many different versions of this study could be done to keep
getting new results. Different variations like focusing on different parts of games, different types
of games and novels like maturity level differences and age of the participant, asking the
participates to complete both as fast as possible to see how much they learn in a speed run and
much more could all be possible for more variety in the results on the possible benefits of video
games in comparison to novels. I hope to continue this study in a more in-depth research in the
future, and hopefully with the help of other video game supporters get the respective that video
games deserve and if I am really lucky, I might even see video games enter the field of
education.