Link to front-page, October 6 New York Times article, "Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers".
Perhaps the most instructive aspect of this article is the gender imbalance of the quotations.
The Men (and Boys)
PJ Haarsman, former advertising consultant and author of The Softwire, a science fiction novel for "preteenagers". You can't just make a book anymore. Pairing a video game with a novel for young readers brings the book into their world, as opposed to the other way around.
Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian novels. I think games and readers are looking for the same thing. They are looking to be dropped into an intriguing story and to become a character in the story.
Jacob Begley, senior at Brown University and self-confessed former World of War addict. Video games certainly don't have the same degree of emotional and intellectual complexity of a book.
Jay Parini, writer who teachers at Middlebury College. I wouldn't be surprised if, in 10 or 20 years, video games are creating fictional universes every bit as complex as the world of fiction of Dickens or Dostoevsky.
Quinn Clark, 12, identified as a "bean-pole thin" video game player from the San Diego suburb of Vista. Drawn to Haarsma's book because of its similarities to some of his favorite games. I felt like I was in "Call of Duty 4".
Jack Martin, assistant director for young adult programs at the New York Public Library. I think we have to ask ourselves, 'What exactly is reading?' Reading is no longer just in the traditional sense of reading words in English or another language on a paper."
Derek Hibbs, 18, a regular tournament player at the Ann Arbor Public Library. Says reading is too solitary. You can't say: I charge you to a reading duel. Go!"
James Paul Gee, author of "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy". Games are teaching critical thinking skills and a sense of yourself as an agent having to make choices and live with those choices. You can't screw up a Dostoevsky book, but you can screw up a game."
[Retiring Guy's note. What's with the Dostoevsky reference? Some type of code?]
Mark S. Seidenburg, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I actually think reading is pretty great and can compete with video games easily. 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?
[You'll find this quote near the end of a rather lengthy article.]
William Tropp, father of Noah, 14, who is participating in a research project focusing on teenage boys who play "World of Warcraft". Dad's reaction to Noah's participation in a group Internet forum. I was so surprised because he does not like writing. I said, 'Why aren't you like this in school?
The Girl and Woman
Holly McLaughlin, 18, a senior at Kimball Union Academy, a boarding school in Meriden, New Hampshire, who played "Civilization" in her sophomore social studies class. Rather than just reading about it, you would understand everything about it, because you had built a network of roads yourself.
Constance Steinkuehler, assistant professor in the School of Education at UW-Madison. Says that the reading gamers do in instructional manuals might serve as a gateway drug for literacy.
[Retiring Guy's note: I'm sure lots of parents will love this analogy.]
Not to put too snarky a spin on it, but the arc of this story development makes me think of skateboarding.
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