The bus is on its way. A 14-year-old is taken up with a console. With searching eyes, she intently stares at a screen ready to pounce on any moving object.

Hands glued tightly to the console. Agile fingers tacking weaving web pushing buttons with meticulous coordination. Suddenly a loud "Yes!" A sigh of relief. She becomes suddenly aware that she has crossed back to this side of a parallel world. A common scene: persons of different ages travelling through electronic worlds through engaging interaction. This is the ubiquitous world of digital games.

At a young age, one is often taught to distinguish between real life and games (work vs play). Games become a way of entertaining yourself during those moments when you do not have anything else to do. But things are changing rapidly.

Games have become introductions to life or other to-be realia. They can be easily accessed through a number of platforms.

In some ways, digital games today are similar to earlier film experiences. Games allow us to suspend disbelief and enter a sophisticated universe limited only by our imagination. Films engage our fantasies as we sit in a cinema and participate in a roller coaster of emotions: empathy, suspense, disappointment and wonder.

But digital games go beyond an implausible film experience. They allow us to interact with and manipulate the diverse components present in that game environment expecting feedback.

We are encouraged to build characters, give them names, and endow them with preferred characteristics. Often we are invited to build environments, albeit within certain parameters, within which such characters can operate and survive a stream of hurdles. As we process through game management, we are given instant feedback and rewarded in some form or other.

Throughout this process, games stealthily teach rapid eye and hand coordination. By juggling different components simultaneously we learn complex problem-solving skills and are allowed to feel in control.

For better or worse the world obeys our command. We are allowed to experiment and try a number of what-if conditions. It feels like having a genie where one's commands can be actualised, tried and tested with no significant harm.

Digital games come in different shapes and formats. Obviously, we are more aware of the complex graphic experiences sold to us for their entertainment value. But since a tender age, we are familiarised with games used as learning experiences in various subjects through an ICT approach to curriculum.

Different games accompany children at different stages of their cognitive development. Some games offer patient drill and practice to any learning student. Games can be used to teach computational, literacy, content-specific and team skills.

At a more adolescent age, games offer the opportunity to explore alternative identities, engage in a second life, and dynamically interact with like-minded people over a networked game or other. Other games allow an individual to face off with a machine dressed up as a viable opponent in sport or strategy contests.

But there are other uses for digital games. Simulations of idealised environments or planned realia offer challenging learning experiences where one can develop very critical abilities. Simulations have been used to provide cardiopulmonaryr resnscitation training to the masses including annual certification.

For example, airline pilots spend hours training with high-powered simulations that allow them to test the responses they would get from their equipment under varying conditions. Simulations equipped for tactile responses offer valuable training in the medical field (such as dentistry and surgery training).

Games offer great learning experiences. But for a country so dependent on human capital and resources, games can offer manifold opportunities. The multi-billion dollar digital game industry is a clean industry depending on creativity and human skills.

Could Malta draw enough critical mass to become a centre for digital game development?

Rev. Chircop is director, Centre for Communication Technology, University of Malta.”

saviour.chircop@um.edu.mt