The always interesting Vic Davis has recently posted about appeasement as an historical tactic and game mechanic. Appeasement as a strategy is often a bad choice. It can be a catastrophic choice under certain conditions. Perhaps the most famous from the last century is the sad spectacle of the Munich Conference in 1938 and Neville […]
Entries Tagged as 'History'
Culture and Conflict
December 11th, 2007 · 8 Comments · CGW, History, Society
This month’s Games for Windows has an interesting feature story on the use of Native Americans as protagonists in Age of Empires III: Warchiefs and Prey. Michael Sheyahshe does a good job of getting the viewpoints of the developers on the use of Native American perspectives and voices. Let’s face it, this is the kind […]
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Flailing Elephants
October 16th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Big Huge Games, Design, History, RTS
From Big Huge Games’ Andrew Auseon at the Asian Dynasties blog at IGN. A good example of when the element of history bowed to the element of fun was the Flail Elephant. The Indian civilization can train a siege elephant that swings a weighted chain from the end of its trunk. The only accounts of […]
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Gamers’ Bookshelf: I, Claudius et al
September 19th, 2007 · 6 Comments · Gamer's Bookshelf, History
It’s been 30 years since the BBC adaptation of Robert Graves’ historical novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God was broadcast on Public Television’s Masterpiece Theatre. The series remains well-loved and stands as one of the great mini-series in a time when everyone on broadcast television was doing mini-series. The format seems to have been […]
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Another World
September 11th, 2007 · 4 Comments · History
At moment, I’m sitting through the very long install of World in Conflict, the Cold War Gone Hot RTS from Massive Entertainment and Sierra. The box cover shows a GI dragging two little girls to safety as a helicopter fires rockets at the Statue of Liberty. As far as settings go, this setting is pretty […]
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Developer Interview: Martin Campion
September 1st, 2007 · 14 Comments · Education, History, Interview
A few months ago I wrote about a strategy game from the distant past, Medieval Lords: Soldier Kings of Europe. The game’s developer, Martin Campion, stumbled upon the entry and commented. He graciously agreed to answer a few questions on his experiences developing simulation games. Though Campion has been away from the computer game business […]
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