Girls Play Video Games Too!?

A lot of people have asked me how I intend to get adolescent females involved in the English classroom that I envision, insinuating that girls will not be nearly as motivated by the concept of analyzing narrative in video games.  Not surprisingly, most of these questions are from people on the outside looking in, individuals who don't play video games regularly, and therefore do not understand the current trends of this past decade that have seen a huge upswing in numbers of female gamers.  So, I think it would be wise to speak a bit about gender and video games in today's society.

First, as James Paul Gee points out, the portrayal of women in these games is very similar to many other facets of media-- far too many buxom babes with skimpy outfits exploited to attract male audiences. Even with companies targeting female audiences nowadays, the market is still dominated by male adolescents and twenty-somethings, and as such women are unfortunately treated as sex objects in a lot of games (and movies, tv, etc.).   I guess I can't fault those who struggle to see video games as a serious medium when they look at titles like the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball series, a spinoff from the fighting game that features scantily clad women playing volleyball.  Don't let the premise of volleyball fool you, the game is just to show off digital cleavage-- just look at this mini game called "Butt Battle" from DOA Xtreme 2 and try to explain what revolutionary gameplay this is trying to introduce aside from introducing a rear end as a viable weapon (and besides, Wario showed us this years ago).  But in the same token, there are a lot of books and films out nowadays that academics scorn, works that are not worth analyzing whatsoever.  The same can be said for games in an English classroom setting;  there has to be an academic standard of sorts in that there must be a semblance of plot and character, and an interesting gameplay dynamic should be incorporated at all so that the students are not passively watching the narrative, but engaging in it. 

Another bad stereotype of women in video games is the woman as a damsel in distress type.  How many times has Princess Peach gotten kidnapped?  Can she, a princess who lives in an enormous castle, really not afford some %*#*$ real guards aside from pathetic little mushroom men to stop a gigantic monster?  Granted, Super Princess Peach pulls the old role reversal, and allows her to be the heroine who must rescue Mario for a change, but this is just one of earliest culprits in a long line of archetypal females who are weak, powerless and need rescue.  In all seriousness, the change to include more and stronger female progtagonists is a painstakingly slow one, but some of the strongest in video games have been females like Lara Croft, Samus Aran, and Jill Valentine from Resident Evil.

With all this negative portrayal of women in games, what games are even out there for girls?  What games do they play?  Why would they even want to play at this point if their gender is marginalized so bad?  Cue Tilo Hartmann and Cristoph Klimmt's study on Gender and Video Games, where they examined the likes and dislikes of German females when it comes to elements of these games.  To sum up their findings, or in other words to not do justice to the extensive amount of research they conducted and just go to the conclusion, females prefer social interaction, both with game characters and other players, over competition and violence.  They also heavily value identification with positive female role models within the games.   That being said, let's take a look at the graph the two professors have compiled, which shows on a rating from 1-5, which genres males and females said they played most frequently: 


Is it appropriate to let out a victory cry seeing Role-playing games atop the preferred list of genres for girls in this study?  It should not come as a surprise, I suppose, as there are several strong female protagonists who defy the stereotypes of being overly sexualized or powerless.  Looking at the Final Fantasy series alone, women like Terra and Celes from FFIII, Yuna in FFX, and Ashe in FFXII.  These women are all physically and mentally tough, don't dress like strippers or have gravity-defying physiques, and each has her own respective character arc that allows her to develop over the course of her respective journey.   World of Warcraft is another example, where female gamers are able to customize their own female character (or male if they so desired), and can then go online and interact with both the game characters, as well as the millions of other players online.  Having been addicted to World of Warcraft to the point of going and working for the company for a brief stint, I can attest to the fact that there are a lot of proud female WoW players out there, as there should be. 

I don't mean to disregard the "Peaceful build-up" or "Adventure" genres, I will need to take a look and see what titles may be applicable to my thesis.  As far as women gamers go, look at the explosion on Facebook that Farmville caused.  It was a peaceful build-up title, a very casual game that you could pop in and out of, and it had both males and females hooked across the board.  Same for Animal Crossing and The Sims, females embraced these interactive games that were completely devoid of female stereotyping and competition, and both have produced numerous sequels that continue to sell with the female audience.

