\u201cEva Stories<\/a>\u201d was a one-day project told through Instagram stories that amassed 200,000 followers before the morning it began and reached 1 million by its end the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regular people care about the past, and can now engage with it in new ways. As a researcher of games and aging<\/a>, I\u2019m noticing a trend emerging that has the potential to build even more powerful emotional connections with its audience, through the crackling voices of people who lived through important historical times and events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My fellow game designers and I refer to it as \u201cgaminiscing\u201d \u2013 using the tools of video games to share personal history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These projects, including my own, combine audio recordings of their subjects with modern gameplay, letting players explore a virtual environment to hear \u2013 and sometimes even experience \u2013 meaningful life stories that are told to them by the older adults who lived through them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connecting generations<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, few video games portray older characters accurately. Often they\u2019re presented as a cartoon<\/a>, or an over-the-top caricature<\/a> or in a dehumanizing<\/a> way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before gaminiscing, there was almost no opportunity for older people to use their own voices to tell authentic, personal stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGrandma Game\u201d is the working title of an intergenerational game by brothers and media artists James and Joe Cox, in collaboration with their grandmother, Barbara. The game is a walking simulator, a popular genre of video games in which players trigger stories by exploring 3D environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In \u201cGrandma Game,\u201d players find themselves inside the watercolor paintings done by Barbara and her grandsons, while hearing her tell stories of what the images and places mean to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The game intentionally limits a player\u2019s interaction, to make it more fun for Barbara herself to play it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want the game to be playable (and enjoyable) to her, so we have to design the controls and play around what she can understand and handle,\u201d James told me in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe sees it as a way to preserve her family\u2019s history and as an opportunity to share skills with, and learn from, her grandchildren. Both our watercolor painting sessions and audio recording sessions have given us the chance to spend \u2026 quality time with our grandmother \u2013 time focused on creating work together as artists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at history<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n Other games have emerged that take on more expansive historical topics, though still using very personal experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMemories of Manzanar and Tule Lake\u201d is the working title of a game aiming to recreate the stories of the game designer\u2019s Japanese American grandparents during their time in an internment camp following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the game, players will be able to direct their own journey, interacting with other internees and learning about personal experiences with pivotal events in history, like the infamous loyalty questionnaire<\/a>, and joining the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar to the Cox brothers, game designer Brent Shiohama wishes to honor his grandparents, the bravery of interned families, and the Japanese Americans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion\/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLa Peur Bleue<\/a>\u201d tells the stories of the creator\u2019s grandfather in World War II France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The artist states, \u201cBy focusing on specific, emotional moments from my grandfather\u2019s past, you are given the opportunity to experience the context of the war and empathize with the emotions my grandfather felt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Players interact with objects in recreated locations and hear a grandfather reminisce about his past, adding another layer of historical immersion by using virtual reality rather than just a computer screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My own game, the forthcoming \u201cBrukel<\/a>,\u201d uses recordings of my grandmother\u2019s own voice, to tell stories of her childhood growing up on an occupied farm in Belgium during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the player, you enter the Brukel farmhouse equipped with your smartphone camera and a vague list of topics that your grandmother told you about. By photographing items that match well with each topic, you unlock audio recordings in which she reveals her past to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, when it eventually gets dark, you find yourself trapped in the house as the ghosts of the past come to life. Through a series of survival-based vignettes, you must try to outlast some of the horror stories that my grandmother lived through as a teenage girl, while slowly learning about how the war deeply affected everyone in the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A welcoming response<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even before the release of \u201cBrukel,\u201d I have been able to showcase it, most notably at an event at the Smithsonian American Art Museum<\/a> in early August 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, playtesters have told me they appreciate its ability to engage the player through the use of modern technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of my own research, I had anticipated that older gamers would appreciate \u201cBrukel\u201d for its meaningful engagement and mature story. Those are two qualities that my research has shown are paramount to older gamers<\/a>. In particular, for my qualitative work, I met a number of older adults who deliberately sought out games that would meaningfully contribute to their interest in the post-World War II era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, an 82-year-old Belgian man told me<\/a>, \u201cI barely remember the Second World War but I was a child back then. What I remember is extremely vivid, though. The lights, the bombings, the noise. Airplanes flying over our house and being shot down. I can still see it. It was an adventure, and I relive that adventure by playing games about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, another Belgian man, aged 62, explained<\/a>, \u201cI recently went to Normandy; it is amazing to visit places in games that you can later on visit in real life. You have never been there but you know the place from the game. They can be so realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, I had not expected the response that \u201cBrukel\u201d received from children. At the Smithsonian event, people from all age groups \u2013 including pre-kindergartners and octogenarians \u2013 played \u201cBrukel.\u201d As a group, pre-teens turned out to be most engaged with the game, spending the most time playing it and even returning multiple times over the two-day event to play it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I spoke with the parents of these young gamers, the general theme of their response was that they loved how engaged their children were with \u201cBrukel\u201d while learning about history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One parent told me, \u201cThey\u2019re going to play video games regardless, so it\u2019s great that they\u2019re drawn to something educational.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another parent who said his child was on the autism spectrum and had trouble concentrating in school praised \u201cBrukel\u201d for its ability to engage with his son. He said his son was more comfortable learning through playing the game because he was familiar with using a keyboard and mouse, which he found far less stressful than being in a classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence that many of these gaminiscing projects are centered around war. The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be in 2020; as those who faced its terrors firsthand die, the stories of their experiences are fading away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The risk \u2013 and my concern \u2013 is that society collectively will forget the lessons and the promises of \u201cnever again<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Manz3.jpg.jpg\")
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