The main characters are your character(you can only play as the one character) and four additional party members. There is not much character development in any of the main characters but something I added for additional entertainment was that I named all of the party members after some of my real life friends. Other than that you don't learn about any characters personality. You only really learn about their health status. This led me to feel some level of personal responsability for each party member. The NPC's (non playable characters) that you interact with are ones that you trade with or the Native Americans who can guide you while you cross rivers.The only time that you talk to NPC's are during trades or talking to them to get additional information for the game. You can't really be "friends" with any NPC's.
The graphics in the game are kept fairly simple and there is only a little music
incorporated in the game. Music mainly occurs when the game updates you on trail
conditions and someone dies. The music pieces that play are mainly short pieces. All of
the music that plays fits the theme of the game by ususlly incorporating instruments
like a fiddle. As for scenery, the most that you could explore at one time is during
hunting. The player can scan across the fields to find animals but other than that the
player is limited in what they can see on the screen at one time. The setup of the game
looks like this:
The world of Oregon Trail is pretty limited. However,the issues that you run into as a player are many. For example, parts of your wagon can break which can cost you time to get there. An important item that is important to always have are spare wagon parts. This will prevent you from getting physically "stuck" in the game. Members on the trail(including yourself) can get sick. If the player chooses to rest to help the members get better, that will also cost time.Another challenge is that you and/or the other members can die. This makes one of your main goals in the game to keep you and your members alive throughout the game. Food is also an important aspect in the game. If you run out of food your members can get sick or if you have too much food it can spoil.Ultimately, the best ways to make progress in the game are to keep a consistent amount of food,keep your members healthy and make wise choices when traveling over rivers. In doing all three of these, you become more likely to succeed in the game.
Oregon Trail was primarily created to be an educational game. The game does little to acknowledge or make jokes to the player about it being a game. Additionally,since the game does not take place in "our" world, it does little to make any social commentary on it. The only cultural issue I could possibly find was the game uses the term"Indian" as opposed to "Native American" or "Indigenous."One aspect of the game that could possibly be providing commentary on cultural issues is not having enough food or lacking accessibility to getting certain necesary items occurs from time to time.
During my first run of the game,I had not done any prior research. I bought many bullets without knowing what it they were for. I also only bought 20 pounds because I did not know how long the food would last.
I did not know that you should not ford the river if it was deep. Since I did not really know which option to pick,I just decided to risk it and go with the first option. Unfortunately,fording the river caused two of my party members to drown.
During my second run of the game, Chase,one of my party members got sick. I did not know that I could change the pace we travel which could prevent my party members from being sick all the time.
Overall,I think the game does a great job for what it was intended to be: an educational game. I learned about what it was probably like for the people who really traveled the trail. However,one aspect that I would change is that I would give the characters more personality and increase the variety of potential events that could occur.
For my kumu network I organized the color by element type,shape by role and connected them by tags.
