HIST494: History through Gaming

This past semester, I have been experimenting with a course that combines computer/video games with history. Students have played an array of historically-themed games from the popular Assassin's Creed series to strategy games like Civilization 5. Students have written blog posts about the course games, researched and presented on unassigned games, and are developing their own hypothetical "dream" historically-themed game by doing historical research and incorporating game design and mechanics. As a class, we constantly seek elements of game-play that are factual and educational, as well as questioning when developers go beyond the realm of history into fiction. For more information about the course and links to student blog posts see the course website: https://spitt9.wixsite.com/historythroughgaming).

Joe Gardner presenting on Call of Duty 3,
which focuses on the Invasion of Normand.

The class has also benefited greatly from St. Bonaventure University's new eSports Club, the officers of which generously invited us to use their gaming room. Without this offer, teaching games like Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Battlefield I, and Call of Duty: WWII, would have been impossible.

Joe Gardner, Connor O'Keefe, and Brendan Fischer playing Battlefield I, which follows the stories of WWI soldiers across Europe. Those chairs in the eSport Club gaming room are amazing.    

History through Gaming students playing Battlefield V, which takes place during WWII. Battlefield V has had its share of
controversy over historical accuracy and including women in combat roles. 

Logan presented on Oregon Trail, one of the first historically-themed games used to teach history. He even played through the game although the pace at which he played ensured that everyone rapidly died. 

Luke presented on Assassin's Creed: Origins, which takes place during the Ptolemy Dynasty in Egypt. This game has a tourist mode where players can visit sites in Egypt and learn about them.  

Noah presented on his favorite subject, Ancient Rome, with the game Ryse: Son of Rome. 

 

Suffragetto

We took a bit of a break from regularly scheduled programming in History 202 to play Suffragetto, an early 20th-century game pitting suffragettes against police.

Public History does Design

Students enrolled in the Intro to Public History course are taking their first crack at designing a game.  Having looked at some design and organizational techniques and played some games to see those ideas in practice, they get to break into teams and create.  To see how history (theme) and games (design) could merge, they played Tesla v. Edison, The Grizzled, and Freedom: The Underground Railroad.  Thier first task is to create a simple card game.  Later, we'll add some history content from the archives.

Public History Game Design is back for the Fall

Is it fun?  Are games fun?  What is fun?  Should we play?  Here are some thoughts...

Next fall we will be doing the game design assignment again in History 206:  Introduction to Public History.  Prepping for that Dennis Frank send us a link to a collection of Ted Talks on Board Game Geek about board games.

While we're at it, let's check out video games in the classroom with Classroom Game Design.

Escape Room Camp - this summer

This summer we're hosting an escape room camp.  Escape Rooms are popping up all over the place.  In an escape room, your group has to get out (escape) by solving puzzles and mysteries around a theme.  If you like games, puzzles, and working together, they can be super fun.  The video (above) better explains what an escape room is.  If you search on YouTube, you will find lots of videos of people playing escape rooms.

Our camp is doing something a little different.  Campers will build the escape room and invite friends and family to play.  Campers will work in groups, pick a theme, select and build the puzzles, and put it all together in an escape room.

Last Day of Classes, Let's Play Games

On Friday, the last day of classes, we got together in the Friedsam Library to play some games.  Everyone seemed to need to have some fun before finals.  Fueled with pizza, we played a bunch of games, including Risk, 1775, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, and a few others.

history hits you in the face

This is the Dice Tower review of Freedom:  The Underground Railroad board game by Brian Mayer who is our speaker for the THATCamp.  We'll be giving some away as door prizes. This one is "actual eductainment."

THATCamp Bonas 16

We're hosting a THATCamp on Oct 25.  This is an outgrowth of the digital and public history projects we've been working on with Dennis Frank and the folks at the Friedsam Memorial Library.  The web page up that we'll be adding more information as we go along.  You can register for it here.

Because Dennis and I are involved and because we've been exploring gamification and game design in the classroom, we're kicking things off with a talk by Brian Mayer who is an educational game designer.  You can see his work here.

A THATCamp is an unconference.   The rules of an unconference are (1) have fun, (2) be productive, and (3) stay collegial.  The rules explained:

Unconferences are about you, the participants, proposing sessions that you explore with fellow participants with similar interest.  All disciplines are welcome.  Technology is broadly defined.

Gamification and the Civil War's 154th Regiment

Game Design Summer Camp

Gaming 

Let’s learn how to design and build a game!

Like games? Like playing games? In this camp, we’ll explore the principles of game design focusing on board games.

Games are all around us. The rise of computers and the internet has led to an explosion in gaming – obviously video and mobile games but also board games. It turns out gamers and the internet go together. Not only do we play games, but we use games to advertise, to get in shape, to learn, and the list goes on. The use of games for other purposes is called gamification.

Together we will answer these questions. What makes a game? What makes a game good? Fun? Interesting? Marketable?

• Instructor: Dr. Phillip Payne (Professor of History)
• Eligibility: Ages 10 and above (pre-college students). Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all spaces are filled.
• Location: TBA, on the SBU campus.

