Loading Screens, and Learning

I thought that it would be interesting to tell my story of a past experience I had with my younger brother (of three years).

Back in 2001, when Battlefield 1942 was released, my little brother (eight at the time) and I (eleven) were hooked to that game, playing endlessly from dawn till dusk.

Mum's concern became more and more apparent when my younger brother's grades were being sent to her, highlighting a lack of reading skill in his English tests. Mum pulled me aside to discuss this.

For awhile, I had tried my hardest to switch off the game and force him in front of a book to learn, but without fail, he would always run straight back to the computer. Until one day, it all clicked together...

I began sitting next to him while he played Battlefield 1942, laughing with him, taking turns everytime his character died, sharing in the experience. What was different this time round was that everytime a Loading Screen would pop up, I would ask him to read it aloud for me.

The trick to this was that if he was not able to completely read out the blurb on the Loading Screen before the game commenced, I would automatically have an extra life to play with, and he would be left out for two rounds. It made my younger brother read faster and faster, and sooner or later – whether by my doing or not – his marks made obvious improvement!

Two outcomes came from my experiment which I had conducted all those years ago. Firstly, my younger brother is nineteen now, but he still reads the blurbs on the Loading Screen without pause or difficulty. Secondly, and most profoundly, Battlefield 1942's Loading Screen blurbs typically provided the player with a summary of the real battle which took place in that mission during World War Two. The most unusual outcome from this is that my younger brother – while lacking in any motivation to learn about history or current events – still possesses a depth of knowledge in the era of World War Two; go-figure...