Eric Zimmerman argues in his “Manifesto for a Ludic Century” that “games are literacy.” Video games showcase the literacy of their creators, and also teach new literacies to their players. Zimmerman also says that “[l]iteracy is about creating and understanding meaning, which allows people to write (create) and read (understand). New literacies, such as visual and technological literacy, have also been identified in recent decades.” The literacies learned through game play bring the player into a more dominant position within the game, but also within society.
In National Healing: Race, State, and the Teaching of Composition, Claude Hurlbert explains that “[l]iteracy is a chief vehicle… for bonding an individual to a society and unifying a nation through the values attached to it by the society it serves.” The more literate an individual is, the more agency he or she has within society. Jonathan Alexander explains that games “…offers us a rich venue to see multiple literacies—the visual, technological, and textual—at play.” Games can persuade players to act and engage in new ways through the literacies they teach.
