During the time our oldest daughter was recovering from major surgery, one of the few things she could do was play XBox games.  I watched in fascination while she became a better virtual snowboarder from playing SSX Tricky.  We had fun playing Fusion Frenzy together.  She fought great fights playing what I thought was a totally inappropriate game – DoA3 (Dead or Alive 3) – for hours on end.

As I am sure many of you have, throughout the years I purchased a lot of children’s software that claimed to have educational value.  Many used popular TV characters as virtual playmates.  None of them held their attention the way the XBox games held my daughter’s attention.  Eventually we had bins filled to the brim with kids computer games and edutainment ready to be sold on eBay.  Meanwhile, my kids had moved onto playing Zelda and Animal Crossing on their GameCube.

As they played on the XBox and GameCube, they got better at whatever virtual skill was thrown at them.  Their self esteem improved because they were able to conquer advanced levels in a video game.  And yes, they relieved frustration by fighting and zapping the “bad things” their characters came across.

I started thinking what an excellent learning framework video games have.  The method of play involved exploration of multiple paths, discovery, trial -and try again!, immediate feedback – and ultimately – success at conquering difficult tasks.  All without an adult or grade judging them.

Here’s the challenge I kept thinking about.  My kids will spend hours learning how to plant virtual gardens or snowboard on virtual snow.  By playing video games their self-confidence grew and they got better at problem solving skills. I thought If my kids were learning these skills, so were countless other kids.  Kids who could conquer the difficult challenges they came across in the video games they played.  Yet these kids failed to conquer a reading test required from NCLB (No Child Left Behind) testing.  These kids who were clearly very capable yet did poorly in school because they didn’t learn to read in Kindergarten.

I couldn’t sleep thinking about what the world would be like if all kids shared a lifelong love of reading.  They would be informed.  They would feel empowered.  They would move from a feeling of inadequacy to making a positive impact on our world.

As I became painfully aware during our research project at Microsoft, there is a much stronger business model around Halo 3 than around games that engage kids in learning.  After all, injecting years of research in cognitive psychology on how kids learn to read constrains what a successful game designer can do.  So why bother?  Why bother when it is by far more profitable to design the next Bejeweled?  Or the next killer iPhone game – after all The Moron Test is hilarious – simple and profitable.

The Sabi team bothered because WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPACT OUR CHILDREN if our efforts sparked a lifelong love of reading.  After all, team members have shipped many successful video games for the XBox, PlayStation and PC.  Yet what have they done?  They have designed and created two games – ItzaBitza and ItzaZoo – that provide a new way for kids to learn to read.  A way that is not what we would expect.  In the Itza games, reading is a by-product.  This blew me away the first time they walked me through ItzaBitza’s design.  The game design was not about “ok, Johnnie, read this sentence” but rather Johnnie realizing reading is needed to achieve something – like earning a Star by completing a Star challenge.

It is a start.