Torpified by Gaming: Three Ways Video Games Electrified Me into Consciousness

In this autoethnographic text I unveil new possibilities to better understand learning in video gaming. In many ways, the use of video gaming in schooling has merely moved the bubble sheet to the screen, continuing the problematic idea that to learn is to repeat pre-established answers. In sharp contrast with this model, I rely on Diller’s concept of torpification, the capacity to be moved or awed morally, ethically, aesthetically, epistemologically, and/or ontologically¹ to share my experiences of learning through video gaming. I offer three epiphanies that made me face my own ignorance, question my identity, and rebuild my understanding of the world. By sharing my stories, I invite fellow players/scholars to engage on the autoethnographic path and to continue examining and sharing their learning experiences as insiders to the video-gaming community.