Why would someone choose to use a game to instruct someone as opposed to say, a book? Why, thank you for asking person who’s not asking! Originally I was working on a thesis paper for University of Advancing Technology (UAT) and I’ve found through research that experience is a far better teacher than purely learning from a non-interactive medium. If you, dear reader, are like me, then listening to someone lecture on a topic is not the most ideal way to spend the day learning about history when you could try to build your own empire the way the Byzantines did. Making History is a prime example of company that has worked towards this goal. Along with the Byzantine empire, they have created scenarios for modern warfare as well.
As you can probably guess I play a lot of video games and I have discovered most of my problem solving skills from them along with basic reading skills. I realize this may seem odd, but back in my day, (possibly the 80’s when a certain TV channel really did play music videos), the voice acting for games hadn’t been invented yet. There was nothing to listen to when a Non-Playable Character (NPC) was explaining a quest or giving instructions. I had to learn to read and to read quick! So by having the fun experience of learning about the game’s world and its rules through reading the dialogue, I learned to read faster than by just reading a book assigned to me and being tested.
I would say the game that I learned the most from was “Oregon Trail.” There have been many renditions of the game but it always still remained the same concept; decide what’s best for your party and live out the consequences, whether it’s a broken axle or running out of supplies because you didn’t spend your money wisely and bought all the ammo to go hunting. I can’t be the only one that did that right!? The most important lesson learned from the game was about life itself. At the end you were given a choice: did you take the River route that was faster but was dangerous or did you take the Trail that took longer but was safer?
I’ll tell you what you did; you caulked that wagon and floated that bitch to VICTORY!!
(Note to self: Make a t-shirt of this.)
And if you disagree with me on why always going the risky route is better I’ll be happy to explain. Just gimme a call and I’ll be right over to the crime scene, I mean your place…
-Todd Enyeart
