Confession : I got a Bachelors in History through Assassin’s Creed
So, I’ve always been someone who did not study like the average person, and quite frankly in my younger years, didn’t really need to at all. When AC2 through Revelations released, I was in middle school and beginning high school. Guess what you typically cover in middle school and high school? The Italian Renaissance, the Ottoman Empire, the spread of colonial influence throughout regions. My senior year marks the release of AC3. Do you know what they cover senior year? More in depth American history, the beginnings of the foundation of America, the constitution, etc.
At no point during any of these years did I pick up a dedicated history textbook, although I was always a fan of fictional historical narratives in books. I never once got anything below an A.
Enter college, I waste my first year on a major that I had no business being in, and then finally decide to major in History (surprise!) AC: Origins releases, I begin to take my first core classes. Intro to History and Intro to Archaeology, with a heavy focus on Egypt. Perfect. The new tour system allows me to go inside of the pyramids, study them in depth, talk to Cleopatra, read entries, google side characters. I pass with flying colors.
Every single following year, without fail, the AC game of the year focused on the exact thing that I was actively focusing on for my degree. Every single year, I do not study a damn lick and just play AC games with the same intensity as others hit the library.
It’s been some years now since I graduated with my bachelors, in fact, I graduate with my masters this semester. Go figure.
I think it’s a real credit to the makers of the games, and especially the teams behind Origins and Odyssey, as they had an IMMENSE immense amount of information in the data entries and the guided tours. While the games storylines themselves are not at all reliable historically, the architecture and general (in a loose sense) timelines depicted mostly are. They got close enough to actual history that the games can genuinely be used as a study tool, even before and after the guided tours were added and removed
I’m not saying that someone could glean enough information from AC alone to get a degree, that would be egregious. BUT - it is honestly an incredible supplement and something that should be considered as an actual educational tool. I had so much fun playing and learning, for years and years, that it made learning itself something exciting even outside of this. Imagine your teacher sends you home asking to review DaVinci and his contributions to the Renaissance, so you go home and help him build a tank and read about his life as you do it.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I got a bachelors wit Assassins Creed :)