Teaching History and Languages with a Strategy Computer Game: 0 A.D. in the Classroom

[hawc2]

Programming Historian in English has received a proposal for a lesson, 'Teaching History and Languages with a Strategy Computer Game: 0 A.D. in the Classroom' by @historical-theology.

I have circulated this proposal for feedback within the English team. We have considered this proposal for:

• Openness: we advocate for use of open source software, open programming languages and open datasets
• Global access: we serve a readership working with different operating systems and varying computational resources
• Multilingualism: we celebrate methodologies and tools that can be applied or adapted for use in multilingual research-contexts
• Sustainability: we're committed to publishing learning resources that can remain useful beyond present-day graphical user interfaces and current software versions

We are pleased to have invited @historical-theology to develop this Proposal into a Submission under the guidance of @scottkleinman as editor.

The Submission package should include:

• Lesson text (written in Markdown)
  • For guidance, we recommend Sarah Simpkin's lesson Getting Started with Markdown
• Figures: images / plots / graphs (if using)
• Data assets: codebooks, sample dataset (if using)

@historical-theology has already shared their Submission package with our Publishing team by email, copying in @scottkleinman. Our Publishing team will now process the new lesson materials, and prepare a Preview of the initial draft. They will run any questions by the contributor and post a comment in this Issue to provide the locations of all key files, as well as a link to the Preview where contributors can read the lesson as the draft progresses.

Our dedicated Ombudspersons are Ian Milligan (English), Silvia Gutiérrez De la Torre (español), Hélène Huet (français), and Luis Ferla (português). Please feel free to contact them at any time if you have concerns that you would like addressed by an impartial observer. Contacting the ombudspersons will have no impact on the outcome of any peer review.

[charlottejmc]

Hello @scottkleinman and @historical-theology,

You can find the key files here:

• .md: /en/drafts/originals/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game.md
• images: /images/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game
• assets: [none]

You can review a preview of the lesson here:

• http://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game

I noticed a couple things when setting this file up, which I've listed below:

• Figure 1 was very large, so I cropped the top and bottom to be able to size it down to 840 pixels on the longest size, without losing too much of its quality. We try to keep to this size to ensure images load for users using slower internet connections or less powerful devices.
• Figures 4-12 were also very large. Sizing them down to 840 pixels across meant the tab to the left became illegible, so I only sized them down to 1700 pixels. If you think that part of the image is not necessary though, we could crop it out, which would allow us to size the images down even further.
• I noticed you've provided alt text for your images, but it isn't exactly what we're looking for. Ideally, alt text gives a visual description of what a sighted reader would see in the image, in a way which is meaningful to visually impaired readers.

[anisa-hawes]

Hello Corey @historical-theology,

I've sent you an invitation to join us as Outside Collaborators here on GitHub. This will give you the Write access you'll need to edit your lesson directly. (There's no need to use the Git Pull Request system in our ph-submissions repository).

What's happening now?

Your lesson has been moved to the next phase of our workflow which is Phase 2: Initial Edit.

In this Phase, your editor Scott @scottkleinman will read your lesson, and provide some initial feedback. Scott will post feedback and suggestions as a comment in this Issue, so that you can revise your draft in the following Phase 3: Revision 1.

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timeline
Section Phase 1 <br> Submission
Who worked on this? : Publishing Assistant (@charlottejmc) 
All  Phase 1 tasks completed? : Yes
Section Phase 2 <br> Initial Edit
Who's working on this? : Editor (@scottkleinman)  
Expected completion date? : May 5
Section Phase 3 <br> Revision 1
Who's responsible? : Author (@historical-theology) 
Expected timeframe? : ~30 days after feedback is received

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Note: The Mermaid diagram above may not render on GitHub mobile. Please check in via desktop when you have a moment.

[scottkleinman]

Hello, Corey @historical-theology

Here are some initial comments on your tutorial.

