Gaming the Past

Life has a way of rushing by; here we are, and there’s been no history and games links post since mid 2018. Needless to say; this is a long one.

Historical Video Games 

• 11:11 Memories Retold Tagged as a Casual/Adventure game. Steam Blurb: “11th November 1916, a young photographer leaves Canada to join the western front in Europe. The same day, a German technician is told that his son is missing in action. Both want to preserve their humanity and come back alive to their loved ones.”
• Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
  • Holly Nielsen, The Guardian, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review–an epic journey through ancient Greece 10/11/18
  • Aron Garst, PCGamesN, “How historically accurate is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? We asked a Classics professor.”
  • Starting Point Episode 186: Odyssey and History (podcast)
• Jon Shafer’s At the Gates,  Steam Blurb: “At the Gates is an indie strategy game from Jon Shafer, designer of Civilization 5. You are a dark age lord building a kingdom to replace the crumbling Roman Empire. Manage your clans, explore the landscape around you, harvest its resources, and build a mighty economic and military machine.”
  • Dominic Tarason, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, “Jon Shafer’s At the Gates launches next month,” 12/11/18

• Comrades and Barons: Solitaire of Bloody 1919 – So it’s a solitaire card game but with the theme of the Russian Revolution. You’ll really have to see the Steam page to see how this plays out.
• Imperator: Rome – Paradox interactive’s grand strategy game set in the 4th – 1st centuries BCE Mediterranean comes out in April. It’s on my list to do a proper historical review in the Summer.
  • Fraser Brown, Rock Paper Shotgun, “Going to war in Imperator: Rome means convincing the senate.” 10/12/18.
  • Strategygamer, “Imperator: Rome — Release Date, Gameplay, Map, and Everything Else We Know!”  2/7/19
• Mission 1545, is “a stealth adventure game set in a fantastical Tudor London Underworld.”
• Open TTD An open source transport sim game
• The Return of the Obra Dinn, A “first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction” set on the Obra Dinn, a late 18th early 19th century trade ship
• Rome Aeterna Minecraft Map,
• Secrets of the Past: Dion, Steam blurb: “Become an archaeologist and lead an excavation at the ancient city of Dion! In this casual simulation game, your goal is to unearth and exhibit the real treasures of the Villa of Dionysus. Will you manage to do so before the heavy rain season?”
• Through the Darkest of Times Fall 2019. Labeled a “historical resistance strategy game,” players lead a resistance movement against the Nazis in 1933.

Historical Board Games 

• The Europa Universalis Boardgame is in active development (Aegir Games)
• Forum: Trade Empires of Rome, By Shawn Graham and Tom Brughmans. See Shawn’s piece on designing the game at his Electric Archaeology
• Pax Emancipation, By Phil Eklund. Sierra Madre Games’ description: :”Assign warships to blockade slave ports or intercept slave ships, install missions, trading posts, and colonies in foreign lands steeped in serfdom, challenge the institution of slavery on moral and legal grounds in courts, and sanction underground railroads, slave revolts and revolutions. Play in cooperative-competitive, cooperative, or solitaire modes. If victorious, you achieve the greatest political accomplishment in history: making slavery everywhere illegal.”
• This Guilty Land, By Hollandspiele Games. A game about the political conflicts over slavery in the period before the US Civil War. Two players take on the roles of two abstractions, Justice and Oppression, one furthering abolition and one opposing it. Says the designer, “It seeks to treat the subject matter with sensitivity and respect. There is no piece that represents a human being – no action that replicates the horrors and the lived experience of slavery. Instead, this is about the framework that allowed that evil to exist, and the moral cowardice that enabled it to continue to exist.”

Twine and Twine Histories

• CCDS History Twines: Caesar and Pompey from Fall 2018 Roman Republic is finally up — and it’s excellent!  Here at Gamingthepast.net

Games and History – Essays and Journal Articles from History and Games Critics, Students and Scholars

• Philip Boyes, Eurogamer.net, “Traps, treasure, and ancient tomb raiders.” 10/13/18
• Josho Brouwers, Ancient World Magazine, “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – Consulting the Oracle at Delphi”  2/14/19
• Beth Elderkin, IO9.Gizmodo, “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Living in Myth,” 11/14/18
• Shawn Graham, Electric Archaeology, “The Making of Forum: Trade Empires of Rome” 11/12/18
• Zsolt David, Heterotopias, “The Computer and the Orient – Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” 9/20/18
• Lisa Gilbert, Theory and Research in Social Studies Education, “Assassin’s Creed reminds us that history is human experience”: Students’ senses of empathy while playing a narrative video game” 1/30/19
• Alyse Knorr, Kotaku, “How Princess Peach’s Story Draws on 2000 Years of Women in Peril” 11/14/18
• Jordyn Lukomski, NYMG Feminist Game Studies, “‘Accuracy’ vs Inclusivity: Women in Historical Games” 10/5/18
• Jeremiah McCall, Gamingthepast.net, “When Games about the Past Trouble the Present.” A link list of some online analyses about video games whose portrayal of the past sparks contemporary debate.
• Jeremiah McCall, Gamingthepast.net, “Who Am I? What Am I Doing Here?: Player Agents in Historical Games” 12/30/18  My first draft of a taxonomy of four player-agent types in historical games.
• Reid McCarter, USGamer.net, “How Realistic is Yakuza 6? Behind Japan’s Long History of Crime Syndicates” 4/23/18
• Florence Smith Nicholls, Archaeogaming Zine
• Justin Reeve, Unwinnable, “History in Color” 10/11/18 On the use of colorful statues in AC: Odyssey, and the traditional misleading white marble ones in AC: Origins
• Andrew Reinhard, Archaeogaming, “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Real Archaeology,” 11/12/18
• Dan Tang, Athenian Inspector, Argument ad Antiquitatem: The Women of Rome II Incident. 11/1/18
• Jack Trumbull, Wargamer, “Game vs. History: The First Battle of Bull Run in War Games,” 11/27/18
• Robert Whitaker, Eurogamer.net. Rockstar’s History of America.  7/11/18
• Ewan Wilson, Eurogamer.net, How Brutalism Has Shaped Games. 10/23/18
• Esther Wright, Rethinking History, On the promotional context of historical video games. Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 598-608.
• Esther Wright, Bullet Points, Women Out of Date, An analysis of Red Dead Redemption 2’s portrayals of women.
• Esther Wright, History Extra, “Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Battfield V: the real history behind 3 popular video games”. 11/20/18

Games and History – Online Reviews, Commentary, and News Items from Games Media and Other Media

• Kevin T. Baker, Logic, “Model Metropolis,” “Behind one of the most iconic computer games of all time is a theory of how cities die—one that has proven dangerously influential.”
• Chris Bratt, Eurogamer.net, “Civilization 6: Gathering Storm’s climate change not a political statement, Firaxis says” 11/20/18
• Megan Farokhmanesh, The Verge, “Battlefield V fans who failed history are mad that the game has women in it.” 5/24/18
• Owen S. Good, Polygon, “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey nominated for GLAAD award despite controversial DLC.” 1/25/19
• Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku, Red Dead Redemption 2: The Kotaku Review. 10/25/18
• Emma Kent, Eurogamer.net, “11:11 Memories Retold, released today is a WW1 game about normal people pushed into extraordinary events.” 9/11/18
• Cameron Kunzelman, Waypoint, “The Nukes of ‘Fallout 76’ Are Where Power Fantasies Hit a Breaking Point”  10/12/18
• Luke Plunkett, Kotaku, “Civilization VI: The Gathering Storm: The Kotaku Review“
• Matt S., Digitallydownloaded.net, “On Bringing the Maori to Civilization VI,”
• Jason Sheehan, NPR, “Reading the Game: Walden,” 12/13/18
• Haydn Taylor, GamesIndustry.biz, “How games whitewash Nazism and the responsibility developers have to history,” 2/28/19
• Kimberley Wallace, GameInformer, “Odyssey’s RPG Design Revitalized My Love for Assassin’s Creed,” 12/26/18
• Alex Wiltshire, Rock Paper Shotgun, “How Bad North makes humans out of little soldiers” 12/4/18

Designer Insights

• Chris Bennett, “Designing for Difficult Subjects,” 12/3/18
• Jon Shafer, Jon Shafer on Design, “How At the Gates took 7 years of my life — and nearly the rest”. 1/9/19

Podcasts and Youtubes

• Jeremiah McCall, “Playing with History: Video Games and History” CCDS Facebook Video ; Slides PDF
• BackstoryRadio.org, “Playing the Past: Video Games and American History” 12/21/18
• Bob Whitaker and John Harney, History Respawned
  • Videos
    • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey 10/18 with Dr. Kate Cool
    • Crime and the Pinkertons in Red Dead Redemption 2 11/18
    • Red Dead Redemption 2 12/18 with Esther Wright
    • Fallout ’76 12/18
    • Fallout ’76 1/19
    • Battlefield V 1/19
    • History Games Class and Red Dead 2 2/19
  • Podcasts
    • Holly Nielsen on Historical Board Games and AC Odyssey 10/18
    • Red Dead Redemption 2 12/18 with Esther Wright
    • Fallout ’76 1/19
    • History Games Class and Red Dead 2 2/19
• Three Moves Ahead:
  • Episode 435: Omni vincit Roma  5/28/18 A fascinating discussion about what tropes and gameplay the idea of ancient Rome has inspired in games.
  • Episode 454: Armored Brigade 12/18
  • Episode 456: Crusader Kings 2: Holy Fury 12/18
  • Episode 461: 3 Kingdoms as a Setting 2/19

Events 

• VALUE, Leiden University, The Interactive Past 2 (TIPC) Conference 8-10 October 2018 in Beeld em Geluid, Hilversum, Netherlands. FIND THE ONLINE REPOSITORY