It’s Good to be the King
Paradox Interactive’s Crusader Kings II and what it can contribute to how we learn about history
I have been playing Crusader Kings II for several days straight now. This game has been updated regularly since it came out 12 years ago in 2004. It has a new expansion pack coming out, too. Their latest expansion (Reaper’s Due) included epidemics and the Black Death. Given that this game is so complex I think it approaches the level of a political simulator, and I’ve learned much about politics just playing it. Although of course I learn a lot from reading, and much of what I know I know because I read, “experiencing” simulated political scenarios allow me to exercise my knowledge as well as more fully understand concepts in a deeper, more meaningful way.
One example is my understanding of the cultural and anthropological causes for patriarchy. The main goal of Crusader Kings II is maintaining your dynasty. Even if you lose your kingship (or do not partake in the Crusades, as the title suggests) the game still goes on, although you’d be demoted to a duke, a baron, a chief, or whatever title you remain heir to. The game ends when your last heir dies or loses his title.
As such, ensuring that you have a healthy and varied “dynastic line” is very important, primarily through ensuring that you have enough male children. Female children are good for alliances, because you can marry them off. However, in principle, you want a male child. Matrilineal marriages and cognatic inheritance laws are possible, but are achieved later in the game. Doing so also makes the game harder to play, as female leaders are generally disliked by the other characters and those who do not have cognatic laws generally prefer patrilineal marriages.
Given that power is based upon titles and claims, and both of which are a matter of succession, marriages and the role of males and females are emphasized. If one were to consider this at a purely formal level, the identity of men and women at the political level are primarily differentiated by their roles in the process of conceiving children, who are seen as holders of their parents’ fortunes. In the game of course this is also a matter of rules: Without a legitimate successor the game ends.
Considered with the fullness of life, and with the eternity of ideas, thinking about people only through their role in conceiving a child as well as whether they will be able to maintain your dynasty is a ridiculous notion. However, a simulation where you play several hundred years of history and dozens of generations has the ability to show you the systemic effects of formal elements that are otherwise invisible to an observer that is within that system (because the very matrix through which that individual’s observations are made are themselves a result of the system).
Another thing I’ve discovered is the difficulty of maintaining political unity and how political actors sometimes must act against their own interests in the pursuit of a higher goal. In the game, which is set in the feudal era, you will have vassals (if you play as a king or emperor — the most common way to play). These vassals have their own interests and will fight for those interests. One method for doing so is joining factions who will eventually rise up against you if you do not comply with their demands. Going through these scenarios increases one’s empathy for leaders who sometimes act against their own beliefs in the name of placating powerful enemies as well as influential demographics.
Most recently, for example, Angela Merkel pushed for a nationwide burqa ban, even if she has always defended multiculturalism. Her open door policy in response to the 2016 refugee crisis was blamed for an incident where more than 1,000 women were sexually abused during New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Hamburg, and several other cities. This move is open to being seen as opportunist. However, I very clearly see this as a political necessity, especially given that she is running for reelection at a time when the political climate is decidedly nationalistic and socially conservative. I’m not saying playing the game taught me about this issue. However, it did something that only art can do, and something I think that videogames do well, which is that it allowed me to empathize with her. It also allowed me to make an informed decision regarding what took place, not only in terms of what it is, but in terms of its necessity.
In this way, I think that videogames have a place in schools. Empathy with the subject matter is an absolute necessity for students of the humanities: literature, political science, economics, history, &c. Simulations like these teach empathy, by allowing players to “live” through the medieval era rather simply making them read about it. CK II did not just tell me about the catastrophe that was the Black Death, it allowed me to live it: Several members of my family, my most competent counselors, and the pope (who I installed and was therefore friendly to me) all died. When I was playing as Ireland and the Queen of Scotland (my niece) succeeded the throne this spelled nothing short of catastrophe, for many reasons, not the least of which is because the balance of power in the British isles (as it existed in that play through) was disturbed.
CK II did not simply tell me about the political necessity of the Crusades, as well as the latent political interests that fueled it. It showed me. I lived through it. I learned about the balance of power in Europe, hegemonic stability (through the Holy Roman Empire, my alliance with which helped me take over Northumbria), feudalism, the role of religion, the tremendous effect of poor sanitation, &c., &c. Of course books shouldn’t be replaced, but simulations in the form of video games will nicely supplement them. The books elucidate us on the particular elements if history, whereas the simulations allow us to explore the structural and systemic elements.
At the moment, I am continuing as the Queen of Ireland in my pursuit of creating the Empire of Britannia. I intend to create an anti-papacy and making the pope my vassal soon afterward. Given such lofty goals, obviously, I cannot continue to write this for very much longer. But We, the Queen of Ireland, condescend to do so, to extort you to play Crusader Kings II, not (only) because it is fun. I am going as far as to say that it is a necessary and important intellectual experience.
