When War Becomes a Game ; Some Video Games Teach Pride and History

Summary

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When my mother saw her first telephone she was a little girl growing up in a tiny village in rural Canada, 90 miles west of Toronto. Hers was the first family to own the new-fangled contraption with a small earpiece and a round black speaking spout attached to a box. When her father, out in the wild buying skins from trappers, called home she was mystified. She asked her mother: "How could daddy fit into that little box?"

That was then. Now the young size up prospective dates and mates by watching their videos, stroll down the street talking into the air, and send instant text messages to friends three continents away. When I was a little girl I never thought anything in my life would sound as primitive to the next generation as my mother's experience with the telephone sounded to me. But when I tell my grandsons, ages 7 and 10, how my family sat around a radio as tall as they are, listening in the dark to scary stories on "Inner Sanctum" and "The Shadow," they think I'm from a prehistoric tribe.

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When War Becomes a Game ; Some Video Games Teach Pride and History

They can't believe that once upon a time television wasn't 24/7 and all you could see after midnight was a test pattern that never moved. I became a living embarrassment when th...

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