5 days ago
Assassin's Creed and other games are using historians to get their facts right, and a new study shows its fostering an interest in history
Historian Thierry Noël was living and working in Bolivia studying Latin American history when one of the world's biggest game-development companies got in touch.
Ubisoft were working on a new game set in the same region he was living in, and they wanted his expertise to make the game more authentic.
"I was really intrigued. I had the incredible chance to join them and to lead the team," he says.
The game became Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, a modern military shooter. It also opened up an opportunity for Noël to contribute to the long-running Ubisoft historical series, Assassin's Creed.
Noël now leads a team within Ubisoft, researching the historical locations where the games are set.
Not only does his work add to a sense of wonder, but it's becoming increasingly important: a new University of Sunshine Coast study showed that players of historical games are often inspired to learn more about history after they play.
The study's author, academic Jacqueline Burgess, wasn't surprised about the influence of historical games.
"It's well known that people who read historical novels do so partially because of the love of the history; people like to learn about the time period when they're reading a novel," says Dr Burgess.
"[History themed] video games and novels actually have a lot in common because the players wanted accuracy, they wanted research, they enjoyed learning about the history in the games, and then they went off and did some of their own learning outside of that play because of the history that the game showed them."
Dr Burgess says other research she's conducted found that historical accuracy is important to players.
This is a hard line to walk for Noël and his team, who says absolute accuracy isn't the goal.
"Our principle is the idea that we try to build authentic worlds — authentic does not mean full accuracy, but aims at what feels true," he says.
"An authentic world is based on historical academic knowledge, but it is also based on audience expectations, which is not necessarily what the academic person will say, so we have to find the right balance between the two.
"With all the elements that make a game, it also obviously has to be fun, it has to be playable."
When work on a new Assassin's Creed game is developed, Noël's team presents multiple different settings — each of which could become the historical location for the game.
Japan, the setting of the most recent game, Assassin's Creed Shadows, had been offered as a setting for more than a decade before it was finally locked in.
"Usually we have a series of options, of settings, and we start processing them, working on them, I'm trying to see what could be good, where do we have material and sources, historical sources to work on it. Does the audience expect it?"
Adam Isgreen and Emma Bridle are developers on Age of Empires, another series where players command historical civilisations as they gather resources, build bases and battle foes.
Their team also uses historical research and consultation to make sure cultures are accurately represented, especially taking on feedback from players who are members of those cultures.
"Whilst the team that works on Age of Empires is passionate about history — that's why we do what we do — we don't purport to be sources of authority on everything," says Bridle.
"For instance, when we did the Sultan's Ascend campaign in Age of Empires IV, we sought out professors of Islamic history because we are telling the story of the Crusades but from the perspective of the Muslim peoples, as it's often told from the [European] perspective."
Gameplay does win over strict authenticity on occasion, says Isgreen.
"I'm reminded of things like our Mameluke units from Age of Empires II, [who] are infamously not the way that they're supposed to be: they are riders on camels throwing scimitars.
"OK, that's not real, but it's really cool and it's super unique."
Bridle says the team monitors feedback from players and explains their decisions, or even adjusts the games to better represent real cultures.
The team did receive some negative feedback about the way India was portrayed in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, so they reworked it. When releasing new playable cultures who lived around modern day Mexico, the team released blogs in both English and Spanish explaining their research process.
"So, in those situations, what we find is really helpful is we tend to go to the team, absorb all of the process of how we came to the decisions we came to, and then put out a long-form piece that explains our thinking and the why that we've done it this way, " Bridle explains.
"We realise that in the absence of all the details, people don't really understand the thoughtful process that we've taken and that we haven't made flippant decisions."
For Isgreen, working on the Age of Empires games has been a reminder of how recent so many historical events really are.
"You know, we have evolved technologically and philosophically, but I'm always amazed at the things that are so familiar to our life experiences today," he says.
