You can unlock some pretty cool stuff in games like cosmetics, new game modes, alternate endings and more, but Age of Empires IV may offer the best one yet: a real life college credit.
Unfortunately this is only for those attending University of Arizona or Arizona Online. On top of that it is just a single college credit that can acquired in this way.
“The University of Arizona Illuminated History Experience, developed by two Department of History faculty members – associate professor of medieval history Paul Milliman and associate professor of Roman history and department head Alison Futrell – in collaboration with game designers from World’s Edge game studio and Relic Entertainment, is now available on the Age of Empires website,” an announcement reads.
You can see a picture of Futrell and Milliman in the header image above.
“The educational material supplements the historical storytelling in the Age of Empires IV single-play campaign and allows players to take part in additional out-of-game content, including testing their knowledge of the historical time period.”
To access this content players / students will, of course, need a copy of Age of Empires IV. It’s available through the Microsoft Store, Steam and Game Pass. Playing the game through Game Pass also means no extra purchase is necessary for subscribers, which is good news for the perpetually thrifty college student.
“It’s a really innovative way to learn. We don’t know of any partnerships like this between a university and video game designers anywhere else in the world. We hope that both students on the University of Arizona main campus and Age of Empires players will be excited about the course and interested in other classes the history department offers,” Futrell adds.
Hopefully this initiative is a success and we can see similar opportunities in other games and from other higher education institutions. The Assassin’s Creed franchise already has an extensive “Discovery Tour” that strips away the gaming elements and turns the software into an opportunity to exist and wander around in an ancient setting.
This would be a pretty good starting point for students and the Ubisoft website even has a learning resource page available here.
[Image – University of Arizona]
