HIST-293-eugene.smelyansky-2025-09-02-04-45-37

Below is a syllabus template that includes WSU's required syllabus elements. Please complete all items highlighted in yellow.

Title of Course: History through Video Games

Prefix and Number: HIST 293

Semester and Year [tbd]

Number of Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: none

Course Details

Day and Time: [tbd]

Meeting Location: [tbd]

Instructor Contact Information

Instructor Name: [tbd]

Instructor Contact Information: [office location, phone, email] [tbd]

Instructor Office Hours: [click here for best practices] [tbd]

TA Name: [tbd]

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Course Description

This course examines how history is interpreted and represented in popular video games and the relationship between video games, historical memory and public history.

What can historical video games teach us about the past? In this class, we will examine how history is portrayed in video games, how historical events influence the game developers, and how games influence how history is consumed, learned, and perceived today. Just like movies, TV shows and books set in the past, historical video games provide entertainment and shape the public’s historical knowledge. We will explore how this happens by considering the value and limitations of historical authenticity, thinking about questions of representation and inclusion, and analyzing the way games can challenge or reinforce existing historical myths.

We will examine these topics in detail by using various video games—new and old, blockbusters and indie games—to understand the relationship between video games and history. In the process we will also learn how historians study the past, what makes playing in the past appealing to game developers and gamers alike, and the potentials benefits and limitations of gamifying the past. Finally, throughout this class, you and your peers will work together to come up with a historical video games idea of your own. So, saddle up your bronco, sharpen your sword, gather your swashbuckling crew, and let’s hope no one dies of dysentery along the way!

Course Materials

Books: none

Other Materials: Assigned readings and videos will be made available to you via Canvas or online.

Fees: none

**Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) [add more lines if necessary]**
Course Learning Outcomes (students will be able to:)	Activities Supporting the Learning Outcomes	Assessment of the Learning Outcomes
Understand how game developers approach, research, and interpret the past. Analyze historical accuracy of video games by comparing their settings to scholarly studies of the past.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions; Video Game Group Project	Video Game Review Essay; Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio; Final Exam
Examine the roles of video games and their creators in engaging the public relationship with the past, including nostalgia and mythmaking.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions	Video Game Review Essay; Final Exam
Practice identifying and locating appropriate sources.	Game Journal Entries; Video Game Group Project	Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio
Practice thinking critically about video games as adaptations, representations, and interpretations of the past.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions	Video Game Review Essay; Final Exam
Practice interpreting primary and secondary sources and using them to make informed arguments about the past and the interpretations of the past represented in video games.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions	Video Game Review Essay; Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio; Final Exam
Practice using Chicago Style citations to cite sources consistently and ethically.	Game Journal Entries	Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio
Practice oral, written, and visual communication by paying attention to their audience, context, and purpose.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions	Video Game Review Essay; Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio; Final Exam
Practice identifying and communicating the project’s significance and its conclusions.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions	Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio
Practice contextualizing primary and secondary sources and engaging different interpretations of the past.	Game Journal Entries; In-Class Discussions	Video Game Review Essay; Video Game Group Project - Final Portfolio; Final Exam

