Why not trying to pick a third way:

"Playing the simulation in an historical way"? Meaning: even if the game and history say goodbye at one point, why not continueing this "a-historical" path and trying to play it in a manner how it "could" have happened? (puh, awful sentence, anyone understood it this far?)

Alright, "what if" is always a bit tricky, but IMHO this is an excellent way to roleplay EB.