The greatest take-away from this class was how easy it is to incorporate video games into teaching history. It genuinely isn’t that hard to look up a quick trailer or clip from a video game and insert it into my notes slides for my class. there are not a lot of clips available for all events in history (video camera), but you can almost be sure there is a video game that covers almost every aspect in history. Students latch onto these graphic videos, and examples. That is why it is an easy way to connect the students to the content.
Suggestions for future classes
My only suggestion would be to meet in the game room instead of the lower seminar room. The game room has a lot better wifi, enough table space and a nice projector. the classroom was really the only complaint I have of the course overall.
My other suggestion would be to slow down the pace of playing the games and maybe spend 2-3 weeks on a game. although playing the game is our homework, it genuinely takes a longer time for me to play games the correct way, than it would to make a blog. So although it took me an hour to do a blog each week, I would be playing the game for sometimes 8 hours a week. Basically it just takes time to beat these games.
This weeks game was battlefield 1, a personal favorite of mine so thoroughly enjoyed this. Battlefield 1 is a first person shooter game where the player can take on the same armies of the WW1 era. This game is great for quickscoping (a key aspect for myself) and it is great for any player that wants a totally immersive 60 player battle experience.
Totally Immersive Gameplay
The reason I consider this game to be totally immersive is because of the fact that there are planes, tanks, motorcycles, horses, dreadnaughts and trains… need I even say more? The ability in this game is incredible, you can recreate or play almost every aspect of the battlefield. Want to bomb your enemies from 1,000 feet in the air? Check. Want to weave around and through your players slicing and dicing on the back of a horse? Check. Want to carry 6 of your buddies into battle all while shooting at the enemy with your cannon? Check. This game literally has it all, and then some.
The Main Missions
The war stories in this game were also very fun to play, and historically accurate! The one that I found to be especially fun was the Kaiserschlacht, although I did enjoy the Oil of Empires maps in multiplayer mode. The developers do a good job displaying the history in the game by having the Harlem Hellfighters in the opening scenes of the campaign. The harlem hellfighters are a group of soldiers who fought bravely but unfortunately they do not receive a lot of credit for their valientry. because of this, i appreciate the game giving a nod to the under-appreciated unit of WW1.
The mission that I found the most impressive was the Gibraltar mission with the Australian Frederick Bishop. In the mission it is very clear that the triple entente powers were suffering some severe losses to the Ottomans. The most dramatic part of the mission was the part right off of the start where you, Bishop, storm the beaches and trenches at Gibraltar. The devastation and difficulty was apparent.
Tropico 5 is a great game for those who wish to become dictators of their own world.. virtual that is. From the very start you are responsible for constructing a lucrative colony – something the imperial power makes very clear. I learned the lucrative aspect the hard way because as I continually tried to build an island paradise, My right to rule would be revoked! It took me three tries before I realized that I am working for a higher power. Once I accepted that, i was able to slowly build a more independent island, after making sure i kept extending my mandate to rule. Finding a right balance between revolution and making sure i have a castle to sleep in at night was tough, assumably just as tough as it would be in real life.
Very soon I found myself having to look after my citizens, so many were homeless and jobless. My rapid industrialization and nation building had left behind the concerns of the people, that is until it was an election year. Once an election was looming I had to act and build the proper housing, while at the same time not losing too much money on exports. This is a battle I am still waging to this day on my Island – a dictators day is never over.
Part II – Realism
map of coffee environmental impact
I found this game to be very accurate and realistic. I loved the attention to detail that the developers put into the game. In particular, I enjoyed the overlays impact in the game. As a ruler you are forced to decide where to farm what, or where to put a building to get the biggest potential return. In the picture above you can see that if I placed my coffee plantation on the bottom of the screen, then I would receive a good yield from that crop. Conversely, if I had place it at the upper portion of the screen, i probably wouldn’t have even been able to farm at all! This is a great feature of the game that I believe makes it much more realistic with it included.
Another realistic feature of the game that had a huge impact on the gaming experience was the import/export mechanism. At the start, your exports impact your mandate to rule because if you trade too much with other nations, your mother country will become upset. At the same time, the more you export as a nation the more you make! So it is increasingly enticing to trade with pirates or likes or the sort.
Once you enter the World Wars Era, the new export issue is choosing which warring nation you will side with. While one trade contract might make you rich, it also might put you on the losing side of a war. This mechanism is great for trying to teach or show students the intricacies of trade relations during wartime, and can even be paired with a lesson on Cash and Carry economics during World War II!
Teachability
Could students learn certain historical aspects from playing this game? Overwhelmingly Yes! This game could be paired with lessons about trade relations, colonialism, communism, capitalism, socialism, resource management, cuban missile crisis, latin America, and so many more. However, this game is fun to the point that it actually may be hard for students to see past it being a game, and that is why I think it is crucial to teach this game alongside with lessons. Sure students might plug away at the game and create an awesome island, but without paired lessons that might be the extent to their learning ability, creating a “sick island”. Although, I think it would be easy to pair it with so many lessons!
