{"id":293,"date":"2022-01-07T10:15:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/?page_id=293"},"modified":"2022-02-18T13:19:18","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T13:19:18","slug":"specialist-studies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/specialist-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Specialist studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Representation of historic events in video games<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My idea that I will explore for my special study is the representation of historical\u00a0events in videogame. I will explore the way videogame studios create these\u00a0games that contain historical information or set in a historical era and how the\u00a0information has been changed or the accuracy of the information. Many games\u00a0will be different in their\u00a0unique way to make it entertaining\u00a0and also\u00a0understanding. I will research how games studios gather and implement the\u00a0information to use in their work and if its accurate. Furthermore, I will look at\u00a0quantative and qualitive data to see if a game has received good reviews and\u00a0success which allow me to gage how people like the way historical games and\u00a0made. However, some may find it unethical as there can be some backlash as\u00a0the\u00a0way the culture or people portrayed in the era of the game may not be right. I\u00a0will explore the good and bad of these games to find out the way historical\u00a0events are represented. In addition,\u00a0the practitioners\u00a0I will explore are the\u00a0studios which create and produce these games and how they get these\u00a0information to create these games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– How accurate are the historic events and information in videogames?\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Gaining knowledge about the past and important information whilst enjoying it\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Is it right to use historic events in videogames \u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As some may not agree\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Not having false information and bias\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– altering information and original plot\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Culture and religion representation\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ubisoft was founded in the 1980s and created\u00a0by brothers which focused\u00a0on videogames. The\u00a0first game they released which was zombi and\u00a0sold around 5000 copies. The company grew\u00a0larger over the years and raised around 80\u00a0million dollars which helped the expand the\u00a0company and become worldwide. The company\u00a0then worked with Xbox and bought other\u00a0companies further expanding their growth. The\u00a0company then created their\u00a0well-known\u00a0franchise assassin’s creed In 2007 which is\u00a0heavily revolved around historical events with\u00a0their original story and twist. They have\u00a0created many AAA games and have had many\u00a0successful games over the years such as tom\u00a0Clancy’s\u00a0games, Watch dogs and started working\u00a0on their own Ubisoft original games. The main\u00a0game that had an impact on me and liked was\u00a0assassin’s creed which has its own multiple\u00a0storylines in many other assassins’ creed which\u00a0takes place in different eras such as roman,\u00a0Egyptian, French revolution, Vikings and\u00a0Victorian era. This will help me with my\u00a0specialist study as I will focus on how historical\u00a0games are represented in these games which\u00a0assassin’s creed is well known for these\u00a0representations.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ACTIVISION<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activision is an American videogame\u00a0company based in\u00a0Santa Monica California and is one the biggest gaming\u00a0companies. The company was founded in 1979 and were\u00a0the first independent third-party console developer they\u00a0first worked on three games which released at the same\u00a0time which was the company’s first game, Their first\u00a0game to sell over a million copies was kaboom which\u00a0helped them get recognized and growth. The continued\u00a0growth led them to make a lot of profit which they also\u00a0acquired raven software and Treyarch which helped\u00a0them to create bigger and better games. In 2009\u00a0Activision\u00a0acquired sledgehammer games which allowed\u00a0them to focus on creating more call of duty games which\u00a0was the biggest franchise for the company and very\u00a0popular worldwide. This will help me with my specialist\u00a0study because call of duty is well known for historical\u00a0games such as world war 2 which I will focus on how\u00a0accurate and how the events in the game are compared\u00a0to WW2.