During my final semester as an undergraduate at Saint Bonaventure University, I have taken a class that is not like any other. This was the first time this class was being offered, and I certainly hope it is not the last. This class was History 494: History Through gaming. During this class we learned about many different time periods, and the battles, government, land exploration, and important figures that went along with them. In order to cover all of this material we played a variety of video games including Sid Meier’s Civilization 3, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Age of Empires II, Shogun 2: Total War, Ultimate General: Civil War, Tropico V, Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty World war 2. Out of all of the games that we played this semester Call of duty was by far my favorite. Primarily because it is an exciting first person shooter that has an extensive multiplayer and accurate, weapons, characters, and maps.

 

However, my least favorite game that we played during this class was Shogun 2. Honestly, it was really that the game was all that bad, but rather we did not have the proper technology to play it. This game provided a very accurate representation of feudal Japan and the Battles that were happening during this time. But I felt that this game would have been much more enjoyable to play given we had the proper desktop gaming PC to play them on.

I could tell it was difficult to pick games that everyone could play given some of the technological barriers. Given that many students had to use their normal laptop (majority of macs), it was difficult to run games off of steam smoothly and it took very long for them to download. But for future students I would advise that they invest in a cheap mouse to use for this class if they do not own one already. This is because a lot of the games that we played on our laptops it was very hard to navigate the game curser just using the trackpad. I also really enjoyed the projects that were assigned in this class. I thought it was very interesting that we were given the task of creating our own video game, all while somehow being educational. I would strongly advise future students to take this class and to know that you do not have to be a die-hard gamer to have a positive learning experience.

This week in History Through Video games we played one of my all time favorite games, Call of duty: World War2. This game was developed by Sledgehammer Games and was published by Activision, and was released in November 2017 on PC, PS4, and Xbox one, it is the fourteenth major instalment in the Call of duty series (following Call fo Duty: Infinite Warfare, a futuristic warfare game was released prior). It was very difficult for the developers when creating this game mainly because they were making such a fast transition from focusing on advanced futuristic warfare right to old time World War 2 warfare.

This game is First person shooter, and is fairly straight forward in terms of the campaign. The campaign focuses mainly on the 1^st division and their activities having to do with operation overlord.  You begin by playing as Red o is in control of supplying soldiers with ammunition, first aid and grenades. However, while playing this game in class we focused much more on the multiplayer gameplay. The gameplay mechanics in this game are very well developed and work flawlessly with the controls. The movements, strategies, and shooting aspects are much more traditional than the pervious Call of Duty’s. This was very important to me because the game was focusing on pre-20^th century warfare. The weapons and warfare tactics were very very similar to what we talked about during class, as well as read in our textbooks, especially the weapons. The sounds, weapon titles, and firing effects were so similar to real life and I think this is what makes this game so good. Although the champaign of this game was not historically accurate it was ver relatable to what was discussed in our readings and during class. While playing this game you could really tell that a lot of thought was put into making this game seem realistic.

This Call of Duty title manages to provide a fun, progressive, realistic gaming experience all while showing advancements in technology and gaming technology. If I were to market this game, I would focus on primarily on first person shooter customers and Call of Duty franchise customers. This game plays so similar to many of the games before it, but has such a firm grasp on World War 2 tactics. I would primarily target this game towards pre determined demographics due to its similarities to previous Call of Duty games.

This week in our History Through Gaming class, we played Tropico 5. This game was developed by Haemimont Games, was published by Kalypso Media, and was released in May 2014 on Windows and then on Mac a few months later (then a year later was released on console). In this game you are “el Presisente”, and are responsible for research, sustainable growth and diplomacy on your island. As you work through the game you are guided by your greatest advisor, Penultimo (see image 1), who is basically implemented to help you learn the game as you play it. As president you work through the campaign completing over 15 missions that are each split into two parts. During my time spent playing this game, I focused on generating roads, agriculture and living spaces. It is important to have all of these things because you must not only focus on the amount of people that live on your island, but you must also take into consideration their approval rating. As the game progresses there are elections, and I presume if you do not win the election you lose the game. However, long story short you are not a “presidente”, you are a dictator without the game actually telling you you’re a dictator. Having said this, this means you can rig elections, as well as hire people to silence or kill others. As the game is continued you make your way through different Era’s in time, starting in the Colonial Era, World War era, Cold Wars Era, and ending in Modern Times. You begin by declaring independence from the Crown, which is a one-off of the British Empire. Going a long very nicely with what we talked about in class even though the events in this game did not actually happen.

This game had very good mechanics, it was very impressive the way they combined the construction aspect with the political aspect, it was definitely a lot smoother when you play it on a console in my opinion. A lot of the short cuts are easier to access on console rather than on a laptop ( I am unsure how this game would playing on a gaming PC). This game reminded me very much of Sid Mier’s Civilization.

Looking at this game from a marketing perspective was very interesting, especially with its availability to console players. Also this game offers a very interesting approach to multiplayer gameplay. I would target strategy gamers, construction based gamers, and even social gamers.

Total War: Shogun 2

This video game was developed by The Creative Assembly then published by Sega, and finally was released on March 15th 2011. This game is set in 16^th century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Onin War during the Ashikaga shogunate. During this time period the country was formed of many different rival clans that were each led by local warlords. This game tends to stray from previous Total War games that are usually set in European History. As a player you manage your clan with the goal of achieving total domination over all other rivaling clans instituting rule over Japan. The game is made up of eight different factions or clans, including a ninth separate faction that is only used during the tutorial.

