Then students can go from describing how the in-game-world systems are modeled and use their questions about the model to fuel their investigation of the model using good quality sources.
So essentially an inquiry project about Roman agriculture using the game to spark the questions.
#GamingthePastinEd
#HistoricalGameStudies
2/
Going to lean into the systems models in Citizen of Rome with my Roman Republic seniors. The simplicity of the interface and models, I think, makes it a good candidate for being the focus of an inquiry learning project.
've included a example screen I'm preparing for teaching in class, so students can see some of the questions one might raise about the agricultural model in the game. A combination of description, critique and questioning.
#GamingthePastinEd #HistoricalGameStudies
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The latest article/chapter (though I hope with some extra supports for history educators not seen before) on #GamingthePastinEd is off to my editors. Now is really the time (when, life and teaching obligations take mini-breaks) when I get to start on drafting "Designing Historical Games for Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Educators" with Routledge. Excited and a wee bit daunted (mostly excited because it's not like I haven't written before). 1/
#GamngthePastinEd
#HistoricalGameStudies
Today I started my Roman Republic seniors on a game I'd disregarded before: https://citizenofrome.itch.io/rome The class is based on my Rivalries that Destroyed the Roman Republic book & the game is a life-sim w/ simplistic graphics (though I came to admire the dev worked with what they had to get their game out).
So the game doesn't directly get into many topics that the class & book focuses on (political rivalries & violence). Still, I chose to use it this year for a few reasons 1/
#GamingthePastinEd
The stats aren't that impressive (tho I think 15,000+ views is pretty cool) but I try to take advantage of every opportunity to remind that gamingthepast.net is free & has provided a home for my work & resources on history & games in education and beyond for 14 yrs. https://wordpress.com/annual-report/gamingthepast.net/2023/
(Boosts deeply appreciated)
#GameStudies
#HistoricalGameStudies
#GamingthePastinEd
Okay even typing this takes forever now that Zuzu is here, but I'd love some questions about historical game studies, games in history education, history games in general. You know the routine: video or board, no such thing as a silly question, and I'll try my best to give a thoughtful answer. Let's talk history games!!
#gameStudies #historicalGameStudies #gamingthePastinEd
It was exciting to get to see some 5th graders #GamingthePastinEd, something I pretty much never get to see. One of the really helpful things about RTTA: Bronze Age is that while highly simplified (like many games), it has "defensible models" of ancient states so her debrief will be really good. 2/
#GamingthePastinEd
#GameStudies
#HistoricalGameStudies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37380/roll-through-ages-bronze-age
So excited that I suggested to a colleague she try out Roll through the Ages: The Bronze Age with her 5th gr. Social Studies and talked her through the steps. Then she did it! She had them brainstorm features of ancient complex societies then moved into teaching the game. 1/
#GamingthePastinEd
#GameStudies
#HistoricalGameStudies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37380/roll-through-ages-bronze-age
My final essay for my 12th graders' Interactive History Class. Students played Valiant Hearts & the Grizzled several times. I'll have played intro to Battlefield 1 twice as students take notes & ask questions. Not sure I'll have time to fit Stategic Command: WWI (a vg wargame). I will make sure I do that when I reuse this for my Honors Modern World History Students
Thoughts always welcome!
#GameStudies
#HistoricalGameStudies
#GamingthePastinEd
What are the experiences, agency, choices, and restrictions of the player agent(s)? Does each game, a game history, achieve or assist us as player analysts in understanding? How is the experience, especially the player agent experience similar to or different between each game.
***
And they have read some small readings and analyzed photos about Western Front experiences.
I'm excited to see how this works as a cumulative analytical task.
Polishing up draft for "Historical Games in Class: An Introduction for Educators" (which I truly hope adds new insights while certainly covering topics I've written about before, to say the least) and paused on my use of the term "nonplayer agent" as a core component of the historical problem space framework I write about and teach with, as opposed to "nonplayer character " 1/
#GamingthePastinEd
#wargaming
#HistoricalGameStudies
#GameStudies
1 interesting problem I can prep for next year: when I'm working on an area control game to represent persuasion & influence I can start recommending cubes & area control to every student modeling persuasion or influence. When one's a hammer, every problem looks like a nail!
Hoping to at least tackle some of that in Designing Historical Games ... Starting suggestions for mechanics a teacher / student might use for this or that historical phenomenon.
#GamingthePastInEd
#HistoricalGameStudies1/
Hello and thank you to all who have connected with me recently. A little intro. I'm Jeremiah & my Mastodon toots focuse on history education, video and board games in history education (I call that #GamingthePastInEd ) historical game design, and #HistoricalGameStudies. I've taught HS history since 2000, which I love, write some books, and work on game designs. I've been collecting my work on https://gamingthepast.net/ for over a decade and wrote the book on this: Gaming the Past (2011, 2022) 1/
Historical game studies ask me anything, 5-days-off edition.
- Historical games & how they portray history
- Designing historical games
- History games in history education
- Whether historical games are history
- Whether #wargames can be analyzed as historical problem spaces and why?
... or some other question you think silly but I'd really love to try answering.
I may have to adapt my approach and hubristically just start opining on #HistoricalGameStudies and #GamingthePastinEd. But before I launch into musing on historical games that perhaps now one is interested in, anyone have some ask-me-anything questions about historical games in and out of education?
You can find this in other games. The Nazi-RESISTANCE (feels like it should be capitalized these days) game, Through the Darkest of Times, has an attenuated victory. You can resist the German Nazi's and survive while doing so, but you cannot stop the Shoah. Powerfully attenuated victory here. 4/
#HistoricalGameStudies
#GamingthePastinEd
#gamestudies
Competition for 2nd place (I'm truly humbly grateful Gaming the Past beats both) between main contribution I've made to Roman history and a "popular" review article for #GamingthePastinEd. Soon, friends, Roman military history won't even be 2nd place on the list. That shift took decades. (and yes I'm very aware this is shameless self promotion, but I think you should share things you're proud of to the Mastodonosphere so we can celebrate
I get a half day today after parent conferences, so I'm putting the call out early. C'mon friends, let's talk about games and history! Casual interest or professional, or anything in between.
Ask me anything at all about history games, how they represent history, how to teach with them, my random thoughts or published work on them, board game or video game. Let's talk historical games!!!!!! (boosts appreciated)
#HistoricalGameStudies
#GamingthePastInEd
#Gamestudies
Weekend theorizing here abt historical problem spaces. I've argued elsewhere and often (as have others even earlier than I) that player choice that changes the outcome of the narrative is a defining feature of games over more static media. That idea gets captured in Historical Problem Space framework by action-choices, the choices to act; strategies, formed of potential actions; & behaviors. 1/
#gamestudies #HistoricalGameStudies #GamingthePastinEd
https://gamestudies.org/2003/articles/mccall
