Video games in the English subject: An exploration of video games for teaching about narratives

Abstract

This study looks at video games as a way of teaching about narratives in English. More specifically, this study is going to answer to what extent What Remains of Edith Finch is a suitable video game for teaching about narrative perspectives in the English subject, and to what extent Thomas Was Alone is a suitable video game for teaching about character archetypes in the English subject. In addition, the study investigates how the game mechanics in What Remains of Edith Finch and Thomas Was Alone influence the students’ gaming experience when learning about narrative topics in the English subject, and how video games suitable for teaching about narrative topics in the English subject can be found. The study concludes that What Remains of Edith Finch is a suitable video game to teach about narrative perspectives because of how the narrative and game mechanics of the video game complement each other. Thomas Was Alone was found to be less suitable to teach about character archetypes in narratives because of the difficult game mechanics, and how the game mechanics overshadowed the narrative of the video game. Finally, the study presents an example of a process for finding video games suitable for teaching about narrative topics, which needs to be further developed.