What are the commonalities between video games and history and can video games be considered as a form of modern historical publication.
As someone who enjoys video games and history alike, I always wondered, can video games be considered historical publications? According to George Macaulay Trevelyan, a prominent 20th British historian, “History is a mixture of the scientific (research), the imaginative or speculative (interpretation) and the literary (presentation)” [1]. History must thus contain three aspects to be considered as history. They are a form of research or sources, an interpretation of those sources, and then a presentation of information. With those steps in mind, let’s look at several video games and see whether they meet the criteria of being considered history.
Assassins Creed Odyssey
The first example I will study is Ubisoft’s, Assassins Creed Odyssey (AC). AC is a third-person action game set in the year 431 BCE during the Peloponnesian wars between Sparta and Athens in modern-day Greece. The players of the game control a male or female mercenary who fights for both sides as they attempt to unite their family and uncover a secret cult which holds wicked intentions. Regarding its research, the AC development team has collaborated with both, historians and archaeologist, to represent the classical era as accurately as possible.[2]
The games buildings, environment, and the city of Athens have been remarkably reconstructed digitally in the game to present it to the player the way it would have looked in that era. The environment the player finds themselves in reflects the culture and lifestyle of those living in Greece’s classical era. Everything in the game has been reconstructed from the past; from the architecture to the clothing, weaponry, and even prominent characters such as Aristotle, and Plato, who the protagonist bumps into on several occasions.
While the protagonists narrative may not be accurate, that a mercenary was involved in the conflict as presented in the game, the overall theme, the Peloponnesian war and its events, has been deemed somewhat accurate by several historians.[3] As such, AC odyssey can be considered as a form of reconstructed history based on the methodology used by Trevelyan in explaining what history is.
Civilization VI
Another example we could use is a different type of game known as Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Civ VI). Civ VI is a turn-based strategy game developed by Firaxis Games. The primary goal of the game is for the player to lead their civilisation from the ancient era to the ‘future’ era. The player picks a civilisation and a leader that represents that civilisation (India is represented by Gandhi in the game). The player must then focus on one of five possible victories for him or her to win the game (i.e. in science, culture, domination, religion, and score). This can be achieved by dominating your opponent’s capital cities, attaining technological superiority, or even by developing a cultural dominance over all opponents.
Using the same methodology implemented above with AC, we can derive the following from Civ VI. The research concept in history is well evident in Civ VI as it has an immense database of research and historical references added to its content. Take the in-game Civilopedia as an example. Civilopedia is a referential tool created by the developers to be used in obtaining historical information about a particular civilisation, person, building, or even policy.[4] There are more than 4,900 pages of historical reference in the Civilopedia, which indicates the growing interest in Civ VI as a historical reference.
Historian Adam Chapman said the following about the Sid Meier’s Civilization game, “Civilization is history because it is a text that allows playful engagement with, connects to and produces discourse about the past.” [5] Based on the interpretation of how Trevelyan categorises history, we can conclude that Civ VI does contain a research aspect through its Civilopedia tool, an interpretational element through its music and visuals, and finally presentational aspect through its virtual reconstruction of an alternate past.
An example of Civ VI interpretation of history derives from its visual and aesthetic tools. When a player chooses to play the Phoenician civilisation, represented by the queen Dido, the music the player hears during the game is known as the “Hurrian Hymn.” The song is derived from a clay tablet that was excavated from the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit in 1,400 BCE in modern-day Syria.[6] The tablet contains the Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal, the Phoenician Goddess of Orchids.[7] While playing as any civilisation, the soundtrack a player reflects the civilisation’s music across different periods in history. The game starts with singular music notes in the ancient era, which then gradually grows to an orchestra with several instruments and intricate beats.
The use of historical video games
While not all video games are history, some may be interpreted as providing historical content. One interesting example is how the visuals from Assassins Creed Unity, set during the French Revolution, was used to reconstruct the Notre Dame after it burned down in 2019.[8] Based on the analysis provided, it is thus concluded that some video games may be considered as being a form of modern historical publications and representations. While certainly games such as Fortnite or World of Warcraft have no basis of historical research to develop their content from, other video games like Civ VI or AC do contain a large amount of historical data and research into their development.
References:
[1] Richard J. Evans, In defense of history, In defence of history, (London: London : W.W. Norton, 1999).
[2] Andrew Reinhard, “Consulting for Ubisoft on Assassins Creed: Odyssey,” Archaeogaming (2019).
[3] “How historically accurate is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? We asked a Classics professor,” PcGamesn, 2018.
[4] “Civilization (Series),” 2019, https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Civilization_(series).
[5] Adam Chapman, “Is Sid Meier’s Civilization history?,” Rethinking History 17, no. 3 (2013). P. 318
[6] Marguerite Yon, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006).
[7] M. L. West, “The Babylonian musical notation and the Hurrian melodic texts,” Music and Letters 75, no. 2 (1994), https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/75.2.161.
[8] “Can ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Help Rebuild Notre Dame? How Restoring the Cathedral Will Rely on Both New Tech and Ancient Knowhow,” Artnet News, 2019.
Sign up to Sail Newsletter
Never miss another article!
Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong.
