GTR Hour FTW! (This is an awesomely cool video made by Diva. Watch it especially if you love Starcraft II!!!1!1)
Anyway. Game-To-Read Hour is about linking gaming with reading.
But how are books and games related? If you ask me, they’re really siblings. Maybe siblings who hardly speak to one another, but siblings nonetheless. Do you really think that Azeroth could have been rendered in all its glorious beauty if its lore hadn’t first been recorded on paper? What gave Thrall his fire to fight for the Horde? Who is Orgrimmar named after? Where do the Naga dwell in Azeroth? (I am obviously Horde-biased, shhhh.) All this and more has been written down in Warcraft lore, and Warcraft lore has long been accessible to us, in the form of books.
To stray from that all-popular argument, let’s think about Neverwinter Nights (the original, not the 2nd one). Could you honestly have created a believable Faerun born character if you hadn’t first read about the Forgotten Realms and their inhabitants? The answer is no… you would probably have a Drow called George or Charlie. And if I hadn’t read The Kingdom of Shadow, set in the jungles of Sanctuary (Diablo universe), I would never have respected my NPC sidekick the way I did. That aside…
On the 18th of July, gamers around Singapore will unite (whether IRL or TTN) to witness the first ever Game-To-Read Hour. Touted as ‘Earth Hour but for gamers’, it hopes to help our fellow geeks, fanboys and hardcore gamers see how reading ties in with gaming.
In that hour, six celebrity gamers will read aloud to live audiences onsite and on site. The video feed will be broadcast through the internet, while the actual reading takes place at Nanyang Polytechnic at 2pm that Sunday. Books from our beloved gaming universes will be read, while a spotlight is thrown on classic literature through the recitation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms as well as a Dynasty Warriors 6 (DW6) competition. To further hammer home the links between gaming and reading, DW6 developers Koei will be on hand to tell you how they turned a sixteen-part long Chinese classic into an epic game! (You also get free tshirts, but you have to be there to get them!) The first fifty attendees will also receive a goodie bag. God bless gaming, and god bless Singapore for our love of freebies 😀
Oh, there’ll also be a cosplay festival at NYP! And if that deluge of eyecandy won’t be enough for you, you can head on down to the Bay Carnival at Marina Bay to watch an even bigger cosfest, as well as to enjoy a symphony of game music, proudly presented to you by both SCOGA and the NUS Wind Symphony!
Interested to see who’s going to be reading to you? Details are up at the Game-To-Read Hour page on Facebook!
P.S. Show your support and like the page!
The day’s agenda at a glance
12pm: Start of Dynasty Warriors competition. This ends at 1.30pm
2pm: Start of celebrity gamers reading
3pm: cosplayers and NYP students read
4pm: Talk by Koei developer
