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Counter-hegemonic commemorative play: marginalized pasts and the politics of memory in the digital game Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry
Abstract
In this article, I argue that digital games hold the potential to influence processes of cultural memory related to past and contemporary forms of marginalization. By bringing cultural memory studies into dialogue with game studies, I account for the ways through which digital games and practices of play might influence historical discourses and memory politics pertaining to marginalized identities. In order to demonstrate this, I conduct an analysis of Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry, a digital game which includes representation of the eighteenth-century transatlantic slave trade and its racist systems. This analysis is then contrasted with statements by two critics, Evan Narcisse and Justin Clark, about how Freedom Cry highlights specific marginalized identities and represents the past through the game form. These statements, coupled with my game analysis, make the case for a concept that I term ‘counter-hegemonic commemorative play’. This makes visible a form of potentially cathartic power fantasy within a historical struggle, alongside emphasizing a form of designed recognition of marginalized identities within contemporary historical discourses and memory politics.
... Los videojuegos, como cualquier producto cultural, no sólo entretienen, sino que también producen y reproducen un sistema previo de valores, creencias e ideologías dominantes, redificando las relaciones de poder establecidas (Venegas, 2020;García, 2018;Sacchi, 2018). Por un lado, la globalización trata de extender marcos ideológicoculturales comunes mediante la repetición de imágenes (Hammar, 2016), identificadas por Venegas (2018aVenegas ( , 2020 como retro-lugares, y dirigidas a la sociedad de masas. Por otro, los Estados-nación/nacionalismos/bloques culturales intentan generar narrativas excluyentes para reforzar el control ideológico, influir en la geopolítica o instalar mitos y cosmovisiones en los marcos mentales del consumidor acrítico con esta propaganda (Bijsterveld, 2022;Moreno, 2022;Venegas, 2020). ...
... Se trata de un proceso de subjetivación de las memorias percibidas como historia (Venegas, 2018b(Venegas, , 2020(Venegas, , 2022, capaces de generar la ilusión en el usuario de estar aprendiendo historia mientras se juega (Venegas, 2018b). A esta interpretación hegemónica, habrían de añadirse los intentos realizados desde posiciones ideológicas contrahegemónicas y subalternas por reapropiarse del medio, y proponerse como herramienta emancipadora desde los márgenes (García, 2018;González, 2018;Hammar, 2016) o como una nueva lógica de mercado (Politopoulos et al., 2019;García, 2018;González, 2018;Venegas, 2018a;Venegas, 2022). ...
... Esta descripción de los patrones de representación analizados refuerza la teoría de que los personajes femeninos en los videojuegos reproducen y perpetúan los roles de género tradicionales (Amores, 2018;Chapman et al., 2017;Cross, 2022;Curiel, 2018;Pérez, 2018). Pese a la pretensión de los desarrolladores de crear juegos históricos realistas (Vanderwalle et al., 2022) los resultados arrojan más evidencias sobre una visión androcéntrica, patriarcal y heteronormativa, infrarrepresentando las diversidades de género, y adaptándolas a los patrones sociológicos y antropológicos de la cultura y la estética europeas (Banker, 2020;Bondioli et al. 2019;Burgess y Jones, 2022;Chirchiano y Tusseli (2016);Fernández-Ruiz, 2021;García, 2018;González, 2018;Hammar, 2016;Jones y Osborne, 2020;Scarassati, 2019;Sequeiros y Puente, 2020;Trivi, 2018;Waszkiewicz, 2021). En ese sentido, los personajes femeninos que, en el sistema actancial, se ajustan a su consideración de 'objeto' y a roles sociales víctima-pasivos, son mayoritariamente coincidentes. ...
Esta investigación tiene como objetivo analizar los roles de los personajes protagonistas femeninos reproducidos en uno de los videojuegos de aventuras de mundo abierto, catalogado como histórico, con mayor repercusión en la actualidad: Assassin’s Creed. A partir de la necesidad educativa de examinar los estereotipos de
género de las narrativas audiovisuales y representaciones iconográficas proyectadas por los videojuegos de contenido histórico, se realizó un análisis de contenido cualitativo desde un diseño de investigación no experimental transversal, de corte
documental-descriptivo, de estas representaciones. De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos, continúa siendo necesario deconstruir los relatos históricos hegemónicos y sesgados, y promover la inclusión de otras realidades contra-hegemónicas y no normativas en torno a la construcción de identidades de género plurales.
... By drawing upon recent approaches that frame digital games towards cultural memory studies and vice versa, this article aims to provide a framework addressing digital games as cultural objectivations. The subfield of historical games, among others, is increasingly inspired, or directly borrowed, from memory studies and scholars (see Hammar 2017Hammar , 2019aHammar , 2019bHammar , 2020Cooke, & Hubbell 2015;Pötzsch, & Šisler 2016;Šisler 2016), which heightens the importance of bridging the knowledge of memory, literary, and game studies. Hence, we suggest understanding digital games as 'sites of memory', a concept that relies on two fundamental assumptions: first, that digital games can convey cultural memory and take part in a broader, transmedia memory framework; second, that this conveyance can be fruitfully addressed and understood by approaching digital games as texts. ...
... We may therefore dedicate particular attention to representation in analysing memory-making and digital games. This does not mean that digital games are limited to representation: in digital games, represented cultural memory can be manipulated, transformed, affected by players (see Hammar, 2017Hammar, , 2019aHammar, , 2019b. ...
... By using this framework, game designers may put the representation they would like to implement in their game in relation with a broader cultural memory framework -therefore not only avoiding possible misunderstanding and misreadings (i.e., possible mismatches between the production-side and the reception-side functionalisation of the site of memory) and favouring the construction of certain implied designers but, most importantly, acknowledging the complexity of the memory framework they are borrowing elements from, and therefore reflecting on hegemonically biased representational traditions, on ideologically-influenced clichés, and so on and so forth (see Hammar, 2017Hammar, , 2019aHammar, , 2019bHammar, & Woodcock, 2020;Mukherjee, 2016Mukherjee, , 2017Sterczewski, 2019). ...
Basing on an understanding of digital games as cultural objectivations, this article suggests interpreting them as sites of memory, or in other words as ‘carrier’ of cultural memory. By merging game studies, literary studies, and memory studies, we aim at providing a theoretical framework useful to frame different kinds of representation within (and beyond) digital games towards cultural memory. The framework is inspired by Paul Ricoeur and his threefold model of textual mimesis and favours an approach to digital games that takes into account how they represent and re-configure pre-existent cultural forms, and therefore get refigured into novel ones during, after, and beyond the game experience.
... With all its intricate processes, colonialism, both as an ideology and a historical period, has been a rich source of inspiration for contemporary popular culture, whether in the form of movies, novels, digital games, or analogue games. The popularity of digital games has triggered considerable academic effort into analysing how these popular culture artefacts touch upon issues that are related directly or indirectly to colonial themes and the ways in which these games construct various conceptions of space, race, identity, political systems, ethics, and society through historical re-enactment and representations (Brock, 2011;Chapman, 2016;Hammar, 2017;Higgin, 2008;Lammes, 2010;Langer, 2008;Magnet, 2006;Martin, 2016;Mukherjee, 2016;Poor, 2012;Vrtacic, 2014;Young, 2016). However, despite several publications in outlets such as the open-access journal Analog Game Studies, this popular trend has yet to be matched by academic literature in the board games (tabletop or analogue games) domain (Wilson, 2015); something that is all the more important given the growing size of this segment of the market (Jolin, 2016). ...
