Games: A Portal to Learning
Byron Bunt is an associate professor in the School of Education at North-West University in South Africa. He is also the deputy director of the School of Commerce and Social Studies in Education, and is the UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning.
Prof. Bunt has done extensive research on gaming and how it can enhance learning. He graciously agreed to an interview.
Byron, please tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you originally from and where did you study?
BB: Thank you for the opportunity. Well, I hail from a small town at the southern border of Gauteng, a historically significant town called Vereeniging. I am 38 years old and have actually never left this little town. My primary school, high school, and university years were all spent in the Vaal Triangle. My tertiary education began at a local university called North-West University, where I chose to study education, specifically to train to become a History teacher. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with my life after Matric in 2005. I knew it had to be something in history. Little did I know back then how that decision would change my life.
Did you play a lot of games growing up?
BB: Most certainly, yes. In fact, I was so obsessed with playing games, that I made a career out of it. I started playing computer games at first when I was 5 years old. I recall the old MS DOS system, where I had to insert old floppy disks of games my dad bought me. I was at first mainly playing point-and-click adventure games like Monkey Island. Eventually, the shooter bug bit me when Doom was released. I begged my parents to upgrade my PC when 3D graphics became the norm (i.e. Tomb Raider). I eventually moved to console gaming when the PlayStation came out, and my eyes were opened to the majesty that is Final Fantasy VII. I’ve been addicted to RPGs ever since. Now however, I have moved over to the indie game scene, because I honestly feel the state of game development in the modern era is atrocious. Check out a simple little game called Vampire Survivors. I am hooked!
I remember the days of playing MS DOS games, and playing Doom and Tomb Raider. Off the top of your head, what are your favourite three games, and why?
BB: Firstly, I would say the best game ever made is Diablo 2. This game changed my life in 2000. It was very addictive, with its gameplay loop of grinding enemies and hoping that a shiny more powerful weapon or armour would drop. But it was also very atmospheric. The music of the first act still haunts me today.
Secondly, I would say Final Fantasy VII. This game was a revelation at the time with its 3D graphics. The Japanese character design was awesome. I still have memories of Sephiroth walking through the fires of Nibelheim to this day. The battle system was cool, and you could summon massive monsters to beat up your enemies.
Thirdly, I would say Doom. This game popularized an entire genre, the FPS. For its time, it was quite brutal. I recall running up to an imp with a shotgun and just blowing it away, with the cool 16-bit music playing in the background.
Which games, in your opinion, could be used for educational purposes? And why would you recommend them?
BB: That’s a tricky question. Honestly, I think any game could be used for educational purposes, some are better than others though. I could make a case for using Call of Duty Black Ops as a game-based learning tool in my history classes, as it does show you the perspective of a soldier fighting in the Cold War. I have recently used Age of Empires 3 in my history class, to teach students about colonization. But even if we take the subject content out, you could use games like Portal, which is a very tricky game, to teach students how to think critically and develop their problem-solving skills. I think it is important to note that it depends on what you want to do with the game. Either teach content, or teach skills.
Then we have simulation games. These are very serious, and oftentimes not very fun games. These tend to lend themselves better to learning, as they simulate complex activities or ideas on a small scale or on a faster scale and are focused, unlike entertainment games where the learning content is peripheral. Think of Sim City, or the game Pharaoh, for example. You are literally just building a city. No story, no action. But, it does simulate things like street planning, population density, budgeting, and so forth, which are covered explicitly in the curriculum. These types of games are less distracting, and avoid the argument that playing games leads to violence etc. Another argument I’ve heard regarding GBL is that games don’t have enough substance to warrant their use in the classroom (i.e. They’re just having fun and wasting time, there’s no learning going on). Trust me, this is so far from the truth!
Beside your interest in games, you teach history, which clearly indicates a passion. I minored in art history, and I remember how some of my peers thought it was a boring subject. Personally, it is to this day one of my favourite subjects. Please tell us about your love of history. What sparked it? And what advice would you have for someone who might be interested in it?
BB: Well in my previous answer I mentioned Age of Empires 3. When I was 7, I got the first Age of Empires. When I played this game, I immediately was blown away by the narrative approach to history, as well as the strategic elements used in ancient warfare. I even liked playing as different civilizations, like the Egyptians, Babylonians, and the Greeks, and marvelling at their architecture. This fascination began to take root, and I found myself wanting to learn more about these cultures. I devoured every book I could find on ancient cultures. This incident is actually the impetus for my entire research career, as I want to prove without a shadow of a doubt that games have the power to spark lifelong passion in certain areas.