• I would like to see a short narrative of a game from start to finish: what the players actually do in the course of play. This is to help the reader understand why they should wade through the lengthy setup steps. Historical accuracy is great, but the reader may think it is not worthwhile if game-players are just attacking each other with historically accurate swords whilst hurling insults in Greek. I think the reader needs to get a sense of the game up front, probably in the Tutorial Overview section.
• The Tutorial Overview should probably also have a short overview of the software including the fact that it is open source, maybe a short version of its history, and the statement about the tutorial requiring no prior knowledge.
• In the Requirements section, I think the point about the smoothest experience can be relegated to a footnote since most users will meet the requirements. If some issues like storage requirements seem particularly important, we can bring them back and highlight them in the body of the tutorial. The licences can also be placed in footnotes.
• I'm concerned about the LAN requirement for multiplayer use since it seems to me that that will not suit classroom use. Could you perhaps address this, in case I have misunderstood how easy it would be to deploy them game in this scenario?
• I would suggest re-casting the section entitled "A Scholarship-Aware Community Endeavor" to focus more on the strengths and limitations of the game's use for teaching. I think you can make the point about the game's emphasis on historical accuracy more concisely and focus on how this historicity can be used (the subsequent sections).
• I am uncertain of the value of the separate "Team Building" section. The issue dovetails with scattered statements about the use of 0 A.D. for both single and multiplayer play. I wonder if when introducing the software you could give examples of both, and, for the latter, emphasise that one of the advantages is team building.
• I am also unclear on the role of AI in the game (there are two references in your discussion). Could you clarify that?
• I suggest not listing GIMP as a "requirement" and instead introducing it as software for working with topography when importing geographic data. I think that the use of GIMP to modify the data might be a separate subsection from the subsection on editing in Atlas.

Could you please address these issues in a revision before I send the tutorial out to external reviewers? And, of course, let me know if you have any questions.

[anisa-hawes]

What's happening now?

Hello Corey @historical-theology. Your lesson has been moved to the next phase of our workflow which is Phase 3: Revision 1.

This Phase is an opportunity for you to revise your draft in response to @scottkleinman's initial feedback. You can make direct commits to your file here: /en/drafts/originals/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game.md. @charlottejmc or I can help if you encounter any practical problems! When you and Scott are both happy with the revised draft, we will move forward to Phase 4: Open Peer Review.

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timeline
Section Phase 2 <br> Initial Edit
Who worked on this? : Editor (@scottkleinman) 
All  Phase 1 tasks completed? : Yes
Section Phase 3 <br> Revision 1
Who's working on this? : Author (@historical-theology)  
Expected completion date? : May 8
Section Phase 4 <br> Open Peer Review
Who's responsible? : Reviewers (TBC) 
Expected timeframe? : ~60 days after request is accepted

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Note: The Mermaid diagram above may not render on GitHub mobile. Please check in via desktop when you have a moment.

[historical-theology]

@anisa-hawes , @charlottejmc , and @hawc2 , thank you for configuring all of this for us, and @scottkleinman , thank you for your thoughtful, extensive feedback.

I have prepared a thorough revision (ec83e84) in which I have aimed to take seriously everything mentioned thus far in this issue thread. While preparing the revision, I also have made a number of smaller changes throughout the piece to improve its clarity.

@charlottejmc

Figure 1 was very large, so I cropped the top and bottom to be able to size it down to 840 pixels on the longest size, without losing too much of its quality. We try to keep to this size to ensure images load for users using slower internet connections or less powerful devices.

Figures 4-12 were also very large. Sizing them down to 840 pixels across meant the tab to the left became illegible, so I only sized them down to 1700 pixels. If you think that part of the image is not necessary though, we could crop it out, which would allow us to size the images down even further.

The adjustments look satisfactory. I am concerned about legibility at the reduced resolutions, but I also think that readers following the body text will not struggle to know what is being depicted in the images.

I noticed you've provided alt text for your images, but it isn't exactly what we're looking for. Ideally, alt text gives a visual description of what a sighted reader would see in the image, in a way which is meaningful to visually impaired readers.

I have expanded the alternative text for every image with greater specificity. Please let me know if the updated alternative texts suffice (and, if not, how they might be improved further). Also, feel free to make direct commits to improve their functional utility for potential readers who might be unable to view the images.

@scottkleinman

I would like to see a short narrative of a game from start to finish: what the players actually do in the course of play. This is to help the reader understand why they should wade through the lengthy setup steps. Historical accuracy is great, but the reader may think it is not worthwhile if game-players are just attacking each other with historically accurate swords whilst hurling insults in Greek. I think the reader needs to get a sense of the game up front, probably in the Tutorial Overview section.

The Tutorial Overview should probably also have a short overview of the software including the fact that it is open source, maybe a short version of its history, and the statement about the tutorial requiring no prior knowledge.

I have overhauled Tutorial Overview to include nearly all of these things. In the process, I have used your encouragement to write a "short narrative" as a way to create a kind of orienting hook or lead-in for the reader.

In the Requirements section, I think the point about the smoothest experience can be relegated to a footnote since most users will meet the requirements. If some issues like storage requirements seem particularly important, we can bring them back and highlight them in the body of the tutorial. The licences can also be placed in footnotes.

I have moved all of these things to the endnotes.

I'm concerned about the LAN requirement for multiplayer use since it seems to me that that will not suit classroom use. Could you perhaps address this, in case I have misunderstood how easy it would be to deploy them game in this scenario?

