This book is about the mechanism of technology trees, used to represent the history of technology in historical strategy games. In these games, the progress of technology is captured in complex tree-like diagrams. How do they represent technological progress, what technologies are selected and how does this relate to both real history? Balancing on the disciplinary crossroads of game studies and science and technology studies, this book explores this curious 'tech tree' mechanism by comparing four strategy games: Civilization 4, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations and Empire Earth. After...