48-JLS-0052 GAMES AND HISTORY An Interactive Qualifying Project Report: Submitted to the Faculty Of the WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE By Gayle Rambeau _______________________ Guenyin Au _______________________ With contributions from Sean Dyer Date: April 12, 2006 Approved: Professor Jeffrey Forgeng Abstract This project studies the presentation of history through the medium of video gaming. We studied specific topic areas such as educational software, simulation software, and narrative analysis, then applied this to the evaluation of several history games. To conclude, a historical game was developed that attempted to fit the criteria we developed, with an eye towards publication in conjunction with the Higgins Armory Museum. 2 Table of Contents Introduction....................................................................................................................... 5 Individual Research Gaming and Education (Gayle Rambeau).......................................................................... 9 Video Gaming in the Classroom............................................................................ 9 “Edutainment”........................................................................................... 10 Social Interaction in Gaming.................................................................... 12 Childhood in the Electronic Age.............................................................. 14 Classroom Integration of Video Games............................................................... 16 Non-commercial History Games.......................................................................... 17 Web Applications..................................................................................... 18 Academically Produced Games................................................................ 22 Commercial History Games................................................................................. 24 Historical Modeling (Sean Dyer)..................................................................................... 28 A Brief History of Electronic Games................................................................... 28 Timeline of Gaming Hardware............................................................................ 30 Simulation............................................................................................................ 31 Military Modeling Systems................................................................................. 33 Economic Modeling Systems.............................................................................. 36 Historical Adventure Games............................................................................... 37 3 Narrative Analysis in Games (Guenyin Au)................................................................... 38 Narratology......................................................................................................... 38 Role-Playing Game Concept................................................................... 40 Kinds of Narratives................................................................................. 41 Narrative Structure in Video Games....................................................... 42 Ludology............................................................................................................. 42 Definition................................................................................................ 44 Ludology vs. Narratology....................................................................... 45 Video Games in Our Culture.............................................................................. 47 Video Game Business............................................................................. 49 Video Games as Youth Culture.............................................................. 50 Video Games in Society.......................................................................... 51 History in Video Games...................................................................................... 54 Modern Interests in History................................................................................ 55 History in Film.................................................................................................... 57 Study of Historical Gaming Game Evaluation............................................................................................................. 59 Introduction......................................................................................................... 59 Evaluations (Gayle Rambeau)............................................................................ 60 Evaluations (Sean Dyer)..................................................................................... 82 Evaluations (Guenyin Au).................................................................................. 86 Gamer Evaluation......................................................................................................... 108 4 Hold Jerusalem: Making a Historical Game.............................................................. 110 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 110 Historical Design (Guenyin Au)..................................................................................... 111 Game Design (Sean Dyer).............................................................................................. 126 Game Mechanics (Gayle Rambeau)............................................................................... 129 Evaluation....................................................................................................................... 131 Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 132 Bibliography Gaming and Education.................................................................................................... 134 Narrative Analysis in Games.......................................................................................... 135 The Siege of Jerusalem................................................................................................... 136 Appendix A: Historical Gaming Survey Results........................................................ 138 Appendix B: Hold Jerusalem! Introduction............................................................... 156 Appendix C: Hold Jerusalem! Website....................................................................... 157 5 Introduction History is a wonderful basis for a video game because it is at the same time real and nonexistent. It has existed, and its relics and artifacts can be seen today, but its events and people have moved on while we can only attempt to recapture their images. During the course of this project, our group combined traditional research methodologies with hands-on evaluation of representative gaming materials to examine the merits of video gaming as an educational or entertaining medium for the delivery of history. This research must by its stated intent cover a broad range of associated topics, of which we have chosen a few to explore more deeply. Electronic games have great flexibility as historic modeling systems. Their ability to display the framework of a period is nearly unparalleled. From the day-to-day life of a feudal peasant or the policies of an ancient king, video games have attempted to put the player in an unfamiliar historical perspective. This section of the project collects and studies games that model themselves after a variety of historical situations. Some games utilize “tech trees” to show how civilizations progress, as in the real-time strategy game Civilization, where basic technologies are needed before you can proceed to a higher level of advancement. Others, such as Oregon Trail, model specific journeys to show you the perspective of a traveler long since forgotten. Still others, like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, use great historical generals as the backbone of a military strategy game. The entire purpose of creating a game in this area is that it has a broad, yet bounded structure for use in education or entertainment, and can be used to explore the numerous ways in which historical events can unfold. 6 Historical material may also find application in gaming when introduced in an educational setting. As an important facet of our research, we examined the manner in which gaming and history are combined in the classroom. We focused on both practical and theoretical experiences, affording consideration to both the measured value of gaming as a classroom resource, and existing research in the psychological merits of game-based education. We attempted to describe the balance along the spectrum of historical games for entertainment and education. Further research into the project deals mainly with the theory of computer games, that is, the ways in which computer games are presented—genres, and narrative as well as ludological theory. We examined how a fast narrative (for example, a first-person shooter game such as Half-Life 2) differs from a slow narrative (a general adventure game with high detail, such as Riven). In addition we, to a lesser extent, also employed the notion of catharsis in our presentation of games theory, with a discussion of theories of how action is formulated and presented within a gaming medium. As an extension of our research, we constructed a rubric