Atari gets academic

By Ellie Gibson Published 17 November, 2005

With new NWN project.

Atari has launched a new project based around hit PC title Neverwinter Nights that's designed to help students improve their learning skills.

Students at West Nottinghamshire College get to play a NWN scenario where they "interact in a fantasy setting involving team working and problem solving situations." The scenario is designed to help reinforce learning in a fun environment.

Since the project began pass rates have increased by 10 per cent to 100 per cent, and it's received an award from the Association of Colleges. Now plans are afoot to take the Neverwinter Nights educational project to schools up and down the country.

So could playing games be the future of education? Those of us who spent most of our time at University playing Tomb Raider instead of reading Beowulf would certainly agree - just look where we are now.

Neverwinter Nights has already proved to be a huge hit with students and non-students alike, with more than two million copies sold worldwide. The sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2, is due out next year.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Markusdragon #1 6 years ago

    It's a concept, I suppose.

  • Teeth #2 6 years ago

    A good one!

  • MrAtheist #3 6 years ago

    This is a disgrace. When I were a lad and this was all fields, school consisted of spending 8 weeks studying some bloke who made a network of canals or summat. Then another 8 weeks drawing insects and plants. Ill tell you what we didnt do, we didnt spend all day playing Jet Set Willy.

    Im going to write a letter to the Daily Mail, im that angry.

  • space_ace #4 6 years ago

    everything i know, i learned from gta! :)

  • Machina #5 6 years ago

    'Since the project began pass rates have increased by 10 per cent to 100 per cent.'

    I can see the headlines now - Playing Games makes Pupils Perfect

  • Episode #6 6 years ago

    MrAtheist
    17-Nov-05 18:10:50

    This is a disgrace. When I were a lad and this was all fields, school consisted of spending 8 weeks studying some bloke who made a network of canals or summat. Then another 8 weeks drawing insects and plants. Ill tell you what we didnt do, we didnt spend all day playing Jet Set Willy.

    Im going to write a letter to the Daily Mail, im that angry.

    Ahh i laughed so hard. Im not convinced by concept teaching.

  • ecureuil #7 6 years ago

    Great idea.

    I can see it now.."Sam Fox Strip Poker to replace Sex Education in schools."

  • Xerx3s #8 6 years ago

    "This is a disgrace. When I were a lad and this was all fields, school consisted of spending 8 weeks studying some bloke who made a network of canals or summat. Then another 8 weeks drawing insects and plants. Ill tell you what we didnt do, we didnt spend all day playing Jet Set Willy.

    Im going to write a letter to the Daily Mail, im that angry."

    Computers wernt even invented back then... ^_^

  • Kalinin #9 6 years ago

    "This is a disgrace. When I were a lad and this was all fields, school consisted of spending 8 weeks studying some bloke who made a network of canals or summat. Then another 8 weeks drawing insects and plants. Ill tell you what we didnt do, we didnt spend all day playing Jet Set Willy.

    Im going to write a letter to the Daily Mail, im that angry."

    Oh that's nothing, when I were lad, it was off down mines for 26 hours a day, working for tuppence a millenium, and we were greatful for it and all. When we got home, our dad would strangle us with the mess of tangled atari 2600 cords we'd left the night before from playing Dig Dug to remind us what fun being down mine was.

  • afray #10 6 years ago

    Tell that to kids today, and they won't believe you.

  • The_Aardvark #11 6 years ago

    I never never NEVER in a million years thought my place of work would be mentioned on Eurogamer

    /faints

  • Teeth #12 6 years ago

    You... you mean to say you work at Atari!?

  • StixxUK #13 6 years ago

    I'm sorry I missed the original Neverwinter Nights. I could always pick it up now, but you know how it is with predominantly online multiplayer games: if you're not in from the beginning, you don't get the most out of them, simple as.

    NWN 2 might arrive at around the same time as I finally get around to updating my PC. Noice.