One of the greatest challenges of using video games in the college classroom is one of access. Games and the technology required to play them can be expensive, but issues of access go beyond the financial. What if some of my students don’t play games? What if Student A is only familiar with PC gaming but Student B only ever touches a keyboard with reluctance? When talking about video games and education, educators must consider all elements of access including cost, gaming literacy (including peripheral literacy), and student background.

Because of my concerns about access, I typically take advantage of free-to-play and inexpensive indie titles when using video games in the first-year composition classroom. My institution provides a computer lab for each composition section; however, the technology in these labs are usually pretty dated, and even if the computers could run a game as demanding as Fallout 4, the…