Schools make such a big deal out of typing, how many of us plan to be a secretary? ItÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s one of those skills where I donÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t see the practical applications for, whatever they may be;

 

Obviously written by a child with no clue what the working world is like. No practical applications for typing? This kid thinks that only secretaries have to type on a daily basis?

 

 

 

How about computer programmers, network administrators, supervisors of any kind, engineers, researchers, chemists. I'd be hard pressed to find a job that doesn't require typing skills now. Even the garbage man uses a computer back at the office to plan routes and special pickups.

Not many people in RS can type the word 'Hi' right!

Perhaps what I'm about to say has already been said in the topic, but forgive me, I have not time to read them all through...

 

 

 

Schools make such a big deal out of typing, how many of us plan to be a secretary?

 

 

 

I'm sorry but this is just unacceptable. It's almost impossible for me to believe that anyone these days, especially someone who is clearly involved in such a modern thing as an MMO, can negate the importance of typing. Nearly everyone who is growing up nowadays, will own a computer at some point in his life. There's no point denying it. It's the same as with cars 50 years ago. They firstly were for the rich, but now the average family owns 2 cars, perhaps even more. Computers have already passed that stage, they are already here for everyone. Which makes it even harder to believe that "typing" is of little importance...

 

 

 

I don't think you realise that everyone at some point in his life will have to start typing. For some professions, I aggree, it's not needed. People who work in factories, fishermen, truck drivers,... But on the other hand, every manager in EVERY company,all accountants, bankers, ... all use their computer for their jobs on a daily basis. A close friend of mine is an accountant, and he claims to win about an hour of time by typing fast.

 

 

 

It's just ridiculous to claim that only secretaries should know how to type, because only they need to. In my opinion it is quite the oposite. If you want to make somewhat of a carreer in the modern world; a good typing skill is vital.

 

 

 

Apart from that, I find the article a bit far fetched as well. Also, you mention that you can learn you history, but is the point of history that the battleaxe has 2 bladed edges? Or that the mongols raided asia and europe... And then again, who sais that jagex' interpretation is correct? Where do you have to draw the line between reality and fantasy inside the game? Can you even speak of reality inside a game?

 

 

 

Runescape has learnt me more about communication, social relationships, helping eachother out, making transactions. Farming thought me how to plan my trips and how a good planning and timing can mean high productivity. MTK teaches me that by making an effort to keep your people happy, also means a higher productivity. Trading taught me to keep my eyes wide open, and never blindely trust a stranger.

 

 

 

Those are things that I experienced in this game. I don't need runescape to teach me maths, history or typing, I've got school for that ;)

...Not everyone here is from the United Kingdom. In America we just say "math."

 

Just because the majority of people say it whereever you live doesn't make it grammatically correct. You've still not answered my point - there is no such thing as a mathematic. There is such a thing as mathematics. Therefore, logic would follow for the abbreviation to be "maths", not "math".

 

 

 

It was a flippent point anyway. If that's the only hole you can pick in my post, then I think I did pretty darn good. :wink:

my typing has gone up from about 30 wpm to about 75-80 wpm!!!!!!

How did an article of this quality make it to the Times?

 

 

 

I was going to it apart point by point but I think Ginger already did a fine job. Thumbs up.

 

 

 

(Oh, by the way, fifty-something words per minute isn't really anything to be proud of.)

Like Ginger_Warrior said before... this article is "pretty flawed"... yes, the argument has as many holes as swiss cheese has.

 

 

 

1. Typing has largely replaced handwriting in the commercial and industrial world the last few decades. Enough said...

 

2. Skills with basic operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, exponetiating), even when done mentally, will not get you very far beyond high school algebra. Ivy League doesn't really accept many students who graduate below algebra and geometry...

 

3. All I have to say about the history section of the article is "LOL." I hope College Board doesn't replace World History AP with courses about scimitars and battle axes.

 

4. Yes, I suppose the people at Jagex have a lot of imagination... but the real world is a better source for imagination, as long as you have good eyesight. RS's graphics are... .... ....

 

 

 

EDIT: oops... stupid mistakes....

...Not everyone here is from the United Kingdom. In America we just say "math."

 

Just because the majority of people say it whereever you live doesn't make it grammatically correct. You've still not answered my point - there is no such thing as a mathematic. There is such a thing as mathematics. Therefore, logic would follow for the abbreviation to be "maths", not "math".

 

 

 

It was a flippent point anyway. If that's the only hole you can pick in my post, then I think I did pretty darn good. :wink:

 

 

 

mathematic

 

c.1380 as singular, replaced by early 17c. by mathematics (1581), from L. mathematica (pl.), from Gk. mathematike tekhne "mathematical science," fem. sing. of mathematikos (adj.)[...]Math is the Amer.Eng. shortening, attested from 1890; the British preference, maths is attested from 1911.

