{"id":4333,"date":"2014-01-15T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=4333"},"modified":"2014-01-16T17:13:29","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T22:13:29","slug":"modding-skyrim-the-value-of-history-magic-and-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=4333","title":{"rendered":"Modding Skyrim: The Value of Magic and Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since its release, I\u2019ve been a big fan of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim<\/a>. I found its huge open world, its random environment, and specifically its material culture refreshing- it kind of fit my style of play exactly. I\u2019m an explorer and tinkerer. I generally abhor magic, for no other pointless reason than I hope to squeeze every little bit of historical reality out of the world of Skyrim.<\/p>\n

As a history educator, I introduced the educational uses of Skyrim to my high school students, hoping that they would be motivated to squeeze the history out of Skyrim too. I thought that Skyrim was historically broken and we as educators and students must fix it. I found examples of others investigating Skyrim\u2019s geology<\/a>, and previously on Play the Past Jeremy Antley argued that Skyrim\u2019s alchemy was founded upon a modern, rather than medieval conception of science<\/a> (Medieval+, as Antley I think sharply refers to it).<\/p>\n

So, I led my students into investigations of agriculture (Why are there tomatoes<\/a>, potatoes<\/a> and corn<\/a> in Skyrim? Why is there so much cheese when there are so few of those adorable cows<\/a>? Shouldn\u2019t the people of Skyrim be starving?), technology (What early Middle Ages technologies are represented in Skyrim? How are they printing all those books? Who can actually read?), and the cultural landscape (What architectural forms in Skyrim find their inspirations in the cultural landscape of Northern Europe?). In each case, I encouraged some students to use Bethesda\u2019s Creation Kit<\/a> to make mods that addressed what we found to be Skyrim\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Students used Skyrim for field study- counting people, counting cabbages, counting calories. One student went so far as to cover the town of Rorikstead with hundreds of chickens. It was fun, and I think it offered students an experience that could not have existed in a traditional classroom.But every time I watched students actually play the game they never shared my strict sense of historical gameplay. They launched fireballs, used enchanted weapons, cast spells.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was already at the point where I was considering developing a mod based on an actual historic event, possibly based on a primary source. What if an entry in the Domesday Book for a specific town or estate were re-created, animal by animal? What if the pseudo- Roman vs. Germanic tribes material culture of Skyrim could be easily twisted to rehash an event from the late Roman Empire?<\/p>\n

Spending time in the classroom discussing video games with students has led me to believe in the important value of studying games \u201cas text.\u201d <\/a>Discussing\/playing\/modding games that were not originally intended for educational use, I think, gives student an authentic set of analytical skills, and in the end, I think, makes them better historians.<\/p>\n

I was becoming more interested in studying games as they are. Maybe, I thought, \u00a0there is a reason for my students\u2019 use of magic in the game. Perhaps they aren\u2019t actually just being pointlessly primitive and unscientific. And, most importantly, maybe magic offers the real educable moment.<\/p>\n

I began to consider a new angle, one in which magic would be a natural part of a historic simulation.<\/p>\n

A simulation of a historic event using a first-person game like Skyrim could mean that the player is recreating a historic role. Therefore, it is logical that the player character could hold the same common beliefs of others of his\/her time period. If it\u2019s the right time and place, magic works. Superstition is acceptable.<\/p>\n

What are the limits of the approach? If the idea is to simulate belief, where would belief simulation end? Consider the following passage from Suetonius<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Later, when Octavius was leading an army through remote parts of Thrace, and in the grove of Father Liber consulted the priests about his son with barbarian rites, they made the same prediction; since such a pillar of flame sprang forth from the wine that was poured over the altar, that it rose above the temple roof and mounted to the very sky, and such an omen had befallen no one save Alexander the Great, when he offered sacrifice at the same altar.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If one were to create a Skyrim mod that simulates the player character attending this event as described, it seems logical that the \u201cpillar of flame\u201d should be digitally reproduced and experienced by the player. The player may \u201csuspend disbelief\u201d (my students would have an easy time with that), but the simulation has some historical value, despite the simulation of a magical event. Myths have great historical value. As, I think, Roger Travis argued successfully in this blog<\/a>, myths are meant to be played.<\/p>\n

Others have successfully modded Skyrim toward humanities education ends. Lisa Hermsen and Elizabeth Goins of RIT created a mod for Skyrim entitled \u201cHysteria<\/a>,\u201d based on a series of late nineteenth century stories (Goins, incidentally, very recently nailed a historically-minded appraisal of Bioshock Infinite<\/a>). In this case, Hermsen and Goins report that their intent is to use their Skyrim mod as an \u201caggressive remediation-\u201d of the author\u2019s \u201cintended affect and persuasion.\u201d For my purposes, there\u2019s no supernatural involved, but there is hallucination and also belief in medical treatments now proven wrong by science. Can a historic recreation be believable and\/or \u201caccurate\u201d despite involving logically questionable events?<\/p>\n

What are the boundaries of simulating belief? If a source complained of the inferiority of a certain group of people in an event patterned after the source\u2019s experiences, should the modder simulate inferiority? Should metaphor be simulated?<\/p>\n

As a history teacher, I watched the film Lincoln<\/a> the way I originally played Skyrim- looking for a chance to jump on some inaccuracy. I soon sought out reviews, looking to gain some expert insight. What struck me most was Harold Holzer\u2019s view<\/a> of three of the film\u2019s inaccuracies he pointed out earlier in his review (during the making of which he had served as a consultant):<\/p>\n

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Besides, those soldiers who recite the Gettysburg Address may simply represent the commitment of white and black troops to fight together for its promise of \u201ca new birth of freedom.\u201d Mary Lincoln\u2019s presence in the House chamber may be meant to suggest how intertwined the family\u2019s private and public life have become. The image of \u201cOld Tippecanoe\u201d Harrison in Lincoln\u2019s office may be an omen for his own imminent death in office. In pursuit of broad collective memory, perhaps it\u2019s not important to sweat the small stuff. From time to time, even \u201cHonest Abe\u201d himself exaggerated or dissembled in pursuit of a great cause. Just check out the shady roads he took to achieve black freedom as \u201cimagined\u201d so dazzlingly in the movie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If magic and superstition may be OK in a recreation of the past, is metaphor and what is \u201cimagined\u201d OK too?<\/p>\n

Another RIT article, Modding the Humanities: Experiments in Historical Narratives<\/a> again briefly explains Hysteria, but also adds detail on the use of Oblivion<\/a> (Skyrim\u2019s predecessor) to teach players art conservation and art conservation science. Oblitus Artium<\/a> has the character operating within the world of Oblivion (technically the same world as Skyrim, but a different region and time period), taking on \u201cquests\u201d that intend to teach real knowledge and skills, but wrapped within the magical realm.<\/p>\n

Two quests developed by the team reflected two separate approaches to the injection of content and learning in interactive experiences by educators.<\/p>\n

In the first quest, Caring for Your Collection, players are given a humorous quest which really masks a series of multiple choice\/matching questions (handled by monitoring the items that players place in drawers). The designers labelled it the \u201cchocolate covered broccoli\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

One of the strong lessons that comes forth in the designers\u2019 follow up studies with player of Caring for Your Collection is the desire for players not to be hammered with strict factual questions as a part of a quest, especially if those questions have no part in a larger, emotional, and perhaps believable narrative.<\/p>\n

In the second quest, The Pigment Analysis Quest, players travelled to and explored \u201ca newly discovered Egyptian tomb based on the real tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the\u00a0Queens.\u201d So, there was actual historic modification involved in some of the mod. The quest was a brilliant layering of two separate threads of content- the process of opening a tomb as a conservator\/archaeologist, and the process by which Nefertari (according to sources) would have been entombed. So, the quest\u2019s game mechanic is authentic in several ways: the process of conservation is linked to the process of entombment (which for Egyptians was about conservation). Emotional attachment to the quest becomes an amplification of the students\u2019 desire to do well, to learn, to find out what the Egyptians thought about death, to discover the somewhat gruesome preparation of the body, and to find out what the hell is in the tomb.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, although the player must read excerpts from the Book of the Dead as a part of the quest, there\u2019s no suspension of disbelief. The mod intends to teach modern skill in entering and interpreting the tomb. However, the use of metaphor through the enter the tomb\/enter the afterlife mechanic is exceptional.<\/p>\n

What about belief in general? What about beliefs that don\u2019t counter modern science, but that are part of a specific historical actor\u2019s point of view? In the Red Land\/Black Land Project<\/a>, Civilization V was modded to permit players to play historically set scenarios from Ancient Egyptian history. As they play, they are given a range of advice by \u201cIn-Game Archaeology Learning Agents.\u201d Each communicated their beliefs as fact- offering a specific interpretation of evidence (sometimes several kinds of evidence).<\/p>\n

The RIT Skyrim mods were intended to teach process and skill. What if a mod intended to allow analysis and evaluation and perhaps other higher levels of thinking? What if the mod were a test of believability? How historically authentic was the experience?<\/p>\n

Could mods be built in sets, one somewhat random, one conjecture and one based on primary sources?<\/p>\n

Should mods include magic, as most historical actors believed in the supernatural? What is the difference between historic believability from the point of view of a historic individual, and the historic believability of a person in the present?<\/p>\n

I feel like the questions outweigh the answers in this post. Anyone have some answers? Looking forward to reading the comments!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since its release, I\u2019ve been a big fan of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I found its huge open world, its random environment, and specifically its material culture refreshing- it kind of fit my style of play exactly. I\u2019m an explorer and tinkerer. I generally abhor magic, for noContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":4335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[345,344,342,343,190,189],"coauthors":[339],"class_list":["entry","author-jeff","post-4333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-magic","tag-metaphor","tag-modding","tag-mods","tag-myth","tag-skyrim"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/tumblr_myebvrTkci1st5lhmo1_1280-copy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4333"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4363,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions\/4363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4333"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=4333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}