Storytelling can extend beyond the covers of a book

Readers become readers because they love stories. We often continue reading a book late into the night to find out what happens next. Educators recognize that great stories motivate children to read. Just look at the Harry Potter phenomenon—many young people who were never considered readers became hooked on the series of books, and in the process overturned conventional publishing wisdom concerning the acceptable length of a children's book.

With the explosion of new media, stories can be found in more formats than ever before, including in computer games. But can a great story really be told through a video game? Can a story presented on a screen improve print literacy the way a book does? There's an increasing body of evidence that games can tell wonderful stories and help build literacy skills.

Storytelling can extend beyond the covers of a book. Many video games have plots as complex and gripping as movies and novels. Games like Half Life, a science-fiction first-person shooter game, and Deus Ex, which takes place in a futuristic world (both rated M for mature), turn players into protagonists in overarching plots that unfold when the player meets the goals of each stage of the game. The games Lost: Via Domus (UBI Soft) and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Lucas Arts), both rated T for teens, offer story lines related to their famous franchises that aren't available in any other format, including print.

Video games for children have undergone a similar transformation, giving players the chance to immerse themselves in stories within an electronic medium. Wizard 101 (wizard101.com) is a PC-based, family-friendly (rated E 10+ for everyone 10 and older), subscription game in which players take on the role of student wizards in a game universe that features a spiral of multiple worlds with characteristics of Victorian England, ancient Egypt, and feudal Japan. First-time players are assigned a character (with attributes they can customize) and, in the world of the game, interact both with game characters and with other players. Each time players return to the game, they gain experience, which affects game play by allowing for more powerful spells and better equipment. Along the way, players discover an underlying story that is crucial to the game. James Nance, lead designer of the game, says that the designers “made a conscious decision that we wanted to make a narrative-focused game. We provide a very linear central story line.”

Wizard 101's story has classic roots. According to Nance, “Compelling stories through the ages share a lot of things in common. A fight of light versus dark, good versus evil, overcoming adversity, an up-and-coming hero.” The game's twist on the classic story puts players in the shoes of a young wizard “who gets the hero's call and is charged, against all odds, as the underdog, to travel through all the worlds of the spiral and try to defeat this master wizard.”

It's not easy to add a plot to a virtual world where players can choose their own path and might not encounter the story elements in the order the designers predict. Imagine writing a book that readers could just as easily read backwards or start in the middle. To make it work, Wizard's designers created an overall story line for each world in the game. In brainstorming sessions, they divided that story into smaller units and then broke down the units into quests. As players compete in the quests, the story emerges.

Another issue designers had to deal with, according to Wizard's vice-president of marketing Fred Howard, was how to tell a story when players might take long breaks between gaming sessions. “How do you make sure that it's a complex and engaging enough story…but not so minutely detailed that if I took a two-week break, I've lost the entire story line?” Game features allow players to review the action when they return to the game, but the goal is for the story to be so memorable that players will not need that review.

Stories in games usually have a considerable amount of their own reading and writing attached. Players read text within the game itself, do research on the game in online forums, and often correspond with teammates. Wizard 101 players read the dialogue of game characters and use text chat to talk to other players. No netspeak is allowed because all the words must be vetted by the game's built-in dictionary. Some players write “continuing adventures” stories about their characters and submit them to be showcased on the game's Web site; many of the stories are multi-chaptered and highly original.

Reading and writing in games also inspires traditional reading and writing literacy in other venues. One of the most obvious is when players want to find out more about the background of a game. “The fact that a game can drive an excitement around actual history is something that a lot of parents aren't picking up on yet,” says Howard. While Wizard's history is fantastical, it has elements of actual historical events that players can learn about in their research, such as the British colonial characters stealing artifacts from the Egyptian world.

Scholars such as James Gee have done groundbreaking work in showing how gaming teaches “new literacies.” It's worth remembering that games can teach traditional literacy as well. Games have great stories to tell. Check out the sidebar for more games that incorporate stories into their play. By using a multisensory approach and adding game play to traditional text-based literacy, encouraging players to read instructional manuals and do research on the game, and inspiring them to write their own stories, storytelling can be extended beyond the covers of a book and young gamers may just become hooked on reading.