Last month, I noticed that PZ Myers had written a Pharyngula post about a videogame called CellCraft. I didn’t bother reading it, though, since I prefer it when he’s writing about topics he both likes and knows a lot about, such as biology and religion. Games are not usually one of those topics.
Then I got a private message from a friend who knows I’m a gamer, and who expressed his opinion that PZ was “way off the mark.” Intrigued, I stopped reading immediately to go play, so I could form my own opinions. I found a cute little educational game about cell biology that had some good jokes and an earnest enthusiasm to connect with the player. And then I read the Pharyngula post about it, as well as the comments.
The controversy was interesting to me, because it ranged from very legitimate concerns to issues of game design. But I found PZ’s condemnation of CellCraft as “a creationist game” to be over the top, and the subsequent dismantling of one of the game’s developers in the comments to be unfair. I might have moved on, but this sentence from that developer just stayed with me:
“We knew that we didn’t all agree about evolution, creation, etc., but it didn’t matter — we wanted to teach about the science.”
Being what the hardliners would consider an accommodationist, I thought this notion of “bipartisanship” in science education through games was fascinating, and I wanted to know more. So I present my interview with Anthony Pecorella, who is quoted above, and Lars Doucet, the developers of CellCraft. It’s long, but I hope you will stick with us as we talk about the creation and evolution of the game, its mistakes and misconceptions, issues of science game design and whether people of faith can be scientists. I believe that while there are undeniable red flags concerning the game, they are in the end red herrings, and if you read this interview and remain convinced that CellCraft was designed to teach creationism, I also believe you should apply your own skepticism to that conviction.
Continue on to the interview
Posted in games, science, skepticism
Tagged Anthony Pecorella, atheism, biology, CellCraft, controversy, creationism, David DeWitt, Discovery Institute, education, evolution, game design, games, intelligent design, Jed Macosko, Lars Doucet, Liberty University, Pharyngula, platypus, PZ Myers, religion, science, videogames
I was planning to post something this week, but it’s going to go up next week instead. It encompasses gaming, biology, creationism, and Pharyngula, and it’s also substantially longer than anything I’ve posted here yet, so I hope you look forward to settling in with the (as it turns out not very) sordid tale.
There’s been a lot of other fun work. I’ve been preparing for another “Speaking Up” spot on Skeptically Speaking on Friday, August 20th. I also wrote two articles for AbleGamers, one about a patent for Microsoft’s new Kinect gaming system that included the capability for sign language (which was later reportedly dropped from the project), and another about how the strength of the PC market positively affects disabled gamers. Although I don’t have any real experience in market research analysis, I found that applying critical thinking to the data in the latter story helped a lot. And if you missed my post about my adventures in pudding…well, there’s probably a better way of phrasing that, but I promise it’s fully SFW.
And then — scroll down to the flyer — there’s this neat party happening practically around the corner from where I live, in Hollywood, on Saturday, August 21. The IIG are a great bunch of people, and I really hope to celebrate with them…and with you too, if you can make it!
I would like to send you off with this week’s CNN spot about the AbleGamers Foundation. It’s short, and it nicely spotlights the work that Mark and Steve are doing, which I’m proud to have the opportunity to support. Have a great weekend!
Posted in Blog stuff, Disability, News, games, science, skepticism
Tagged AbleGamers, CNN, IIG, Independent Investigations Group, Mark Barlet, party, Pharyngula, pudding, Skeptically Speaking, Speaking Up, Steven Spohn, teaser
