>>100581>think about problems from a more "real-world" perspective>Paradox GamesTheir games are pretty good for teaching a general overview of history, specifically European/Western history. As well as giving people a good general idea of how geography and ethnicity overlap.
There is some value they provide with regards to giving the player the same motivations for their actions as their historical counterparts. The feudal structure of governments in Crusdaer Kings is really brought to the forefront how relationship driven everything was back then. In Victoria 2 the player really becomes beholden to market forces at times and begins to experience the pressures driving late 19th and early 20th century colonization and wars and nationalism.
Big issues do arise from using these games as historical vehicles though.
Crusaders Kings strongest point of showcasing how relationships drove medieval systems invariably means it's far too centered on the individual, leading to a heavily skewed Great Man view. And since players aren't actually the characters they control they lack the emotional and physical pressures that their characters would invariable have to make the relationships and decisions they do.
Victoria 2 has the opposite problem where the individual almost never matters and it's all about how the nation state or more accurately the collective bureaucracy of the nation state operates and influences world events.
The other glaring issue is the alt history outlook these games foster by being historical sandboxes with their gameplay goals often encouraging people to hung up on "correcting" historical events. There isn't not value in placing the player into this mindset but the ease with which they can "correcting" some of these events can leads the player to faulty conclusions about why history happened the way it did.