There is a lot about the Red Dead Redemption franchise that rings true to the experience of real-life Americans during that time period, and now one university professor is recognizing that by making Red Dead Redemption the subject of an American history course at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Red Dead Redemption's popularity still remains strong even though the last game came out over two years ago.
In recent decades, video games have become more prominent in educational practices, usually in the form of specially designed experiences with the sole purpose of helping the player learn reading, math, and other classroom-taught skills. Most AAA titles, meanwhile, are decidedly not educational, and have even developed a stigma marking them as potentially hindering when it comes to learning and development. There are some AAA games, however, that have unintentionally become educational in some aspects due to the increasing pressure on developers. Making a financially successful title often requires creating a totally immersive experience and to achieve this some developers have turned to the strategy of making their games as historically accurate as possible. Rockstar used this mentality for its Red Dead Redemption franchise and the work has caught the eye of one university professor who intends to use the western series as the focus for his upcoming course.
University of Tennessee Knoxville Professor Tore Olsson took to Twitter to advertise an upcoming course that he will be teaching this fall called "HIUS 383: Red Dead America." The course will center around Rockstar's western franchise and much of the historical context seen throughout the series during the years of 1899 and 1911. At the time of this writing, the class only has 35 seats, but Olsson may expand the size if there is a long waitlist.
Red Dead Redemption is not the only AAA franchise in recent years to put an emphasis on historical accuracy even when telling fictitious stories. Ubisoft has always put a lot of effort into making its Assassin's Creed games historically accurate, going all the way back to the first entry in the series. In Assassin's Creed: Origins and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, however, Ubisoft included a discovery tour mode, which is a straightforward educational experience about ancient Egypt and ancient Greece respectively.
The developers of games such as Assassin's Creed and Red Dead Redemption should be commended for putting in the effort to make those titles as historically accurate as possible. It brings those historical times to life in a way that cannot be accomplished through a textbook or even by visiting those sites today. Learning in this way is also more subconscious and does not feel like something being forced on the player. It would seem video games, like movies and television, are slowly becoming more than just entertainment.
Source: Tore Olsson
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