Historical periods that are barely ever explored in games

[Syzygy23]

Ancient America. I'm talking pre-Columbus. Like at least 50 years before his landing. Problem is though that there may not be enough information of that time to really recreate it.

Pure Victorian England. No steampunk or fantasy of any kind... Well, OK, maybe a little bit of fantasy. But THAT'S IT.

Class warfare without big clanky brass robots and lightning guns sounds incredibly DULL.

I find that the further back in time you go, the less interesting things become. Mainly due to the lack of technology. Technology is awesome and badass.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Ancient America. I'm talking pre-Columbus. Like at least 50 years before his landing. Problem is though that there may not be enough information of that time to really recreate it.

Pure Victorian England. No steampunk or fantasy of any kind... Well, OK, maybe a little bit of fantasy. But THAT'S IT.

Class warfare without big clanky brass robots and lightning guns sounds incredibly DULL.

I find that the further back in time you go, the less interesting things become. Mainly due to the lack of technology. Technology is awesome and badass.

But people are larger dickheads and weapons are more inelegant, and thus more brutal.

Which is largely why people like Chivalry Medieval Warfare so(because of the second point, I cannot judge the community).

 

[aozgolo]

I'd like to see more games set in ancient empires outside of Europe and the Mediterranean DURING their height. I mean we have plenty of Indiana Jones style treks through lost civilizations like the Incas, Aztecs, Mayas, Angkor, Babylonians, but we almost NEVER see games SET in these periods.

Another thing that kind of gets me is the lack of certain themes/genres being mixed with certain settings. Almost every Vampire story deals with some undead ancient being hailing from the Victorian era, but we almost never see a supernatural theme SET in a Victorian era, even Dracula was more of an isolated industrial era setting. Games like Legacy of Kain even seem to harken back to a more Medieval type of setting.

I definitely would also be interested in more "tribal" themed games, it doesn't really matter whether you're talking Africa, Australia, or Americas in this regard, just something based on a more tribal setting that isn't Populous. Films like Apocalypto or 10,000 BC showed that the tribal theme can make for a very compelling atmosphere, especially if dealing with coming into contact with a technologically superior civilization.

 

[MXRom]

World War 2?
Plenty

World War 1?
Not quite as many, but they are out there. Necrovision for one, which is basically Doom mixed with the WW1 setting.

Japan's Feudal Era?
Koei has several IP that it releases covering that and churns out sequels on a continuous basis.

Medieval Europe?
Come on.

Renaissance.
Not quite as many, but still a decent number.

Imperial Expansion?
Touched upon but not really taken as far as it can go. All I've seen was just American Revolution and the Napoleonic wars.

Now stuff I'd like to see that I haven't seen explored? I'd have to go with Chinese history in general. There was Emperor Qin's campaign to unite China. The Three Kingdoms is practically untouched outside Koei.

Maybe the Korean conflict, I don't think there's anything for that. From what I've read, there's a whole lot of fighting that took place all across Korea that would be ripe for making a game about.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Class warfare without big clanky brass robots and lightning guns sounds incredibly DULL.

I find that the further back in time you go, the less interesting things become. Mainly due to the lack of technology. Technology is awesome and badass.

But steampunk has been done to DEATH. Everywhere from Bioshock to Dishonored.

 

[Rai^3]

I'd love to see some proper attention shown to the Islamic Golden Age, it was a great period of time for science.

 

[Requia]

Class warfare without big clanky brass robots and lightning guns sounds incredibly DULL.

I find that the further back in time you go, the less interesting things become. Mainly due to the lack of technology. Technology is awesome and badass.

But steampunk has been done to DEATH. Everywhere from Bioshock to Dishonored.

You named *ONE* steampunk game, try for a second? (Bioshock Infinite is probably situated somewhere in the punk spectrum, but its set in the 20th century, albeit a weird one where most of America fell off the back of a bus going by the lack of references to the Spanish American war or resulting clusterfuck in the Philippines).

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Class warfare without big clanky brass robots and lightning guns sounds incredibly DULL.

I find that the further back in time you go, the less interesting things become. Mainly due to the lack of technology. Technology is awesome and badass.

But steampunk has been done to DEATH. Everywhere from Bioshock to Dishonored.

You named *ONE* steampunk game, try for a second? (Bioshock Infinite is probably situated somewhere in the punk spectrum, but its set in the 20th century, albeit a weird one where most of America fell off the back of a bus going by the lack of references to the Spanish American war or resulting clusterfuck in the Philippines).

Actually I was talking about the first/second one, not Infinite.

And Thief as well. And all of these [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Steampunk_video_games].

 

[Requia]

Class warfare without big clanky brass robots and lightning guns sounds incredibly DULL.

I find that the further back in time you go, the less interesting things become. Mainly due to the lack of technology. Technology is awesome and badass.

