MATRIX Receives Grant to Develop Serious Game on Ancient Egyptian History
MATRIX is pleased to announce that it has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Startup Grant for the Red Land/Black Land: Teaching Ancient Egyptian History Through Game Based Learning project. Led by MATRIX Assistant Professor Ethan Watrall, the project will produce a Civilization IV mod designed to provide players with an opportunity to explore the process of social and historical change in ancient Egypt from the early Predynastic period (ca. 4000 B.C.) until the end of the Third Intermediate Period (ca. 525 B.C.). Further, the game will include supplementary content that explores the construction of historical knowledge – addressing questions of how historians and archaeologists know what they do about ancient Egypt. In addition to specific learning outcomes, the games is intended to provide an ethical and accurate counterpoint to the wealth of existing main stream commercial video games that draw upon pseudo-historical and pseudo-archaeological notions of ancient Egypt in order to craft an experience that is presented in a historically accurate manner.
