the ultimate tagteam of reading and gaming

So it looks like this post won't quite make the Monday update I wanted, but that's okay. Only missed it by a few minutes, and this way I can just skip over to woot.com for my daily bargain-buy geek gadget.

Anyway, on to business. The Chicago Tribune featured a lovely article relaying the story of libraries using videogame tournaments to draw in the elusive 13-year-old boy demographic. The tournaments are intended to lure the boys into the library and then take home graphic novels and other fiction books. Not a bad ploy because graphic novels are closely associated to gaming as a hobby.

It's unfortunate that because they are digital, supposively brain-numbing media, that videogames automatically are denoted as inferior to the printed storybook. For example, as a lifeguard, I usually have a considerable chunk of time at work where I have no actual work to do and can sit there and enjoy some leisure time. If I'm at a single-guard pool, I usually read when patrons are around, and only bust out the Nintendo DS when I'm completely alone. Why? I'd be perceived as a much lazier guard if I was clicking buttons instead of poring over words.

Sure, games lack the lustrous vocabulary of books and tend to relate easier to pop culture vernacular (which is a necessary supplement for any vocabulary). But, granted you're playing the right genre of game, your brain is being engaged in an even more interactive way than in a book. Instead of thinking about and reading about the characters, you have to think and act for them.

And this ties nicely into the current item in the Now Playing box, which makes its home at the top-right corner of this blog. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. In short, it's a playable novel in which the player determines the characters' fates through their ability to think logically and, ultimately, their actions. The game's dialogue must be hundred's of pages of text (I'll see if I can find a number), and the character's tout a vivacious vocabulary as colorful as each of their personalities.

The main reason why I love these playable novels (they are others like Lost in Blue, Hotel Dusk) and believe in them so much, is that they help bridge that gap between games and novels. Some larger RPGs consist of 1000s of pages of text, so you do way more reading than you think by playing them.

The Chicago Tribune article says that among 13-year-old boys, reading is not the cool thing to do.

"'Boys don't want to let their friends know they're a reader, even if they are.' said librarian Maggie Hommel."

Don't lose hope if your kid refuses to read, and please don't blame videogames. Try offering a game like Phoenix Wright (there might be enough intrigue in the plot to hold their attention). Encourage them to read graphic novels. (Graphic novel is just a fancy term for "big-kid, novella-sized comic book." Their content is not at all graphic, explicit, and the cover usually has an age-rating on it.) As for graphic novels, boys usually enjoy anything that says "Shonen Jump" on it, meaning titles like Naruto, One Piece or Bleach.

Some game series, like Halo, even have their own book series. Give them those to read.

There's no shortage of strategies as far as introducing a child to reading. And even when they're busy pushing buttons.