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This topic has moved here: Subject: Say Bungie, on your next IP consider helping education.
  • Subject: Say Bungie, on your next IP consider helping education.
Subject: Say Bungie, on your next IP consider helping education.

Something I noticed about avatars, gear, and armor in gaming is that people will go with some extremes to attain them. On your last endeavor you implemented a grinding and soul crushing test of endurance with cR. People cheated, farmed, and hacked to beat the system. They couldn't stand the time involved to attain the items.

It comes down to time and what people were willing to sacrifice to reach the highest tiers of the game's perks over their competitors or friends. Some tried to beat the system, while others still persist to attain the armor legitimately. If only there was a way to get the Haunted Helmet/McGuffin faster.

You should consider on your next IP teaming up with Education. You have pretty extensive data base for players and stats that could be used to better the lives of some students by adding some extra incentive in the classroom and implementing a system between yourself and say local schools for unlocking items for staying in and passing their classes.

Gamestop and a host of other retailers who exclusively enjoy the extra guns, or that cool suit if you pre-order have an incentive for gamers to purchase early. Why not make some of the same digital swag with the incentive for young gamers to excel in academics? You could add a "T-bag the SAT" as a campaign for PR.

Basically ever verified "A" turned in by a student unlocks a Armor/Gun/Perk or whatever McGuffin the community is hunting for. The time spent in a classroom actually busting the books would have shorter time span for the payoff of said items for gamers over senselessly grinding, as well as jumping through vid challenges on the next Bungie game.

Right now developers need some positive PR especially if it's a FPS, or any game of violence. You guys are on the starting line again as you say in your VidDoc, so you might consider getting kids to read and actually participate in school. Even if it's only a few compared to those who would scoff the effort would be an achievement.

It's like betting money on Secretariat if your a charity when it comes to your brand name. I'm sure educators would be open to anything that would improve test results.

Anyways it's Idea that actually puts an Gamer to work to better his or her's own life while ending their friends killing streaks with some shiny new shield or mini bad ass gun because they payed attention in Chemistry.


Peace.


[Edited on 08.30.2011 6:40 AM PDT]

  • 08.30.2011 6:29 AM PDT

Why not stop by my File Share while you're here?

~Long Live Halo 2
Only regret is I didn't play more of it.

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm sort of a jerk.

News stories about their views on gaming beg to differ.
Posted by: DEZARATH
I'm sure educators would be open to anything that would improve test results.

  • 08.30.2011 6:58 AM PDT

cars, girls & cake all day everyday

Heh...heh.
Using games as an incentive to pass school.

  • 08.30.2011 7:23 AM PDT

poor ilitch

A good idea in principle, but I'd imagine the people who can't possibly acquire these items (those who've already finished eductaion/aren't currently pursuing it) would be a bit disgruntled.

  • 08.30.2011 7:36 AM PDT
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I absolutely agree. Students need more focus nowadays. Let's get them playing videogames AND doing homework as an incentive to excel at life!

By offering them incentives such as unlockable awards for achieving academic goals, many students will find most of their days drained by the long nights of studying and improving themselves. When they unlock their academic award, they'll want time to play the game it was designed for. They have to either sacrifice their next test score and the associated reward to play the game, or they'll have to use the time to study for the next test and therefore the next reward. Or they can stop sleeping.

I feel that this will be beneficial as kids will stop going outside and I really don't enjoy it when kids perform extracurricular activities in a manner that allows me to see them. Have you ever heard a kids' choir? Let's hope not. Or have you ever been driving down a residential neighborhood only to have to brake for a large bouncy ball rolling into the street? Come on, kids. Get some education. And some video games!

This will help social activities for kids as well. Kids will learn anger management when they decide that they need to bully the smart kid and beat the unlock code out of him because they lack the aptitude to get the code themselves. Other kids will develop intense bartering systems for unlockables. Some children will find ways to bribe the teacher for the codes without taking a test at all. I think the news has popular reports on this occasionally.

Then there will be the adults that really want the unlock codes as well. That will be amazing, because we'll see lots of adults taking basic Zoology courses along with some other college classes like Rafting and Bowling in order to get enough college credits. This will promote education in adults by teaching them how to bowl and raft better, and how to manage their finances through repayments on newly-acquired student loans.

It will also create jobs and fix the economy.

  • 08.30.2011 7:38 AM PDT

Do you know what kind of hat I'm wearing?

A party hat; you don't get one. An honor will this party be, a party in your honor, for your honor. Some of Tfear's personal guards are going to be there. You'll be introduced shortly.

