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Opinion

Games viable textbook alternatives

Jude Maydwell
Opinion Columnist

I'm sure everyone would agree that textbook prices are outrageous these days. Spending $100 for each of my major textbooks -- some of which aren't even real books, just loose-leaf packets that sell for the exact same price, minus my ability to sell them back -- has been wearing on my bank account for far too long. Every time I purchase one I can't help but feel the price just isn't justified. 

Being a gamer, I tend to measure my expenditures in terms of video game purchases, so spending $400 a semester on books, when I know I could just use that money to purchase an armload of games or even an Xbox 360, makes me cry on the inside just a little bit.

The ultimate solution to this problem would be if, instead of having to purchase a history text about the American Revolution, we got to buy a game to learn the material instead. I'm not talking about games like Reader Rabbit or Math Blaster that have a very limited scope, but more along the lines of a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game based in the period that would cover all the historic events and characters of the day. 

You and your classmates could band together under George Washington (perhaps played by the professor) to fight off the Redcoats using terrain and flanking maneuvers to your advantage, instead of having to fall asleep while attempting to read a text on the same subject matter. 

Imagine how sophisticated artificial intelligence code could be used in a psychoanalysis program designed to teach psychology students to treat a patient. There are many possibilities for learning that doesn't bore you to sleep. I'm sure everyone reading this enjoyed a good game of Oregon Trail in elementary school, so I see no reason why the same principle behind that game can't be applied to high school and college-level courses.

Another issue is cost; brand new games today cost $50 to $60, which is about half the price of most of our textbooks. Make the game software updateable via an online auto-update program attached to the game, and you have yourself a game that is easily sold to your fellow students taking the class the following semester. Instead of publishers releasing a new textbook every year or two, the software developer can update the same software students have already bought every semester for free or for a very minimal fee. 

Software is the perfect solution to all of the issues with textbooks that students have to deal with, and will turn the learning experience into a far more engaging, interactive experience than what is being offered today. I know I'd rather be involved in an experience similar to World of Warcraft with my girl and friends online than sit alone in my bedroom and pass out with my nose in a book.

Rodriguez, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.