This is a simple, free (and no ads), online, browser game, exploring cause and effect in history. The player is given an event in history, and then must provide a cause or an effect of that event. The player’s hypothesis is scored and evaluated by ChatGPT for likelihood of being true, the strength of the relationship, and how specific is the player’s suggested cause or effect.

There is a YouTube video on how to play the game .

There are currently 7 pre-loaded topics in history, with a simple way to add any new topic from the World History Encyclopedia Timeline. Teacher topics can also be added (see below).

Latest version: 0.761. Do shift-reload to be sure to have the latest. Because of the frequent input of text, the game works best on a computer or tablet or netbook. It will work on a phone with microphone input for the text.

There are 4 variants of the game:

In the Singles game, players provide either a cause for a posed effect or an effect for a posed cause. These are evaluated and scored by ChatGPT. The game ends after 10 (user setting) turns.

There are 3 ‘network’ games, chaining events together. In all three network games, players add events to the game board that are causes (left) or effects (right) of an event on the board. Each addition is evaluated and scored by ChatGPT.

  • In the Turns game, the game ends after 10 (user setting) turns, highest score wins. At the start, there is one event in the middle of the board.
  • The Target game has a start event on the left and a target or goal event on the right. The first person to successfully connect their last node to the target event (score higher or equal to the Winning Link Score) gets 100 bonus points, ends the game, and probably wins.
  • The AI game is the same as the Target game except that ChatGPT adds an event after every node added by a player.

Cooperative Game (Target and AI variants)

To play a cooperative game, set the number of players to 1, then the team takes turns and discusses each move toward the target.

Uniqueness of this game

This game does not teach, does not test, and does not help students memorize content, though learning the content is an unavoidable side-effect. The evaluations provided often introduce important views on a topic, but that is not the key value. This game leads (requires) the players/students to think about history as a large web of interrelated, causal events.

History Teachers

This game is designed to allow addition of any list of events for any topic in history. All it takes is a simple text list of events (at least 10) in a history topic. As soon as these are put on our server, they appear in the game, with your own topic name so your students can play the game with your events. Please contact me at [email protected] if you are an interested history teacher.

There is no cost, and we make no revenue or remuneration of any kind from this game.

Copyright 2024 David Marques, Phosphor Learn, [email protected]
UX suggestions from Greg Marques, Matt Corkum, and Patrick Doncaster.
Many of the items from the Fall of Civilizations topic are taken from Paul Cooper’s podcast and book of the same name.
Most topics with dated events used with permission from
The World History Encyclopedia Timeline.
Human Evolution and Culture entries from the
TIMELINE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION by C. Patrick Doncaster,
used with permission. Visit the timeline at
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/~cpd/history.html