Oregon Trail has a certain rustic charm and probably evokes nostalgia for many. The game doesn’t rely on fancy graphics or functions to provide entertainment, but is based heavily on chance and the user’s own decisions. In a way, it is similar to gambling as you take risks and choose how to spend your time, food, and money, and it is the user’s own internal dissonance that fuels the pleasure and frustrations that accompany the game. It is not surprising that this was one of the most played computer games of this time when we consider this, as it was also probably one of the first role-playing games in which a user could “choose their own adventure.” Other games of this time were not story-based as low resolution graphics can be discouraging when you have a particular vision, and thus Oregon Trail would have been set apart in this way. It doesn’t need fancy visuals to hold up on its own, which is why people of today who are so used to high-fidelity and beautiful animations can still find the joy in it.