Prepare to die.

I can see some problems with your theory.

-How is Bungie going to test the validity of the test? I don't think that school boards would allow Bungie to access their records.

- It would be useless to the majority of the community since only people of the age 12-18 could participate in the free stuff while recent Bungie games are 16+.

-International grade systems differ from the USA system ... so no love for the international community.

-Wouldn't this encourage playing more games and practicing less sport?

  • 08.30.2011 7:39 AM PDT

Old school Bungie, born and raised,
In the Septagon is where I spend most of my days.
Relaxin', maxin', posting all cool,
Talking about Halo, life and some school.
Got in one little argument, and the mods got scared,
they said "You're gonna get banned and your member title'll be bare!"

An interesting concept. I remember back in elementary school, if I received good grades I'd get this coupon thingy that was good for various items locally, like ice cream or pizza. We (my brothers and I) always used ours to rent an NES and games.

Could it work? Possibly. But I worry the infrastructure to achieve such a thing just isn't in place, nor is anyone willing to put others first to a good enough extent to allow it to be implemented.

  • 08.30.2011 8:05 AM PDT

1. Bungie issues microsoft/Sony points value cards with the codes for said armor to public schools. Private sector schools have to pay them for said cards. Cards are issued from Teachers grading the students. What about E-bay? Who cares is the kids sells or gives it away. The guy who got the A still got an A in order to get it. Plus they learn free market values. They earned it they can do as they please after the fact.

More incentive to earn a A next quarter.

Great PR for Bungie.

2. Bungie issues cards for 12 and younger for Avatars only. Helmets and props. Non violent right? You can't reach everyone. I am suggesting reaching your target audience while throwing one more tool to the teachers to reward gaming students.

3. If it makes money and helps PR in European countries, I'm sure they'll find a way to make it happen.

4. Kids play games. Kids play sports, kids are kids, stop sweating the what ifs. Most will play games and then go play basketball or whatever it is they enjoy. Maybe Nike could give away free codes for A's in GYM class. Whatever.


I'm not suggesting Bungie save the Educational system. I'm suggesting Bungie and developers actually take aside a couple digital props and use it as a incentive to encourage education with a reward that relates to it's target markets. Only a fool believes any one under 16 never play Halo. What's to say that won't happen with the next IP and it's broad reach with all ages.








  • 08.30.2011 8:28 AM PDT

common sense is so uncommon its scary...

M rated games are not made for little kids... in case you werent informed.

  • 08.30.2011 8:34 AM PDT

Proud Member of the Worker's Revolution
Halo 3 in the Workplace

One interesting thought about this, is doing it as a classroom sort of thing - a social excercise.
The whole haves/have nots thing in a classroom can get in the way when you don't have uniform realities at home in terms of how people can play the games, or what responsibilities they may have at home.
If you make it a shared thing, where as a class people work for shared goals with individual responsibilities it can foster a great sense of community within the class, allow kids to value each other socially outside of the typical cliques that exist, and you can even have competitions between classes in different schools, which can obviously offer more educational opportunities by giving the kids in the class social experiences with people from other places.

I love the general idea, though.

  • 08.30.2011 8:38 AM PDT

Right and every time you're on Xbox live make sure you count how many kid voices appear in the late afternoon while playing GTA4 or Big Team Battle. Keep sticking your heads in the sand about the M is for mature rating and that somehow stops kids from playing let alone partaking in online matches.

Let's not use a medium that very large percentage of youth engage in on a daily basis to an advantage to steer them into studies.

  • 08.30.2011 8:44 AM PDT

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hmm...

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Posted by: CAVX
By offering them incentives such as unlockable awards for achieving academic goals, many students will find most of their days drained by the long nights of studying and improving themselves. When they unlock their academic award, they'll want time to play the game it was designed for. They have to either sacrifice their next test score and the associated reward to play the game, or they'll have to use the time to study for the next test and therefore the next reward. Or they can stop sleeping.


Or they could be semi-intelligent and pay attention in class so that they can screw around at home and still get a 4.0.

  • 08.30.2011 8:45 AM PDT

Proud Member of the Worker's Revolution
Halo 3 in the Workplace


Posted by: DEZARATH
Let's not use a medium that very large percentage of youth engage in on a daily basis to an advantage to steer them into studies.



