Runescape the answer for real-life experience?

[ctim]

I just read this article:

 

 

 

"Runescape is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), developed by Jagex Unlimited. With over nine million active free players and more than 850,000 paying members, Runescape is one of the most popular online games in the world, and certainly no stranger to Berthoud, public libraries, homes and offices everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Players create human characters and develop skills in order to take on missions, gain wealth, battle monsters and challenge other players using the ancient art of combat. The site offers a free version available to everyone as well as a memberÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s version for a small monthly fee. Both versions offer an endless scale of adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides being incredibly fun, Runescape may offer practical and educational benefits as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Dr. Simon Bradford and Nic Crowe of Brunel University, who conducted a three-year study, ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅRunescape provides some young people with an arena in which they can play with identity and act out experiences that may be impossible in the material world.ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

[Screech1992]

I heared about these kind of "RuneScape is educational"-ish articles. I think they're right.

 

 

 

If young players make a lot of small calculations in, for example, general stores, they will probably develop basic math skills.

 

 

 

And even though 'l33t-talk' is used a lot, you see some other players talk correct english, from which you'll take note of grammar and vocablulary. Foreign people, including me, will also learn Engish this way. Same goes for watching tv :D

[gryphon618]

I've got to show this article to my mom, with some hope that this article will convince her that runescape isn't half-bad (lol like that'll happen)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the things are over-exaggerated, or something that would be better gotten from something else than a game-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although fiction, the game uses real world economy and players may buy and sell from shops or trade items from other characters. Players get a sense of real life accomplishment by building and maintaining their own homes; chopping wood, fishing, mining, hunting, farming and almost every task imaginable increases skill levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To this, practically anything you do, real life or not, can give you a sense of accomplishment! "Omg I brushed my teeth in the morning!" or "Omg I can breathe!" or "Omg I blinked about 50 times this minute!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents would prefer kids being proud of things like "I just mastered Beethoven's Fifth Symphony," "I just became the chess champion," "I am the top tennis player," or "I got a perfect score on the SAT in the 7th grade!" Basically, the things that will help their kids in the future, not being obsessed over a game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Offline, the players become better readers, spellers, and their typing and math skills improve, as well as real-world problem solving and teamwork skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, read this article. This is what runescape is doing. I think the threadwriter summed this up well. Basically, all kids are learning is how to use shrthnd that annoys teachers and gets them lower grades. Very few challenge themselves to the math problems when they could just use a calculator, and the reading part isn't too great. Its not like it adds to anyone's vocabulary. Most language used in runescape is simple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that, well, this article just overexaggerates. Runescape (sadly) does not help children in any way. ('Course, this means my mom won't buy this article.)

[Screech1992]

lol. IM sure made the person who wrote the article dumb.

 

 

 

Close your eyes and do it anyway. Now that you're thinking of that suit and its wearer, imagine a place where that person is standing.

 

 

 

How can you close your eyes and still read what to do next :P

 

 

 

Anyway she's quite right about the abbreviations. I would want to see someone in New York, shouting 'taximeter cabriolet!' :lol:

[ctim]

While I think that Runescape does have SOME positive benifits from playing I don't think it should be called "educational".

[GregEchidna]

It's not just with RuneScape, but the use of any internet 'chatting' program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It depends, really. Personally, I always try to type with perfect (and yet creative!) grammar, so constantly typing definitely helps me with writing and the like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you plan on typing in 'shorthand' all the time, then it definitely could affect your writing outside of the game, let alone make you look like you lack a heck of a lot of education. I've seen countless papers that my friends were handing in to a class with "u" instead of "you," which definitely wouldn't have developed without the constant use of the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, since RuneScape has everything you type come out as a lowercase except for the first letter, I'm sure people get into very bad habits of typing "i" instead of "I" when referring to themselves.

[Dalcyte]

runescape is a great example of the concept of supply and demand, that when an item is rare and there are less of it, people will want it and thus a high price is made. If the price is low, then most likely it's in lower demand. It also teaches about various thigns in life like in fishing, types of fish, types of trees, gemstones etc.

[KingWenlok]

The bit on 'improving grammar and spelling' is a load of rubbish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have yet in my experience of playing RuneScape to see a person using proper English. Everyday the chat box is bombarded with things like "omg ROFL lol di u sea taht gee lol?" The fact that most players on RuneScape are probably older than me annoys me even more. If I am 13 and can spell properly (minus the odd typing error due to typing too fast, as you seem to have to do these days), then why can't people around the 16 years old mark do it? Unless the standards of English have dropped in schools, I see no reason why bad spelling should be used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The person who wrote this article obviously hasn't even played the game, or he/she would know about the sorry state of spelling in RuneScape. However, I agree with the rest of the article- it does help in some ways to create a financial awareness around children (merchanting), which will hopefully help them get better paying jobs in years to come.

[Randox]

I think thats its quite educational, especily in the economics area. It is a mini and simplifyed version of the real world ecconomy and acts like the real world economy. Go Runescape!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And typing skills. Well I type faster than when I stated playing, and thats an improvment.

