Historical accuracy in video games...

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

OK, so I got Hotel Dusk for my DS the other day and there's something that's been bugging me about it.

Its set in 1979 and protagonist Kyle Hyde has a pager.

Having the pager isn't a problem for me, I actually looked into the history, pagers had been around since the 20s, but didn't start moving at a larger scale til Motorola came up with a more effective version of the technology in the 70s.

Two things still bugged me though, Kyle looked at the pager and he was out in the middle of nowhere. I'm assuming pretty far from the people paging him.

Now, let's back up a bit. It looks like he was reading the pager to see who contacted him. Back then, this wouldn't have been possible, pagers weren't bought for personal use so much as they were distributed by hospitals and police forces so they could contact thier people when needed. When you got a beep, you knew who was calling you since it could really only be your employers.

So its possible Kyle just gave it a frustrated look since as you play the game Kyle seems to be a jerk to just about everyone he meets, the fact he has to interact with people at all seems to frustrate him, so his boss calling him might, too.

But could he really have been in range? That's the part that annoys me. He was in Nevada and paged from Los Angeles. I noticed he was fiddling with the radio just before he got the beep, but I don't think that had to do anything with the signal.

Anyway, this is a topic for the potential historial snags in video games, feel free to share yours if you have ever found any.

Here's another. In the new Ghostbusters game, Winston Zedmore suddenly has a doctorate. If that didn't happen between the first and second movie (and it never came up at all in either), how'd he pull that off between 1989 and 1991? I think Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd had a little continuity flub there.

[Feba]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

It's a shame there isn't more of it. I've won trivia contests thanks to things I've learned in video games; like synthing in FFXI. The alloys you make are actually fairly accurate, apparently.

I've seen some games that are set during wars that aim to be educational about them, but fail because the gameplay sucks. And of course games with better gameplay tend to be more liberal in their educational value (I don't think Hitler was a cyborg trying to create an army of undead mutants, guys.)

There's a lot of edutainment potential out there, but sadly it's been ruined for the most part. Hollywood has trained people to assume that things are just part of the movie, and ignore their facts; or assume everything is real, and be wrong because they took artistic liberties. Plus, I really just doubt it's profit potential.

You could make a game that would be incredible for language learning. Take GTA's level of freedom, place it in a foreign city, and use it to teach someone the local language. Would be about the next best thing to actually moving there, if done correctly, but absolutely not worth the cost to produce, because it simply won't sell that well. Which basically leaves you with a gap in language learning software (in terms of 'gaming' software)-- you can get the absolutely bottom-end (My * Coach, for example), or you can buy games made in that language... and that's it.

[Skoal]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

I am now an ancient Chinese history guru from playing Dynasty Warriors.

[Kailea]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

I am an expert in the years of 20XX ^.^

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

I am now an ancient Chinese history guru from playing Dynasty Warriors.

Apparently Lu Bu was so mighty he could take down armies by himself, but he had his own personal guard anyway. Lazy bastard.

[Skoal]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

Apparently Lu Bu was so mighty he could take down armies by himself, but he had his own personal guard anyway. Lazy bastard.

And he had his own 80's metal theme song. In your face Cao Cao!

[Firewind]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

Well being a History major with things designed to be entertainment such as a movie, TV Show or video game i tend to take any claims to being historically accurate with a suitably large pinch of salt so these things don't really bother me. Still doesn't stop me from facepalming when you see people who should be dead pop up in battles on games like Dynasty Warriors or it's spin offs though.

One thing that did bug me a lot was Rome:Total War. Egyptian troops are portrayed using sickle-swords and chariots and generally dressing like Egyptians from, the New Kingdom era of Egypt. The Egypt of the time or the Roman Empire had been controlled by various Greek factions for some times and was more or less Hellenised and should really have appeared no different from the other Hellenistic factions in the game. Really having them dress up like that makes about as much sense as a World War II game where the Japanese fight with spears and bows.

The game also depicts fully armoured men charging on horseback despite the fact that the only horses strong enough to carry a fully armoured man at the time were Arabian horses due to a centuries long process of selective breeding. At the time of the Roman Republic most heavily cavalry would have been horse drawn chariots for this very reason. In reality the majority of cavalry in R:TW (and Shogun Total War) would have been lightly armoured men on horseback who would switch to a fresh horse after charging into the flanks then retreating to keep the harassment of flanks more or less constant.