I have reworked this part of the Requirements section.

I would suggest re-casting the section entitled "A Scholarship-Aware Community Endeavor" to focus more on the strengths and limitations of the game's use for teaching. I think you can make the point about the game's emphasis on historical accuracy more concisely and focus on how this historicity can be used (the subsequent sections).

I am uncertain of the value of the separate "Team Building" section. The issue dovetails with scattered statements about the use of 0 A.D. for both single and multiplayer play. I wonder if when introducing the software you could give examples of both, and, for the latter, emphasise that one of the advantages is team building.

I have overhauled the section entitled "A Scholarship-aware Community Endeavor," partly by combining it with the previous "Team Building" section and condensing the result.

I am also unclear on the role of AI in the game (there are two references in your discussion). Could you clarify that?

It is standard practice for what are often colloquially referred to as "computer players" or "bots" to be labeled formally as artificial intelligence (AI) units/players. Is there something specific that ought to be clarified within the tutorial about this? If not, and I have answered your question, I am comfortable leaving those references to AI as they are.

I suggest not listing GIMP as a "requirement" and instead introducing it as software for working with topography when importing geographic data. I think that the use of GIMP to modify the data might be a separate subsection from the subsection on editing in Atlas.

I have removed all instances in which GIMP is framed as a requirement, instead noting specifically that the reader may use the image editing software of his/her choice. At the same time, I have left in-place the detailed steps in GIMP for the benefit of persons without any background in digital image editing, since performing those digital image editing steps is necessary for successful topographic image importation in Atlas for 0 A.D.

Could you please address these issues in a revision before I send the tutorial out to external reviewers? And, of course, let me know if you have any questions.

The attention to detail that you have shown, @scottkleinman , is laudable, and I appreciate it.

Thus far, I have appreciated how straightforward this GitHub-based approach is for the Programming Historian. While I hope that you will find this revision to be ready to be issued to external reviewers, I will be happy to fulfill any follow-up request(s) for revision that you might have.

@historical-theology
Corey

Corey Stephan, Ph.D.
coreystephan.com

[charlottejmc]

Thanks for getting back to me @historical-theology. I agree that we should leave the images as they are, to ensure legibility. Thank you very much for your work on the alt-text – I've made some minor edits, but overall it looks great!

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, Corey @historical-theology. We really appreciate your work on this first round of revisions.

Scott @scottkleinman will aim to review your changes within the next fortnight by ~May 31st. After that, we'll confirm the next steps.

[scottkleinman]

@historical-theology, I am just emerging from the end-of-semester crush and finally able to have a look your revisions. They look good. One thing that has been lost, as far as I can tell, is a download link for GIMP, which still seems useful despite GIMP's not being a "requirement". So this is just a note to put that in before we publish.

That said, I think we are ready to present the tutorial to peer reviewers. I'll start on this next week.

[anisa-hawes]

Hello Corey @historical-theology,

What's happening now?

Your lesson has been moved to the next phase of our workflow which is Phase 4: Open Peer Review.

This phase will be an opportunity for you to hear feedback from peers in the community.

Caio @caiocmello has invited two reviewers to read your lesson, test your code, and provide constructive feedback. In the spirit of openness, reviews will be posted as comments in this issue (unless you specifically request a closed review).

After both reviews, Caio will summarise the suggestions to clarify your priorities in Phase 5: Revision 2.

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timeline
Section Phase 3 <br> Revision 1
Who worked on this? : Author (@historical-theology)
All  Phase 3 tasks completed? : Yes
Section Phase 4 <br> Open Peer Review
Who's working on this? : Reviewers (@adamlporter + @clauper-maker)
Expected completion date? : 22 Nov // 30 Nov
Section Phase 5 <br> Revision 2
Who's responsible? : Author (@historical-theology)
Expected timeframe? : ~30 days after editor's summary

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[anisa-hawes]

Hello Corey @historical-theology,

Caio Mello @caiocmello will now be taking on editorial responsibilities for this lesson. Caio's first step will be inviting two community peer reviewers to contribute their feedback. Caio will post an update here in the Issue when the reviewers' names are confirmed. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the extended delay, and thank you for your patience. Alex @hawc2 will be in touch with you by email in the coming days.

With very best wishes,
Anisa

[caiocmello]

Dear @historical-theology,

Sorry for the delay with your lesson. I've been actively looking for potential reviewers. I will do my best to speed up things from now on. Your lesson is very interesting and I'm happy to be able to help shape it for publication in the PH.

During Phases 2 and 3, Scott Kleinman provided initial feedback on this lesson, then worked with Corey @historical-theology to complete a first round of revisions. I've now taken on editorial responsibilities for this lesson.

