Go Outside and Play?

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy,I suspect it's normal that I would remember my own hurricane fears in Houston. It was late summer 2005 and the Gulf Coast was still reeling from the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina, when Hurricane Rita formed in the Bahamas heading for Houston. My friends and I were scared, but found our years of gaming helped us think strategically and problem-solve as a group in an emergency situation; our imaginary practice with dice and dragons may have helped save our lives.  
 

Katrina  (image courtesy of NOAA)

Sandy (image courtesy of NOAA)

 

Having watched Katrina’s landfall and the subsequent levee and infrastructure breaks on the nightly news, Houstonians were terrified of the coming storm.   There were runs on the gas station, the stores were out of food and bottled water, and we had to have a plan if we were going to weather the storm safely. Fortunately, my gaming group been gaming together once a week for seven hours each Sunday since 2002.  Our game environment required us to work as a group despite rigidly constructed differences and skillsets. Over the three-year period, we learned to assign tasks according to our skills,  communicate effectively with one another, strategize quickly, and plan for contingencies without losing time.   

There were seven of us altogether.  I was good at understanding others’ strengths and thinking strategically.  My buddy Matt was also a strategist, and we worked well together; so he and I worked to develop the group strategy. Jeff was good at forward planning, had available cash and the newest car.  Brad was a master of the roadways in Houston, although he could be  abrasive and impulsive. Joe was a great quartermaster. He was in charge of defense, and helped Jeff with forward planning.  Shaun was the Gamemaster or Storyteller—he wielded iron authority and helped keep us focused as we planned our escape.  

Zombies are coming.  Are you prepared? (image courtesy of CDC)

The use of gaming-style storytelling for emergency preparedness is becoming less a fringe activity and more of a mainstream strategy to teach preparedness skills without triggering anxieties.  For example, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Citizen Corps both have zombie emergency preparedness courses. The twist which makes this strategy more effective than regular training courses seems to be the element of play involved: “... zombie preparedness messages and activities have proven to be an effective way of engaging new audiences who may not be familiar with what to do before, during, or after a disaster, and to inject a little levity into preparedness while still informing and educating people,” according to the FEMA website. The gaming model for emergency preparedness is an effective teaching tool, but it is not only effective in these scenarios.

Video and analog gaming are massively entertaining, but are also powerful tools for socialization and cognitive development in the field of childhood development.  The concept of play as learning has been used in education, cognitive development and emotional development in prepubescent children for over forty years. These benefits are also confirmed in the use of video games, according to Mark Prensky, a scholar, author, game designer and consultant in leveraging games to learn.  According to Prensky’s model, children learn at both the surface trivialized skill learning of navigating a game space as well as skills at another, deeper level: self-protection, group socialization, non-verbal communication, parallel processing, and multitasking.  

Critics of gaming cite the dangers of increasing violence, as well as violent and recursive misogyny. They claim, justifiably, that virtual gaming space is just as subject to bullying and misogyny as real space.  Yet online games typically include a code of conduct which allows the gaming company to help protect players from their most offensive peers. These codes of conduct create a set of mutually agreed upon rules for the space, and provide a platform for ejecting offending members from the community.

These rules are necessary as there is a large range of gamers in shared space. According to the Pew Research study “Adults and Video Games,” more than half of all adults in the United States play video games regularly, as do almost all children age 12-17.  Instead of being isolating, these games are wildly socializing, as players must work together to accomplish tasks at higher levels in Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Games (MMORPGs).  The players are rewarded for mastering skills such as cooperation, problem solving, and strategy.  

Burned evacuee bus, Sept 23, 2005.
(image courtesy of The Houston Chronicle)

My weekend gaming group displayed all these characteristics when we attempted to evacuate Houston before Hurricane Rita.  Millions of people attempted to flee the city, and some lost their lives during the attempt. It was the hottest day of the summer when people got on the roadways, and between poorly maintained vehicles and poor planning, a bus full of senior citizens exploded on the roadway while trying to evacuate, killing 24 passengers.

We too tried to leave, caravanning in our two newest and most reliable vehicles.  Everyone brought personal essentials, but also brought specialty equipment such as firearms, toolkits, water, an emergency radio, walkie talkies, additional fuel and a small car air pump.  We also had to reassess the situation during our evacuation attempt.  We had been idling for 7 hours, during a 100+ degree day, our formerly full fuel tanks were low by a quarter, and we had no expectation of making the freeway.  There was no fuel coming into the city, and our best case scenario was running out of gas near Columbus, Tx; right in the path of the storm.  

Houston has 6 million residents.  Here they are.
(image courtesy of The Houston Chronicle)

We reassesed, and turned back.  Our cars, near to overheating after 7 hours of idling traffic, cooled down as we sped along bare roads leading back into town, to hunker down at the most secure location. 

 In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there was little we could do to help, but our friends knew what to do from our firsthand accounts.  Not one of our gaming group in the New York area, even the differently abled, was injured in the storm. Some of us live to play, but we can all play to live.