I have played video games with stories better than some books, Knights of the Old Republic is a prime example.
as for social bonding, 10 years ago when I was 16 it wasn’t anything better than going over to a friends house hooking up a couple TVs and yelling obscenities at each other well into the night while playing Halo 2.
but that doesn’t mean I neglected books. I read more than perhaps anyone in my grade. from “The guns of August” to “Red Storm Rising”
Can anyone name me the last great American epic that wasn’t 50 shades of Grey?
I remember when my son was in middle school. His honors English teacher kept pushing him to read “Twilight”. He said he would rather be illiterate than to read such garbage. He was and is a good reader.. it is just more manly type books. As for video games... he and his buddies must have killed a million Nazis together.
The last one was Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor and that's almost as old as I am. Been a while since an American author has put to pen something that didn't cater to the transnationalist world view.
You have to get a PS1 and 2 and copies of Xenogears and Xenosaga 1, 2 and 3. You have to. I promise you it is worth the expense of tracking them down. And when you consider the time they were made in, it will give you a whole new appreciation of how good a ‘video game’ story can be.
Go forth young Jedi...or Lydia will hunt you down ;)
Halo 2 at age 16? You’re making me feel old. I didn’t see my first Atari until I was in my early 20’s.
Reading good books are foundational to exercising critical thought and imagination, to be sure. I enjoy playing select situational, interactive games as an adjunct to reading. It’s a hnads on form of extra-dimensional reading to me and gives me the option to take a story in a multitude of directions.