In October of 1989, the then German Democratic Republic (better known to many as ‘East Germany’) celebrated its 40th Anniversary amidst the growing presence and pressure of popular protests calling for wide-scale reform of the often harsh and repressive regime led by the aged, though still able, General Secretary ErichContinue Reading
This week I’m at the Games+Learning+Society conference at the lovely University of Wisconsin Madison, in the charming company of Play the Past colleagues Kevin Ballestrini and Jeremiah McCall. I promise yet another dreary post about the Great Chain of Practomime in two weeks’ time, but for today something brief, andContinue Reading
This post contains spoilers about the endings of the three Mass Effect games. Part 1 is here. In the final moments of Mass Effect 3 the player is confronted with the notorious choice of the three paths (though it is very possible only to have two paths, and even toContinue Reading
There is a lot of interest in making educational games and history games are no exception. This post kicks off an occasional series of co-authored posts by myself and Marjee Chmiel. Marjee has extensive credentials as an educational game designer and educator. She developed an array of educational games forContinue Reading
From Jan 20-22, THATCamp Games took place at the University of Maryland. Organized by Anastasia Salter and Amanda Visconti, THATCamp Games brought nearly one hundred professors, graduate and undergraduate students, archivists, librarians, game designers, and alt-ac professionals together to explore the role games play (and might play) in the intersection of teaching, technology, humanities,Continue Reading
This is a guest article from Adam Chapman, a PhD Candidate at the University of Hull in the Media, Culture and Society department. He received a History BA (Hons) from Leeds Metropolitan University and a Cultural History MA at the University of Liverpool before continuing on to study at Hull. Adam’sContinue Reading
I’ve tended to focus on close readings of individual videogames on Play the Past—such as my look at Prison Tycoon or the code of JFK: Reloaded—and while these readings have been informed by a progressive sensibility, they have been plagued by a problem common in videogame studies. And that problemContinue Reading
This is a guest article from Jeremy Antley who is currently pursuing his doctoral research on Russian Old Believers that immigrated to Oregon in the 1960’s. When not rummaging through the archives or taking care of his two dogs in Portland, Oregon, he also takes time to write about allContinue Reading
[This is a guest article from Amanda Visconti, a Literature Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland. In addition to her work on the UMD iSchool ARG Team, she serves as Webmaster for the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) and is co-organizing a humanities game unconference, THATCamp GamesContinue Reading
So here’s where I make the connection between BioShock and gamification–or rather, try to show that as ways of doing education, the two are radically different. More, I try to show that they’re different in a way that’s inspired what my team is doing with practomimetic learning. There’s a contextContinue Reading