The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
I've always enjoyed playing video games. I won an Atari game system in a raffle when I was a teenager and they were worth around $300. My friends and I lived on Space Invaders and Asteroids. I also remember feeling betrayed when the Intellivision system came out with its much better graphics and games very soon afterwards. Even as a 15 year-old in the mid 1980s, I realized that technology was on the move. I've been thinking a lot lately about video games as a way that people spend time with an interest they have. A perfect example is with the history of World War Two. Over the last 18 months, a lot of games have been released dealing with this conflict. I've bought the Allied Assault series as well as Call of Duty and its first expansion, United Offensive. These are first-person shooters; games you play from the point of view of a character actually taking part in the action. I've also bought Panzers, a strategy game, letting you control groups of troops to accomplish certain objectives. I've been thinking about the value these games have for the history lessons that are in them. They are not some fantasy representation of a set of battles. Most of these types of games are incredibly well researched and designed; companies having spent countless hours interviewing vets who took part in the actual battles to ensure the maps and the placement of the troops are real. The designers also work incredibly hard to ensure the reality of the vehicles and the weapons, including the amount of damage caused by each and the sound produced. In one mission in the game Call of Duty, you play the role of a raw Russian recruit thrown into the Battle of Stalingrad. Crossing the river towards the burning city, pillars of black smoke pour into the air, the noise of the battle rages, and you feel completely terrified; it is an incredible experience. As I watched the opening scenes of the movie, Enemy at the Gates, the same event took place and it looked exactly the same. The game designers had captured this scene from history perfectly, allowing game players to experience a bit of what it would have been like to take part in this moment of history. My point in this is that video games can be valuable learning tools, they are entry points to other times and places. They are so realistic that they are interactive history. Most of these games combine the game with cut scenes of videos or photos from the actual events. Some of them provide the diaries of people who were there, or a set of Internet links to places people can go for more information. I know people who have fallen in love with a game, and within six months they had purchased a library of books on the subject. The game was engrossing enough to make them want to know more. World War Two or Vietnam War games, or simulation games having nothing to do with war such as the Caesar or SimCity games, or the soon to be released Children of the Nile which you play as the pharaoh of Egypt and build a civilization, let us experience historical times impossible any other way. These games are not just entertainment, they are the strongest example of 'edutainment'. Don't look at them as a waste of time, look at them as a point of entry to further learning. ([email protected])
