Virtual history : how videogames portray the past Historians consumers and the videogame industry The meaning and presentation of history Portraying historical research Designer preference vs. marketability Designer intent and consumer reception Theme and mechanics Mechanics Compression and focus The problem of hindsight bias Contingency and determinism The scholarship of counterfactual history Contingency and technology in civilization Great individuals and events Wars and battles: Hastings and Gettysburg Economics and resource management Economic history Resource management Trade Mercantilism in games portraying the early modern era Laissez faire and planned economies Ecology and the environment Environmental history and the Columbian Exchange Applying the Columbian Exchange in the virtual world Disease Climate change and geological events Culture and ethnicity The cultural turn in history Characterizing cultures in action videogames Characterizing cultures in strategy games Religion Gender Gender in the study of history Sexism and the female market for historical videogames Female characters in the virtual past Male characters in the virtual past Portraying non heteronormative gender roles Violence and oppression Historical scholarship on violence and oppression Combat and the treatment of civilians Slavery and genocide The future of the virtual past.