For those of you who don't know. The Total War franchise puts the player in the position of leading great civilizations throughout time. One manages commerce, politics, and military might with the end goal of creating a strong, long lasting super power. The newest title Rome II places the player at the time of the Roman Republic/Roman Empire.
Normally one would expect the usual array of pre-rendered game trailers and game footage trailers to advertise this installment. However, they chose to add one interesting element that I really wanted to highlight. They decided to ask the wonderfully interesting people at Extra Credits to create mini history lessons about the Punic Wars to prepare gamers for the historical world they were about to enter. The guys and gals at Extra Credits were offered payment for this but refused based on the educational value of such work.
Wow.
It makes such blinding sense to me that I almost can't believe I haven't see it done before. In one simple action they were able to imbue their fan base with the required background for them to get the historical context of the game but also garnered a whole bunch of goodwill. Goodwill that probably helped when the game was reviewed poorly compared with others in the series. I'll be perfectly honest, I am more likely to buy Total War for my strategy loving friends than I would have been before. If that encourages other companies to try educating their audience, even better.
So what is my end point? There are so many fun creative ways that we can encourage people to seek out new things. Games are my passion and I am glad at least this one tried to remind us of where we came from and teach peopl
Please check out Extra History here.