Exploring the Renaissance Through Videogames

Shortly after Assassin’s Creed 2 came out, gamers noticed the rich historical detail included in the game’s setting. The protagonist who players guide through the game is sent back in time to Italy, AD 1499, there to prowl around buildings and streets and attack villains. The developers, self-avowed history nerds, hired consultants to ensure the buildings were rich in period detail. Here’s how The Wall Street Journal reported on their efforts:

They hired Renaissance scholars to advise on period garb, architecture, urban planning, weaponry and the like. They took tens of thousands of photographs of interiors and streets. They used Google Earth liberally to piece together the ground-up and sky-down perspectives through which the action flows. …

The game’s creative director, a Montrealer named Patrice Desilets, lived in Italy for some years, where he acquired a feel for the vivid intrigues of the Renaissance. He grew fascinated, he says, with the notion that “finally people can control time, and relive the past, through games.” The producer, Sebastien Puel, was born in the south of France, in the fortified medieval French town of Carcassonne, and grew up surrounded by history. The head writer, a Harvard graduate from Los Angeles and former screenwriter, Corey May, was driven, he says, by the challenge of “telling a story that feels real and is set among real people who existed.” …

Overall, though, Assassin’s Creed II is as close as we’ve managed to get to real time travel. The grown-ups can lap it up as a kind of virtual tourism. For the high schoolers, still the main audience, the video offers a kind of education by stealth. History matters more if your life depends on it, even as Ezio, and even if you’ve got lives to spare.

The amazing thing is developers of a highly anticipated release would even care to get most of the details right. If modifications of the game are allowed, it may find its way into history courses. It may find its way into classes regardless. Other academic efforts, such as Rome Reborn offer students only the opportunity to explore architecture. In AC2 students can fight bad guys while exploring.

Now, another major game focusing at least in part on the Italian Renaissance is due for release. This one is based on Dante’s Inferno. Yes, players will plumb the depths of hell, as envisioned by Dante, in this game from Electronic Arts. As you might imagine, hell is a bit graphic. Also, if you’ll recall, Dante described levels associated with the seven deadly sins. In the game, the level for lust is particularly graphic, replete with phallic symbols and nudity. This and other extreme graphics earn the game an M rating.

Producers are releasing a print edition of the poem illustrated by pictures from the game, hoping to encourage players to read Dante’s original work. Maybe kids who talk their parents into buying the game, despite its M rating, can actually learn something about the original work. But, I suspect parents would prefer the old-fashioned text version of the poem rather than an explicit video game.

References:
Kaylan, M. (2010, January 12). Time travel gets closer to reality. The Wall Street Journal, D7.

Got Troubles? Blame Videogames

I noticed the apparent up tick in media attention to videogame violence recently. Then I ran across Mike Elgan’s piece in Computerworld, where he breaks down recent news items from around the world. Some I’d heard of, and there were a few he mentioned that I hadn’t. The big research item I was aware of, and hope to blog on soon after I’m finished reading it. Here is Elgan’s list:

- The December supplemental issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health devoted to youth violence and electronic media (more on this from me later).

- New Zealand’s National Manager of Police Youth Services stating he felt rising youth violence is tied to videogame consoles (Elgan notes the statement was made after brief exposure to his son’s Xbox, not a formal study).

- The German Society for Scientific Person-Centered Psychotherapy recommended a ban on violent videogames.

- Reading skills in England have dropped, with videogames receiving the lion’s share of blame (this one is stretching it, BTW, based on the copious literacy moments inherent in most all advanced MMORPGs and VIEs).

- Videogames were also blamed for England’s poor showing in soccer this year. It seems British kiddoes are too busy playing with joysticks instead of going outdoors and playing with balls. Videogames = bad. Soccer games = good.

- Elgan then notes a couple news reports blaming games for obesity, broken bones & rickets in children.

- He also points out the study in Pediatrics from German researchers showing sleep disruption in boys playing a videogame before bedtime.

Elgan brings up several counterpoints to the “blame videogames first” crowd. With recent immigration trends of young families moving to England, some 40% of primary kids “over there” don’t speak English at home. This might have a higher effect on reading scores than the Playstation, Wii, or Xbox. The media highlighted the Finnish teen shooter’s love of videogames while ignoring his many other interests which may have certainly contributed to a killer mindset. Focusing on the effects videogames have on teen boys misses the point anyway since videogames continue to grow in popularity across both genders and all age groups.

Here are some additional arguments Elgan adds:

One “solution” you don’t hear very often is: Maybe we should do nothing. Maybe it’s a problem that doesn’t need to be solved … Every generation of adults blames some cultural influence or another on ruining young people. Those darned horseless carriages cause youthful indiscretions! …

Second, games may have an overall positive effect on the lives of some kids. In bad neighborhoods, they may provide an alternative to gangs and real violence, or access to cultural information not otherwise available. …

And finally … There is plenty of evidence — ignored by critics — that games are becoming more intellectually stimulating. Many kids who used to play Grand Theft Auto are now enjoying Assassin’s Creed or, say, BioShock. These newer games still have violence, but also literary, historical and cultural value, at least in comparison with GTA.

Elgan sums up with a call for more research:

One thing is certain: We need more and better research. So many questions remain unanswered. Do games really cause violence? If so, do some games cause more violence than others? Is the unrealistic or nongraphic violence in, say, Halo 3 less harmful than the blood-splattering violence in Call of Duty 4? Is the “honorable” violence in Call of Duty 4 less harmful than the “criminal” violence in Grand Theft Auto? Are games damaging to some personality types, but harmless to others? Are the effects of gaming long term?

Good questions. Be sure and check out Elgan’s excellent blog, The Raw Feed which focuses on videogames and other technologies.

References:
Elgan, M. (2007, November 30). Do video games make kids violent, stupid and sick? Computerworld. [Online.] Available: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?
command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9050278&pageNumber=1