Many students are exposed to historical narratives through video games, and this raises the question of exactly what is being told to them. Video game developers are responsible for shaping many young people's understanding of history, and this theory deserves further study.
In his report, published by the American magazine "The Atlantic", writer Luka Ivan Jokic set the example of the game "Europa Universalis", which is among the most famous strategic games in the world, as it is used by millions of people, and allows players to control a historical character or nation. And guiding the course of history, the average player spends hundreds of hours playing it, and some of them spend big money on it.
The writer shows that spending a lot of time dealing with any type of content of a historical nature will affect one's understanding of history, noting that what many players learn from these games remains a mystery.
great paradox
The writer explains that Brett Devereux, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, is working to correct this problem, writing - in a 4-part post on his blog - that academic historians must now deal with a new generation of students "whose irony is their mother tongue, Actual history is nothing but a second language," he said, hoping to shed light on the historical assumptions on which the games are based.
The writer stated that Devereux told him that “for some time we crossed the line where historical video games are at the same level of impact that require the same level of critical analysis as movies or TV shows of a historical nature, but despite the fact that the size of the video game industry has doubled Compared to the scale of the film industry, many games have escaped this analysis."
The author points out that analyzing video games is particularly difficult for two reasons: First, because their impact is difficult to trace, teachers may not notice that a student who asks: Why didn't the Ottomans colonize the United States?
Or what happened to the French region of Burgundy?
He may have a view of history shaped by Paradox games.
And second, because games, unlike other cultural media, “are about systems, about mechanisms,” as Devereaux puts it.
These systems and mechanisms center around how video games can "teach" human history, yet the existence of such mechanisms does not necessarily mean that players will understand them.
"The main challenge is getting players to explicitly identify and think about these systems," said Marion Cruz, associate professor of classics at the University of Cincinnati.
Central Europe
The writer points out that the Paradox games do not have a single view of history, but rather each game provides a framework for understanding a particular historical stage, supported by a number of procedural claims, similar to the game “Europe Universalis” that basically simulates the story of Europe’s rise from a relatively isolated region to a continent world domination.
This means that no matter what exact path the game takes, it usually leads to the establishment of large and powerful central states in Europe and their rise to global prominence. 50 years almost always in Europe, before slowly spreading across the world.
Without these institutions, new technologies could only be adopted at a much greater cost, which means that for centuries Europe has been slowly ahead of the rest of the world technologically.
According to the writer, the player learns that Europe has become exceptional thanks to its adoption of these institutions, and that this allowed technological growth to flourish and then gave European countries advantages that they used to control the world.
The writer emphasized that in order to maintain success in the game for non-Europeans it is better to prepare for killing, oppression and colonization, or in other words doing what Europeans do, adding that "Europe Universalis" like most games from the studio "Paradox" rewards gameplay in a harsh expansive way.
The state is the engine of history
The writer points out that the game "Europe Universalis" encourages the player to act according to an extreme realistic view of international relations where the security of the state is valued above all, and the ultimate way to ensure this is to maximize its power in a chaotic global system, as there are few non-state actors In the game, the player's actions have no real human consequences, as most Paradox games share this historical state-centric view, and leave a clear historical impression that states, rather than people, ideas or societies, are the only drivers of history.
The writer believes that this view of history is deficient, to say the least, and it has led to some embarrassing flaws in the games. In previous versions of "Europe Universalis" technological progress was treated as related to the inclusion or exclusion of a country from a Western technological group, the "Holocaust" was mentioned. For example, other atrocities are fleeting or excluded entirely, in the Hearts of Iron video game collection.
Over the years of development, the author shows, Paradox has tried to incorporate more historical complexity and nuance into its games.
For example, the company's editions of Europe Universal corrected historical errors and deepened gameplay in non-European parts of the world. Devereux, finding fault with many game developers' portrayals of history, says that among the video game developers he criticized, Only Paradox responded thoughtfully.
The writer continues, saying that historical accuracy is often impossible, Paradox games are, after all, just games, and what Paradox does is nothing new, as the roots of the idea of learning from strategy games go back to the 19th century in Prussia, when officers were trained in Battlefield tactics using specially designed board games, and when the Prussians defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 these games were credited, and soon spread across Europe.
counter criticism
According to Devereux, Jonas Sroji, an employee at the Danish embassy in Turkey who plays "Europe Universalis," told him that the games are a good starting point for learning about history, but given their current limitations, their history needs support from other sources, but Devereaux - although His many public criticisms of games - he believes that games are still better than many other ways to learn history, he has said that video games interact with history in a more deliberate and powerful way than television or movies, according to the author.
Cross and Devereaux agree with the caveat that games are currently very limited in their ability to teach historical narratives well, pointing out that any adaptation of the past contains distortions, and that popular histories are also riddled with errors and oversimplifications.
Cross felt that games, such as a game like "Europe Universalis", arouse interest in the past, albeit in a relatively superficial way, while the writer saw that anything that could draw attention to periods or dates that most people would not otherwise encounter does a very real service, as Players get an extensive, detailed and exciting experience diving into history, which is more than most school textbooks can offer.