**Course Schedule**
Dates	Lesson Topic	Assignment	Assessment
Week 1 [dates]	Introduction to the Class What is Public History?	Read the syllabus and familiarize yourself with our Canvas space “Video Games Are Teaching Players Real (And Alternate) History,” Scripps News (YouTube)
Week 2 [dates]	Module 1: Early Historical Games A (Brief) History of Video Games Video Games as Public History: The Oregon Trail	Play The Oregon Trail (1985 version) The Oregon Trail documentary (YouTube), https://youtu.be/8QbjlHeoLdc?si=gueNmH_Dnemxb7AW
Week 3 [dates]	Improving the Trail Older Mechanics, New Perspectives	Install and play When Rivers Were Trails Bauer, William J, Margaret Huettl, and Katrina M. Phillips. “Retracing The Oregon Trail.” California History 99, no. 3 (2022): 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2022.99.3.53. “On the Hajj Trail,” The Ottoman History Podcast Optional: try playing The Hajj Trail online	Game Journal/Discussion #1: Benefits and limitations of the Trail-style historical games?
Week 4 [dates]	Games and World History Gamifying Progress	Play Sid Meier’s Civilization (any version; there is a free version of Civilization II available online) Slocombe, Will. “Playing Games with Technology: Fictions of Science in the Civilization Series.” Osiris 34 (2019): 158–74. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26860907.	Group Project Contract
Week 5 [dates]	Historians as Game Developers: Finding Sources about the Past Historians as Game Developers: Analyzing Primary Sources	“A Historian’s Guide to Researching Your Historical Game” (YouTube)	Game Journal/Discussion #2: From a primary source to a game idea
Week 6 [dates]	Module 2: Playability, Historical Accuracy, and Authenticity Historical Accuracy vs. Authenticity Atlantic Slavery and Anti-Slavery Revolutions	Watch playthrough videos of (or play) at least two games from the Assassin’s Creed series [watch/play AC IV: The Black Flag as one of them, if possible]. “Pirate Expert Reacts to Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag” (YouTube) “Performing History 3: An Interview with Maxime Durand, Ubisoft” (YouTube) Bazile, Julien. “Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry.” The American Historical Review 126, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 217–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhab005. “Alyssa Sepinwall and Andrew Denning on Historical Video Games,” AHR Interview podcast (2021)
Week 7 [dates]	The Problem with the Claims of “Historically Accuracy” Group Work Day	Young, Helen. “Race and Historical Authenticity: Kingdom Come: Deliverance.” In The Middle Ages in Modern Culture: History and Authenticity in Contemporary Medievalism, edited by Karl Alvestad and Robert Houghton, 28-39. Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.	Game Journal/Discussion #3: Playability, Worldbuilding, and Claims of “Historical Accuracy” Group Project – Initial Proposal due
Week 8 [dates]	Module 3: Representation and Inclusion in Video Games Fan Cultures and #Gamergate Female Characters in Historical Videogames	Lawlor, Shannon. “Your Daughter Is in Another Castle: Essential Paternal Masculinity in Video Games.” The Velvet Light Trap 81, no. 1 (2018): 29–42. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/15/article/686902.	Video Game Review Essay
Week 9 [dates]	Race in Historical Video Games Africans and African Americans in World War One	Watch playthrough videos of (or play) Battlefield 1 [especially the “Storm of Steel” mini-campaign] Wendy Urban-Mead, “African Americans in the First World War,” History for the 21^st Century.
Week 10 [dates]	Navigating Inclusion in Historical Video Games Group Work Day	Quiroga, Stefan Aguirre. White Mythic Space: Racism, the First World War, and ›Battlefield 1‹. De Gruyter, 2022, ch. 3.	Game Journal/Discussion #4: How to balance ethics and accuracy of inclusion in historical video games? Group Project - Progress Check In
Week 11 [dates]	Module 4: Video Games and Historical Myth-making Cowboy Myth and the West in American History How the West was Played: Red Dead Redemption series	Watch playthrough videos of (or play) Red Dead Redemption 2 to get a sense of the game world Olsson, Tore. Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past. Macmillan, 2024, ch. 1.
Week 12 [dates]	The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the RDR Series What is Not in the RDR Series and Why?	Wright, Esther. “‘What’s Famous’ and ‘What’s True’: Women’s Place from Revolver to Redemption.” In Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West, edited by Esther Wright and John Wills, 128-148. University of Oklahoma Press, 2023.
Week 13 [dates]	The Samurai Myth in Japanese History Video Games as Mythmaking	Watch playthrough videos of (or play) Ghost of Tsushima to get a sense of the game world. Clulow, Adam. "From Shōgun to Ghost of Tsushima: Using and Challenging Historical Video Games." The Journal of Japanese Studies 49, no. 2 (2023): 395-416. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jjs.2023.a903469.	Game Journal/Discussion #5: Do video games challenge or perpetuate historical myths?
Week 14 [dates]	Group Project Presentations		Video Game Group Project – Final Portfolio
Week 15 [dates]	History That Never Was: The Fallout series and the Cold War What Can Alternate History Teach About the Past?	Watch playthrough videos of (or play) Fallout 4 (including the game’s opening chapter and beyond) November, Joseph A. "Fallout and Yesterday’s Impossible Tomorrow." In Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History, edited by Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Andrew B. R. Elliott, 297–312. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.	Game Journal/Discussion #6: The value of alternate history?
Finals Week [dates]			Final Exam

Expectations for Student Effort

Academic credit is a measure of the total minimum time commitment required of a typical student in a specific course. For the WSU semester system, one semester credit is assigned for a minimum of 45 hours of student effort. See Academic regulation 27.

Students should expect to spend a minimum of 9 hours per week for each 3-credit course engaged in the following types of activities: active reading, listening to/viewing media, conducting research, completing assignments, and reviewing instructor feedback.

Grading

Assignment Breakdown
Type of Assignment (tests, papers, etc)	Points	Percent of Overall Grade
Attendance & Participation	200	20%
Game Journal Entries (6 total)	30 points each; 180 points total	18%
Video Game Review Essay	100 points	10%
Video Game Group Project Portfolio – Individual Grade	200 points	20%
Video Game Group Project – Group Grade	200 points	20%
Final Exam	120 points	12%

Grading Schema
Grade	Percent	Grade	Percent
A	93-100%	C	73-76%
A-	90-92%	C-	70-72%
B+	87-89%	D+	67-69%
B	83-86%	D	60-66%
B-	80-82%	F	0-59%
C+	77-79%

Borderline final grades within 0.3% to the next letter grade, will be rounded up (for example, 89.7% will become 90%)

Attendance and Make-Up Policy

It is expected that students will attend every class. However, if you have to miss class occasionally, it is your responsibility to let me know and make up any assignments you missed. Attending regularly is not just a requirement but a way to gain participation points and engage in active learning exercises and discussions. Every student is allowed 3 unexcused absences a semester; further unexcused absences may result in reducing the overall grade in the class.

Final exam can be made up only in case of a documented emergency.

Academic Integrity Statement

You are responsible for reading WSU's Academic Integrity Policy, which is based on Washington State law. If you cheat in your work in this class you will:

-Be asked to redo and resubmit the assignment (for the first infraction). A second infraction, no matter how minor, will result in failure of the course.

-Be reported to the Center for Community Standards

-Have the right to appeal my decision

-Not be able to drop the course of withdraw from the course until the appeals process is finished

If you have any questions about what you can and cannot do in this course, ask me.

If you want to ask for a change in my decision about academic integrity, use the form at the Center for Community Standards website. You must submit this request within 21 calendar days of the decision.

AI Statement

In this class, any use of generative AI (such as ChatGPT or similar) without the instructor's permission and/or without clear indication will count as a violation of Academic Integrity and penalized accordingly.