BORDERLANDS and the History of Magical Treasure Hunting - Gaming Through History

Can the Borderlands series of video games be used to explore the history of magical treasure hunting in early modern Europe?
This video uses Borderlands to discuss the fascinating phenomenon of using spells, potions, and enchanted devices to hunt for treasure between the years 1400-1800.
This is part of a new video series called History Through Games that uses video games as windows into themes, debates, and concepts discussed by historians.
Welcome! I'm Dr Darren Reid, a historian at McGill University.
My career in history began with my love of fantasy games, movies, and books.
Unfortunately, academics tend to only have conversations with other academics, and I want to share my twin passions of history and video games with everyone!
I don't want to just lecture at you, so let me know what types of games and/or history you are into and we can build this channel together!
www.darrenreid.ca

[@snidefultodd]

You talk a lot about games that seem like they might not have historical elements but actually do.
Are there any significant examples of games that seem historical but are actually misrepresenting or obfuscating historical elements?

[@Level1Historian]

That's a tricky question, because pretty much every game that sells itself as historical is designed to sell copies and not make people think critically about the past, so I would say all games misrepresent history to some extent. This is especially due to the problem of agency and interactivity: games require players to be able to have an influence on gameplay, meaning that games nearly always need to allow players to alter history in some way. For these reasons it's a little unfair to critique commercial games for misrepresenting history, and that's why I focus on using games to explore related histories!