History In Video Games — a Closer Look

scruffybr writes "Whether it's World War 2, the American Wild West or ancient Greece, history has long provided a rich source of video game narrative. Historical fact has been painstakingly preserved in some games, yet distorted beyond all recognition in others. Whereas one game may be praised for its depiction of history, others have been lambasted for opening fresh wounds or glorifying tragic events of our near past. Games have utilized historical narrative extensively, but to what extent does the platform take liberties with, and perhaps misuse it?"

Comments

Non issue

[iamapizza]

It's a bloody video game. They have no obligation to you to be historically accurate, it's just a "standard" that we've set amongst ourselves probably out of boredom. Go cry about something else please. If you want accuracy (arguable), then read a history book.

Re:Non issue

[Trepidity]

You could say that about novels, too, yet people complain about Dan Brown's historical inaccuracies to no end.

Re:Non issue

[Jurily]

It's a bloody video game. They have no obligation to you to be historically accurate,

Of course not. It's just that most players can't tell the difference between the realistic parts and the fiction.

Re:Where is the news?

[zwei2stein]

People tend to actually take these things as fairly accurate depictions of what it really was like. Its just another one for nation of dum'.

Hell, even evening news are made with 'It does not have to be real, just entertaining' motto.

(And I shudder what future archaeologists with do with our pop culture as source material ... any history geek will tell you how average Joes understanding of history nowadays was pretty fucked up Shakespeare & co.).

I'd consider entertainment value quite awesome, but then you end up with people who have no idea about past, or are comfortable about fact that 'history' can be 'adjusted' to fit better whatever you agenda is. And that is worrying, even if it is just for entertainment.

Historians talk about history very differently

[Anonymous Coward]

The idea that history is "factual" rather than a rolling series of arguments is both interesting and amusing.

I wonder, with what vehemence, slashdotters would react if historians of science and technology ceased reporting on the human practice of science, and began advising on code design?

"Games have utilized historical narrative extensively, but to what extent does the platform take liberties with, and perhaps misuse it."

Mainstream media rarely depicts the historian's conception of history as currently practiced. At best it is Whig history (telling history to create moral lessons for today). At worst it is a fantasy purporting to a relationship with reality. Do you really expect games to speak into the complex construction of self-identity? The formation of power within classes leading to social conflict? The institutional factors behind the limits of political decision making within and between states? Or the emergence of sub-altern narratives (the utterly voiceless repressed) through careful emergence of non-standard documentary traditions?

At best your demand is Grognard: that the belt-buckles are accurate and that Division X was not in Location Y. If you truely want to look at games serving history, look up Stalin, a three turn economy simulator designed to test Stalin / Trotsky / Bukharinite debates about preventable deaths.