<![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> The sad thing is, a friend of mine learned to read mostly through the old-school Pokemon games...

Willows

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> To this day, I credit the straight A's I got in elementary school to all the gaming magazine reading I did in those years. For awhile I lumped Nintendo RPGS in there as well, but really, stuff like Dragon Warrior and Ultima Exodus probably should have set me back in hindsight.

Jack Page

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> My xeven year old boy plays Zelda. He reads every bit of it. There is a lot of text in Zelda games, especially for a seven year old. I told him he can play the game (on weekends) as long as he reads whats going on. When he first started playing he occasionally would blow by text. He would then ask me what he needed to do next. I would tell him that he had to go back to his last save and play the part again, this time reading the text. Now he reads all of it on his own. His questions to me are usually asking me to explain a word that he can not pronounce or is not part of his vocabulary. I believe that many entertainment video games (as opposed to educational video games) can be used a learning tools. As a matter of fact, I feel I can thank Link and Princess Zelda for their help in teaching my son to read.

Video games can be used as a positive tool for multiple purposes if parents would take the time to at least understand the console and games available to their child. Thankfully, I am a gaming parent so it is easy for me.

Peace

Hagame

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> SuperMaxZero claimed "I don't see how reading The Blue Sword would have made me any smarter"

Maybe if you had read more, you would be smart enough to see it :-P

L_K_M

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @dowingba: You do realize that for the most part, I only spend 55 hours reading and playing video games? It's just that during summer vacation, I do sleep 5.5 hours a day, so I have to include the extremes.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> You folks are all breaking literature into tiny parts that unfortunately do not at all add up to the sum of the whole. Plot certainly is an element of literature and language, but to reduce the whole process of reading a book to the bare fact of knowing a plot is ludicrous.

No matter how complex the video game, or movie for that matter, it simply will not replace the act of reading a fully fleshed-out book. Literature is combining all the elements of a story, or a series of ideas, into a single thing, and then conveying the experience of that thing through the act of language. It cannot unfold in any other way. If I convey to you the plot and storyline of Madame Bovary, it is in no way the formative equal of actually reading the book, and allowing the language of that story to wash over you and affect you. Or by allowing the flow of ideas in a well written essay to shape your thought.

Writing is the highest and most complex of all possible arts, and thus reading is consequently the most demanding and yet beneficial thing you can do for yourself. Don't demean the act of reading a book by arguing that it's "just imagining a scene", and that this can be so easily replaced by projecting that same scene onto a screen. It's far more than that. God of War may teach you that Zeus was king of the Gods, but that's nothing compared to actually reading Hesiod.

This shouldn't even BE a debate. Literature has nothing to do with video games. EVERYTHING is simpler than reading. Every recreational activity is easier than reading. Video games have no bearing whatsoever on how much your kids read. How much your kids read has a bearing on how much your kids read. That's it. It's not even a valid argument that video games specifically somehow harm literacy in a whole age of televised entertainment. Video games are simply the logical progression of television.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I've really been more of a book person...but Final Fantasy Tactics' retranslation makes the whole plotline lean toward the Lewis and Tolkien.

It's too bad that more kids these days are more attracted to Zack's pretty hair than Ramza's storylines.

Frank

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Do not misunderestimate the educational value of video games.

IronsUK

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Ichigo Style: LOL. that is all. Also, I don't think she did that on purpose, looking at the quote alone, her verb agreement sucks too,

"My memory of reading as a child is basically that of voraciously hoovering up any old crap."

"is basically that of" is generally horrid English, maybe 'my memories of childhood reading experiences consisted of... ' or something... pathetic for a book reviewer nonetheless.

Saith17

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> OBJECTION! (heh)

Books are NOT expensive.

There's this place called "the library" that has more books than you'll ever be able to read and they will let you borrow them, FREE.

Then there are many places, online and off, that will sell you these books at a very reduced rate. I can go to a used book store and get more books than I can carry for the price of one video game (the books will take longer to read than a 20-30 hour game).