In closing, it would be best to come up with a response to "how will I get girls interested in these games?" at this point.  I think it would involve sticking to the genres that both genders can enjoy rather than catering to just one.  In an Adolescent Literature course, the curriculum should be selected based on what books relate best to teens and which ones would promote literacy, so the same must be done for video games.  I don't think the issue is in trying to get all girls interested in games, because if they aren't interested, or if a male student isn't interested for that matter, they simply may not do the work.  This is no different from a student that hates reading, and refuses to do an assignment.  Instead, I think the main issue is selecting titles that will keep students interested, titles that are worthy of analysis, and titles that will promote literacy and learning.  If these three aspects of the curriculum are met, then I think adolescents, both male and female, will be interested.

Retelling our Canon on Video Game Consoles

I am going to admit that I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the Electronic Literature movement-- I am all for expanding literary studies to include works produced entirely for and by our new media technologies, but titles like Star Wars One Letter at a Time don't exactly help the credibility of the new art form.  The reason I bring this up is because I really don't want to talk about Electronic Literature at all (does this mean I should delete the previous sentences up to this point?)  I want to stress that I am only looking at only video games, with just one exception:  Scottish-based TernTV's digital adaptations of literary classics to be "played through" on video game consoles.  I liken this to more of a piece of electronic literature than a video game, as the player acts more like an observer who is unable to affect the outcome of the events of the story, but can fully explore different settings within such classics as Wuthering Heights and Crime and Punishment.  Although these adaptations have not been released just yet, they will offer a completely different way to consume the stories that the books tell.

Personally, I have a difficult time seeing how these will sell, especially if the company is focusing on literary classics right away.  Who does this company think the "new, wider" audience is going to be if these adaptations are "played" on video game consoles instead of DVD players or personal computers?  It's not too hard to think that teenagers would be the one to pick up this format, although I again point at the book selection as questionable.  I think it is a great way to make difficult content much more accessible-- "playing through" Crime and Punishment just sounds like a paradox to me, as there usually isn't anything fun about reading through it.  But if a student can play this on his or her own, or if a teacher utilizes this digital adaptation in the classroom to assist in reading through the book, it has potential to serve as a great educational tool in literacy. 

However, if TernTV really wanted the new audience to play these adaptations for enjoyment purposes, why not go for the titles that most video game players (aka adolescents, children, young adults) enjoy most?  Why not start with Harry Potter, Twilight, and other popular young adult novels to get them interested right away? I think these books that are not as recognized as academic works could eventually lead to the more serious adolescent titles.  I have an image in my head of just how amazing a digital adaptation of the book Speak could be, with players exploring Melinda's closet space in the school, studying her art project as it is made, and seeing and hearing the various high school Clans for themselves.  I feel like her voice would not be lost in this medium, unlike the Lifetime movie version which just did not translate well at all.  Am I alone in thinking that this has potential, but the company is a little misguided in their approach?  

Video Games and the Writings of High School Males

I currently have in my possession what could quite possibly be the single best source of information possible for my final project.  The only problem is that my roommate was the one who stumbled upon it (purely by accident of course), so now I owe him one.  I figure if I just stick this up on here as a thank you, we should be even.  

The article is by Immaculee Harushimana, an assistant professor at Lehman College, and can be found here.  Harushimana presents some great ideas, and conducts analysis on the writings of her adolescent students in order to understand the impact that playing video games has on their writing capabilities.  One of the ideas she first introduces is that of New Literacy studies.  Basically, the article points out that the term "literacy" as we currently know it today only relates to the ability to read and write printed text because that has been our primary source of conveying and understanding information for roughly two millennia now. We stress this literacy in our school system because printed text (newspapers and books) was the "primary carrier" of information for the world's cultures and societies up to this point.  However, New Literacy studies argues that digital technology is rapidly taking print's role as the primary source of information, so a broader understanding of literacy is needed in order to make room for the "plethora of communication media available today."  So, the new literacy means that a comprehension in these new technologies is just as important as being able to read and write in this day and age.

