INTRODUCTION

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana

Writers have long wondered about the past, and have used it as a backdrop for their stories. Time travel is  dreamed about in science fiction, from H. G. Wells' The Time Machine to Back to the Future. Video games have explored this area as well, most notably in the Assassin's Creed series. In these games, you control a character moving through the events of a time period and participating in them along the way.

The games use the past to create enormous, intricate worlds to explore. These worlds are virtual histories, with many details changed to suit the game's narrative. If our retelling of history alters the past, can we still learn valuable lessons from it?