Toward a Game-Based Dialogical Pedagogy: Insights from Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
- Publication Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Citation:
- 2021
- Issue Date:
- 2021-09-23
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Learning through dialogues enables individuals to engage different perspectives of other learners and foster wisdom. To date, researchers have dedicated themselves to utilizing games to facilitate learning engagement. From tabletop games to electronic games, the experience of gameplaying has encouraged dialogues and interactions between participants. The Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) introduced a new level of interacting experience in virtual worlds. They are designed to enhance cooperative experiences. Features like chat boxes, guilds, and easy grouping have afforded players opportunities for creative gameplay and facilitating teamwork. However, through the interviews with the players of Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV), we found that the communication mechanisms embedded in the game are not always player-friendly. New players are often intimidated by the complexity of the game, and no effective channels have been in place to ask for help. Additionally, constraints associated with the private messaging system and limited communication across data centres further impede new players’ abilities to learn how to play. Alternately, players would stream the gameplay on Twitch, inviting other players to chat, which facilitates open discussion and results in a superior exchange of information compared to in-game communication. Over time, this improvisation of utilizing the streaming channel as an extended tool to facilitate dialogical learning of the gameplay has made the game itself more enjoyable.
In this study, we explore how dialogical learning occurs in an MMORPG (i.e. FFXIV) and how it contributes to interactions and engagement within the game by using grounded theory approach. We conduct and analyse interviews of 10 U.S.-based FFXIV players to derive insights that will be beneficial to educators. Although video-based gamification and dialogical learning are not new concepts, they are still rarely implemented; monological structure continues its domination of school curriculums (from elementary to higher education). Through the present study, we want to call for change to this status quo.
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