Hi friends,
So this trip to my #HistoricalGameStudies archives is out of chronological order, but it's reasonably good winter vacation reading, summing up the state of my work (and discussing others) in what I hope is readable whatever your history reading habits are -- nice images too! Historical Games, #HistoricalProblemSpaces, History in Education, How some claims about historical accuracy in can connect to racist and misogynist claims -- this one has it all

https://jgeekstudies.org/2019/04/22/playing-with-the-past-history-and-video-games-and-why-it-might-matter/

This podcast conversation on Studying Pixels about how to study and teach with historical games (#HistoricalProblemSpaces) turned out quite well. If you're interested in these topics, give it a listen. https://studyingpixels.com/games-as-historical-problem-spaces-with-jeremiah-mccall/

Next up on my digital reminiscence: “Navigating the Problem Space: The Medium of Simulation Games in the Teaching of History,” History Teacher 2012. https://historicalsimulations.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/mccall-navigating-the-problem-space.pdf. Since this was written pre 2012 it has that focus on the idea of a "simulation game" that I've since put on a shelf, but I'm proud that this lays out the concept of games as uniquely #HistoricalProblemSpaces offerinf player agent choice and how to pedagogically position students as critiques of this kind of media.

@zeerphling in that (particularly when they are games with gameworld) they focus on agency withing a problem space (there that @gamingthepast goes again; droning on abour #HistoricalProblemSpaces 😜). I think (have not thoroughly researched this either) that some would argue something like a choice-based text or even a heavily scripted game, or even a COD is not "interactive" but "interreactive" in that it does not respond to us so much as it cues up a pre-established response. 2/

@heml
As far as your second question, I'm not sure that there are any historical games (totally could be wrong about this) that fully address this portrayal of technology. Old World, a more complex 4X game (Ozymandias' beauty is in its simplification of game play) gives players a semi-randomized set of three options at time for guiding research. But I would suggest that the design demands of these games as what I call #HistoricalProblemSpaces pressure tech trees to work like this. 2/

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!

Hey, working on finishing up an article comparing the genre-centered #HistoricalProblemSPaces of AC:Odyssey and Hegemony: Wars of Ancient Greece. Does anyone know this: DId AC Origin allow the player to kill bystanders or was that something introduced for Odyssey? In Odyssey the player can essentially murder anyone (creepy)

Arguably Assassin's Creed Odyssey functions as Homer's (a la Finley and Raaflaub etc) where you can (potentially) gain substantive details about the society from setting and background of the world but far less so from the actual protagonist's adventures.

I don't why, but that just feels clever. Maybe it's not clever at all, but it felt like a strange electric moment as I work on #HistoricalProblemSPaces and historiography. Thanks for your time, friends!

Having this amazing thinking session about #HistoricalProblemSpaces as a historiography, or perhaps a hermeneutics for historical games -- whether it comes out well in the article, you'll be the judge. Gosh I hope it all comes out well!