Video games simulating historical periods have become a significant gateway to studying history, generating "alternate histories" and teaching concepts like the security dilemma.
A Swedish video-game developer and publisher that specialises in high-concept historical simulations and sells millions of copies. Its titles include Europa Universalis (early modern period, starting 1337 or 1444), Crusader Kings (Middle Ages), the Victoria series (Industrial Revolution), Hearts of Iron (second world war) and Imperator: Rome. In November 2025 it released Europa Universalis 5, featuring thousands of territories and hundreds of polities. Nicholas Mulder, a historian at Cornell, noted in 2021 that students whose interest in early-modern Europe was sparked by Europa Universalis 4 were turning up in his classes.
The Civilization series lets players guide nations through six millennia, from the Stone Age to the space age. It has sold more than 70m copies since the first version in 1991.
Bret Devereaux, a historian at North Carolina State University, has written about how Paradox games can teach the "security dilemma" -- that though economic growth is not zero-sum, security is -- using the example of Burgundy in Europa Universalis 4. Ian Bogost, a video-game critic, calls this "procedural rhetoric": ideas that a game's rules and systems smuggle into the player's mind. Jeremiah McCall, a history teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School, argues that agency-driven games are a unique form of media for teaching that history did not have to happen the way it did.
A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.