Usually when kids get caught playing games at school they get told to put it away, but the folks at Bitcaster won't have any of that. In fact, the company is working on software that will make teachers eager to have their students playing games. With their upcoming HistoriCanada, a modded version of Civilization III, Canadian high school students will be able to learn about their country's history in an interactive, entertaining setting. We recently had the chance to get the skinny on the game from Bitcasters' CEO Nathon Gunn, looking at how the idea for the game came about, what users will be able to do, and if it will trigger more games aimed at teaching youths. Thank you for your time, Nathon!

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HistoriCanada Interview

Armchair Empire (AE): Whose idea was it to make this game, and why did you choose to focus on Canadian history?

Nathon Gunn (NG): The idea began over lunch with Dr. Thomas Axworthy in 1996. Tom had run the CRB Foundation when it created the iconic Canadian Heritage Minutes (one-minute clips about Canadian historical heroes, Alexander Graham Bell (telephone patent), Joe Shuster (created Superman), James Naismith (invented basketball) etc) which popularized history for an entire generation of Canadian youth. Tom’s next question was, “What about games?”. From this moment on we worked hard to build HistoriCanada so that kids would love it and it would break new ground in popularizing history.

AE: Will this mod play like a typical round of Civilization, or did you need to make any changes to the gameplay in Civilization III in order for this mod to be used in a school setting?

NG: It will play like normal Civilization gameplay, but we contextualized everything with unique civilopedia entries from the Canadian Encyclopaedia and a website with videos and other information from historical experts, including lesson plans for teachers.

AE: Why did you choose Civilization III for the mod? Why not Civ IV?

NG: One reason was that Firaxis and 2K were kind enough to offer Civ III to be bundled with our mod for schools. Another was that many players already had Civ III and our developers were familiar with the editors. The main reason however was that it runs on lower-spec machines, allowing more people access.

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AE: How are you going about approaching contentious historical events that have conflicting interpretations?

NG: Well, that’s the beauty of this game – it’s a “What If”, not a “What Was”. You can make your own interpretation, while still learning the underlying variables and getting excited about the meaning of history. It is meant to inspire

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discussions about contentious issues and we invite people not only to discuss it online and debate with our bloggers (paid history experts) but also to download the editor and make their own versions.

AE: How comprehensive is the subject matter covered in this mod?

NG: We’ve gone to great lengths to include as many specific items, wonders, events, characters and concepts as we could to make this a special and deep mod. We created hundreds of unique civilopedia entries, art items, original aboriginal sound tracks and maps. We spent two years on it!

AE: Looking at how the Civilization series plays, it seems like an obvious choice for a game that could serve as an educational tool. Why do you think it took so long for this to happen?

NG: I think others have done this, Kurt Squire for example did a study of Civilization in the classroom. I know Sid Meier has long had a strategy at Firaxis to get this game used in this way. In some ways I think people were kind of looking at us as a test case, since Canada is different enough to try something new out in a unique market and yet similar enough to reflect how things might work in the USA.

AE: Will circulation of this mod be limited to the school system, or can anyone who is interested in it take it for a spin?

NG: Anyone who is interested can check it out. However, we’re focusing our free distribution strategy on school kids.

AE: If this mod is successful, can you see yourself making others that focus on the history of other regions?

NG: We’ve certainly discussed this at length. There are some places where this is more appropriate than others. We’ve also thought about how some places require different kinds of engines that Civilization. One thing is certain, we believe that by playing the game kids learn that choices have consequences and that can help them see the world as a product of their actions, not the other way around. In this way I think the game is about citizenship, no matter where you live.