... In all these games, the player has the same perspective, that of a colonist, and has to choose among performing similar activities across the games, activities that seem to be common to Eurogames featuring a colonial theme: harvest natural resources, manage populations, build, trade, expand, and conquer. Nevertheless, it is important to note that both fictional cultural expressions, such as board games, and allegedly factual ones, such as historiographic documentaries, offer only representations of the past and do not reflect historical realities as such (Hammar, 2017). That said, ...
... we have to add that, at least in a digital context, there are games with a colonial theme that cast the player in the role of the colonised (Hammar, 2017). As a side note, following Elizabeth LaPensée's refreshing approach to game design, which advocates for ' culturally responsive gameplay, meaning gameplay that is drawn from and that uplifts the cultures involved', it would be interesting to see board games on the theme of colonialism with different mechanics than the ones mentioned above, possibly mechanics such as ' collaboration, stewardship, generosity, and gratitude' (LaPensée, 2016: n. pag.). ...
With all its intricate processes, colonialism, both as an ideology and a historical period, has been a rich source of inspiration for contemporary popular culture, whether in the form of movies, novels, digital games, or analogue games. This article presents a critical analysis of colonial representations in three examples of the latter: 'Puerto Rico' (2002), 'Struggle of Empires' (2004), and 'Archipelago' (2012). These three games are simulation, strategy type Eurogames, with rules designed to emulate and reproduce two time periods: first-wave European colonialism ('Puerto Rico; Archipelago') and 18th-century European colonial expansion ('Struggle of Empires'). On BoardGameGeek.com, where users have ranked more than 87,000 board games and extensions, these three are in the top three-hundred overall, with more than 3,000 votes each. Building on John McLeod’s definition of colonialism and interpretation of colonial economies, Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, and Gayatri Spivak’s theory of subalternity, this comparative study examines representations of: a) the otherness of colonial subjects in relation to colonisers; b) indigenous peoples’ agency and subaltern voice; c) expressions of the indigenous culture; and d) Eurocentrism. The analysis investigates the denotative and connotative meanings of game rules, game mechanics, artwork, and tiles, critically assessing how these might influence the player’s cultural, social, and aesthetic experience of the ideological and historical context. In so doing, the article attempts to raise awareness about how these games (mis)represent colonial realities and relations.
... Although a such perspective is not completely alien to digital-game analysis, it is worth pointing out that most existing postcolonial research focuses mainly on two issues: the representation of real-world races and the historical colonial past (Berger, 2008;Harrer and Pichlmair, 2015;Höglund, 2008;Martin, 2016;Shaw, 2015;Šisler, 2008), and the imperial legacy of strategy games (Euteneuer, 2018;Magnet, 2006;Mukherjee, 2017). In both cases, the research aims at either criticizing the medium as inherently colonial and beyond redemption (Breger, 2008;Fuchs et al., 2018, Harrer, 2018, or seeking how digital games could introduce postcolonial subjectivity (Apperley, 2018;Ford, 2016;Hammar, 2017;Lammes, 2010;Lammes and Smale, 2018;Mukherjee, 2015) and struggle to bring a critical perspective to the colonial legacy (Hammar, 2017;Felczak, 2020). ...
... Although a such perspective is not completely alien to digital-game analysis, it is worth pointing out that most existing postcolonial research focuses mainly on two issues: the representation of real-world races and the historical colonial past (Berger, 2008;Harrer and Pichlmair, 2015;Höglund, 2008;Martin, 2016;Shaw, 2015;Šisler, 2008), and the imperial legacy of strategy games (Euteneuer, 2018;Magnet, 2006;Mukherjee, 2017). In both cases, the research aims at either criticizing the medium as inherently colonial and beyond redemption (Breger, 2008;Fuchs et al., 2018, Harrer, 2018, or seeking how digital games could introduce postcolonial subjectivity (Apperley, 2018;Ford, 2016;Hammar, 2017;Lammes, 2010;Lammes and Smale, 2018;Mukherjee, 2015) and struggle to bring a critical perspective to the colonial legacy (Hammar, 2017;Felczak, 2020). ...
... Another challenge lies in the power mass-media producers exert over the chosen depictions of memory in their product, the perspectives they may promote, and the voices they may choose to empower, with the aim to make a game more easily digestible for mass audiences, and, therefore, more lucrative [45]. It is important for game developers to understand that how the game depicts people and groups of people in its reconstruction of the past, alongside their role, predicaments and potential actions in contested historical moments, is very likely to shape players' perception and understanding of these events [46]. ...
Video games are maturing as a medium to tell stories inspired by historical struggles and real-life experiences. In this regard, they could work as a mechanism in Transitional Justice pursuit. In this paper, we argue that games can become agents for promoting education, reconciliation and healing. We hence identify means by which museums and video games create empathy, reported in recent literature, and draw inceptive parallels between museum space design philosophies and design choices in modern video game experiences. Finally, we identify in the literature that there is a lack of a framework bringing together experts in memory and heritage studies with game developers, to derive guidelines for developing empathy-inducing games around sensitive topics. Thus, we propose a methodological approach on the creation of such a framework. This framework would instrument a collaborative effort to apply domain adaptation of the strategies and design philosophies for memory and Transitional Justice museum exhibitions to video game storytelling frameworks and mechanics.
... A concern with the historical record and the accuracy of the events does not need to exclude non-hegemonic understandings of historical phenomena. In his analysis of Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry, Emil Ludendal Hammar shows how, by exploring non-hegemonic experiences, in this case via a former slave in the 18th century Caribbean, video games can offer nuanced approximations of polemical topics while also being commercially successful (Hammar, 2017). I believe that simulating the crusades in gaming demands similar nuance. ...
Ancestors Legacy is a 2018 real-time strategy video game set in the Middle Ages. The game was developed by the controversial Polish studio Destructive Creations, whose members have been accused of sympathizing and supporting far-right movements online. This ideological support can be seen in their video games, some of which have included the use of crusading medievalisms in line with the civilizational-conflict narrative often espoused by far-right movements: i.e. the idea that Christianity is embarked in a never-ending battle with Islam and other cultures, of which the crusades are just an episode. Nevertheless, Ancestors Legacy categorically condemns the crusades as unfair and hypocritical, a statement backed by a reasonably accurate recounting of the events. Upon closer inspection, however, this accuracy is superficial and molded by a larger ideological framework about the Middle Ages and the crusades. This article argues that the game occupies the dissonant space of condemning crusading but adopting it as an unavoidable part of the clash of civilizations that lasts until this day, hence justifying the player exercising the very violence it condemns. This is an example of what Adrienne Shaw has called the tyranny of realism: an obsession with accuracy in video games, based on hegemonic and audience-driven perceptions of the past that do not allow for a critical and emancipatory approximation to history.Banner image taken from the press kit for Ancestors Legacy (2018, Destructive Creations).
... Los 'videojuegos de historia' (Venegas, 2022) producen narrativas hegemónicas que subjetivan las memorias transmitidas como históricas a través de retro-lugares (Venegas, 2018b;Venegas, 2020), favorecen la ilusión del consumidor de estar aprendiendo historia mientras se juega y redifican las relaciones de poder establecidas (García, 2018;Sacchi, 2018). A pesar de los intentos por disputar el medio vídeo-lúdico y proponer experiencias emancipadoras, desde los márgenes, para la transformación y la renegociación, los videojuegos de historia mediática dominan el mercado (González, 2018;Hammar, 2016;Sequeiros y Puente, 2020;Venegas 2018a;Venegas, 2022). Desde la crítica con perspectiva de género, se evidencia la sobre-presentación y sobre-sexualización de los personajes femeninos, la asignación de roles pasivos y 'no jugables' (Cross et al., 2022), los estereotipos de género, la violencia ejercida contra las mujeres (Curiel, López-Fernández et al., 2019;Pérez, 2018) y la supeditación de los personajes femeninos a los personajes masculinos en los videojuegos (Amores, 2018). ...
