Mandatory Portal Playthrough for College Course

While I personally don't see it as a very relevant subject to the course, Portal is part of the official curriculum in a American Culture course at Wabash College:

Portal Becomes "Required Reading" In College. Say What? - I4U News

Sure video games are a part of our culture here in America, but they are by no means a large part of our culture. Essentially, I don't believe our culture is shaped by video games, hence how they'd be irrelevant for a course like this. I'd take the class for the novelty factor, but if I were a professor for a class such as this I doubt that I'd have students devote time to actually playing.

Any other input?

 

Do people who suck at videogames get an F then?

 

That's, uh' interesting.

 

The cake is a lie.

A.) True
B.) False

 

Video games are a perfectly legitimate aspect of culture.

 

Why would students want to engage in a state of virtual reality, to enlighten their own knowledge of true reality?

What silly people.

 

I fixed it for you, Vicious.

 

For you portal guys you should also play Narbacular Drop, it was the original and where the concept was borrowed from.

Narbacular Drop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Not a large part of the culture? Video game industry revenue was about $22 billion in the US in 2008. The movie industry revenue in the same time period was around $10 billion.

Video game industry - Video Game Sales Wiki - Video Game Sales, Charts, NPD, Graphs, Video Game Figures, and more!

If that's not a large part of our culture, I don't know what is. Should the kids get off your lawn now?

 

I suppose I have a different idea of culture in my head...I like to think of culture in the classical sense, like literature, sports, food habits. Things that make us unique, and sure spending that much on video games is unique, but what about places like Japan, Germany, and South Korea where games also play huge economic roles?

 

I had a history class where everybody had to either read one book and write a paper about it or watch 50 history-related movies lol

 

Thinking of culture in the the "classical" sense, is all about perspective. Think of it like this, our culture right now could be considered classical 50 years from now.

 

That was my first thought as well.

 

For a Poli Sci class where we were discussing "Game Theory" we could either play Risk board game or play Civ III. Of course this wasn't a big deal, one game of Risk or a few hours of Civ III, didn't have to complete or finish the game.

But Portal? If you are going to feature a game to explore culture and impact of games... I think Quake I and II, some Doom, and StarCraft I and few other games out there would far more relevant. Heck from Valve alone, Half Life I and II are far better choices in how games have impacted culture.

 

certainly agree with that ziddy.. portal makes no sense.. i gave up on the game in 5mins..... really , i've played 5 mins of it..ever..

 

...really? Gave up after 5 minutes? Portal was not a hard game. But it was interesting. It actually does have a great story, as well as stuff you don't get in any other video game. I can see why it's part of the class, because it is such a unique experience as compared to any other video game. And if you crank down the difficulty, it's not too hard for anyone to play through (unless you get motion sick and can't play FPS games at all)

 

If you are going to study games in terms of culture and impact, then one should choose games that have actual influence and impact!

Portal is none of that. Has no impact in terms of culture or gaming culture. It's just one of the many other curious games out there of zero consequence.

Counter-Strike. This is the game that legitimized Professional Gaming. What better way to bring anything into the mainstream. Doing something while making money. And counter-strike is the game for PC Gaming just as Halo was for Console.

- MMORPG are used by some psychologist to enable children to develop social skills. This is a game that can be used as a tool. It is also a subject of research. These are games where we can see a small aspect of society being developed without the inhibitions that control our actions in the real world.

Some players even become celebrities in the gaming community. Some players opinions on game development have just as much impact on the player community as developers do themselves. I think in competitive games like WoW, Counter-Strike, TF2, Quake Wars etc have more of an impact.

So if one was to choose a game to study culture, I can think of far better and more interesting games. Games that have actual impact in player's lives, both in game and outside of the game. Games that actually change our views of what are appropriate ways to spend our free time etc.

 

Portal is really a puzzle solving and reasoning game. With a little thought there's no reason you can't finish it. Very little requires twitch reflexes.

Also check out portal prelude for more portal fun.

 

IMO people continue to play games not because they are entertainment. A game that can be played by everyone with just a little thought doesn't seem right to me.

I think games are far more than that.

Why else would we be all excited and drooling if Valve announced release date for HL Episode 3. But us "gamers" all went awww, ! when Valve announced Portal 2 instead. Unanimously gamers worldwide went, where is HL Episode 3?!?!? Portal 2 is just an excuse for not having HL Episode 3!!!

 

Video games are a HUGE part of our culture and may affect the future far more than music, movies, news and even schooling. I think you're vastly underestimating the medium.

 

i took an american culture class in hs and our teacher made us play halo 2 for the final. i kicked everyones in the class.

But as far as Portal goes, maybe there was different reasoning behind it. Was it the teachers idea or someone elses?

