Gaming and Core: History
When it comes to gaming lore most people don’t think of it as history, but it is the time line for races which counts as history. There are writers that are staffed at all gaming corporations that write all of this and have to check for continuity flaws.
People have joked within League of Legends that nobody pays attention to it because when a massive character update happens, so does their back story and every champion involved with them.
Specifically in World of Warcraft there is a lengthy history that is set up for different maps, dungeon runs, species, battles, and rulers.
Guild Wars 2 had the expansion of Heart of Thorns which expanded much like how World of Warcraft does in raids and weapons.
Halo has story line that changes for the campaign mode with each new game.
Point is there are writers out there that have created this history. In your common core study of history we have to examine time lines of why things happen in the order that they did. When we fail to remember the past we set ourselves up to duplicate it. I typically ignore lore in video games because that doesn’t excite me. I like to ship what species and champions I want together, regardless of what the writers intended. Within World of Warcraft it has taught multiple generations of gamers about lore for the timeline in the game, but also for when other gamers have started playing the game.
When I wrote about the top 10 cinematic scenes in WoW I tried to ask friends of their favorite ones because the only ones I knew were recent and related to the Worgen. By stating my favorite you know that I am a recent WoW player. My friends brought up multiple different raid cut scenes and could write novels about the lore and how those updates changed the community. Those who have been fans for a long time have their opinion based on the movie as well that differs completely from fans who have never played the game. Loyalty to lore from different time periods shapes gamers and how they treat other gamers.
Halo and the Call of Duty franchise gamers know more about weapons and military strategy and may enjoy more war type content Ex. WWII, Bay of Pigs
Students who like mystery/horror games might be more likely into documents that changed history (hint: the story only moves forward when you collect fragmented documents that tell it) Ex. Zimmerman telegram, Deceleration of Independence
Students who like zombie games may enjoy disease outbreaks in history Ex. Bubonic plague, Small Pox blankets given to Native Americans
Half Life 2 addresses social issue as does Deus Ex: Human Revolution. BioShock: Infinite is that special one that addresses racism, classism, and religion. Ex. Civil rights movement, women’s suffrage
In League of Legends the way to tell history of players is by patch, updates on champions or new release champions. People don’t talk about the fight between Demacia and Noxus because it isn’t integral to game-play. I have wondered about pushing updates on stories via content would bring new numbers to the League community; think like the blood moon map and poro king but for more champions and a once a month update for an area.
My favorite tasks in history classes were interactive.
When it came to social issues I remembered more when my teacher said it was a debate and gave us issues and teams. We didn’t study for weeks; we had 10 minutes to prepare an argument.
One of the tasks that stands out from my 8th grade history class was about immigration to the colonies where we drew the map; the teacher gave instructions of how much to draw each time until we had an overcrowded paper
I would have loved if teachers had us devise our own war plans to make it through the WWII studies
When discussing native Americans, music would have helped to remember which tribes were from where.
Out of all the things that can motivate players story has the initial draw to new players as well as old. We like having something new in an old story line or something that hasn’t been done by another game. Much like actual history people don’t always remember the details and it isn’t enough to keep people coming back once they reach max level. Psychologically speaking people remember things that they enjoy or hate. Within video games it is easy to reach those feelings because there is lore we are already attached to. History classes can be difficult to relate to students because it doesn’t affect the things they love. When we see a direct influence of history we are more likely to react and remember it. I don’t believe that education video games are worth it, but based on content other games do really well in teaching this. Relating to what students enjoy can help teachers with expressing content and keep students engaged. As a gamer talk to your teacher about how the games you play can relate to your studies in history.