In Phase 4 Open Peer Review, we invite feedback from others in our community.

Welcome Adam Porter @adamlporter. By participating in this peer review process, you are contributing to the creation of a useful and sustainable technical resource for the whole community. Thank you. I am still awaiting confirmation of who will join us as a second peer reviewer.

Please read the lesson, test the code, and post your review as a comment in this issue by November 22.

Reviewer Guidelines:

• https://programminghistorian.org/en/reviewer-guidelines

A preview of the lesson:

• http://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game

--
Notes:

• All participants in this discussion are advised to read and be guided by our shared Code of Conduct.
• Members of the wider community may also choose to contribute reviews.
• All participants must adhere to our anti-harassment policy:

Anti-Harassment Policy

This is a statement of the Programming Historian's principles and sets expectations for the tone and style of all correspondence between reviewers, authors, editors, and contributors to our public forums.

Programming Historian in English is dedicated to providing an open scholarly environment that offers community participants the freedom to thoroughly scrutinize ideas, to ask questions, make suggestions, or request clarification, but also provides a harassment-free space for all contributors to the project, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion, or technical experience. We do not tolerate harassment or ad hominem attacks of community participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be expelled from the community at the discretion of the editorial board. If anyone witnesses or feels they have been the victim of the above described activity, please contact our ombudsperson Dr Ian Milligan. Thank you for helping us to create a safe space.

[historical-theology]

Thank you for your attention to this submission, @caiocmello . I look forward to working with you as we move forward with this tutorial.

While I await further progress in Phase 4, allow me to draw your attention to the minor problem that something is awry with the way that endnotes appear in the tutorial's preview. @anisa-hawes , might you be able to apply a fix and/or direct me to do so? My assumption is that I have committed a minor error in Markdown formatting.

I have written the endnotes like this:

## Endnotes

[^1]: Arnab, Sylvester, Samantha Clarke, and Luca Morini. “Co‑Creativity through Play and Game Design Thinking.” Electronic Journal of E-Learning 17, no. 3 (September 1, 2019). https://doi.org/10.34190/JEL.17.3.002.

[^2]: To achieve the smoothest possible experience in 0 A.D., you should install the game on a machine with the following specifications:
* a multicore AMD64 processor
* a recent discrete graphics processing unit (GPU, "video card") or a gaming-oriented integrated graphics processor
* a solid-state drive (SSD)
* eight or more gigabytes (GB) of random access memory (RAM)

The base game requires approximately 3.5 GB of storage space, and you should have a few spare GB available after installing 0 A.D. and GIMP in order to complete this lesson.

[^3]: The 0 A.D. project is released under three open source licenses:
* Binaries (compiled): [GPL 3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html)
* Engine and code: [GPL 2.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html) or later
* Artwork, music, and other non-code resources: [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

[^4]: GIMP occupies about 250mb of storage space. It is licensed under the [GPL 3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) or later.

[^5]: There is a superabudance of evidence that persons learn best with multisensory activation. For one summary discussion of the matter, see Scudellari, Megan. “The Science Myths That Will Not Die.” Nature 528, no. 7582 (December 2015): 322–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/528322a.

[^6]: This sub-lesson on importing real-world geographic data into 0 A.D. to create realistic historical scenarios is based on the [Youtube channel Tom 0AD's comprehensive video tutorial on terrain importing](https://youtu.be/yBFdxOE7UFw) and ["Palaxin's Heightmap Guide" in the Wildfire Games Forum](https://wildfiregames.com/forum/topic/20786-palaxins-heightmap-guide/). Additionally, I am indebted to my international colleagues who provided feedback after my November 19, 2023 presentation “How to Incorporate Real-world Data into the Scholarship-Aware and Libre Computer Game 0 A.D. for Ancient History and Language Instruction” in the Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies Unit at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the [Society of Biblical Literature](https://sbl-site.org/) in San Antonio, Texas.

[^7]: As of May 2024, the Wikipedia article about the site of Mont Beuvray is only available in French.

Yet, this is how they appear in the current preview:

[charlottejmc]

Hello @historical-theology,

Thank you for flagging the problem with the endnotes. I've fixed the formatting for you now! It required indenting the bullet list by 4 spaces.

[caiocmello]

Hello Corey @historical-theology,

I've invited a second reviewer for your lesson. Welcome Ivan Siqueira @clauper-maker. By participating in this peer review process, you are contributing to the creation of a useful and sustainable technical resource for the whole community. Thank you!

