Digital Approaches to Historical Inquiry

A course of the LUDCH Digital Humanities Minor, taught by Angus A. A. Mol Strategy (Hi)story/Adventure First Person Shooter

Simulating history: Games as models

The Sumer Game(1966)/Hamurabi(1968) “Players strive to become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the dawn of man into the space age, waging war, conducting diplomacy, discovering new technologies, going head-to-head with some of history’s greatest leaders and building the most powerful empire the world has ever known.” (source: www.civilization5.com)

Civ VI: Techtree A model of games: MDA framework (Hunicke et al. 2004)

Code Experience

Runtime How is Sid Meier’s Civilization fun?

“Sid Meier” You

Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics }

Fun }

• Sensation • Fantasy • Narrative • Challenge • Fellowship • Discovery • Expression • Submission Experiences … Player l Fun model Econ. model mode Societal model Conceptual Aesthetics } Dynamics

Mechanics

Designer MDA+ Homo Ludens (Huizinga1938)

“Free” and rule-governed, a model as/of (an aspect of) society

“For many years the conviction has grown upon me that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play” (Foreword to Homo Ludens).

How and why is the civilization of the past in Sid Meier’s Civilization fun? • 2017 review in Advances in Archaeological Practice • Streaming via Twitch/Video on YouTube: more than 50 hours! • Multiple paper/book project • Civilization: 1991 (Micropose) • Civ V: 2010 (Firaxis) • 33 million copies sold • Civ VI: 2016 (Firaxis) • 1 million copies in 2 weeks • Currently anywhere between 2-5 million (steamspy.com) 2010 ------1.200.000.000 hours ------2016

Musée du Louvre Metropolitan Museum of Art British Museum

National Museum of China Vatican Museums Tate Modern Musée du Civ as an a-political project

“[O]ne of our fundamental goals was not to project our own philosophy or politics onto things. Playing out somebody else’s political philosophy is not fun for the player” ~Sid Meier (2016) • Civilization is a key concept in the social and human sciences and an imagined history of critical importance for the identity of Western societies. “What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” The “Progressive” Past

• Civ is a 4X game: • eXplore • eXpand • eXploit • eXterminate • Civ’s histories are “Progessive”: • Teleological • Euphemistic • Rationalist • Focused on Western histories and values • Deeply political & contemporary West and the rest?

Region No. of Civilizations Americas (north and south) 13 Europe 23 Africa 8 Asia 8 Oceania 4 Near East 9 Civilizations of the Near East

Civilization Civilization I Civilization II Civilization III Civilization IV Civilization V Civilization VI

Arabian √ √ √ √ √ 5

Assyrian √ 1

Babylonian √ √ √ √ √ 5

Egyptian* √ √ √ √ √ √ 6

Hittites √ 1

Ottoman √ √ √ √ 4

Persian √ √ √ √ √ 5

Sumerian √ √ √ 3

Phoenician √ 1 Civilizations of the Near East and their Leaders

Civilization Civilization I Civilization II Civilization III Civilization IV Civilization V Civilization VI

Arabian Saladin/- Abu Bakr Saladin Harun al-Rashid Saladin

Assyrian Ashurbanipal

Babylonian Hammurabi Hammurabi / Hammurabi Hammurabi Nebuchadnezzar II Ishtari Egyptian Ramesses II Ramesses Cleopatra Ramesses II – Ramesses II Cleopatra II/Cleopatra Hatshepsut Hittites Mursilis

Ottoman Osman Mehmed II – Suleiman Suleiman Suleiman Persian Xerxes / Xerxes Darius I – Cyrus Darius I Cyrus Scheherezade Sumerian Gilgamesh Gilgamesh Gilgamesh

Phoenician Dido Civ’s model of Persia Characteristics of Persia

Civilization I Civilization II Civilization III Civilization IV Civilization V Civilization VI

- Xerxes Xerxes Darius I Darius I Cyrus Persian Leaders - Scheherezade - Cyrus - -

Unique Unit - - Immortal Immortal Immortal Immortal

Unique - - - Apothecary Satrap’s Court Pairidaeza Building Language - English English Farsi Aramaic Pahlavi (?) spoken

Symbol - Teal Teal

Capital - Persepolis Persepolis Persepolis Persepolis Pasargadae Leaders of Persia

Xerxes (Civ2) Scheherezade (Civ2) Xerxes (Civ3) Darius I (Civ4) Cyrus (Civ4)

