any rpg comes to mind when it comes to crap-loads of reading. too bad it ain't werth much.

is mah kids reading?! they better be, or its no supper for them tonight!

"Cleverer"?

Is our children reading indeed, Mr. Poole. Wordz is cheep.

When I was in Elementary School I did a lot of reading, via video games, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Nintendo Power, and EGM. If not for those things, I wouldn' have been too interested in reading.

I won't be reading books if it wasn't for halo and such. I love the Eric Nylund (or however you spell his name) books. Gonna buy Mass Effect Revelations soon.

When I had a chance of playing beatmania, I was rocking it, but that didn't make me play the piano better. Same problem with guitar hero, except, I started playing the real guitar before I started. In fact, playing a video game versus doing the real analogy of what the video game is suppose to be might be harmful. I have a friend who had no idea how to hold a real guitar, and he ended up playing guitar hero lefty style (he's a righty). My point is, video games are very impressionable, and if kids grew up thinking, reading, playing a fascimile of an instrument is that easy, it would be hard to do the real thing. Would he have to have moving pictures and words scrolling on newspapers to get them to read the news? Would all movie rendition of novels from now on contain subtitles and be called the new form of novels?

Is... children?

...

If you're asking "Is our children reading?" and passing it by as correct grammar, then the answer to that question is, "No".

@xat: Exactly. Thank you.

I hope it's meant to be ironic but it still annoys the crap out of me.

I grew up with games as a kid. I believe that they've made me better at literature than I would be otherwise. I was pretty much top of the class in Literature at school (got full marks on some of the tests), games also draw a lot of inspiration from me. The characters and worlds featured in games are much more established than in movies or books, because the characters can begin to mean something to you because you're experiencing it. The world isn't just something you see, you explore it and experience it.

To say that games damaged the reading and writing skills of kids is stupid.

@Thomaticus: I don't know about you, I bought Nintendo Power when I was younger to look at shiny pictures of games I couldn't get.

I like reading in video games, but when my eyes are reading something 5 times faster than the text is appearing on screen and there's no option to speed things up without skipping the whole dialouge, screw the reading, I'm just gonna play the game.

It's all about a proper balance. The concept that as children play more games, they spend less time with homework or reading is just common sense ... there is a finite amount of time in the day. The idea that gaming detracts from reading comprehension isn't a causal relationship -- playing games doesn't dumb a person down. It's about spending the proper amount of time to lead a balanced life.

All in all, I think that's a pretty rational article. I dislike when people blame gaming for all the woes of society. However, I also dislike when gamers can't take a critical look at their hobby.

I've always been a reader, amassing countless books over the years. I don't think anything compares to kicking back in a silent room with a cup of coffee and enjoying a good read. And when I do reproduce (causing global chaos and apocalyptic music to blare from the skies), I will raise the kid to read too.

I'll never understand why some people, children and adults alike, look at reading with disdain. Especially since "geek culture" is becoming more acceptable and even desirable, and reading is often associated with geekdom.

@0x15e:

I think that it's meant to be ironic too, and it too annoys me. Haha. I can't stand it when people say "is" instead of "are".

Maybe if video games are one day accepted as a narrative art form all this silliness will go away. Haha, be right back. Gonna go staple some wings to my pig.

"if kids grew up thinking, reading, playing a fascimile of an instrument is that easy, it would be hard to do the real thing."

Don't you think that getting something in their hands, and getting them INTERESTED in holding a musical instrument is educational? How about the basic mechanics they learn-- such as moving your hands up for higher notes, and keeping the rhythm? This is the kind of stuff you learn in 2nd grade music class- Or at least used to, before music/art class got cut for an extra 45 minutes of Math.

To your point, kids DO grow up thinking, reading, and playing fascimilies of EVERYTHING. That's what playing is, it's imitating what you see adults to. Sometimes you grow up and still are interested in that stuff, and choose it as a career path. What's wrong with playing Fireman without real fire or safety training? What's wrong with playing a fake instrument? Seems like it would be a LOT harder if you were not even familiar with them at all.

There's no problem with guitar hero. I had a fake plastic guitar when I was 7, that made sounds when I pressed buttons. Now I have a real one -and- I play guitar hero.

I read 1-2 books a month, where my lady reads 3-4. Usually we read near bedtime, so it doesn't cut into our gaming schedules.

Muahaha!

