#GAMES AGE OF EMPIRES II SERIES#

#GAMES AGE OF EMPIRES II SERIES#

The last expansion pack of the game, Rise of the Rajas, added four new ‘civilisations’ to the series (Burmese, Malay, Khmer, and Vietnamese), each with its own fully voice-acted campaign: “Bayinnaung” (1516 – 1581), “Gajah Mada” (flourished 1319 – 1364), “Suryavarman I” (reigned 1006 – 1050), and “Lê Lợi” (c. In the 1999 sequel the series really hit its stride in terms of critical acclaim and popularity, so much so that in 2013, fourteen years after the original, an HD edition was released along with a quick succession of expansion packs. It’s a game I know well from my childhood. Age of Empires II: Rise of the RajasĪge of Empires or AoE (1997-present) is a long-running and incredibly popular series of historical real-time strategy video games. Rise of the Raja’s title image, with Suryavarman I on the left, Bayinnaung on the right, and Gajah Mada in the centre. With so many people around the world-within and without the region-engaging with Southeast Asian pasts through gaming, what are the historical and political implications? This is despite the fact that Southeast Asia has had an increasing presence in gaming, both in terms of being featured in games, and also in terms of market presence. While there has been more work done on historical games based in Europe, the Americas and East Asia, less attention has been on Southeast Asia. In this blog post I’m looking specifically at the construction of Southeast Asian pasts in the real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: Rise of the Rajas (2016). Even more recently, scholarship has gone beyond this pedagogical slant and turned to the political implications of such games. Over the past decade, historians have caught on the phenomenon of history-telling in gaming, analysing both the form and content of historical games, as well as the opportunities that these games create in furthering historical knowledge. Passionate (and often toxic) debates can arise from whether a game is ‘historically accurate’, although like many historical debates, these clashes are often less about the past than about present political concerns.

I’ve spent a (shameful) number of hours speaking to a variety of historical figures in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.Ī scene from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ’s Discovery Tourĭigital games have become one of the primary ways most people consume and construct historical knowledge, often unknowingly. This extended game time has also made me reflect on how many of the games I’ve played recently have a strong relationship with history and historiography. I have a sneaking suspicion I’m not alone. I’ve been playing a lot of video games recently: working from home and self-isolation has made me reach out for my Switch/PS4 controller much more than I used to, which-trust me-says a lot.

Games age of empires ii