GameCyte looks at a new casual browser game that might have the power to teach.
Last Thursday, Kotaku and MTV Multiplayer directed me towards a new casual game, called TypeRacer. I was skeptical — typing games are usually about as fun as single-player Pong and twice as monotonous. Then I learned it was multiplayer. Now I’m hooked.
But after a few rounds, I realized that TypeRacer’s true potential stretches far beyond fun. Let me tell you my story…
I met my first typing tutor in grade school; she was an elegant woman by the name of Mavis Beacon. She was calm, professional and sophisticated, and it was she who first gently taught me where to place my fingers on the keyboard, and how to carefully stretch each of my ten digits to hit every ivory-white plastic key in turn.
But at a time when I was already beginning to rebel, Mavis was too bossy for me; and while I gladly accepted my lessons at first — all other things being equal, computers were far more interesting than math or history — I rapidly tired of her constant nagging. She always wanted me to go back and correct this, or type that faster, or reach farther to hit the number keys. Words were English, but numbers were Math, and I hated math. So I abandoned typing, and resorted to the time-tested method of hunt-and-peck whenever text was called for.
There are some things about high school that change a person forever, and for me one such something went by the name of AIM. AOL Instant Messenger was ubiquitous at my high school. Of course all my geeky computer friends were there, but since we lived in the Silicon Valley, there were girls on AIM too.
Oh yes, when a young man has girls hanging on his every, painfully slow word, the keyboard suddenly becomes far more attractive. In a few short months, daily touch-typing doubled my speed from 25WPM to 50.
But while my after-school socializing venue taught a skill valuable in corporate America — not to mention college — today’s high school students carry cell phones and write text messages instead. The use of shorthand, albeit quite valuable when it takes up to three button presses to form a single letter, has become so ingrained in students’ brains that a study featured Friday in the New York Times found over one-third of students surveyed have begun including it in their schoolwork.
Similarly, the fact that entrepreneurs have developed a cell-phone style PC keyboard, designed to translate from SMS shorthand to full English, is a testament to modern students’ waning interest in touch-typing.
As if on cue, enter TypeRacer.
TypeRacer is a browser-based game where players simply type a provided line of text faster than anyone else; but without making any mistakes. As each player types, their avatars — a series of brightly colored Volkswagon Beetles — progress towards the finish line at the end of the paragraph.
The game certainly measures one’s average typing speed; but in order to win the race, the real object is to finish the sentence, with no errors, before anyone else. Let’s see: given a particular quantity of work, the game teaches you to complete it, error-free, in the least amount of time possible. Now tell me that’s not a skill any employer would pay through the nose for.
Moreover, TypeRacer does this using a variety of intriguing, often famous lines from literature, cinema and song (My Volkswagon sped along racetracks from A Clockwork Orange, Juno and Bob Dylan in the course of a single session) using an incredible variety of words that cause players to constantly adapt their typing style in order to keep pace with peers… and providing a brilliant introduction to each of the works from which these lines are derived. At the end of each race, the book, movie or album cover is revealed — and if this game gains in popularity, I wouldn’t be surprised to soon see Amazon.com links as well.
What really drives the experience is the online competition. Even at the level of a browser game, I know I’m competing with real people, and when I see a rival VW attempting to edge past me, that knowledge gives me the extra incentive to redouble my efforts and nail every last word. Since the game not only keeps track of speed but also places players in races with similarly skilled individuals, it’s always a challenge. I’m even seeing a spelling improvement — it’s much easier to unlearn bad habits like typing two Ms in “tommorrow” when every mistake nearly costs me the race.
But if competition doesn’t drive students, perhaps social status will — TypeRacer is also a social networking application, currently supporting MySpace, Orkut, and Hi5. Facebook is next on the list. Friends can gauge each others typing speed (and to some degree, knowledge of important cultural media) just by checking out one another’s profile.
Mavis Beacon taught me to type; AIM that typing was useful… but TypeRacer and its ilk have the potential to compel a generation to do better, faster than ever before.
Who knows? Next time a potential romantic interest wants to break the ice, they just might challenge you to a little race.
Tags: AIM, edutainment, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, Social Gaming, TypeRacer
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