My current research at Brock University centers around the ability of computers and games to simulate and represent how systems work in the context of history. Many historians have used agent-based simulations to represent battle scenarios or migration patterns. But these simulations have limited interaction: essentially the researcher interacts (or plays) with the system to test his scenarios. In contrast, games can allow historians and their audience the opportunity to explore counter-factual scenarios. Games are also ‘persuasive’; they can represent how an argument about how a system works (see Ian Bogost). I am using Benjamin Franklin as a case study of the spreading of enlightened and revolutionary ideas. My research project describe a game based on this case study where the main game mechanic is the spreading of ideas. In this way, I am looking to the past to find new forms of interaction and game play.