Plus, games have taught me a lot of words! I learned how to play chess from Battle Chess. Just because it's on a TV doesn't make it false and brain-rotting. Some people watch Dancing with the Stars, and some people watch Planet Earth. If you choose to play nothing but button mashers, well, then you might not learn much, but there are tons of other games that can at least give you some insight to history, literature, shit, even basic story structure.

The thing that bugs me about stuff like this is that once in a while (more often than it should) some video game reviewer takes an Japanese RPG and says something along the lines of "durr, if I wanted to read so much text, I'd pick up a book" or "why haven't they gone to full voiceovers yet, i'm sick of all this reading."

For some of us at least, reading isn't a CHORE.

@dead_red_eyes: I know! What are this education system coming to!

Games only stops them from reading if the parents do not care about what their kids are doing. Playing Halo 3 all day instead of reading/doing homework without getting scolded by the parents is obviously detrimental to the child's academic progress. It's all about the habits you form rather than the hobby.

I would argue that computer games have greatly contributed to my literacy, especially MMORPGs. Firstly, I've expanded my vocabulary. Words like "melee" and "riposte" don't generally appear in every day text. We spend hours reading quests logs and lore online. Secondly, in order to earn their respect and join my server's top guild, I had to prove that I wasn't totally incompetent by submitting a well-written application. This probably had a greater affect on my writing ability than 4 years of college.

@dead_red_eyes: That and I hate slang double-negatives in English. "He don't have/got nobody." Maybe I'm just a grammar-whore.

Not that children would play Hotel Dusk: Room 215 all the way through, but damn that game was the equivalent of a cheesy crime novel.

I want more games like that! >.<

I beat Chrono Trigger in Fourth Grade.
It was my favorite novel I read that year.

overall the parents are to blame, for not controlling how their kids share their time and fun. If each parent did this, it would surely show that it is not video games, just that parents are not teaching them how to manage time.

video games have provided many good things, with added effect of enjoyment, the who lets blame games is just a fall back like always. no one wants to blame the main cause even though it is very sure and in plain site....

also some media companies will jump at the chance of a story they can bend and twist the words, u can make all the changes in the world, still it comes down to how your brought up and taken care off, how much freedom you get from your parents.

reading is very important this is very true, but blaming something that is not fully to blame is just not right! as people have said before, there is alot of reading in games, fair enough, some have next to nothing, it just depends on the type of game really.

in the end parents are to blame, cos they give into pressure to give their kids all they want for xmas, be it be the lastest clothes, games, PCs, what ever. the place to start to repair this " grave situation " is parents need to learn to balance their kids time, not just make them happy and buy them consoles or whatever they want to shut them up or make them happy

I am of the opinion that EVERY SINGLE PERSON should play through Phoenix Wright.

That is all.

The 'Is our children reading' is one of George W. Bushes many Bushisms, hence its use as the headline of the article being linked to.

I agree about Hotel Dusk! I loved that game (and the PW games as well).

@Infil: Agreed

The miracle never happen!! >_<

@Infil: I am of the opinion that EVERY SINGLE PERSON should play through Phoenix Wright.

... and stay SINGLE till the end of their lives.

So then video games are the next picture book.

I'm learnin' me a videogame

I read like an addict throughout childhood. I remember getting that Pokemon strategy guide, read cover to cover. RPGs were all I played 'cause I really sucked at anything else. And my library checkouts, all children's novels.

@thereturnoftheufo: George W. Bush asked the question "Is our children learning?" about 8 years ago, hence the title.

Of course, the noun "children" has always troubled President Bush, who can't seem to understand that it applies to a group composed of more than one child and hence requires the third-person plural ("Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis.)

@omg-ponies: requires the third-person plural

Is it any different from first- and second-person plural?

@xeijix:
My point is, video games are very impressionable, and if kids grew up thinking, reading, playing a fascimile of an instrument is that easy, it would be hard to do the real thing.

You're right, kids are very impressionable. If parents do the right thing and teach their children the difference between fantasy and reality, this shouldn't be a problem. No, playing Guitar Hero won't make you better at a real guitar, but playing "Cowboys and Indians" won't make them a better rancher. You have to separate yourself from the mentality that video games have to be teaching tools, and realize that kids playing video games is (usually) about as productive as an adult watching a football game. Any adult that sits around watching football 24/7 and does nothing else will, of course, be a failure. However, no reasonable adult will argue against their weekend relaxation time based on it's lack of productivity.

Regarding the original article, I don't believe he is advocating reading in video games replacing reading books. I think he's just saying that video games aren't all mental junk food; they still might have some nutritional value, however limited.