I would definitely agree with the premise of New Literacy studies-- just look at way we used to read the news versus how most people read their news (online) nowadays. Through digital technology, we can watch videos of the news, discuss pressing topics with others users via comments, and learn of breaking news faster than ever.  The printed newspaper is unfortunately a rapidly dying format, and is proof of the importance found in digital technologies as a carrier of information.  When it comes to our traditional printed texts though, I do not want, nor do I expect to see this format suffer the same fate.  I am with Harushimana in her search of how to "reconcile the old literacies with the new" so that both video games and printed text have a place in the English classroom.

The most interesting section of the article comes from Harushimana's students' free writing, specifically how 9 of the 12 male students wrote narratives that were based on video games.  Her findings pretty much show everything that I intend to discuss in my project:  That the plot and characterization of certain titles mirror those found in classical texts, that role-playing games appear to be the most teachable in a classroom setting, and that video games can positively affect a student's writing ability.  I am going to deviate from Harushimana's findings and point out something else that I noticed here though:  At least 7 of the stories feature an adolescent male as the protagonist (Resident Evil does not, and I can't for the life of me find anything on Knight's Quest). These are the stories that teenagers understand and react to, and there is no reason this should not be used in the classroom.

I did some research over at fanfiction.net (a site where anyone can log on and write sequels, adaptations, or continuations to their favorite books, movies, and video games) and found that out of the top 6 most written about video games, 5 of them star an adolescent protagonist.  Writing about this genre of games is so popular, the game Kingdom Hearts has over 63,000 pieces of fan fiction, less than only Harry Potter and Twilight on the entire site (which are coincidentally novels about young adults...seems like we have found the target demographic for the site!). Furthermore, Kingdom Hearts has more fans passionate enough about its storyline to submit an original work than Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and X-Men.  And we thought teens didn't like to write?  Maybe we were just discussing the wrong material?

I think the article and fanfiction.net's numbers do a great job arguing for the inclusion of video games in a grade 9-13 English curriculum, at least in some fashion.  But it leaves the question of exactly how?  Maybe compare and contrast?  I've compared about 500 versions of Hamlet between text and film (damn you Mel Gibson) over the course of my academic career.  Couldn't we compare similar adolescent characters between mediums, like Jimmy from Bully and Holden from Catcher in the Rye?   I don't think that is going to be enough though, so more research will need to be done.  Another issue, what about the adolescent females?  What video games will get them to write, as none of the young ladies in Harushimana's class wrote about anything other than their own personal experiences.  Is it because there aren't enough video games out there with females as the target audience?  Questions for another day and another post...

Video Game-Based Learning

I won't lie, when I saw this article last night while watching Monday Night Football, it made me forget about how awful the New York Giants are this year for almost an entire quarter.  It didn't take long for an Eli Manning interception to snap me out of it, but the Quest 2 Learn (Q2L) school in Manhattan utilizes an innovative education model that really intrigues me.  Q2L, which launched in 2009, says that their main goal is to ditch your traditional idea of school, and instead implement a "translation of the underlying form of games into a powerful pedagogical model for its 6-12th graders."   The school has designed its curriculum to try and emulate the way that players “take on” the identities of the character who they are controlling in a video game.  Instead of taking on the trivial role of a plumber who can fight turtles, play tennis, and race go-karts, the students instead take on the roles of "explorers, mathematicians, historians, writers, and evolutionary biologists as they work through a dynamic, challenge-based curriculum with content-rich questing to learn at its core." 

Here I was thinking that I was making a big stretch arguing that games have a place next to traditional texts in an English classroom-- this school argues that video games ARE the classroom, as they offer a "rule-based learning system" that is both creative and effective.  The students don't just sit around playing all day though- while they do play some commercial video games (which are deemed educational), they also write "in-character" journals or blogs, do live action role playing, conduct research on the web, and design entire video games themselves.   Its unique approach has not gone unnoticed, as even the New York Times has a huge write up on the school's successes.

