This article discusses how the game Europa Universalis IV ( EUIV) from the Grand Strategy genre, similar to The Civilization and Age of Empires series, can play an important role in helping players informally engage and learn about history. These games, and those like them, evidently have the power and popularity to reach a considerable audience, and may be able to facilitate awareness raising and informal modes of learning history through gameplay and other game-related practices. The Civilization and Age of Empires series are critically acclaimed, with the Age of Empires series as a whole, selling 20 million copies (Dobbin, 2019) worldwide and the Civilization series selling more than 33 million copies (Takahashi, 2016). Strategy games such as the Civilization series and the Age of Empires series show the development of different civilisations through the different historical ages as well as illustrate cultural heritage though different game components. However, other commercial off the shelf games are not purpose-built for education, but can nonetheless help the player engage in informal learning through entertainment and play (Apperley, 2014, p. Some of these games are educational by design and intended to help players learn a given topic. However, some video games, present new ways to learn information through what is often referred to as game-based learning (GBL). In the past, and to some extent in the present, video games have often thought to be a waste of time with no return other than enjoyment for the time invested in play. Keywords: game-based learning, history, games, strategy games, adult learning, higher education, university. This kind of in-game and external player engagement with EUIV and history can form a component of a larger whole of an informal learning of history with engagement of other gaming practices and historical sources. The play, encounter, and research model places greater emphasis on the importance of player’s encountering new information inside the game and their curiosity about this new information prompting further research outside the game. The article builds on other learning models and highlights the play, encounter, and a research learning model where players learn history both inside and outside EUIV. The player then returns to the game, integrating their external historical research from outside of the game with their own historical experiences in-game, meaningfully connecting the two history mediums. These newly encountered nations and histories confront players with new depictions about the past and may act as a catalyst for player curiosity and conducting historical research outside the game. The article explores how players, through their gameplay in a vast historical game world, encounter and gain some degree of familiarity with histories unknown to them. To discuss these points, the article draws upon data from a survey of 331 EUIV players and an Australian university case study involving 18 participants as well as other games studies research. This article discusses interlinked findings that stem from the complex and dynamic ways that Grand Strategy video games, especially Europa Universalis IV ( EUIV), represents history and how players engage with history outside the game. “I never asked for it, but I got it and now I feel that my knowledge about history is even greater!”: Play, Encounter and Research in Europa Universalis IV
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