Strategic Simulations and Our Past

The Bias of Computer Games in the Presentation of History

Bibliographic Data

ID2409366
AuthorsKevin Schut (0000-0002-7898-1676, Trinity Western University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume2
Issue3
Pages213-235
Publication date2007-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGames and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1555-4120 • E-ISSN: 1555-4139
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1555412007306202
OpenAlexW2119146910
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited21

Many popular digital games have historical themes or settings. Taking its cue from recent research emphasizing the educational value of computer and video games, this article investigates the bias of the medium in presenting history. Although sharing an appreciation for the cultural value of history simulations and games, the author argues that the digital game medium currently tends to result in stereotypically masculine, mechanical, and spatially oriented interactive presentations of history. This article does not take a technological determinist stance nor a simplistic view of interpretation. Nevertheless, the author believes that the weight and momentum of the historical development of the digital game medium, its technological structure, and its institutional character have encouraged certain patterns in digital games that should be critically examined

Aesthetics · Art · Computer game · Determinism · Digital era · Epistemology · Game mechanics · Game studies · Interpretation (philosophy · Media studies · Multimedia · Perspective (graphical · Social science · Sociology · Technological determinism · The Internet · Value (mathematics · Video game · World Wide Web · Artificial Intelligence in Games · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Educational Games and Gamification · Artificial Intelligence