Historical periods that are barely ever explored in games

[New Frontiersman]

Pretty much all of pre-colonial Africa, save for Egypt, is fairly unexplored. North and South America pre-European contact are similarly unexplored, except maybe the Aztecs, Maya and Inca, although pre-Colombian South American civilizations tend to be used as "Civilizations" rather than as settings. Pre-colonial Austrailia also could use a bit more coverage, as could Australian history in general really, in fact most of the Pacific is pretty unexplored, yet there are so many interesting peoples and cultures that in habit that area. Likewise almost all of Central Asian history remains pretty underrepresented in video games.

Actually, decolonization would be interesting as well. Playing as an oppressed African or Asian freedom fighter as he struggles against his oppressive European colonial overlord. There are so many games about colonization, it would be great to play one from the other side, one where I don't feel like the villian.

And like the original poster said, it'd be nice to see an exploration of classical civilizations that aren't Rome or Greece, so places like Iran or Carthage would be cool. I would also enjoy seeing more of post-classical Rome, the Middle Ages is a pretty well covered era, but the Eastern Roman Empire only rarely gets any exploration or even recognition.

Islamic history also tends to be ignored in most video games. From the early Middle Ages all the way up to today, Islamic History is filled with fascinating people, stories and places and the Islamic world has extended throughout Spain, across Northern Africa, into Eastern Europe and the Middle East and all the way into China. It would be fascinating to see a game to take place in the Islamic world, or even a fantasy Islamic world as opposed to Christian Europe or fantasy Christian Europe

The Indian sub-continent could also be really interesting to explore. India really isn't a homogeneous whole, like it is often portrayed as, it's more like Europe as a whole than any one particular European nation. There are so many different cultures, peoples and languages in the Indian subcontinent and for most of it's history it's been dived into hundreds of kingdoms and monarchies competing for supremacy, not unlike Europe itself. It would be fascinating to see a game that took place in India, maybe a Crusader Kings style game where you build up an Indian kingdom, or maybe something like Assassin's Creed that takes place in an Indian Kingdom where you can explore different places really see the continent close up.

History is so vast and so interesting, filled with amazing stories and fascinating people. It would be impossible to cover it all, but at the same time it would be nice it video games would explore some more parts of it then they tend to, it get's kinda sad seeing the same settings visited again and again.

 

[New Frontiersman]

There are tons of fantastic wars that could be the basis for an FPS, if we must pursue only that rather tired genre:
English Civil War
Napoleonic Wars
Boer Wars
Crimean War
French Revolution
Franco-Prussian War
War of Spanish Succession

But nooooooo, can't have anything that might remind the silly Amerifats that other countries exist. If I were American I'd actually be rather insulted that some plastic man in a suit had decided that I can't be trusted with knowledge from outside my own national borders.

You do know there are tons of games that take place in Europe right? A good deal of which are made in America, and even most of those that aren't are still really popular here. Everyone in America knows other countries exist and no one is really bothered by it. Also your racism really wasn't necessary and doesn't help your point at all.

 

[Mechamorph]

Plenty. I agree the Great War would be an excellent means of exploring horror or dehumanization but there are entire cultures and eras that I would to see in video games. For example:

The Founding of the Zhou Dynasty
The setting of the Chinese classic novel "Feng Shan Ban" its basically X-men in Bronze Age China. Or an awesome setting for a Scion (by White Wolf) RPG.

Pre-British India
The era of maharajas or the time of the Great Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. A time of great passions, mighty warrior princes and mystical beings from a culture we hardly ever see in Western media.

Heian era Japan
Sengoku era Japan is relatively well represented but the aristocratic courts of the Capital of Eternal Peace hardly ever come up in video games even in their native countries. Again we delve into a time of myth and legend which would be largely unfamiliar to a Western audience.

The Javanese Empires and the Malay Archipelago
Majapahit, Srivijaya, the Khmer, the great island kingdoms of much of this area almost never get even a mention outside of a Civilization game. Sid Meier's Pirates in the Spice Islands anyone?

 

[Westaway]

We don't see much of Africa prior to the 20th/21th century do we? Excluding the ocassional pyramid tour.

Damn, that was going to be my pick. Specifically around really ancient history before they became largely nomadic, back when they built the cities and temples 20th century archaeologists ascribed to some lost race (because clearly blacks are way too primitive to have built them). Other than that, Mesopotamia doesn't seem to come up much outside the Prince of Persia games.

Going to need a source on these cities and temples the Africans built.

