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The Witness

Wow, I can't believe it, a video game just pulled me in and kept my attention for over 3 hours. If my wife hadn't just come home from work there is no doubt I would still be playing The Witness. The Witness is a beautiful and complex puzzle game that was both meditating and incredibly stimulating. It stands in stark contrast to the violence, gore, flash and mindlessness of a lot of modern video games. The Witness pulled me in and had my mind working, but not racing. It had my attention, but not through explosions or overly complicated storylines. Often times my students ask if they can play video games if their work is finished early, I tend to try to redirect them to different activities like chess if they are in fact completely done every task that I set in front of them. The Witness reminds me of chess. I felt smart after playing it, a very different feeling then what I get from playing Grand Theft Auto. I highly recommend this game!
The Witness is available on gaming systems like the PlayStation 4, but you can also buy it for MAC or PC. With a nearly $50.00 price tag, I'm likely to buy one copy and have it on my desktop at school. It might be fun to have students play on the Smartboard. What a fun positive reinforcement reward that would be. I WILL TRY THIS WITH MY STUDENTS. WILL YOU?

One more thing, the soundtrack. The beautiful symphonic music weaving through the game made solving puzzles feel heroic. I feel like I just had a brain massage.

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