Designing and Using Game Environments as Historical Learning Contexts

Abstract

The virtual presentation of landscapes in games, thanks to the exponential increase of representational power of digital technologies, has been progressively challenging the capacity of gaming audiences to distinguish virtual environments from real-world referents. This spectacular growth, however, has not been mirrored by a comparable progress in the simulation of the natural and social processes from real environments. Although highly realistic, game landscapes in most commercial titles still remain as inert theatrical scenery, devoid of any capacity to reflect the effects of human life agency and the inextricable nature of social and natural processes. In this paper, I present a historical game prototype, developed with the intention of representing the inherent complexity of historical landscapes. The game simulates everyday life in Anglo-Saxon Britain and has been iteratively produced in cycles of development and play-testing sessions with the participation of archaeologists, historians, and educators.