APPROVAL SHEET Title of Thesis: Historical Simulations and the Mechanics of Conquest Name of Candidate: Andrew M. Arvizu Master of Arts, 2020 Thesis and Abstract Approved: __ __ Dr. Daniel Ritschel Associate Professor Historical Studies Date Approved: ____04/27/2020_______________________________ ABSTRACT Title of Document: HISTORICAL SIMULATIONS AND THE MECHANICS OF CONQUEST: HOW GAME MECHANICS TELL STORIES ABOUT THE PAST Andrew Arvizu, Master in the Arts of History, 2020 Directed By: Associate Professor and Affiliate Faculty in Public Policy, Daniel Ritschel, History Over the past decade, historical simulations have become one of the most popular genres of video games. With audiences in the millions, these historically themed games represent mass-market works of popular history. This paper studies the kinds of historical narratives that tend to predominate within the genre through an analysis of game mechanics. Using the philosophy of experiential game design, this paper contextualizes four games within the broader historiography. An emphasis is given on comparing Tory and Whig histories and also the limitations of the medium in conveying historical narratives. HISTORICAL SIMULATIONS AND THE MECHANICS OF CONQUEST: HOW GAME MECHANICS TELL STORIES ABOUT THE PAST By Andrew Arvizu Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in the Arts of History 2020 © Copyright by Andrew Arvizu 2020 Acknowledgements A special thanks to the outstanding History and Visual Arts Department at University of Maryland Baltimore County. Their assistance over the last 6 years has been invaluable in supporting my academic growth and fostering a passion for art and history. Numerous professors, including Dr. Denise Meringolo, Dr. Daniel Ritschel, Dr. Anne Rubin, and Professor Sarah Sharp have provided essential guidance my on my academic and professional journeys. Moreover, many of the sources and present in this paper were developed with the direct assistance of the above professors. Thanks to my parents who have supported me, encouraged me, and helped me through everything. Their constant encouragement to be something more has pushed me to become the person that I am today. Without their support, none of this would have been possible. And, finally, thanks to Melyssa Quan. Beyond providing me with a better understanding of artistic theory, which is well-utilized in this paper, Melyssa has been there to support me in every way imaginable. Thank you for pushing me to be the best person I can be and providing me with the support to make this dream a reality. ii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION | 2 Literature Review | 6 Methodology | 14 Chapter Outline | 17 CHAPTER 1: Between Engagement and Argument, the Implicit Arguments in the Mechanics of | 20 Commercial Historical Simulations Learning from Simulations | 28 The Commercial Imperative | 37 Games as Popular History | 44 CHAPTER 2: Europa Universalis and the Changes to the Genre | 47 Europa Universalis III: Historiographical Alignment through Complexity | 52 Europa Universalis IV: Shifting Ideologies through Design Philosophies | 65 CHAPTER 3: Victoria II and the Mechanics of Conquest | 76 Geopolitics and the Victorian Period | 79 Expansion, Colonialism, and Famine | 83 Justification of Imperialism: Honor and Prestige | 94 Politics, Social Movements, and Political Economy | 103 Limitations of the Medium | 109 CONCLUSION | 111 APPENDIX A | 113 BIBLIOGRAPHY | 123 Primary Sources | 127 Steam Pages | 128 Files Accessed | 129 iii INTRODUCTION In the spring of 2019, Paradox Interactive released Imperator: Rome. This game was set ​ ​ to become the company’s next flagship historical simulation, taking its place among the wildly successful Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Victoria. After an extensive marketing ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ campaign, which had purchased ad space on gaming websites Steam, ModDB, and GoG, the game was released to the public. Unlike the other flagship Paradox games, Imperator faced ​ ​ immediate backlash. The game received a 38% approval rating and the company faced an 1 overwhelming wave of criticism from longtime fans. Among many of the complaints of cut features and bad design one criticism remained consistent. For players who expected a “historically accurate” experience, Imperator failed to create a sense of historical authenticity. ​ ​ This thesis will study how games construct a sense of historical authenticity and how the constraints of the medium can often dictate a game’s historical narratives. Here, a distinction is drawn between historical accuracy and historical authenticity. The former is an adherence to the academic consensus of history whereas the latter is the use of historic symbolism to elicit a sense of the past. Although games are ultimately produced to entertain, they are also representations of the past, with political ramifications. Using historical authenticity, games can make convincing arguments about the past. Just like any other work of history, popular or academic, historical simulations align to specific historiographical paradigms. Within historical simulations, this relationship is even stronger, as these games purport to simulate not only what happened in the past, but how the past operates. 