... Numerous scholars from these disciplines have drawn upon the representation of gender(Bondioli, Texeira-Bastos and Carneiro, 2019), gender play(Steenbakker, 2022), the gamification of slave resistance(Lauro, 2020), or divergent politics of memory(Hammar, 2017) in the Assassin's Creed games. ...
This paper explores how video games can enhance learning in the higher education Humanities classroom through play and critical discussions. Through the observation of two case studies, it aims to highlight important concepts and considerations and serve as a platform for future research and debate. The first case study utilised Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization (Firaxis Games, 2008) and involved first-year History students. They were encouraged to take part in critical assessment and discussion by pairing gameplay with lecture content featuring the same moments in history they experienced in the game. This led to the students being able to better challenge historical narratives through holistic reflexive engagement. The second case study used GreedFall (Spiders, 2019) to encourage students to question historical inaccuracies and utopian diversity. Through connecting gameplay to module outcomes, students unconsciously adopted a critical eye which indicates how the game can be used to debate race, Western imagination, and imperialism. We conclude that gaming in the classroom is an engaging way to deliver content and it enables students to develop critical and reflexive thinking within playful spaces. As such, this article focuses on the students studying the humanities and discusses the video game as a medium to identify and analyse ideologies, and gaming as a way of developing reflexive critical thinking and analytic skills.
... Scholarly work in the field varies from issues of historical textual representation to videogames' function as a sort of historical representation in and of itself; archeogaming [20]- [22]; using videogames to teach students about history [23], and research into player reception of historical accuracy and heritage in videogames [24] [25]. Individual studies are often carried out on popular franchises such as Assassin's Creed [26]- [28] and Sid Meier's Civilisation [20], or the excessive amount of videogames concerned with representing the American West [29], World Wars [20], [30]- [32] or other lesserrepresented conflicts(Sterczewski 2016). In contrast, academics are interested in the history of particular games, the industry, and technological or hardware improvements. ...
Virtual environments have numerous potentials for assisting the general public in experiencing cultural heritage, complementing current tools and practices centered on tangible goods such as museums, exhibitions, books, and visual content. Video games designed for educational purposes, which are becoming increasingly popular, have emerged as a new method of learning cultural content engagingly. The learning experience's specific goal distinguishes the educational use of video games. There is little doubt that we can learn from video games, but the more difficult questions about who, what, where, why, and how quickly we learn are not easily answered. This study examines the role of commercial video games in history learning and aims to enhance their effectiveness by analyzing their potential and limitations, using strategic planning and network analysis models. Through a case study on the Lotf Ali Khan game, it identifies strategies for improving history education through commercial video games. In this case study, it can be utilized to establish a conceptual framework for current trends in deployments of the past in historically focused video games, as well as a SWOT-ANP analysis to determine the major ways in which historical video games can aid in learning the subject matter under assessment. The data for this case study includes secondary sources and documents, fieldwork, observations, and semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants, as with other case studies (experts and children). Following the results, successful implementation occurs when a video game fully utilizes the following opportunities: antiquarian, monumental, and critical elements; wish story; composite imagination; borrowed authenticity; historical provenance; and legitimacy
... Sterczewski (2016) incorporates the framework in his discussion of Polish games about the war, illustrating how they present a layered negotiation between dominant conventions of war-themed digital entertainment games on the one hand and national commemorative discourses about the war in Poland on the other. And Hammar (2017) adopts the framework as a starting point to discuss how the game Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry (Ubisoft Montreal, 2014), centered on the experiences of a black protagonist living in the Caribbean during the period of the Transatlantic slave trade, can subvert existing hegemonic historical narratives through counter-hegemonic ludic memory-making. ...
Ever since the emergence of digital gaming as a popular pastime, the Second World War has been one of its major sources of inspiration. This article contributes to the study of the memory-making potential of historical digital entertainment games, by offering an analysis of The Saboteur, an American game that is set in France during the Second World War and that offers a depiction of an explorable open game world occupied by the Nazi regime. Through an analysis of a game's paratextual positioning, its ludic social discourse, and instances of perceived ludonarrative dissonance from a historical and cultural memory perspective, the article concludes that the game offers a romanticized representation of male violent resistance against the Nazi occupier who is depicted as Manichaeistically evil and a-historically violent. This representation equally reconfirms the dominant cultural memory narratives formulated in France and the United States during and immediately after the war.
... Another challenge lies in the power mass-media producers exert over the chosen depictions of memory in their product, the perspectives they may promote, and the voices they may choose to empower, with the aim to make a game more easily digestible for mass audiences, and, therefore, more lucrative [45]. It is important for game developers to understand that how the game depicts people and groups of people in its reconstruction of the past, alongside their role, predicaments and potential actions in contested historical moments, is very likely to shape players' perception and understanding of these events [46]. ...
... Dentro del ámbito de la educación, algunos autores como Téllez e Iturriaga (2014), Yelle y Joly-Lavoie (2017), Karsenti y Parent (2020) y Leiva y Ortiz (2020) han evidenciado las posibilidades didácticas de esta franquicia para el aprendizaje de la historia. Quizá, en el marco de los historical game studies es donde ha visto la luz un mayor número de investigaciones cuyo propósito se ha focalizado en analizar los discursos sobre el pasado en esta saga de videojuegos, prestando especial atención a la forma en la que la memoria cultural, los procesos históricos y las cuestiones ideológicas influyen en la construcción de sus relatos (El-Nasr, Al-Saati, Niedenthal y Milam, 2008;Jiménez, 2011aJiménez, , 2011bHuber, 2014;Fischer, 2014;Menon, 2015;Shaw, 2015;Hammar, 2016;Radošinská, 2018). Entre las aportaciones teórico-metodológicas que han enriquecido esta línea de investigación, Dow (2013) incorporó la disciplina de la Historia del Arte al análisis del paisaje urbano de la Florencia del siglo XV recreada en Assassin's Creed II, partiendo de la teoría del simulacro formulada por el sociólogo y filósofo francés Jean Baudrillard. ...
La saga de videojuegos Assassin’s Creed constituye un ejemplo paradigmático por la forma de afrontar el tratamiento de distintas épocas históricas y lugares emblemáticos. Este artículo analiza las fuentes, los modelos y los referentes que contribuyeron a configurar los paisajes urbanos de Tierra Santa durante la Tercera Cruzada, a partir de la metodología de los estudios visuales. Las conclusiones demuestran que la verosimilitud que se consigue en los gamespaces diseñados transita entre la fidelidad histórica y la libertad creativa, que abre las puertas a la confluencia de diferentes estilos histórico-artísticos y modelos arquitectónicos en Jerusalén, Masyaf, Damasco y Acre.
... In order to demonstrate how players and gaming communities unpick this arbitrariness, I will turn to the notion of counterfactual history to argue that historical strategy games are used to explore counterfactual histories (Apperley, 2013;Chapman, 2016;Shaw, 2015). They act as tools for cultivating what I have described elsewhere as the ' counterfactual imaginary' (Apperley, 2013: 190), a creative process where players use historical games to negotiate the terrain of mass media popular history according to their own predilections (see also Hammar, 2016). The process and product of play in this case is a personal expression that remixes everyday popular history which creates scope for an expression of identity that challenges the hegemony of official history. ...
