Gaming the Past

Over the past few months I have been mulling over some ideas for a set of talks I’m giving in the winter and spring for students, teachers, and parents on historical video games and gameplay as historying, the ways they represent the past, and the importance of a critical perspective.

As part of this, I’ve just started gathering, for my own research, articles written online about historical video games with interpretations and assumptions about the past that cause controversies and issues for present day gamers.

Disclaimer: I have not read most of these articles yet, but my criterion was basically longer form analytical essays (as opposed to news reports)of historical games that portray the past in controversial ways for the present. The current batch ranges from the diversity of people in past societies, to the portrayal of certain political, social groups, and/or cultural groups to the representation of nuclear weapons. I’m barely scratching the surface here and would love to update this with more articles and links (send me anything you think would fit the bill)

Bias Disclaimer: I stand for equity, inclusion, compassion, respect, and decency. My selections hopefully reflect that.

Analytical Essays

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Historical Video Games 

• The Curious Expedition, now has a demo for its browser based version. This game of European exploration in the Age of Imperialism has been used in history classes successfully. The browser based version will make the game even more accessible.
• Dead in Vinland, A survival strategy game with adventure/murder mystery elements set in a Viking settlement on a strange isle.
• Hard Ancient Life (Q4 2018) – “Hard Ancient Life is a city-building economic strategy taking place in the Nile Valley. Immerse yourself in a world full of pyramids, where you will become a part of the ancient world. Create history, be history!”
• Imperator: Rome – Paradox interactive just announced it is developing a game set in the 4th – 1st centuries BCE Mediterranean. Out for release in 2019
• March to Glory, – “March to Glory is a turn-based strategy game that takes you through the Napoleonic wars with a new strategic and challenging gameplay, full of interesting mechanics combined with thrilling combat.”
• One Hour, One Life – If I understand correclty, not a historical game, but rather focused on how modern humans, deprived of all technology, would rebuild civilization. One lifespan takes 1 hour of gametime, it’s multiplayer, and remains of human civilizations built during the game can be used by incoming players. So it sounds to me like a potentially excellent and creative way to think about the neolithic revolution and rise of civilizations.
• Reflexio – An archaeology game on itch.io. “Play as Laura Kraft and investigate the mystery of an archaeological site. In this exploration-and-puzzles video game, you’ll have to travel the ancient ruins, looking for time-lost archaeologists and artifacts hidden in the scenery. “
• Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia
• Walden, A Game — Designed by the USC Innovation Lab (Walden game website here), Walden is a first person open world sim of Thoreau’s efforts to live self-reliantly.

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For this second post in a series, Adam Chapman and I dig deeper, continuing to discuss the ideas of historical authenticity in historical video games and debating whether the games like Wolfenstein 2: New Order and Call of Duty: World War II are really comparably historical games when doing this kind of analysis.

For the first in this series go here

Jeremiah: In our last post you ended by asking the question: Does your separation into two types of simulation approaches help us determine when a game is an interesting and at least somewhat defensible model of the past or just a rubber ball?

Adam: Again, I think the answer to this is one of those ‘yes and no’ responses that we academics are so frustratingly fond of. For me, the idea of the realist/conceptual framework is to describe the style of representation of historical games. Does it attempt to show us the past as it claims it appeared to agents (realist)?  Or does it aim to tell us about the past by mainly using abstraction (e.g. rules, menus, maps, text, charts, tables) and therefore representing discourse about that past (conceptual)? So for me, the framework is an effort to categorise the styles of representation we find

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Here’s the list for March.

Historical Video Games 

• Check Your 6! — Turn-based game of aerial battles in World War 2
• Mewilo – Give this proposed game and website a look. It represents a game about historical Martinique, surely not a commonly found topic in historical games. Says the creators, “You are transported in 1900, in the tumultuous past of an island of the Antilles, the Martinique,”  and that this game as “an unprecedented reconstruction work allowsus to rediscover the atmosphere of this city nicknamed ‘the little Paris of the West Indies’ or ‘the tropical Venice’.”
• Northgard – A Viking themed game that the designers say is based on Norse mythology and focuses on the discovery of a new land and competition to control it.

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Here’s the list for February. A lot of games, including the controversial Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the uncommonly focused Nantucket (19th century whaling), and the potentially very classroom-useful Neolithic: First City States. Some excellent essays and podcasts; really all kinds of materials. Enjoy!

Historical Video Games 

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition — An updated version for Windows 10 of a watershed commercial history game, first released in 1997. Currently only available through the Windows store, but there is some buzz that it will be available on Steam. See T.J. Hafer and Marcello Perricone’s articles below
• Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt— Lots of excitement for this, a violence-free tourist mode where players can explore the 3D world of late Ptolemaic Egypt, meet historical figures, and learn about material culture. This is a free update for those who own AC: Origins, but also can be purchased separately.  Be aware this will take a good graphics card to run well. See John Hopley’s essay below.
• Check Your 6! — Turn-based game of aerial battles in World War 2
• Fields of Glory 2: Legions Triumphant expansion— An expansion (must own the main FoG2) focused on the Roman Empire and its foes from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus (476 CE)

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I was very pleased to have the chance to be on the latest episode (189) of The Game Design Round Table talking about my work with history games and even my amateur game designs for class. http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/