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ASOBO STUDIO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002 twelve people bought a PlayStation game super farm which they then\u00a0created Asobo studio. They were well known for creating game from movies such\u00a0as Pixar and Disney films. In 2014 asobo studio partnered with Ubisoft and\u00a0Microsoft and released bunch of games but were not huge games. In 2017 they\u00a0released a plague tale innocence which was a big success and had amazing\u00a0storytelling, graphics and gameplay. This game is what I will research on and how\u00a0accurately the information of the plague is and is it important for gameplay. The\u00a0game follows a sister and her younger brother who is being hunted down as he is\u00a0immune to the plague the storytelling is emotional and well put together which is\u00a0why it had a huge success. This game will help me to research how a game should\u00a0be entertaining and accurate which gives the players a better understanding of\u00a0that era and enjoying the experience Aswell\u200b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I created a google forms survey which I asked some opened\u00a0and closed questions to collect some qualitive data. I had\u00a0gained 13 responses which most people did say that most\u00a0historical games are represented very well as they think it\u00a0is good to obtain information and having fun. Some replies\u00a0said that they want the game to be exciting than having it\u00a0fully historical accurate and make the player become\u00a0engaged. Also, I had a pie chart which shows what peoples\u00a0favorite historical game was, 23.1% said assassin’s creed\u00a0franchise which was tied with red dead redemption\u00a023.15%.\u00a0This showed me how\u00a0the majority of\u00a0people liked\u00a0games that are set a very long time ago as its new\u00a0experience which people may have not known any or little\u00a0information about as they can gain new knowledge and\u00a0experience whilst also enjoying the game. Furthermore,\u00a0these games were the most popular and did well\u00a0as the\u00a0players and reviews really enjoyed these games. The\u00a0second most game people that did my survey liked was\u00a0battlefield which shows that many people enjoy games\u00a0that take place in world war era and had many accurate\u00a0game and locations which is what made the game\u00a0successful. In addition, most people said that they want\u00a0the game to have its original story but include some\u00a0historical impacts as it can make the game more fun.\u00a0However\u00a0some people said that some games ruin the\u00a0historical aspect.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also asked if it was right for game studios to create\u00a0videogames from historical events, the responses were mostly\u00a0yes as it can help people and younger generation learn about\u00a0the past as it can be very important and can gain important\u00a0information whilst playing videogames. Furthermore, they said\u00a0some historical events may be sensitive for some people so\u00a0certain events would rather be chosen as some historical events\u00a0may not be suitable to create videogames from. I also found\u00a0out that 38.5% people preferred the game studio Ubisoft which\u00a0shows me that many people really like assassin’s creed\u00a0franchise which shows the accurate and amazing way that the\u00a0studio creates their game and presents historical events in that\u00a0historical era as some elements are accurate with including its\u00a0own twist and story. In addition, the historical event that most\u00a0people are familiar with is world war 2 which shows that most\u00a0people are familiar with this historical event as not only was it\u00a0very important but also life changing for the world.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This quantative data shows when the game\u00a0released between 2 days and shows the data of\u00a0the 24-hour peak and all-time peak which\u00a0 is a\u00a0lot of people which the game did well. This\u00a0shows that the player base enjoyed the game as\u00a0it was not entirely historical accurate but did\u00a0teach and give a very good amount of\u00a0information.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interview was done by pcgamesn for Assassin’s creed odyssey and was set in ancient Greece and was accurate but not entirely, as the clothing, statues, buildings and culture were the most accurate of the game. The game is very accurate and features around assassinations and espionage were covered up revolutions and crusaders. However, the game included mythical creatures such as medusa and fighting Greek mythological creatures, But the game did teach a lot about ancient Greece and how people lived and were like and the cities. The qualative data which I found out as the the professor who was interviewed data.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As an imaginative structure it\u2019s terrific,\u201d Professor Scully tells me, \u201cit adds a layer of engagement with a story. It would work whether the story be a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Greek, or whatever sort of story. You aren\u2019t dealing with truth here, you\u2019re dealing with human imagination, and Medusa is a figment of Greek imagination. Our word for myth comes from the Greek word \u2018muthos\u2019, meaning story. The Greek people understood these myths as fictional stories.