The This War of Mine video game will be recommended reading in all Polish schools.

The announcement arrived a few days ago, during the visit of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to the production house, 11bit Studios in Warsaw.
As reported by Polsat News, this is the first video game in the world to become a recommended textbook, but reserved for adult students only, given the PEGI rating of this title.
https://twitter.com/11bitstudios/status/1273534003086270467
Anyone who has played This War of Mine knows the thickness and weight of this survival-management, released in 2014 and immediately become a classic of the world videogame world.
"Unlike most video games with shootings, chases, fast cars and more shootings" explained Prime Minister Morawiecki - "in this game there are many moments of reflection, situations in which we have to put ourselves in the shoes of a person who has to survive a war".
With this title, in fact, the player is catapulted into the harsh reality of the war experienced by the civilians.
There is no mention of a specific war, but the names of the characters and the atmospheres clearly refer to the conflicts that bloodied the Balkans in the 90s.
Barricaded in the house during the day, forced to take risky sorties at night: you have to constantly find food and shelter, making difficult choices.
Feeding adults only or children too?
Healing the injured or letting them die?
Rob the weak in order to continue living?
The imperative to resist, the choices to be made terrible.
Until the ceasefire.
Some survivors will make it to the end, but they will be forever marked by experience.
Much more often it will be the game that wins: the survivors will be defeated by hunger or cold, killed by marauders or they will simply decide to end it all.
This War of Mine teaches that war is always a horrible slaughter, where there is no light, no redemption, only violence and victims.
A universal teaching that Poland does well to pass on to future generations.
In the announcement given by Prime Minister Morawiecki there is also a national positioning strategy, when he declares that video games are part of the Polish cultural canon.
Poland, in fact, focuses heavily on the development of its videogame industry to compete in Europe and in the world.
Just think of The Witcher, which started out as a local publishing phenomenon, which first became an acclaimed video game series and then a very popular Netflix TV series.
Behind The Witcher video game is another Polish production company: CD Project Red.
by Anna Lisa Bonfranceschi
CD Project Red became in April the most valuable company among those listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW), surpassing the main Polish bank (PEKAO), and then shattered another record in May, positioning itself as the most valuable video game factory in Europe. surpassing French Ubisoft with more than 8 billion euros.
https://twitter.com/notesfrompoland/status/1263054041203998722
The story of This War of Mine's entry into the classroom also shines the spotlight on serious games, ie video games developed to teach something useful in real life.
They can be mathematical concepts, historical or current insights: all connected by the red thread of gamification for educational purposes.
The idea that fun helps learning.
Even in Italy the trend is spreading and the experience of remote schooling during the quarantine could speed things up.
A recent study by Save The Children is very interesting on this topic, which tells about some of the most interesting online serious games available also in Italian.
For example, Twenty Months, a series of interactive stories about the Resistance and the Liberation from Nazi-Fascism, narratives inspired by real events that took place in Sesto San Giovanni and its surroundings during the Second World War.
And again the touching If you love me don't die, which tells the story of Nour, a young Syrian migrant who embarks on a dangerous journey to her safety, helped by her husband Majd.
The complete list drawn up by Save The Children can be found here, because playing is also very serious.

From Wired