Video Game Makes History

By Meg McCaffrey -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2004

Let's suppose you're the prime minister of Great Britain. It's 1938. Hitler wants control over Czechoslovakia. You've got a nervous France on one side, and then there's Mussolini. What are you going to do?

So goes Making History, a new simulation software program from Muzzy Lane Software, Inc. (www.muzzylane.com). Best described as an educational video game for social studies classes, the program puts students in the roles of heads of state (in this case, Neville Chamberlain) and asks kids to make choices to decide the outcome of World War II. Available in multiplayer and network-play modes, Making History is aimed at high school students, and conforms to national academic standards. And more simulations featuring other historical events are in the works.

"It's much more than a game," says Warren Reed, instructional technology supervisor for Jefferson County Schools in Birmingham, AL. "It takes what could be a dull statement of facts and brings this very broad topic to life." It's up to students to make diplomatic, domestic, and economic moves and create military tactics, even if it means changing the course of history. A feedback tool helps educators track students' decisions.

"Muzzy Lane is trying to tap into the engaging aspects of computer and video games, while giving kids a chance to learn through immersion in historical scenarios," says Kurt Squire, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who studies the educational potential of digital games. And how will gaming newbies fare with Making History? A basic familiarity with personal computers is all that's required, according to Muzzy Lane.