| dc.description.abstract | Videogames specifically designed for education are increasingly used as a learning tool, but entertainment games are still considerably overlooked in their ability to educate. Literature surrounding discourses of learning with videogames also tend to focus on educational videogames rather than entertainment games. The educational power of entertainment videogames, notably that they can afford substantially more than only teaching factual knowledge, is in this new media day and age a power that is ought to be acknowledged and used. This thesis aims to show that players of Rockstar Games’ action-adventure game Red Dead Redemption 2 are to an extent afforded to playfully learn a sense of responsibility through environmental storytelling. To analyse this, I first discuss the concept playful learning through the articles of Marc Prensky and Jan Plass, Bruce Homer, and Charles Kinzer after describing what play is. Then, I discuss the concept environmental storytelling by Henry Jenkins based on the text of Don Carson and a refinement of that concept, indexical storytelling by Clara Fernández-Vara.
By conducting a game analysis as explained by Clara Fernández-Vara and approaching her building blocks spaces of the game and choice design as affordances as described by Ian Hutchby, I analysed to what extent players could learn from Red Dead Redemption 2’s environmental storytelling and how that was afforded due to the engagement of playful learning. Starting with identifying which engaging playful learning elements of Prensky are in Red Dead Redemption 2’s camp and analysing to what extent they connect with the game, specifically the parts that can educate responsibilities, I conclude that RDR2’s camp is engaging enough to afford learning a sense of responsibility, yet it is not a given that this happens to every player and to the same extent. After that, I identified which examples of the four environmental storytelling types in Red Dead Redemption 2’s camp can hold educational value regarding learning a sense of responsibility and analysed to what extent learning could occur. I conclude that players can choose to be responsible because of their affective connection with the camp afforded by environmental storytelling and because Red Dead Redemption 2 nudges the player towards that choice, since it is deemed the best option in the game. The former can afford a learning experience, while the latter might only merely be performing the best option. Red Dead Redemption 2’s main camp can thus to an extent afford that players can playfully learn a sense of responsibility through environmental storytelling, mainly when they experience affective engagement and when they choose to do so. Nevertheless, this is also because the game nudges players towards these responsible decisions. | |
