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Mission US is part of a growing body of "serious games" that immerse users in historical and contemporary problems in ways that encourage perspective-taking, discussion, and weighing of multiple kinds of evidence. Research has shown that, by assuming the roles of peers from the past, students develop a more personal, memorable, and meaningful connection with complex historical content and context. It is 1907. You are Lena Brodsky, a 14-year-old Jewish Immigrant from Russia. In your hometown of Minsk, the forces of the Tsar have pushed your family off their lands, and the violence of the pogroms looms large. Your brother Issac was the first to cross the Atlantic to seek a new life in the land of America, and you have followed in turn: a fourteen day trip across the entire world. You hope that you will prove yourself worthy of entering America. You hope that you can earn enough to send for your mother and father. You hope for a better future. There will be many obstacles in America, and many choices to be made. But it is, they say, the land of opportunity. The game's five chapters span from Lena's arrival in 1907 (emphasizing the processing of Ellis Island and initial exploration of a strange land), through daily life in turn-of-the-century New York, leading up to the turmoil during the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909. The game is fairly linear in the events that occur, as befitting the march of history, but the choices you make will affect your values and skill statistics, opening up new opportunities depending on what you choose to develop. |
