This study examines the pedagogical potential of historically-structured boardgames (HSBGs) for teaching contested histories, addressing a gap in simulation-based approaches to the Northern Ireland Troubles. Using Historical Memory Education (HME) as an analytical framework, the paper evaluates how a representative HSBG, The Troubles: Shadow War in Northern Ireland (2028), aligns with key pedagogical principles for engaging learners with divisive historical narratives. The analysis identified strong conceptual alignments between game mechanics and HME’s emphasis on multiperspectivity and narrative agency, with asymmetric victory conditions, faction-specific objectives, and event-driven storytelling foregrounding the complexity of historical experience. It also identified pedagogical tensions inherent in ludic simulations of trauma, including risks of decontextualisation and the challenge of balancing player agency with historical authenticity. These findings suggest HSBGs, when thoughtfully designed and contextualised within classroom practice, can foster empathy and critical engagement with difficult histories – provided educators attend to the ethics of simulating violence and contested memory.
AllportG. W.1954. The Nature of Prejudice. New York: Basic Books.
2.
AmbrosioT.2024. “Boardgaming after the Fall of Kabul: Player and Designer (Re)engagement with a Distant Plain.” Rethinking History28(3):327–56.
3.
AmbrosioT.RossJ.2023. “The War on Terror beyond the Barrel of a Gun: The Procedural Rhetorics of the Board Game Labyrinth.” Media, War & Conflict16(4):495–515.
BartonK. C.McCullyA. W.2012. “Trying to “See Things Differently”: Northern Ireland Students’ Struggle to Understand Alternative Historical Perspectives.” Theory & Research in Social Education40(4):371–408.
6.
BermudezA.2021. “Narrative Justice? Ten Tools to Deconstruct Narratives about Violent Pasts.” Pp. 217–38 in Historical Justice and History Education, edited by KeynesM.Åström ElmersjöH.LindmarkD.NorlinB.London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
7.
BogostI.2007. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
8.
BoocockS. S.SchildE. O.ColemanJ. S.1973. “Simulation Games in Learning.” Simulation & Gaming4(2):144.
9.
BoultonD. J.1973. The UVF, 1966–73: An Anatomy of Loyalist Rebellion. Dublin, Ireland: Torc Books (Gill and Macmillan).
ButlerJ.2013. “Situating Ethics in Games Education.” Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation36(4):93–114.
12.
ByfordJ.LennonS.RussellW. B.2009. “Teaching Controversial Issues in the Social Studies: A Research Study of High School Teachers.” The Clearing House82(4):165–70.
13.
CarreteroM.van AlphenF.2018. “History, Collective Memories, or National Memories? How the Representation of the Past Is Framed by Master Narratives.” Pp. 283–304 in Handbook of Culture and Memory, edited by WagonerB.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
14.
ChapmanA.2016. Digital Games as History: How Video Games Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
15.
ChapmanA.FokaA.WestinJ.2017. “Introduction: What Is Historical Game Studies?”Rethinking History21(3):358–71.
16.
ChristensenK. D. N.WestR. E.2018. “The Development of Design-based Research.” Pp. 323–39 in Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology (1st ed.): Historical Roots and Current Trends, edited by WestR. E.EdTech Books. (https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/development_of_design-based_research).”
17.
CorredorJ.Castro-MoralesC.Jiménez-RozoT. A.2021. “Document-based Historical Role-playing as a Tool to Promote Empathy and Structural Understanding in Historical Memory Education.” Pp. 231–50 in Transitioning to Peace, edited by López LópezW.TaylorL. K.Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
18.
CorredorJ.Wills-ObregonM. E.Asensio-BrouardM.2018. “Historical Memory Education for Peace and Justice: Definition of a Field.” Journal of Peace Education15(2):169–90.
19.
CrookallD.2010. “Serious Games, Debriefing, and Simulation/gaming as a Discipline.” Simulation & Gaming41(6):898–920.
20.
EllsworthE.2005. Places of Learning: Media, Architecture, Pedagogy. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
21.
FrascaG.2001. “Rethinking Agency and Immersion: Video Games as a Means of Consciousness-raising.” Digital Creativity12(3):167–74.
22.
GarrettH. J.2017. Learning to Be in the World with Others: Difficult Knowledge and Social Studies Education (Counterpoints, Vol. 506). Lausanne, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
23.
Gonzalo-IglesiaJ.2026. “Analog Simulation and the Indian Wars: Encountering the Other through Board Wargames.” Games and Culture21:449–73.
24.
GortonW.HavercroftJ.2012. “Using Historical Simulations to Teach Political Theory.” Journal of Political Science Education8(1):50–68.
25.
HarriganP.KirschenbaumM. G., editors. 2016. Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
HeronM.BelfordP.2014. ““It’s Only a Game”—Ethics, Empathy and Identification in Game Morality Systems.” The Computer Games Journal3(1):34–53.
28.
HuizingaJ. [1938] 1955. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-element in Culture. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
29.