On a side note, when I was in school, I absolutely despised the way my teachers taught me History. They would use traditional, old-school methods like mainly using a textbook, or chalk and talk… How boring!!! I had a passion for the subject, and seeing it being butchered and belittled, being turned into this boring and tedious thing, it really upset me. I want people to realize how important history as a subject is, and that it is really a fun and interesting field. We have so much media focusing on History! Games, movies, music (some power metal bands love to sing about specific periods in time, take Sabaton for example). Why not use these? Why not bring history to life?!
I completely agree. What did you think of the God of War series with its obvious links to the Greek Pantheon?
BB: I really enjoyed it a lot. It’s a narrative rich game, allowing players to engage with Greek gods, where you can really immerse yourself in the world of mythology. This could be a potential candidate for another history teaching research project! I am also considering using the Assassin’s Creed series as a potential GBL tool someday.
Please give us a breakdown of your postgraduate studies and subsequent research. What were some of your key findings?
BB: For my Masters, I looked at creative thinking in the Social Science classroom. This was not really focusing on games, but it set the foundation for my passion for thinking outside of the box. I love to tinker and experiment with new and novel teaching approaches.
For my PhD, I took the game Portal 2 and made an intervention with my first-year students, where I had them play the game 3 times a week, for a month. They had to use some problem-solving skills I taught them to try and assist them in solving the very difficult puzzles in the game. I did a pre and post-test with them, using a critical thinking appraisal. Findings were amazing! I could prove that using this game-based approach resulted in improved critical thinking! Aha! My research focus was born.
After that, I started a gamification project, where I used the app Habitica in my history class. Habitica is a gamification app, it is not a game per se. It had role-playing and fantasy elements embedded in it. It is essentially a task organizer and planner. But I adapted the fantasy theme, and created this whole elaborate D&D backstory for my module. I was a wizard (I even dressed in robes and had a staff) and spoke in an old man’s voice. The assignments my students had to complete turned into monsters and dragons. Upon completion, they would check off their “battle” on the app and they would earn experience and gold. What a fun study.
Next, I made a World War 2 card game called Dogs of War. It is literally about dogs fighting each other. We designed it in such a way that it is whimsical, with soldiers being represented as anthropomorphized cartoon dogs. Each major nation that took part in WW2 was represented in this card game. It is a competitive game, but it also teaches the history of WW2. For example, the game has generals associated with each nation (which we jokingly renamed to tie in with the dog theme).
So you take on the roles of Adolf Sniffler, Winston Woofhill, Joseph Pawlin, Franklin Roosepelt etc. You have a deck of land, air and sea cards for your nation (either Barktain, Arferica, Ruffia, Grrrrmany, Yipaly, or Yelpan). We used a rock/paper/scissors mechanic, where land units are stronger than sea, sea units stronger than air, and air stronger than land. This affects the outcome of a round in profound and surprising ways, i.e. If you are attacking a card that you are weak against, your damage is halved, or if you are stronger, the damage is doubled. You also have to manage a resource called ‘pupper power’, which you accumulate each turn. Each card has a cost, and you need to pay it to play.
Cards are placed in three lanes face down, so your opponent can’t tell what you did. All cards have a rarity scale as well, so the rarer cards are stronger but cost more. Each card has a BITE amount, which is the amount of damage they deal. Some rarer ones have BARK powers, that can buff or rebuff other cards. The aim is to get your opponent’s life total to 0. The learning comes in from the event cards.
At the start, players randomly select an event, which ties in with WW2 events, like the bombing of Pearl Harbour, or the D-Day Normandy invasion. These cards influence how the game should be played and simulate conditions in the war, i.e. If you play as Japan (Yelpan) for the Pearl Harbour event, all your air units have double damage, but you cannot use any land units.
I also developed a card game called Prosper, which teaches the 17 sustainable development goals. It works on a simple problem and solution mechanism with different categories. Players choose a solution that can cover as many categories as possible to solve the problem, which are all connected to the SDGs. The game is geared towards younger players aged 8 to 15, and focuses on environmental, social and economic problems. We have begun to digitize it now using Python, and we are using this game in a huge international research project called Games Realizing Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT).
I also helped to develop a game called Citesaga for the NWU library department. It is a fantasy-themed board game that teaches students about academic integrity. There are 8 different characters, each with unique powers, that need to move around to different environment cards, that allow them to collect coloured tokens. Each colour token represents a different element of a citation. Once you have enough tokens to build a citation, you then spend them to solve a citation card, as well as provide the correct citation in the appropriate style format. Some characters are sinister, and have powers like “plagiarize”, where you get to steal another players tokens! I am very excited about this one, and we are in the final phase of digitizing it.