 

[SecondPrize]

I would say that the American Civil War counts, but with the release of Gettysburg: Armoured Warfare(bad example) and Ironclad Tactics, I feel that it's getting some attention.

A pet peeve of mine is that people say that Feudal Japan is over done, when it clearly isn't, at least not to me. The games that come to mind upon hearing those words are the Shogun Total War series and Okami, nothing else.

Also, the classic era would be cool(no Romans though, media in general has kind of been there, done that) such as Babylon or Carthage(especially considering that Babylonian architecture looks pretty interesting, and that now we barely have any idea what it looked like).

I think the Onimusha and way of the Samurai series do some good Feudal Japan unless they're in another period. Really to answer the question you can tiptoe around a few hotspots like the 1930s through WW2, Vietnam, present day and a decade or so into the future. I'd like to see some 19th century stuff that isn't westerns or steampunk myself, like a Indiana Jones type in darkest Africa or filling out the map in the pacific or something.

 

[Spineyguy]

There are tons of fantastic wars that could be the basis for an FPS, if we must pursue only that rather tired genre:
English Civil War
Napoleonic Wars
Boer Wars
Crimean War
French Revolution
Franco-Prussian War
War of Spanish Succession

But nooooooo, can't have anything that might remind the silly Amerifats that other countries exist. If I were American I'd actually be rather insulted that some plastic man in a suit had decided that I can't be trusted with knowledge from outside my own national borders.

You do know there are tons of games that take place in Europe right? A good deal of which are made in America, and even most of those that aren't are still really popular here. Everyone in America knows other countries exist and no one is really bothered by it. Also your racism really wasn't necessary and doesn't help your point at all.

Oh hell, it's going to be one of these.

I'm well aware that most Americans are nowhere near as ignorant as their stereotype would suggest, and the joke wasn't even at the expense of those few who really are that ignorant. The two targets of that particular jab were the kind of people who constantly complain that Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world and the kind of publisher who won't get behind anything that doesn't feature an American kicking some foreigner's 'ass'. I'm also well aware that, by-and-large, America has historically not marched its armies against itself, but has instead used them to bring the light of freedom and democracy and Christianity to more remote and coincidentally oil-rich areas of the world.

What you should probably have noted about the suggestions posted above, even while you were frothing about my racism, is that none of them directly involved America at all, and that perhaps that was the basis of my argument, rather than some sort of weird misconception that all of America's conflicts were internal.

 

[Oliver Cuenca]

I think I'd like to see a video game set in the English Civil War. I mean, it'd be amazing what with the cavalry charges, the cannonfire and that. It's pretty much the war that drags England's war into the modern era. It's basically the end of any sort of feudalism and the start of professional armies. And besides, I've never seen a single game set in it despite it being unquestionably epic.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

World War One.

We have lots of WW2 games, but not much of the first world war.


Also with WW2 games, I would love to see some RPGs or something, like village life or whatever during the war.
Not just more shooters.

Agreed. I would love to see some COD/Battlefield/Spec-OPs:The Line that are focused on WW1 and allows you to fight in the trenches. Imagine being a British soldier who has never heard of the flamethrower before and he sees that on the battlefield? Or what about a German soldier that sees what appears to be a moving hill in the distance, only to his horror to find out that the "moving hill" is in fact a tank coming right towards him. That's not to mention the use of chemical weapons that soldiers would have to avoid or the dogfights between biplanes that the game could also focus on.

 

[Philip Morgan]

There are a lot of great suggestions everyone has put forth. I think a part of the problem is the eras we as Americans are used to seeing in gaming (Greece, Rome and WW2) are because in many high schools those three periods of history are what is covered most in history class, so that the average consumer not interested or versed in world history can easily recognize a game set in those periods, also it makes it easier for designers to pitch a game idea to investors (who want monetary returns, not a lesson on the Crimean War). And I say Americans again because we're a major market for video game consumption and production, so studios may want to cater to things the average consumer recognizes. I'd like to see development studios outside the U.S. work on a game set in one of these periods; they might have a better chance of getting traction for it more than domestic studios. And yes, the games we do get often are highly mythologized and not often are they historically accurate.
The best thing might be to send these suggestions along to studios you like en masse, show them that there is interest in seeing these settings in game form. Someone might just decide to give them a chance.

 

[IGetNoSlack]

I'd love to see something set in Shaka-era south Africa, a horror game in WWI, or anything set in the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s.

Biggest siege of a capital in modern history, and yet untouched by a medium that could do it justice.

