Games+Learning+Society Conference to explore the benefits of video games

Good news, World Of Warcraft nerds: You shouldn’t feel guilty about not showering or eating after all. Sure, you and your avatar buddies can discuss the merits of spending untold hours in the noble pursuit of knocking off Gurtogg Bloodboil until the dragons come home, but now there are actually a slew of leading game-theory academics coming to your defense. It turns out video games are far more important as learning tools than previously thought. The Games+Learning+Society Conference returns for its fifth year at the Memorial Union from June 10 to 12, all in the name of exploring the practical, real-world lessons that can be learned from gaming—communication skills, fiscal responsibility, and history, to name a few. If all those whippersnappers out there are enjoying video games so much more than book learnin’, well then, fuck it, we might as well figure out a way to make those games even better. Yee-haw!

The conference costs $395, alas, and features more than 200 speakers, but there’s a free keynote event on Thursday, June 11 with Julian Dibbell, author of the fun and funny book Play Money: Or How I Quit My Day Job And Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. His talk is titled “For The Lulz: How 9000 Internet Jackasses Took On The Church Of Scientology And Redefined The Politics Of Play,” and if that’s not worth leaving your keyboard for, not much is.

Here’s a dude who's learned very little in any world, real or virtual: