Contexts of Practice: History and games

History and games

For this project, we were again split in groups, and I was part of the same group of 5 ( Tom Donachie, Matt Fenn, Zoe Rice and James Dyer). We had to chose an aspect of the games that interests us and discuss it in detail. We have chosen the historical element of games and we tried to research how it is presented and used, how much the creators stay true to the real facts and how they intertwine them with fiction for a better gameplay and to create more drama.

In “Privileging Form Over Content: Analyzing Historical Videogames,” Adam Chapman argues that in order to understand historical video games, scholars must go beyond analyzing only the surface-level content. Chapman compares games to historical films, in order to demonstrate how different epistemological approaches can be applied to different mediums. Historical video games, he concludes, requires analysis that privileges form over content.

(http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-2/games-and-historical-narratives-by-jeremy-antley/)

History always seemed to provide a massive source of inspiration to game developers, whether it's World War II, the Civil War in Japan, the American Wild West, Ancient Greece, or the Roman Empire.
However, some games manage to preserve really well the historical facts, while others are so far from reality that they manage to create a completely distorted vision of events.

I know games are not meant to teach anyone history, so, from this point of view, I totally agree with the ones who only depict certain elements from the period they are being set in. As with the historical films, it is really difficult to follow through in all aspects ( events, characters, costumes, dialogue, etc) and create an enjoyable experience as well, so of course, some events are being distorted for added drama, some artefacts are being introduced to improve the stage visually, even if they don't belong in that time period. - Does it really matter that Gothic architecture is featured in Assassins Creed when it has no place in that time period? (http://www.criticalgamer.co.uk/2009/10/21/history-in-video-games-a-closer-look/)

Games can be platforms for building, and not simply consuming, knowledge.
(http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-2/games-and-historical-narratives-by-jeremy-antley/)

I, personally, am fascinated by the Japanese culture, so I had a closer look at games that depict this subject. I found quite a few that touch this subject, even if, some of them are not totally dedicated to Japan ( I.e. Paradox Interactive, Total War series, Civilisation, The Way of the Samurai, Samurai Warriors, Sengoku Basara, Kessen, Nobunaga's Ambition)

Most of these games refer to one of the defining events in Japanese history - the end of the civil war and the unification of the country. The most important figure in this "process", was Tokugawa Ieyasu. Following the battle of Sekigahara, during which all his remaining opposition was crushed, Ieyasu was invested as Shogun by the Emperor and he established a Dynasty that would rule Japan for 250 years.

The same Tokugawa Ieyasu and the battle of Sekigahara were featured in the novel Shogun by James Clavell in 1975 (even though, the names were slightly changed - in the novel Ieyasu is called Toranaga). There has also been a TV adaptation of the book in 1980, so this historical period, clearly presents a lot of interest to the public.

So it's only fair for games to try and portray these events and allow the player to feel part of them. With games, however, the player has a lot more control over events in comparison to a novel or a movie. In Paradox Interactive, the developers have tried to keep the narrative as close as possible to history, while allowing the player, at the same time, to take a few different avenues. So if a history lover plays the game, the decisions taken regarding strategy, will probably be quite true to the historical facts/events, however, if the game is played by someone who would like to explore the avenue of "what would happen if...", we could have a totally unusual story developing. This is where the pleasure and fascination lays with video games.

In the same way, real life historical characters are being portrayed in quite different ways, even when it comes to the artist's job. The same character mentioned above, Togukawa Ieyasu has got quite a few different interpretations in various games.

While the real person looked something like this: