Why gaming is important to the teaching of history
History is an important part of society. Many valuable things can be learned from it and it is a good thing to know the events that have contributed to how the world has been moulded. The teaching of history is important because the horrors and glories of the past can inspire us, teach us morals and we can learn real human values from such huge events. We can learn as a human race what should never be repeated and in other cases, what we should do to move forward as people.
Knowledge is power, and there are many great things that can be learned from even the worst events to ever grace this earth. The best thing that can come from some of the terrible mistakes humanity has made is a lesson to be learned to all of us.
Knowledge is power, and there are many great things that can be learned from even the worst events to ever grace this earth. The best thing that can come from some of the terrible mistakes humanity has made is a lesson to be learned to all of us.
The topic of history is taught throughout education, through books, through documentaries and more importantly, through entertainment. History can be taught in so many ways and in a day and age where we as people crave entertainment more and more and the demands keep rising, I believe the most effective way to learn is through enjoyment and is vital to our learning process.
It is no mystery that the human brain learns more when something is enjoyable. If something is interesting, you learn and process the information, not just more effectively, but you will naturally remember it later on.
Learning about history in a more traditional way, through school and books, is still important to society, but it is losing its effectiveness. The format in which it is taught in, is dated in my personal opinion. I actually find history very interesting, but I did not know this until I started playing more video games telling historical stories. I was a kid that never paid much attention to history in school, although I may regret that, I found it most of the time quite boring in school. However I found myself intrigued when I found a medium of history that was entertaining, this was video games.
I can’t be the only one that feels that way either. Go and play a game based on a real life event or place, and then go and find a YouTube documentary on the events or place that the game was based around, and you will see how many people are there from a game in the comment section. Games might not cover a historical event entirely accurately, it might not even replicate the right tone of how bad it was in comparison to what is taught at schools. However if a gamer enjoyed the game, they will start taking interest in the event making them actually want to invest more time into reading, listening or watching about the true story of the event or the events that took place.
It is no mystery that the human brain learns more when something is enjoyable. If something is interesting, you learn and process the information, not just more effectively, but you will naturally remember it later on.
Learning about history in a more traditional way, through school and books, is still important to society, but it is losing its effectiveness. The format in which it is taught in, is dated in my personal opinion. I actually find history very interesting, but I did not know this until I started playing more video games telling historical stories. I was a kid that never paid much attention to history in school, although I may regret that, I found it most of the time quite boring in school. However I found myself intrigued when I found a medium of history that was entertaining, this was video games.
I can’t be the only one that feels that way either. Go and play a game based on a real life event or place, and then go and find a YouTube documentary on the events or place that the game was based around, and you will see how many people are there from a game in the comment section. Games might not cover a historical event entirely accurately, it might not even replicate the right tone of how bad it was in comparison to what is taught at schools. However if a gamer enjoyed the game, they will start taking interest in the event making them actually want to invest more time into reading, listening or watching about the true story of the event or the events that took place.
Video games have perks over other methods of learning too. The game in itself has a learning curve, learning what things do and how to improve at the game requires you to learn. Your skill essentially improves the more you learn about the game. The great thing about this is, successful games are usually intuitive to learn, it feels natural and enjoyable. Information you’re taking in flows naturally and sometimes learning curves can be a fun challenge. This makes historical events told naturally click, as long as it’s told in a good way. Of course this requires good story telling but if it is done right, because your brain is already engaged in a learning mode, the information you take in, is so much more fluid and enjoyable.
Another perk is that video games are more engaging than other forms of media. You are in control and you feel immersed and like you are part of what is happening. This can make taking in historical information more effective because of it. Some games even have branching storylines where you have multiple choices to choose from that can even punish you and make you feel morally wrong for making certain choices, just look at The Witcher 3 for example. Yes these examples I am using require the game to be very well done or must have some sort of appeal to pull you in, but if it’s all done right, video games can be the most effective form of historical education to some.
Video games are a huge part of our culture now, it makes more money than any other form of entertainment. Over the years we have seen many games try to replicate real events, most notably World War 2. Most games glorify war and make gamers feel cool for taking part in such a murderous event. However as we enter an age where video games are getting more and more photo realistic, the graphic nature of events seems more believable and shocking and games are setting a darker tone to the graphic nature.
Another perk is that video games are more engaging than other forms of media. You are in control and you feel immersed and like you are part of what is happening. This can make taking in historical information more effective because of it. Some games even have branching storylines where you have multiple choices to choose from that can even punish you and make you feel morally wrong for making certain choices, just look at The Witcher 3 for example. Yes these examples I am using require the game to be very well done or must have some sort of appeal to pull you in, but if it’s all done right, video games can be the most effective form of historical education to some.
Video games are a huge part of our culture now, it makes more money than any other form of entertainment. Over the years we have seen many games try to replicate real events, most notably World War 2. Most games glorify war and make gamers feel cool for taking part in such a murderous event. However as we enter an age where video games are getting more and more photo realistic, the graphic nature of events seems more believable and shocking and games are setting a darker tone to the graphic nature.
Yes most games don’t completely accurately represent the event and can glorify violence, but it adds interest in the event in the first place and is the gateway to many people into taking an interest in history. The potential is there though for games to deliver history in a more accurate way. There is always a battle between balancing realism and fun factor, but if mainstream society starts taking gaming more seriously, we might start seeing video games being used in a more effective way to teach people things.
I think it is about time society starts taking video games more seriously.
Games I learnt things from as a teenager.
Call of Duty: World at War: Call of Duty is a very prime example of games glorifying war for sure. The multiplayer in my opinion is more of a sport, almost like paintballing where the people online you kill are just seen as a way of one upping the opponent just like in sports rather than the concept of murder.
The campaigns did glorify war, however Call of Duty World at War took a darker turn and told a story that wasn’t often told in video games at the time, despite there being so many World War 2 shooters around at the time. I was just a 15 year old kid from the UK where from my memory, the only things we learned about in World War 2 was the European’s war and Britain’s war.
As mentioned before I didn’t pay too much attention in school but world at war taught me things I never even knew happened. For one, in this game, you play as the Russians in one half of the game and you breach Germany to finally end the war in Europe. This is something that British secondary/high school education didn’t seem to talk about. Britain and America defeated the siege of Germany in France. Little did I know that Russia played a huge part and this is thanks to World at War.
Then we have the pacific war, again something we didn’t learn about at school. Yes I was an ignorant 15 year old but I had no idea at the time of the horrors of Hiroshima nor did I know about the brutality of some of the moments at war in the pacific.
I think it is about time society starts taking video games more seriously.
Games I learnt things from as a teenager.
Call of Duty: World at War: Call of Duty is a very prime example of games glorifying war for sure. The multiplayer in my opinion is more of a sport, almost like paintballing where the people online you kill are just seen as a way of one upping the opponent just like in sports rather than the concept of murder.
The campaigns did glorify war, however Call of Duty World at War took a darker turn and told a story that wasn’t often told in video games at the time, despite there being so many World War 2 shooters around at the time. I was just a 15 year old kid from the UK where from my memory, the only things we learned about in World War 2 was the European’s war and Britain’s war.
As mentioned before I didn’t pay too much attention in school but world at war taught me things I never even knew happened. For one, in this game, you play as the Russians in one half of the game and you breach Germany to finally end the war in Europe. This is something that British secondary/high school education didn’t seem to talk about. Britain and America defeated the siege of Germany in France. Little did I know that Russia played a huge part and this is thanks to World at War.
Then we have the pacific war, again something we didn’t learn about at school. Yes I was an ignorant 15 year old but I had no idea at the time of the horrors of Hiroshima nor did I know about the brutality of some of the moments at war in the pacific.
Assassins Creed: Now I don’t have too much praise for the series anymore but something Assassins Creed did a fantastic job of was how they created an open world mimicking a city in a specific historical setting. My favourite was AC2, in the land of Florence. Seeing real historical buildings in Florence and thinking, yep climbed that on AC, climbed that one also. Yes it’s silly to think like that, but climbing historical buildings in Assassins Creed, raised my curiosity of what that building is, and then led me to improve my knowledge on Italy.
The story was mostly fictional, but the game still taught me a lot of history purely because of the time periods and locations I was in, which were authentic and accurate.
The story was mostly fictional, but the game still taught me a lot of history purely because of the time periods and locations I was in, which were authentic and accurate.
Newly released historical games
Mafia 3 : This game is set in a fictional version of New Orleans in 1968. The story and characters are all fictional, but the whole authentic feel of the setting is what they have got spot on. The music of the 1960s is the biggest highlight of the game with how it plays in cut scenes, it nails the feel of the era and sets the theme of the story up nicely. The story features racism which was still widely accepted in most of America during the 60s.
Mafia 3 takes the GTA formula and puts a dark twist on it. GTA has always had a slight light heartedness about it, other than maybe GTA 4. Mafia 3 takes a real gritty and brutal approach to gangsters. Gangsters throughout entertainment have always been depicted as cool and “bad ass” and you feel no remorse when killing 100s of people. Now don’t get me wrong, doing things you would only do in a video game and wouldn’t do in real life is entertaining, but it’s cool to see a game take a more serious approach where you emotionally feel the actions you do more, and this compliments the setting. It’s not entirely historical, but it does raise your knowledge on 1960s America.
