2. Is an MMO a good format for teaching a foreign language?

No. Not at all. Have you played WoW for example? People there talk like they don't even know their own language. And while we are at it: an MMO is bound to develop it's own language. Look into a German WoW channel: "LFM heal und DDler für occu, mindestens 2k dps /w me" (translation: "looking for members: healer and damagedealer for Occulus, 2000 damage per second minimum, contact me by whisper"). And this is a German server. There's two German words in the whole sentence, the rest is "genglish" and WoW-Garbage. Now imagine the average gamer: "lfm hael und dd 4 ocu, 2k dsp /w em, OGOGOG!!!11". Do you think anyone could learn something from this piece of junk flowing through the channels? I can only hope that noone will ever waste a single thought on this lest memorize it. A game may be well suited to teach a language if it's a single player game. As soon as people see the language as an obstacle to be optimized away, and this will happen as soon as two players meet, it's bound to fail at teaching proper spelling and grammar.

In addition, an MMO has a very limited vocabulary not neccessarily suited for everyday use. Take me as an example. English is a foreign language for me. I have played countless games, read science fiction and a lot of programming books and I've had a US gf at times. I can describe a gem encrusted silver battleaxe (ribbed for her pleasure) to you in detail. Put me in front of a butcher shop and I'll either become a good mime real quick or starve.

That would present a challenge. People expect their items to be fantastical, not an everyday item. No one is going to want a broom for instance, but fantastical items don't have too much real world value. I am sure this can be worked around. You're right that the social interaction part of an MMO would probably not provide much if any learning of the foreign language. The game's quests and items and interactions with the NPCs would have to be the way they learn the language. So if I was to create an MMO for the purpose of teaching a foreign language, it would have to contain a larger amount of content than a normal MMO. Something to consider.

Skimmed other answers.

Quote:

Original post by landagen 1. Can a game teach you something without it feeling like you are learning something? 2. Is an MMO a good format for teaching a foreign language? 3. Would there be a large enough demand for this? 4. Would learning a foreign language be a hindrance or a feature of a game? 5. Would you personally be interested in a game like that?

1. Sure. I'd point to Civilization being a fair example here.

2. Maybe. It depends on if you want to develop a functional understanding of a language (I need a doctor. Where is the bathroom?) or a formal understanding of the language. Given the right userbase (nvoigt makes a good point there), and the right game (some cooperative/social game [a tale in the desert?]) and I think it would be great for functional understanding. Formal understanding I think might be better as single player.

3. Unlikely.

4. If you did it right, both. The 'villain' in the game was being unable to communicate/cooperate.

5. No, but I generally hate people; even over the internet.