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As you know games can be incredibly informative even though they usually aren't. I learned history in a way that sticks much better from Europa Universalis and
by FredPret 3y ago
As you know games can be incredibly informative even though they usually aren't.
I learned history in a way that sticks much better from Europa Universalis and Total War than from books, even though those games aren't even real in the sense that you're making up a new timeline. Orbital mechanics only clicked for me when trying to land a rover on the Mun in KSP.
Maybe entertaining simulations are the second-best way to learn besides actually doing something, with books somewhere further down the line.
- AlotOfReading 3y agoI've met a lot more people who were profoundly misled about history by paradox/4x games than those who were meaningfully educated by them. acoup actually has a good series of blogs about how they serve as a form of historical education, which is worth reading through: https://acoup.blog/2021/04/30/collections-teaching-paradox-europa-univeralis-iv-part-i-state-of-play/ https://acoup.blog/2021/04/30/collections-teaching-paradox-e...
- FredPret 3y agoYou don't learn the actual facts of what happened of course. But you do learn about the situation in which different countries and historical figures found themselves and the options they had. This is much more valuable because this type of learning has lessons for today; versus merely memorizing that king such-and-such did this-and-that in 1523, which doesn't.