Man alive, there’s been a lot of gaming news these past few days. Continuing the trend: this Saturday, November 14, is to be hereby referred to as National Gaming Day. Thus decided the American Library Association. The day has been created in order to promote the idea that video games can be used to sharpen one’s reading ability, and to promote critical thinking.
The original Reuters report lists World War II video games as something that may be used to introduce young people to important historical subjects. Obviously, no one is saying that you should learn all about D-Day via Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, but that, if you find the subject matter interesting, maybe you look into it a little more academically?
There’s plenty of games that I can think of that, in a way, promote literacy. Vagrant Story for the PS1 might as well have been a novel, and certainly requires a reading comprehension level that could translate to schoolwork. BioShock, while not filled with text boxes, actually manages to be a shooter with an interesting and well-executed storyline.
Final Fantasy XII is another one, but I never really got into the battle system. Maybe I’ll give it another shot, one year after my previous attempt to play it.
Devin says Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 is another such game to look out for.
So there’s plenty of literary games out there for you to choose from. Not every game is mindless shoot everything that moves with no redeeming qualities behind it.
via Kotaku
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