This school has to be seen to be believed:  Here is the overview of the curriculum from the school's website, where you will see that the English Language Arts fall under what the school calls the "Codeworlds" domain (classes).  If you look at the core values of this domain, it seems to me that the stress on literacy of English language is to better understand code, which is the gateway to creating worlds and conveying a message through a game.  If this is the case, then I think the school is doing a great disservice to its students.  Our canonical texts, our YA lit and, in the case of my argument, certain video games all provide readers/players with so much information about where humans have been, where we are now, and where we can go.   We only tell the stories that matter most to us, that can change us, that portray human emotions, fears, and struggles.  Even though literacy in code is the only way to produce a working video game, neglecting traditional literature and narrative games will not allow students the exposure to fictional works that display human behavior best.  Role-playing as a historian can only teach you so much if you have no desire to pursue a career along these lines, whereas following Huck Finn as he goes down the river with Jim, or helping Ike from the Fire Emblem series lead in place of his recently deceased father, these fictional accounts can offer much more relatable roles for teens to play as. 

All that being said, this is literally the third year of the school's existence.  The initial group of 6th graders is now moving on to the 8th grade, and will continue attending until they graduate from 12th grade.  It is possible that reading fictional literature or playing through narrative games is just not on the curriculum yet, and is reserved for when the students are more mature.  Only time will tell.

The Bully in the Rye

In one of my previous posts, I made a comment that the video game Bully could be discussed in a classroom setting, specifically about the violence of the video game and actions of the characters.  I reread my previous post, and it donned on me that I wasn't really making a case for incorporating teaching this game in an Adolescent Literature course as much as in an Adolescent Social Issues class or something along those lines.  The impact of violence in video games is indeed a very serious issue, and there are lesson plans out there aimed specifically at discussing and analyzing this violence with high school students.

While the theme of bullying is deeply rooted in the game's plot, there is still so much to be found in the narrative.  The social commentary on high school culture is genius- the game's student body is made up of different cliques typical of all high schools, and all of them are war with one another over girlfriends and turf (the Greasers and Socs from The Outsiders even make an appearance).  Meanwhile, the faculty and staff constantly reminds the students how much they hate their jobs.  I think back to Speak's "clans" of students and its caricature depictions of teachers (Hairwoman, Mr. Neck) that everyone in the real world has had for class in their high school career.

The game is rich in character analysis as well:  Producer Jeronimo Barrera said in an interview that his contributions to the game were inspired by Catcher in the Rye, and this is easily seen in Jimmy Hopkins, the game's main protagonist.  The game begins with Jimmy's mother and new step-father driving away for their year long honeymoon after dropping him off at Bullworth Academy, with Jimmy left wondering "Mom...why'd you marry that phony?"  And with that, Jimmy's similarities to Catcher's Holden Caulfield begin.   Both characters have a history of being expelled from schools (Holden for failing, Jimmy for behavior), have a troubled family history (Holden has no relationship with his parents, Jimmy's mother was just married for the 6th time), but most importantly, both of them share the same cynical attitude.  Holden sees "phoniness" in just about every aspect of life and the people around him, although he himself is hypocritical and mean throughout the story.  Similarly, Jimmy is quick to criticize the different social classes in Bullworth Academy, and openly denounces bullying.  However, if he can profit from it, he will go ahead and resort to violence or partner up with the people he loathes.  Jimmy's step toward adulthood is not an easy one, but he does ultimately learn from the mistakes he has made, and learns that he does not need to be a loner any longer. 

Between the social commentary, the characters, and the themes and motifs that are present in the game, there is much to interpret and discuss in a classroom setting.   Now, as for a lesson plan on how to go about teaching the game, I will have to come back to that at another time, because the netbook's battery is almost dead (the perfect excuse for an escape/ending!).  

Can Games Be Serious? Again??

I am going to ahead and admit that I think I'm in love with 5 Hour Energy-- I don't think I would be able to get through day without the massive caffeine boost.  Plus, as an added bonus, the drink's 8333% of my daily recommended value of Vitamin B12 might help me achieve my lifelong dream of gaining mutant powers and joining the X-Men.  While I wait for Professor X's call, I wanted to post a short excerpt from the back and forth exchange between Kevin Kee and Geoffrey Rockwell towards the end of their article/dialogue:

GEOFFREY:  ...Without the culture of play a game is just another assignment.


