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I see video games as a medium with much potential as a tool for teaching history, but it has a very long way to go. For example, many of the games I found online were hardly anything to speak of. On a BBC site, I played as Neopolean’s Army in the Battle of Waterloo and tried to change the course of history. I learned a lot about events leading up to the battle from the narrative the game displayed before it began. As it turned out the game was nothing more than a choose your own adventure type with poor graphics. (I was destroyed on the second move) Another example of disappointment came from the History Channel web site. I was quite depressed at my poor performance in a Pres. Lincoln trivia game. But this was part of the problem. Most of the history related games I found online were trivia of sorts and did very little to dress up a history lesson found in a classroom. I kept thinking to myself, “what kind of a student would actually enjoy this?” Much of the trivia was too difficult for a high schooler and the game play is meant for a pre-schooler. This is a horrible combination.
It makes me somewhat sad to say, but I think history video games have to be viewed in the same way as Hollywood. I order to get the butts in the seats you have to offer them something more. Since I had such a difficult time finding a true history game online I will give some examples of games I have played in the past which can at least be the source of some discussion. One from a few years back was Medal of Honor, where you played an allied soldier on secret missions all over occupied Europe. A second example, one of my favorite video game series is Grand Theft Auto. I could be very easily criticized for using this gratuitously violent game as an example but I find there is a massive amount of thought that has gone into every detail of the game which would be very easily overlooked by the Tipper Gore’s of the world. I cite these games much in the same way I would cite a Hollywood movie, as a way of exhibiting historical memory. A specialist on World War II could probably say a lot about the types of things Medal of Honor includes in its games (and it is only one example of a dozen other WWII popular video games out right now) such as weapons, uniforms, and geographic locations. As well as things that are missing like concentration camps. Grand Theft Auto, I believe, is an amazing critic on American society spanning from the 80s (Vice City) to the 90s (San Andreas) to the present. All you need to do is steal a car (in the game, of course) and flip through the radio stations. Not only will they be playing popular music (or what the developers remember as popular) but also commercials and talk shows which lend to the scathing social commentary that oozes out of every pixalated pore of the game. It is meant as humor, but I also realize that the truth (albeit exaggerated) is what makes it so funny.
Now, if there was only a way to harness the gameplay and narrative stylings of a blockbuster video game with true historical study that would be something a lot of people could sink their teeth into.
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