PLAYING WITH THE PAST: THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL VIDEO GAMES FOR THE FIELD OF HISTORY

Video games have existed for decades, allowing billions of people around the world to explore the digital worlds created by passionate developers. Historical games have always been a part of the medium, though their prominence began to rise with the turn of the century. Historical games like the Civilization franchise, Assassin’s Creed, and many others have brought ancient history into the modern digital age. For many game developers, history became their digital playground. However, even with their importance in the modern cultural zeitgeist, historical video games seemingly do not have a large influence within the scholarly field. Regardless of whether scholars care about video games and historical video games, video games play an enormous role in shaping a wide public’s understanding of the past. Therefore, this thesis explores the importance of historical games within a scholarly context. It examines the role that historians have traditionally played in video game development. Through a series of in-depth interviews, it assesses the reception of these historical games by scholarly and public audiences. Finally, this thesis argues that video games, historical and non-historical, create a new avenue for scholars to engage. They can become an anchor for scholars in the digital era by creating ways to study, educate, preserve, and play with the past.