 

[Edward Armstrong]

I would honestly have to say 99% of history. If you got a timeline of human history and marked on it all the periods which you have seen appear in video games, nearly all of it would be left unmarked. I wish there were more games set in the real world that weren't all set in the same places at the same times. And if a developer wants fantasy, not real life, why not try something like Darklands occasionally? That game had a brilliant premise, although I can't really recommend it other than that unfortunately. http://www.gog.com/game/darklands

Also, while some periods are used a lot, there are aspects of them that have been left untouched. Take Ancient Rome for example. We've all seen the military a thousand times, but, as I'm sure anybody with a reasonable knowledge of the classical world will agree,there is so much that hasn't been touched on.

The problem is, while these periods of history are fascinating, you have the conundrum of how to turn them into a game. Archaic Greece may well be a really interesting time to read about and study, but what type of game could you set there that would be even remotely historically accurate? A film or a book, certainly, but a video game is much more difficult. Why are there loads and loads of WW2 games but hardly any WW1 games? Because WW2 had aerial assaults, night raids, beach landings and other, exciting, cinematic experiences (terrifying and horrific in real life obviously, but you know what I mean) which lend themselves perfectly to a video game. What would you do in a WW1 game? Sit in a trench, occasionally go over the top and die. Not exactly what you look for in a good game. I'm not saying developers shouldn't try, I'm just pointing out why many of them probably don't.

 

[The Madman]

you're trolling right, please say you are. because if you aren't where have you been pretty much all of call of duty and medal of honor was set in that period of time, castle wolfenstein, battlefield 1946, secret weapons over normandy and world war zero to name the few i remember.

Well this is awkward...

See, every game you just mentioned takes place in World War 2. I was talking about World War 1. Please tell me you do realize there's a difference between WW1 and 2, a very big difference in fact.

Here, this is a pretty good look at it:

Spoiler: Spoilered for some disturbing imagery

Like I said earlier I envision a horror game in that setting, maybe pulling a Spec Ops style 'growing surrealism' as the game goes on. The players character losing their grip on reality, distorting what the player sees and hears. Things growing darker, more horrifying.

If done well it could be a real eye-opener for some people out there who might never have really thought about the first World War.

 

[genghisKwong]

How about something based off the time of the Black Plague? I don't believe it's something that's ever been in a game. There's lots of different gameplay perspectives with the black plague as a an antagonist. It can work so long as the developers don't turn it into a zombie game.

 

[thewatergamer]

World War 1 and 2 are barely ever touched to my knowledge, never understood why

sigh do your research medal of honor and call of duty to name the two most popular it's only recently that they started all this modern warfare crap.

Uhh I believe I already posted with a clarification that I meant games outside of the Spunkgargleweewee genre

Also I am more specifically talking about WWI as it seems to never be explored to my knowledge

 

[demoman_chaos]

I think the issue with WW1 is the setting/genre. You can either make an FPS or TPS which everyone and their mother is doing right now, or RTS/TBS yet moving your little dudes from one trench and ordering them to dig another one a few yards ahead doesn't really make for compelling game play.

This is one of those times I would have to say mass appeal is actually a good thing, I would hate for an excellent game set in an obscure time period to go ignored and possibly fail massively because of that. Mass appeal is why we have so many games based on the Romans, Greeks and times like WW2, everyone knows about these things.

How many Americans do you think give a damn about the Crimean war or the battle of Agincourt? How many Europeans really care about Chinese or ancient Egyptian history? (Dynasty Warriors is a fluke in my humble opinion.)

The only real way to appeal to the masses in any form of unknown historical context is to make what appears to be a generic fantasy/medieval world with hidden nods to actual events.

All that said though I am excited for anything that showcases late Republican/Imperial Rome so I suppose I don't miss out all that much. More so through fascination with the Legions than anything else but also due to the Romans having a standard of living that wasn't again reached until the last couple hundred years or so, due to Reasons? (Not suitable for discussion in this forum section).

YOu do know that one other fronts the war were quite actve and rapidly moving. After the tank was introduced, the war started moving quite rapidly again.

 

[Moloch Sacrifice]

I can definitely get behind a WW1 horror game. A setting where the killing of human beings becomes industrialised makes for a truly horrifying concept, made all the worse by the fact that it actually happened. Coupled with the poor understanding of the psychology of stress and trauma of the military institutions of the time, and a very cold, unforgiving world emerges.

