Gaming the Past

Theory, design, research,and use of historical games in and beyond history education. Look here for links to current research, lists of available historical video games, reviews, and essays on a variety of topics connected to historical games. Created and maintained by Jeremiah McCall (jmc.hst@gmail.com; @gamingthepast), teacher, historian, researcher, and author of Gaming the Past

See the home page for essays and news on historical games.
Browse the content pages for articles and links to historical games.
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History and Game Links April – June 2019

July 7, 2019 Jeremiah McCall 1 comment

Historical Video Games

China: Mao’s Legacy, Steam blurb: “Year 1976, the stormy Cultural revolution has died down, hard times of hongweibing and public critics are coming to an end. Old and sick Mao Zedong will soon leave China to his comrades from CPC. The Cold War is coming into a new phase…
Crusader Kings, Iron Century, The latest update (and free) for Paradox’s strategy/role-playing/diplomacy game set in the Medieval period. Iron Century starts players in the 10th century.
Dawn of Man Steam blurb: “Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.”
- 3MA Podcast
Fort Sumter: The Secession Crisis. A well-received port of Mark Herman’s board game of the same name. Steam blurb: “Can you drive the Secessionist into the Fort Sumter trap that gave Lincoln his historic victory? Can you successfully use the issue of States Rights to divide Northern opinion? Fort Sumter let’s you explore this seminal moment in American history in a fast-playing, easy-to-learn card driven game.”

Categories: link lists

GTP Designer Talk 2 – Jon Shafer

July 3, 2019 Jeremiah McCall Leave a comment

Categories: GTP Designer Talks Podcast

GTP Designer Talk 1 – Soren Johnson

July 3, 2019 Jeremiah McCall Leave a comment

Categories: GTP Designer Talks Podcast

GTP Designer Talk Podcast #2: Jon Shafer of Civilization V and At the Gates

July 3, 2019 Jeremiah McCall Leave a comment

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Jon Shafer designer of Civilization V and through his Conifer Games, At the Gates , about a variety of topics related to history and historical game design. If opportunities continue for more of these GTP Designer Talks, I will get a Google Play, Apple Play, Spotify setup. For now you can follow the link to my Google Drive and download the mp3 on your player or listen to it here on the site.

Follow this link to my Google Drive for the mp3 file, to download it for listening on your phone/player

or listen right here here:

Categories: Interviews Tags: At the Gates, Civilization V, Historical Game Design, Jon Shafer

A Brief Intro Letter to US History Teachers

July 1, 2019 Jeremiah McCall 2 comments

Taking a page from Emily Short and Chris Klimas’ blog playbooks, I was recently responding to a request from a teacher for suggestions using games for the first time in a college introductory-level US History survey courses\. I get requests like this every so often, and I’m delighted when new people find my work. I realized, though, I should probably post my suggestions on Gaming the Past for others to, hopefully, benefit from. So I polished it just a little bit, and here it is.

If you have more questions or want to dig deeper, I’m always willing to help out: jmc.hst@gmail.com

Thanks for your email. It’s always a pleasure to talk shop about these things and find that someone has interest in the work I do. I’m assuming from your email this is first-year US History? … I’m just going to get started there …

So first off, let me stress that, I think, the goal is to get students learning about historical systems and actors’ choices within systems (Historical problem spaces), but I also think the goal is to get them to use their historical knowledge by actively critiquing any game they play using the evidence of class notes and readings. So, having a historically accurate game (a problematic concept anyway because we are constantly revising and shifting and challenging historical interpretations in the field) is not the goal per se. Rather the sweet spot is a game that presents some reasonable propositions about the past (past systems and past problem spaces) but also is problematic in some more and less subtle ways. That way students engage and exercise their ability to critique, not just passively learn from a source of authority: textbook, article, lecture etc.

Categories: Practical advice, Uncategorized Tags: Teacher Guide, US History

We. The Revolution

June 28, 2019 Jeremiah McCall 2 comments

I should begin by noting that, despite its length, this is far from a complete review of all aspects of Polyslash’s French-Revolution-themed game, We. The Revolution. It is difficult to describe and review concisely as a historical game, and I have only played through the first act, the first 20 days, perhaps some 25 hours with restarts. New systems and mechanics continue to appear.

Not a criticism. Far from it. Ultimately, I am sincerely impressed with WTR. Opinions will vary about the enjoyability of the game (and I encourage readers to read a mainstream games media review when considering playing purely for enjoyment: Anthony Marzano at Destructoid and Robert Purchese at Eurogamer both offer good reviews): is it too linear? are some of the mechanics insufficiently clear and in need of more development? does the quality of voice acting detract too much from the game? What kind of game is it anyway?

Categories: reviews Tags: French Revolution, Political Games

Interview: Matthieu Brevet, Steel Division II

May 18, 2019 Jeremiah McCall 2 comments

Recently, I had the opportunity to pose a list of questions about history and games to Matthieu Brevet, historian and game designer at Eugen Systems, makers of both historical and counterfactual strategy games such as R.U.S.E., the Wargame series, and Steel Division: Normandy 44. Eugen is finishing up production as lead designer of the WW2 real-time strategy game, Steel Division II. The game releases on Steam June 20, 2019, and is available for pre-purchase now.

Jeremiah McCall: Hi Matthieu. Thank you so much for your willingness to talk about your work as a designer of historical video games. There are a number of us who study and talk about historical games as kinds of history, and your insights as a professional designer are invaluable.

Can you, for readers’ sakes, tell us a little about yourself, the work you’ve done in game design, and your current project?

Matthieu: I’m 40 and I’ve been (very) briefly a high school History teacher while studying & obtaining a PhD in Napoleonic History. Since then, I’ve been combining my passion for History with my other one for strategy videogames by working at Eugen Systems. First as a game designer (RUSE, Wargame: European Escalation & AirLand Battle), associate producer (Wargame: Red Dragon, Act of Aggression & Steel Division: Normandy 44) and now lead game designer (Steel Division 2).