The process of designing and creating a game is not as straightforward as one may first presume – in fact, it is a process that requires multiple reworks – any single idea will endure multiple iterations until the game is just right. In this way, games can be likened to how we understand history and historical events; a historian may uncover new information that continuously reshapes and adjusts our perceptions of the past.
Both iterative in nature, History lends itself well to the medium of video games – if video games reflect the “behavior of systems” (Fullerton and Swain, 2008), then they can effectively be used to demonstrate the politics and social norms of a previous society and culture. For example, if, in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Ubisoft, 2015), the player kills one of the Palace Guards in front of another Palace Guard, the guards would then pursue the player, reflecting the real-life attitudes of 19th Century London.
Furthermore, it could be said that the detail a Scholar could lend to a game (the intricacies of accurate lighting, furniture, architecture and art, etc.) could “put the player into a historical moment” and give them a glimpse into a time different to their own. However, a question then arises: how does a “moment” become more than just that?
In theory, there is a difference between a “scholarly game” and a game merely rooted within historical contexts – where a game with a history-rich setting may be accurate in all regards but story, more sophisticated games – those closer to an academic truth – will not only ensure the historical accuracy of architecture, characters, landscape, culture, and weapons, but will likely veer more towards simulation than action-adventure, thus can be seen as an authentic “gamic mode of history”.
For example, in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, the player may liberate children from factory work, bearing in mind the attitudes of today’s culture although this is arguably not an accurate reflection of Victorian opinions as labour laws were much different to our own. For inaccuracies such as these, it should be remembered that not every historical game is scholarly.
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- Spring, D. (2015) ‘Gaming history: computer and video games as historical Scholarship’, Rethinking History, 19:2, 207-221, DOI: 10.1080/13642529.2014.973714
- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. 2015. Ubisoft.
The Last Lemming 