Archive
Essay on Through the Darkest of Times up on Play the Past
My two-part essay on Paintbucket Games Through the Darkest of Times is now published on Play the Past. This essay uses the historical problem space framework to analyze the game. Let me know what you think.
Through the Darkest of Times’ Historical Problem Space, Part 1 (playthepast.org)
Through the Darkest of Times’ Historical Problem Space, Part 2 (playthepast.org)
Open Teacher Letter – When Rivers Were Trails
I received this email the other day asking about using When Rivers Were Trails in a 7th grade Social Studies Class in Minnesota. The game is available for free and runs on Windows and Mac. As the developers note on the itch.io page, https://indianlandtenure.itch.io/when-rivers-were-trails, “When Rivers Were Trails is a 2D point-and-click adventure game in which Oregon Trail meets Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. An Anishinaabeg in the 1890’s is displaced from their traditional territory in Minnesota and heads west to California due to the impact of allotment acts on Indigenous communities, facing Indian Agents, meeting people from different nations, and hunting, fishing, and canoeing along the way as they balance their wellbeing.” It is a terrific game for students studying US and Native American history and present at any grade level including college. The basic lesson guidelines will work for any age/grade level; just adjust the historical research part with appropriate readings. Here is my response to the letter, with a bit of editing and expansion. For more information, see my earlier post on this game
Read more…New Article: Historical Problem Space
Game Studies, I’m very pleased to say, published my article in late September, The Historical Problem Space Framework: Games as a Historical Medium. In this essay I lay out in detail the historical problem space framework, an approach to understanding historical video games (and tabletop games, for that matter) I’ve developed over the past eight years or so. It should, I hope, provide a helpful way for thinking about and analyzing historical games for historical game fans, scholars, teachers, and designers.
GTP Designer Talk #6 – Henrik Fåhraeus, Crusader Kings II and III
Episode 6 (5/2/2020) Henrik Fåhraeus, Paradox Development Studio, Designer of many Paradox Games, talking about Crusader Kings II and the upcoming CK III
Resources
- Crusader Kings II Free on Steam
- Crusader Kings II Wiki
- Crusader Kings III Dev Diaries
GTP Designer Talk #5 – Owen Gottlieb
Episode 5 (2/2/2020) Owen Gottlieb, RIT MAGIC Spell Studios, (Lost and Found; Lost and Found Order in the Court: The Party Game)
Also on Spotify, Apple, and Google
Resources mentioned during the podcast
- Lost and Found at Gamecrafter
- Lost and Found Order in the Court: The Party Game at Gamecrafter
- The Middle Ages in the Modern World (Themamo.org)
- Gottlieb, O. (2017). Introduction: Jewish Gamevironments – Exploring Understanding with Playful Systems. Gamevironments 7, 1-4.
- Gottlieb, O. (2017) Finding Lost & Found: Designer’s Notes from the Process of Creating a Jewish Game for Learning.RIT Scholar Works.
- Gottlieb O and I Schreiber. (2018). Prosocial Religion and Games: Lost & Found. Well Played: A Journal on Video Games, Value, and Meaning 7(2), 17-41
- Gottlieb, O (2018). Re-playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games to Teach Religious Legal Systems. Teaching Theology & Religion
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/teth.12453
Civilization Series Bibliography
UPDATE (1/26): This bibliography has been superseded by the main GTP bibliography I maintain, with a section on Civilization. I’m adding new entries there.
Enough interest in research about the Civilization series pops up every so often, that I thought a quick bibliography might be helpful to refer to. I have more to add, but here’s a good start.