This lesson is now in Phase 4 Open Peer Review, when we invite feedback from others in our community. During Phases 2 and 3, Scott Kleinman provided initial feedback on this lesson, then worked with Corey @historical-theology to complete a first round of revisions.

Now you can read the lesson, test the code, and post your review as a comment in this issue by December 30th. Please, let me know if you have any question regarding the reviewing process.

Reviewer Guidelines:

https://programminghistorian.org/en/reviewer-guidelines

A preview of the lesson:

• http://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game

--
Notes:

• All participants in this discussion are advised to read and be guided by our shared Code of Conduct.
• Members of the wider community may also choose to contribute reviews.
• All participants must adhere to our anti-harassment policy:

Anti-Harassment Policy

This is a statement of the Programming Historian's principles and sets expectations for the tone and style of all correspondence between reviewers, authors, editors, and contributors to our public forums.
Programming Historian in English is dedicated to providing an open scholarly environment that offers community participants the freedom to thoroughly scrutinize ideas, to ask questions, make suggestions, or request clarification, but also provides a harassment-free space for all contributors to the project, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion, or technical experience. We do not tolerate harassment or ad hominem attacks of community participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be expelled from the community at the discretion of the editorial board. If anyone witnesses or feels they have been the victim of the above described activity, please contact our ombudsperson Dr Ian Milligan. Thank you for helping us to create a safe space.

[adamlporter]

I enjoyed reading this lesson and following along with it.

One note: all the links should be checked. According to WildFire's website, in August they moved from Git to Gitea. So while the links to Git in the lesson work, they have a warning "This Trac instance is not used for development anymore!" and tell folks to go to Gitea instead. Updating these links to their Gitea locations would be helpful.

I use a dual-boot machine and mostly stay in Linux (Ubuntu 24.04) but I was unable to get 0 AD to run. I spent time looking at different trouble shooting recommendations, etc., loading new libraries, etc., but could never get it to run. (My impression is that the decentralized Linux environment, a vast array of machines on which it runs, etc., means this happens some regularity; it is doubtless one reason for Linux's low usage rates. It's a great OS when you can get stuff to run on it, but it frequently frustrates even fairly sophisticated users.)

When I turned to Windows, I was able to download and run the game. I loaded the Community Maps 2 module and found the provided directions very helpful. I played through the tutorial, so I had a feel for it.

Then I returned to try to create my own map, following the lesson's directions. I wanted to create a scenario of the Roman seige of Yodfat, which Josephus describes. I was able to get the colored topo map from the recommended website and processed in GIMP.

• Paragraph 56 says File --> open as layer. On my GIMP, the menu option is "Open as Layers" (plural)
• Layer --> Scale. My Gimp has "Scale Layer"
  I don't know if there are different versions of GIMP or if this was short-hand by the author. I don't think this matters much -- it was easy for me to follow anyway.

The directions for this were clear and easy to follow. But when I tried to import it into the scenario editor, nothing displayed. Rather than showing me the image in the directions (a circular version of my map, with a birds-eye 45 degree view), I got a black screen.

I was able to open my image in Paint and it is 320x320. So I know the image it there and available as a PNG.

Thinking I screwed something up, I went through these steps again, making a greyscale image of Masada. That, too, displayed as a black screen.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I cannot follow along the instructions more at this point. This is unfortunate, because the terrain editor looks interesting.

For example, there are major changes from the image at paragraph 74 to 75. The description says this was done using three tools for just a few minutes. This is amazing.

Overall, I am impressed with the lesson. Beyond my observations about the not-very-important GIMP menu variations, I don't have recommendations.

If I had been able to get my maps imported, so I follow the remainder of the steps, I might have made some additional comments. I'm sorry I can't offer more suggestions and feedback.

[historical-theology]

@adamlporter , thank you for your thoughtful peer review. Here is a brief response, which I kindly request that @caiocmello , @anisa-hawes , and @charlottejmc also read. Please comment as you might deem to be helpful for the tutorial. I have enjoyed the collegiality with Programming Historian thus far.

One note: all the links should be checked. According to WildFire's website, in August they moved from Git to Gitea. So while the links to Git in the lesson work, they have a warning "This Trac instance is not used for development anymore!" and tell folks to go to Gitea instead. Updating these links to their Gitea locations would be helpful.

This is an important -- potentially essential -- point to draw to our attention, since I submitted the first iteration in April and the major revision in May, both before the WildFire team announced that move (in August, as you noted). As part of future cleanup (after receiving the second report), I will be sure to change the relevant hyperlinks to direct the reader to the project's new, permanent home. The good news is that there are not many hyperlinks that have been affected by this change.