I learned to read when I was 2, from newspapers and from being read to. There weren't video games then (not where anyone average could get to them) but I still logged my share of hours in front of the old color TV.

Manuals don't help reading any more since they're about 4 pages long and don't really tell you how to play, and cutscenes are all FMV, not text.

In conclusion, get off my lawn.

Evil Tortie's Mom

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Hiroken:
My first *teaching* job, that is. Ha ha.

~

Hiroken

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I'm twenty four years old, and in about a month, I'll start my first job teaching English at the high school level.

While, (like the author of the article), I "voraciously hoovered up" a lot of books as a kid, some of the most rewarding reading has come from video games--the Final Fantasy series, especially.

While I don't believe anything could or should replace the ability (and enjoyment) of getting lost in a good book, I plan on integrating video game narrative in my curricula as worthy literary source.

~

Hiroken

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> When I was in elementary school, I read at least 50 books per year. I guess it is no wonder that I love the Phoenix Wright series.(Or maybe it was the deep storylines and witty humor)

KM91

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Video games helped me read in Pre-K through First Grade. I remember playing the Gameboy Pokemon games, I could read them on my own. On the back of the box, it says something along the lines of "Basic reading skills are necessary to fully enjoy this game". Let's just say I fully enjoyed Pokemon when I was 5.

chugger1992

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> As far as video games go you can't compare reading a book to playing an RPG. Just because you read text doesn't mean it's the same thing. Books focus heavily on the reader using their imagination to create the location or person based on a brief description. RPGs just give you the characters and have you read what the characters are saying. Still I suppose RPGs beat watching TV endlessly. They're better than nothing.

Video games however are much better for people in terms of logic. Everyone around me completely fails at a simple task like reading a map yet I can do it with my eyes closed. So while video game =/= book they're still useful learning tools.

@Onizuka-GTO: ...

The crap hole that is the internet doesn't count. It's 90% aim speak/chat. By surfing the internet all day you're probably lowering your ability to read.

Iron_Dragon_2.0

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Dang, I must be cutting edge.

6 years back I was teaching English. My GCSE group needed a little motivation, so I recorded some of the Tomb Raider cut scenes to do some plot analysis on. The group lapped it up (even the usually less than keen lads... not that surprising really). They then started to introduce me to games that they thought were thought provoking - mainly FF7 - and much discussion ensued. And that was enough for me.

Perhaps, like film in the 60's, games are now gaining an acceptance as part of culture; and thereby as part of children's experience a starting point for education.

BigBadBee

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I got an English scholarship from my high school (admittedly some years back) for writing a choose-your-own-adventure book in my final year. It was clearly based on the choose-your-own-adventure novels of the 70's, but I chose a video game motif for the book itself.

I realized years later that choose-your-own-adventure-type video games interested me far more than the book series, and that my story had more to do with video games than anything else. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Phoenix Wright and Mass Effect are essentially branch-offs of the choose-your-own-adventure genre.

Choose-your-own-adventure books were never defended for their value as literature, but for their value as tools to get children excited about reading. I don't see why some wordier video games can't receive this distinction as well.

Tonx

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I blame lolcats...
/What? They are just so freaking adorable.

smitty1123

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I read alot, cos i surf alot.

Seriously, if you ain't learning to read while surfing the net, you don't deserve to be on it. :p

Onizuka-GTO

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Tyjet88: EXACTLY! Except for me, it was the original Zelda, and it may explain why I was reading before I got to Kindergarten. I never played, say... FFVI until much later (my uber-conservative Christian parents didn't like it, if I recall), but Mario RPG was another game that I just loved to read. Nowadays, when my watches me play RPGs, he thinks I'm just clicking the button to go to the next screen of text as soon as possible, becuase as he says "there's no way you could've read it that fast." To which I respond "quickly, Dad."

