Learning About the Past Through Gaming & Alternative History (What If?)
In the era of Fortnite, League of Legends and other popular video games, did you know that you can learn about the past through a video game and 'alternative history?' The Western Illinois University Department of History will present a public history talk focusing on these topics as part of a new series this spring.
The first talk will be held at 3:45 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 3 in Morgan Hall 307, and via Zoom at wiu.zoom. us/j/92826225700. WIU History Department Chair Tim Roberts and graduate student Henry Dickinson will present 'Studying the Past Via Alternative History and Gaming' and 'Labor History Through Twine Interactive Fiction: The Battle of Blair Mountain.' The presentation is open free to the public.
Roberts has been teaching the course, 'Gaming the Past,' where his students' study and play history- themed videos and board games as historical sources. According to Roberts, games can be valuable because they put the student gamer in the shoes of historical actors.
'Some games like 'Assassin's Creed' don’t really work as pedagogically, but others can be great tools to teach empathy – seeing a past event from a stranger's point of view, and agency – understanding that historical outcomes aren't inevitable, but are the results of people's decisions and choices,' Roberts explained. 'That links with learning via alternative history. For example, a game I developed asks and answers, 'What might have happened if President Lincoln hadn't issued the Emancipation Proclamation when or how he did?' Good 'what-if' history doesn't consider unrealistic factors such as aliens landing to zap slaveholders, but considers how history could be different if decision-makers faced slightly altered circumstances.'