Assassin's Creed has a full sized Gothic Cathedral in the middle of Acre during The Crusades despite the fact the First Crusade pre-dated Gothic Architecture nevermind the fact that the Crusaders never held Acre for long enough to build a Cathedral in the first place.

Odin in the Final fantasy games generally bugs me. Odin had one eye, fought with a Javelin (a weapon highly valued by the Vikings considering the head god of the pantheon wields it) and his horse had 8 legs. In each FF game he and his horse gains and loses eyes and even limbs and instead uses either a Katana, Longsword or Falchion (All three held incorrectly in one hand despite them all being too large to wield one handed) depending on the game. In FFXI his horse has 4 legs and he wields what appears to be a Dynasty Warriors style double headed Halberd . Then there's also Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess of the Ocean who is a dragon in most FF games. There is also Bahamut, a giant fish who carried the world in Arabic Mythology who somehow becomes king of the dragons in Final Fantasy.

Civilization IV can be quite hilarious at times too from a historical point of view. While the tech trees do make sense historically it is common to have a city being defended by English Redcoats, Helicopters, American Sherman tanks, and club wielding warriors at the same time as well as having Modern Aircraft Carriers battling Greek style Triremes

[Armando]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

Blame D&D for Tiamat and Bahamut, actually.

[DakAttack]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

Odin in the Final fantasy games generally bugs me. Odin had one eye, fought with a Javelin (a weapon highly valued by the Vikings considering the head god of the pantheon wields it) and his horse had 8 legs. In each FF game he and his horse gains and loses eyes and even limbs and instead uses either a Katana, Longsword or Falchion (All three held incorrectly in one hand despite them all being too large to wield one handed) depending on the game. In FFXI his horse has 4 legs and he wields what appears to be a Dynasty Warriors style double headed Halberd . Then there's also Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess of the Ocean who is a dragon in most FF games. There is also Bahamut, a giant fish who carried the world in Arabic Mythology who somehow becomes king of the dragons in Final Fantasy.

Shiva is also a male, but who cares. Gods don't need two hands to wield two-handed weaponry, they're that awesome.

[Callisto]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

According to the Resistance series instead of the Holocaust there was an alien invasion and there were laser guns for everyone.

[Malacite]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

Wow BBQ... I *completely* did not pick up on that at all when I played the game... nice one.


Still, Hotel Dusk was a great game and a perfect example of using the DS to it's fullest without being gimmicky. I wish they'd do a sequel, good detective games are hard to come by.

[Durahansolo]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

I even like Historical Accuracy in Anime.

Chevalier d'Eon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <<Real Guy
Le Chevalier D'Eon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <<Anime

I had been watching the anime and then I realized that it was based on a real person who shares quite a few similarities with his real counterpart. I was reading the article about d'Eon yesterday, he was a pretty strange guy....or girl.... but interesting nontheless.

Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings) had real people in it too lol.

[Skoal]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

In either FF7 or 8 Odin does have a javelin when you summon him to fight a boss.

[Feba]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

According to the Resistance series instead of the Holocaust there was an alien invasion and there were laser guns for everyone.

There's a difference between alternate history fiction and historical accuracy.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Historical accuracy in video games...

Odin in the Final fantasy games generally bugs me. Odin had one eye, fought with a Javelin (a weapon highly valued by the Vikings considering the head god of the pantheon wields it) and his horse had 8 legs. In each FF game he and his horse gains and loses eyes and even limbs and instead uses either a Katana, Longsword or Falchion (All three held incorrectly in one hand despite them all being too large to wield one handed) depending on the game. In FFXI his horse has 4 legs and he wields what appears to be a Dynasty Warriors style double headed Halberd . Then there's also Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess of the Ocean who is a dragon in most FF games. There is also Bahamut, a giant fish who carried the world in Arabic Mythology who somehow becomes king of the dragons in Final Fantasy.

Well an old man with one eye that is all-seeing isn't as imposing as some big armored dude. Those differences aside, they tend to play up to Odin's theme pretty consistantly in the series. He's usually in the bottom of some dungeon, not unlike him waiting in the halls of Valhalla.

Bahamut as a dragon is derived from D&D. I assume some tweaks were made to these mythological characters to keep those nutty RL roleplayers from doing something stupid like going into bodies of water with armor on. Not that roleplaying with weapons was safe anyway, but hey, some at least kept it to to more mundane things like wooden swords and such.