Video Games and history are for video game developers an easy choice to make. The reason why it is an easy choice is simple; the general public has a good grounding in what some historical settings are especially ones that are well known in the public consciousness such as Ancient Rome, The Second World War, and the generic Middle Ages. History as a medium is also full of interesting stories some of which can be told in an interactive form rather than through the traditional medium of academic writing.
Though historical videogames can also be used in a different way of storytelling rather than simple narrative games, with simulator style games. Games such as The Oregon Trail (MECC, 1985) try to simulate a part of American westward expansion from St. Louis all the way to the Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The Oregon Trail has some problems to be sure, a major one being there is a distinct lack of Amerindians present in the West, apart from some in the background in some of the places. As a game the Oregon Trail is interesting, as it is part management game and part simulator of the real condition’s pioneers experienced on the real trail. Through a combination of poor planning and RNG the pioneers you lead can suffer broken arms, dysentery from poor drinking water, hypothermia or drown if crossing rivers. As well as personal injury and death the pioneers can also lose their supplies, have their bullocks injure or die, lose wagon wheels, and have axels break. All of these are real problems that genuine pioneers faced, though since The Oregon Trail is in ASCII the real horror of the genuine trail is lost. A choice is also made in excluding graphic violence done by settlers against the Amerindian populations that lived in the Oregon Territory. In a 2017 article by Katherine Slater on the real Oregon Trail and the Videogame discusses that the game perpetuates a narrative that is racist since it refuses to engage with impacts of Western expansion on Amerindian population.[1] This was a deliberate choice made by the developers of The Oregon Trail since it is a game for children educating them on the travels that pioneers took across the Western territories to Oregon.
Some games particularly of the Grand Strategy game genre take the choice that you the player are in control of a nation. The franchise where this the most typical is the Crusader Kings Franchise (Paradox Interactive, 2004 to Present), in this franchise the player takes control of a member of the nobility in the Middle Ages and through their choices decides how the character reacts to family problems (Marriages, affairs, the birth of children, plagues), the problems of state (murder plots, political rivalries, moving up the feudal ladder) and external problems (war, foreign conquests, the crusades, political alliances and the expansion of territory). All of these were problems that were faced in the Middle Ages by the political elites, but the game does not accurately reflect the realities of the life of the Medieval Nobles. Sometimes Crusader Kings can become rather ridiculous like many games where you the player are in charge. Player agency is an important aspect of video games which other historical media such as books and films lack. In a film you the viewer are merely watching events happen as a passive actor. Books are the same. Video Games on the other hand you the player are not a passive actor but instead an active part of the game and making choices in reaction to problems the game throws at you. The game has in game problems related to real history such as the Black Death and Children’s Crusade, but these do not happen at the same time in every game.
Historical video games are also for many people their first introduction to history and sometimes video games in general. For me, my first video game was Age of Empires II which is a historical strategy video game. It is also a good introduction to history generally as people have an inherent curiosity to learn more about the world created by video games.
Bibliography
Slater, Katharine. "Who Gets to Die of Dysentery?: Ideology, Geography, and the Oregon Trail." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 42, no. 4 (Winter, 2017): 374-395. doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.2017.0040
Crusader Kings (Paradox Interactive, 2004 to Present)
The Oregon Trail (MECC, 1985)