Re: [car-pga] Japanese "RPG" textbooks from Namco Bandai and Gakko Tosho

Sounds great.  Any chance of an English translation?  With the Texas SBOE ruining textbooks for the whole country, it might help.  It won't do anything for history as that is already nailed down, but there is a faint hope as three of the cultists are out (retirement, primary, runoff) and if two Democrats and a Green can get in those spots, it will give at least an 8-7 return to rationality.  Maybe the two Republicans who used to vote for rationality will decide to return to the fold as well.

Meanwhile, I am considering a "speakeasy school" (from Pogo's satire on Massive Resistance and Virginia abolishing public schools to avoid integration).  Look at tea party rallies - all are white and most are 60ish - they were just starting school in this period!

Paul


From: WJ Walton <rpgadvocate@gmail.com>
To: CAR-PGa <car-pga@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thu, May 27, 2010 7:01:01 AM
Subject: [car-pga] Japanese "RPG" textbooks from Namco Bandai and Gakko Tosho

(Cut and pasted from The Escapist Blog - http://www.theescapist.com/blog
)

This story from NetworkWorld (http://www.networkworld.com/news/
2010/052410-japanese-role-playing-textbooks-new-chapter.html) about
Japanese choose-your-own-adventure textbooks hit my inbox yesterday:

"Japanese news outfit Asahi reports that Namco Bandai -- the Japanese
role-playing game powerhouse behind the Tales series -- and textbook
publisher Gakko Tosho have a partnership to produce textbooks laced
with JRPG elements. The new textbooks in development for math,
science, and language arts will hit classrooms as early as next
spring.<p>

It sounds like Namco Bandai is layering a choose-your-own adventure
into the basic work/textbooks most students use in elementary school.
Students follow an RPG storyline by, say, solving math problems and
each right answer nets them a key. Scoring enough keys wins the
student some kind of prize -- but it's not clear if the prize is
contained within the book or something physical the teacher
distributes. It could be pretty entertaining edutainment if it's not
too easy to cheat the game like you can with most choose-your-own
adventures."

Because Namco Bandai is behind it, most people will connect this with
video games - but it's much more like a tabletop RPG than anything
else, and with a carefully planned format and teacher's guide, there
wouldn't be any real concerns over students "cheating" the game. There
are a lot of cues that could be taken from existing RPGs that would
expand and improve upon this idea.

This could be an incredible teaching tool that inspires kids to learn
through roleplaying. It would be really nice to see Wizards of the
Coast attempt something like this here in the US.

Of course, we wouldn't have to wait around for WotC, would we? Pretty
much *anyone* could take the initiative on something like this...
(nudge, nudge)

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