Learning, reasoning and modeling in social gaming

Abstract

In the last two years, the introduction of social gaming - playing video games in the context of social media - has created new possibilities for playing and learning. Social games attract a huge base of players that represents a different demographic than traditional video games. For this reason, it is worth asking whether or not they can be used for educational purposes. This paper examines the comments made on a single article within a wiki devoted to the characteristics of the Facebook-based social game FarmVille. In order to identify whether or not there is any evidence of learning or knowledge-construction around the game, this study explores and analyzes the conversations around the wiki article. Such evidence is reviewed with the goal of identifying the educational potential of social gaming in general, and FarmVille in particular. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.