Have Video Games Evolved Enough to Teach Human Origins?: A Review of Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

• Published in: Advances in archaeological practice : a journal of the Society of American archeaology 2022-02, Vol.10 (1), p.122-127
• Main Author: Snyder, William D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropology; Archaeology; Behavior; Communication; Computer & video games; Hominids; Mechanics; Predation; Social interaction
• ISSN: 2326-3768; 2326-3768
• DOI: 10.1017/aap.2021.40

Video games are unparalleled as an interactive medium and can serve as potential educational tools through intelligent game design and the players’ immersion in the game world (e.g., Mayo 2009; Rassalle 2021; Rubio-Campillo 2020; Winter 2021). At the same time, video games, like any media, might also misinform (e.g., Aron 2020; Dennis 2019; Emery and Reinhard 2016). In this review, I present my impressions of the game Ancestors: A Humankind Odyssey (Panache Digital Games 2019), specifically regarding its portrayal of paleoanthropological themes. In preparing this review, I played the game in its entirety and subsequently interviewed the developers in order to clarify their intentions when designing the game (Patrice Désilets and Marc-André De Blois, personal communication 2021). Using the medium of video games, is it possible to make a “perfectly” accurate simulation of human evolution? Perhaps, but that may not matter anyway. In my view, video games, as exemplified by Ancestors , have great potential for exploring the basic components of human evolution and to reach and inspire a wider public that might otherwise learn very little about the subject matter.