Playing with the Past - Digital Games and the Simulation of History

[Azi Tohak]

Hi everyone,

I think this looks fascinating - http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/playing-with-the-past-9781623567286/ and note how the Total War series is mentioned specifically. I'm curious to read a bit.

What do you think, has playing a total war game changed your opinion of history?

Azi

[The Lurker Below]

I'd say I've used video games in the classroom before, but I really just used them in a class we call seminar, as incentive to homework completion at a quality level. I've used Steel Panthers, which myself I played tons of back in the early '90s and also used TW: M Viking Expansion as well as TW: Empire. These war games don't draw a lot of interest from female students. They don't really create innovative thoughts for the students. The games editors/authors replace the authors and publishers of books. It's just a different format. Ultimately, it's best to bring them tiny shots of exposure from as many formats as possible, before they get burnt out on a topic.

This format certainly has potential to be exploited more than it has been.

[Montmorency]

Posted this in the Gameroom Arena :tongue: almost a year ago:

Unexpected game calculations in educational wargaming: Design flaw or beneficial to learning? (http://www.digra.org/dl/db/11310.31521.pdf)

THE STUDY OF MILITARY HISTORY THROUGH COMMERCIAL WAR GAMES: A LOOK AT OPERATION CRUSADER WITH THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR (http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA397321)

And of course: EB sent me on a year-long kick of Ancient-Greek history.