History / Games

Robin BurkeGAM 206

Outlineo What is History?o What do historians do?

o Historical sourceso Historical interpretation

o Gameso Defining gameso Analyzing games

o Games as historical sources

Historyo "the stories we tell about our

prior selves" (Howell & Prevenier, 2001)

o Accurate, but not very helpfulo what stories should we tell?o on what basis are such stories

created?

o The question of what makes a good / correct / accurate history story is (still) very controversial

Schools of Thoughto GOFH

o "Good Old-Fashioned History"o Stories about states and rulers, battles,

treaties, names and dateso Marxist History

o Stories about economic and political inequality, oppression and resistance, the evolution of social classes and their conflict

o Social Historyo Stories about social groups and institutions

and their interactions: the family, professional societies, clans

o Cultural Historyo Stories about cultural concepts: love, honor,

democracy, civilized behavior; conflicts over the meaning and expression of these ideas

o There are more: "feminist history", "post-colonial history", etc.

Why?o Balance

o there is lots of GOFHo room for other kinds of stories

o Deeper causationo "big events" don't occur in a

vacuum

o Thorough interpretationo "history is written by the

victors"

Controversyo Florida Education Omnibus Bill

(2006)o "American history shall be

viewed as factual, not as constructed, shall be viewed as knowable, teachable and testable, and shall be defined as the creation of a new nation based largely on the universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence."

o Trying to defend GOFH

This classo Cannot study "great men"

o few are known

o Cannot study names and dates and treatieso none exist

o Cannot study influential texts of ancient scholarso games were considered beneath

serious studyo games were communicated

informally

o Games are cultural phenomenao need a cultural approach

What historians doo How do we tell "stories of

our prior selves"?o Three main activities

o gathering evidenceosources

o analyzing and interpreting sources

o synthesizing the resultso"telling the story"

Types of sourceso Physical evidence

o relicsoartifacts used or created in the

past

o remainsobodies and associated evidence

o Testimonyo oral and written evidence

For this courseo Artifacts

o game pieceso game boardso other materials

o Documentso writings about gameso writings in which games

appearo images in which games

appear

Sourceso Created by particular

individualso in a particular contexto for a particular purpose

o Sometimeso intended to record something

for posterityo sometimes not

o Sometimeso require considerable

interpretative efforto"construction"

Primary vs Secondaryo Distinction depends on the

question being askedo more later

o Primary sourceso created at the time under studyo by the individuals under study

o Secondary sourceso summaries or responses to

sourceso often by other historians

First-hand vs second-hando First-hand

o diarieso memoirso oral reports / interviewso photographs

o Second-hando newspaperso fictional accounts

Credibilityo How much faith should we place

in a source?o Intent

o a source unintentionally created may be more credible

o what I say about my spending vs my bank statement

o a public, political or persuasive text may be less credible than a personal one

o diary vs op-ed piece

o a normative account may be less credible

o laws regulating gambling vs police records of arrests of gamblers

DePaul students 2006o A historian of 2106 wants to

write about DePaul college students of 2006

o What sources would she use?

Exampleo "The Alphonso Manuscript"o Spain, 1251-1282

Featureso Rules of chess

o the book describes the pieces and their moves on the boardo if you can read Latin

o Manufacturingo the book shows chess pieces

being made

o Chess problemso the book contains 89 chess

problems

Analyzing sourceso How would we know if this

source is what it claims to be?

o What questions could we ask of this source?

o What is the point of view of the source?

Pieter Bruegel, the Elder Children's Games (1559-60)

Analysiso Authenticityo Questionso Point of view

Secondary sourceso Parlett, "Oxford History of

Board Games""Herodotus credits the invention of

cubical dice to the Lydians of Asia Minor. Murray endorses this, none being known from Egypt before the 7th century bc, and those found subsequently mostly belonging to the Roman period. They reached India in the 6th century ad as instrumental to the Persian game of Nard, but never displaced the pasa in native Indian games."

Analysiso Authenticity

o not so much of an issue hereo although it is an electronic

document...

o Questionso Point of view

o Who wrote this?o Who is the audience?o For what purpose?

Research Projecto Need to have three primary

sourceso Enough secondary sources

to write your papero Preliminary bibliography

o due 9/20o 3 primary sourceso 3 secondary sources

Preliminary Bibliographyo Primary sources

o game counts as oneo Reference

oChess, ca. 1470

o Secondary sourceso source of rules counts as oneo Eales, R. (1985) Chess: The

History of a Game. New York: Facts on File.

o Need to have two more of eacho only one can be on-line

Games and Playo What is this all about?o Should we care?

o What can we hope to learn by studying the history of games?

o Three answerso historical insight: we will

understand something about historical times and places

o appreciation: we will be better able to appreciate this very ancient form of human activity

o contemporary parallels: we will be better able to understand today's games

Why do we play?o Many approaches to this

questiono evolutionaryo psychologicalo sociologicalo cultural/historical

A Working Hypothesiso Play is the exercise of our physical

and mental capacities in a constrained, low-risk environment

o To play is to learn to get better at somethingo in an environment of reduced stress

o Evolution has wired us to enjoy playingo so that we work to master skillso so that we learn a skill in a safe

environment before needing it in a high-stakes one

Requirementso Play must be low risk

o war is high risko chess is low risk

o Play must be constrainedo rules for what is and is not

part of the gameo Play must provide feedback

o otherwise no learning is possible

Characteristics of Playo clearly separated from real life

o primary outcomes non-consequential

o freely engagedo governed by agreed-upon ruleso Examples

o Tag, "House", "Cowboys and Indians"

o Chess, Monopoly, Old Maido Unreal Tournament, Simso Götterdammerung, Hamlet

Play Gameo Play as part of a game

o a football "play"

o Play activities that aren't game-likeo playing "house"

Characteristicso Game-like (ludus)

o Beginning and endo Fixed ruleso Central objective

o Play-like (paidea)o No game objectiveo Rules may be improvised and modified

o Paidea without luduso can seem pointless

o although not always (Sims)

o Ludus without paideao not fun

Definitiono Game

o a game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict defined by rules that results in a quantifiable outcome

o GAM 224o If you want to learn more

about games from a "design" point of view

Our Gameso We are studying sedentary,

mental gameso games that do not require

physical skill or special exertion

o Reasonso practical

opolo horses are expensiveomuch harder to become skilled

o evidentialosports are even more poorly

documented than indoor games

Basic Conceptso Games can be understood on

multiple levelso true of other art forms

o Formalo games are structures of ruleso typically involve strategic

complexity, uncertainty, and / or hidden information

o Experientialo games provide a play experience

o Culturalo games may reflect or comment on

the culture in which they emerge

Thunderstormo four diceo object

o to be the last player whose house is not struck by lightning

o ruleso player rolls all available diceo if no ones are rolled

o player adds to "house" drawingo if house is already complete, it is struck by lightning and

player is outo if at least one 1 is rolled

o all of the dice with ones are removed from playo play passes the next playero if all dice are ones

o all four dice are back in play

o houseo seven elements

Levels of Analysiso Formal

o Uncertaintyo odds of rolling a one

o Feedbacko when a one is rolled, the odds decrease

for the next player

o Experienceo Narrative structure

o tension as dice become fewero relaxation when all are back in play

o Culturalo ??

Wednesdayo Reading