A few things that James Paul Gee wrote truly interested me and left me pondering about my own identity and existence. He mentioned that when creating a gaming character there exist three separate identities: "the virtual, real, and projective." "All three operate together, at once, as a larger whole" (49). So much of an individual actually gets projected unto a virtual character. Creating a new person makes one question their own values, morals, beliefs, and priorities. Actually it could be like sitting in a psychologist office from the safety and comfort of your own home. Evaluating yourself can help put life into perspective and also thinking strategy can help a person develop critical thinking skills. Many students in classrooms today would much rather spend hours thinking of a game plan for their virtual character rather than analyzing Romeo and Juliet inside an English classroom. Video games can be used to teach valuable lessons, however, it can never replace the true value of literature. Students need an escape from the realm of the canonized educational curriculum and within a proportional time frame playing strategy video games might not be such a pointless escape.
