Napoleon: Total War
I like to think that I don't always play video games for purely Epicurean reasons.
Good puzzle games, like those in the Professor Layton series, make players use their brains, solving the same sort of lateral-thinking mindbenders the "gifted" kids are often given to chew on in advanced classes in school.
The best sports and driving games teach players about their subjects. I knew nothing about (and had no interest) in cars before playing the original Gran Turismo for PlayStation. Thanks to it and its successors, I'm now well acquainted not only with scores of obscure makes and models, but also various car parts and their purposes (if not how they work).
Even some action games have educational value. For example, Assassin's Creed II features pop-up text blurbs that describe the historical background and significance of various buildings and types of people that appear in the game (though one needs to be careful not to take everything at face value, since, for narrative purposes, the developers have also inserted some fictitious items).
What got me thinking about this topic today is Creative Assembly's real-time strategy game Napoleon: Total War, for Windows PCs. Released last month, I've been casually working my way through its many lengthy campaigns, several of which combine to form a surprisingly accurate and compelling recounting of the eponymous emperor's military life.
The game starts with a tutorial that paints a picture of Napoleon's formative years and the environmental conditions that led him to become the man he did. We guide him from his island home to the continent, following his early career and learning about the events that shaped his aspirations.
By the time his first military campaign begins we already have a firm grasp of who he is and how disillusioned the French military had become. As the game progresses it's easy to understand how and why he gained so much support. The people rally to him with each new victory, relishing their nation's newfound honour and glory as he battles his way through Italy, Egypt, and greater Europe.
When we aren't recreating Napoleon's conquests, we're learning about his world. Much like Sid Meier's renowned Civilization games, Napoleon: Total War provides players with detailed, well-written descriptions for all of the game's historical structures and technologies. For example, when building an opera house players will learn how most late 18th and early 19th century century Europeans preferred serious-style Italian operas (and that, thankfully, the practice of castrating young men to keep their voices from dropping had come to an end before the Napoleonic era).
Then, of course, there are the franchise's famed battle sequences. The skirmishes in Napoleon: Total War involve authentic troop movements, tactics, clothing, and equipment. Watching soldiers line up with rifles at the ready, charge when necessary, enter melee combat when their muskets are of no more use, and begin fleeing when it becomes clear victory is impossible, almost feels like watching a movie. And the realistically slow-paced (yet somehow still thrilling) naval battles, in which ships struggle to turn and bring their cannons to bear and tiny crewmen run around the decks trying to extinguish flames and fend off boarding parties, seem to me to be a very believable depiction of what the era's sea warfare must have been like.
(It's worth adding that broadcasters like The History Channel have actually used the Total War engine to create reenactments of famous wars for various programs, setting up hundreds or thousands of individual units attired in detailed period garb and brandishing authentic weaponry before moving them around meticulously detailed battlefields in historically accurate formations.)
In short: What a great way to learn.
Education has always worked best for me when it's been both interactive and fun. When I was growing up I had to rely on those rare, truly inspired teachers and the occasional one-one-one discussion with professors to achieve that sort of educational environment. In a game like this it comes ready-made.
I'm not saying Napoleon: Total War should become part of our school curriculum. It's still a game first and foremost. There's a little too much room for players to rewrite important bits of history, and playing through the whole game to get the full experience takes considerably longer than it would to read a good biography (which would likely contain far more information and detail).
That said, people who use games like those in Creative Assembly's strategy franchise to help augment their traditional learning processes can't help but benefit. Save those who are already experts on the era, it's hard to believe anyone would come away from Napoleon: Total War without having learned something about the emperor and his times.
(Interested in learning more about how games can influence the pedagogical process? Check out the latest GigaOM post from ex-Globe and Mail communities editor Mathew Ingram. It's about how games are entering every aspect of our lives, including the classroom. He describes how one innovative American professor actually used the concept of role-playing game experience points to help guage student progress through a semester.)
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