Computerized History Games: Narrative Options

Abstract

How may historians best express history through computer games? This article suggests that the answer lies in correctly correlating historians’ goals for teaching with the capabilities of different kinds of computer games. During the development of a game prototype for high school students, the author followed best practices as expressed in the literature on games for learning. The analysis that followed led the author to question the applicability of these best practices, and this literature, to history games for learning. He began the second iteration by asking, “What is it that we as historians want to teach?” After deciding on goals for history education, the author asked a second question, “How can these goals be best expressed in a game environment?” Different game genres afford different possibilities, and the author connects three epistemologies for history to three computer game genres, resulting in three options for history games for learning.