Don’t Dumb it Down,

Historical Accuracy is

Fun:

Discussing the Europa

Barbarorum Project

and its Impact on the

Gaming Community

1991 1992

1997

Europa Barbarorum:• Extension of the game map from the British Isles to the Hindu Kush

• Reconstructed linguistics (Classical Latin, Semitic, Ancient Greek, Celtic,

Classical Persian)

• Reconstructed names for units and provinces

• Historically accurate units

• New musical score, including recreations of ancient music from Musica

Romana and Prehistoric Music Ireland

• 21 Factions with historically advised victory conditions

• Culturally specific social reforms

Europa Barbarorum II:• Faction specific government and social structures

• Spatially and temporally accurate artefacts

• New reconstructed languages: Sanskrit, Sabean Arabic

• Addition of 7 new Factions

• Improved accuracy of campaign map divisions and unit and building

descriptions

• Geographically accurate vegetation species

What the fans think

• Fans were invited to take part in a survey relating to their experience of Europa Barbarorum:

• Of those asked, 76% attributed an increased interest in history and/or archaeology as a result of playing Europa Barbarorum

• 84% believed that Europa Barbarorum, by being open to volunteers, made it more appealling

• 51% noted that the greatest appeal of Europa Barbarorumwas historical accuracy, whilst 34% described the level of immersion as being the strongest attraction

Community and the Past

In literature…

…and table top games

“As Scott Bennie, a designer I used to work with said […]

“read interesting history”. There are stories in history which are crazier and more amazing than

any fantasy author could write.”

(Hong 2014, 45)

www.EuropaBarbarorum.com

@EBTeam

https://www.facebook.com/#!/europabarbarorum2?fref=ts

Barthes, R. 1986a [1967]. The Discourse of History. In: Barthes, R. (ed). The Rustle of Language. Howard, R. (trans). Blackwell: Oxford

Baudrillard,J. 1981a. History: A retro scenario. Glaser, S.F. (ed). Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor pp1-42

Cassidy, S.B. 2011. The Videogame as Narrative. In: Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 28(4): 292-306

Chen, K. 2003. Civilization and its disk contents: Two essays on civilization and Civilization. Radical Society 30(2), 95-107

Costikyan, G. 2007. Games, Storytelling, and Breaking the String. In: Harrigan, P. and Wardrip-Fruin, N. (eds.) Second Person: Role Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA pp5-15

Dovey, J. and Kennedy, H.W. 2007. Game Cultures. Open University Press: Maidenhead

Evans, R. 1997. In Defence of History. Granta: London

Giles, M.C. 2000. ‘Open-weave, Close-knit’. Archaeologies of Identity in the later prehistoric landscape of East Yorkshire. University of Sheffield unpublished PhD thesis

Image Credits

en.wikipedia.orgwiki.totalwar.comwww.EuropaBarbarorum.comwww.g-unleashed.comwww.heavengames.comwww.IGN.comwww.mobygames.comwww.totalwar.comhttp://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology