Gee suggests that the highest goal of an education system is to create critical producers, who generally have three primary tasks:
- Critically appraise the domain’s internal grammar
- Generate content that pushes those elements to new and interesting places
- Reshape the domain’s boundaries
By teaching players so effectively, Portal has equipped them to do all of these things. Moreover, Valve sanctions the activities of these modders, players who generate new content and add-ons for a game.
Within the Domain
Many modders have picked up where the game leaves off, continuing to explore the concept of portals through user-created maps. These run the gamut from fiendishly complex new puzzles to experimental designs that introduce new wrinkles to Portal’s gameplay. Players share their maps and discuss new ideas at sites like Thinking with Portals.Beyond the Domain
Some players are blending Portal’s spatial mechanics with other game genres. One such project, which incorporates portals into the cerebral gunplay and physics of Half-life 2, has found a home at Primo Technology. Effectively, learners are blurring the boundaries between related semiotic domains.
