Number 300

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the crazy fact that this is the 300th article of my Finding of the Week series. This is unbelievable.

As I started to write this article, I was really excited as I entered the title into the interface. This is the 300th article of my series! I started this series just out of curiosity and the idea to simply write a short text about a gaming related topic on a weekly basis. I never expected to do this for such a long time!

Of course, as time progressed, I also addressed other topics in my small science blog. I wrote about some inspirations I got while travelling, I addressed global problems like climate change and I discussed several spaceflight-related milestones. Despite taking these detours, I all the time returned to the topic of gaming.

In particular, I presented concepts, ideas, and results of using computer games for serious purposes such as knowledge learning, training, and therapy. From time to time, my detours even resulted in new ideas for computer games that could raise the general awareness for important topics or help people to understand certain facts. Computer games not only require a repetitive application of specific knowledge, but also demonstrate the underlying principles in an audiovisual way. These two aspects allow for a knowledge learning and the development of an in-depth knowledge about a particular topic.

My little science blog and especially the Finding of the Week series help me to find my way through the darkness on the road to PhD. It added a certain constant to my life and often reminded me why I am actually doing all the research: I want to show that playing computer games can result in great things such as a strong self-improvement. However, although writing those articles is helpful, I also notice more and more that I desire a change.

It is not that I am no longer content with my series, it is more about the fact that I am producing this series since I started with my PhD. In this way, this series also tells me that 300 articles were written and I still do not have finished my PhD… This series is deeply connected with my Road to PhD – topic-wise and time-wise – and I really desire to change both things: finish the PhD and maybe start to write about a different topic.

As a result, I hope that the next few articles will continue to inspire me to carry on to finally finish this big PhD project before I have to write the 400th anniversary article.

Thank you to all me readers and all the other great people out there that help me on this journey!