What do armchair historians like you and me think of the fact

Just marathoned this thread, what did I think of it /his/?

>>1623722
I love roleplaying. I love grand strategy videogames and UN/historic simulations.
It's a good thing. Now I'm 1% less alone and my Asperger's finally is useful. It's fun. I'm happy with it. I would like to one day see everyone at work be into alternate history and in the lunch breaks instead of playing smartphone games alone I will be able to discuss with my newly found friends how could the Asai beat Oda in the battle of Anegawa River, or how the Habsburgs could have made colonies in South America.

>>1623722
I don't care, plebs gonna pleb, what am I supposed to do about it?
I try not to get mad about shit that has nothing to do with me.

>>1623722

No, no and I dont care.

I don't care.

Personally I'd rather someone do an alt history game than mishandle actual history like with the new battlefield game. Of actually well researched historical games are also welcome, but rare.

That said even if they mishandle real history I don't care that much, if idiots are going to take a videogame as gospel they probably already have retarded views of history anyway. Studying history isn't some sort of secret club that's going to be taken over my normies, normies are already exposed to bad / manipulative history at such a rate that videogames won't make a big difference.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AlternateHistory/VideoGames
really makes you think huh

>>1623722
This isn't a /his/ thread, you homosexual

>>1623722
I don't even mind alternate history per se, but I do mind that 90% of alternate historical fiction is absolute shit.

I'm talking about utter garbage like Stirling (truly the worst) or even Turtledove whose novels operate on the principle of "let's change one event while other things remain the exact same" not realizing how interconnected world events are.

And people on /his/ do this shit too. For example there's been retards who argued that if communists didn't overthrow the tzar, Russia would've lost to Hitler, not realizing that Hitler wouldn't declare a war on Russia if it wasn't for the communists in the first place.

>>1623788

Hitler might not have even gotten in if not for the Bolshevik bogeyman, but in terms of historical fiction I think it's excusable because it's almost impossible to effectively predict what the butterfly effect of something would be, so you just pick something manageable and roll with it that way to create a coherent narrative.

Alternative history discussion always will be nothing more than storytelling, though. It becomes more and more of a worthless exercise the further back you go, there's very little about it that's in any way academic.

>>1623767
It's about videogames which are my religion so therefore it's Humanities which is allowed here :^)

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>>1623722
all of it is retarded and unrealistic as hell

>>1623801
Alternate historical fiction truly is just pulp literature that gives the author liberty to push WHAT IF ADOLF HITLER FOUGHT THE AZTECS ??? and other neckbeard meme fantasies.

>>1623823

I don't disagree.

I think it's an interesting creative thing, and I don't have problems with fiction that does it. It's fun to theorize how things could have panned out differently.

I do take issue with people doing historical "what-ifs" and debating them as if they're completely certain what the outcome would be, and act like it's a legitimate argument in a debate.

Zipang's pretty good so far as alternate history stories go

>>1623722
Most people can't be bothered to learn actual history, so they make themselves feel smart by consuming media that vastly generalizes alternate histories in the vein of 'What would have happened if x', in order to rub their faux-intelligence in the faces of eachother.

>>1623870

People do that with pop-history all the time, but I've never heard of someone go "I've read The Man in the High Castle so I'm an expert on WWII."

So this is the /his/ equivalent of complaining about casuelz, right?

>these normal people have fun with things I don't like, while I have my superior intellectual stuff

>>1623955
Casual spotted

dude what if the nazis had machine guns xD

>>1623722
neither of those things are true and ur wrong

>>1623788

>For example there's been retards who argued that if communists didn't overthrow the tzar, Russia would've lost to Hitler, not realizing that Hitler wouldn't declare a war on Russia if it wasn't for the communists in the first place.

I'm not entirely sure about that.

Hitler really wanted Russia's land. Yes, he also wasn't fond of commies but that wasn't his primary motivation for invading the Soviet Union, at least according to his own words. He wanted more land for agriculture, and the Soviets had lots of land that he wanted. Simple as that.

>>1623722
Hipsters will never undermine the house that Turtledove built.

>>1623722
>is now a trend
>trend
means by definition it is fleeting temporary and thus not worthy of major concern

>running into the ground
please explain how other people's enjoyment of something affects your own

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>>1623736
> newly found friends

That made me sad, anon. I hope you aren't too lonely. If so,try picking up a hobby like guitar and get good at it, then start making friends at the music shop and SLOWLY get them into history. It worked for me.

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>>1626402
>not S.M. "Bisexual Afrikaner-Confederate-Icelander Nihilist Master Race" Stirling

Enjoy your Inglorious Basterds assassinating Hitler if you can, the Looney Tunes did similar things better and funnier back when he was still around.

In brief, my interest for contemporary fiction is best described as "dying."

>>1623722
It's fine. Ultimately to make alternate history any fun you have to know the real history to begin with so it educates people.

>>1625687
Hitler didn't want specifically Russia's land, Hitler wanted living space for Germans in general. He only started looking towards Russian land after one particular event, guess which.

>>1626402
>Turtledove
>not shit

>>1623722
Alternate history fiction is older than dirt and has always been popular.

Kill yourself.

>>1626756
I'll let you shit on everything he's written with the exceptions of Guns of the South and How Few Remain.

How Few Remain is an excellent book.

One of the best explorations of a victorious CSA that I've seen.

Also his Hot War series is at the very least novel.

I don't mind it. At all. In fact I loved it. Stuff like Wolfenstein and such is so much nicer to play than generic red and black fantasy sci fi empikre.

>>1626935
How Few Remain is pretty great I agree, probably the best althis book ever written. But Guns of the South is pure shit.

>>1626938
I'm honestly guilty of liking Wolfenstein as well but objectively I have to admit it's utter trash.

>>1623722
Is playing Dominions alternate history?

>>1623722
>alternate history is now a trend that hipster media is piggybacking on and running into the ground
Since when?

>>1623788
This. I there are some pretty good alternative history scenarios but some of them have this fetish for bringing back things from the dead that would never return, such as the polish-lithuanian Commonwealth or Byzantium.

>>1627092
this

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Dominus vobiscum.