I was probably nine or ten, and I asked my parents to buy me Age of Empires 2 because it seemed all my friends were playing it. “Look it says it’s an educational game here in the box”, I told my parents to seal the deal. In fact Aoe2: The Conquerors was my first ever PC game.
Those that know me somewhat well, can attest to the fact that I like history a lot. Age of Empires 4 just came out, I’ve been playing a lot and thinking about how my love for history started with Aoe2. It’s funny how a game that was so historically inaccurate and very anachronistic kick-started my passion for history. I guess the game was indeed educational after all, so thanks mom and dad for buying me that game. I feel truly lucky because had I gotten my hands on StarCraft first I might had ended up becoming a dirty weeb and not a history nerd. Totally dodged a bullet there.
As a child I was very bad at RTS games (I’m modestly better now). My Age of Empires career mostly consisted on playing some of the campaigns on easy difficulty. I would read all the history lessons, as well as memorize tech trees. Occasionally I’d play a skirmish as the Spanish vs what I believed was the worst civ in the game: the Goths. In my eyes the conquistadors were simply the best unit in the game. I would often just show up to the enemy TC with a horde of conquistadors and plunder everything down. Of course that feat was achieved only on the easiest difficulty.
As I grew up I complete forgot about Aoe2, in fact I ended up playing more Age of Mythology with my friends (inb4 how AoM made me a pagan zealot). From there moved on to play other historical themed video games. There aren’t that many games that focus on historical settings or mechanics, but I do appreciate them. Historically themed games make the bulk of what I play these days. However as I grew up I would always read about history and watch documentaries. AoE’s campaigns that introduced me to the idea that history was an exciting topic.
A few years ago I stumbled upon Aoe2 on YouTube (via T90 and SOTL) and I came to realize how active that game was after 20 years. Revisiting Aoe2 made me realize how historically inaccurate it was, but alas, the same educational effect had worked. As an adult I once again realized how bad I am at the game. These days I stick to mostly watching steams and tournaments. Good thing that Aoe4 is much easier to play.
I guess video games can be educational after all.