I can easily say that Tropico 5 has been my favorite game we’ve played in this course. I found myself invested in the storyline and the humorous aspect that overall created a fun gaming experience. Unfortunately, this general enjoyment does not transfer over to wishing to use it in a classroom setting. I can see myself playing this game after this course is over in my spare time, but I would not introduce this to my students as an educational tool.
Before I discuss the negative parts and oversights I feel this game makes, I first want to talk about the positive gameplay that I experienced and how this game caught my interest. I can admit that I’m not the best with picking up game mechanics, which has always been a frustrating start to my gameplay with our other games this semester. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case with Tropico 5. This game has a very extensive tutorial mode that teaches you the mechanics thoroughly and leaves little confusion. The only part I had trouble with was when certain buildings or plantations required placement near other facilities, but the game did not tell me this until after I spent the money and placed the building already. This was a minimal problem because the tutorial gives you a large amount of money so you can make mistakes and learn. The tutorial also had arrows that pointed out where to find things in order to complete your tasks. This tutorial helped build my confidence when I started the actual campaign gameplay.
From the beginning of the game, you quickly realize that the game is very humorous, which I was not expecting since the topic of dictators is often discussed in a serious manner apart from dark comedies like The Dictator and The Interview, which are definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. The dialogue, puns, references to dark topics, and the general humorous atmosphere made the game entertaining and made me and those around me laugh as we shared our gameplay with each other. I never thought I would enjoy building up and maintaining a dictatorship in a game, but the environment the game created did just that. As I saw my island growing and having conflicts with both the royal powers and the rebels, I was excited to continue and see how the game would progress. This has been the game that I felt the most invested in and I would credit this fact partly to the funny nature of the game. In retrospect, my enjoyment of simulating a dictatorship may not be the best effect, but some games that are historically based are simply meant for entertainment and have little to no educational value. I believe this to be the case for this game.
After taking this class, I’m able to see the value of including historical games in my teaching repertoire. I’m also able to decipher between that that have educational value and those that do not. In Tropico 5’s case, I would put it in the latter category. This game while fun to play is not classroom appropriate for multiple reasons. First, the game in its mission to be funny uses crude language and topics. I understand that my students are high schoolers and use this language and discuss these topics themselves, but I do not want to have it intentionally in my classroom as this could create issues with the school and I personally don’t find it appropriate for a productive learning environment.
Another reason that I would not incorporate this game into my classroom is that I believe the historical inaccuracies and things left out negatively impact the game too much for there to be valuable historical questioning promoted in the classroom as McCall talks about in Gaming the Past. For instance, as discussed by Dr. Renata Keller in the video “History Respawned” there is no mention of racial issues and how this impacted revolutions. The game has you take on this almighty leadership role where you singlehandedly declare independence when in reality it was those that were oppressed by society and the crown’s rule that started independence movements like the Creole elite who were not allowed to have governor positions due to their racial background. The game also fails to discuss how independence movements around the world like the Haitian slave revolts and the American revolution influenced both those in power and those that wanted independence. These successful revolutions spurred on others and warned those in power that their reign could fall. These aspects are very important when discussing independence movements and I feel that incorporating a game that leaves out these crucial events into my curriculum would be doing a disservice to my students.
The most I could see using Tropico 5 would be having them play it for one or two class periods and then having them discuss the problems such as the ones I have mentioned and other ones as well. This activity would promote critical thinking, but I would prefer using that time to read and analyze primary sources that have more academic value and give a variety of perspectives about the movements, which this game completely lacks. These sources would include the real-world accounts from the revolutionaries and those in power, instead of the hypothetical scenarios that have some but not enough historical basis that we see in Tropico 5.
Overall I enjoyed the game, but can only see myself using it for recreation rather than as an educational tool.
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