Using video games as bait to hook readers
By Motoko Rich The New York Times
Monday, October 6, 2008
When
PJ Haarsma wrote his first book, a science fiction novel for preteenagers, he didn't think just about how to describe Orbis, the planetary system where the story takes place. He also thought about how it should look and feel in a video game.
The online game that Haarsma designed not only extends the fictional world of the novel, it also allows readers to play in it. At the same time, Haarsma very calculatedly gave gamers who might not otherwise pick up a book a clear incentive to read: one way that players advance is by answering questions with information from the novel.
"You can't just make a book anymore," said Haarsma, a former advertising consultant. Pairing a video game with a novel for young readers, he added, "brings the book into their world, as opposed to going the other way around."
Haarsma is not the only one using video games to spark an interest in books. Increasingly, authors, teachers, librarians and publishers are embracing this fast-paced, image-laden world in the hope that the games will draw children to reading.
Spurred by arguments that video games also may teach a kind of digital literacy that is becoming as important as proficiency in print, libraries are hosting gaming tournaments, while schools are exploring how to incorporate video games in the classroom. In New York, the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is supporting efforts to create a proposed public school that will use principles of game design like instant feedback and graphic imagery to promote learning.
Publishers, meanwhile, are rushing to get in on the action.
In advance of the publication of "
Brisingr," the third book in the best-selling "Inheritance" fantasy series by Christopher Paolini, Random House Children's Books commissioned an online game. About 51,000 people have signed up since June to play and chat on message boards on the site.
But doubtful teachers and literacy experts question how effective it is to use an overwhelmingly visual medium to connect youngsters to the written word. They suggest that while a handful of players might be motivated to pick up a book, many more will skip the text and go straight to the game. Others suggest that video games detract from the experience of being wholly immersed in a book.
Some researchers, though, say that even when children don't read much text, they are picking up skills that can help them thrive in a visually oriented digital world. And some educational experts suggest that video games still stimulate reading in blogs and strategy guides for players.
To be sure, some of the experiments pairing electronic games with books will be little more than marketing gimmicks. But publishers and authors suggest that some projects may push creative boundaries, helping to extend storytelling beyond the traditional covers of a book.
The premise of Scholastic's series "
The 39 Clues," for example, is that online players search for some of the clues themselves, encountering background stories about new characters as well as text and pictures about everything from the Titanic to the Iditarod sled-dog race, material that supplements the novels and inevitably entails some reading.
A New Narrative
A recent poll by the
Pew Internet & American Life project found that 97 percent of children 12 to 17 play games on computers, consoles and handheld devices. But while video games may seem to have little in common with books, some see a clear connection.
"I think gamers and readers are looking for the same thing," said Rick Riordan, author of the popular "
Percy Jackson and the Olympians" novels, who has written the first book in Scholastic's "39 Clues" series. "They are looking to be dropped into an intriguing story and to become a character in the story."
Still, avid readers who have compared the narrative arcs of video games with books sometimes find the games wanting. When Jacob Bagley first arrived as a freshman at Brown University, he was rapidly sucked into "
World of Warcraft," an online game set in a medieval landscape where players collaborate to slay monsters and complete quests.
Bagley, now a senior, was so addicted that he sometimes abandoned friends in the dining hall to return to the game. But the story was never the attraction. Both the narrative and the characters, he said, were too simplistic, and he gave up "World of Warcraft" in his sophomore year.
Video games, said Bagley, 21, "certainly don't have the same degree of emotional and intellectual complexity of a book."
Some people argue that video games are an emerging medium likely to undergo an evolution. "I wouldn't be surprised if, in 10 or 20 years, video games are creating fictional universes which are every bit as complex as the world of fiction of Dickens or Dostoevsky," said
Jay Parini, a writer who teaches English at Middlebury College.
Writers have also started to adopt the pace and perspective of video games. Quinn Clark, a video game player in Vista, a San Diego suburb, was drawn to Haarsma's novel, "
The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1," because of its similarities to some of his favorite games.
