The Power of Game Literacy

Advancing game literacy is key to unlocking the full potential of the medium

Game literacy is an incredibly important topic to game enthusiasts and developers alike. It affects the quality of the games and how accessible games are to audiences. The topic has multiple layers and meanings, so I felt it would be hard to justify writing about just one of them. That is, until I watched one of my friends play a new video game. Today I will be discussing basic literacy in games, which is the ability to successfully navigate the game’s mechanics.

Have you ever handed a controller to someone and watched in dismay as they do something ridiculous and are just unable to play? Well, sometimes it’s funny, and sometimes it’s hard to watch, but sometimes the player trying to play just gets angrier and angrier. The frustration they’re experiencing has to do with game literacy.

First, “literacy” refers to the ability to read and write. For games, or media in general, literacy is the ability to access, critically evaluate, analyze, and create. This can be broken down into three levels: basic, advanced, and creative ‘literacy.’ Basic literacy refers…