I use a dual-boot machine and mostly stay in Linux (Ubuntu 24.04) but I was unable to get 0 AD to run. I spent time looking at different trouble shooting recommendations, etc., loading new libraries, etc., but could never get it to run. (My impression is that the decentralized Linux environment, a vast array of machines on which it runs, etc., means this happens some regularity; it is doubtless one reason for Linux's low usage rates. It's a great OS when you can get stuff to run on it, but it frequently frustrates even fairly sophisticated users.)

In an early (pre-submission) draft of this tutorial, I actually included a direct link to the GitHub repository in which a 0 A.D. coder maintains an up-to-date GNU/Linux AppImage. If you download the most recent AppImage Release, mark it as executable (chmod + x), and launch that file, the program should run properly in any up-to-date mainstream GNU/Linux distribution, including Ubuntu 24.04. This actually tends to be how I install 0 A.D. in Debian Stable, since the version in the Debian Stable repository is often out-of-date. Of course, even when the official Debian package is out-of-date, it still works, so in Ubuntu (which is built atop Debian), [sudo] apt install 0ad also should work, since the game is also packaged in the official Ubuntu repositories.

As a reminder, here is what the tutorial currently says for installation of 0 A.D.:

For a libre Unix-like OS, the best place to find an installable package of the game is the OS’s own package repository. Alternatively, users of Unix-like OSes may compile the game from source. For Apple MacOS or Microsoft Windows, the best place to find an installable package is on the 0 A.D. website’s Download webpage.

Might anyone here prefer this to be expanded or revised in any way? If so, please specify how. (@charlottejmc comes to mind here.)

When I turned to Windows, I was able to download and run the game. I loaded the Community Maps 2 module and found the provided directions very helpful. I played through the tutorial, so I had a feel for it.

I am pleased that all of this was straightforward for you.

Then I returned to try to create my own map, following the lesson's directions. I wanted to create a scenario of the Roman seige of Yodfat, which Josephus describes. I was able to get the colored topo map from the recommended website and processed in GIMP.
Paragraph 56 says File --> open as layer. On my GIMP, the menu option is "Open as Layers" (plural) Layer --> Scale. My Gimp has "Scale Layer"

Thanks. I will double-check that I have the wording copied exactly. At the same time, I will note that GIMP's user interface might vary subtly on different platforms, and it also might vary subtly from version to version. The fact that this part of the tutorial, which I prepared with the old version of GIMP in the Debian Stable repository, was easy for you to follow in a build for Windows (and presumably a more recent build at that) suggests that the current wording is easy to follow across different GIMP builds and that I only should adjust it if I did in fact misquote.

[Continued from previous quotation] I don't know if there are different versions of GIMP or if this was short-hand by the author. I don't think this matters much -- it was easy for me to follow anyway.

I am glad that this was straightforward for you, too.

The directions for this were clear and easy to follow. But when I tried to import it into the scenario editor, nothing displayed. Rather than showing me the image in the directions (a circular version of my map, with a birds-eye 45 degree view), I got a black screen.
I was able to open my image in Paint and it is 320x320. So I know the image it there and available as a PNG.

I suspect that the problem might lie in something being broken in the build of Atlas (specifically Atlas -- not all of 0 A.D.) for Microsoft Windows that you were using (or even there being a Windows permission issue or something else simply not working properly with Atlas in Windows for you in your specific setup). If you happen to try to install 0 A.D. in Ubuntu again (perhaps by using the AppImage that I linked above), I would be curious if the topographic image file would load for you in that build of Atlas, thereby allowing you to complete this specific part of the tutorial.

Overall, I am impressed with the lesson. Beyond my observations about the not-very-important GIMP menu variations, I don't have recommendations.

Thank you again for your peer review report, @adamlporter . I am pleased that you have found the tutorial to be both clear and complete.

@historical-theology
Corey

Corey Stephan, Ph.D.
coreystephan.com

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful comments, Corey @historical-theology. Just a reminder that it is important to wait until both reviews are received before beginning to implement any changes.

When both reviews are in, Caio @caiocmello will summarise them to clarify priorities for Phase 5 revisions. Thank you for your patience.

[clauper-maker]

I really enjoyed and learned useful information reading the lesson!

Firstly, the documentation is consistent, with some levels of flexibility (beginner, intermediate). I think the usability of the instructions corresponds to what is necessary to install and use the game. That said, I didn't have any unresolved problems installing it using a recent version of MacOS, but I read all the information available, which include youtube videos, testing installation, and clicking on every link. My previous colleague @adamlporter has already made comments on that.