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shows the cultural focus of the game as the focus for this game was to make it engaging\u00a0with its story.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call\u00a0of duty cold war is a very accurate game when it comes to the historical event as the\u00a0story, gunplay, buildings, and the people at that time. The game was set in 1980’s during the\u00a0beginning of the first Reagan administration\u00a0and towards the end of cold war. One of the\u00a0things which they had done well and was accurate as\u00a0 the game included a soviet spy at Los\u00a0alamos in its story as the narrator informs the player that the Manhattan project at Los\u00a0alamos was stolen by a soviet spy. This was accurate except that there was more soviet\u00a0spies. However, the character Perseus\u00a0possibly did not exist and some historians question\u00a0this. On the other hand, some scholars speculate that Perseus\u00a0was the fourth soviet spy that\u00a0infiltrated\u00a0the Los alamos nuclear site and if there was a person like this in real life its\u00a0mostly likely not like this character in call of duty. The most accurate thing that was\u00a0represented was the military equipment in the game, most soviet soldiers used ak-47 and\u00a0mp5 in the game as these were the most common used weapons by groups such as CIA and\u00a0MI-6.\u00a0Also\u00a0there was a RC car which was used to disable cargo planes which was possible in\u00a0the 1980’s.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another inaccuracy was that the U.S did not have nuclear weapons in Vietnam. In the game\u00a0on of the missions was to secure and extract the nuclear bomb the Viet Cong stole from the\u00a0U.S military. However, there was no record of the U.S military having nuclear weapons in\u00a0Vietnam. Furthermore, another very accurate part of the game was towards the end of the\u00a0story as there was a member of the CIA working for the KGB as at the end of the story the\u00a0player finds out that there was a brain washed KGB soldier that had infiltrated the CIA\u00a0which happened in real life multiple times.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall, from what I have found whilst researching for my study was that many\u00a0games that take place in historical eras and events mainly have its original story\u00a0with historical elements and accuracy. Game studios mainly do this as they want\u00a0the game to be engaging and exciting in that historical era and represent in a\u00a0way in which the game is fun to pay whilst learning and gaining knowledge about\u00a0history and the culture. In addition, they do also include many historical parts\u00a0which\u00a0are not\u00a0accurate to make the game more exciting which does make sense\u00a0as they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want the players to become bored. Furthermore, from my survey I\u00a0had multiple opinions of people showing that this is what they like which some\u00a0studios do. Also, games that implement these in a good way a good reputation\u00a0and reviews which makes the game popular allowing the fanbase to grow.\u00a0Also\u00a0the games that did represent historical events correctly many people picked in\u00a0my survey which shows how well the game studios know what to do.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n

En.wikipedia.org. 2022.\u00a0Ubisoft – Wikipedia<\/em>. [online] Available at:\u00a0<https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ubisoft> [Accessed 20 January 2022].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

En.wikipedia.org. 2022.\u00a0Activision – Wikipedia<\/em>. [online] Available at:\u00a0<https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Activision> [Accessed 20 January 2022].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garst, A., 2022.\u00a0How historically accurate is Assassin\u2019s Creed Odyssey? We asked a Classics professor<\/em>. [online]\u00a0PCGamesN. Available at:\u00a0<https:\/\/www.pcgamesn.com\/assassins-creed-odyssey\/historically-accurate> [Accessed 17 February 2022].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drake, J., 2022. Call Of Duty: 5 Things That Are Historically Accurate In Cold War (& 5 Things That Aren\u2019t)<\/em>. [online] TheGamer. Available at: <https:\/\/www.thegamer.com\/call-of-duty-cold-war-historically-accurate-facts\/> [Accessed 18 February 2022].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Representation of historic events in video games My idea that I will explore for my special study is the representation of historical\u00a0events in videogame. I will explore the way videogame studios create these\u00a0games that contain historical information or set in a historical era and how the\u00a0information has been changed or the accuracy of the information. … Continue reading “Specialist studies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-293","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/293\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10634175\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}