I am kind of surprised so few people noticed Chell, though. The very first portal you go through, if you're observant, will give you a glimpse of yourself.

Great article.

Fantastisc work, Klepek.

Really good article, good lord Klepek! Your killin' it! ^_^

Interesting article. Kind of disappointing that it's an all-male school though, one gets the impression (whether correct or not) that the professor wouldn't have tried the experiment in a mixed class. 

Patrick has a nice writing style.  BTW, the only place I've ever been arrested was Crawfordsville, Indiana, so I pretty much know exactly where this college is.

That was a very interesting and amazing story thanks Patrick, keep 'em coming.

Awesome article.  :)

I really wanted to come across this kind of teacher!

Never got this lucky in my life!

Awesome.

I'd love to have my teachers put a game like Portal (or any game that goes a little deeper than The Sims) on a syllabus. When or if games get referenced, it's in a very hear-say manner ... talking about levels and calling them "computer games" (which is kind of specific in its reference to computers and exclusion of consoles/handhelds) like that's all there is. We once talked about Silent Hill 2 for a single lesson but that didn't go very far aside from watching one of us who never played the game stumble through the opening sequence and then describing what we saw.

Anyway, I'll gladly read more articles like this! Good job (except for all those typos^^)

Awesome article. I give it an A+! 

That was interesting. Great work!

Damn, Patrick, this is a great article.  I'm really glad that you're working for GB now.

The typos are, uh, a quest. Yes. That's right. (No, seriously, I apologize. It's an issue I have.)

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. More of this to come!

@litrock said:

I am kind of surprised so few people noticed Chell, though. The very first portal you go through, if you're observant, will give you a glimpse of yourself.

Thing is, many of the students probably weren't taking the game even remotely seriously when they got started, so they probably didn't notice her. Others were inexperienced with games (at least on the PC/Mac,) so they probably were busy fighting with the controls at that point.

Amazing that this class has already been taught. Hope it leads to other, similar ideas throughout the nation. Though I don't expect we'll see Mass Effect or Red Dead Redemption outside of drama fiction classes.

Pretty damn awesome.

I gave a couple of lessons on gender socializing with Heavy Rain once, also letting non-gamers play. Always awesome and fascinating.

I have seen someone who had never really touched a gamepad play through the opening stages of Portal. That game is a masterpiece in fun and engaging narrative tutoring.

This is laughable.

an all dudes school? doesn't that defeat the purpose of college for your dudes :P?

@Mumrik said:

""These guys are mostly console players," he said. "They're just not PC gamers--for the most part. [...] It never occurred to me that it would be a problem. It was a problem. A bigger problem than I expected. "Interesting that it has gone so far in America. I don't think it's nearly that extreme over here (Europe).

I wish it was though

I stopped at all-male college.

I had to smile at this. It's great to see more people being exposed to the narrative, almost provocative side of gaming and Giant Bomb doing more not necessarily industry-related stories like this.

Made me think of this video. There are some cool teachers out there.

I actually did a presentation on Portal's narrative, etc. in one of my classes back in 2009. I used voice samples of glaDOS throughout the game to show how she changes from a simple announcer to something more sinister (Used the early Portal trailers to show how Valved deceived people into thinking that it's just a puzzle game) and touched on other interesting narrative aspects (embedded/hidden narratives etc).

And here's me putting off work for degree finals playing ... Portal. Great article.

Great article, Patrick.  Especially cool for me to see since I'm a Wabash alum myself ... even had a film class with Professor Abbott back in the day.  Too bad he wasn't doing anything quite this cool back then.

Cool stuff does happen in Indiana sometimes, nice. :D

I believe video games are very intellectual in some rights and this is high proof that a game can be used to learn, to educate, and  to experience the world and life in new ways.

I like Steven Pinker. 

Awesome lecturers are awesome

Patrick seems like a sharp smart guy, starting to like him after the last Happy Hour.

hmm that would be pretty cool to take, or to break down a video game into its themes and ideas instead of just playing through it. Similar to reading a book for a class and breaking down those themes and ideas and noticing things you wouldn't normally notice.

Classes like this always make learning stuff more fun. I had a comics class last semester. 

@Gregomasta said:

I stopped at all-male college.

i stopped at "I stopped at"

Patrick Im so glad to have you as part of the Giant Bomb crew :) Since youve joined youve just been cranking out the content with style and quality.  This is a awesome piece of news :)

I salute you sir

next semester, mortal kombat?

Huh...pretty awesome!
Why didn't I have classes like that instead of all the boring Platon & co.

@litrock: Portal is not Casablanca. I would rather compare it to an Pixar animated short. It's awesome, it's extremely well made and it's surprisingly deep.

Articles like this one is why i'm glad that Patrick is now part of this place. Keep it up!

I have been reading Mr. Abbott's blog, on and off. He's a man of quality.

Pretty cool. Also noticed how the semester goes over Bladerunner. This guy's fucking awesome. haha

@Cirdain said:

@Mumrik said:

""These guys are mostly console players," he said. "They're just not PC gamers--for the most part. [...] It never occurred to me that it would be a problem. It was a problem. A bigger problem than I expected. "Interesting that it has gone so far in America. I don't think it's nearly that extreme over here (Europe).

I wish it was though

You wish nobody played PC games?

Man, the quality of stories since Patrick joined has just gone through the roof.  Well done!!

She is not a looker...

Thinking outside the cube this time!

god damn klepek is knockin this shit out like no one's business

This is good to see. If a game is relevant to a course...use it :)