The JoyStick Might be Mightiest…

Throughout this semester we have discussed the vast amount of literacy facets: books, television shows, movies, social media; but what about video games?

 

The sound of the vibrating plastic controller in my sweating palms fills the dark room that is illuminated by the high definition television brought into my room after my parents fell asleep. I couldn’t tell you what time it is; the tint of orange light seeping through my closed shutters reveals that it is close to dawn. First period AP European History is looming over me like the diminishing health meter in the top corner of the screen. Nothing else matters as I sprint through sixteenth century Rome, killing Templars, and decoding ancient puzzles, all while maintaining cohesion to the deep story line. I will finish this game tonight.

 

Most readers would view that anecdote as a lazy high school student neglecting both his studies and sleep through frivolous gaming, but what would one think if that plastic controller in his hand was a history text, and that illuminating light was that of a lamp on the bedside table? That high school student did not know where the Piazza Navona was or what the hell a Templar was, until he purchased a copy of Assassins Creed. Who is to say the vast and detailed setting of the video game couldn’t generate coherence to monotone lecture of ancient architecture in his AP history class? That nine-hour video game bender could be the

 

Paul Gee, in his article “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” discusses video games as a catalyst of literacy. Gee argues that video games with the amount of time and attention they generate through their use of semiotics can be better tools of literacy than reading a book. The fact that one interacts in a video game makes the content much more obtainable. Gee uses the comparison between playing a game of basketball and reading a text on basketball, and states that the latter is inferior in that there is nothing new being obtained in the invariable text. It is the interaction that sets video games apart from other sponsors of literacy.