Study Assignment 6

Historical Simulation

You are working as a historical consultant for a video game production company that is interested in making its historical simulation games plausibly accurate as well as entertaining. The current project is a “kingdom-building” game in which the player builds and maintains a complex state based on a real-life historical place. The player must keep track of things such as trade, military threats, religious issues, international relations, and popular sentiment in order to build a society that is prosperous, secure, stable, and happy. This week’s province to be designed: Ceylon.

Your task is to write a brief report (2-3 pages worth of double-spaced text with reasonable fonts and margins) describing and explaining some the following attributes that should be included in any game in which a player takes the role as the leader of Ceylon in the time period 1000-1500 C.E. Write in complete, grammatically correct sentences and in paragraph form – do not make lists or bulleted points. Write on AT LEAST THREE of the following:

1. Important buildings that a player should be able to build (e.g., religious, cultural, economic, etc.) and why.

2. Trade goods found in Ceylon’s markets, where they come from, and why the game should include them.

3. Important technologies that had an effect on Ceylon in the period and what the effects were.

4. International or external events (e.g., wars, trade, weather patterns) that affected the region and what the effects were.

5. Specific things that would make a ruler popular or unpopular in that time and place.

This will require some imagination, or at least some speculation based on information in the textbook. The “Sources From the Past” excerpts will be useful, as will the chapter on the Silk Roads. Keep it as plausible as possible (not “they should have machine guns”) and as specific as possible (not “there should be religion”).