I used to read LOTS of books as a kid, but now I don't read as much. Books are just too dang expensive, and I generally would rather buy a videogame. Still though, I love books, and there are a LOT that I want to read if I had more money.

Spiffyness

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Kirbytheslayer: Is a well thought out and perfectly articul...: Assuming you don't have a job or ever leave the house, you have only 5.3 hours per day to sleep.

dowingba

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I read a lot back when I was a kid. I still read a lot now. I've also expanded my reading to games, it just kinda seemed like a natural expansion on the concept. Instead of just taking the story in, you interact and influence it in various ways. It just kinda makes sense to me.

Games serve as a motivator for me to learn a new language, mainly Japanese. A friend of mine is playing games to learn more English. That's not something you'll see happening with books all that often. And I'm a serious book worm here, so I'm rather biased for books.

Frankly, if a game gets someone to read, I'm all for it. True some people skip the text, but those people wouldn't touch a book either so at least they'll read the instructions when they pop up.

The way things stand, the generations that are in charge now don't really understand games that much. Hopefully in a few decades, we'll get some people in charge that actually know what they're talking about. Of course by then, there'll be a bunch of other stuff for them to beat on so...

Shadowmist

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Ehh, what? I remember learning advance words in elementary school by video games. Too bad many of them I did not comprehend until I opened a dictionary. xP

-

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Ryuji: I learned Eglish playing games.

Dizzy?

Ilia Chentsov

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Indeed, your children is learning.

WhoreofSpamylon

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Anyone read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card? Great book. It was the first real novel I read and I've been hooked since.

xmjdx

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> It always seemed to me like the idea that British media were being idiots was a forgone conclusion here, and that this is more about getting with the program w/r/t education.

But if Steven Poole says it, I have trouble disagreeing, like, ever, owing to he's read more books and is much smarter'n me...

Homage

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> My vocabulary is amazingly huge in comparison to all my classmates, and I owe it to video games. I have huge mythology knowledge, and reading comprehension/analysis abilities, and wouldn't if I didn't spend the time I do on video games. I'm using this space to brag, but support the point that video games are very helpful through literary reasons.

cmoody17

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> ds rpgs are a ton of reading. And my 5 year old niece loves reading in them.

dcartist

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @emag: I suck at names. I constantly misspell them. Including my own, though justifiably so, considering how often and randomly it changes.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I love to read. I had a small record player as a kid and stories that came on 45's (I'm really dating myself). I would listen to the story and follow along in the book. My parents took my sister and I to the library on a regular basis (L. Frank Baum's books were my favorites). That did the trick with me. I'm 39, so when I was young, some of the other forms of entertainment were not around to compete.

hikergirl

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Phoenix Write is hard to read sometimes too. Maybe I'm just not used to so much reading at once.

SAIFDS

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> bah. I don't care to express my feelings on this subject, so all I can say is fuck you all.

reading sucks. illiteracy sucks. but then again, the human race in general sucks so thats okay.

SolFalling

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @thereturnoftheufo: @0x15e:

He's making a subtle jibe at Bush's "Is our children learning?" comment.

Ignatius

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Atomicvege:

I agree that RPG-style games that require reading to understand your missions and the story are helpful, but it's really only if the kid wants to read.

Sadly, I know some kids who will just skip the text part and just guess what they have to do or try and figure it out.

NeoAkira

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> It's all a matter of timing and what you play.

I learned much of my vocabulary from watching old sitcoms, for instance.

Mact

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @K-Squad: Well, if I wasn't reading video games, I still wouldn't be reading a book.

Exactly! It's like that V8 commercial, hit the guy all you want, he still doesn't like V8. So V8 introduces the fruit drink -- Less veggies per serving, but some is better than none.

Non-sequitur reference aside, my boys love videogames, and hate to read anything that isn't constant action. Harry Potter moves way too slowly for them. They just can't sit still that long. But they'll get stuck on a puzzle in a game, reading and rereading clues, and one of the younger ones tries his hardest to sound out the words on the screen, or match them to the voiceover, because that's what his brothers can do. Most games are text-action-text, partitioning the 'work' between faster moving playable segments, which helps them to take their time and understand. For them, advancement of the plot isn't a big enough pay-off to keep reading, but getting to the boss battle is.

