Student Video Game Reviews (with design focus)

Many of my students are finishing up their video game reviews, an activity in persuasive writing in which they used a design focus to explore the pros and cons of a chosen video game.

They don’t mind this writing at all. In fact, my students who struggle the most with writing but who enjoy gaming find intense focus on this assignment, as they are tapping into their own knowledge and expertise and interest. We do this reviewing with a focus on design: playability, graphics, music, controls, etc.

Here are a few:

Along with looking at the writing, and noting to them that this kind of persuasive writing will soon shift into argumentative writing, I am always curious about which games are most popular in a given year. Last year and the year before, Minecraft had everyone beat.

Video Game Review Roblox

Not this year, so much. This year, I am finding a lot of kids reviewing, and playing, ROBLOX, which I had not heard much about until my own son came home from his Minecraft Club saying everyone had moved over to ROBLOX for the afternoon. Apparently, in ROBLOX (which I have yet to explore), you play games that others in the community build, and you build games that other people play (sort of like our work with Gamestar Mechanic, which is designed more to teach basic game design principles and is a closed system).

Peace (design it better),
Kevin

3 Comments
  1. Would be so cool to have a workflow of these reviews that would take them directly from Box into a book format or wiki. Automatically. Then you would be able to explore editing/publishing with them as well.

    Antispamclasm: photon oh

    “Photon, oh…”
    “Do you mean photon zero?”
    “Photon, oh…”
    “‘Oh’ is the sound you make when you know you have screwed up. Photon zero is a quantum state. Get it right.”
    “Photon oh thou art a zero. Step off, ok.”

  2. It’s great the way you’re creating learning activities that relate to the interest of your students. This statement is so important: “In fact, my students who struggle the most with writing but who enjoy gaming find intense focus on this assignment, as they are tapping into their own knowledge and expertise and interest.”

    I wish teachers who worked with my own kids as they grew up would have found ways to do this. Their interest in school and in learning might have been stronger.

    I enjoyed reading some of the reviews. Have you considered setting up a YouTube “game review” channel, where students read their reviews? I saw an article in the Chicago Tribune last week about a family where kids as young as 5 were creating videos about the things they do….which were generating significant income! Toy companies were paying for them to review and/or talk about their products.

    Game companies might do the same!

    • I am always wary of any shift that might have someone else profit from what my students are creating … it’s a fine line. One on hand, that’s a pretty authentic audience. On the other hand, those companies are using those kids to sell stuff.

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