JenningsM.2016. “Crows on the Wire: Intermediality in Applied Drama and Conflict Transformation—“Humanising” the Police in Northern Ireland.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance21(3):418–30.
30.
KansteinerW.2014. “Genocide Memory, Digital Cultures, and the Aesthetization of Violence.” Memory Studies7(4):403–408.
31.
LeeS.FeeleyT. H.2016. “The Identifiable Victim Effect: A Meta-analytic Review.” Social Influence11(3):199–215.
32.
LeeS.FeeleyT. H.2018. “The Identifiable Victim Effect: Using an Experimental Causal Chain Design to Test for Mediation.” Current Psychology37(4):875–85.
33.
LeithM.BoyleL.SimD.van der ZwetA.ScottG.JimoyiannisA.JandrićP.HaugeJ. B.Sultana TanyN.HummelH.2019. “What’s in a Game? A Game-based Approach to Exploring 21st-century European Identity and Values.” Open Review of Educational Research6(1):12–25.
34.
McKittrickD.McVeaD.2012. Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict. Rev. ed. New York: Penguin Books (Viking).
35.
MirallesP.IbagónN. J.2022. “Historical Thinking and Controversial Issues in Social Studies Education.” Pp. 65–80 in Controversial Issues and Social Problems for an Integrated Disciplinary Teaching, edited by Ortega-SánchezD.Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
36.
NaulE.LiuM.2020. “Why Story Matters: A Review of Narrative in Serious Games.” Journal of Educational Computing Research58(3):687–707.
37.
NeitzelB.2005. “Narrativity in Computer Games.” Pp. 227–45 in Handbook of Computer Game Studies, edited by RaessensJ.GoldsteinJ.Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
O’DonnellH. D.2024. “The Design of the Troubles: Simulating Terror in Northern Ireland.” Rethinking History28(4):588–626.
40.
O’DonnellH. D.2025. “Beyond Borders: Teaching the Northern Ireland Troubles in the Social Studies Classroom.” The Social Studies1–18. doi:10.1080/00377996.2025.2539130.
41.
O’DonnellH. D.2026. “Exploring Ethical and Moral Complexities of the Troubles through Simulation and Empathy.” Social Studies Research and Practice21:26–63.
42.
O’DonnellH. D. N.d. [Historical Supplement] the Troubles (Simulation). Hartford, CT: Compass Games LLC.
PasupathiM.WainrybC.2010. “Developing Moral Agency through Narrative.” Human Development53(2):55–80.
45.
PerryT. J.RobichaudC.2020. “Teaching Ethics Using Simulations: Active Learning Exercises in Political Theory.” Journal of Political Science Education16(2):225–42.
46.
Photofest. 2023. Bernadette Devlin as a 22-year-old Psychology Student and People’s Democracy Candidate, Belfast [Photograph]. New York: Irish America. (https://www.irishamerica.com/2023/04/bernadette/).
47.
PrenticeD. A.GerrigR. J.1999. “Exploring the Boundary between Fiction and Reality.” Pp. 529–46 in Dual-process Theories in Social Psychology, edited by ChaikenS.TropeY.New York: Guilford Press.
48.
RejackB.2007. “Toward a Virtual Reenactment of History: Video Games and the Recreation of the Past.” Rethinking History11(3):411–25.
49.
RobinsonN.2012. “Videogames, Persuasion and the War on Terror: Escaping or Embedding the Military–Entertainment Complex?”Political Studies60:504–22.
SafariA.SurendranA.BikasI.BahriniM.ReinschluesselA. V.MalakaR.2025. “From Pixels to Feelings: Exploring Game Elements for Eliciting Empathy toward Refugees.” Pp. 254–64 in Entertainment Computing—ICEC 2024, edited by FigueroaP.Di IorioA.Guzman del RioD.Gonzalez CluaE. W.Cuevas RodriguezL.Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
53.
SalvatiA. J.BullingerJ. M.2013. “Selective Authenticity and the Playable Past.” Pp. 153–68 in Playing with the past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History, edited by KapellM. W.ElliottA. B. R.London, England: Bloomsbury Academic.
54.
SheldonL.2004. Character Development and Storytelling for Games. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology.
55.
SimonsJ. J. P.GreenM. C.2013. “Distracted by Details: Narrative Influence Following Conflicting Stories.” Media Psychology16(2):221–43.
56.
SmallD. A.LoewensteinG.SlovicP.2007. “Sympathy and Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought on Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes102(2):143–53.
57.
SmithJ.2016. “What Remains of History? Historical Epistemology and Historical Understanding in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.” Curriculum Journal27(4):500–17.
58.
SvihlaV.2014. “Advances in Design-based Research.” Frontline Learning Research2(4):35–45.
59.
ZembylasM.2015. “‘Pedagogy of Discomfort’ and Its Ethical Implications: The Tensions of Ethical Violence in Social Justice Education.” Ethics and Education10(2):163–74.
