When I was 8, I was enrolled into a summer camp at Genesee Country Village and Museum. The village was a living museum where costumed interpreters talked about the life of an eighteenth to nineteenth century village. The purpose of the summer camp was to learn about lifeways during this period, asContinue Reading
A lot of players care about the histories of the fictive worlds they spend their time in. Case and point, a handful of World of Warcraft books have made it on the New York Times Bestseller list. As I have been thinking about these game world histories it strikes meContinue Reading
One of the classic books in the field of computer gaming and learning is James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. I often see the title abbreviated as What Video Games Have To Teach Us–an understandable shorthand, but one that allows, I think, forContinue Reading
Why is it that when we set out to talk about history and play, we always end up talking about games? One thing that attracted me to the blog you’re reading right now, besides the terrific set of co-conspirators Ethan has assembled, was its title and the broad set ofContinue Reading
The premise behind Colonization has been controversial since the game’s inception. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Colonization puts players in the shoes of a European power and sets them loose to colonize the Americas. Originally released in 1994 an updated version of the game was released in 2008.Continue Reading