KEVIN: Why can't we create an educational culture of play around serious games?


GEOFFREY: Because the culture of games, especially that of videogames is a counter-culture defined by its resistance to serious culture. It is a time and space of leisure defined, in the sense of delimited, from work...They mutually define games as the line in the sand, the line that separates work and play, adult opinion and its youthful other, what it is to be serious and how to transgress.

...

 KEVIN:  I think game culture is far more resilient and that it is ready to embrace imaginative work, even serious game design. Your problem really lies in your rigid opposition of work and play. There is “work” and there is “play”, but there are moments where “work” becomes “play” and vice versa.

As you could probably guess by now, I am going to have to side with Kevin in this argument, although I do see some merit in Geoffrey's argument.  For example, let's look at Blizzard Entertainment's ultra popular Massively Multiplay Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft.  This game is the epitome of a counter-culture resisting serious culture, as it is an online haven that has amazingly created its own type of culture.  Players will log in to the game in order to enter a different space-- one where school or work holds no importance, but questing, gaining new gear for your character, massacring the opposing faction in a Battlegrounds, and conquering raids and dungeons are just some of the top priorities the player will have.  There have been high profile instances of players becoming so wrapped up in playing that they log ridiculous amounts of hours and neglect all aspects of their real life.  Heck there's even a WoW Detox webpage where ex-players can discuss the struggles of their addiction.  Examples like these show that there is definitely a line in the sand where play and work/reality must be differentiated from one another, or else disaster can happen.

Despite this, I do believe that Kevin's idea for an educational culture of play around serious games is possible.  When I was a Junior in college, I had an assignment to read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and write a simple reading response.  But I ended up absolutely loving the book, and opted to write about this book in numerous assignments even after that class, including my undergraduate thesis.  While not exactly the same as playing a video game, people do still take time of their day in order to read books as entertainment.  Every time I would read through my favorite scenes in the book again, or read scholarly articles that provided new insight, I was experiencing one of those moments that Kevin says where "work" became "play".  I was assigned the task of writing about one of my favorites novels of all time, and I had fun completing the assignment.

The same can be said for video games-- I am playing through Final Fantasy X for the umpteenth time currently, creating save files at key scenes, and jotting down notes in the process, but I am not enjoying playing through the game any less than I had previously.  The game still provides me with an escape, a form of play that temporarily removes me from real world troubles, even though I am thinking academically all the while... well most of the time anyway.  But film critics do this with movies all the time:  Analyzing a movie for its plot, acting, and cinematography, but still are able to genuinely enjoy the story it tells.  With the right kinds of games, and positive classroom discussion, I don't see any reason why an educational culture couldn't be created around serious games.  I will be exploring this idea in much further detail after I have conducted more research on modern teaching methods utilizing newer technologies.

Can Games Be Serious?

While waiting for some new books to arrive in the mail for my thesis, I decided to browse the web over the weekend to see if I could find some material to work with.  So, after I got bored with mindlessly clicking through peopleofwalmart.com, I got down to business, and found some wonderful articles at gamestudies.org.  I am both surprised and encouraged at how well-written and deeply thought out the pieces on here are.  However, the article I wanted to discuss today, which can be found here, isn't really an article at all.  Rather, it is a transcript of a dialogue that had been performed at the 2009 Interacting with Immersive Worlds Conference at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada.  This transcript is amazing right off the bat simply because it has a jpeg of Reader Rabbit smack dab in the middle of it.  Between that game, Number Munchers, and the Oregon Trail, I was able to continue learning spelling, addition, and what dysentery meant, all outside of the classroom curriculum.  

