Jesper Juul in his The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness explains that “players are attached to the outcomes of the game in the sense that a player will be the winner and ‘happy’ if a positive outcome happens.” These outcomes are strongly dependent upon how literate the player is.
As seen in the video below, Billy Mitchell has beaten Pac-Man. His visual and technological literacies evolved from the games he played. He started with Pinball, then moved to Donkey Kong, and, finally, Pac-Man. If these literacies can be transferred from game to game, these literacies can also transcend the digital landscape into real-life.
Billy can navigate through the entire visual and technological landscape of the Pac-Man game through constant game play. He says he can’t lose focus for FOUR to FIVE hours; that’s visual literacy in action.
These visual and technological literacies have allowed Mitchell to be (the only man to) dominate Pac-Man.
