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Narrative, Video Games, and Performance In Situ

Evaluating Learning Within Games and Implications for Research from a Literacy Perspective

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Game-based Learning Across the Disciplines

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Abstract

All video games, by design, are oriented in the narrative. Some games exemplify a colloquial notion of narrative (e.g., MYST), while others seem less story-like (e.g., Tetris). From a literacy perspective, narrative extends beyond the story. Literacy, similarly, is more than discrete acts of listening, speaking, reading, or writing that is typically associated with narrative storytelling. Literacy, in its most inclusive and broad sense, involves the encapsulating, intertextual interactions between and among all modes of communication and their respective contexts. Literacy includes metacognitive skills, critical thinking skills, and social skills. More importantly, sociocultural influences and contexts undergird both games and literacy. Epistemologically, games are literacy events and researchers stand to benefit from understanding the ways the two domains are isomorphically related. This chapter is dedicated to establishing the relationship between the field of literacy and game-based learning. This relationship is demonstrated through a literacy definition of text, context, skills, and application (of literacy) as each applies to the games Super Mario Bros., The Deed, and World of Warcraft. From the perspective that learning is a process and that games serve as sites of application for literacy, several implications for research and practice are provided.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by an ongoing collaboration among members of the Gayle A. Zeiter Literacy Development Center and the Interaction and Media Sciences Lab at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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  1. University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    P. G. Schrader, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner & Michael P. McCreery

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Correspondence to P. G. Schrader .

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  1. Economic and Business Education – Instructional Design and Evaluation, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Carmela Aprea

  2. UNESCO Deputy Chair of Data Science in Higher Education Learning and Teaching, Curtin University, University of Mannheim, Economic and Business Education – Learning, Design and Technology, Mannheim Baden-Württemberg Germany, Perth, WA, Australia

    Dirk Ifenthaler

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Schrader, P.G., Fasching-Varner, K.J., McCreery, M.P. (2021). Narrative, Video Games, and Performance In Situ. In: Aprea, C., Ifenthaler, D. (eds) Game-based Learning Across the Disciplines. Advances in Game-Based Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75142-5_16

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