Video Gamers and History

The current issue of Perspectives on History, the news magazine of the AHA, has a story on video gaming and history.  In Backward Compatible:  Gamers as Public History Audience Robert Whitaker discusses the prevalence of historical themes in video games and bridging the gap between gamers and historians with let's play videos in a project he calls History Respawned.   Pretty cool.

Public History Class calls it a wrap

Thursday was the last Public History class.  Since we have stressed iterative design all semester, it seemed appropriate for the students to give us feedback on the class and the new assignment.  We got some good insights for future tweaks.  All in all, the class was a learning experience for students and instructors alike... and it will be better next time.

Pictured are the brave students who stuck the class out along with their games.  I am genuinely impressed with the work and creativity they put into the class and the games.  They created a variety of games exploring different aspects of the war.  They recreated the Battle of Gettysburg, home life, railroads, the march through Georgia.

Eddie Keen

Overview of Eddie's game

Overview of Jeremiah's game

Overview of Ben's game

Overview of Mike's game

Alicia Henning

Ben Barnhart

Dan Leopold

Jeremiah Horrigan

Mike Wesolowski

Political Zingers

On December 8 Larry Raymond spoke with the Public History class about his game, Political Zingers.  Political Zingers fits into the theme of game design, because, according to the game's web page, "With Zingers!, talking politics with your friends is fun and you won’t ruin the evening.    You put words into the mouths of politicians and pundits, telling the truth as you see it through a cartoon vocabulary.  You  can speak your mind, get a laugh and not offend anyone."  The games ability to get people (translation students) to discuss potentially difficult topics has real educational applications.  Students in the class have a variety of political opinions and levels of engagement, but they all enjoyed the game.  The game moved quickly, provoking both discussion and laughs.  Larry also discussed how the game related to his long and varied career including his fascinating work with metaphor mapping in the corporate world and the United Nations.

Board Game Jam- 11/13/15

In accord with the Public History class, which is designing their own board games around the American Civil War, the History Department and History Club held a Board Game Jam on a Friday afternoon in Friesdam Memorial Library. Several students and professors stopped by to try their hand at a variety of board games, from classic favorites like Risk, to new games involving the American underground railroad, and several others. A fun time was had by all, as they learned about new games while enjoying pizza and each other.

Stacks of board games and slices of pizza, 

a great combination.

Freedom, a board game pertaining to the 

American Underground Railroad

Students enjoying their board games.

Freedom: The Underground Railroad

Last class an unplanned game session broke out.  We've been talking about how to match theme, content, and game design.  In particular how does one deal with potentially sensitive topics, such as slavery, in a public history project.  Also, we want to think about the richness of the Civil War and not limit ourselves to war games (not that we have anything against war games).  Dennis brought in Freedom:  The Underground Railroad (click here for an interview with the designer) to show the class how one educational game designer had dealt with it in a cooperative game.  Once the game was explained, the next logical step was .... well, to play it.

History Club Events

The History Club has some cool events on the horizon.

November 12th- Trivia Night in La Verna- 7 p.m. Come with a team of three to test your knowledge on trivia (not just history). Top three teams win gift card prizes. 

November 13th- Friedsam Library, 2-?. Board Game Day. Join the History Club in the basement of the library in a Board Game jam. Enjoy playing familiar and obscure board games with friends and professors while enjoying pizza. 

November 14th- 8-4 pm. Field trip to Strong National Museum of Play and Nick Tahou's.  Enjoy a day in Rochester visiting Rochester's National Museum of Play (It's Sci-Fi Day!) and later getting lunch at Nick Tahou's- birthplace of the Garbage Plate. Transportation will be provided, first come, first served. Free of charge.

Meeples Visit Public History - More Games Designed

The Public History class continues to explore the intersection of game design, historical content, and education.  Our second round of game design included not just game mechanics, but the games had to illustrate or incorporate a real-world theme.   

The students came up with two games.  Black Gold is a resource management and territory occupation game with an eurogame feel that used the theme of competing oil companies.

The other team built a game to explain the college experience.  Players had to advance through four years of college.  Here is a classic example of taking a theme and then finding the mechanics.  Both games worked in play testing today.

Plus, we now have meeples in the class!

Our next challenge is incorporating the Civil War themes from the 154th into a game and we're looking taking the first steps toward seeing how this plays out in the digital world with Gameblox and Minecraft.

Public History Presentation from the Strong

Jeremy Saucier of the Strong in Rochester where he serves as the Assistant Director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games gave an excellent talk with the public history students.  Jeremy covered a lot of ground impressing the students with the range of activities that goes into making a successful museum.  Relevant to our Civil War game assignment, Jeremy spoke about the Strong's mission to be a museum of play and how that led them to do pioneering work in collecting and curating the history of electronic and digital games.

First Round of Game Design Complete

Our teams of students (seen in action above) have completed the first round of game design.  The two teams built some interesting card games.  As part of this mad scientist approach to public history, we're next discussing the hows and whys of education outside of the traditional classroom and school - museum education and its many, many relatives.  How do we, as students and educators, make history, in our case the specific case study of the NY 154 in the Civil War, accessible, understandable, and exciting?

They Built a Game