Lesson Two: Video Games as Text

Stop Reading! I Want to Play the Game!

First of all, if you aren't familiar with World of Warcraft (WOW) you may want to check out this brief video on the game. It also touches upon the interesting notion that children playing this game saw significant improvements in literacy.

The title of this lesson relates directly to the type of conversation I've had with people (who shall remain nameless) while playing World of Warcraft. You see, I don't just like to run around dispatching bad guys and collecting things. I also find the in-game story to be extremely intriguing. All My Children and Guiding Light have nothing on these characters. The trials and tribulations of the Horde and the Alliance (the two waring factions within the game) are truly addictive and I'm not the only one who thinks so. There have actually been novelizations written and there's lots of talk about a feature film being developed. People can't get enough of this stuff.

Now back to the story. The goings on in this game are revealed via "quest text" delivered by non-playable characters (aka NPCs). In the image above "Abercrombie the Hermit" is an example of an NPC moving the storyline along by giving you exposition or context and a task to complete. Some NPCs can be much more long winded than old Abercrombie up there and those are the times when my gaming friends get annoyed. So yes, Virginia, video games can have some pretty robust and addictive narratives. Which is why a number of pioneering teachers have begun experimenting with using them as texts in class.

In the next section we'll take a look at some of these intriguing examples so let's move on.