Drilling Down: Ian Bogost on Drills vs. Instruction

Writer/game designer Ian Bogost wrote an article at Gamasutra last year - Persuasive Games: This Is Only A Drill - that complicates this concept of drilling in games and simulation, mostly by way of redefining what drilling within this context even is.

Drill within Bogost's article is more of the procedural variety: the stepping-through of a detailed process in a simulated scenario, theoretically preparing an individual to perform the process when actually called upon to do so. Undeniably, doing something yourself, even within the context of a simulation, is a better way to learn how to perform a task than watching someone else do it on a screen or reading an overview off of a card.

This is why, Bogost argues, Cooking Mama will better prepare you to make a meal than listening to Deltalina flirt her way through an airline safety briefing will prime you to put your life vest on correctly in the event of a water landing.