The genre of history strategy games is a crucial area of study because of what is at stake in the representation of controversial aspects of history in popular culture. Previous work has pointed to various affordances and constraints in the representation of history, based on the framing of the game interface, the alignment of goals with certain strategies and textual criticism of the contents of the games. In contrast, this article examines these games from the perspective of the player’s experience of play in relation to a wider gaming community. It is in these counterfactual communities that players negotiate their individual experience with their knowledge of the history that is presented in the games that they play, indicating that the relationship between digital games, players and history is highly contextual. The relevant practices of players of history strategy games are illustrated with examples from the official and unofficial communities of the Paradox Interactive games Europa Universalis II and Victoria: Empire Under the Sun. The shared paratexts demonstrate how positions are negotiated in relation to the ‘official’ version of history presented in the games. These negotiations are made tangible through the production and sharing of paratexts that remix the official history of the games to include other perspectives developed through counterfactual imaginations. These findings indicate the importance of including perspectives from gaming communities to support other forms of analysis in order to make rigorous observations about the impact of digital games on popular history.
... We also acknowledge that "Video games are already recognized as a component of the increasingly diverse ways in which we frame and consider the concept of 'heritage'though so far, scholars have most often discussed and critiqued the depiction of history (as cultural heritage) in video games themselves (e.g., Cassone, 2016;Copplestone, 2017;Reinhard, 2018)" (Zeiler and Thomas, 2020). While most studies on games and heritage so far still concentrate on history as an aspect of cultural heritage (e.g., Hammar, 2017;Pötzsch andŠisler, 2016;Shaw, 2013), there are also some examples for studies which understand heritage in a broader sense and as including elements beyond history, such as specific art forms, Indigenous heritage, and religion (e.g., Campbell and Grieve, 2014;Longboat, 2017;Radde-Antweiler, Waltemathe and Zeiler, 2014). Building on such a broader understanding of heritage as related to games, we also acknowledge the fact that some academics consider games to be part of cultural heritage in their own rights (e.g., Barwick, Dearnley and Muir, 2011). ...
Game development and production practices are complex and highly reflected processes—worldwide. This explorative article discusses video game development as a cultural and creative industry in India, including the industry’s history and introducing recent trends which indicate profound transformations—the use and implementation of Indian cultural heritage in game settings. In the rather short history of Indian game development as compared to other countries—a significant number of games made in India first were produced around 2010—the industry has already lived through big changes and challenges. This article aims at introducing Indian game development and argues that especially independent (so-called indie) game studios in their search for their own, region-specific game development and stand-alone characteristics for Indian games increasingly turn to what they perceive as their own cultural heritage, including, for example, elements from history, art (music, dance, dress styles, and others), and architecture.
... Many of today's most commercially successful war-themed games play out in what are framed as authentic real-world settings inspired by historical events. Consequently, the role of games in mediating history and cultural memory has become a well-established research area in the discipline of game studies (see for example Chapman 2016, Chapman, Foka, and Westin 2017, Hammar 2017, Kempshall 2015, Kapell and Elliott 2013, Whalen and Taylor 2008. This is a theme that runs throughout the present volume, but it is a particular focus in part two of the book. ...
This interdisciplinary volume brings together scholars from games studies, media and cultural studies, politics and international relations, and related fields to examine the complex relationships between military-themed videogames and real-world conflict, and to consider how videogames might deal with history, memory, and conflict in alternative ways. It asks: What is the role of videogames in the formation and negotiation of cultural memory of past wars? How do game narratives and designs position the gaming subject in relation to history, war and militarism? And how far do critical, anti-war/peace games offer an alternative or challenge to mainstream commercial titles?
... First, a study entitled "Counter-Hegemonic Commemorative Play: Marginalized Pasts and the Politics of Memory in the Digital Game Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry" by Emil Lundedal Hammar. Hammar argued that digital games hold a great potential in influencing cultural memory which related with past, contemporary forms of marginalization [2]. Second, Mirt Komel's "Orientalism in Assassin's Creed: Self-orientalizing the Assassin from Forerunners of Modern Terrorism into Occidentalized Heroes. ...
... In 2008, Sicart (2008) was the first to try to bring an overview over the differing views on mechanics and tried to present a comprehensive definition, which is widely cited and used today (Cardoso, 2016;Clementi, 2015;Dubbelman, 2016;Hammar, 2016), but even still, it is not unanimous, as I will show. His definition is: "methods invoked by agents, designed for interaction with the game state," (Sicart, 2008), but before I will dissect this closer, I will first discuss more common definitions of mechanics. ...
This thesis will describe a new framework for analysing and describing how games, narrative, and play work together. The framework, called the "Narrative Quality of Games"-framework, describes the relationship between a game and its narrative, the mechanics and context of the design, and highlights how the narrative is created through play by the relations between a game's ludic and non-ludic elements. A narrative is further divided into a game's rhetoric, aesthetic and afterstory--a result of emergence. The framework is defined to describe the contentious and often uncertain relationship between how a game is made by an author, and how a game is played, and what narratives both parties get out of that. With the framework, five games are analysed, and the framework thus far shows promise for analysing many various games, to highlight their narrative and discoursal content. Further work on using the framework for design is still in question, but potentially possible.
... As historical war games such as This War of Mine (11 bit studios) continue to incorporate elements of what others have called 'critical game design' (Flanagan, 2009), they potentially facilitate critical inquiries of the past within the boundaries of the framed in-game experience (Pötszch, 2017). Games offer potential counternarratives that commemorate marginalized identities and pasts (Hammar, 2016) or ethically and emotionally contested memories of violent pasts (Šisler, 2016). This form of historical war game is therefore particularly important in wars such as the Yugoslav war, where collective memory is contested between post-Yugoslav states. ...
This article examines how war memory circulates, connects and collides on digital media platforms driven by digital publics that form around popular culture. Through a case study of vernacular memory discourses emerging around a game inspired by the Yugoslav war, the article investigates how the commenting practices of YouTube users provide insights into the feelings of belonging of conflict-affected subjects that go beyond ethnicity and exceed geographical boundaries. The comments of 331 videos were analysed, using an open source tool and sequential mixed-method content analysis. Media-based collectivities emerging on YouTube are influenced by the reactive and asynchronous dynamics of comments that stimulate the emergence of micro-narratives. Within this plurality of voices, connective moments focus on shared memories of trauma and displacement beyond ethnicity. However, clashing collective memories cause disputes that reify identification along ethnic lines. The article concludes that memory discourses emerging in the margins of YouTube represent the affective reactions of serendipitous encounters between users of audio-visual content.
... In order to demonstrate how players and gaming communities unpick this arbitrariness, I will turn to the notion of counterfactual history to argue that historical strategy games are used to explore counterfactual histories (Apperley, 2013;Chapman, 2016;Shaw, 2015). They act as tools for cultivating what I have described elsewhere as the ' counterfactual imaginary' (Apperley, 2013: 190), a creative process where players use historical games to negotiate the terrain of mass media popular history according to their own predilections (see also Hammar, 2016). The process and product of play in this case is a personal expression that remixes everyday popular history which creates scope for an expression of identity that challenges the hegemony of official history. ...
The genre of history strategy games is a crucial area of study because of what is at stake in the representation of controversial aspects of history in popular culture. Previous work has pointed to various affordances and constraints in the representation of history, based on the framing of the game interface, the alignment of goals with certain strategies and textual criticism of the contents of the games. In contrast, this article examines these games from the perspective of the player’s experience of play in relation to a wider gaming community. It is in these counterfactual communities that players negotiate their individual experience with their knowledge of the history that is presented in the games that they play, indicating that the relationship between digital games, players and history is highly contextual. The relevant practices of players of history strategy games are illustrated with examples from the official and unofficial communities of the Paradox Interactive games 'Europa Universalis II' and 'Victoria: Empire Under the Sun'. The shared paratexts demonstrate how positions are negotiated in relation to the ‘official’ version of history presented in the games. These negotiations are made tangible through the production and sharing of paratexts that remix the official history of the games to include other perspectives developed through counterfactual imaginations. These findings indicate the importance of including perspectives from gaming communities to support other forms of analysis in order to make rigorous observations about the impact of digital games on popular history.
