Guild Wars 2

Whoa, ok…before you grab your pitchfork and chase me out the door, hear me out.

The fact of the matter is that 2 million people are now playing this game. Some of those players are sitting there for hours a day. I can’t think of a better opportunity to educate people.

I think it would be really awesome to have puzzles and such that were based on things like math, science, language, etc. For example, what if one of the heart quests was to seek out and find an ancient artifact that could only be opened using math? Or what about side games that were based on real world games?

How about crafting requiring some kind of learning aspect so instead of just putting pictures of things together, you actually had to build things using proper measurement and such.

I dunno, I’m not saying the game has to be super lame sauce, but I just don’t think the idea should be discounted without consideration.

I for one play this game to escape real life. If I wanted to learn something, I wouldn’t be playing a video game, now would I?

Why virtually run around in game when you can hook up a treadmill to it and run for real? Why not add weight-based physics to the mouse. If you’re wielding a heavy two handed sword, shouldn’t it take two hands to move the mouse?

People play games to escape reality… that usually means escaping everything.

There are already such puzzles in the game if not in abundance.
For example, one of the Asura areas has panels which ask mathematical questions (such as area, volume, next in series)

Blitz.3627:

There are already such puzzles in the game if not in abundance.
For example, one of the Asura areas has panels which ask mathematical questions (such as area, volume, next in series)

I didn’t realize this (I’m a Human Thief). This is good news indeed.

As for “escaping real life” I’m not sure why your philosophy to life would be to not be educated at every opportunity. I mean no offence, but I think it’s a sad way to look at life. If I am spending countless hours doing something, it would be great if I walked away from it a little smarter perhaps.

Take Guitar Hero. How many people dedicated hours and hours of their lives to that game and still can’t play guitar. Would those people have been worse off if the game had been designed to help them learn?

Anyway, I’m happy to hear that those puzzles exist in the game, I’m looking forward to trying them out.