In a world where it's getting harder and harder to get students of all ages to read, teachers need to utilize a new medium of literature.

As someone who has grown up with a deep and passionate love for both video games and books, it really saddens me to know that academically, only one is seen as substantial. Far too often people dismiss video games, calling them shallow, damaging, and immature. By and large, I think this negative opinion of video games stems from unsubstantiated claims about video games being mindlessly violent.

The simple truth, however, is that video games are just a newer medium through which literary artists can articulate their ideas. Some may think it is a bit of a stretch to say that video games would make an adequate and appropriate substitute for books in traditional literature reports, but I'd beg to differ.

1. Video games follow the "plot mountain" formula.

If you're unfamiliar with the name "plot mountain," it is just the little mountain-like charts I'm sure we've all used or seen at least once to help organize parts of a story. It includes the exposition, the rising action, the conflict, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. It is the linear formula most, if not all, literary works follow — including video games! All story-based video games possess this pattern in their storytelling.

Even something as story-light as the Super Mario Bros. follows it. The exposition can be witnessed when we read about or see Princess Peach being kidnapped. The rising action and conflict come from defeating the worlds between the starting point and Bowser's castle. The final fight against Bowser marks the conflict and running over to Peach to let Mario claim his well-earned kiss on the cheek acts as both the falling action and resolution. More story-heavy stories offer far more detailed and often turbulent plots to follow. I could go on and on about the plots of these stories, but I wouldn't want to spoil anything.

2. Video games cover a vast variety of topics and themes.

Books and poetry are often praised for promoting certain themes or addressing certain topics, and yet video games are seldom acknowledged for this outside of the gaming community. Video games unapologetically approach topics both light-hearted and dark and themes that range from community building and integrity to religious indoctrination and abuse... of all kinds.

As scary as that disparity may seem, it is actually a good thing, because it means that video games can be implemented into every level of education. Middle schoolers could play "Stardew Valley" and learn the importance and benefits of building a strong community and hard work, while high school students could discuss ethics of authoritarianism through the means of "Fallout" series nuclear wasteland.

Even college students could discuss very adult themes like self-harm, physical abuse, and suicide in "Doki Doki Literature Club" or rape, sexual violence, and drug abuse in the LISAseries. These series has touched the lives of so many gamers, and they've brought up several deep conversations within the community and have made people more open-minded, my self-included.

3. Video games are a great way to get unengaged or learning-impaired students involved.

As I said at the beginning, getting students to read books has become a formidable task. While I don't think we should remove books from the classroom or stop encouraging students to read, I do think it is important that teachers find ways to get unengaged and learning-impaired students more involved in their assignments and in their classrooms. What video games can do to help these kinds of students is that they help break down the reading into smaller, more easily managed blocks of text. It turns that formidable paragraph into lines of dialogue or prologue that the student can read through at their own pace.

Additionally, the visual elements of these games help break down the story to students who might have a learning disability. My little sister, Madison, is dyslexic, and finds reading books to be a long and laborious task, and yet she can play through a "The Legend of Zelda" game without a fuss. It helps break down the "fluff" of books. It gets rid of the "he exclaimed," "she neared," and "it exploded" narrations of books by illustrating them instead. My golden rule for creative writing is show, don't tell, and the visual graphics video games follows this rule. Another thing video games do that can help students become more involved with analyzing the literature is how immersive games can be.

Despite considering myself an avid reader, I've never been able to close my eyes and imagine what characters in books look like, or visualize these great and magical lands, so I wouldn't doubt that others face this problem too. What video games can do is fill in those blanks. They show the characters, the landscape, and while some people may not like that it eliminates the personal imagery books grant I still think there is enough subjectivity for players to create their own interpretations of people and places.

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I think video games are beautiful and underrated pieces of literature. I think it would depend greatly on the teacher to correctly implement video games into their classroom. They'd need to set clear requirements, establish boundaries for what is and is not appropriate for the assignments, and ultimately open their minds to what constitutes literature. I think video games would make great subjects for individual book reports. Not only would student's have the freedom of what they're writing about, but they'd also have the ability to pour some of their own passion into it.