Now that I've had the kids start to explore the game, we'll split classes between an Atlantic Imperialism lecture and gameplay time for the week and start talking about the #HistoricalProblemSPace and perspective of the player agent, etc. This will ground looking at Colonization 2008 and reading some of the cool Playthepast.org work of @tjowens and Rebecca Mir on Colonization. 2/

@alessa_ed Great question! Thanks so much! So tl;dr is that I use both video games and board games in my own classes. While my writing has mostly abt historical video games, I think, analog game analyses in a class setting also works very well w/ the #HistoricalProblemSpace framework I've developed over the past 10+ years or so. My current writing project is actually a book w/ Routledge that focuses a lot on guiding teachers to develop analog games & guide students to dev analog games in class.

The advantage to mobile games is that almost all students have some device that would play at least one of these games, a great advantage compared to high end games like Assassin's Creed.
Anyway, the basic task for the student would be to
1) analyze the #HistoricalProblemSpace the mobile game presents (see https://www.playthepast.org/?p=6923 and http://gamestudies.org/2003/articles/mccall; even better; read Gaming the Past Second Edition)
2) Do some light (or heavy) research. and

#HistoricalGameStudies
3/

Game dev friends. I'm filling in my outline for my Interactive History book project (presumably for Routledge): historical game design for history classes (analog, twine, and a limited section on vg tech)

I'd like to key my #HistoricalProblemSpace framework for design into existing game design instruction. Can you recommend general game design books etc. I'm aware of Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark and I'm aware of Mark Brown and GMTK. Who else does "verb" and "noun" stuff?

@joebyer Thanks for the Puerto Rico tip -- did not know that and I'm fascinated to see what the latest iteration does with the problematic "colonists". Analog games are great and I use them in class too. I have this whole #HistoricalProblemSpace framework for history game analysis that works with digital and analog. Looking forward to future path crossings!

I'm excited by this new article from the awesome Tamika Glouftsis, not least of all because she found #HistoricalProblemSpace framework helpful.

This is a signififcant issue in #HistoricalGameStudies

IMPLICATED GAMING: CHOICE AND COMPLICITY IN LUDIC HOLOCAUST MEMORY

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hith.12277

I did fire up 0AD the other day just to pick at the tutorial. From just a little bit of time, I noticed three things. Neither of these constitutes a thorough assessment of the game
1) It's clearly a #HistoricalProblemSpace straight out of the realtime strategy genre

2) The tutorial makes it so that women citizens gather food better than male soldiers but make soldiers chop wood better. I can't think of any historical evidence that would support that.

1/

Hi friends, especially #Histodons. I'm giving a talk along with the awesome Lisa Gilbert Q&A on Age of Empires III as a #HistoricalProblemSpace -- basically a brief intro how to approach a game like this as history. It will be a good session for people new to studying historical games.

Thursday Dec. 8, 12:00-1:00 EST / 18-19 CEST
Open to all (it will be recorded too)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/games-history-geschichte-tickets-457454186787

Just when the inclusivity of diversity (which I very much support) in the GameLoft new Oregon Trail seemed a bit more treating of people as interchangeable tokens (partly because of the game's' #HistoricalProblemSpace), this unlocked quest came up. Clearly there is more complexity than it first appeared when it comes to inclusion in the game. Check this out

Hi friends!
I was interviewed on the Studying Pixels podcast last month by a truly terrific conversant, Stefan Heinrich Simond. We talked about historical games as kinds of history and as #HistoricalProblemSpace . If you like podcasts and want to think more about #HistoricalGameStudies this is a good one to listen to, imho

https://studyingpixels.com/games-as-historical-problem-spaces-with-jeremiah-mccall/

Reminder for those interested; I'm giving a talk and then Q&A on Age of Empires III as a #HistoricalProblemSpace -- basically a brief introduction how to approach a game like this for history education.