This paper examines the linguistic landscape of refurbished historical streets to reveal the semiotic construction of antiquity and commodification of heritage. Based on signage data collected from four historical blocs in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo in East China, this study reveals how Chinese semiotic artifacts contribute to stylizing antiquity and reinvigorating the space of consumption. Results suggest that the fabricated historical streets sustain the tourism rhetoric of cultural pride and commercial profit by appealing to history, tradition, exoticism, and nostalgia. The study problematizes orchestrated heritage tourism and points to the use of English as potentially subversive in the Chinese linguistic landscape.
Videogames e jogos eletrônicos são artefatos culturais típicos da modernidade digital. Produtos das sociedades contemporâneas e de suas possibilidades tecnológicas, mas ao mesmo tempo agentes históricos capazes de interferir nestas mesmas sociedades, os videogames podem se configurar em objetos de estudo e fontes históricas para os historiadores. Como abordar estes tipos de fontes? Quais suas potencialidades, desafios – capacidades a serem adquiridas pelos pesquisadores que lidam com elas? Quais as dimensões conceituais a compreender para iniciar este trabalho? No âmbito do Ensino, o que os jogos eletrônicos oferecem para a compreensão da história? Neste livro, Leonardo Dallacqua de Carvalho elabora um estudo sobre as diversas interações entre História e Videogames, e ao mesmo tempo constrói um meticuloso manual que beneficiará todos os que almejem trabalhar com os videogames como fontes históricas.
José D’Assunção Barros
The 21st Century in 100 Games is an interactive public history of the contemporary world. It creates a ludological retelling of the 21st century through 100 games that were announced, launched, and played from the turn of the century. The book analyzes them and then uses the games as a means of entry to examine both key events in the 21st century and the evolution of the gaming industry. Adopting a tri-pronged perspective — the reviewer, the academic, and an industry observer — it studies games as ludo-narratological artefacts and resituates games in a societal context by examining how they affect and are engaged with by players, reviewers, the gaming community, and the larger gaming industry.
This book will be a must read for readers interested in video games, new media, digital culture (s), culture studies, and history.
Gamification and Game-Based Learning is an important studying theme in the field of Computer Science & Education, and Assassin’s Creed, a series of historical games, facilitate social education. This paper will first evaluate the historical and educational significance of Assassin’s Creed of Assassin’s Creed, illustrate that Historical Comparisons, Civilization Diversity and Role-playing are three types of cross-cultural activities working to help education when students playing Assassin’s Creed and finally recommend some innovative strategies for Assassin’s Creed to improve its social education function while keeping its playability. I hope that more producers can co-operate with scholars to design games with their advanced computer technology to achieve the goal of education.
The purpose of this paper is to examine how History and Memory are depicted in the video game series Assassin's Creed from 2007 to 2020. These games aim to recreate various historical periods by immersing the player's character from the present into the memories of their ancestors’ using technology. Assassin's Creed portrays the past through specific means: a narrative conveyed through events, spatially explorable environments, and, most importantly, the ability to interact with these elements. The series presents a supposedly multicultural perspective by offering its own interpretations of “historical truth” and collective memory. I argue contend that cultural products, when reinterpreted in the context of contemporary discussions and their own unique format, significantly influence the perception of certain historical moments in the collective imagination.
With their increasing popularity, digital games have come to stage notions of history and the past for ever broader circles of recipients, thereby shaping what is understood, interpreted, and negotiated as history in popular contexts. Digital games with historical settings not only adopt already successfully popularized and widely mediated images of history. They also integrate current social debates into the historical worlds they construct and recreate. Using three highly popular representatives of the medium as examples, this article examines how the debates about diversity and the representation of People of Color, which have intensified in recent years, inscribe a particular social self-image into the mediated staging of history and thus offer new perspectives on the past.
As we commemorate the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of Charles Dickens's death, this article considers Dickens's afterlife in neo-Victorian narratives of the new millennium, surveying texts that resurrect and reconstruct Dickens as a fictional character. Substantiating Marie-Luise Kohlke's and Christian Gutleben's assertion that “neo-Victorianism is by nature quintessentially Gothic” (4; author's emphasis), the narratives in this survey Gothicize the author, portraying him as a ghost, a ghost-buster, or a metaphorically haunting presence who conjures Victorian-era anxieties that have contemporary relevance. Commercial franchises capitalizing on Dickens for heritage nostalgia (e.g., the Assassin's Creed video games) playfully portray him as a ghost-buster who exorcises troubling spirits, while bio-fictions depicting Dickens's fraught relationships with women (e.g., The Invisible Woman) resurrect Dickens as a stalking presence in women's lives before and after his death. Neo-Victorian novels concerned with Dickens's creative and commercial legacies (e.g., Dan Simmons's Drood) concoct murder mysteries featuring Dickens the mesmerist, whose insidious power over fans, critics, and fellow authors raises troubling questions about celebrity culture and the arts. Similarly, postcolonial narratives (e.g., the television series, The Terror) often conjure Dickens as a specter of imperialism's traumatic legacy. Such neo-Victorian resurrections illustrate how Dickens perpetually haunts the intersection of Victorian and contemporary worlds.
Résumé De nombreux enseignants d'histoire tiennent compte des effets des jeux vidéo sur l'apprentissage des élèves et les utilisent en classe. Si, depuis une dizaine d'années, les didacticiens analysent davantage ces cours, leurs travaux n'étudient guère l'utilisation des jeux vidéo dans l'enseignement de l'histoire. Les recherches empiriques pertinentes sont rares et peu concluantes. Pour aider à résorber ce problème, nous avons comparé l'effet d'un enseignement avec et sans jeu vidéo. Les résultats montrent que les élèves ayant suivi un cours traditionnel ont retenu davantage de connaissances déclaratives que ceux ayant utilisé le jeu.
Abstract Many history teachers consider the impact of video games on student learning and use them in their classrooms. If, for the past 10 years, researchers in history teaching have been interested in such lessons, their work has hardly examined the use of video games in teaching history; significant empirical research is scarce and not decisive. We hence compared the impact of teaching with and without video games. Results show that students who were given a "traditional" lecture memorized more factual knowledge than those who used the game.
Mots-clés : Assassin's Creed, enseignement de l'histoire, enseignement secondaire au Québec, jeu vidéo, pensée historienne.
This chapter investigates relations between race and humour in digital games. Registering these complexities, we then focus on irony with particular focus on ‘Nuclear Gandhi’: the widespread gamer meme that an overflow error in Civilization caused Gandhi to appear as a hyper-aggressive character which, ironically, clashed with the historical record from which the game drew design and aesthetic legitimacy. However, Civilization eminence Sid Meier has recently stated that this is false: the humorous Nuclear Gandhi is in fact a complex entanglement of technical, social, and cultural factors. Drawing on Bhabha’s discussion of ‘sly civility’, we theorise Nuclear Gandhi as ‘cybernetic irony’ in which the collective element of humour is mediated by techno-racial claims to objectivity.
This article studies the ways in which Norwegian fishery history can be explored through games. Using the 1989 closure of the Norwegian coastal cod commons as a case study, issues related to historical thinking and game studies are discussed. The main focus is on understanding history through serious games, but theoretical considerations for presenting the case in any game format are discussed. The case involves a historical resource crisis, and the article traces how a serious game can frame counterfactual imagination for questioning the institutional politics of resource management as well as for producing historical empathy with stakeholders in resource crises.