Darius I (Civ5) Cyrus (Civ6) Traits of Persia • Focus on war: • Unique unit immortal – powerful in the early game • Production emphasis on offensive land units (Civ3) • During golden age +10% Combat strength (Civ5) • Bonuses on surprise wars and bonus loyalty on occupied cities (Civ6)

Immortal (Civ6) Traits of Persia

• Focus on trade, gold, and administration: • Perfectionist AI (Civ2) • Production emphasis on wealth and trade (Civ3) • Apothecary unique building (Civ4) • Golden ages last 50% longer (Civ5) • Satrap’s court (Civ5)

Satrap's Court (Civ5) Apothecary (Civ4) Traits of Persia • Focus on Monarchy • Unique titles for monarchy and fundamentalist (CIV2) • Shah for king/queen and Ayatollah for high priest/priestess • Favorite government Monarchy and can not use Republic (Civ3)

The Persian palace shares its architecture with India, Scythia, and Arabia in Civ6 Traits of Persia An orientalist view? • Thrives in early aggression and expansion wars – Barbarism? • Gold-related stability – The rich but decadent east? • Monarchy related – Totalitarian ruler? • Classical/western view of Persia – Achaemenid rulers only • Civilopedia entries always end with the conquest of Alexander • Often other Persian/oriental features appears: • Shah as king and Ayatollah as priest (Civ2) • Scheherezade as leader (Civ2) • The dome architecture of the Apothecary (Civ4) • Persepolis presented as city/capital (Civ2, 3, 4, and 5) • Language Farsi (Civ4) and Pahlavi (Civ6) • Scimitars as symbols (Civ4 and 5) Civ: Wonders

• Wonders • Unique building (built by any civilization) • Big investment • Periodization (Ancient to Information Age) • Majority is built heritage • Historical background • 117 individual wonders across 6 games • Seven wonders meet World Heritage Sites

Sistine Colossus Pentagon Civ 1 Chapel Civ 5 Pyramids Civ 3 Taj Mahal Est. do Maracaña Civ 2 Civ 4 Civ 6

Wonders: Geo-cultural spread

Wonders by actual world country: Civ1-5 (1991-2012)

Top 25 countries by number of World Heritage Site Inscriptions up to 2012 (UNESCO World Heritage List, 2016) The (few) Wonders of the Near East

Civilization Civilization Civilization Civilization Civilization Wonder Country Civilization I II III IV V VI Great Library Egypt √ √ √ √ √ √

Lighthouse Egypt √ √ √ √ √ √

Pyramids Egypt √ √ √ √ √ √ Hanging Iraq √ √ √ √ √ √ Gardens The Temple of Turkey √ √ √ Artemis Hagia Sophia Turkey √ √ √ Wonder engagement: Huey Teocalli Wonderful modding “In the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history. I can feel in myself, and see in others around me, a powerful nostalgia for the time when history existed.”

“The end of history will be a very sad time.” Winning at the end of history

• Domination – conquer every other Civ • Science – win the “space race” • Religion – become the predominant religion • Culture – achieve “highest” culture and the most tourists • Diplomacy - *new*

An MDA+ reading of Civ

• Games are “total experiences”, but game developers focus on fun • Civ: • makes for an enticing and enduringly popular game • portrays a past that is often ‘progressive’ and always political • The world according to (‘90ies) America… • May be fun because it allows “what-if” histories that always re-affirm Western dominant histories • A “bad model” of history, a “great model” of fun • Contra: “great models” of history, “bad models” of fun (‘boring history textbooks’) • Challenge: something that is both a (moderately) good model of history and fun Twine

• Twine 2 twinery.org • Open-source tool for telling interactive, non-linear stories in html format • Easy to pick up, yet surprisingly deep. • Created by Chris Klimas in 2009 • https://www.patreon.com/klembot • Now maintained by a lot of different people • A lot of great Twines out there! • https://itch.io/games/tag-twine • http://twinehub.weebly.com/ Interactive Historytelling

• Twine creates hyperlinked stories. • Great at allowing independent exploration and multiple viewpoints of the past • Great as a tool to think with! • Technically not the same as interactive fiction: • Inform7: http://inform7.com/

Hamurabi (1968) The One Thing You Need to Know:

You can make links between paragraphs happen by encasing them with double brackets:

Things You Will Like to Know: https://dahi.lucdh.nl/assignment-3/ http://www.shoresoftime.com/Twine_intro.html