Game Changer

July 31, 2013

For many people, video games are a diversion, a passion, or simply a way of unwinding at the end of the workday. For Carlos Hernandez, an associate professor of English at BMCC, video games are an art form, a powerful teaching tool and a means of connecting with history on an intimate level.

A lifelong game player, Hernandez has now entered the ranks of game designers with “Meriwether,” a role-playing game based on the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition.

“I started out playing Dungeons & Dragons as a kid, and attribute a lot of my subsequent learning to games,” says Hernandez, who teaches courses in composition and creative writing. “Dungeons & Dragons opened my eyes to the diversity of world religions, mythologies and cultures and enriched my understanding of literature.” Without that experience, he says, “I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”

The game’s the thing

But it wasn’t until he arrived at BMCC that he started thinking of games as a means of enhancing his students’ learning experience.  When English department colleague Joe Bisz proposed using a board game called Diplomacy as a tool for teaching writing, Hernandez jumped at the idea. “I thought it was brilliant,” he says.  “A real game-changer.”

With a grant from CUNY, Hernandez and Bisz designed and piloted a curriculum that incorporated Diplomacy as a teaching tool. “Diplomacy is a game with no cards, dice, or random elements,” Hernandez  explains. “Its primary mechanic is persuasion. It’s set in pre-World War I Europe, where you play as one of seven countries vying for power. You discuss, debate, form alliances and try to outsmart your opponents. Afterwards, you write down your orders, which show that you either lived up to your word, or you didn’t.”

The students responded enthusiastically, and Hernandez and Bisz knew they were on to something. Then Sortasoft, a video game company, entered the picture.

“They wanted to do a game based on Lewis and Clark and hired me as lead writer and game designer,” he says.  “My role includes creating the story arcs and writing dialogue.”

Focus on authenticity

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to lead a corps of Army volunteers and survey the American continent from the Mississippi west to the Pacific coast. In preparation for designing their game, Hernandez and Bisz put in long hours at the New-York Historical Society, researching the details of daily life in the early 1800s,  as well as the challenges and choices Lewis and Clark faced.

“It was important for us to really nail the details, but in a way that made for a better game,” Hernandez says. “We knew a certain amount of artistic license would be necessary and acceptable, but we wanted to take as few liberties as possible.”
 
While Lewis and Clark carried guns  as they made their way through uncharted terrain, they relied much more heavily on diplomacy. “They needed to make really good decisions when they encountered native American nations—or when they were hungry and didn’t know where their next meal was coming from,” says Hernandez. “So this is very much a game about survival, resource management and exploration. Much of the time, you’re controlling Lewis directly—steering him around, having conversations, exploring the land and making choices—which may or may not be the same choices he made.”

Long story short

Could “Meriwether” work as a teaching resource?  “Definitely,” says Hernandez. But playing the game in a classroom setting would pose challenges, since it typically takes about 20 hours from beginning to end. “It would be more practical to use it like other long-form creative works, such as novels,” he says.

But he is quick to put the “educational” benefits of Meriwether in their context. Despite the painstaking research that went into its creation, he notes, Meriwether was never envisioned as primarily an educational game.

“The idea was that people would inevitably learn a great deal about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but only because the game was so engaging that they would keep playing,” he says. “From the outset, our philosophy has been this: Come for the gameplay, stay for the history.”

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Meriwether is based on the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition
  • Players confront the same challenges, crises and choices that the explorers faced
  • Game is educational and intellectually stimulating but its chief goal is fun

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