Of course, a carefully constructed publicity campaign would be required to indicate that this is not just another Call of Duty FPS churnout (warning: wall of text narrative follows, written by a less than capable author):

Spoiler

I can imagine a TV ad showing a garish FPS with Halo style gameplay; a bright world featuring huge, futuristic weapons and many bizarre aliens that are gunned down in droves as the player dodges leaps and strafes his way around them all. The camera then pans out, showing a young man (no more than 18-19) is the one playing the game in an average, modern middle class household. In the background, an older woman (implied to be the mother) is sorting through mail. when she comes to one of the letters, she stops, shock clear on her face. The son gets up and comes to see what the matter is, and is equally shocked to see the letter.
This leads into a brief montage where the the son goes through 1910's military training, with every jump cut causing the palette to lose contrast and become greyer and bleaker. Eventually, you see the son in a trench; almost all colour is washed out by this point. It has been snowing heavily, and he is clearly struggling to keep warm. He looks up as he hears a whistle blow on the distance, and he moves to a ladder on the trench wall.
Here, the camera shifts back into first person. The young man's Lee Enfield rifle looks pitifully small in his hands compared to the weapons in the videogame, and his movements are clearly not that of the agile superhuman he controlled earlier. The order to advance is given; walking pace is explicitly demanded by the officer. Still in first person, the ladder is climbed, and the viewer can see the hellish shape of no man's land for the first time. Snow, mud, craters and barbed wire stretch out in all directions like some demented garden. the charred and broken remains of a wood can be seen, as can the ruin of a church, with perhaps only one or two walls left partially standing. In the distance is the German trench system, a dark line that seems so very distant. After the first few steps, the artillery begins firing, but the officer still barks his insistence on a walking pace. Eventually, the shells begin to land; men are engulfed in columns of rising earth, others are sent flying; screams are heard in all directions. the camera pans around this scene of horror, Lee Enfield still just visible in the bottom of the shot. Finally, a louder whistling is heard and the camera snaps forward just in time to see a shell detonate right in front. For a split second, a cascade of filth fills the screen, before a snap cut to black.

The main problem I could see facing this game is public reaction. Here in the UK, the First World War is incredibly culturally significant; the date of the signing of the armistice treaty is unilaterally shown respect across the entire country, and by all levels of society. Do you remember the Skyrim release date was 11/11/11? Some people I know were deeply unsettled that a company would use this date to sell a product, let alone one that (at least appears to) endorse violence. I think that facing this level of reaction within Europe may cause large publishers to avoid taking up this project like the plague, regardless of what the actual message of the game may be.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I would love a game based on the American Revolution...

I was hoping Assassin's Creed III was going to do it well, but instead it was sooooooooo boring I quit after a couple missions. I want a game to be all "'Murica" but you know, still being realistic to the setting.

I'm just flashing back now to elementry school and reading Johnny Trumain and learning about benjamin franklin.

 

[NoeL]

Damn, that was going to be my pick. Specifically around really ancient history before they became largely nomadic, back when they built the cities and temples 20th century archaeologists ascribed to some lost race (because clearly blacks are way too primitive to have built them). Other than that, Mesopotamia doesn't seem to come up much outside the Prince of Persia games.

You know Mesopotamia is Iraq, not in Africa, right? (Sorry for being that guy) But yeah, games set in the Middle East or Africa would be interesting. Potentially India could be interesting too but I don't know much about Indian history/if there are games about it already, for whether they would be worthwhile

Yes I know. When I said "Other than that..." I was saying "Other than Africa..." And Mesopotamia isn't just Iraq, it's a whole region in the Middle East.

Going to need a source on these cities and temples the Africans built.

Sure thing: [click me] [http://bit.ly/HEa7Ff]

 

[Zetona]

How about a racing game set in the prewar era? Back then, the cars were powerful and incredibly unsafe, and races were held on everything from wild arrays of public roads to high-speed ovals paved with bricks or wooden boards. It would be a stark departure from every racing game on the market, and would provide a showcase for some of the world's great forgotten race tracks, like AVUS and Pescara, not to mention the legendary prewar race cars. I'm thinking you could convey the danger of the era through some sort of crazy permadeath mechanic. If done correctly, it would be incredibly intense.

 

[Flutterguy]

A pet peeve of mine is that people say that Feudal Japan is over done, when it clearly isn't, at least not to me. The games that come to mind upon hearing those words are the Shogun Total War series and Okami, nothing else.

I thought fuedal japan overdone a few years ago, playstation-xbox-ps2 had alot of games with that. Spyro, soul calibour and other mainstream games had elements of it, there was a decent amount of game a bit harder to find as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_set_in_feudal_Japan thats a list of know games based in the era.

As for the time frame.. Something before man, revolving around different climates and with many species playable. Sometime before man and after dinosaurs.