I enjoy video games. Before this class, I had never really considered the historical context of video games that I have played. There always seemed to be a disconnect between the game and events that happened in real life. I think that this is a barrier to historically themed video games to me.
I think that this disconnect exists because our perspective is warped from being an outside observer and being a witness. Assassins Creed is the main example of this in my mind. I had played one Assassins Creed game before and was not particularly enamored by it. I had never finished it, I didn’t once think about the history which it surrounded, and it never made me want to research the period further. This has been the case with most historically based games I have played.
Games that did make me want to learn and research more were games that had just an essence of history. By this, I mean games that may be set in particular periods but aren’t based on real places, people, or events. Examples of this are God of War V, The Witcher III, and Red Dead Redemption. These games are better historical learning tools (to me) than Assassins Creed because they are narrative-driven games first, and historically set games second. I think that Assassins Creed is the opposite, and because of this the games get too caught up in historical periods instead of creating interesting historical narratives.
I think that real-time strategy games shared a similar disconnect with Assassins Creed. I was not personally a fan of games like Civilization and Empire. I thought that the scope of these games was too large to hold my attention. I felt overwhelmed by it all. I know that there are RTS games that focus more on singular conflicts, such as the Civil War. I think that games like these with far more focus could be better for the style of game. I have always had a hard time visualizing the movement of Union and Confederate troops during the conflict, so this could be an effective learning tool.
I enjoyed the personal project wherein you found a historical game and presented it to the class. This was a cool opportunity to explore historical games both by playing them and by hearing other people’s experiences with them.
My game for the presentation was Ghost of Tsushima, which I enjoyed. It didn’t have the same disconnect as the games I’ve described previously. I think that in this case, it was due to the fact that I knew and recognized so little about the period. I did a lot of research about the period while I was playing it. I think that this is something that historical games should be focused on, shedding light on lesser-known parts of history, instead of focusing on the typical Eurocentric models of history everyone is already used to.
Another thing I liked about this project was hearing the opinions of others who presented. The majority of students in our class were not history majors. This made for an interesting dynamic for people describing their thoughts on historical video games from the perspective of different majors.
I think that this class could have benefited from the inclusion of board games and physical games. There are board games that have historical contexts, which I believe could be better implemented in classrooms than some of the video games which we played. First, most board games do not have the elicit themes that we found in so many of our games, instantly making them easier to bring into classrooms. Second, I think that because there is no AI, and everyone begins on the same playing field, it could be easier and less daunting to begin playing.
Another example of non-video historical games that I have seen and enjoyed was historical “simulations.” The example of this that I was able to see firsthand was a Cold War simulation while I was doing fieldwork this semester. Each class period had a leader, and this leader was able to be assassinated throughout the day by assassins who would try to steal their flag football flag. Each period was attempting to gain as much teacher support as they could during that time. It was super fun, and I think it was an effective tool for learning
I think that in general, this class could have benefitted by using a broader definition of games and experiencing those different games with other students.