"Worth" from Unschooling : The Movie

[digitalsoul18]

WoW doesn't teach you all that many skills. if he got out of his house, made some friends and bought stuff he would have the same skillset. However, WoW is ruining his body (too much sitting), his REAL LIFE social skills (online social skills dont count for anything) and any prospect for a real career (unless a pro game player which is v.competitive). Sooner or later life will bite him in the butt, but parents r supposed to prevent that. His sister saying 'dont judge' doesn't help.

[suomikarpo]

99.9% of WoW players read guides on how to maximize damage, how to best play against other players and how to earn money. There's little to no creativity or real learning.

[jamiedoer2]

We all do realize that World of Warcraft is an intricately crafted world that has its own socio-economic features unique to that own space, correct?

And that playing a game such as World of Warcraft is basically playing a giant math game, since the entire system is based off of probability? And the entire battle system is made up of percentages, probability, and advanced algorithms?

The only way to be successful is to understand HOW the system Blizzard created works through analysis.

[Lyncheh]

@jamiedoer2

Oh, great. I'm sure you can write that on your CV. "Can analyse numbers - avid WoW player."

[bwood21390]

Too true. Being a level 72 Paladin is going to get you places. Especially with the ladies. Just a different skill set is all.

[bennn05]

you guys are all missing the point. its pretty funny

[mecher3k]

It's fucking WoW, it will get you no where in life.

It takes no skills to play it.

At least with pottery if your even decent you can make money from selling things, in WoW you will just lose money.

[jazzmatik]

One of my best friends who I grew up with played video games about 6-8 hours a day (whenever he wasn't in class or sleeping). Many people thought he had no life. Guess what? He ended up going to college for computer graphics/computer animation. He just graduated and got his first job working on a kids television show and another job designing creatures for a video game company.

[thatguy1337ftw]

Skills from playing WoW? Yeah, like learning how to shit in a sock and belittle people for having less than 4000 gear score.

[jamiedoer2]

@thatguy1337ftw There's been a study done where they took a group of kids who fell FAR below the literacy line according to standardized tests, had them play World of Warcraft after school every day, encouraged them to become involved with the game (some of them ended up making websites for their guild, for example) and such. In a few weeks they went from barely being able to string a few words together to crafting entire sentences.

That's a lot considering school takes 12 years to do that.

[rosdoll]

I am curiouse why this young lady added.."he's kind of gotten over it now" when speaking about her brother playing games. My question...has she gotten over making pottery bowls?

[litnight]

But see, children who go to school spend 6-7 hours a day in lecture, do about 2 hours of homework/reading and then still spend about 4 hours playing video games...(When I was in middle school I spent way more time than 4 hours playing video games everyday it was probably closer to 6-7 hours of video games).

A person is capable of doing a whole lot more than just one thing. I learned algebra and history while simultaneously "living my real life" as they put it by doing something I liked.

[selfagainstself123]

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how playing a simulation game where you press buttons in order to defeat mythical creatures would have any real world application. I mean at least with pottery what you're creating has a function, albiet not an extremely vital one. There is no strategy or life skill being taught by WoW, people play it because its "fun", and gives them a feeling of accomplisment for completing a meaningless task.

[LunaGer]

@selfagainstself123

Communication, problem solving, tactics, spelling, reading, writing, leadership, following orders, economics...

[tallsmile28]

@LunaGer Their pursuits do not include math.

[mecher3k]

@LunaGer

Let's see shooters like BF 2142, L4D, BF2, Portal and a few others do most of what you said much better. Or a game like EvE Online where you can have 100s of solar systems under your alliance's control. Which happens to made up of 1000s of people. And you could be their CEO/Leader.

Then there is RTS games where you have think about build order for your base, or unit build order like in DoW 2.

Then there's RPGs like ME and Dragon Age.

Again WoW = useless and skill less.

[RainShadow2005]

@selfagainstself123 They can seem pointless to someone who isn't into them, but I know a kid who didn't really read until he started this one game. The game had text boxes that helped him. You can argue that he was just destined to learn at that time and happened to be gaming when it clicked for him. You could be right, but who knows? You can't see inside someone's head. That game might have been the catalyst for his reading because it was more interesting than word lists and spelling homework.

[garett69]

@selfagainstself123 I've never played WoW so I don't know anything about that game specifically, but lots of games involve strategy-building and thought. There's even a lot you can learn about economics, believe it or not, from multi-player role playing games like Diablo II. Since reason/logic are our basic means of survival it can be argued that there's no skill more important than the ability to think. A kid into video games could grow up to be a software developer or graphics designer.

[Yahweigh]

@selfagainstself123 WoW has a REAL economic system were you can sell items, trade them or auction them.

The prices go up and the prices go down just like in Wall ST.

Theres also alot of teamwork/cooperation that is NEEDED to succed.

[tallsmile28]

There's no worth to what either of you are doing. You have no basic math skills.

[Divigen]

@tallsmile28

Well said.

[LunaGer]

@tallsmile28

How do you know this?

[Delectated]

@tallsmile28 they have no basic math skills, neither did Mozart, Beethoven, Socrates, Picasso, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, William Faulkner, Samuel Clemens, need I go on or is there no way to convince you that people with basic math skills aren't the only ones that make the world go round?

[Benzenering1004]

World of warcraft ruined my life.

[calfrun27]

i kind of understand where you are comming from but you still need to go to school i mean thats where you gain social skills and many other things and what about college what will you do when your older

[RainShadow2005]

I can't agree with naruxhinafan1. I have a six year old cousin who isn't allowed to have game systems because her father hates them. I happen to have a Wii and tend to play the adult games like bowling but when I look after my cousin, she can't wait to play Mario Cart. I can tell she's concentrating when her breathing slows and her face relaxes as she pulls Peach into the final stretch for a first place win. Maybe she didn't make anything showy to give her mom, but she gained something internal.

[meghandsheamas]

bravo, brenna. what a great topic to include in this movie.

thank you!

-lis in oregon

[Tidnull]

where is this movie available? thanks for uploading.