Total War: Rome 2

While Rome 1 is arguably a more historically accurate game, focusing on more current games will allow a better representation of how historical accuracy and HEMA principles can be applied to current industry.

Rome 2 lifts so much directly from history that it would be impossible to lift all of it. The advantage being the game is set in a historic era, yet the mechanics don't demand a perfect adherence to historical events. This in tern can carry over to the gameplay mechanics, initially cultures may be represented accurately, but as the player changes events it's more then acceptable and understandable that things differ slightly from history.

Rome 2 doesn't simply include historical facts and accuracies for the sake of it. It gains a lot in the process, from strong character designs and a richness of world that would normally be far beyond the scope of any writing team, to mechanics and player strategy that make design decisions easy and far easier for the player to understand. Using what the player already knows about the world to save from having to tell them everything about the world.

Michael Simpson the studio director who worked on Rome Total War 2 stated that it was far more important to get authenticity over accuracy. By this he means that while dates, times, minor details may be important for historians, they may bog down a game, stating that fun should win out of strict dogmatic adherence to history books. This to me makes perfect sense, but it's a hard line to draw, as for some, a strict adherence to history books would be fun for them to discover.

Rome 2 also happens to be a great example of converting historical facts to gameplay. Cultural traits being turned into combat bonuses and statistical changes. One example being the fact a race was known for warmongering and giving them a +1 in combat and a bonus while at war with other cultures. This alone is a great guideline to use, changing historical facts into gameplay statistics is an extremely important process in getting history into a game and representing it well, while still adding fun mechanics and filling out the game.


Articles used:
http://www.pcgamesn.com/totalwar/placing-authenticity-over-accuracy-total-war-rome-ii
http://start2continue.com/blog/2013/6/7/from-totally-wrong-to-totally-right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiyS5ogYXZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8yl09GcI48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqwZUTaNJTM