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isacsJeremiah McCall (jmc.hst@gmail.com; @gamingthepast) is a leading expert on the use of historical games in history education and on games as a form of history. He has taught high school history for 24 years, mostly at Cincinnati Country Day School. His first professional love is high school teaching, especially designing instructional approaches that will guide students to think as experts in disciplines. He is also a researcher/designer of learning environments that effectively incorporate simulation games to encourage critical inquiry in history. Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History (Second Edition Routledge 2022) is his book on the subject. He has authored several articles and book chapters about the medium of historical games in and outside of the history class. and the impact of the medium on history education. In addition, McCall is a practicing historian and has an MA and PhD in ancient history from the Ohio State University. He continues to write on topics in Roman history. He wrote The Cavalry of the Roman Republic (Routledge 2001), The Sword of Rome: A Biography of Marcus Claudius Marcellus (Pen and Sword 2011),  Swords and Cinema: Hollywood vs. the Reality of Ancient Battle (Pen and Sword 2015), and, most recently, Clan Fabius, Defenders of Rome: A History of the Republic’s Most Illustrious Family (Pen and Sword 2018). His most recent Roman History, Rivalries that Destroyed the Roman Republic, was first published by Pen & Sword in autumn of 2022.

He continues to teach history at Cincinnati Country Day School and continues to research, write, and speak about the effective use of video games in the classroom and the medium of historical simulation games as a form of historical interpretation.

Books, Articles, and Chapters on Video Games and History

Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History. Second Edition. Routledge 2022.

“History Games.” The Encyclopedia of ludic Terms https://eolt.org/articles/history-games 2022

“Digital Legionaries: Video Game Simulations of the Face of Battle in the Republic” in C. Rollinger, ed. Playing with the Ancient World: Representations of Antiquity in Video Games,  Bloomsbury 2020.
“Historical Video Games as Participatory Public History,” in D. Dean ed., A Companion to Public History, Wiley, 2018.
Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History. Routledge, 2011. (Amazon Link)

“Path of Honors: Towards a Model for Interactive History Texts with Twine.” Epoiesen, 2018 (Link)

  • Angus Mol, “Path of Honors: First Response” (Link)
  • Marc Suarette, “Path of Honors: Second Response” (Link)

“Teaching History with Digital Historical Games: An Introduction to the Field and Best Practices,” Simulation and Gaming 2016 (Online at SAGE)

“Navigating the Problem Space: The Medium of Simulation Games in the Teaching of History,” The History Teacher 2012

“Historical Simulations as Problem Spaces: Criticism and Classroom Use,” Journal of Digital Humanities 2012 (original at the Journal of Digital Humanities)

“Simulation Games and the Study of the Past: Classroom Guidelines,” in PastPlay: Teaching and Learning History With Technology 2014

“Using Games in the Classroom,” by Jennifer Groff, Jeremiah McCall, Paul Darvasi, and Zack Gilbert in Learning, Education and Games Volume Two: Bringing Games into Educational Contexts 2016

Video and Podcasts: Interviews and Talks

Studying Pixels Episode 54 (October 23, 2022) Games as Historical Problem Spaces (with Jeremiah McCall) https://studyingpixels.com/games-as-historical-problem-spaces-with-jeremiah-mccall/

Distillations Podcast (Science History Institute) Episode 282 | August 10, 2021 Interview https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/podcast/interview-with-jeremiah-mccall

“Agents and Obstacles: Videogames as Historical Problem Spaces” (May 2021) Historical Problem Space Talk in Helsinki 5/19/21 – YouTube

“USP Arise Project Interview: Historical Game Studies and Games in History Education” (March 2021) (ARISE – Entrevista – Jeremiah McCall – YouTube)

“Civilization IV and V as Gamic Histories” (April 2020) (Jeremiah McCall – Civilization IV and V as Gamic Histories – YouTube)

Playing with the Past: History and Video Games (CCDS Speaks 2019) News Posts – Cincinnati Country Day

Crafting Interactive Histories: Twine and Choice-Based Interactive Historical Texts (Sept. 2017) Crafting Interactive Histories: Twine and Choice-Based Interactive Historical Texts – YouTube

“Video Games as Public History and in the History Class” (April 2018) (Video Games as Public History and in the History Class – YouTube)

Gaming the Past Designer Talks Podcast

A series of conversations with designers of historical games about how they approach history and developing historical games.

Episodes 1-6 are out (Soren Johnson of Civilization IV and 10 Crowns; Jon Shafer of Civilization V and At the Gates; Philippe Malacher of Field of Glory Empires; Richard Bodley Scott of Field of Glory 2; Owen Gottlieb of Lost and Found; and Henrik Fahraeus of Crusader Kings 2 and 3)

Spotify; Google Play; Apple Podcasts

PlaythePast Essays

“Through the Darkest of Time’s Historical Problem Space: Part 1”(Playthepast.org)

“Through the Darkest of Time’s Historical Problem Space: Part 2”(Playthepast.org)

“An Introduction to Historical Problem Spaces” (Playthepast.org)

“Twine Teacher Diary” 2016 (here, Playthepast.org)

“Meaningful Choices (Twine Developer Diary),” 2016 (here, Playthepast.org)

“A Teacher’s Design Notes: Using Civilization IV to Teach about Agrarian Societies,” (here, Playthepast.org)

“Twine, Inform, and Designing Interactive History Text” (here, Playthepast.org )

“Historical Simulations as Problem Spaces: Some Guidelines for Criticism, ” 2012 (here,  Playthepast.org  )

“Problem Spaces Part 2: The History Class (here, Playthepast.org)

“Hegemony: Philip of Macedon and the Inspiration of Simulation Games,” 2012 (here, Playthepast.org)

“The Unexamined Game is Not Worth Playing?” 2010 (here, Playthepast.org)

“The Happiness Metric in CivCity Rome and the Critique of Simulation Games,” 2010  (here, Playthepast.org)

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Books and Articles on Ancient History

Rivalries that Destroyed the Roman Republic. Pen and Sword 2022

Clan Fabius, Defenders of Rome: A History of the Republic’s Most Illustrious Family. Pen and Sword 2018.
Review: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019.4.17, , John Henderson

The Manipular Army System and Command Decisions in the Second Century BCE, “ in M. Fronda and J. Armstrong. eds. Romans at War, Routledge, 202

Swords and Cinema: Hollywood vs. the Reality of Ancient Warfare. Pen and Sword, 2014. (Amazon Link)
The Sword of Rome: A Biography of Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Pen and Sword, 2012. (Amazon Link)

The Cavalry of the Roman Republic: Cavalry Combat and Elite Reputations in the Middle and Late Republic. Routledge, 2002. (Amazon Link)

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Gaming the Past Essays

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Teachinghistory.org Essays on Practical Implementation

In 2012, I wrote a series of essays for the Center for History and New Media (CHNM)’s Teachinghistory.org. These are intended to be short practical guidelines for teachers who want to implement lessons integrating historical games, a highly condensed version of ideas in the book, Gaming the Past.

Using Simulation Games in the History Classroom (pt. 1)

Evaluating Simulation Games for Classroom Use (pt. 2)

Structuring Lesson Plans Using Simulation Games (pt. 3)

Activities and Assessments for Simulation Games  (pt. 4)

Evaluative Activities and Assessments for Simulation Games (pt. 5)

Historical Problem Spaces (pt. 6)

Review of Mission US: For Crown or Colony

Presentations

Peer-Reviewed

“Gaming the Past (and Present): A Practical Approach to Using Video Games in History and Social Studies Classes.” Presented at the University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning, and Society Educators Symposium, June 2012.

“Serious Games and Global Issues: A Practical Implementation of Simulation Games in the High School Social Studies Classroom.” Presented at the University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning, and Society Conference, June 2011.

“Crafting Worlds of Text: The Basics of Inform for Classroom Teachers.” Presented at the University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning, and Society Conference, June 2011.

“Recreating Past Worlds: An Approach to Student-Designed, Text-Based History Simulations.” Presented at the University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning, and Society Conference, July 2008.

“Historical Games as Simulations: The Case of Rome Total War.” Presented at the University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning, and Society Conference, July 2006.

Invited

Keynote: “All the Theory and Optimism in the World Won’t Get Me through the Next 50 Minutes of Class! Game- and Simulation-Based Learning in Practice.” Presented at the University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning, and Society Educators Symposium, July 2012.

“Gaming the Past (and Present): Approaches to Using Video Games in History and Social Studies Education.” Presented at the ISACS Annual Conference, November 2011.

Keynote: “How Educational Research Can Inform Practice: Games and Learning in History.” Presented at the  Transactions between Research and Practice Summit of the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services. April, 2011

“Practicing History in the High School Classroom.” Presented for the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Meeting, March 2006.

Panelist: Case studies on the use of Civilization III in the history classroom. (YouTube video) M.I.T. Education Arcade, May 2005.

“Rubrics: The New “R” in Education.” Presented for the OhioAssociation of Independent Schools Annual Meeting, October 2004.

Classroom Experience with Simulation Games

A partial list of my classroom experiences with simulation games ranging from courses I have designed, to games and game design tools I have tested in the class

Courses focused on game analysis and/or design

Seminars and Simulations: The French Revolution; Seminars and Simulations: The Roman Republic; Serious Games and Global Issues; Serious Game Design; Designing Historical Simulations

(Some) Digital Simulation Games Used

Civilization III; Civilization IV; Stronghold 2; CivCity: Rome; Imperium Romanum; Crusader Kings; East India Company; The Political Machine;  Rome: Total War; Energyville; Enercities; Third World Farmer; Ayiti; CLimate Challenge

(Some) Tabletop Simulation Games Used

Settlers of Catan; Courtisans (sic) of Versailles; Diplomacy; Parthenon; Louis XIV; Revolution

Game Design Tools Used

Inform 7;  GameMaker; Flash; Scratch; Twine

jmc.hst@gmail.com