A new video game that teaches the fundamentals of composition and creative writing is attracting
attention and awards. Students playing Elegy for a Dead World explore and
write about past civilizations that are based on the works of British Romantic
poets.
The mission of the game is for students to compose
firsthand accounts of new worlds they explore. The game prompts the players to
complete sentences on what they’ve seen and then fashion those into short
stories.
Challenges become more advanced as students move
through the game, sending them on different paths that force them to come up
with different conclusions and still finish with logical endings. The game is
meant to be fun and thought-provoking, but also provides fill-in-the-blank questions
that help students learn proper grammar usage.
“What we’re trying to do is motivate people so they get
into a mindset where they have something they want to put out and write,” Ziba
Scott, game co-creator, told Eurogamer.net. “We found just dropping them in a blank
slate is too much. It’s intimidating. The roles are about giving them something
to play as to set the stage for their writing.”