This game is very interesting in the way that it is both played as a turn based strategy game and a real-time tactics game. I am saying this because in the game you both manage your clan and the civilization and town that is built around your clan. However, you must also play in the third person during battles, commanding your army making real time tactical decisions. In the game the player is not only responsible for leading an army, but also overseeing diplomacy, political maneuvering, and the use of special agents.

The game mechanics in this game were relatively smooth, and the graphics were definitely good given that you play the game on a proper PC. I was only able to play this game on my Apple Macbook Pro, which is not optimal for gaming. Having said that, this game would’ve been much more enjoyable to play given that I had a gaming mouse at the minimum. A mouse is essential during the battles because you must give demands and change your field of view so often.

Total war: Shogun 2 could be marketed to a very large market because the game has so many different aspects that could draw consumers from so many different demographics. This game could interest historically accurate gamers, role playing gamers, third person gamers, and strategy turn based gamers.

Age of Empires II is a real-time strategy based video game that was developed and released in 1999 by Ensemble studios and Microsoft. This game was set in the time period of the middle ages and is not limited too just one playable civilization, you get to play through thirteen of them. The game also allows you to choose from five different campaigns. The single player campaign that I played was called “The Age of Kings”. In this game mode there is a large focus on first gathering resources, building towns, and generating armies (or units). In order to conquer an opponent one must ultimately destroy their army units and town (buildings). As you play through this game you fight your way through four ages, The Dark Age, The Feudal Age, The Castle Age, and the Imperial Age. As you advance through each of these ages you unlock the ability to use and create new units, buildings, and technologies. For me, the game began as I played as William Wallace. This portion of the game acts as a tutorial and focuses largely on helping you top get the hang of moving units and defeating your enemy. There are two different types of units in this game, civilian units, which collect resources. Whereas military units are used for protecting your own town.

The game mechanics are very good, especially considering when this game was made and produced. The map and game objectives are very easy to use and view, as well as constructing buildings, moving units and completing tasks. Most of the actions performed are done using the cursor much like Civilization 5, which we played earlier in the semester. However unlike Civilization 5, Age of Empires in interesting in the way that as time progresses appearances change, buildings progress and the game almost evolves.

This game would appeal to anyone who is into historically relevant games, strategy game, and possibly even turn based strategy games.

In our class, History Through Gaming the second game we’ve played is Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. This game was developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft, and is the twentieth overall game in the series.

This game is very historically relevant, and follows along nicely with the reading assignments. As we learned through our readings, Ancient Greece was one of the

great ancient civilizations that helped to pave the way for many, government, religious, and military tactics adopted today.

The game begins by giving the player the option to peruse their journey as either Alexios or Cassandra. I played the game through the eyes of Alexios, and am unsure if/how the game differs when played as Kassandra. The games “tutorial” was action packed as well as it gave a glimpse of what the games controls and objectives would be like. You start off playing as Leonidas, a Spartan general in the Peloponnesian War (Persians vs. Spartans), once the war is complete you are put right back into the Assassins Creed story. I was very impressed by the game mechanics displayed in this game, especially with the incorporation of the bird and horse. Throughout the reading McNeill stressed the importance of a warrior having a horse, or what made a warrior was his ability to operate and fight on horseback.

Although the games main story mainly coincides with the rest of the Assassins creed story. The side objectives, rules, and way of life depicted in the game seem to be very accurately portrayed. There are definitely a few flaws but generally speaking it is accurate.

As a marketing student, I view this game as having a very very large target audience. From my understanding Assassins Creed games cover many different time periods, and historical settings. Having said this Assassin’s Creed can obviously be marketed as a series, because once you get the customer hooked on one of the games it opens the gateway to present them the other 19 in the series. Assassins Creed Odyssey however would be largely appealing to those who like third person, open world, and/or historically accurate video games.

After playing Sid Mieier’s Civilization V ,I have come to the conclusion that it is a very good and well thought out video game that any history buff or turn-based strategy game player would love. This game very accurately portrays history and victory can be achieved through a means of many different ways including research, exploration, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest. This game begins by assigning you as leader of a new civilization where you must order units in a turn based strategy in order to rise to the top. When creating this game, you can tell that there was a lot of effort put into think about how the player must interact with the leaders of other nations (ex. France, Germany, City State etc..). I loved how this game portrayed the importance of adopting certain values within your civilization and how developing technologies, sciences, literature, religion, farming, hunting, and herding can lead to advancements within the society as a whole. It was very accurate in the way that you must develop certain aspects of your civilization in order to make and complete certain end goal tasks. For example, if you would like to embark units over water as well as create lighthouses you must first gain access to the technology of a compass. But before any of this is achieved you must invest four turns in developing the technology of optics (see image in post). As a marketing major I think about market segmentation and who I would target this game towards. In order to do this I feel as if you would initially need to survey and find out which demographic is most likely to play turn-based strategy video games, and then narrow it down by those who enjoy historic and culturaly relevant games. After finding your target market I feel it would be best to then go about finding which geographic location this market exists within. Finally, develop a marketing campaign based on the historical accuracy, strategic thought process, and gameplay that this game provides.

This is where I will be posting my History Through Gaming Blog posts!