Week 07 - Game Essays

The Oregon Trail video game that Michael and I chose to redesign was originally supposed to be an educational game. However, according  to the video essay by PBS Game/Show, we learn that The Oregon Trail is actually very inconsistent with the truth.

Through the course of the video, we learn that what we truly learned through the Oregon Trail game was the concepts of modeling and simulation. “Mostly what The Oregon Trail models, is the likelihood that a family would survive their travel to Oregon.” Which, the game actually got extremely wrong. Scientists have come to the conclusion that about 1 in 17 people died on the way to Oregon. In the game, you will always at least lose one person in your group, if not all.

I feel as if in our recreation, we did a great job of simulating the resource management side of the game. Granted, I feel as if we could have a better or more immersive board in order to kind of simulate what a family would be going through.

An article by VOX, 9 Myths you learned from playing Oregon Trail, actually goes as far as to explain exactly which historical inaccuracies occurred during the game. I think the main one that interests me is the fact that not everyone traveled with Oxen, that some families were traveling with hand carts. However, in the video game you have to but Oxen in order to continue on the trail.

With our game, you are able to buy whatever you want and in any amount. While you are playing, we recommend an amount for each thing to buy. But, since it is a board game version we do not require a minimum amount of any resource. BUT, that can bite you in the butt.