Comments on: History At Play

By: 12. Playing with the Past | History 9808

12. Playing with the Past | History 9808 — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:59:52 +0000

[...] you to embrace in your blogging. Some of my more coherent stabs at the topic include “History at Play,” “Playful Historical Thinking,” “History Invaders,” “Toys Not [...]

By: Toys Not Games

Toys Not Games — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:33:52 +0000

[...] like talking about “history at play” or “playful historical thinking” more than “history games” or [...]

By: Playful Historical Thinking

Playful Historical Thinking — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:42:48 +0000

[...] History At Play [...]

By: THATCamp

THATCamp — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:30:13 +0000

[...] are shaping up for THATCamp around gaming and playful learning (topics I’ve at least talked about before) as well as visualization, data mining, you name it. And I know I will meet some cool [...]

By: Concept Courses

Concept Courses — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:42:28 +0000

[...] talked before about my interest, and at the same time my doubts, around simulation gaming as a way of teaching history. The [...]

By: Graeme

Graeme — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:23:18 +0000

Great post! Certainly an interesting way to look at history

By: WriTerGuy

WriTerGuy — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:12:09 +0000

“historical thinking is not the opposite of futurism, it’s very closely allied with it”

I totally agree. In fact, WWO fan Matt Arnold called the game “a historical pre-enactment” – which I think is a great term for it. Why should Civil War re-enactors have all the fun?

Am I involved with World Without Oil? I’m the creative director!

By: Old is the New New :: Madness and Civilization III

Old is the New New :: Madness and Civilization III — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:52:34 +0000

[...] Dresner is right: in my earlier post about history and play, I was a bit too flip in dismissing as “teacher logic” the instinct to leverage activities like [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:59:54 +0000

Writer Guy: Thanks for visiting, and commenting. You’re right, World Without Oil is more than “fake history” or even an “art project” – I’ve been looking into it more since writing this post (and hearing the great Boing Boing Boing interview with Jane McGonigal), and it’s very intriguing stuff. Are you involved or playing with World Without Oil? If so, I’d love to talk more.

So yes, calling WWO “fake” is unfair, but I stand by “history,” in a way – this dovetails with another point I want to make in a later post: historical thinking is not the opposite of futurism, it’s very closely allied with it. What people are doing when they talk about the future is, I would argue, more like doing history than it is like doing any other academic discipline.

By: WriTerGuy

WriTerGuy — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:02:11 +0000

Great post. I have to quibble, however, with your placement of World Without Oil (worldwithoutoil.org) in the category of “Fake History.” World Without Oil is really about the future, I think. Both the game and the metagame focus on exploring what will happen, based on the structures of today. Like any prognostication, it’s largely speculative, but that’s different I think than “fake”.