Jeremiah McCallMar 21

Hi! Some know I use phrase/standard "Does this historical game have defensible models about the past?" with the Historical Problem Space framework. With (newer) Agential Problem Space framework one can ask "Does this agential game have defensible models about the world?". I use that instead of "is the game (historically) accurate?".

Since I've deepened "defensible models" since posing the term in GTP 1st Ed. (2011) up to the upcoming Designing Historical Games, just wanted to run through my current understanding. I've pinned it to the historical/agential problem space of a game, because historical games present problem spaces. So ... A game has defensible models to the extent evidence supports (and here the repeated THIS means "the game"):

"Some agents in a place like THIS, had goals like THIS, in a world system like THIS, and were able to make action-choices like THIS."

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Show threadJeremiah McCall

This standard allows for inaccurate discrete details. It even allows some parts of the model might be less defensible. But since historical (agential) games are about agents acting within systems, this standard seems to me to get at heart of evaluating game's modeling of evidence and "reality"

Now, as to why you might care about a historical game's defensibility (it's a debated issue in HGS), I will leave that until someone asks, because I have to get back to my email pile 🙂. Would love to know what you think about this standard, or anything related, as always 2/

Mar 21 at 12:05pmWeb