Can video games afford authentic heritage experiences, comparable to physical visits to a heritage site? How is authenticity of historical settings related to player's immersion? The paper explores these questions by looking at the notions of experience and authenticity in tourism/heritage studies and the experience economy, and mapping them onto the layers of game immersion. As both video games and site visitation are user-centred designed experiences, they share most of their experiential dimensions: five Strategic Experiential Modules (sense, feel, think, act, relate). Linked through the SEMs, five forms of heritage authenticity reveal close correspondence with five (out of six) dimensions of game immersion/involvement. Therefore, player's perception of heritage authenticity in historical settings seems to be intertwined with immersion/incorporation. The dual framework of authenticity/immersion presented here allows for detailed analysis of both, the central example being Assassin's Creed: Unity with its famous representation of the Notre-Dame cathedral.
The worlds of games are important places for us to think about time, as demonstrated by historical game studies in evaluating the past, but there is a role for games to help us consider the future as well. Because games are, to some extent, systems, they facilitate a systems thinking approach that connects the material to the immaterial. Because games also tend to be action-based, they allow thinking through of acts as well as representations. Games allow us to think about a time and place that is different from the present and how it might operate as a system that we could live in. I argue that a post-autonomist method of game analysis requires an explicitly political interpretation that is focused on trying to imagine a political future through experiments in gaming.
This is the introduction to the special issue on video games and cultural heritage.
Media narratives inform our ideas of the future - and Games are currently making a significant contribution to this medial reservoir. On the one hand, Games demonstrate a particular propensity for fantastic and futuristic scenarios. On the other hand, they often serve as an experimental field for the latest media technologies. However, while dystopias are part of the standard gaming repertoire, Games feature utopias much less frequently. Why? This anthology examines playful utopias from two perspectives. It investigates utopias in digital Games as well as utopias of the digital game; that is, the role of ludic elements in scenarios of the future.
Le présent numéro interroge le vaste champ des relations entre jeux vidéo et société, en prenant pour porte d’entrée la question – volontairement polysémique – suivante : « comment les jeux font-ils société ? ». La culture vidéoludique (ses œuvres et ses pra- tiques) s’inscrit toujours dans un contexte social donné qui en détermine largement le fonctionnement, les tensions internes, les évolutions, et qui, en retour, est lui-même représenté, travaillé, réfléchi par cette culture. Les relations et influences liant le jeu et le social peuvent donc prendre des visages multiples et des directions diverses, dont les textes de ce numéro rendent compte tant par la richesse de leurs objets que par la diversité de leurs approches. Nous tâcherons ici de retracer le parcours scientifique que ces regards croisés permettent d’effectuer : partant de la question de la place du jeu (et des joueurs·euses) dans la société contemporaine, nous passerons à celle de la représentation du social dans les jeux, pour enfin aborder la culture ludique comme étant, au-delà d’une figuration du social, un outil de médiation et de sociabilisation à part entière.
The virtual world Second Life invites residents to plan, build and maintain their own social geographies. In this article, I draw on data gathered during a multi-year ethnographic study to explore the intersection between memory, nostalgia, place and belonging in Second Life. The article focuses on two packages of land, or ‘sims’, owned and designed by a single Second Life resident who is one of the most dedicated heritage creators. The 1920s Berlin Project and Time Portal are both popular sims in which physical, historical, locations are recreated and opened to the public to visit, rent commercial or domestic property and engage in the 1920s role play. These sims demand different types of historical engagement. Together, they offer a complex and nuanced portrait of the way Second Life recreates cities of the past.
Research into students’ interactions with historical video games is limited and tends to focus on teacher mediation. As a result, little is known about the meanings that students independently construct as they consume this form of media. This qualitative interview study uses Assassin’s Creed, a narrative video game with a historical setting, as a site of inquiry. Students described a sense of immediate access to history that contrasted with school-based learning, a sense of human connection to people in the past, and increased perception of multiple perspectives in history. They also evidenced a willingness to allow the games to rewrite their beliefs about history, and theorized about the games’ historical accuracy. However, students tended to miss opportunities for critical engagement with this visceral sense of immersive experience. As such, implications are raised regarding ways to promote critical investigation into gameplay experiences as well as the importance of fostering a sense of human connection to history through social education.
In contemporary 'post-secular society', videogames like Assassin's Creed, BioShock Infinite or World of Warcraft are suffused with religious elements. Departing from a critique on studies perceiving such in-game representations as discriminatory forms of religious Othering, the main research question of this article is: how does role-playing the (non-)religious Other in games affect the worldview of players? The study is based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews held with 20 international players from different (non-)religious backgrounds. Rather than seeing religion in games as representations of 'Othering', the analysis demonstrates that players from different (non-)religious beliefs take on different worldviews while role-playing the (non-)religious Other. Atheists relativize their own position, opening up to the logic of religious worldviews; Christians, Hindus and Muslims, in turn, compare traditions and may draw conclusions about the similarities underlying different world religions. Other players 'slip into a secular mindset', gradually turning towards the position of a 'religious none'. It is concluded that playing the religious Other in videogames provides the opportunity to suspend (non-)religious worldviews and empathize with the (non-)religious Other. The relevance of these findings is related to broader sociological debates about 'post-secular society' and the alleged increase of religious fundamentalism, conflict and mutual Othering.
Cet article résume certains éléments d’entrevues avec des historiens consultés par les créateurs des jeux vidéo d’histoire (JVH) Assassins’ Creed . La vingtaine d’heures d’entretien portait sur les JVH, les rapports entre consommation et science, création et production industrielle de masse, critique et dogme, démarche réflexive et usage public de l’histoire, éducation et reproduction sociale, fiction et vérité, histoire et littérature. Il en ressort que, quoiqu’il s’agisse d’un discours profane plutôt que savant, cette fiction en images traite de la constitution et de la marche du monde social, qu’elle affecte ses récepteurs et que ceux-ci gagneraient à apprendre, à l’école secondaire, à la lire de façon critique, comme des historiens.
Assassin’s Creed est très populaire auprès des joueurs, mais retient peu l’attention des didacticiens. Pour nous éclairer sur le potentiel didactique de cette série, nous avons recensé des écrits en anglais et en français. Cela a permis d’identifier 22 articles. L’analyse des textes révèle que Assassin’s Creed présente le changement historique comme le fait de grands hommes. De plus, la représentation du passé, bien qu’appuyée sur une recherche documentaire rigoureuse, se conforme aux attentes des joueurs et aux besoins en termes de jouabilité. Ces résultats nous amènent à repenser la manière d’intégrer Assassin’s Creed dans un cadre scolaire.
Virtual environments are becoming ubiquitous, designed to do work in the material world. They are used within urban design, medicine, the military, entertainment and a wide range of other sectors, having increasing significance within our everyday lives. Virtual landscapes are brought into being through the interaction of users and these virtual environments. In this paper, we propose the use of postmemory as a framework for analysing virtual landscapes. Postmemories, formed of second-hand accounts combined with the imagination of individuals, can shape our responses to the world around us, having similar affective force to memories of situations directly witnessed.
Twenty-five participants were asked to undertake an exploration exercise within a virtual recreation of 19th century London and subsequently interviewed about their landscape experiences. Individual position and imagination had a significant effect on participants’ understanding of those landscapes, creating postmemories of the material environment being represented, going beyond the intent of the designers. Given the forceful affective qualities of postmemory, however, the balance of power between designer intent and user imagination is demonstrated to be problematic, as individuals are manipulated through their exposure to, and co-creation of, these virtual landscapes.