In any case, it's some reading, and some reading is better than none.

Marion517

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Reading history is my hobbies.. thats all i read and news.. most stories are too hard to read, they take forever and the published novel books are too small with text too small and hurt my eye.. GO Digital Ebooks! but.. i'd rather print it out with bigger text and read on hardcopy.

zutto

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Hilarious.
Most of the recently written books are crap. I get you. Are you saying it's not worth buying a book anymore ?
Have you already read all the books¨written during the past 500 years that are worth reading ?
Piece of advice: next time you go to the bookstore try not do go to the bestseller shelf.

If my kid ever tries to replace reading with gaming I will personally throw all the consoles out of the window.




Tisteldun

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Kirbytheslayer: Is a well thought out and perfectly articul...: Though I hate to say this, if you just look past the "mainstream" books, and actually read something quality, like Gaimen, you'd probably enjoy reading more.

You might refer, rather, to Gene Wolfe, for the pupil has not outstripped the master. (Oh, and it's Gaiman.)

emag

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I started reading and writing at college levels before I started high school thanks in part to games. They really broadened my vocabulary and made me a quick reader before I hit 9th grade english.

@Kirbytheslayer: Is a well thought out and perfectly articul...:
Thank you! In my belief half the things posted on the internet just make you feel like somebody took a sledgehammer to your head until your IQ droped by two points. I'll take a good paperback book over the internet articles and blogs any day. I do still visit forums every so often to point out others faults but thats just when my boredom levels have gone off the charts.

P.S
Fitzgerald is god!

Ignis

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @HowardC: You're an idiot.

Just because most modern books are utter trash doesn't mean the act of reading books is outdated. I don't read 99.999999% of anything on the internet, because the only things on the net are "pompus"(oops, did you mean pompous? Maybe you'd know how to spell if you read more.) auto-biographics and really crappy scifi/fantasy fanfiction.

Wait, isn't that close-minded and retarded? Honestly, there's a lot of fantastic work on the internet, and a lot of fantastic work being published. You just have to look for it. Though I hate to say this, if you just look past the "mainstream" books, and actually read something quality, like Gaimen, you'd probably enjoy reading more.
And show me anything on the net that surpasses the quality of "The Great Gatsby" and I'll retract everything I've said.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> stupidest*

dead_red_eyes

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @HowardC:

"Quite frankly, reading real physical books, purely for entertainment, is outdated and unnecessary. The internet has surpassed any other written form of entertainment and therefore reading books has become a thing of the past."

That by far is the stupidist shit I've read on any forum/blog. Congrats.

dead_red_eyes

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I'm just gonna come right out and say something nobody else has the balls to say. Quite frankly, reading real physical books, purely for entertainment, is outdated and unnecessary. The internet has surpassed any other written form of entertainment and therefore reading books has become a thing of the past.

I haven't read a real novel in years, mostly because the only books published anymore are pompus auto-biographies and really crappy scifi/fantasy fiction.

So I don't think it's important for children to read BOOKS at all. Now reading manuals, text-books, the occasional e-book, online blogs, ect.... that's another thing all-together.

My point is, don't worry so much about what media children (or anyone else for that matter) choose to read, rather worry if they are reading enough to better themselves.

HowardC

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I completely believe that videogames have uped my reading speed substantially, and also pushed me into more creative forms of writing. (Not fanfiction. Ugh.)

Tavana

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @L_K_M:

Would it? I don't see how reading The Blue Sword would have made me any smarter had I not thrown into a corner out of the disgust and depression it caused after 100 pages.

SuperMaxZero

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I learned Eglish playing games.

Ryuji

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @CZroe: Nonsense. I've played the first two Phoenix games, and while there are some typos that certainly should've been caught, I think it's absurb to call the writing bad English. It's just not.