Don’t take on this game unless you’re ready for it… cause it bites back.
Man this game is hard
Im going to be completely honest in saying that this game got the best of me. I couldn’t even complete the tutorial without losing almost all of my men. No matter how many campaigns I tried to start (literally 5), I couldn’t make it past an hour or two without losing all of my army and eventually my territory. I even kept the instructional character on in the corner, and either he was speaking Japanese or I just was a terrible listener because in the end, it never worked out. I think my main problem was that I was so bad at the battles that it must have been painful to watch. Even with a few “quick fixes” I looked up on some forums & blogs, I still got absolutely wrecked by any force I came across. This is 100% a me problem because I vividly remember hearing people talk about how they were winning some battles in class and how they were investing in banks and infrastructure and whatnot. Meanwhile I was sweating at the tutorial because it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to rotate my army. Which brought me to my final conclusion…
This game is so real it hurts
Yanno what I love to do more than anything after teaching all day and going to class all night? Getting my ass kicked in tutorial mode and having Japanese soldiers scream at me the whole time. However, even though I was painfully terrible at this game that doesn’t mean that it cannot be used to teach/learn history for those that can play it. After doing some research, (because I couldn’t see half the game because I’m as skilled as a potato) I found that there are a lot of aspects in this game that are accurate, like the Clan names and the buildings throughout the game.
Another aspect that is very accurate (to a painful degree) is the combat. Throughout the combat simulation you are faced with so many choices in how to execute your battle strategy. Do you take the high ground? A good idea but if you push your soldiers too hard they will become fatigued. It is so realistic that if you are trying to attack an enemy the enemy can actually set up and you have to attack them, not like CIV 6 battle simulations at all. However there are some inaccuracies, like the fact that there wasn’t any Katana Battalions, mainly archers and spears. Katanas were used during this time period but not by entire units. Another Inaccuracy that I found was that there was not Tadeka calvary at this time, they were believed to be a myth or legend. However I don’t think this inaccuracy took away from that gaming experience much.
Final thoughts
I think my opinion of this game is clear, it’s not for me. Im throwing in the towel , its just too hard and It does not work with me. This game is living proof that games are in fact – not for everyone. However, if you were into Ancient Japan and military strategy, then this game is probably right up your ally. If not, probably not at all. Im sorry if this review is a little weak, this game was a struggle for me, all the more reason I’m excited to take on Tropico 5 next week!
I thoroughly enjoyed playing Age of Empires II because it was a nice trip down memory lane as I played it about 10 years ago or so. With that being said there were some downsides to the game due to its age, but Im going to stay away from them because Age of Empires holds a special place in my heart and will not be tainted.
Age of Empires is a strategic war game that takes place in the Dark Ages/Mid-evil era. It is not turn based like the previous game we played, Civ 6. However, I found this games style and form of combat to be much more appealing and strategic than that of the brand new civ 6.
French Soldiers in formation
One of the main differences between civ and Age of Empires was the combat, and the ability you have in combat for Age of Empires is much more detailed than that of civ. In Age of Empires you can choose the formations of your units, pick and choose which ones attack and when they commence their attack. This means you can hit the enemy in waves instead of just having a flat out attack. The military units also stay true to the time period, age of empires offers siege weaponry like the Trebuchet above. Which is important in taking down village and castle walls.
image from ageofempiresfandom.com
In the picture above are the different kind of walls that you are able to build. The act of building walls around your city is historically accurate due to the kings of the era wanting to protect the people (and gold ) that was being held inside the walls. As a player, walls are very important to your civilizations survival because they provide a first line of defense from invasion. On the flip side of that, the walls of your enemies can be pesky and require siege weaponry like the trebuchet above. There is an aspect of walls in the Civ VI game, but it’s just for your city to be able to shoot back, whereas in Age of Empires these walls set clear boundaries to your civilization and provide protection from invasion.
image from ageofempiresfandom.com
The last topic I will discuss is the Joan of Arch campaign against the English and the Burgundians. This level is extremely hard and I did not finish it with nearly as many soldiers as the player above did, but it was still very fun. There is a storyline that goes along with the mission that is historically accurate, and it even gives you a rendezvous point with landmarked directionals, common in an Era without GPS. You are trying to break the siege of Paris even though it is heavily defended by the English. This level requires you to be a diligent and smart commander, and not lose too many men because you are without re-supply. This campaign was fun to play and to be able to reenact its historically accurate storyline/mission by freeing Paris and Joan of Arc was truly a treat.
All in all, I am biased but I will still stay this game is a top notch game. It remains as historically accurate as possible and allows players to control armies just like the Kings and Lords did back during the mid-evil era. 10/10 would recommend!
