TUCSON, Ariz. — Prices for college tuition are continuing to get more expensive and people are looking for any way they can save on a good education.
A real-time strategy video game is looking to help alleviate those costs and might be a new way to kick-start someone's career in history.
Age of Empires IV is a game that allows players to take part in real historical events spanning the course of 500 years. The game will soon offer educational content so gamers can learn as they play and earn college credit for doing so, thanks to a partnership with the University of Arizona.
The university's department of history head and Roman history associate professor Alison Futrell, along with medieval history professor Paul Milliman, developed the new educational content for the game.
"One of my fields of research is actually the way in which the ancient past has been revisited in different kinds of media in more recent times, specifically in performance and in movies, but also novels and advertisements and things like that," Futrell said in a university release.
An option to enter into the "University of Arizona enhanced experience" will soon be added to the Age of Empires website where players can complete sections called "Illuminated Histories." The sections take the player through key moments of the medieval period, including:
- The Norman conquest of England
- The Hundred Years War between England and France
- The expansion of the Mongol Empire
- Moscow's journey to emerge as a new superpower
After completing the sections, players will complete an online assessment of what they learned. One credit hour will be achieved if they pass the assessment
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