Educational value of video games

I have recently been playing a zombie survival game called State of Decay.  It's an older game from a few years ago but was recently redone and released as State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition (YOSE).  It's not the typical zombie survival game.  Yes you kill zombies, but there is a lot more to it.

One of the things that made me think it might be a useful tool was that you need to manage a good number of things in the game.  You have a survivors group and a camp.  The initial camp is at a church in a small neighborhood.  You have people and you need resources.  There are ways to have the radio operator help find specific resources.  Have some of your survivors help you scavenge, or perform upgrades to the base.

Surviving any sort of long term emergency situation is a matter of resource management.  People, water, food, ammunition.  We manage most of our lives with our computers and smart phones now, but if those things aren't going to be available what will you use?  The game imagines this is a journal, a little notebook where you keep track of the people in your group, your resources, and important events. 

Part of the resource management is telling you how much or a certain resource you have, the maximum amount you can keep on hand easily, and how much you're consuming per day.  The game breaks it down into just a few things.  Food, Ammo, Medical Supplies, Building Supplies, and Fuel.  So it's fairly simplified, but it works for the game.

I started thinking about how this sort of resource management might work in a real life situation.  Obviously it might be hard to know how much of something you have, but there are some things that you will be able to tally easily.  Water, you generally know how much a person needs per day.  Food might be a little trickier, but you can certainly get a general idea.  Is it enough to know how much of something you have, I think so in some cases.  Take fuel and ammo.  You probably don't know your daily consumption of fuel, except perhaps for a generator.  Ammo might just be a matter of keeping an accurate count of usage.  Granted, in the heat of a conflict counting bullets might not be on your priority list, but certainly afterward you will be able to take a count and know your consumption if you knew your load out.

Another thing about the game is that things are spaced far enough apart and your carrying capacity is small enough that you will need to use the many cars that are in the game world.  They can be a formidable weapon against zombies, but doing this (or driving badly like I did early on) damages the vehicles.  There are ways you can make repairs, or just leave that flaming truck on the side of the road and take the next car.  But in a real life situation, how will you take the next car.  In the game they're mostly unlocked and apparently have the keys in the ignition.  Obviously not how it is in the real world....usually.

So there it is.  State of Decay has given me a few more things to think about with regard to a long term emergency situation.  If you like video games, and even if you don't, it might be worth checking out.  Remember, surviving the zombie apocalypse isn't just about killing zombies.

What ways have you thought of for keeping track and managing your resources?  Let me know in the comments.