Games that have made you want to learn more about a subject

Towards the end of last year I decided to finally get fully acquainted with Europa Universalis IV, overcoming the steep learning curve after 8 or so hours (good by Paradox standards.) The thing that really drew me into the game was how it made me understand things like geo-politics and strategic diplomacy, as well as teaching me a lot about history. Just things like:

"I am Spain, I really want to invade Morocco, as I'd really like more control over the Gibraltar strait, but they're allied with the Ottoman Empire, who are big. Very big. If I attack them, then I'll be in a bloody war that could cost many lives. Meanwhile, France, to the North of me, are no longer my allies, and treat me as a rival. They have their eye on some of my territories. That's even less of a reason to start a war with Morocco, as France would surely take advantage of it. Not to mention their power. Hang on, Russia have problems with both France and the Ottomans. If I make them my rival, I'll possibly be able to call them into a war with me, and at the very least have the insurance of them both being a bit scared of attacking me."

I've always had a passing interest in history, but EUIV really taught me a lot more, making me understand why some countries made the decisions they did when it came to war and alliances. At the initial time of playing, I decided to read Henry Kissinger's World Order, followed by Tim Marshall's Prisoner's of Geography. EUIV really pushed the subject of world politics onto me, particularly history. That's just to mention two, as I'm now currently reading Sean McMeekin's The Ottoman Endgame, which is giving me a lot of amazing insight into the Ottoman/Balkan conflicts before, during and after WWI. That book was bought for me by my girlfriend as I wouldn't shut up about about my EUIV games and all the strategy I put into them. Reading this book in particular is really showing me in that period how often the situation I was in with Spain above actually happened!

I've been interested in history, but EUIV has actually made it into a full blown hobby for me! I was wondering if anyone else had any similar experiences with games they've played? I know a few people (including a friend of mine) who are big Witcher 3 fans, and read the original books.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who developed an interest in Japanese culture based on playing their games; I mean, some developed a far more than passing interest, I think.

Most Assassin's Creed games have lead me to do a bit of digging, even outside their in-game encyclopedias.

Good topic.

The original Shogun: Total War is a great example of this for me. I hardly knew a thing about Japan's history or geography when I first played the demo. Young me was all about knights, Vikings, and Romans; if not for my love of military history and historical games I might have passed it by. As I played I quickly became curious. The game came with a recommended reading list so I went book-hunting. Thanks to Stephen Turnbull and others I discovered that Sengoku era history is a good fit for my inclinations. I read everything I could lay my hands on, which sadly wasn't much as works in English were very limited at that time. As the years have gone by I've found more books, and expanded my interest into other periods. Fall of the Samurai for Shogun II can take most of the credit for adding Meiji to my reading list, as originally it sounded unappealing to a person who dislikes industrial history. The game campaign maps have helped me learn a decent bit of geography. Reading has taught me the basics of Japanese pronunciation and a decent chunk of relevant vocabulary. I'm far from knowledgeable but I'm a good deal less ignorant.

I've always had a passion for history, particularly classical and medieval. That has a very two-way relationship with my gaming. I'll read something which sends me running off to play a new campaign, or I'll start a campaign and pull an appropriate book from my shelves. Often history, sometimes historical fiction. There are far too many instances for me to list them, or even remember them all! The most amusing connection must be re-reading some of my favourite Asterix volumes, then going and playing the Invasion of Gaul campaign in Rome II: Total War. As Caesar.

I'm currently reading one on the rise of Athens as a naval power and yes, my fingers are starting to itch for Rome II. I haven't played any of the Athenian campaigns in that package. Yet.

If I play a game set in a period which I have low interest in sometimes it will send me off to read up on bits I found a little appealing, and that can help me find pockets of interest in a sea of indifference. Victoria II made me look at Victorian social reform, for instance. The link between literacy and social advancement was by far my favourite thing about that game. In cases like that I read a little, play a little, and don't make a substantial commitment with either. Sometimes the attempt doesn't work out. I've been trying to get into Hearts of Iron 4 for a while. I find WWII boring and depressing, and so far nothing is breaking through that feeling.

It's trite since the associated xkcd comic, but Kerbal Space Program drove me into reading about the mathematics behind orbital mechanics and interplanetary spaceflight.

Jagged Alliance 2 made me extremely interested in firearms. Make, model, manufacturer, etc.

From that, I learned about John Moses Browning who has been an inspiration of mine for many years.

Rome: Total War resulted in me reading about the Seleucid Empire, Parthia, Thracians, Pontus...

Football Manager led me to pick up a few books on the evolution of tactics and formations throughout history. I had a thirst to know why and how certain setups became prevalently, and similarly what or who led to change, from the beginning up until today.

Baldur's Gate formed my interest in similar setting fiction books. I'm not sure if this fits the bill, but it led me to become an avid reader of works from Terry Brooks, and David Gemmell.

Deus Ex had me do a little digging on the proposed idea of an Illuminati. Fiction? Fact? I don't know, it's of little consequence to someone like me, but it was interesting.

The Last of Us had me utilize Google to learn of parasitic fungal infection.

I wouldn't have bothered with any of this if not for video games.

SimAnt.

Civilization and Age of Kings also lead to a lot of history reading, though I was already interest in the subject it did give some direction to some specific things to look up.

Crusader Kings 2 wasn't so much an inspiration as it was a direct source of information, as I now have a pretty good grasp of the geography and general political situation in, say, Khotan or Castille.

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed made me want to learn more about driving a Porsche. I'm still waiting on winning the lottery so I can afford one.

