[peterburkimsher]

I wish that history lessons could show videos of custom AoE maps with recreated player actions that correspond to real-life past events.

Studying history is a combination of 1. Calendars, 2. Maps, 3. Contacts, and 4. Messages.

I've been trying to figure out how to represent Calendar & Map data in a single user interface. (such a program would have other uses outside history, too). A video of a changing map, such as a screen recording of an AoE game, is one way I can think to show that data. Being able to then click on the characters and see what they're doing/saying would be helpful too. This idea is still quite vague in my head, but if anyone has any comments, I'd appreciate the discussion.

[iaskwhy]

It's my current hobby to explore ways to do this. My goal is to create a library which I can then use for several purposes. I'm mostly inspired by Civilization V end game replay map[0]. My second goal is to use the library to create a few educational map-based history tools because I love reading that stuff but have a hard time visualising it.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KTQN5nW24U

[nanospeck]

I'm very interested to know the details an perhaps help build it. Looks very promising. Can we connect akhil.karun [at] gmail.

[csomar]

I wonder if history lessons should have been taught this way. To play the game instead of having to attend school/read lengthy boring textbooks.

I remember pretty much nothing of history in at high school. Hundreds of hours went in vain. I still remember pretty much every video game I played. I remember San Andreas map to some extent for example. I remember Age of Mythology.

If history is repeated as a video game, I'd guess most people will get to "learn" history and remember it. At least, for me, I would.

[mattferderer]

I strongly agree with this. A recent Google search I did showed companies are already trying this with VR. I hope within the next decade it is common place for students to learn history by being put in the shoes of different people during the events.

I know one famous history lesson where a teacher separated her class into 2 groups based on the color of their eyes. This happened shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The teacher than treated one group superior to the others. They received longer recess, praise & other benefits. The inferior group was treated very poorly & their grades & attitude suffered because of it. The next day she said she made a mistake & the other group was superior. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/introduction-2/

The students in my school had a history teacher that would randomly surprise us in Middle School with an announcement of our school being selected to send one student to space. He put on a great acting performance to a bunch of gullible students. He did this to discuss what it might have been like sailing across the ocean to discover a new continent. He also talked about the teacher that sadly died with several astronauts in an explosion. Almost everyone who attended my school remembers this lesson.

Imagine if it was easy for all teachers to provide historical lessons with such impact & meaning. The improvements it could make in civil engagement, relations in our communities & maybe it could even help curb the constant jumping to conclusions that people love to do.

[Sean1708]

"Your first homework assignment of this class is to complete the William Wallace Campaign."

But in all seriousness, while I do really like this idea, I have a feeling that costs of development might outweigh the benefits somewhat. Although having said that, if somebody made an Age of Empires style game which was chock full of historical information I would buy it in an instant.

[csomar]

> costs of development might outweigh the benefits somewhat

Shouldn't it be the other way around? If it is a joint operation by a few countries, and it can be accessible to the whole world, the cost will be less than the textbooks kids are buying today.

[NolF]

Wouldn't Total War be a better engine for this? From memory many of the big battles are already as options and a quick Google shows there is an scripting engine for this very purpose.

[hjrnunes]

It has been done.

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/6kso6w/historic_d...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cax2vIb22nc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decisive_Battles

[NolF]

WoW! That youtube channel is amazing. Very informative videos.

[forax]

Empire Earth had the ability to take geographic elevation data as input to the map maker. My buddy and I did a high school presentation on Paul Revere where we imported Boston and then made a series of triggered events to show the ride. The Redcoat was Britain's special unit in the game so it ended up looking pretty good!

[rmccue]

You could potentially use something like a Minard diagram? https://robots.thoughtbot.com/analyzing-minards-visualizatio...

[Zardoz84]

Something like this ?

http://www.larramendi.es/es/timeline/autores.do

[wingerlang]

Perhaps a timeline-scroller-calendar that acts like the ones in a movie player.