Civilisations 6: This fantastic strategy game series, something I have only recently discovered myself is a game that lets you pick from several nations to run where you can start from the Ancient BC times, progressing past the Medieval times to the modern and even future era. The objective is to win by various win conditions. You can win by being the most advanced in technology, by having a variety of wonders aka landmarks, through amount of land you own and city populations. Investing in science through education buildings allows you to research faster. You're often either having a constant battle trying to balance things out, or focusing on one specific win condition, which gives this strategy game such a variety. You can make alliances with many different city states and powerful leaders. You can win the game by either meeting these sets of objectives in a peaceful manner or you can take things from people through force, or can even protect city states for rewards.
I haven’t yet played Civilisations 6 but I have learnt quite a fair amount of city names and nation cultures from playing Civilisations 5. The way the game presents you with different civilisations intrigued me to want to know more about the history of other countries.
Mafia 3 : This game is set in a fictional version of New Orleans in 1968. The story and characters are all fictional, but the whole authentic feel of the setting is what they have got spot on. The music of the 1960s is the biggest highlight of the game with how it plays in cut scenes, it nails the feel of the era and sets the theme of the story up nicely. The story features racism which was still widely accepted in most of America during the 60s.
Mafia 3 takes the GTA formula and puts a dark twist on it. GTA has always had a slight light heartedness about it, other than maybe GTA 4. Mafia 3 takes a real gritty and brutal approach to gangsters. Gangsters throughout entertainment have always been depicted as cool and “bad ass” and you feel no remorse when killing 100s of people. Now don’t get me wrong, doing things you would only do in a video game and wouldn’t do in real life is entertaining, but it’s cool to see a game take a more serious approach where you emotionally feel the actions you do more, and this compliments the setting. It’s not entirely historical, but it does raise your knowledge on 1960s America.
Civilisations 6: This fantastic strategy game series, something I have only recently discovered myself is a game that lets you pick from several nations to run where you can start from the Ancient BC times, progressing past the Medieval times to the modern and even future era. The objective is to win by various win conditions. You can win by being the most advanced in technology, by having a variety of wonders aka landmarks, through amount of land you own and city populations. Investing in science through education buildings allows you to research faster. You're often either having a constant battle trying to balance things out, or focusing on one specific win condition, which gives this strategy game such a variety. You can make alliances with many different city states and powerful leaders. You can win the game by either meeting these sets of objectives in a peaceful manner or you can take things from people through force, or can even protect city states for rewards.
I haven’t yet played Civilisations 6 but I have learnt quite a fair amount of city names and nation cultures from playing Civilisations 5. The way the game presents you with different civilisations intrigued me to want to know more about the history of other countries.
Battlefield 1: This World War 1 themed game is a setting you don’t see often in entertainment. There is a reason for that, the war is very complicated and the story of the whole war doesn’t translate very well into entertainment. The weaponry wouldn’t be that interesting for a shooter either.
Thankfully battlefield 1 doesn’t try to explain the complicated affairs of World War 1 and instead goes for a different approach in their campaign, something that’s actually quite unique to a historical shooter. It has a single player mode called “war stories”. These are several missions that are told from the point of view of a fighter telling you a story of the war from their perspective. This leads to a more emotional affair towards war and is less glamorous, grittier, dark and actually shows the horrors of war rather than glorifying it.
Battlefield 1 has a slight twist on the weapons. The weaponry is not completely historically accurate and most of the weapons were prototypes that weren’t used back then. Some of the weapons were also just slightly beyond the time period of WW1, but it’s something that doesn’t matter too much. It still very much fits the setting and still educates you on old school weaponry.
Thankfully battlefield 1 doesn’t try to explain the complicated affairs of World War 1 and instead goes for a different approach in their campaign, something that’s actually quite unique to a historical shooter. It has a single player mode called “war stories”. These are several missions that are told from the point of view of a fighter telling you a story of the war from their perspective. This leads to a more emotional affair towards war and is less glamorous, grittier, dark and actually shows the horrors of war rather than glorifying it.
Battlefield 1 has a slight twist on the weapons. The weaponry is not completely historically accurate and most of the weapons were prototypes that weren’t used back then. Some of the weapons were also just slightly beyond the time period of WW1, but it’s something that doesn’t matter too much. It still very much fits the setting and still educates you on old school weaponry.