It is one thing to learn about history in a classroom. But as any
visitor to a living museum or historic site can tell you, a fantastic
way to learn is to make a personal connection.
In early 2019, media entrepreneur Mati Kochavi and his daughter Maya
brought the stories of Eva Heyman, a Hungarian Jew who was murdered in
Auschwitz, to social media with the simple question, “What if a girl in the Holocaust had Instagram?” “Eva Stories”
was a one-day project told through Instagram stories that amassed
200,000 followers before the morning it began and reached 1 million by
its end the next day.
Regular people care about the past, and can now engage with it in new ways. As a researcher of games and aging,
I’m noticing a trend emerging that has the potential to build even more
powerful emotional connections with its audience, through the crackling
voices of people who lived through important historical times and
events. My fellow game designers and I refer to it as “gaminiscing” –
using the tools of video games to share personal history.
These projects, including my own, combine audio recordings of their
subjects with modern gameplay, letting players explore a virtual
environment to hear – and sometimes even experience – meaningful life
stories that are told to them by the older adults who lived through
them.
Connecting generations
In general, few video games portray older characters accurately. Often they’re presented as a cartoon, or an over-the-top caricature or in a dehumanizing
way. Before gaminiscing, there was almost no opportunity for older
people to use their own voices to tell authentic, personal stories. An early trailer for ‘Grandma Game.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JXslq_6Muc#action=share“Grandma Game” is the working title of an intergenerational game by
brothers and media artists James and Joe Cox, in collaboration with
their grandmother, Barbara. The game is a walking simulator, a popular
genre of video games in which players trigger stories by exploring 3D
environments. In “Grandma Game,” players find themselves inside the
watercolor paintings done by Barbara and her grandsons, while hearing
her tell stories of what the images and places mean to her. The game intentionally limits a player’s interaction, to make it more
fun for Barbara herself to play it.
“We want the game to be playable
(and enjoyable) to her, so we have to design the controls and play
around what she can understand and handle,” James told me in an email.
“She sees it as a way to preserve her family’s history and as an
opportunity to share skills with, and learn from, her grandchildren.
Both our watercolor painting sessions and audio recording sessions have
given us the chance to spend … quality time with our grandmother – time
focused on creating work together as artists.”
Looking at history
Other games have emerged that take on more expansive historical topics, though still using very personal experiences.
“Memories of Manzanar and Tule Lake” is the working title of a game
aiming to recreate the stories of the game designer’s Japanese American
grandparents during their time in an internment camp following the
bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the game, players will be able to direct
their own journey, interacting with other internees and learning about
personal experiences with pivotal events in history, like the infamous loyalty questionnaire, and joining the U.S. Army.
Similar to the Cox brothers, game designer Brent Shiohama wishes to
honor his grandparents, the bravery of interned families, and the
Japanese Americans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team. A virtual reality game explores one boy’s experience of World War II in France.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6tqg__x2P0#action=share“La Peur Bleue”
tells the stories of the creator’s grandfather in World War II France.
The artist states, “By focusing on specific, emotional moments from my
grandfather’s past, you are given the opportunity to experience the
context of the war and empathize with the emotions my grandfather felt.”
Players interact with objects in recreated locations and hear a
grandfather reminisce about his past, adding another layer of historical
immersion by using virtual reality rather than just a computer screen.
My own game, the forthcoming “Brukel,”
uses recordings of my grandmother’s own voice, to tell stories of her
childhood growing up on an occupied farm in Belgium during World War II.
As the player, you enter the Brukel farmhouse equipped with your
smartphone camera and a vague list of topics that your grandmother told
you about. By photographing items that match well with each topic, you
unlock audio recordings in which she reveals her past to you.
However, when it eventually gets dark, you find yourself trapped in
the house as the ghosts of the past come to life. Through a series of
survival-based vignettes, you must try to outlast some of the horror
stories that my grandmother lived through as a teenage girl, while
slowly learning about how the war deeply affected everyone in the
family. A Belgian grandmother tells the story of her childhood in ‘Brukel.’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P-alvHXGnc#action=share
A welcoming response
Even before the release of “Brukel,” I have been able to showcase it, most notably at an event at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
in early August 2019. So far, playtesters have told me they appreciate
its ability to engage the player through the use of modern technology.
Because of my own research, I had anticipated that older gamers would
appreciate “Brukel” for its meaningful engagement and mature story.
Those are two qualities that my research has shown are paramount to older gamers.
In particular, for my qualitative work, I met a number of older adults
who deliberately sought out games that would meaningfully contribute to
their interest in the post-World War II era.
For example, an 82-year-old Belgian man told me,
“I barely remember the Second World War but I was a child back then.
What I remember is extremely vivid, though. The lights, the bombings,
the noise. Airplanes flying over our house and being shot down. I can
still see it. It was an adventure, and I relive that adventure by
playing games about it.”
Similarly, another Belgian man, aged 62, explained,
“I recently went to Normandy; it is amazing to visit places in games
that you can later on visit in real life. You have never been there but
you know the place from the game. They can be so realistic.”
However, I had not expected the response that “Brukel” received from
children. At the Smithsonian event, people from all age groups –
including pre-kindergartners and octogenarians – played “Brukel.” As a
group, pre-teens turned out to be most engaged with the game, spending
the most time playing it and even returning multiple times over the
two-day event to play it again.
When I spoke with the parents of these young gamers, the general
theme of their response was that they loved how engaged their children
were with “Brukel” while learning about history. One parent told me,
“They’re going to play video games regardless, so it’s great that
they’re drawn to something educational.” Another parent who said his
child was on the autism spectrum and had trouble concentrating in school
praised “Brukel” for its ability to engage with his son. He said his
son was more comfortable learning through playing the game because he
was familiar with using a keyboard and mouse, which he found far less
stressful than being in a classroom.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of these gaminiscing
projects are centered around war. The 75th anniversary of the end of
World War II will be in 2020; as those who faced its terrors firsthand
die, the stories of their experiences are fading away. The risk – and my
concern – is that society collectively will forget the lessons and the
promises of “never again.”
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