Video Games

Public History and Video Games?

I don’t normally know anything about video games but my boyfriend Josh bought Assassin’s Creed 3, and I’ve been learning a lot.  The game is set during the Revolutionary War and the main character is half Mohawk half and half European. A newspaper article in Montreal explains how the game designers chose to work with a man named Thomas Deer who is a “cultural liaison officer at the Kahnawake Language and Cultural Center” and he helped to ensure that the Mohawk were accurately depicted.  The game designers really wanted the game to be respectful and authentic to Native Americans.  I think this closely relates to my paper on interpreting Native American objects. Josh has recently done a lot of research on Iroquois archaeology in his grad program, and he’s really appreciated how historically accurate the housing structures appear in the video game, which is very cool.  

“By all accounts, the game’s reception among First Nations, and especially in Kahnawake, was overwhelmingly positive. “It was the talk of the town — at least among younger people,” writes Deer. “For the first time, they actually got to play a mainstream video game that was honest about our culture, featuring a Mohawk hero they could be proud of, and gameplay in the Mohawk language. That’s a phenomenal achievement.”

I haven’t actually played the game, but it’s still very cool that the game reached out for input from Native Americans. Hopefully, videogames like these can serve as a stepping stones to more video games representing historical events. It’s something that could definitely catch the public’s attention and cause them to find out more on their own.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Assassin+Creed+Mohawk+character+shaped+Kahnawake+Thomas+Deer/7649966/story.html#ixzz2EQYEzXsx