But steampunk has been done to DEATH. Everywhere from Bioshock to Dishonored.

You named *ONE* steampunk game, try for a second? (Bioshock Infinite is probably situated somewhere in the punk spectrum, but its set in the 20th century, albeit a weird one where most of America fell off the back of a bus going by the lack of references to the Spanish American war or resulting clusterfuck in the Philippines).

Actually I was talking about the first/second one, not Infinite.

And Thief as well. And all of these [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Steampunk_video_games].

Then you have even less understanding of the concept of Steampunk than I thought.

That list is insane as well, of the games I've played or seen played:

Final Fantasy VII: You drive a freaking car in that. It's not really any historical period, aside from the swords being used inexplicitly in pair with rotary automatic weapons it looks more or less like an ill defined future. It's environmental allegories (and freaking eco terrorism) are very 20th century.

Bloodrayne: Haven?t seen the whole thing, but what I saw was about as steampunk as Indiana Jones. Incidentally the nazis disqualify you from a genre defined by being set in the 19th century.

Lemony Snickett's: Haven't played the games, have read a couple books. there's nothing remotely steampunk about them. Assuming the game is at least set in the same *universe* as the books there's no conceivable way to label this steampunk, it's like labelling Downton Abbey steampunk.

I will grant Final Fantasy VI, it's not steampunk under the strictest definition but it's got a proper lighter than air airship and carries a few themes consistent with 19th century social ills (exploitations of natives, empire building).

But even this list, as completely terrible as it is, still doesn't try to list the first two bioshock games.

 

[WhyWasThat]

World War 1 "The Great War", there's only 1 game I can think of that does this time period called "The Great War", a turned based strategy game, lots of fun but we seriously need more games set in this time especially considering how much it's effects are still being felt today.

i think when it comes to WW1 you'd have to be very careful not to glorify the war...WW1 still looms large in the cultural landscape of some countries and still stings...in the UK mostly because of horror of the "pals battalions" where entire social groups of men enlisted, fought and died together thus rendering individual communities with entire generations lost "all at once"...a lot of people in places like the UK don't move around much geographically and personally i walk past a village war memorial every day with 8 members of my own family on it...and those memorials are everywhere...even in the smallest hamlet...

WW1 is held up as the archetype of "the horrors of war" even now...after we've dropped nukes on people...
people would be extreamly sensitive to any "glorification" of it...

or to put it another way WW1 is the reason to a great many people this isn't just a picture of a field of flowers...

i like the Madmans idea for a horror game tho

Pretty clever and appropriate then that when Jacky dies and goes to hell in The Darkness, he wakes up in the trenches of a perpetual WW1.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Really, I can think of several periods.

1) Anything in vast period between the firearm becoming the primary infantry weapon on the battlefield and the introduction and common use of repeating arms. This period gets ignored largely because any attempt to be realistic would have a player using a weapon that could perhaps fire three aimed shots per minutes and even then, until the mid 19th century, aimed was very much a relative term
2) World War 1. The incredibly static nature of combat during this era would make it all but impossible to have an interesting game where you played as an infantryman. On the other hand, some sort of spy game set during this era could be pretty fascinating.
3) Any game set prior to the Bronze age. I chalk this one up to a near complete lack of historical record on the subject
4) Games set directly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Most games that take place in a medieval setting are centuries after this. I can only think of one in fact - a mod for Mount and Blade called Brytenwalda (Which, for the record, I feel is far more entertaining than Warband).
5) Games set firmly in the Bronze Age. There are quite a few games set in places that ought to be Bronze age but none of them really acknowledge this. This is largely because combat in that era relied on tight formations of troops and any attempt at realism would be tedious. Still, considering how this era is also host to all of Greek mythology (and much of Roman myth), it seems odd that it has rarely been explored.

 

[Toby Richardson]

I think the English Civil Wars from 1642 to 1651 would be an interesting subject. There has been total war mod based around those conflicts but that's it. I always thought an Assassins Creed Game would be interesting,like the Templers and Assassins involved in the backdrop between British Parliament and King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell would make for an excellent antagonist.

Yea interesting and tumultuous time for Britain at that time, it defined the UK greatly even now.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I'm envisioning scenario like the Battle of Beersheba, often considered the last great cavalry charge when Australian light horsemen charged an entrenched position in order to get beneath the range of the heavy guns and artillery, taking the town.

Not to mention that it was a time critical attack because the Light Horsemen were out of water when they attacked and the wells were the only viable source. Speaking of, the movie The Light Horsemen is a fairly good account of the battle and the shit leading up to it... although it's a bit 'rah rah ANZACs!' at times. Also, something to note, is that Light Horse weren't actually cavalry, they were dragoons... which is to say 'mounted infantry'.