Burns, A. (2002). Civilization III: Digital game-based learning and macrohistory simulations. Retrieved from http://www.alexburns.net/Files/CivilizationIII.pdf
Capps, K. (2016) What Civilization VI Gets Wrong about Civilization. Citylab. https://www.citylab.com/life/2016/10/what-civilization-vi-gets-wrong-about-civilization/504653/
Chapman, A. (2013). Is SId Meier’s Civilization History? Rethinking History 17(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642529.2013.774719
Ford. D. (2016)“eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate”:Affective Writing of Postcolonial History and Education in Civilization V. Game Studies, 16. http://gamestudies.org/1602/articles/ford
Koebel, G. (2017). Simulating the ages of man: Periodization in Civilization V and Europa Universalis IV. Loading … , 10(17), 60-76. (available online)
Lammes, S. (2010). Postcolonial Playgrounds: Games as Postcolonial Cultures. Eludamos 4(1): 1-6. https://eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/view/vol4no1-1/149
MacQuarrie, A. (2018). All Rise and No Fall: How Civilization Reinforces a Dangerous Myth. Rock Paper Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/03/15/all-rise-and-no-fall-how-civilization-reinforces-a-dangerous-myth/
Quick Educator Review – When Rivers Were Trails
Just tweeted a thread on the videogame, When Rivers Were Trails, which was developed by a partnerships between the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and Michigan State University’s Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab. https://indianlandtenure.itch.io/when-rivers-were-trails… by lead designer Elizabeth LaPensée, PhD. and lead artist Weshoyot Alvitre (and many others).
Then I thought I would put this on GTP and, at the same time, experiment with a different short review style for the blog)
What it is: A FREE, beautifully illustrated, choice-based interactive text for Mac and PC with just a bit of a resource model. Players read about the main character and make choices by clicking on the relevant text with the mouse. The player character has three main attributes affected by gameplay: a medicine and food inventory and a level of wellbeing that can increase and decrease. Navigation across the map is carried out by clicking on a simple compass rose. According to the introduction to the game on itch.io:
“An Anishinaabeg in the 1890’s is displaced from their traditional territory in Minnesota and heads west to California due to the impact of allotment acts on Indigenous communities, facing Indian Agents, meeting people from different nations, and hunting, fishing, and canoeing along the way as they balance their wellbeing.” In short, the game offers a different, less-often seen perspective on the suffering, resistance, and adaptation of indigenous people in response to the US policies of forcibly seizing indigenous land and forcing indigenous peoples to relocate and re-start in places far from their homes.
Rough but useable – Roman Republic Political Competition Game
This is a quick game I threw together to teach about Roman politics and political competition in the Republic. This assumes you’re familiar with those topics. I’m just posting it in case anyone is interested. Also please note that this is not tested and so you should feel free to change any numbers to improve the outcomes.
UPDATE 11/22/19: New record sheet all made to fit on one sheet of paper
Roman Political RnR Game Onesheet
Give each student a piece of paper with this record sheet or a replica. (Note: use Roman Political RnR Game Onesheet for an updated printable pdf)
Interactive History Class 2019 – Teacher’s Log #3 (Week of 10/21)
Disclaimer: often shockingly little/ sometimes no proofreading; just trying to get the ideas out fast and frequently for those interested
In the second teacher’s log, I wrapped with a historical problem space diagram for “Courtisans [sic] of Versailles.” I received solid analytical papers from the class; we talked about them, then moved on to the meat of the French Revolution itself and playing Polyslash’s We. The Revolution (Steam & Good Old Games.)
And then, we got bogged down. Partly because it was my first time teaching this permutation of Interactive History and the first time I had taught the Revolution in years. Partly because of the complicated beast that is, We. The Revolution. I’ve learned some lessons in the process that hopefully will be helpful.
First, the parts where I’d like to improve. If we study games about the French Revolution again next year, I need to cut the lengthy classes on the early years of the Revolution (1789 – 1791) and focus on the years 1792 – 1794 where the events of the games are
GTP Designer Talk 4 – Richard Bodley Scott
In this episode I talk with designer Richard Bodley Scott about his ancient battle game, Field of Glory 2.
Richard is an active participant on the Slitherine forums, so you can reach him via https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=477
Field of Glory 2 is available at Slitherine https://www.slitherine.com/game/field-of-glory-ii
and Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/660160/Field_of_Glory_II/
Reviews and Commentary
- Bill Gray’s Wargamer.com Review
- Tim Stone’s Rock Paper Shotgun – Flare Path Action Report
- Harley’s BigBossBattle.com
- Tj Denzer’s Gamewatcher.com
- Three Moves Ahead (Podcast) Episode 409
GTP Designer Talks
Interviews with designers of historical video games. Posted here and on Spotify , Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
Gaming the Past 