History Games
In the past we’ve been presented with numerous negative factors about video games. Still today, there are plenty of non-gamers that fall into the same stereotype regarding how bad video gamers are for our health. There is however, a lot of positive attributes that us gamers already recognize, such as it’s a good stress reliever to be able to kick back at the end of the day and virtually end someone’s life.
An aspect that is sometimes overlooked which I love is the learning factor about games. In that, I’m referring to the games that are based on historical events, even if it’s based on them loosely. When I was younger, I grasped the the entire event in a video game more than I do these days. Today it is more about the graphics for me and the mechanics of a game but ever so often, I will get sucked into a game and learn more about our past that I wasn’t taught while in school, or never bothered to further educate myself about it.
A game I recently played was Battlestations: Pacific. It was a huge milestone for me to invest so many hours into a game, only to walk away each time and realize I still don’t have a single achievement (I can’t help being such an achievement whore), but learning even slightly more about our history should be something we’re encouraged to do. For those that aren’t familiar with Battlestations series, the year is set between 1941-1945. The attacks are about Pearl Harbor and Battle of Okinawa (aka Operation Iceberg). You do have a chance to play as the Japanese and create the “what if” scenareo, though I never was interested in that aspect of the game so I have no opinion on that matter.
That being said, there are so may games out there that can teach us a lot about history or help us use our imagination and create a “what if” scenario, such as Company of Heroes, Age of Empires Series, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and Total War Series, which is only naming a few. In all obviousness, parents shouldn’t succumb to slanted opinions about how video games aren’t suitable for children since a few of the games I’ve mentioned above are turn based strategy games.
Nice post on the effects of video games, however, you do need to take into consideration that games aren’t created (in general) for the fundamental reason of education, and therefore are not bound to present history in its true sense – this means that people playing a video game may think that certain events are reflections of historical events, when in fact they aren’t, and are totally fictional or partly based on truth.
peter xyz…
Really good read, bookmarking for later…
high 5ive…
This was a good read, kinda early in the morning though. Should do some work
lol…
Great read!
This means that people playing a video game may think that certain events are reflections of historical events, when in fact they aren’t, and are totally fictional or partly based on truth.
I work in a video game store to put my way through college for my bachelor’s in History… boy’s club on both sides, right??
Anyway, the games I’ve played that are “based on” historical events often fudge the details, it can be anything as small as inconsistencies in costuming or something as large as introducing entirely fictional characters that play large roles, when they weren’t actually involved at all.
For this reason, I think it’s better when the industry sticks to creating new stories and characters, alternative history is just as interesting but won’t cause confusion for kids when they set foot in their high school history classroom. There is just no way a video game can depart so much information onto a user and often the key details are left out… Even the History Channel (wait, especially the History Channel) games disappoint…
And what’s with the blatant disregard for Eastern History? No mention of games like Genghis Khan, placing you in charge of the Mongolian Conquests, or the Nobunaga’s Ambition series?