Educational Software Grows Up

An interesting article out of The New York Times (free registration required), tells the tale of Muzzy Lane, an educational software developer with a focus on creating games for high school and college level students. While there are thousands of educational games for elementary school kids, older students have been ignored. Muzzy Lane plans on changing that with their graphically impressive history simulators, which allows students to make choices real world leaders faced and see how they play out. The synopsis of their inagural game, "Making History", shows how they educate while making sure they are not preaching to the player:

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The time: Fall, 1938. The place: Europe

You are Neville Chamberlain,
Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Hitler and Germany are threatening war if they don’t get control over parts of Czechoslovakia.

France is worried that confronting Germany will spark another European war.
Your military warns that British sea power won’t be much help in Central Europe.

What do you do? Using historically accurate resources, you have to take charge.

Do you brace for war, ramping up military production and moving your forces into position? Or do you take a conciliatory approach, putting your diplomats to work to find a compromise?

Check your intelligence. What about Mussolini? Will Italy intervene if you frustrate German ambitions?

You make up your mind. You plan with your military for the consequences. You tell your diplomats what to say to the Germans. You brace your citizens for whatever happens next.

And while you were planning, so were the Germans and French and Italians. What will happen next? You are Making History.

I'm in! No, really, I am. I've lost a good amount of my high school history knowledge, and I would love to get my hands on one of these puppies. It's interesting how the text book lectures have left me, but I could still tell you exactly how to get through every step of the original "Legend of Zelda". They're onto something here. Remember the company, Muzzy Lane, as I'm certain we'll all be hearing about them in the future.