Is our children learning? I think the answer is no.
Like most people with even a fraction of an education, I enjoyed the level in Call of Duty 4 taking place in post-meltdown Chernobyl because of the accurate and realistic portrayal of the barren, radioactive landscape.
Chernobyl is a city in Russia where a nuclear power plant exploded in 1986. It was one of the largest disasters of the modern era. Hundreds of square miles are still radioactive over 20 years later, thousands of people died from the radioactivity from the waste seeping from the nuclear reactor. It's estimated that over 500,000 people have been seriously affected. Mutations, radiation poisoning, deformed offspring.
I didn't know that anybody didn't know that. Even if you don't know about it because of its significance in human tragedy or engineering failure, you know about it because everybody else knows about it. Almost everybody.
Recently, someone posted some photos from Chernobyl to compare them to Call of Duty 4 screenshots. Then, as is the most proper thing to do, someone put the photos on YouTube with a Linkin Park song over it to post it in
this nextgenboards thread. The reactions, and the replies, have destroyed a special part of the inside of my brain.
People have no idea what Chernobyl is.Here's one early reply:
OMFG what scary yet brilliant story those pics as well the game or at least some off the levels must be set here
Alright, that doesn't count as a logical sentiment or thought, so maybe it's just "first post" syndrome. Lets keep reading...
wow walking thru there must be cool, after you played the game. Might
make you think your really in the game lol, but thats cool they used
real places
Awesome. The only connection to one of man's greatest disasters is that it would remind you of a video game level.
Yeah worst part its radioactive. So u can die. But i would go there to be like Dam.
Yes. I too would go there to be like Dam. Though, I don't think the worst part is that it's radioactive; I think that's the
only part.
The next reply:
creppy, is it really radioactive? if so, why?
Don't let your heads explode just yet, he is quickly educated:
The reactor melted down. and spilled it in the air. so everyone had to leve.
*boom*
I love to think that video games are helping to educate our youngsters, (everything I know about guns I learned from gaming...) but this is taking it a little far. It's
Chernobyl for crying out loud. What are our public schools doing? Do people know that the events surrounding previous Call of Duty games (World War II) actually happened, too? Perhaps
The Daily Show would have to do a bit about Chernobyl before today's youth would become aware of it.
Granted, this might not represent an accurate sample of our population, but not a single person in that forum seemed to have any idea that Chernobyl is a real place with a real meltdown. I think perhaps a few hours every day browsing Wikipedia articles should be mandatory.
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Just in case you missed this posting over at Larry Hyrb's blog or at Xbox.com, Microsoft has confirmed that Live's poor holiday service was indeed due to a record-setting number of gamers online simultaneously and that the company will be offering compensation for all Live members (that be silver and gold) in the form of a free Live arcade game. 
Regarding those nasty Xbox Live issues that 
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