When I started this course, History through Gaming, I was unsure if I would enjoy it or not. Of course, I love taking history courses, but my lack of experience with gaming made me wary and worried that my lack of experience would make this course too difficult. Fortunately, this was not entirely the case. I probably had a harder time understanding the mechanics of the games than others in the class, but this helped to develop my personal perspective that historically based games should be incorporated into classrooms as a supplementary learning tool. While playing games such as Sid Meier’s Civilization 6, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Empire: Total War, and Tropico 5, I was able to experience first-hand how historically based simulation games incorporate educational features and stimulate critical thinking skills like historical questioning.
The first game we played in this course was Sid Meier’s Civilization 6. With this game, I was introduced to the positives of simulation and turn-based strategy games. The game has players build up a civilization into a world empire by managing both internal and external affairs such as resource management and alliances with other nations. The game has players strategize and make choices that greatly impact their nations as they go throughout the game and face challenges, such as enemy nations or natural disasters. This strategy-based game allows for endless possibilities in gameplay where each game would be unique. This creative liberty that both players and the game developers created does not follow a chronological or geographically accurate history, but still provides a valuable resource for the classroom. This interpretation of history within this simulation provides an opportunity for students to develop their critical thinking and historical questioning skills. (McCall, 13) Students could decipher between the events and developments within their own gameplay and how it compares to what actually happened in history with different civilizations as they try to develop into an empire. This concept of deciphering gameplay and reality would best be seen in lessons where students learn about a certain civilization they play as them within the game and see how the circumstances and resources differed and how this would lead to certain events. This use of Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 as supplementary material would enrich my students’ understanding of nation-building and all of the factors that go into it.
Another game that would help my students better understand nation-building and how nations have different resources which influence their choices would be the historically based game, Empire: Total War. This game is a simulation turn-based strategy game that takes creative liberty, but this game differs from Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 because the game map is geographically accurate and offers a more accurate depiction of how the nations were different and interacted with each other. If the game was introduced to the classroom with specific directions that had students simulate historical events, students could analyze how their gameplay was accurate and not to the actual historical event. Though the game was not made for this particular purpose, taking the educational elements of the game, and incorporating them into the curriculum gives students hand in experiences with the history that increases engagement that is entertaining, yet still productive and educational.
Games while being made initially for entertainment purposes can become educational resources used in classrooms. The proper instructions or an additional educational element are great resources to be used within the classroom. One game that follows this model of the game itself being transformed into an educational and interactive resource is Assassins’ Creed Origins. The actual gameplay is focused heavily on a fantastical narrative that the chance for students to engage with the history is limited, even though the background is fairly historically accurate. The game developers realized that their game was a great platform for students to have firsthand experiences with history, so they created an educational mode called Discovery Tours. This mode “lets players explore the world of Ancient Egypt through guided tours curated by historians & Egyptologists.” (Ubisoft) This addition helps a game that would not be used in a classroom become a valuable tool that would get students excited to engage with the material and participate in class discussions as they share what they found cool and learned through their explorations.
Not all historical-based games follow the model of being able to be incorporated into the classroom. One example of this is the final game that we played in the course, which is Tropico 5. This game like all the ones played in this course was a strategy simulation game, but this game did not provide the opportunity to interact with history or promote historical questioning like the others. This game while being very entertaining to play from a personal perspective is not fit for a classroom. This is because the humorous and creative liberty the game takes causes the discussion of dictators and revolutions to become distorted too much to promote historical questioning. The game makes light of the hardship that the oppressed faced with the dictators and refuses to acknowledge how race relations and the outside world impact revolutions. The only way I would bring this up in my classroom would be to discuss the issues with it and how media takes creative liberty in ways that can sometimes be harmful. This historical-based game does not satisfy the requirements that I have developed through this course when determining what games I would incorporate into my future classroom
The chance and desire to play historical-based games probably would not have come up naturally in my life, so I’m thankful that I got to play these games myself and test out their mechanics to figure out how I would best incorporate them into my classroom. My knowledge of historical-based games and gaming as a whole has increased to where I can pick games that best fit the classroom environment and how to use them. I look forward to using this skill when I become an educator, so I can engage my students. Incorporating resources and topics such as video games allows me to better connect with my students and give them an opportunity to better understand history using a familiar form of media. The use of historical-based games in classrooms acknowledges that education and its resources have changed in the modern age and utilizing them improves your classroom and the curriculum.