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.