My son is into role-playing games and has been lobbying lately to buy onto World of Warcraft. He has also enjoyed the Suikoden series, and Final Fantasy, and Spore, lately. Online, he has enjoyed RuneScape, although I think that World of Warcraft trumps it for him.

I discovered (or had confirmed) recently that to him the story is all: we went on a hike a couple weekends ago and he downloaded - 2 hours nonstop - the story in World of Warcraft. He's just as happy using game cheats to get through the puzzles in order to make his way through the story.

I remember when he was playing Suikoden (as an elementary schooler), there was one character he was really into -- dressed up as him for Halloween; he said he liked him because "he was a caring person". He cried when he died in the game story.

The obvious question is "why not just read a book"? I guess with the game you get the story along with interaction and visuals, so it's a different experience. He has read a couple of Starcraft inspire novels recently.

Puzzling and interesting to a non-gaming (and fantasy book enjoying) parent.

~ Becky in Tucson