@Ilia Chentsov: Meaning what? That everybody who plays those games is single?

Mezodon

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> His last sentence is perfect.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> There's a lot of good reading to be found in games and the Phoenix Wright games (and adventure games in general) are great examples. I've learned a lot of things from playing games. I still use Manny's "hijole!" and that's from playing Grim Fandango back when it was new.

Mezodon

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I read a whole lot as a kid. Still do; in good weeks, I read three or four books. I also learned English playing Monkey Island, and the Phoenix Wright games - which I absolutely love - are basically books disguised as games.

Most of the time, however, games don't encourage reading at all. Games without voice acting are becoming rare; most games have little text, and the textual content they have is of bad quality. And yeah, gaming time competes with reading time, obviously.

I think there are some things gamers just have to acknowledge. Playing Halo or GT, for example, doesn't make you smart, and your time would be better spent reading a good book. Of course, gaming is a recreational activity, so whether it makes you smart or not is of little consequence :-)

L_K_M

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Well i understand if the kiddies don't want to read if the subject they are readling is borring but i just say to that. Read something that makes you want to read or makes your reading experiences more enjoyable. Right now iam reading The Zombie Survival Guide "complete protection from the living dead" By Max Brooks it's a great read for all you zombie lovers out there. Check it out. This book actually made me take a break from playing RE4 and Dead Rising and besides it's less then 300 pages.

MURDERFACE

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @xeijix: I do require words I read to scroll. Otherwise, I end up stuck on the first line. Either my eyes, or the words are gonna scroll, and I ain't budging.

But, seriously. I play video games pretty heavily, about 20-50 hours a week(Though 7-14 hours a week of that are from Twilight Heroes and Kingdom of Loathing, where I spend most of my time chatting.) But, anyways, It hasn't kept me from reading and writing more heavily (25-75 hours a week). And I still manage to complete all my other obligations. If a kid doesn't want to read, it's not because of video games, he's not going to read, no matter what's available to him. The only way to get a child to read, anything, is to either force him(which is useless) or to find something he enjoys, regardless of quality. I know my little brother will not read, even if he's grounded from video games, unless it's his "Cirque Du Freak" books, which are literary trash, but they entertain him.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> "there are good stories and bad stories on games"
"there are good books and bad books"
"there are good music and bad music"
"there are good movies and bad movies"

Way to go sherlock, nice conclusion!

Wyld

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I would say that game genres like RPGs and Adventures can help child literacy due to the large amount of text these games usually possess (or did before voice overs).

Still i think the idea of entertainment forms hindering reading ability is bupkiss. I learned to read before i learned how to walk, and if my memory serves me correctly, my reading material of choice was newspaper comic strips (and their book collections). I grew up reading Peanuts, Garfield, The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes (I think C&H alone expanded my vocabulary tenfold).

It's only during highschool that i got interested in novels on a regular basis and hell, my reading level was yards above most others in my classes.

I think if you can get people reading in any form, and they grow an appreciation of story or entertainment from that form, they're more likely to be able to transfer over to what some people consider 'real reading' (god i've had some arguments with people over that term though). =/

Atomicvege

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Accelerated Reader destroyed any interest I had in reading anything I didn't have to.

SkutSkut

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> How about letting the children choose what they read but still make it so that they have to read a certain ammount each month or something. Making children read a certain thing that they don't like will only turn them off reading.
A good example is that I was made to read the same book THREE TIMES by my damned teachers. First when I got to choose between three books when it looked interesting. Again, even though I protested, when I had realized it wasn't. And third when I could actually tell the teacher the entire story of the book.

Even though I was an avid reader that almost turned me off books completely. It was almost a year before I read again and I rarely read anything other than fantasies after that.