However, considering the general technical skill of teachers and their available time, I would suggest a substitute note for “I do not presume any particular background knowledge” to “some experience in installing games and software is presumed”. This suggestion is based on my experience with secondary and postsecondary teachers in Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) and other countries in Latin America (Colombia, México, Peru) and Africa (Angola, Cabo Verde, Nigeria). Small issues related to resizing images were also mentioned by @adamlporter. They can be adjusted with some programming (more experienced users) or with softwares that you mentioned (GIMP, Adobe). I would add Lightroom, but in all these cases, some previous experience would be a facilitator.

The lesson has the potential to suggest ways to outline educational objectives. If used properly, the information available may facilitate different educational approaches based on existing topics.
In my opinion, the game itself allows for very creative explorations into the mechanisms that made ancient societies and empires possible. Reflecting on the limits of comparing the past and the present enables numerous approaches with the potential for the much sought-after critical development. So, the customization options are a plus!

The game also has the key elements of gamification in education: enjoyment, learning, usability, interaction and challenge. But the role of the teacher is essential in order to take advantage of all this potential. Firstly by understanding the possibilities of the game, which includes knowing how to install it properly. Secondly, by knowing how to customize the game in accordance with the educational objectives she/he has set.

Considering this, I suggest:

1. Separate the information about installation, reducing it to a necessary minimum, something like “basic settings” (one link/page) and “advanced settings” (another link/page).

2. Separate supplementary information about the game - game history, wikipedia links, interviews; and more advanced technical information (image editing, different editing software, etc.).

I hope this helps to make it a little more exciting. Congratulations on all you've done!

[caiocmello]

Dear colleagues,

I'd like to thank very much Adam Porter @adamlporter and Ivan Siqueira @clauper-maker for their thorough reviews and for dedicating their time to contributing to this publication.

At this phase, I will summarise the suggestions made by our two reviewers and add some of my own at the end. From now on, the author @historical-theology is invited to make changes to the document as needed.

Reviewers suggestions include:

• Revising the links, particularly replacing 'git' with 'gitea' where links have changed after this lesson's submission.
• I was able to install the software on Ubuntu by following the steps you present in the tutorial. Therefore, I do not recommend any particular modification to this section.
• Regarding GIMP, maybe a footnote stating that its layout might vary slightly according to its version might be useful.
• Replacing “I do not presume any particular background knowledge” with “some experience installing games and software is presumed”.

Now, I believe the last point made by @adamlporter matches very well @clauper-maker's final suggestions. The fact that Adam encountered some difficulties in using the images shows that some users might need support from the community to troubleshoot. Therefore, following Ivan's suggestions on slightly altering the lesson's format, I recommend:

1. Instead of novice, intermediate, and advanced, I would replace 'advanced' with a section called 'getting help from the community'. There, you would keep all the information about the forum and how to ask questions and find answers.
2. Move information about advanced modification to the section 'Beyond'. As far as I understand, there aren't many details on this section. I think it works as 'extra content' (it shows where to find information if you want to develop your skills further).

Those changes, I think, would improve the user experience.

My last point is more of a question than a recommendation. I'm not a historian, so maybe this might be an obvious question. Do you think we should add a note at the beginning for sensitive content? I understand the game involves topics such as war and even 'enslavement'. I understand the educational purpose of the game/lesson but I was just wondering how this might be received by people in different social contexts. I'd like to hear the author's thoughts on that.

Thank you all once again. Special thanks to the author @historical-theology for his patience and engagement throughout the process.

Wish you all happy holidays and a happy new year!
Caio

[anisa-hawes]

Hello Corey @historical-theology,

What's happening now?

Your lesson has been moved to the next phase of our workflow which is Phase 5: Revision 2.

This phase is an opportunity for you to revise your draft in response to the peer reviewers' feedback.

Caio @caiocmello has summarised their suggestions, but feel free to ask questions if you are unsure.

Please make revisions via direct commits to your file: /en/drafts/originals/teach-history-and-languages-with-strategy-game.md. @charlottejmc and I are here to help if you encounter any difficulties.

When you and Caio are both happy with the revised draft, the Managing Editor @hawc2 will read it through before we move forward to Phase 6: Sustainability + Accessibility.

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              'cScale0': '#444444', 'cScaleLabel0': '#ffffff',
              'cScale1': '#882b4f', 'cScaleLabel1': '#ffffff',
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       } } }%%
timeline
Section Phase 4 <br> Open Peer Review
Who worked on this? : Reviewers (@adamlporter + @clauper-maker)
All  Phase 4 tasks completed? : Yes
Section Phase 5 <br> Revision 2
Who's working on this? : Author (@historical-theology)
Expected completion date? : Feb 8
Section Phase 6 <br> Sustainability + Accessibility
Who's responsible? : Publishing Team
Expected timeframe? : 7~21 days

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Note: The Mermaid diagram above may not render on GitHub mobile. Please check in via desktop when you have a moment.