On a somewhat unrelated note, what will give kids the impression that "life really is this easy" is the flawed implementation of coddling a child's self-esteem. Kids need to learn that doing well rewards them, and doing poorly is not acceptable. "I'm sorry little Timmy, I know your feelings were hurt when I failed you on your exam, but, you know what? You should feel bad. And hopefully your parents instilled enough of a sense of accountability and work ethic in you that you'll study harder next time and get the answers right." (making sure the speech is age appropriate, of course ^^)

It appears people don't get the Dubya reference:

"Is our children learnin'?" - G 'Dubya' Bush

Video games are partially responsible for my vivid vocabulary. Growing up, I didn't care for books (I still don't), but I liked reading text from games. In fact, I couldn't wait to learn how to read so I could play A Link to the Past without having my mom sitting there reading the text for me.

I think the idea that video games screw up literacy is fairly valid. It's straight forward-a game can provide endless amounts of accessible fascination which is more entertaining and less repetitive than any static kind of entertainment. A kid who might have been into a comic book or a magazine before is now more likely to spend time on a video game. Mastery of a language is not a trivial thing that comes easily--even adults who were trained in the years before video games could end up sounding like meat-heads without a significant effort put in. The fact that video games are so interesting, and don't contain that much reading material (even if they do, it's often paired with voice-over).

It's not a nefarious plot to bad-mouth video games. It's a real concern, just like too much TV is a real concern. If illiteracy is on the rise, an obvious cause is the abundance of forms of entertainment available to kids which don't involve reading.

Also, Final Fantasy, by itself, has set us backwards in terms of literacy a 1000 years.

@xeijix: Dude... I have to wonder what's going on in your head. Playing Guitar and playing Guitar Hero don't sync up, we all know that. I know plenty of people who can rock with them best of them, but once they pick up that tiny plastic controller to play some Guitar Hero, they fail miserably.

Here's the problem with that analogy, though, there's no substitute for reading. Sure, you can play through plenty of games without ever reading a word, but it's not like that somehow replaces reading. If you play all the way through an RPG you've probably had to read a ton of garbage, but no one ever said RPG writing was great. Here's the thing though, you're still reading, it's a universal thing, and it's not like reading a book, and reading little digital text is any different.

@deathbunny: "Also, Final Fantasy, by itself, has set us backwards in terms of literacy a 1000 years."

More if you consider the volumes that could be printed with "Aerith Lives!!" fan fiction.

Well, I think some blame for lack of reading should be given to the literary world itself. Go in to any bookstore, and look around; 95% of what you see on the shelves isn't worth picking up.

I was just speaking with a friend about this earlier today, who is a librarian, no less. We were both saying how so much "contemporary fiction" these days is dull, boring, meaningless, and mostly a paint by number exercise, and they are generally only written just to get on the bestseller lists and snag the reviewer interviews.

I generally prefer nonfiction, and politics, but current political books are hardly any better, as many of them are just extended op-ed's, stretched over 300 plus pages for the sole purpose of getting the author on the news talk shows to promote his ideas.

Of course, there is still plenty of good stuff out there, older stuff mostly, and nonfiction books that aren't about events that are entirely transient and trendy, but getting people to read them can be a pain if it's someone who is irritated at every faux intellectual out there pushing "classic" literature not on it's own merits, but as part of a political agenda, the same way people like Bill Cosby and Benjamin Barber, among others, have used Jazz as a cudgeel with which to bash pop music and hip hop.

It may seem odd for the world of literature to be politicized in this manner, but it is; and what sort of reaction do proponents of reading expect when they say "everything you like is horrible mind numbing trash, now go and read this and I MIGHT consider you a human being and offer you some small amount of respect and courtesy." I've been turned off the whole literary world by too many arrogant Harold Bloom conservatives obsessed with the "canon", too many trendy modern-lit frauds whose only goal is to be the topic of discussion at new york cocktail parties, and lets not even get started on the foolishness of postmodernism, post structuralism, critical theory, "theory" of any sort, and all that other jargon laced gibberish.

The guy above me says Final Fantasy has set us back in terms of literacy by 1000 years. Good. At least that sets us back to a time before all these insipid, irritating, and phony pseudo-intellectual trends and wannabe hipster pyramid scams took over the whole enterprise of literature and reading.

I think I'll stick with drawing and painting for my art and intellectual stimulation. I'd rather spend $20 on art supplies that on some snooze inducing literary trainwreck that all the "cool" people are talking about, pretending they've actually read it.