Beyond Education and Impact: Games as Research Tools and Outputs

The potential of games as learning and teaching tools is increasingly difficult to deny. However, the possibility of using games as tools for scholarly historical research and communication is much less widely accepted. This chapter notes this discrepancy and highlights three emergent approaches towards the use of games in academic study through the use of a "Gamic Mode" of history, the creation and modification of games as simulacra to explore historical arguments, and the possibilities presented by roleplay as a means to engage with history and historiography. The similarities between the educational and scholarly potential of these games is emphasized throughout the chapter and it is ultimately argued that the varied approaches highlighted here represent the emergence and consolidation of a new historical method.