Videogames’ ability to depict cultural iconographies and characters have occasionally led to accusations of insensitivity. This article examines gamers’ reactions to a developer’s use of Africans as enemies in a survival horror videogame, Resident Evil 5. Their reactions offer insight into how videogames represent Whiteness and White privilege within the social structure of ‘‘play.’’ Omi and Winant’s (1994) racial formation theory notes that race is formed through cultural representations of human bodies organized in social structures. Accordingly, depictions of race in electronic spaces rely upon media imagery and social interactions. Videogames construct exotic fantasy worlds and peoples as places for White male protagonists to conquer, explore, exploit, and solve. Like their precursors in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, videogame narratives, activities, and players often draw from Western values of White masculinity, White privilege as bounded by conceptions of ‘‘other,’’ and relationships organized by coercion and domination.
A large-scale content analysis of characters in video games was employed to answer questions about their representations of gender, race and age in comparison to the US population. The sample included 150 games from a year across nine platforms, with the results weighted according to game sales. This innovation enabled the results to be analyzed in proportion to the games that were actually played by the public, and thus allowed the first statements able to be generalized about the content of popular video games. The results show a systematic over-representation of males, white and adults and a systematic under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children and the elderly. Overall, the results are similar to those found in television research. The implications for identity, cognitive models, cultivation and game research are discussed.
In this paper, we introduce the concept of a "Hegemony of Play," to critique the way in which a complex layering of technological, commercial and cultural power structures have dominated the development of the digital game industry over the past 35 years, creating an entrenched status quo which ignores the needs and desires of "minority" players such as women and "non-gamers," Who in fact represent the majority of the population. Drawing from the history of pre-digital games, we demonstrate that these practices have "narrowed the playing field," and contrary to conventional wisdom, have actually hindered, rather than boosted, its commercial success. We reject the inevitability of these power structures, and urge those in game studies to "step up to the plate" and take a more pro-active stance in questioning and critiquing the status of the Hegemony of Play.
What makes virtual violence enjoyable rather than aversive? Two 2×2 experiments tested the assumption that moral disengagement cues provided by a violent video game's narrative and game play lessen users' guilt and negative affect, which would otherwise undermine players' enjoyment of the game. Experiment 1 found that users' familiarity with the violent game reduced guilt and negative affect, and enhanced enjoyment, whereas opponents' nonhuman outer appearance and blameworthiness had no effect. Experiment 2 found that fighting for a just purpose, perceiving less mayhem, and framing the overall situation as “just a game” or “just an experiment” reduced guilt and negative affect, whereas the distorted portrayal of consequences did not. Effects on game enjoyment were mixed and suggest that moral disengagement cues may both foster and diminish game enjoyment.
In this 2002 book, Anna Elisabetta Galeotti examines the most intractable problems which toleration encounters and argues that what is really at stake is not religious or moral disagreement but the unequal status of different social groups. Liberal theories of toleration fail to grasp this and consequently come up with normative solutions that are inadequate when confronted with controversial cases. Galeotti proposes, as an alternative, toleration as recognition, which addresses the problem of according equal respect to groups as well as equal liberty to individuals. She offers an interpretation that is both a revision and an expansion of liberal theory, in which toleration constitutes an important component not only of a theory of justice, but also of the politics of identity. Her study will appeal to a wide range of readers in political philosophy, political theory, and law.
Why play is a productive, expressive way of being, a form of understanding, and a fundamental part of our well-being.
What do we think about when we think about play? A pastime? Games? Childish activities? The opposite of work? Think again: If we are happy and well rested, we may approach even our daily tasks in a playful way, taking the attitude of play without the activity of play. So what, then, is play? In Play Matters, Miguel Sicart argues that to play is to be in the world; playing is a form of understanding what surrounds us and a way of engaging with others. Play goes beyond games; it is a mode of being human.
We play games, but we also play with toys, on playgrounds, with technologies and design. Sicart proposes a theory of play that doesn't derive from a particular object or activity but is a portable tool for being—not tied to objects but brought by people to the complex interactions that form their daily lives. It is not separated from reality; it is part of it. It is pleasurable, but not necessarily fun. Play can be dangerous, addictive, and destructive.
Along the way, Sicart considers playfulness, the capacity to use play outside the context of play; toys, the materialization of play—instruments but also play pals; playgrounds, play spaces that enable all kinds of play; beauty, the aesthetics of play through action; political play—from Maradona's goal against England in the 1986 World Cup to the hactivist activities of Anonymous; the political, aesthetic, and moral activity of game design; and why play and computers get along so well.
How computer games can be designed to create ethically relevant experiences for players.
Today's blockbuster video games—and their never-ending sequels, sagas, and reboots—provide plenty of excitement in high-resolution but for the most part fail to engage a player's moral imagination. In Beyond Choices, Miguel Sicart calls for a new generation of video and computer games that are ethically relevant by design. In the 1970s, mainstream films—including The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver—filled theaters but also treated their audiences as thinking beings. Why can't mainstream video games have the same moral and aesthetic impact? Sicart argues that it is time for games to claim their place in the cultural landscape as vehicles for ethical reflection.
Sicart looks at games in many manifestations: toys, analog games, computer and video games, interactive fictions, commercial entertainments, and independent releases. Drawing on philosophy, design theory, literary studies, aesthetics, and interviews with game developers, Sicart provides a systematic account of how games can be designed to challenge and enrich our moral lives. After discussing such topics as definition of ethical gameplay and the structure of the game as a designed object, Sicart offers a theory of the design of ethical game play. He also analyzes the ethical aspects of game play in a number of current games, including Spec Ops: The Line, Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, Fallout New Vegas, and Anna Anthropy's Dys4Ia. Games are designed to evoke specific emotions; games that engage players ethically, Sicart argues, enable us to explore and express our values through play.
Acknowledgements PART I: INTRODUCTION: WHY 'MEMORY'? Why 'Memory'? Why Now? What Is Meant by 'Memory'? Memory, Remembering, or Forgetting? Goals and Structure of this Book PART II: THE INVENTION OF CULTURAL MEMORY: A SHORT HISTORY OF MEMORY STUDIES Maurice Halbwachs: Memoire collective Aby Warburg: Mnemosyne Pathos Formulas and a European Memory of Images Pierre Nora's Lieux de memoire - and Beyond Aleida and Jan Assmann: The Cultural Memory PART III: THE DISCIPLINES OF MEMORY STUDIES Historical and Social Memory Material Memory: Art and Literature Mind and Memory: Psychological Approaches PART IV: MEMORY AND CULTURE: A SEMIOTIC MODEL Metaphors - Productive, Misleading, and Superfluous, or: How to Conceive of Memory on a Collective Level Material, Social, and Mental Dimensions of Memory Culture Autobiographical, Semantic, and Procedural Systems of Cultural Memory Related Concepts: Collective Identity and Cultural Experience PART V: MEDIA AND MEMORY Media and the Construction of Memory The History of Memory as the History of Media Medium of Memory: A Compact Concept Functions of Media of Memory Concepts of Media Memory Studies PART VI: LITERATURE AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL MEMORY Literature as a Symbolic Form of Cultural Memory Literary Text and Mnemonic Context: Mimesis Literature as a Medium of Collective and Individual Memory PART VII: AFTERWORD: WHITHER MEMORY STUDIES? Index
The present article brings game studies into dialogue with cultural memory studies and argues for the significance of computer games for historical discourse and memory politics. Drawing upon the works of Robert Rosenstone and Astrid Erll, we develop concepts and theories from film studies and adapt them to respond to the media specificity of computer games. Through a critical reading of the first chapter of the history-based first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops, the article demonstrates how the game’s formal properties frame in-game experiences and performances, and this way predisposes the emergence of certain memory-making potentials in and through constrained practices of play. Subsequently, an analysis of the serious game Czechoslovakia 38-89: Assassination shows the potentials of game design to facilitate meta-historical reflections and critical inquiries.