Spiderbait

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> The idea that video games are stopping kids from reading is just absurd. The bet is that if kids aren't playing video games they'll be reading. Who can swallow that? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

I've always felt since I was a young kid that the problem with children not reading is caused simply by the inability of parents to help them find something they'd enjoy reading. My parents used to take me with them to used bookstores or Borders and tell me that I have to get a book to read because I would have to read for as long as I'd want to play my super nintendo or N64. They said they don't care what it is, so I basically started with the Goosebumps series. Not exactly great writing, but when you're 7 or so it was a start. I tore through goosebumps pretty quick and went right on to Animorphs. I was really into animorphs. I was reading for enjoyment, and that really laid the foundation I needed to read books for school and just books in general that I found interesting. I feel like books can be really entertaining if you're picking entertaining books. The problem is that schools tend to foist books the kids don't want to read on them, which causes them to develop a disdain for reading since the natural reaction would be to group the two. Bad books means reading is bad. It requires parents to set the record straight by showing that books can be good as well.

I believe there will be an advent of writing better games in the not-so-distant future when game developers are willing to throw more money behind it. It takes something like a massive writers' strike to cause any decent amount of professional writers to even consider writing for video games. Than video games might be taken more seriously, but the stigma will probably hold books as the more educated man's medium.

deviantCharles

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I think a lot of what this article says is on the verge of being untrue, as videogames as a whole are trying to minimize literacy as much as possible. Voice-acted cutscenes are replacing the previous boxes of text (despite the fact that the latter is much more palatable to anyone sufficiently literate.)

Soos

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Pope John Peeps II:

Well said.

Theorizing and interpretation are critical to reading comprehension. Not to mention two of the most enjoyable aspects of reading.

Where would we be without theory? The greatest thinkers all started with theorizing about an already established question, statement, or fact, thus building off of it and coming to a new conclusion. That's the thought process in a nutshell.

ShaggE

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I don't know why people think kids should have to choose one medium over another. You can do both. My husband is a prime example. I actually prefer reading books over to playing video games, and probably read 3 or 4 books on average a week. I think the problem is that kids don't balance it out. They play more video games than read books. I would not qualify video games as literature by any means, but there's no reason that kids can't play them if they keep them to a reasonable amount. I wish they would make more video games that did more than just "shoot lots of bad guys" without any good story. Oh, well. Thank god for games like Mass Effect, which I would say has one of the best writing and story in a video game in ages.

sj4iy

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @KamatariSeta: "We were both saying how so much "contemporary fiction" these days is dull, boring, meaningless"

Wow. That's the most generic and silly statement I've ever heard in my life. Could you possibly stretch it out over more genres of literature?

"the foolishness of postmodernism, post structuralism, critical theory, "theory" of any sort, and all that other jargon laced gibberish."

Oh, I'm sorry. I hadn't finished reading your paragraph. THAT WAS the most generic and silly statement I've ever read. According to you the very ACT OF THINKING about literature is stupid?!?!

Considering the monumental ignorance of that statement, all I can say is: just quit reading, and don't ever talk about books again, because you honestly, honestly, honestly don't know a single thing about literature. You and your librarian friend should just spend the rest of your lives talking to each other, and nobody else.

(And just in passing, the act of understanding this paragraph, then formulating a response to my statements, then verbalizing that response is an ACT OF THEORIZING.)

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Ichigo Style: I think the typo in that was funnier than the lame troll attempt.

I've always been a pretty big reader, and a gamer. One of the first games that I actually learnt anything from was Age of Empires - "juggernaut" comes to mind, along with a wide range of war and weapon-related words.
I agree completely with Steven Poole on this one: not all games need to be mindless crap, but even the ones that are hardly invalidate what can be learned from the others.


Levoduction

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I am of the opinion that kids actually read better because of video games. Simply because it trains them to read for content. They have to understand what is written on the screen and consider its meaning to help them in the game. In school, if a book assignment is given, they'll read it just because it just so they can get through it. They won't care about content or meaning.