[historical-theology]

Dear @clauper-maker , @adamlporter , @caiocmello , and @anisa-hawes ,

Thank you for your helpful comments and insights in Phase 4: Open Peer Review. I am pleased to announce that I have just made my submission for Phase 5: Revision 2. 0b48ba5 is the primary commit, and I made a quick follow-up endnote formatting fix with a63b00e.

Before we continue with this tutorial's editorial process, I pause to thank @adamlporter and @clauper-maker in a special way for taking the time to work through the entire tutorial and reflect on its contents. Your work has helped me increase its lucidity and utility.

I note that I made several minor editorial changes throughout the document relating to clarity, syntax, and/or grammar.

Here are the main changes that I made in response to the 2 peer review reports and subsequent editorial summary.

@adamlporter

... all the links should be checked. According to WildFire's website, in August they moved from Git to Gitea. So while the links to Git in the lesson work, they have a warning "This Trac instance is not used for development anymore!" and tell folks to go to Gitea instead. Updating these links to their Gitea locations would be helpful.

I meticulously switched all relevant hyperlinks from Trac to Gitea.

In parallel, as part of generally making sure that the necessarily transient information in the tutorial is up-to-date, I made a number of subtle adjustments like changing "as of May 2024" to "as of January 2025" throughout the tutorial.

(I note that I have made a genuine effort from when I first began drafting this tutorial to write it in such a way that it will be relevant for the long-term. This is an explicit part of Programming Historian's call for authors -- and rightfully so.)

Layer --> Scale. My Gimp has "Scale Layer"
I don't know if there are different versions of GIMP or if this was short-hand by the author. I don't think this matters much -- it was easy for me to follow anyway.

Following @caiocmello 's advice, I made an endnote that explains that there are minor variations in language and UI in different versions of GIMP.

@clauper-maker

... considering the general technical skill of teachers and their available time, I would suggest a substitute note for “I do not presume any particular background knowledge” to “some experience in installing games and software is presumed”.

You are right that the tutorial presumes non-zero background knowledge.

Accordingly, I adjusted the wording about presumption of previous experience at each instance throughout the entire tutorial in order to make three things clear: first, this is an introductory- to intermediate-level tutorial (somewhere between the two); second, I presume basic familiarity with real-time strategy computer games and installing computer software; third, computer programming experience is necessary to get started with the ideas that I share in the "Beyond?" section at the end.

Separate the information about installation, reducing it to a necessary minimum, something like “basic settings” (one link/page) and “advanced settings” (another link/page).
Separate supplementary information about the game - game history, wikipedia links, interviews; and more advanced technical information (image editing, different editing software, etc.).

I sub-divided both the installation information and the "Installing Community Gameplay Modifications" section into multiple sub-sections. I view the resulting flow as closer to what most readers will expect from a technological tutorial.

@caiocmello

Instead of novice, intermediate, and advanced, I would replace 'advanced' with a section called 'getting help from the community'. There, you would keep all the information about the forum and how to ask questions and find answers.
Move information about advanced modification to the section 'Beyond'. As far as I understand, there aren't many details on this section. I think it works as 'extra content' (it shows where to find information if you want to develop your skills further).

I removed the "Novice," "Intermediate," and "Advanced" heading labels.

I merged the previous "Advanced" and "Beyond" sections into one with the heading "Beyond? Join the Community, Build a Modification from Scratch, and More."

Do you think we should add a note at the beginning for sensitive content? I understand the game involves topics such as war and even 'enslavement'. I understand the educational purpose of the game/lesson but I was just wondering how this might be received by people in different social contexts. I'd like to hear the author's thoughts on that.

I did not anticipate this question, but it is a thoughtful one.

The game involves issues of labor and class, warmaking, and even enslavement, but it does all of these things in the graphically distant, almost cartoonish manner that is characteristic of an RTS game. The focus is always on history and strategy rather than the violence itself.

Further, the lesson is about teaching teenagers and adults -- not young children. As an open source project that is not sold on store shelves, the game does not carry any official content rating (e.g. from ESRB in North America or PEGI in Europe), but if it did, I am confident that it would not be rated as containing highly sensitive content and/or only suitable for adults.

With all of that in mind, I do not think that a warning is contextually relevant.

---

I look forward to the next phase of this tutorial's editorial process.

Many thanks to everyone,

@historical-theology
Corey

Corey Stephan, Ph.D.
coreystephan.com

[caiocmello]

Many thanks Corey @historical-theology. I will go through your lesson once again and reply to you as soon as possible.