The authors of the scientific work also noted that those who chose the role of a naturalist in the online action mode did the best with the tasks.
A British biology teacher under the nickname SaiRookwood told about the joint research with colleagues on Reddit. He also attached a link to the full study, which appears to have been produced by faculty from the University of Exeter and Truro College in the UK.
The authors of the scientific work wanted to find out if popular high-budget games like Red Dead Redemption 2 can become educational and teach players something. For the study, they drew up a test that 586 participants from 55 countries took. Of the 586 people tested in RDR2, 444 people played. The researchers noted that the participants were predominantly young people between the ages of 18 and 34, which, they say, matches the demographics of US players.
Test participants had to identify 15 species of animals that can be found in Red Dead Redemption 2 from real photographs and then name their names. Initially, the authors provided photographs with empty fields for names, and for those who could not identify the name, they offered the same photographs with five possible answers. According to the test results, it turned out that RDR2 players on average correctly identified 10 out of 15 animals and, in general, performed better than those who had never played RDR2.
The authors of the study emphasized that those who played RDR2 relatively recently, spent more hours in the game, or those who chose the role of a naturalist in RDR Online, who must study rare animals, photograph them and obtain samples in order to receive awards, passed the test. blood without killing animals.
The players admitted that thanks to RDR2 they learned more about the behavior of animals in different situations and the consequences of the extermination of rare individuals. So, one of the participants in the study said that after completing the quest to kill the Caroline parrots, he received a notification that he had completely exterminated this species of birds. In reality, these wild parrots are also extinct.
In conclusion, the teachers noted that high-budget games like RDR2 can still be used for educational purposes since in them the player can explore dynamic and most believable worlds. However, the teachers added that they do not recommend playing such games for people under the age of 18.
Previously, the Red Dead Redemption series formed the basis of a course at a US university. Through the Rockstar Games dilogy, students studied American history from 1899 to 1911.