But, eventually education is going to have to adjust to the world kids are growing up in today.
These aren't just different leisure activities for kids- they are an equally vital surface on which they live their lives and will continue to.
facebook, XBL, whatever - education needs to start to perform in the world that matters to the people they are educating.

  • 08.30.2011 8:47 AM PDT
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Eh. My whole motivation to do well in school had to do with the fact that my dad could get his belt from around his waist to in his hand in under a second and that he could swing it pretty hard.

This kind of sends mixed signals. "Focus on your work so you can play videogames better!" If they did that, I'd hope they'd only do it at the very end of the school year or right before extended breaks or whatever version of that fits your particular school's schedule.

[Edited on 08.30.2011 8:56 AM PDT]

  • 08.30.2011 8:56 AM PDT

I'd rather not see their new game be Brain Age with guns, thanks.

  • 08.30.2011 9:00 AM PDT

Proud Member of the Worker's Revolution
Halo 3 in the Workplace


Posted by: L00
Eh. My whole motivation to do well in school had to do with the fact that my dad could get his belt from around his waist to in his hand in under a second and that he could swing it pretty hard.

This kind of sends mixed signals. "Focus on your work so you can play videogames better!" If they did that, I'd hope they'd only do it at the very end of the school year or right before extended breaks or whatever version of that fits your particular school's schedule.


I think that is possible, the mixed messages. But I also think that there is a need for education to move more into online experience simply because that is where the future for these kids will be. It isn't as if any of this is a fad - we are playing games with people around the world, and we enter the workplace and we are working with people around the world. For lots of people, work is a giant online social network anyway, and of course the future is going to broaden the way the online experience plays out.
Putting kids in school and forcing them to interact in an "old fashioned" way has it's merits of course, but at some point it is also doing them a disservice when that isn't exactly what the real world is going to really look like for many of them.

  • 08.30.2011 9:00 AM PDT

This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends;
Not with a bang but a whimper.

I would be quite disturbed if Bungie could obtain my school records. Oh well, step seven was bound to happen eventually. This is just part one.

  • 08.30.2011 9:01 AM PDT

Don't think of it as Bungie obtaining your records. I think of it has Microsoft points cards only they now contain codes for avatar unlocks. Bundle them up and ship to schools for administers to hand out at the end of the quarter for high grades.

Guys imagine the principle standing at a pew and stating on the first day of school that students who finish the semester with A grades are going to recieve a Avatar card. One for Halo 4 that contains a functional Katana for campaign and MM use as a example. The younger ones will receive Kinnect Dragon for there Kinnectimals, whatever.

I would think a online 16yr old having a Halo Katana for MM would be pretty cool reward for a A in Biology.



[Edited on 08.30.2011 9:14 AM PDT]

  • 08.30.2011 9:10 AM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member

Posted by: DARKWIND12
Posted by: CAVX
By offering them incentives such as unlockable awards for achieving academic goals, many students will find most of their days drained by the long nights of studying and improving themselves. When they unlock their academic award, they'll want time to play the game it was designed for. They have to either sacrifice their next test score and the associated reward to play the game, or they'll have to use the time to study for the next test and therefore the next reward. Or they can stop sleeping.

Or they could be semi-intelligent and pay attention in class so that they can screw around at home and still get a 4.0.

On a more serious note, not everyone is like that. I was lucky enough to be one of those students back in school, but a lot of kids don't excel with that kind of learning and have to work really hard to retain the same amount of knowledge as someone who just absorbs it all in the first time like a sponge. It's not really about intelligence, it's just about the way you think.

Of course, that's expanding on a larger issue of our school system in general, which only partially pertains to this topic.


Posted by: DEZARATH
Right and every time you're on Xbox live make sure you count how many kid voices appear in the late afternoon while playing GTA4 or Big Team Battle. Keep sticking your heads in the sand about the M is for mature rating and that somehow stops kids from playing let alone partaking in online matches.

Let's not use a medium that very large percentage of youth engage in on a daily basis to an advantage to steer them into studies.

That would be seen as Bungie circumventing the rating system and encouraging underage kids to play Mature-rated games. Probably not the best PR move on their part.

[Edited on 08.30.2011 9:15 AM PDT]

  • 08.30.2011 9:12 AM PDT

Who's to say Bungies next game will be M-rated or it's support of family based game developers wouldn't take full advantage of a educational package. Why not extend into college since most are internet compliant and have posted online grading systems. They made a i-phone app and Filemaker pro loves this sorta data.

[Edited on 08.30.2011 9:40 AM PDT]

  • 08.30.2011 9:28 AM PDT