Most games and manuals have very specific and technical language. Things such as "to access the iventory menu, bring up the character menu and click the inventory icon, alternatively, set the inventory menu to a hotkey (F1 through F12) in the hotkey setup screen under options." Kids read this kind of thing and learn pretty complicated multi-step processes. They play the game and access the inventory screen a lot and through very little practice, can find it again quickly or can find it several different ways.

Schools and teachers could learn a lot from video games. If kids can quickly learn complicated algorithms in a video game (such as accessing a menu in game), why can't they quickly learn a complicated algorithm in math (such as the several steps involved in adding fractions with unlike denominators). The video games make kids actually WANT to practice tedious actions. (How many times have you backtracked over the same area over and over in order to solve a puzzle in a game.) Teachers must find a way to make the kids WANT to repeat tedious steps in school.

Teachers can learn a LOT from video games. Kids already have. I feel I can speak with some authority on this subject. I am a 6th grade math teacher. My wife is an 8th grade English teacher. I am an avid gamer. I have kids. I look forward to them playing games and reading with relish.

Eltigro

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @xeijix: playing a game like guitar hero is quite unlike playing an actual guitar, it's a different shaped joypad. reading the text in an instruction manuel or text on a screen IS actually reading. the two aren't really comparable.

xbulletholes

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> If it wasn't for games, I wouldn't have learned English, and so I wouldn't be reading Kotaku, Gizmodo, or making comments on both of them.

Oh F*CK! Video Games must die NOW!

jk jk

Also, I guess if there were no games, kids would be reading then. NOT
There's already something called Television you know?

But yeah, since Television became a standard, reading books became an aquired taste. I love reading, though I do admit I read mostly cartoons, HQs and Mangas, I also read almost every Chuck Palahniuk book, half a dozen José Saramago and lots of classics and distopic stuff. Some japanese authors 2 Dostoiévski's and so on.

Interesting though... I HATED reading books 'till I was about 19 yrs old. Mostly because teachers and parents kept trying to force me on reading them.

The first book I can remember reading with real interest... like I couldn't stop reading 'till I finished was a book called Thera's Awakening which came with my first CD-Rom game: Stonekeep.

It was also the first book written in english I read, and the arcaic english kept me interested on it.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @deathbunny: "Also, Final Fantasy, by itself, has set us backwards in terms of literacy a 1000 years."

Heh, I know that is a flamebait, but just have to fire back. At least the time I spent with JRPG's, even with their sometimes bad translations, was far more well spent than if I had, for example, played Gears of War or Halo, where the lines of story is one sheet long and every line is macho one-liner. Not that I blame those games for it, that's their genre, action games like that just are like that.

ara

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @CZroe: That's why they haven't included any text to go with the picture.

Ilia Chentsov

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> What a perfect game to show at the top. ;) The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series is full of some of the worst English I've ever seen in a game, and very few are excusable typos. For a dialog game, it's simply amazing that some of these errors made it through. It's especially amazing after some cause gameplay progression issues caused by it.

Just get a native English-speaker to playtest plzkthx!

Admittedly, it gets much worse in the extra missions not originally found in the GBA originals, which seems to indicate that it was a different and more sloppy crew doing the translation. This would also indicate that the originals remained translated but unreleased for a long time, and they were probably left in an unfinished state before they were picked up and used in the English DS re-release.

Ah, there I go again. I should stop making excuses for the inexcusable. Capcom: Just send me your next game before finalizing it and I'll send you a list of problems that I noticed. Do this with a few play testers that actually went to college and you will catch every single one of the problems I noticed and, likely, even more.

CZroe

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I am walking proof that playing text-heavy games can be just as good (I'm a huge JRPG aficionado). I started getting heavy into RPGs in about the 5th grade and, according to the school's "Star Test", I was on around a 7th grade reading level--nothing special--HOWEVER, the next year, after braving FFVII a few more times, as well as FFTactics, Xenogears, Breath of Fire 3 (among others), my reading level shot to a 12.9+. I have since gotten better and better vocabulary and now have few peers my age (in the real world, anyone can BS it on teh interwebz.)