The game starts off with a heated fight scene between the 300 spartans and the Persians. This scene’s intention is to show the player the combat controls, but it also serves a historical purpose. Every student has heard about the 300 spartans and Thermoplyae, but never before have students been able to take on the Persians themselves! I think for any student interested in Greek history the ability to partake in the battle would help them better understand the battle and what ancient peoples went through during war.
During this scene you can see the armor of the soldiers, the formation of the soldiers (spartans defending with shields), as well as the surrounding environment. All of these seem to be historically accurate as well. the only inconsistency i noticed was the lack of Greek soldiers behind the spartans. Although, the developers did include Leonidas, which was pretty cool.
Part II : obtaining materials
During the first 5 or so missions it was mainly the players job to build up armor and weapons. All of these have been historically accurate, and very colorful if i might add. I did not think that all the buildings would be painted as they are, but they are beautiful. Playing this game allows for players to see past the plain white ruins, and as a result the surroundings do feel like they come to life a bit.
Part III : Cliff Hanger
This scene is the final scene of the opening missions, and it explains the separation from Alexio’s family, as well as his heritage. The child being sacrificed because of the wishes of an oracle is not that out of the norm for the ancient spartans. However, the scene of the child being thrown off of a cliff is a bit graphic when most babies were just left in the wild, or on a hillside. Even with this slight inaccuracy, I still appreciate the fact that they introduced this part of Spartan life to the game. However nasty, it still happened. Thats all for this week, but next week well see how much farther into the main missions we can get !
This week as I played civ VI my nation entered the modern era. This was pretty exciting for myself because I had never stuck with the game for that long to see what units and buildings you could get/unlock. Although, as I am trying to become a trading empire, I have realized the logistics behind it are a bit harder than i expected.
Trade
I set out to colonize Australia to use it as a hub for trading with Asia and other nations around the Indian ocean.
This is actually harder than I had originally thought because the nations themselves are so young that it will take forever to build infrastructure and trading posts. One way to address that is to just drop thousands of coins onto these settlements, and basically buy everything and not use the citys production to get things done. But after doing this I actually have a great relationship with China and we have been doing joint research projects as a result! Pretty neat stuff!
War with France
During this week I also ended a war with France in a decisive battle around the city of Los Angeles. France landed on my shores in a surprise attack during a long war, and I immediately wiped them out using my Infantry units and Airstrikes. This revealed 2 things to me, 1) I need submarines and eyes in the seas because otherwise I could be attacked at anytime. This exposed to me something that the original leaders of nations probably felt, the importance of intelligence. And additionally if I am fighting with an enemy that doesn’t have airpower, I will blow them out of the water. The importance of keeping military technologies up to date is now a key aspect of my diplomacy.
Whats to come?
With only less than 100 turns left before the game ends, I am going to try and wage war with a nation in Africa or Europe. I want to test my abilities in combat, but also to see if i can handle the logistical monster that ensues with waging a war overseas. Wish me luck!
For this first post, Im going to break this game into 2 categories, the Gameplay itself (strategy & goals) , and the ability to use it in a classroom, its pedagogical potential (pros and cons). So let’s get right to it.
Gameplay
I started this game at the neutral difficulty of Prince, and the nation that I chose to rule was America with Teddy Roosevelt. I chose to have each character start on the map at the location that suited their empire, so the was generally historically accurate. I did notice that the middle east / Mediterranean sea was a bit jumbled and over-stacked, but this makes sense seeing that there are multiple empires that rose and fell in that same area throughout history.
Being America had its pros and cons, the isolation was great, minus the fact that there was no diffusion in my empire and because of that it lagged behind the others with tech achievements . The isolation allowed for me to really spread my borders and take over not only North America, but Central and parts of South America as well. This expansion was uncontested until I went to war with the nation of Brazil, which controlled most of South America. This war was eventually won by me, and it ended in Brazil paying reparations.
Pedagogy
As Far as its use in the classroom goes, there was a-lot of mechanics and features that I believe could be useful to help further Deeper Learning with students. I say that because I believe if students are not aware of some of the historical accuracies, this game is just a game. A lot of surface learning will not take place because of the inaccuracies that take part throughout the game. For example, as you eventually set up governments, you are allowed to choose from a few choices, and a lower-achieving student might look at the merchant republic and see that its benefits are an extra card, one plus builder, etc. While at the same time, a student who is ready for deeper learning is possibly going into that decision thinking ” am i going to become a Maritime trading society like England, or the East India Trading co.?” Another example might be , “Should i found my city between two rivers like Mesopotamia?” – compared to “I should put my city here because its +3 food.” Unfortunately for some students, this game will just be a game, but to others this game can help show the interconnectedness of History.
Im sorry this is lacking pictures and videos, to be completely honest this took me a long time to figure out in the first place, but now that i got it i will put pictures and videos into my next blog post – tech savviness willing.
white peach gaming 