The novel is narrated by J. T., a 13-year-old boy who has the ability to burrow into a computer with his mind and fights aliens. His viewpoint mimics the behind-the-eyeballs feel of a video game.
"I felt like I was in '
Call of Duty 4,' " said Quinn, a beanpole thin 12-year-old, referring to a popular combat game.
Libraries Check In
Gaming advocates suggest that even if video games don't motivate more traditional reading, they have the potential to teach players how to absorb visual information and think strategically.
In Columbus, Ohio, nearly 5,500 youngsters have participated in more than 300 tournaments at the public library this year.
"I think we have to ask ourselves, 'What exactly is reading?' " said Jack Martin, assistant director for young adult programs at the New York Public Library. "Reading is no longer just in the traditional sense of reading words in English or another language on a paper."
In some cases, librarians may guide young gamers towards other resources - including, occasionally, books. But critics argue that most children who play games at the library simply do just that. And games like Dance Dance Revolution, in which players follow dance steps on a screen, seem to have little to do with literacy of any kind.
At a gaming tournament at a branch of the
Ann Arbor, Michigan, public library earlier this year, more than 30 boys gathered in a darkened room, feverishly sparring in matches of Super Smash Brothers Melee for more than six hours. Most of them said they did not read much, and rarely checked out books.
Derek Hibbs, 18, a regular tournament player, said reading felt too solitary. "You can't say: 'I charge you to a reading duel. Go!' "
Researchers, who are just beginning to explore the cognitive effects of video games, have found that in laboratory settings, action gamers are better than nonplayers at focusing on tasks and ignoring irrelevant distractions.
Some gaming evangelists suggest reading feels too passive to youngsters who want the sense of power conferred by a control pad.
Skeptics point out that psychological research consistently shows that skills often don't transfer from one setting to another.
Nevertheless, some educators argue that students may learn more by playing an active role in the simulated world of a game than they might by simply reading a book.
Such ideas led Lyn Lord, a social studies teacher at Kimball Union Academy, a boarding school in Meriden, New Hampshire, to introduce students to
Civilization, a role-playing game in which players build and lead cultures like the Aztecs or the ancient Romans through thousands of years of historical development.
Holly McLaughlin, a senior at Kimball who played Civilization as a sophomore in Lord's class, said that at first she failed at the game, choosing to develop culture and religion at the expense of roads and the military. Playing, she said, helped her gain a deeper appreciation for why leaders made certain decisions.
"Rather than just reading about it," Holly said, "you would understand everything about it, because you had built a network of roads yourself."
There is still little research on whether students ultimately absorb information better by playing games. "I actually think reading is pretty great and can compete with video games easily," said
Mark Seidenberg, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who specializes in reading research. "So rather than say, 'Oh, books are irrelevant in the modern era because there are all these other media available,' I would ask shouldn't we be doing a better job of teaching kids how to read?"
Some gaming advocates suggest that video games may help with that.
The reading that gamers do in instructional manuals, strategy guides or message boards, though often cryptic and more technical than narrative, might serve as a "gateway drug for literacy," said
Constance Steinkuehler, an assistant professor in the school of education also at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
For the past year, Steinkuehler has been testing this hypothesis with a group of teenage boys who play World of Warcraft.
Noah Tropp, 14, who participated in Steinkuehler's program for several months this year, regularly reads sites like
gamewinners.com and
supercheat.com. While looking for hints online, he read about "
Death Note," a novel based on a Japanese video game. Over the summer, he read it.
Noah also wrote about the games and other pastimes on a group Internet forum. "I was so surprised because he does not like writing," said William Tropp, Noah's father. "I said, 'Why aren't you like this in school?' "
In one posting, Noah recommended "
xxxHOLIC," a graphic novel based on Japanese manga cartoons.
"You should check it out if you get the chance," Noah concluded, "and it is a good book!"