I didn't get that from watching Johnie Bravo and Dragon Ball Z, and I've never really been into books :)



(Disclaimer: I am by no means saying I'm fucking Shakespeare or anything, just saying that I didn't pick up my dialect from cheap anime and Cartoon Network.)

Captain Internet

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Well, if i wasn't playing video games i still wouldn't be reading a book. So isn't the video game reading the better alternative. If it wasn't for video games i wouldn't be reading at all. I read more thanks to video games, both from in game, reading blogs like kotaku, gamer magazines, reviews, etc. So really it has increased my reading substantially.

K-Squad! (Badass Edition)

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @deathbunny: "Final Fantasy, by itself, has set us backwards in terms of literacy a 1000 years."

Wow. Generalizatons much? You're really suggesting that Square has single handedly reduced civilization to 1007 AD levels in terms of literacy, presumably due to writing quality? FAIL. We would have accepted Halo or Madden or any of the many football games popular in Europe and elsewhere albeit with a bit less exaggeration than 100 years worth of literacy drained. Because, unlike in these games on standard settings or with most television or movies you still have to read something at the least in Final Fantasy (before you say voice overs, have you EVER talked to a merchant or anyone outside of a cutscene?).

Also, go read a couple bargain romance novels and then try complaining about Final Fantasy after would you? Incredible writing? Nope, but it's nowhere as bad as all that.

Excalibur

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Yes, the problem is, some games have bad prose. Here in Russia, some of them are bad to the point of being ridden with spelling and punctuation mistakes.

Ilia Chentsov

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Ichigo Style: You're joking, right?

Moonshadow101

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> "Is our Children reading"? c'mon. "Our our Children Reading", plurals! plurals!

Ichigo Style

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

KamatariSeta

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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.

[Dextr]

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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.

ChrowX

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

deathbunny

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Tyjet88

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> It appears people don't get the Dubya reference:

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

GLaDOS

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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 ^^)

ninjafetus

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @omg-ponies: requires the third-person plural

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

Ilia Chentsov

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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.)

God made the pretty girls pretty because he likes them more

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Electroqueen

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I'm learnin' me a videogame

Kaydie

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> So then video games are the next picture book.

God made the pretty girls pretty because he likes them more

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Infil: I am of the opinion that EVERY SINGLE PERSON should play through Phoenix Wright.

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

Ilia Chentsov

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> The miracle never happen!! >_<

CyricZ

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @Infil: Agreed

TheCleaningGuy is no longer (that) disappointed with DMC4

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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).

hikergirl

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I am of the opinion that EVERY SINGLE PERSON should play through Phoenix Wright.

That is all.

Infil

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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

And_M

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> I beat Chrono Trigger in Fourth Grade.
It was my favorite novel I read that year.


TheCleaningGuy is no longer (that) disappointed with DMC4

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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! >.<

nya-chama

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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.

thereturnoftheufo

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

HfAsianInvasion

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Candle-Jack

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @dead_red_eyes: I know! What are this education system coming to!

[Dextr]

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

wedgekun

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Namssorg

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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!

dead_red_eyes

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> "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.

Namssorg

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

GregoriusH

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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".

dead_red_eyes

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

ShaggE

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

jayntampa

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Green-clad Gamer Dude

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @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.

thereturnoftheufo

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Mustakrakish

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> @xat: Exactly. Thank you.

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

0x15e

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> If you're asking "Is our children reading?" and passing it by as correct grammar, then the answer to that question is, "No".

thereturnoftheufo

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> Is... children?

...

xat

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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?

xeijix

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

kumuasata

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> 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.

Thomaticus

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> "Cleverer"?

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

DiscipleofJamzy

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> is mah kids reading?! they better be, or its no supper for them tonight!

bigman88zz

]]> <![CDATA['Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games]]> any rpg comes to mind when it comes to crap-loads of reading. too bad it ain't werth much.

MushroomBoy1022

]]>