Our fourth HGN event, for our Education theme, took place on 13 April. We were delighted that the panellists and the audience, generated a lively discussion and prompted more questions on how historical games can be used (or misused) in education. In case you missed it or would like to watch it again, you can find the video of the event below.
This was the final event of our fourth theme (it’s flown by!) and we are thankful to the many people who contributed to the theme over the past few months. You can check out the full articles and posts from the contributors here but a brief recap follows.
We had fascinating insights from Rosalind Hulse (RHUL) exploring some key challenges and lessons for Holocaust-themed TRPGs, paying particular attention to games like Gestapo (1976) and Rosenstrasse (2022) and we also featured a range of different (and definitely non-exhaustive!) resources and reading/playing recommendations as a starting point for thinking about games and historical learning here. HGN’s Adam Chapman wrote about “Problematising Games in History Education” and explored some of the existing claims and ideas about incorporating games into history education in a two-part post: part 1 and part 2. Robert Houghton’s post, “Argument, not Fact”, refected his own experiences of incorporating games in the classroom, particularly in the context of teaching medieval history in Higher Education.
We also had contributions from each of our panellists. Kasia Smith reflected on how a heritage-themed game built on the Minecraft: Education Edition platform and designed as a bit of fun for primary schools, CumbraeCraft, had become an increasingly important learning environment due to the global pandemic. Stéphanie-Anne Ruatta from Ubisoft Quebec shared her perspectives on researching and representing Ancient Greece for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Discovery Tour here. Game Designer and Curator Holly Gramazio provided us with her insights on “Commissioning Historical Games: a Game Designer’s Viewpoint”.
We now move on to our next theme, Environment. The environments of historical games sit precisely at the intersection between gameplay and representation. We’re excited to hear everyone’s thoughts on historical games, space and the environments and if this is something you want to contribute to you can read the call for contributions here.
As usual, the contributions will lead us into our theme event, which we currently expect to take place in late July/early August.