Playing History

• In Event: Exploring Influences of Game Types and Design Decisions: Issues of Learning, Interaction, and On/Offline Boundaries

Abstract

Purpose

What does it mean to 'know' history? This study examines the texts, practice and technologies of an Ars Magica role-playing game group in which players have successfully developed and deployed historical knowledge. The group's practice rejects school-based history, but is in some ways closer to the work of practicing historians. We attempt to understand why this game produces this particular result.


Theoretical Framework

This paper uses the 'new literacies' approach to learning (Gee, 2003)⁠. Learning history, under this model, does not mean mastering disconnected facts. Rather, learners develop the skills and techniques of meaning-making defined by the field of history. Without becoming historians themselves, learners can come to understand history as a process of asking questions, gathering evidence, interpreting data, making arguments and more (Squire & Barab, 2004; Lee, 2005).

Because this approach requires learner participation, we draw on the lens of participatory culture as laid out by Jenkins (2009). “Role play, in particular,” he writes, “should be seen as a fundamental skill used across multiple academic domains” (Jenkins, 2009, p. 30). We therefore examine how role-playing can serve to tie traditional academic content – namely the learning of history – to new literacies and participatory culture.


Methods and Data Sources

This paper draws on ethnographic observation of an Ars Magica group in New York City. The group meets regularly in person, in addition to using multiple digital channels of communication. One author of this paper served as a participant-observer, engaging in play along with the subjects. The other recorded and analyzed the game sessions. Digital communications were also analyzed. Finally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant on the themes of history and game-play.


Results

Players described their attitudes toward the domain of history, which were almost universally negative. However, they simultaneously described the deep pleasure they took in their historical experiences within the fictional frame of the game. While denying any interest in history, players undertook research projects such as reading medieval bestiaries, learning about family structure in medieval Sweden, and understanding the theology of re-baptism. Game rules and social practices supported projects such as these.

Players' use of history was not always factually correct. “Details,” a common theme, were often elided. Additionally, the game's setting included explicitly fantastic elements such as wizards and demons. Players carefully negotiated the difference between literal and narrative truth from what can be seen as a social history perspective (Kocka, 1995)⁠. They used the fantastic elements of the game to place the social structures and processes of the period into sharp narrative relief.


Scholarly Significance

The problem of content in games is a serious one. Some games incorporate historical content in a way that is motivating (Squire & Barab, 2004), but explicit academic content can also make players less engaged (Gee, 2003). By examining this group's practices, we can begin to understand how Ars Magica supports self-directed historical learning through play – and how to apply its lessons to other games in other learning contexts.

Author

• Jessica Hammer, Teachers College, Columbia University