What Happened to Edutainment? Educational software for kids? Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary happened.
A booming and wonderful industry of educational software for kids once flourished and brought delight and joy to millions of children.
Then Kevin O'Leary (self-styled "Mr. Wonderful" of Shark Tank) bought up all the edutainment companies, gutted them, ran them into the ground, sold them for a bundle, and dipped.
The industry has never recovered. Who know what sort of incredible educational opportunities might exist if O'Leary had never destroyed it.
Ignore the "woke" boogeyman. These games are "meh" for deeper reasons: Dragon Age: Veilguard, Avowed
I love RPGs and MMORPGs and yet so many that come out these days are mediocre or worse. No risks. Nothing new. No imagination. Inexperienced dev teams. Huge franchises wasted and ruined. Dragon Age: Veilguard and Avowed are the latest examples.
The complaints about them being WOKE/DEI should be utterly ignored. Those elements are trivial and irrelevant. The real problems are bigger and deeper.
Video game development IS uniquely hard. Reacting to Asmongold's comments about video game dev.
Asmongold is one of my all time favorite youtubers/twitch streamers/creators, but he sometimes goes too far when speaking authoritatively on subjects he is not truly an expert. He makes the claim that "there is nothing uniquely hard about making video games." That is simply false - provably false - and I make an attempt to delve into this subject.
Real Friends Hold You Accountable - How Pearlman's Rocker Article Changed My Life.
Professor Hartman March 18, 2025 5:26 am
If you want to be a good person who is constantly growing and improving, you need to surround yourself with people who challenge you and hold you accountable. This is especially important for choosing a life partner.
My wife nearly dumped me for my initial opinions on the Rocker story! But as I kept an open mind and came around, she saw that perhaps I had some potential. 🙂
Jeff Pearlman's article exposing the truth about baseball pitcher John Rocker was a foundational example of the importance of challenging your own opinions and keeping an open mind.
The events and many discussions inspired by Jeff's article were a huge part of my evolution from a conservative to far left progressive. It was a marking point in some significant transformations in the way I look at the world and how I judge appropriate behavior and opinions.
Please watch Jeff's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwwGmgYyfCA
And check out his channel: Press Box Chronicles with Jeff Pearlman
https://www.youtube.com/@UCxV1cc2-nsUMxs16786Xs0w
Thank you Jeff! I really hope you see this.
My blog post about this topic/video:
https://profhartman.com/the-interview-that-changed-my-life-forever-jeff-perlmans-john-rocker-story/ ...