Late last night, I caught a few minutes of the History Channel’s
Brother in Arms documentary, which uses Ubisoft’s series of the same name, to tell the story of the
101st Airborne, 502nd Parachute Infantry during the Normandy Invasion. The filmmakers chose to splice together clips
from the game with live-action reenactments—an effect that got me chuckling more so than drew me into the story.
That is, I would have preferred one or the other. If anything, the program was a testament to the game’s
developers and their tireless efforts to recreate the heroic and tragic experiences of the 502nd. Still, there’s
room for this medium to grow, especially with the increasing power of development tools.
I can’t help but imagine a time when video games will become a part of a teacher’s lesson plans. Heck, if you’ve got a few extra days at the end of the quarter, why not let the kids play Brother in Arms instead of watching Saving Private Ryan—that’s a start, at least. Could there be a market for FPS games with an educational twist? Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself…