Portal was great, i enjoyed the game and its totally different from any game u have ever played. agree? maybe u can call it a fps, but i have never seen any other game like it. Maybe thats why?

 

People study films, why not study video games? Portal though?.... Meh. As long as we don't start studying Halo or CoD I won't complain.

 

lol i gave up.. just didn't like it.. it was weird... but i agree.. CS would be a much better and meaningful game.. but too bad .. all these college ppl will be owned.

 

Portals actually a crazy fun and mentally stimulating/challenging game. Highly recommended to play through it a few times.

 

I believe Video Games are the new literature, and I think this class is a great idea.

Video games are going to become like books one day and do things books never could because they are interactive.

 

Hell all I know is that If Calculus was as engaging as some videogames I'd be a rocket scientist.

 

Lol its just funny that older people are starting to actually look at video games instead of saying theyre the DEVIL!!

 

Someone actually told me this the other day.

I backhanded them. True story.

 

1988-vanderbilt university-"popular narrative" from prof donald ault--upper level english class about 1930's comics--- utterly amazing class that still helps me to be critical and interpret and see underpinnings of bloddy heck everything. so, looking at games makes sense.... but portal?

 

Portal requires brain power, something a majority of games don't. You have to have decent problem solving skills as well as an understanding of physics.

 

Interesting viewpoints I suppose. Like I said, I guess I take what I deem to be the classical approach to culture. I totally acknowledge that it's tough to ignore the monetary and popular aspect of video games, and as some have said they are artistically comparable to literature and other works of art that delve into what the majority considers culture.

I guess that my gripe with this is that comics and literature can be churned out quickly and take advantage of current cultural situations, whereas most video games require a year or more for development (sorry Blizzard fans, no current context for you guys seeing as how it takes 10+ years for your new games to come out). Doesn't culture have to consider both past and present? I guess I mean to say, shouldn't it reflect something that is relevant in the long-term, not simply something that has been around for a short period of time?

And yes, I don't think that Portal is a great game to showcase culture. Creativity for sure, but not culture. I think games where gamers can make choices would actually make for interesting looks into culture. What is offensive to someone from one culture could be something comical to another, so games like Fallout 3 or Mass Effect (especially ones with multiple dialogue trees) have the potential to showcase a culture's identity.

I bet that would make a fun psychology/sociology experiment =) assuming that no one had played through the games earlier

 

I'd rather not assume that games like Mass Effect are portraying culture at all. Bioware has done an excellent job in creating their own world and thus not deriving any (if little) cultural instances that we're accustomed to.

After re-reading above said post.. Well theres really no point to that. We in psychological and sociological research already know how certain cultures are geared towards self rewarding / team rewarding goals. To further establish the findings via video games would not only be a waste of money, but severely disrupt any real life findings.

For example. In KOTOR I simply cannot bring myself to do anything unnecessarily evil (less it somewhat benifited the party as a whole), where as someone from Japan might choose to do the most evil thing, or take the good samaritan route. Any findings/ research being done (which im sure is recorded by game companies somewhat) will be inconsistant via region.

To end it off, as far as using video games to teach culture.... The only way we're gonna do this is by creating games specifically for that said reason. Otherwise we'll have gamers acting out their own personal (rather than cultural) feelings in the particular instance they're in. Not to mention that ones oppinion to any game is rather biased to begin with.

As far as anything media wise being labeled as "cultural" we need look no further than our films... Then again alot of those are a slap in the face.

 

Well, it isn't too hard to figure out why they chose Portal. There is a HUGE list why they chose it and not other games.

1. $19, not $59
2. Completes in 7hrs, not 50hrs
3. Simple and Easy to Learn Gameplay
4. No Violence & Killing
5. No Questionable Scenes
6. Very Low System Requirements
7. Very Good Distribution Method
8. Steam Community (Allows Class Collaboration & Tracking)
9. Multiplatform: Mac & PC

Their pick makes 100% sense

 

Portal is an amazing game. The story is brilliant and the game play is well executed.

I think it is a good choice.

 

Culture is something that is always evolving. Do you also feel that the internet isnt influencing our culture? Did tv not change how the world functioned? Did radio not effect the world too? Culture and technology has always gone hand in hand.

 

Portal would be nowhere as popular as it is today if it wasn't packaged with another 4 games and released for HD consoles and PC

If it was World of Goo instead of Portal, then this thread would be about World of Goo instead of Portal.

I honestly found portal to be worthy only for the story. I played it until the end but was normally frustrated by the puzzles.

 

lucky for those college kids its just a mandatory story mode play through and not the challenges

beating those last challenges was so hard it took me a very long time to ace a few of them. The one that caused me the most frustration was probably the one where it has a ton of those automated sentry's and you had a super short time limit. I must have done that stage 200+ times before I finally got it.