1 The game’s ratings and feedback can be viewed on https://store.steampowered.com/app/859580/Imperator_Rome. ​ ​ Accessed July 20, 2019. Since the time of this writing, the game’s overall rating has increased to 50%, in part due to significant price drops, free content updates, and downloadable content. Despite the uptick in ratings since the time of writing, the majority of negative comments still speak to the lack of historical authenticity. 1 Historical simulations, then, may be analyzed as works of popular history. Several recent scholars, notably Jerremie Clyde, Howard Hopkins, and Glenn Wilkinson have argued that games created by historians are examples of legitimate scholarship, equivalent to the publication 2 of a book. If historian-made scholarly games are examples of academic history, then commercially made and historically themed games represent popular histories. These works of popular history reach hundreds of thousands of players, and actively make arguments about how the past worked. Unlike other mediums, a video game’s historical arguments are created through interactivity. For interactivity to exist, games need mechanics. Mechanics are the way a player interacts with the game world. In Solitaire, for example, the primary mechanic is clicking and dragging a card from the deck to the desired location. When designing games, programmers make conscious decisions about what kinds of mechanics they will include in the game. These mechanics must be concrete and quantitative, since they must be parsed through computer code. In historical simulations, programmers who make mechanics are making historical arguments. Historical simulations are a genre of games in which players are tasked with managing an institution, usually a country, over a period of time. Programmers must create mechanics which allow players to interact with the game world as their institution. Programmers, then, must quantify the relationships within and between institutions. The developers of Victoria ​ II, a Victorian themed game where players control a country, had to quantify the impact of ​ 2 Jerremie Clyde, Howard Hopkins, and Glenn Wilkinson, “Beyond the ‘Historical’ Simulation: Using Theories of History to Inform Scholarly Game Design,” The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association Vol 6(9) ​ ​ (2012): 3–16. Similar studies can be found here: Vinicius Marino Carvalho, “Videogames as Tools for Social Science History.” Historian 79, no. 4 (Winter 2017): 794–819. ​ And Here: Dawn Spring, “Gaming History: Computer and Video Games as Historical Scholarship.” Rethinking ​ History 19, no. 2 (June 2015): 207–21. ​ 2 changing tax policy, demographic changes, and civil unrest. In allowing players to control a country, they had to create mechanics which translated decision making into quantifiable results. These quantifications include how likely a working class rebellion is in a country, how industrialization would affect quality of life, or how much the development of the cotton gin would affect the market for cotton, textiles, and slaves. The act of quantifying these phenomena is comparable to the work of a historian. Since interactivity is what makes games unique from other forms of media, this study will emphasize the role played by mechanics rather than aesthetic or intentional narrative choices. Numerous articles and studies have been made analyzing the historical accuracy of games. These reviews typically focus on the dates of events, the names of generals, or the styles of uniforms. Done by both academic historians and armchair generals these studies fail to analyze games at their core. By their very nature as an interactive medium, games cannot be historically accurate. By the first turn of any game, the player’s ability to interact with the game world will have already led the game astray from the historical record. Critiquing uniforms of armies or dates of events is a moot point in a game where the player can and will create a-historical outcomes. Instead, the strongest analysis will come from a study of how the player interacts with the game and what the game allows the player to do. Interactivity is especially important in historical simulations, since