My great-grandfather was a Light Horseman who took part in that battle. He was also at Gallipoli, but landed on the 2nd day (apparently by then the message 'duck machinegun fire' had gotten around) and was also the Australian Imperial Force's boxing champion. Not bad for a migrant lad from Germany who lied about his age to enlist. I'd say someone should make a game based on his time in the war but then they'd have to deal with certain parts of my family demanding money for the rights. The scabs. Then again, migrant lad becomes decorated veteran isn't exactly a rare story for WW1. You could probably find a few at any large WW1 cenotaph in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and probably places like South Africa, too.

The image of WW1 being nothing but trenches while not untrue is also far from all there was, and even then the idea of trench warfare is rife with ideas.

Exactly. It's not like the military commands of the time were in love with the idea of trench warfare... where they could avoid it, they did... and all the 'big' inventions of WW1 were im at breaking the stalemate enforced by trench warfare.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

or to put it another way WW1 is the reason to a great many people this isn't just a picture of a field of flowers...

i like the Madmans idea for a horror game tho

Huh Weird. I always assumed Poppy Fields were for World War 2, not World War 1 (Because of Pink Floyds' "The Final Cut" Album). Where they used for both? Or where they specifically used for WWI?

Post Fall of Rome. We all know Rome in its glory, and the vast domains that it once held, but where is the fall?
Of vast numbers of barbarian tribes, steppe folk, and Arabs that took over its dominion, few are ever focused on, despite being a pivotal moment in history, as these peoples set the stage for the establishment of the kingdoms of the Middle Ages, forming the kingdoms of the Franks, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Goths, Vandals, Allemagne, Sassanids, Umayyad, and all the Hunnic influence amongst the Slavic peoples.
It's the dark ages, as there's no massive empire that forcefully dominates the setting, as each kingdom struggles amongst its neighbors, striving for the power that Rome once had.

It would make a great Age of Empires-like strategy game, with a good variation of troop choice and technology difference.

I would only play that if I could be the best group of Barbarians ever to ransack Rome: The Lombards!

OT: I would think it would be neat to play the 80 Years War, where the Northern Dutch (The Netherlands) gained Independence from their Spanish Rulers.

 

[Nielas]

Huh Weird. I always assumed Poppy Fields were for World War 2, not World War 1 (Because of Pink Floyds' "The Final Cut" Album). Where they used for both? Or where they specifically used for WWI?

I think it varies by nation. In British Commonwealth countries red poppies are associated with WW1 as immortalized by the poem "In Flanders Fields". On the other hand in Poland they have a strong association with the WW2 battle of Monte Cassino because of a song about the Polish victory in that battle and how many Polish soldiers died there.

I general fields of poppies growing on battlefields tend to present a very emotional image as it seems that they are being nurtured by the blood of all the soldiers who died.

With historical games you have to be vary of insulting a culture or a nation. eg. Company Of Heroes 2 got a lot of flack for portraying the Russians on the Eastern Front in a negative light. Wild West games often get in trouble for their portrayal of the Native Americans. If you want your game to have international distribution, you are walking a minefield.

 

[beastro]

Well, let's see... almost EVERYTHING between the 16th-19th century! Will we ever get a game about the War of the Spanish Succession? The Eighty Years War (which, in contrast to the Hundred Years War really lasted a whole eighty years)? The Chrimean War (you know, charge of the light brigade, entire Europe+the Ottomans ganging up on Imperial Russia)?

Or what about creating an RPG set during the clashes between Catholics, LUTHERANs and Calvinists, especially in the German "Free Cities" of the HRE? Or playing as a Spanish Conquistador during the sacking of Tenochtitlan (capital of the Aztec Empire)?

But nope, everything has to be either set during WWII or in some highly fictionalised Medieval society....

Fixed that for you, the latter two are one and the same thing, that which you used in place of Lutheran

 

[otakon17]

I'd like to see more settings for World War 1, the Warring States period of Japan and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga of China. And something set in the roaring '20's in North America.

 

[GameGuyMan]

This is my very first post on anything of this website, so go easy on me as I express my take in the matter of this subject. The thing about making a video game based upon a historical event is making a game to only shoot up the enemies and telling a historically accurate story. A good example would be the first Call of Duty games I used to play and the games History channel makes. Call of Duty had a great amount of historical setting in the game's. I remember playing a level in the Battle for Stalingrad, where the Red army was trying to drive Germany out of their country. Not lots of subtext nor anything to educate the players about the battle and what really happened is given. In the History channel Games, the game play is not as good as Call of Duty's, but the history is more explained and feels like it has more meaning behind everything. Well, a period that would be interesting to explore in games are wars we hardly hear anything about, like the Boer wars in China or the Korean War. That will make a very good game idea if the developers cam make a winning formula.