And since I cannot for the life of me find the Eventbrite link to sign up, perhaps my friend and grand orchestrator @LHaasis will be kind enough to remind me so I can paste it in.

Trying out the Oregon Trail remake. PC version came out and I was able to get a version from the Gameloft folk. It's fascinating what and how they've added and modified the original #HistoricalProblemSpace from the 1970s/80s/90s (I played in the early-mid 80s if you want to pin down my age). I'd really like to have kids compare the two, but it's a prohibitive $29. Originally an IPhone game though so perhaps it's less expensive there (I'm guessing free 2 play)

New #introduction for a new instance (@gamingthepast)

I'm a high school history teacher of 20+ yrs in Ohio & a Roman historian who pursues #HistoricalGameStudies, (intersection of history, games, & sometimes, education). The 2d ed. of my book, Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History (Routledge) came out 11/11. I also continue to develop the #HistoricalProblemSpace framework for analyzing historical games. Always ready to talk about these topics.

Head swimming, I realized I need to get back to my basics, which is sometimes difficult because the basics can seem too basic if you think about them all the time. But these viewers are mostly training to be educators (hurray!) and most of all, if I had 20 minutes to talk about games & history for teachers, I would want to give a quick example of how the #HistoricalProblemSpace framework can really help educators analyze a big game like AoE III and, better still, guide their students to do so 2/

Wow! The DLC list in Age of Empires III Definitive Edition is quite impressive! Critics will point out what is missing, but I'm impressed what's included. https://store.steampowered.com/dlc/933110/Age_of_Empires_III_Definitive_Edition/
Anyone want a cool #HistoricalProblemSpace topics? Investigate all the dlc and see the extent to which the historical content of each is shaped by being an AoE3-genre #HPS. DLC often really illustrates how core genre and design shape historical content because the system is designed before the content is chosen

Finished an article and submitted. Now ... I wait.
But looking forward to my talk at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/games-history-geschichte-tickets-457469372207 on Dec. 8th.
Steadily playing away at Age of Empires III definitive edition. One thing I really find fascinating about AoE from the perspective of #HistoricalProblemSpaces is it provides such a clear example. Perhaps because mechanics the focus, 1can see how any historical topic is morphed into an rts #HistoricalProblemSpace . If you'd like I'll put some screenshots up and mumble more

Since I, and many of us are new to Mastodon, a couple of links to unpack that first tweet on #HistoricalProblemSpaces. If you are interested in how (some historians) look at history games, I've been crafting this method over the past decade or so #HistoricalProblemSpace framework. http://gamestudies.org/2003/articles/mccall

or for a more streamlined introduction https://www.playthepast.org/?p=6923

So I'm working on my article applying my #HistoricalProblemSPaces framework to some examples (Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Hegemony: Wars of Ancient Greece) and just took a little bit of time to start actually reading Scott's "Seeing Like a State". It's striking me at least that in his forestry example the Prussian State is seeing the world like a big #HistoricalProblemSpace. Also really enriches my understanding of state agents in real-time strategy games. Thinking thoughts!

Hi Mastodon Friends,
here's my #Introduction again with the proper hashtag

I'm a high school history teacher of 20+ yrs in Ohio & a Roman historian who pursues #HistoricalGameStudies, (intersection of history, games, & sometimes, education). The 2d ed. of my book, Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History (Routledge) came out 11/11. I also continue to develop the #HistoricalProblemSpace framework for analyzing historical games. Always ready to talk abt these topics.

(cross post) 1st #HPS thought of the morning working on #AgeodEmp3DE. 🧵RTS story mode gameplay really does a good job illustrating how the developers' #HistoricalProblemSpace for the game really shapes the historical phenomena presented. On an early mission for Morgan Black and the Knights against the Ottoman Turks again. New faction is pirates with Lizzie (may be getting names wrong). Anyway framing narrative for the mission is that I need to get to New World to continue on with quests etc. 1/