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(Begins April 27 - Ends May 4)
Read Ender's Game, Chapters 3 and 4, and respond to these questions:
Chapter 3, 4:
1) What games are mentioned in Chapters 3 and 4? What games are being played in Chapters 3 and 4? What is the goal? What are the stakes? What is the scope?
2) Are games a suitable way of teaching and instruction? Are games the best way to teach and instruct? Should games be serious? Should they be fun? At what point is a game not a game?
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1. The only games that i could tell from these chapters took place in the shutle. And both served to help Ender orient himself in the environment of space. First is when Ender pretended that he was climbing down the carpeted walls of the shuttle to orient himself with the strange way the shuttle was constructed. Then he pretended that the shuttle was hanging underneath the planet. Ender played a sort of game again with himself when he pretended that Col. Graff was hanging upside down in the isles. In both of these games the goal was to keep oriented in unfamiliar surroundings and with zero gravity. The stakes are getting sick like some of the other boys. The Entire book, in a way is a sort of game with Ender where the goal is to mold him into a perfect military commander, like the opening conversations say, and the stakes are the world.
ReplyDelete2. Games are a very suitable way of teaching. Its a good way to put the lessons being taught into practice. Although games may not the be the best way to instruct, personally i think that practical, real life experience is the best instructor but just short of that, games are a very close second.. Games do not have to be serious but some times they have to be. In Enders case the games he will be playing have very high stakes and should not be taken lightly as a casual game. The same goes with military war games and any game where lives are at stake. And I think games cease to be games when there is no clear objective to achieve.
Chapter 3/4
ReplyDelete1) I see two things mentioned; war games in terms of training scenarios to better soldiers. And actual war, which has been described as a game. In terms of stakes for the training games, it's lessons, and tactics to be learned. As for actual war, life is at stake, possibly the fate of the human race.
2) Games can indeed be considered a suitable means of training, obviously as military technology advances one can see how close games can be compared to operating battle equipment. Bomb disposal robots are even operated with XBOX controllers in some cases. It's not a game when real world danger exists, or life is at stake. However, I suppose that depends on one's value of life.
Karinza
ReplyDelete1) Two games were observable in these chapters - both involving intentional training for the soldiers. It seems that the goals of these games are to orient individuals to the reality of what's going on, ironically enough, through game. The stakes, as were mentioned, are family, love and even sanity.
2) I believe that games are an acceptable way of teaching. I cannot say if they are the best way, but they certainly (if done right) cannot harm anything. A game being "serious" is purely subjective, and therefore even as we speak, games that are purely for entertainment are "serious" to the individual, even in regard to learning. Overall, yes, games SHOULD be fun, because that is their strength over other forms of learning. When one takes things seriously, it is simply not a game anymore.
1) The games mentioned here are the psychological ones that Graff forces Ender to engage in with him and his peers. Graff positioned Ender as the favored soldier, instantly pitting all the other boys against him. The goal, for Graff, is that Ender becomes the best leader of all time, better than Mazer Rackham. The stakes and scope Is the potential survival or extinction of humanity.
ReplyDelete2) They absolutely are, depending on the subject being taught and game being used. Games should be both fun and serious, depending on the game. Fun so people want to play it (otherwise there is no point to using a game to teach over traditional methods), and serious so it has lasting, staying power, and so people enjoy competing with it. I believe games are no longer games when they lack a clear objective or purpose any of the players involved.
1. To me the game is clearly a war game to train soldiers by psychologically using the boys, especially Ender to get them to do what Graff wants them to do. The game is mainly about the boys' psyche so naturally their sanity will be at sake along with risking their lives and their normal livelihood. The goal for Graff seems to be making Ender become one of the best military leaders.
ReplyDelete2. Games can definitely teach people even if thats not exactly what the game's intentions were. Sometimes people can read into a game way too seriously and confuse fantasy and reality. Then again there are also times where there is a realistic approach to the games in terms of character relationships within the story. Thats a reflection on how the real people interact with different. other people. I don't think games are the best way of teaching nor the worse. I think the best way to learn life is to through go through your own life's trials and errors.
I think games can be serious and fun. Personally I'm fine with both but I mainly prefer if the game I'm playing is just for fun, where my well being isn't at sake, unlike Ender's. To me a game more often than not should be fun and I don't think potentially losing your life is not a game to me because I wouldn't want to play it.
1) There were several games being played in these chapters. There are the war games played by the boys at the school. Then there are the mind games that both Graff and Ender play. Graff plays mind games with the boys on the shuttle by pinning Ender as his favorite, causing them to react. This game is played on Ender too, in order to make him a tough leader. All of these games share the same goal, to make the boys into soilders and Ender into a great leader. The stakes, which are basically life and death, are very high and constantly present.
ReplyDelete2)Games are a great way to teach and instruct, especially in this situation. The only way for the boys to gain war skills is by playing and acting out the battle scenario. Games can be serious, but this doesn't necessarily reflect the amount of fun a game is. For the purpose of making the boys into soldiers the wars games must be both serious and fun. They must be taken seriously because they reflect a real and dangerous life event. However, they must also be fun so that the boys will willingly participate without objection.
There were at least two sort of "games" that were played within those chapters; strategy and mind games. In a way, both were used as a test for the boys, to train them as soliders and test their pshyce. I agree that the goal was to hone them as better soliders, and in Ender's case a better leader, but I also would like to think that another goal was for Ender to understand the situation that he is in; being used by the adults in such an urgency. The stakes in this near reality to him would be for Valentine; his family, his loves, and the sanity that is tested in every moment.
ReplyDeleteGames are in every way a learning experience. They are a way to test our skills and our knowledge. A game is merely called a game to lighten the mood of whomever plays, because as children, it is honed into our minds the lighthearted moods and playful joy that we experienced, and we expect the same thing with every "game" we play. Not everything is considered a game, however. I would say the essentials in our life and the way we progress to aquire these things, like food, water, shelter. Everything else I would consider an exercise to keep these things. It would depend on such activity if it should be fun or not.
- Leslie
1) Most of the games quickly mention in the chapter sound like battle ship arcade games that most of the younger children play. While the older boy play the more advanced arcade games. The goal is to beat the games, their aren’t really any stakes except virtual death.
ReplyDelete2) I think the overall goal is to show the boys the enjoyment of destroying things and condition them to enjoy war as they grow up. As well as showing them some of the basics of flying. I think a game being serious or being fun is completely up to the people that make it. If a game is serious it probably has a deep story and well shaped characters. If a game is purely for fun it might be simper and pleasing to look, and just a great way to kill time. In the end in my I think a game is a great way to kill time and relax, or challenge my mental skills.