The postcolonial has still remained on the margins of Game Studies, which has now incorporated at length, contemporary debates of race, gender, and other areas that challenge the canon. It is difficult to believe, however, that it has not defined the way in which video games are perceived; the effect, it can be argued, is subtle. For the millions of Indians playing games such as Empire: Total War or East India Company, their encounter with colonial history is direct and unavoidable, especially given the pervasiveness of postcolonial reactions in everything from academia to day-to-day conversation around them. The ways in which games construct conceptions of spatiality, political systems, ethics, and society are often deeply imbued with a notion of the colonial and therefore also with the questioning of colonialism. This article aims to examine the complexities that the postcolonial undertones in video games bring to the ways in which we read them.
Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within one of the largest virtual gaming communities—Xbox Live. Previous research on video games has focused mostly on violence and examining violent behavior resulting from consuming this medium. This limited scope has skewed criminologists’ understanding of video games and video game culture. Xbox Live has proven to be more than just a gaming platform for users. It has evolved into a multimedia entertainment outlet for more than 20 million users. This book examines the nature of social interactions within Xbox Live, which are often riddled with deviant behavior, including but not limited to racism and sexism. The text situates video games within a hegemonic framework deploying whiteness and masculinity as the norm. The experiences of the marginalized bodies are situated within the framework of deviance as they fail to conform to the hegemonic norm and become victims of racism, sexism, and other types of harassment.
The present article develops the concept of selective realism to understand how design features and narrative frames of first- and third-person shooters (F/TPS) exclude attention to salient, yet unpleasant, features of warfare such as problematic forms of violence, long-term psychological impacts, or sociopolitical blowbacks. Identifying four specific filters that frame player experiences, I argue that the resulting selectivity is significant because it is characteristic of the F/TPS genre as a whole that, through its wide dissemination, impacts upon the cultural framing of actual warfare. The article illustrates features of selective realism before it conducts in-depth analysis of the titles Spec Ops: The Line and The Last of Us to show how critical game design can invite a conscious unraveling of the generic frames and the ideological positions these invite. The article concludes with a reassessment of arguments regarding alleged sociopolitical impacts of war- and violence-themed computer games.
An investigation of what makes digital games engaging to players and a reexamination of the concept of immersion.
Digital games offer a vast range of engaging experiences, from the serene exploration of beautifully rendered landscapes to the deeply cognitive challenges presented by strategic simulations to the adrenaline rush of competitive team-based shoot-outs. Digital games enable experiences that are considerably different from a reader's engagement with literature or a moviegoer's experience of a movie. In In-Game, Gordon Calleja examines what exactly it is that makes digital games so uniquely involving and offers a new, more precise, and game-specific formulation of this involvement. One of the most commonly yet vaguely deployed concepts in the industry and academia alike is immersion—a player's sensation of inhabiting the space represented onscreen. Overuse of this term has diminished its analytical value and confused its meaning, both in analysis and design. Rather than conceiving of immersion as a single experience, Calleja views it as blending different experiential phenomena afforded by involving gameplay. He proposes a framework (based on qualitative research) to describe these phenomena: the player involvement model. This model encompasses two constituent temporal phases—the macro, representing offline involvement, and the micro, representing moment-to-moment involvement during gameplay—as well as six dimensions of player involvement: kinesthetic, spatial, shared, narrative, affective, and ludic. The intensified and internalized experiential blend can culminate in incorporation—a concept that Calleja proposes as an alternative to the problematic immersion. Incorporation, he argues, is a more accurate metaphor, providing a robust foundation for future research and design.
This article defins game mechanics in relation to rules and challenges. Game mechanics are methods invoked by agents for interacting with the game world. I apply this definition to a comparative analysis of the games Rez, Every Extend Extra and Shadow of the Colossus that will show the relevance of a formal definition of game mechanics.
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This article presents a typology for classifying computer games designed to create ethical gameplay. Ethical gameplay is the outcome of playing a (computer) game in which the players? moral values are of relevance for the game experience. The article explores the different types of designs that create these types of experiences, and how they are characterized. The author provides an analytical framework for classifying games according to the experience they create and how they create it. The article is informed by both game design theory and postphenomenological philosophy, and it is intended to provide a theoretical framework for the study of the design of ethical computer game experiences.
The concept of hegemonic masculinity has influenced gender studies across many academic fields but has also attracted serious criticism. The authors trace the origin of the concept in a convergence of ideas in the early 1980s and map the ways it was applied when research on men and masculinities expanded. Evaluating the principal criticisms, the authors defend the underlying concept of masculinity, which in most research use is neither reified nor essentialist. However, the criticism of trait models of gender and rigid typologies is sound. The treatment of the subject in research on hegemonic masculinity can be improved with the aid of recent psychological models, although limits to discursive flexibility must be recognized. The concept of hegemonic masculinity does not equate to a model of social reproduction; we need to recognize social struggles in which subordinated masculinities influence dominant forms. Finally, the authors review what has been confirmed from early formulations (the idea of multiple masculinities, the concept of hegemony, and the emphasis on change) and what needs to be discarded (onedimensional treatment of hierarchy and trait conceptions of gender). The authors suggest reformulation of the concept in four areas: a more complex model of gender hierarchy, emphasizing the agency of women; explicit recognition of the geography of masculinities, emphasizing the interplay among local, regional, and global levels; a more specific treatment of embodiment in contexts of privilege and power; and a stronger emphasis on the dynamics of hegemonic masculinity, recognizing internal contradictions and the possibilities of movement toward gender democracy.
The Field of Discourse Analysis The Field of Discourse Analysis Laclau and Mouffe's Discourse Theory Critical Discourse Analysis Discursive Psychology Across the Approaches Critical Social Constructionist Research
Implicated within the relationship between memory and identities at the local, national and international levels is the question of whether there is ‘right to memory’: the human right to have the otherness of the past acknowledged through the creation of symbolic and cultural acts, utterances and expressions. This article outlines the rationale for a right to memory and why the debate is of importance to memory and cultural studies. It outlines some of the relationships understood between memory and identity within memory studies, suggesting that a right to memory requires an understanding of the complex dynamics of memory and identities not only within, but internationally across, borders. It extends the concept of political cosmopolitanism to use as an analytical framework to enable an analysis of current international protocols, showing how they formulate the discursive relationship between identity and memory in four ways that involve a number of contradictions and unresolved tensions.
As the nascent field of computer games research and games studies develops, one rich area of study will be a semiotic analysis of the tropes, conventions, and ideological sub-texts of various games. This article examines the centrality of race and gender in the narrative, character development, and ideologies of platform video games, paying particular attention to the deployment of stereotypes, the connection between pleasure, fantasy and race, and their link to instruments of power. Video games represent a powerful instrument of hegemony, eliciting ideological consent through a spectrum of white supremacist projects.
This article situates the emergence of the field of memory studies in relation to several areas of study: cultural studies, media studies, communication and visual culture. It considers key concepts of those fields — memory practices, technologies of memory, mediation and consumerism — in relation to memory studies. Finally, it reflects on some cautionary aspects of memory studies as it moves forward as a field of study.
Let's face the facts and admit it: historical films trouble and disturb (most) professional historians. Why? We all know the obvious answers. Because, historians will say, films are inaccurate. They distort the past. They fictionalize, trivialize, and romanticize important people, events, and movements. They falsify History. As a subtext to these overt answers, we can hear some different, unspoken answers: Film is out of the control of historians. Film shows that academics do not own the past. Film creates a historical world with which the written word cannot compete, at least for popularity .Film is a disturbing symbol of an increasingly postliterate world (in which people can read but won't).
I argue that social-welfare struggles should become more central for feminists. To clarify these, I offer an analysis of the U.S. welfare system. I expose the system's underlying gender norms and show how administrative practices preemptively define women's needs. I then situate these state practices in a larger terrain of struggle over the interpretation of social needs where feminists can intervene.
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