Feegle wrote:

It's trite since the associated xkcd comic, but Kerbal Space Program drove me into reading about the mathematics behind orbital mechanics and interplanetary spaceflight.

I had the some thing with the boardgame High Frontier.

I've always had a passion for history (undergraduate degree) but playing the Paradox games especially EUI-IV and CK2 has gotten me to research some subjects that are a little outside of what I've studied in the past.

Various strategy games, most of them by Paradox have resulted in me spending probably over 100 hours on wikipedia looking up battles, kingdoms, families and geographical locations.

Sid Meier's Pirates! taught me about the colonial Caribbean, and I recently discovered that the relatively important colonial town of Gibraltar, on lake Maracaibo, barely still exists today. Following three pirate raids in 11 years, the town was so badly damaged it was nearly abandoned by 1680.

NASCAR Racing (yeah, the first one by Papyrus on PC), taught me about drafting, and got me to finally appreciate the skill required to race stock cars. I'm still not a fan, but I no longer just see it as "rednecks driving in a circle".

KOEI strategy games primarily, got me to pick up and read the Chinese classics "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Outlaws of the Marsh".

I'm sure there are other examples that elude me right now.

On an interest level, another mention for KSP here. Also going further back, the Sierra\Dynamix game Aces Over Europe really sparked my interest in WW2 air combat.

On more "life changing" level Sim Earth got me interested in geology, and Sim City (all of them really) is a big part of what I consider the start of my interest in geographic information systems and planning. All of which have been mainstays of my career.

The Journeyman Project 3

Wandering around Shangri-La learning about Buddhism led me to take an Eastern Religions class

Feegle wrote:

It's trite since the associated xkcd comic, but Kerbal Space Program drove me into reading about the mathematics behind orbital mechanics and interplanetary spaceflight.

KSP also got me started watching every SpaceX launch (and landing) while keeping up with New Horizons and Juno and Curiosity and please launch the James Webb Telescope already, after years of not really keeping up with space news.

I'm...uh...rather a sucker for a notorious game series, and this once prompted a friend to tell me "At least you know way more about the late Han era than most Americans."

Warthunder got me researching WW2 planes, especially Russian and Japanese. I read a ton of Osprey books about them and books about national aces.

Gary Grigsby's War in the East got me to re-read a bunch of Eastern Front books that I hadn't read in 20 years and his War in the Pacific got me reading a bunch of stuff on U.S. naval ops in WW2.

Not entirely on subject - The best was when I read through Lord of the Rings for the first time and played Lord of the Rings Online at the same time. They REALLY stayed faithful to the books. Great time.

Pretty much every war game I play gets me to buy and read books on the topic.

Probably the most extreme thing was that playing SHENZHEN I/O got me to go out and buy an Arduino and a bunch of add-ons.

I got into games starting as a child, when my parents mistakenly bought me a Rand Corp Gettysburg game (sadly in a box of games stolen by a renter while I was in college). I have read widely in history all my life, as well as other things. Basically, if it's in a game, I want to know about it.

The latest thing is a self-referential situation with World of Guns, which is not an FPS player's fantasy, but rather a learning tool for armorers and amateurs made into a game. So I don't need to actually read up on the weapons and their history; it's all in the game!

Very very cool. But basically, if I don't know what's behind a factual or historical or technical game, I go read up on it. It's as good an excuse as any to poke my nose into a book.

Qvadriga made me read up on ancient Roman chariot races, as well as the concept of 4 horses in ancient worlds. The culmination of this was standing in Rome, on Palatine Hill, overlooking Circus Maximus, and imagining the thousands of people lining it, the obelisks, the marble palace, ... it would have been glorious. Without that simple little game, I would have been standing on some rocks on some hill looking over some depression in the ground that has mud and grass in it.

Robear wrote:

I got into games starting as a child, when my parents mistakenly bought me a Rand Corp Gettysburg game (sadly in a box of games stolen by a renter while I was in college). I have read widely in history all my life, as well as other things. Basically, if it's in a game, I want to know about it.

The latest thing is a self-referential situation with World of Guns, which is not an FPS player's fantasy, but rather a learning tool for armorers and amateurs made into a game. So I don't need to actually read up on the weapons and their history; it's all in the game!

Very very cool. But basically, if I don't know what's behind a factual or historical or technical game, I go read up on it. It's as good an excuse as any to poke my nose into a book.

Thanks to your recommendation, I have recently purchased World of Guns. Such an odd name for the program but so very fascinating for me.

In addition to my comments upthread I should also add that my grandfather was a mechanical engineer who ran very rudimentary CAD software on his 386 and 486 machines. I would marvel watching him design and virtualize one of his drafts.

I took a few semesters worth of drafting in high school and got to use AUTOCAD on a Pentium 166. My grandpa could barely believe how "fast" I could pull something off the plotter.

For one of my term projects, I took the old Battletech TR 3050 and did a massive plot of the Loki / Hellbringer. The shop teacher liked it so much he put it up with the other plots of muscle cars and fighters.

So, Battletech / Mechwarrior were also inspirations for me.

SimEarth's manual I believe is an Environmental Sciences textbook. Made me want to research different biomes and how everything in climate is connected.

Also, playing D & D/RPGs made me learn more about probability/statistics.

I'd have to say that Pharaoh definitely made me want to read up on Ancient Egypt, back in the day. Although it was already a topic of interest to me, so maybe that was just a loop that fed into itself. The game itself had a ton of info on the different periods and you had more buildings available as time progressed (particularly with the monuments: first you had mastabas, then pyramids, then temples).