 

The form "maths" is just as much a regional preference as "math" is. Both grew out of the full term, much as the original term (which, if you'll notice, is mathematic) was derived from the Greek word. There may not be a common-usage word "mathematic" currently (other than as a corruption of "mathematical"), however, you cannot separate that term from the origin of the word itself.

 

 

 

It's the same idea as the difference between telly and TV. Which one is incorrect? Neither, as far as colloquial speakers go.

 

 

 

Anyway, continue article-bashing now.

Typing

 

Schools make such a big deal out of typing, how many of us plan to be a secretary? ItÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s one of those skills where I donÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t see the practical applications for, whatever they may be; Runescape can help us pass that class.

 

 

 

Although it is true that my touch typing improved quite a bit while playing Runescape, I find this statement kind of amusing--Errdoth obviously hasn't spent a lot of time at a modern highschool, where all papers must be typed. The class is a good thing, that much I'll say: I know a few people who can't touch type, and they spend entire evenings working on a one paragraph paper--something that takes me about an hour and a half to write a "perfect" one (get full credit in an honor's English class), which includes prewriting, etc. (although the grade is more dependent on being a good writer then my typing skills, it's to show that you wouldn't -need- to spend all evening on it to get a high score).

 

 

 

Math

 

There is not much to go for here, but there is some, and I will build on it. In the financial world of Runescape, we need to know our math, if someone is trading you items and you want to know the total value, do you really want to grab your pencil and scrawl down addition problems, or to figure out how much time it will take to level, do you really want to have to write down equations? By repeatedly doing these everyday tasks that involve math, our mentality changes and we can do these problems mentally.

 

 

 

Most people use a calculator for this kind of thing... although it does help with basic algebra word problems, it's not much good for anything else.

 

 

 

(e.x. "I need some number of logs to get to level 80. That's 84900 experience away. Each log gives 100 experience, how many logs do I need?" It's easily modeled as 84900=100x, which becomes 849=x, so you need 849 logs.)

 

 

 

History (The Big One)

 

Though Runescape may be the Sultan of Fantasy, there is some real history to be found there. Who (besides a Lord of the Rings fan) would know what a scimitar was without Runescape? How would we know about Amour and Bows and arrows and quivers?

 

 

 

A D&D fan would know what a scimitar was without Runescape. A avid fantasy reader would know what a scimitar was without Runescape. There are a lot of things that would have people know what scimitars were without Runescape, but I won't bore you with a more exhaustive list. And you would know a lot more about armour, bows, arrows, and quivers if you studied medieval warfare, and that's an interesting topic to look into.

 

 

 

For instance.... what Runescapian (using knowledge just from Runescape) would know just how much plate armor restricted movement? How hot it was? How, if one got knocked over with it, it would be hard for them to stand up? How long it took to put on? At what range a longbow is effective, and how effective it is?

 

 

 

Those things would be learned in studying basic medieval warfare, along with anything you could learn from Runescape. And the warfare is interesting, too, unlike some topics of study.

 

 

 

People who play Runescape would know what a battle axe was and have a better connection to what the book was trying to get across; others would have no idea and might just think of an everyday ax.

 

 

 

Not true. If you ask someone to draw a battle axe, your average high school student (male more then female, methinks) would get it relatively correct, if only because they liked knights back when they were 8.

 

 

 

 

Writing

 

Runescape can be considered a cornucopia of knowledge when it comes to inspiration for Fantasy Sci-Fi stories. Runescapians can embrace that knowledge of battles, creatures, weapons, and quest storylines and bend it to their own stories.

 

 

 

And, unless they change it drastically, they would be committing copyright infringement :P I doubt Jagex would be too happy with a bestselling story in which the main hero was wearing full dragon armour, described exactly as it looks ingame...

i agree with the notion of increased typing speed, as a result of playing RS. 2 years ago when i started, i typed about 60 wpm with like a 25% error. Now i can cleanly do 60 wpm with a random error here and there, and get up to 75 wpm with about 25% error.

 

 

 

Also, to add to the Math portion of the article, players use math alot with their skilling when their figuring goals and raw materials or how many creatures they'll have to kill

I'm sorry to agree with most of the above said. But what i was shocked at reading the article is that you haven't touched the most blatant case of educational use of Runescape: for us non-native english users, it's a very varied place to expand your vocabulary (at least for me it was...). I find it that the game focus so many diferent activities that you learn words to talk about pretty much everything (even now and then i learn a few new words on here and i'm not ashamed of it...).

 

I totally agree with you, I live in Brazil and people not too many people know english here, when they notice I know they say:

 

"How did you learned english?"

 

Me:

 

"Playing Runescape"

 

They:

 

"You are stupid"