Videos Games as Literacy

Videos games are not a new literacy but is a competency that requires fluency.  Video games are a universal form of conceptualizing virtual ideas.  As we have accepted an x and y axis to represent 2 dimensions, or how we accept east to be to the right or north to be at the top of a map, these are fluencies and an accepted form of conceptualizing the world we live in.  Video games have a similar effect.  Video games are representations of life and enable players to enact scenarios which they may have little or no contact with in a live setting.

There is a literacy in playing video games in how to manipulate a controller or adjusting settings.  In the example of Minecraft the player has to understand a world that is built from tabula rasa. Observing a 9 year old player, yesterday, he was able to build a school and purchase tools to build things and maneuver in that world.  That would suggest some type of fluency.  Fluency to the game is a part of that but the other portion is I believe this drives how players/users perceive the world.  How they may build things or construct ideas.