Associate Professor Nathan Wise teaches history theory and practice, and is particularly interested in the cultural history of military labour. After hours, board games are his passion - everything from card games with the kids to complex, days-long history-themed campaign games.
What is your private passion and how did it develop?
Aside from history, my other primary passion is board gaming. I'll play pretty much any game with family and friends, but I particularly love highly complex, historically themed games that take a whole day, or more, to play. It's very rewarding to develop a long-term strategy, to construct the elements needed to bring that to fruition, and to see how that all unfolds.
For me, the best game designs are those that offer a fascinating and engaging narrative.
Some game designers spend years, even decades, designing and refining their games. The degree of historical research and creative thinking behind those designs makes the final product something to respect.
My interest in gaming has changed over time. I've loved board games since I was a little kid, when I enjoyed playing The Game of Life, Ludo, and lots of card games. As I grew up I developed a passion for more complex games, and, more recently, games that draw on historical themes to engage their audiences. But that doesn't stop me appreciating party games, light 'filler' games, and, particularly, games that I can play with my kids!
2. What does it involve and how much of your time does it consume?
We have regular gaming evenings with friends, and on the weekends we'll tend to play a few family games. Occasionally we'll schedule a weekend - usually right after our teaching results are submitted - to play a larger 'brain burner' that could take up the whole weekend. A great example of this is Here I Stand, where up to six players 'play through' the Reformation period in European History. In between all this, friends and I discuss new releases, new innovations in game design, new designers, new art styles, and all sorts of stuff associated with board games.
3. How does this passion enrich your life?
Primarily, it's fun to bring people together over a board game to share the experience. It can be a light and fun game like Cards Against Humanity, Monikers, or Werewolf, something for the family like Santorini, Cockroach Poker, Treasure Island, or something complex with friends, like Die Macher [a game about German elections], Cooper Island [a game about cultivating your own little peninsula], or Spirit Island [a game where you play as a 'Spirit' fighting against colonial invaders].
Different games create different experiences, and there's a game for just about every occasion.
4. What (if anything) does this personal passion and your enjoyment of it bring to your working life?
For the most part, board games are about having fun in a social setting, and I'm often gaming with colleagues from around UNE, classicists and historians in particular. But at times there's a more direct thematic link between the historical games I play, and the historical research and teaching I practise at UNE. And sometimes my working life can interfere with gaming as I can be critical of historical representations. Another friend is a medical practitioner and he likes to play games oriented around hospitals and health care - we've been playing a complex game called Clinic. So I think there's something in us that likes to take a light-hearted look at the work we do, and to engage with that subject matter in a slightly different way.