80s computer games aside, I also loved this piece because of the speakers' use of Socratic Dialogue to try and persuade one another through rhetoric whether or not "serious games" could exist, and if they had a place in a school curriculum.  It was almost reminiscent of Plato's Gorgias, had Socrates been visited by people from the future and handed an XBox 360.  While it is a lengthy read, I would highly recommend it if you have the time.  In the meantime though, for my own selfish purposes, I am going to be applying some of their points to my own research on Adolescent themed games in order to show that not only can serious games exist, but even games that are rooted in fantasy and even humor can be incredibly serious:

1)  One of the goals of the Serious Games Initiative is to "play a greater role in helping to organize and accelerate the adoption of computer games for a variety of challenges facing the world today."  One of the challenges that we may not pay enough attention to can be found in the human mind, particularly with young men and women who are so distraught or mistreated that they believe suicide is the only course of action.  There have been so many high profile teen suicide instances over the past couple of years, and as a result, several different resources have been created aimed at helping teens seek another alternative.  I'm not foolish enough to think that a teenage boy who is bullied all day at school will suddenly feel better because he plays Rockstar Games' Bully when he gets home. But couldn't the game help in a way?  Even though the controversial game has an interesting take on resolving bullying to say the least (outbully the bullies in order to stop the violence), it does not shirk away from the subject.  No one can die in the game as the objective isn't to kill anyone, and the player will be punished if they go around bullying students at will.  The game manages to address bullying in a way that doesn't make the experience feel like an after school special.   I believe this title would work perfectly in a classroom setting:  Discussing the protagonist's behavior at length and what alternatives he could have taken to prevent becoming somewhat of a bully himself, or discussing what the students like and dislike about the story, the characters, the mechanics, the themes and dialogue- all of which will create healthy discussion on a sensitive topic, even if the game's handling of the subject matter isn't perfect.   Just look at books like Whale Talk and The Chocolate War, which deal frankly with bullying, and sprinkle in some humor and sadness in order to make realistic books that allow teens to see that their issue is not theirs alone.  As reward for making these honest novels, the authors continue having their books banned from schools repeatedly even now in 2011.   Just like these two novels, Bully has received numerous complaints and protests for covering a serious topic in a straightforward and accessible manner. I believe we can go ahead and classify it as a very serious game, even despite its humor and violence, because it can easily promote discussion in a classroom setting or in the comfort of our own homes concerning one of the most difficult challenges facing teens of the world today. 

2)  "The good ones are accurate, deep, engaging and ethically persuasive. They will stand the test of teaching time and have a place in the curriculum once teachers learn to use them."   I am a bit troubled by this statement, because while it is meant to be about video games, I feel like it applies more to books.  There are several YA novels that have been in the curriculum for so long (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer), but the medium was always the same: Print.  With video games, can a title stand the test of time as technology continuously advances?   Trust me, Final Fantasy VI for Super Nintendo will always hold a place in my heart, as it was the first time that I was actually invested in these video game characters and their fates.  Each character has a  layer of depth, both in terms of narrative (his or her individual storyline) and game mechanics (his or her unique battle ability which no one else possesses).  But the fact of the matter is that I don't own a Super Nintendo anymore as the technology is outdated.  Yes, I can still download and play the game on my Playstation 3 now as a classic title, but when the next gaming console comes out, I will just have to buy it again.  How will this limitation technologically impact trying to incorporate games into the classroom if we are spanning across several years of different gaming systems?


I just looked at the clock and realized I have been on this computer for way too long.  I will continue looking at this article, and will continue posting on it if anything else strikes me.


And you didn't think I could make a reference about Socrates and people from the future without posting this, did you??

Stay Gold, Tidus. Stay Gold.

The Bildungsroman tale is probably the most common entry in the Young Adult genre:  Coming of age stories where the protagonist matures either morally or psychologically as a result of the events that transpire over the course of the narrative. As these fine individuals from LSU would attest,  the general idea behind these stories has withstood the test of time, as adolescent readers of different eras have enjoyed the maturation of lead characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, The Outsiders, and even our friend Harry Potter as they become stronger and wiser through the adversities they face.  Bildungsroman translates from German roughly to "education novel", but rather than the reader gaining an education in a particular subject, it is actually the protagonist who is receiving the key lesson.

