This week we discussed historically themed video/computer games and their educational potential. One of the games that my peers frequently mentioned was The Oregon Trail. Full disclosure: I never really played video or computer games as a kid. Although I’ve heard pop-cultural references to the game as an adult, I never played or heard of it as a kid. When I told my peers this, they were shocked and told me that it was a 90s kid right of passage to play the game. So naturally, when Dr. Mullen gave us an assigned us to play a historically themed game from the Internet archive and write a blog post about the educational value of the game and how it could be updated for modern game-play, I knew I had to play The Oregon Trail.
The Oregon Trail is a game that tests users ability to survive a trek on the Oregon Trail and arrive safely at the Willamette Valley in the Oregon territory in the 1840s. Depending on the occupation users chose, they are given a limited amount of money with which to purchase supplies such as oxen, wheels, clothing and food. Users also have to choose what month to begin their travels. They are warned that starting out too late or too early can lead to dangerous weather conditions. Users, along with their family of 4 or 5 people are then sent on their way. Throughout the game you learn about several obstacles that pioneers faced such as cholera, snake bites, taking wrong turns and drowning. You also pass several landmarks on your way such as Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, and Mount Hood. If you chose to read the guidebook, you can learn about these different places as well as some of the diseases and elements you may confront such as measles and droughts. You win the game if you survive and make it to the end.
Educationally, I belive that the main purpose of this game is to demonstrate how dangerous the Oregon trail was and how pioneers had to endure a lot of obstacles. Although I’m sure that this game was cutting edge at its time, I feel that historically it leaves much to be desired. Technically, you could get through the entire game without reading the guidebook or learning much about the trail or the era. At times this felt like more of a survival game that tested your common sense skills rather than a game that was supposed to teach you anything about history. The game also presents users with an uncomplicated narrative of westward expansion and its ramifications for Native Americans. The game also does not count for age or gender and how these factors could change a pioneer’s experience.
If this game were to be updated for the modern user I think that several changes could be made to make this game more educational. Why not add a trivia section that would test users knowledge of the history of westward expansion? Instead of just providing users with basic information about Fort Laramie and other landmarks, the game should provide people with a history of who emigrated via the trail and why, the history of Mormons and missionaries on the trail and in the Oregon territory, how the emigration experience was different for men and women, as well as a history of the federal government and settler treatment of the Indigenous population. Users should have to read and answer questions about this material in order to successfully finish the trail. For example when a member of the travel party gets cholera or measles, they should be presented with a reading about some aspect of westward expansion and they should have to answer questions correctly in order to cure the person. Their survival when crossing the rivers could also be dependent on answering these questions correctly.
In the game players are sometimes given the option of paying a local Indian to escort them across the river or help them navigate the trails. How about making players answer questions about settler/Indian relations in order to receive their help?
Over all, I thought the game was fun but I defiantly think there is room to make it even more educational.
