Home History 2 Learning About the Past Through Digital Play: History Students and Video Games
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

2 Learning About the Past Through Digital Play: History Students and Video Games

  • Eve Stirling and Jamie Wood
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games
This chapter is in the book Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games

Abstract

This chapter examines history students’ perceptions of their learning about the past through playing video games. We present a speculative design fiction that draws on data from a survey of student gamers’ perceptions of their learning about history through videogaming. We used responses to the survey to create a story that explores both what students thought that they had learnt about history through playing “historical” video games in their free time and how they thought that they had learnt it. In addition, we explore why our respondents engaged in historical gameplay and what playing such games encouraged them to do beyond the digital world. Our aim is to understand students’ roles as active agents in learning about the past through virtual play rather than as passive consumers of digital products.

Abstract

This chapter examines history students’ perceptions of their learning about the past through playing video games. We present a speculative design fiction that draws on data from a survey of student gamers’ perceptions of their learning about history through videogaming. We used responses to the survey to create a story that explores both what students thought that they had learnt about history through playing “historical” video games in their free time and how they thought that they had learnt it. In addition, we explore why our respondents engaged in historical gameplay and what playing such games encouraged them to do beyond the digital world. Our aim is to understand students’ roles as active agents in learning about the past through virtual play rather than as passive consumers of digital products.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 1 Introduction: Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games 1
  5. Part I: The Educational Impact of Games
  6. 2 Learning About the Past Through Digital Play: History Students and Video Games 29
  7. Part II: Teaching through Commercial Games
  8. 3 Historicising Assassin’s Creed (2007): Crusader Medievalism, Historiography, and Digital Games for the Classroom 47
  9. 4 Declaiming Dragons: Empathy Learning and The Elder Scrolls in Teaching Medieval Rhetorical Schemes 69
  10. 5 “What if you are a Medieval Monarch?”: A Crusader Kings III Experience to Learn Medieval History 87
  11. Part III: Creating Educational Games
  12. 6 A Video Game for Byzantine History – Akritas: Playing at the Byzantine Borders 113
  13. 7 Collaborative Constructions: Designing High School History Curriculum with the Lost & Found Game Series 131
  14. 8 The Renaissance Marriage Game: A Simulation Game for Large Classes 155
  15. Part IV: User Modification as Learning Practice
  16. 9 Alchemy and Archives, Swords, Spells, and Castles: Medieval-modding Skyrim 175
  17. 10 Playing the Investiture Contest: Modding as Historical Debate in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Classroom 201
  18. 11 Game Development in a Senior Seminar 229
  19. Part V: Games beyond the Classroom
  20. 12 The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays: Playing with Medieval Sonic Histories 249
  21. 13 Beyond Education and Impact: Games as Research Tools and Outputs 279
  22. List of Contributors 299
  23. Index 303
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110712032-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 1 Introduction: Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games 1
  5. Part I: The Educational Impact of Games
  6. 2 Learning About the Past Through Digital Play: History Students and Video Games 29
  7. Part II: Teaching through Commercial Games
  8. 3 Historicising Assassin’s Creed (2007): Crusader Medievalism, Historiography, and Digital Games for the Classroom 47
  9. 4 Declaiming Dragons: Empathy Learning and The Elder Scrolls in Teaching Medieval Rhetorical Schemes 69
  10. 5 “What if you are a Medieval Monarch?”: A Crusader Kings III Experience to Learn Medieval History 87
  11. Part III: Creating Educational Games
  12. 6 A Video Game for Byzantine History – Akritas: Playing at the Byzantine Borders 113
  13. 7 Collaborative Constructions: Designing High School History Curriculum with the Lost & Found Game Series 131
  14. 8 The Renaissance Marriage Game: A Simulation Game for Large Classes 155
  15. Part IV: User Modification as Learning Practice
  16. 9 Alchemy and Archives, Swords, Spells, and Castles: Medieval-modding Skyrim 175
  17. 10 Playing the Investiture Contest: Modding as Historical Debate in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Classroom 201
  18. 11 Game Development in a Senior Seminar 229
  19. Part V: Games beyond the Classroom
  20. 12 The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays: Playing with Medieval Sonic Histories 249
  21. 13 Beyond Education and Impact: Games as Research Tools and Outputs 279
  22. List of Contributors 299
  23. Index 303
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 9.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110712032-002/html
Scroll to top button