[Suiku]

 

 

 

One thing that I find funny is: "the players become better readers, spellers, and their typing and math skills improve"

 

 

 

OK players typing and reading skills become better?! :shock: I don't know about you but are words like:lol, rofl, n00b, newb, ext.... teaching players better reading skills?

 

 

 

And have you tryed to read what some of the people are saying when they say: u k? i fin, u ant lobs? That I guess is teaching them better typing skills?! :-X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they teaching coloquial writting with this, Without runescape I would'nt learned l33t, Runescape; Recommended by players and parents :wink: :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Btw... im mexican, any grammatical errors are not fault of runescape :XD: )

[tripsis]

I agree with the article. I think that Runescape has actually helped me a lot. Runescape is the only place where some of the math skills I learned in school have proven to be useful. I can calculate how long it will take to get a certain level in skill given money constraints and the like. I also think that Runescape has improved my ability to accurately judge people, whether that's a good or bad thing :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as Randox said, I've learned a large deal about the real world economy through Runescape. There are several parallels that you can draw between the real life economy and the Runescape economy.

[juvic]

i dissagre with you as runescape gave me some knoledge of english

[limpxbizkid]

Also, let's not forget metallurgy; copper and tin for copper. BHP could just employ 13 year olds from now on. :P

[xvillexvalox]

Constanly reading who's seling/buying what in world 2 and catching their names at the same time helped me read faster and catch more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

figuring out how much damage/pest points/yews/willows/arrows to the next level helped me to quickly set up formulas for word problems in math

 

 

 

(I finished a test 5 minutes before anyone else and got it all right + the extra credit [Honors Algebra word problems test])

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my typing speed has definately increased.

[SwreeTak]

I think that the langue thing is true, but that my mathematic have been better isn't true. I have been alot better on english since I started with RS :)

 

 

 

Very nice to find something like this about RS!

[Pinkbullet3]

Constanly reading who's seling/buying what in world 2 and catching their names at the same time helped me read faster and catch more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

figuring out how much damage/pest points/yews/willows/arrows to the next level helped me to quickly set up formulas for word problems in math

 

 

 

(I finished a test 5 minutes before anyone else and got it all right + the extra credit [Honors Algebra word problems test])

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my typing speed has definately increased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol: Same here... I remember before when I could barely type fast at all... and now I can type quickly and accurately. :wink:

[agresivul]

That's an extremely biased report. I wonder how much Jagex payed him to write that.

[gryphon618]

 

Constanly reading who's seling/buying what in world 2 and catching their names at the same time helped me read faster and catch more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

figuring out how much damage/pest points/yews/willows/arrows to the next level helped me to quickly set up formulas for word problems in math

 

 

 

(I finished a test 5 minutes before anyone else and got it all right + the extra credit [Honors Algebra word problems test])

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my typing speed has definately increased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol: Same here... I remember before when I could barely type fast at all... and now I can type quickly and accurately. :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wpm speed doubled since I started runescape to now- which hasn't been too long!

[aznmidget448]

It actually helps us to type faster. Even if you type things like "lol", you work your fingers and the muscles that are needed to type.

 

 

 

As for reading, I guess it has to do with the text fading away in a certain amount of time and you need to read it before it disappears? :-s

 

 

 

Yeah, I kind of do see runescape as "educational" but not as most people would expect educational to be.

[p0nd3r4]

Of COURSE it helps typing speed, but what the hell kind of arguement in RuneScape's favour is that? So would anything else you do on the computer requiring you to type. For the typing speed increase, give credit to computers not RuneScape. Personally I think RuneScape may one day be single-handedly responsible for the degeneration of the future population. :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other words, RuneScape is killing people's minds. The repetition, the ridiculous overuse of the same, small vocabulary, the '1337speek' and the overall terrible player attitudes (almost entirely in F2P, really) are not good.

 

 

 

I agree that basic maths skills will be enhanced and thanks to the game co-ordinators who write the dialogue for NPCs, some English skills may be developed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far as RuneScape improving our world goes, I give it a -2/5.

[holylord]

 

Constanly reading who's seling/buying what in world 2 and catching their names at the same time helped me read faster and catch more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

figuring out how much damage/pest points/yews/willows/arrows to the next level helped me to quickly set up formulas for word problems in math

 

 

 

(I finished a test 5 minutes before anyone else and got it all right + the extra credit [Honors Algebra word problems test])

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my typing speed has definately increased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol: Same here... I remember before when I could barely type fast at all... and now I can type quickly and accurately. :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yes this work's wonders for me as well i used to type like 1 point a second now's its more like 5 points a second and the horid l33t speak

 

 

 

just depends on the age/person in question

 

 

 

and more math well maybe only the basic stuff but the things i get at my 5th grade (dont know how it goes in USA or GB) but i get advanched algabra and stuff like that so ..i aint gonna callculate the angle's of a goblin :wink:

[Concret_Pred]

its educational lik..................how u mak glass but i thorght tht was pretty kwl

[GregEchidna]

its educational lik..................how u mak glass but i thorght tht was pretty kwl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that would be a perfect example for my initial post.

[darkmage099]

Typing is only good if you spell correctly. If you type in leet speech, it is useless.