By now my video gaming friends out there may be wondering when I'll hurry up and get back to the "pwning face" aspect of the thesis already.  Well, tone it down a notch and calm down, this is academia folks!  As I was going to say, I believe that video games can easily carry on this tradition of the Bildungsroman, but can possibly provide a more engrossing experience due to the player's direct control over the protagonist.  For example, we will take a look at the walking fashion disaster known as Tidus from Square Enix's Final Fantasy X.  As a self-centered seventeen year old sports phenom at the beginning of the story, Tidus is a perfect candidate for someone who could use one of those psychological maturation experiences.  Lucky for us players, and for my thesis, he undergoes just that!  There are so many themes present in this lovely title that are akin to the YA field-- strained parental relationships, young love, death, failure, and giant blue cat-men facing one's fears.  The game, like most Role Playing Games, requires a substantial amount of time to complete, and can take anywhere from 40-80 hours depending on the player.  That is a lot of time to spend with a character, and while Tidus will complain and worry primarily about his own concerns early on in the story, all of the adversity he overcomes throughout the adventure eventually molds him into the brave hero whose only concern is to save his friends by any means necessary.

So.  What to take from this? I suppose that I'd like for you to be able to see that Final Fantasy X shares a common theme with stories like The Outsiders (and make no mistake, Square Enix recognizes that they can cash in on it too).  While Tidus may not grease up his hair and don a leather jacket, he has fears, dreams, and desires just like Ponyboy does.  They are adolescent males who go take a giant step toward adulthood as a result of the traumatic experiences that they must endure, and that we, either as readers or players, are there with them for.  The fact that Tidus' journey takes place on the Playstation 2 should in no way discount his growth, as it still serves as a great narrative to its target audience.  We should not simply write all video games off as just games, as some of the stories here are beautifully written with amazing character development. There are way too many protagonists in games that look as muscular as Ronnie from the Jersey Shore, but sadly have the same depth of character as Ronnie from the Jersey Shore, which makes it easy to shrug video games off as not a serious storytelling medium.

Before I go off on a tangent, I will return to the point-- video games offer a completely different way to tell the same kinds of stories that have been written for centuries now.  Even though the Final Fantasy series is rooted in fantasy and magic, its greatest attribute is the human emotions and relationships that are on display.  The fact that a player directly controls these developed characters only serves to strengthen his or her investment in the story.  So why would we not want to try and take advantage of the experience that the digital medium offers to us in an educational sense?

Note:  For those who don't have experience playing video games (or in other words, if any of my professors are reading this), here is a little sample of the dialogue of one of the many cutscenes in Final Fantasy X, and I should warn it contains some spoilers for the plot as well.

The Journey Begins (And so do the Clichéd Titles)

If you have accessed this page in error, I am going to go ahead and warn you to stop reading while you still can, for a world of nerdery and geekdom is the only thing that awaits.  As for the two or three of you who actually know what this blog is about, finally it is time to work on this thesis and finish up the Master's degree once and for all! 

Now, this blog is meant to accompany my final project for my Master's Degree in English, a project which combines two of my favorite things on this earth:  Video games and the Young Adult genre of literature.  Essentially, I am making the argument that including video games as literary narratives in English curricula for grades 9-13 can enrich the Young Adult genre, as the interactivity these narrative games bring with them introduces a unique/modern hands-on element to a field that speaks directly to teens about issues they may encounter in their own lives. 

I still have a long way to go in order to fully refine my argument, never mind the final product itself.  I have plenty of research to do, and by that I of course mean neglecting anyone and everyone around me in order to play more games and write about them.  In all seriousness, there is still much refinement to be done, as I do not want the final project to merely become an opinion piece, so I will need to develop a solid foundation of evidence for my claims.  That being said, any and all suggestions or comments are welcomed and appreciated, as I know I'm not the only out there who believes in the educational power to be found in games.  

I will be updating this blog regularly in order to discuss various web links, scholarly articles, and video game ideologies at length.  As for games that I will be analyzing, clearly not all genres or titles would be appropriate to include in a curriculum.  But you can rest assured that the Final Fantasy series (along with pretty much any other Role Playing Game with an angst-filled teen protagonist) will be well represented with its recurring coming-of-age theme that is prevalent throughout the FF titles.  Also, even though both titles do not have themes of YA lit, I'd like to incorporate Heavy Rain for its amazing storytelling capabilities, and World of Warcraft for its interchangeability between text and video games.  There will be much more to come, as the countdown to thesis completion nears, and my celebrating can begin.