I just spent an hour reading the blog “Alice and Kev” which I found via a link Jason Mittell submitted to diigo gaming in education group.  The author does a very good job of using a game to tell a story.  Usually when people use games to tell a story they capture the video and add their own audio soundtrack.  This is often called machinima.  This blog is a little different.  It uses screenshots from the game “The Sims 3” along with text describing the scene.  The story revolves around a homeless father and daughter.  The “sim” aspect is relevant, since the creator has tried to create a situation that mimics homelessness within the game and then passively follows the characters and describes the events.  It’s surprisingly moving.

We will have “Sims 3” in the Arthur Vining Davis language classroom by the fall.  Although this example is in English, the game itself can be set to other languages as well.