More recently, I helped develop a board game called WorkReady for the NWU’s Center for Teaching and Learning. The game focuses on graduate attributes and 21st-century skills, and how these help prepare students for the world of work. Players need to navigate the board with dice rolls, moving up squares. There are 4 different types of squares that a player could land on, namely challenge, case study, 21st-century skills, and graduate attributes. When landing on a specific square, the player must draw the appropriate card and try to answer the question. The cards are generic, not focusing on specific careers, but the questions and challenges posed are universal to the world of work. You should either choose the correct multiple-choice answer, roll a dice, argue for 20 seconds, or have enough attributes acquired to progress.
I should mention that my brother, Lance, has been the lead designer and graphic designer for all of the games I’ve done research on. He is the artistic one in the family. He has a PhD, and works in the Computer Science faculty at NWU. I couldn’t do any of this without him. We have always loved games growing up and it made sense for us to team up and explore our passion in different fields.
What untapped potential do you see in gaming and education? And, do you think AI will be beneficial or detrimental to this area?
BB: I think there has been quite a lot of research on the affordances of games in educational settings, so partially my main mission in life has been accomplished. However, I do note that there is a lack of understanding when it comes to understanding how to successfully integrate the game in an educational setting. Anyone can take a cool game and just let their students play it. So what? What educational framework or theory informed your decision? What scaffolding in terms of content knowledge did you imbed in the adoption of the game? How will you assess student understanding while they are playing? Are the students actually becoming motivated and self-directed after playing? There is huge potential, but the fundamental educational nuances need to be unpacked.
In terms of AI, I have recently delved into the realm of Python coding. AI has been instrumental as a tutor in my quest to design my own games. A lot of the educational games I have made recently have been physical games, like card games or board games. I wanted to see if I could make these games digitally. AI was able to assist me make 3 digital games so far, with a 4th on the way. I only see AI as a bonus right now, as it has democratized a lot of these very technical skills like coding (ChatGPT o1 is amazing at this), or even the artwork needed (thinking of DALL E here). Literally, anyone with a game idea can go to ChatGPT right now and ask it to code the game for you. Viola! You’re a game developer!
If someone wants to learn more about your field and gaming for education, which books would you recommend as a good introduction?
BB: I would highly recommend the following seminal works. They have informed my worldview on game-based learning and gamification:
- The Gamification of Learning and Instruction by Karl M. Kapp
- Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform by Clark Aldrich
- Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal (focuses on how games can solve real-world problems)
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
When you are not reading about history or playing games, what other interests do you have? More specifically, what are your hobbies?
BB: I am a metalhead by trade. I love distorted guitars, the louder the better! I’ve had a fascination with extreme music for a long time now, even growing my hair out when I was 18. I love black metal especially, which is a divisive genre, with its dark, almost evil undertones. I like the droning atmosphere it creates, and the shrieking vocals send chills up my spine! I love attending metal festivals, listening to local South African metal bands. Headbanging is a great way to relieve stress! Take my word for it.
You are preaching to the choir! I’m particularly fond of 80s thrash, and melodic metal from the Nordic countries. I was surprised how many metalheads are in academia. Do you think there are some major misconceptions about academics?
BB: Most certainly. Often I hear how academics sit in an ivory tower, that we are out of touch with the real world. I do concede that perhaps that is a reality for some academics, but in my case, I work with collaborators who want to make a difference in education, who work with people on the ground, in schools, in classrooms, in communities to try and tackle the issues we face in the sector. Another massive misconception is that academia is cushy, low intensity and low stress. We have to juggle so many balls at once. Teaching and preparing for classes, mark assignments and exams, supervising post grads, doing research projects, analyzing data and results, writing up the findings and publishing them, attend conferences, network, engage with the community, share expertise, do administrative tasks as well as take on leadership responsibilities such as joining committees and leading subject groups. We are a jack of all trades in this instance, and the pressure gets unbearable at times.
As an ex-academic myself, I can’t help but agree. But I believe it is mostly because people never ask any of us that really important question of questions: What is your favourite dinosaur? And why?
BB: Lol, well I will always be a Velociraptor fan. Clever girls1 can outsmart the biggest, meanest T-rex! I think it had to do with Jurassic Park. They made the velociraptors so badass in those movies. Learning how to open doors and the like.
- This is a Jurassic Park reference where Muldoon says it right before a Velociraptor eats him. ↩︎
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