28 minute read
‘From virgins and victims to heroines and heretics: Fantasy as a tool for female empowerment in contemporary medieval roleplay games’
Marie-Luise Meier, University of Tartu @MarieLuiseMeier https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1278707647768940544 1 #MAMG20 He dreams to be a knight; she is the miller’s daughter, tells us Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Without historical authenticity, we have Dragon Age’s spectrum of gender roles. Does only fantasy give possibilities for female empowerment in games with a medieval setting? 2 #MAMG20 Empowerment means that female characters have access to the same opportunities as males, esp. in education, profession & lifestyle. Because games show metamorphoses twofold, narrative development and ludic (gaining levels/classes, story options etc.) must be considered. 3 #MAMG20 Does fantasy automatically lead to female empowerment? Girl Power Movement icons such as Buffy and Xena rely on fantasy. But traditionally, fantasy has been a male genre, filled out by the male desire to become a hero, as in e.g. Lord of the Rings. 4 #MAMG20 KC:D doesn’t claim historical accuracy in all parts: “[KC:D] would be too boring or too difficult.” But it is as unrealistic as the hero’s journey gets: A blacksmith’s son gets a fancy sword and revenges his parent’s death (using fantasy-style alchemy + swordfighting). 5 #MAMG20 The first women introduced are the king’s playmates, followed by Henry’s mother: the classic dichotomy of mother vs object of desire. The mother is defined through her role as such. She has no name (his father does) and must die, so Henry’s revenge story can progress. 6 #MAMG20 Theresa’s role is that of the love interest, and only that. She is introduced with Henry’s PoV shot on her behind. She must be saved from rape and courted with flowers. Henry has dreams. He uses his grief over the death of his parents as a driving force; she just caves. 7 #MAMG20 The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is heavily infused with fantasy. Witchers are traditionally male, sorceresses are traditionally female. Both are powerful. While most protagonists fit the world’s gendered categories, Ciri is special and introduced as a young, capable warrior. 8 #MAMG20 She can be played and hones her skills (e.g. teleport, slowing time). She even has alternative endings to her story: being dead or alive, becoming witcher or empress. What weakens her as a female character is the way her story is told: it’s exclusively told by others. 9 #MAMG20 Dragon Age: Inquisition is full of fantasy and empowered female characters such as seeker Cassandra, who is introduced as empowered. She can become a fighter or a protector as well as the new Divine, which is a female-institutionalized counterpart to the Catholic pope. 10 #MAMG20 In conclusion, it appears that the higher the amount of fantasy in a game, the more empowered female characters are. However, I would argue that the possibility for empowerment of female characters is not sorely based on fantasy. It is a mixture of two things: 11 #MAMG20 1) the right placing of fantasy elements and 2) the characterization of female characters. A Plague Tale: Innocence, set in 1348 France, shows this. The young protagonist cannot become a knight because of the authentic restrictions of the time, but she has aspirations. 12 #MAMG20 She wants empowerment and the world’s design uses fantasy so that it allows her to become the hero in a David vs Goliath plot. If historical games place inaccuracies differently, this could indeed lead to female empowerment in an otherwise authentic medieval framework.
‘When Chinese gamers encounter Crusader Kings II’
Zhang Xiaoyu, Shanghai International Studies University. @ClaraZh46278180 https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279007130813677569 1 #MAMG20 In recent years, Crusader KingⅡ（CKII）has imbued the designs with some oriental elements to attract more players. With the Jade Dragon DLC, China has been introduced to gamers. As a big fan, I’m excited and curious about China displayed in it. 2 #MAMG20 Admittedly, the designers have done the research of Chinese culture with care and built a complex system based on it. For instance, the archetype of armours in the game (P1) can be found in Illustrate Ancient Chinese Armour (P2). 3 #MAMG20 However, some Chinese customers still feel confused and embarrassed about some oriental designs. Why do they feel alienated from the Chinese culture? What kinds of image of China are portrayed conventionally in the occidental thought? 4 #MAMG20 What has disrupted a natural understanding towards China? With three principles of Michel Foucault’s heterotopia, the paper aims to answer the questions above. https://twitter.com/i/status/1279007011212939267 5 #MAMG20 To begin with, the separated location and superficial functions of China in the game unveil the essence of heterotopia. Either in administrative systems or religions, it is totally different from the western countries based on Christianity. 6 #MAMG20 In CKII, a legitimate heir can inherit the title of his father. However, in Chinese culture, even benefiting from emperor’s favour, the heir inherits an inferior title to his father, while the elite talents of humble origins grasp some opportunities. 7 #MAMG20 Besides, though designers have studied relevant histories and novels, the heroes have been transformed into thunderbolts, thus misleading and confusing the Chinese players, which reflects the westerners’ alienation and misunderstandings to China as a heterotopia. 8 #MAMG20 Song Jiang: in this game, he is characterized as the captain of these outlaws fighting for money. In Water Margin, he is considered as the leader of the 108 Stars of Destiny fighting against the unjust officials. Here is a poem from his biography. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eb_vd_gVcAAC71P?format=jpg&name=small 9 #MAMG20 Lin Chong: in this game, Li Kui outperforms him in terms of leadership (34vs12). In Water Margin, on the contrary, his nickname “Panther Head” is mainly derived from his strategies and appearance, while Li Kui ends up with Song Jiang’s plots. 10 #MAMG20 In addition, the demonized power of China demonstrates the illusion and compensation of the heterotopia. Failing to achieve their ambitions, the players can seek help from the omnipotent China, which is hailed as invincible in the game. 11 #MAMG20 When the ruler has accumulated 5000 Grace, he can ask for favours within the limit of some restrictions. One of them is that “target has more than 40 counties in his realm”, which could prove the power of Chinese armies to some extent.
12 #MAMG20 In a nutshell, to the occidental world, China bears some resemblance to the heterotopia, which disrupts their heuristic to the essence of Chinese culture and leads to distorted elements in the game. Well, that's all. Thanks for listening.
Jan Kremer, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. @_ubique https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279012306215714817 1 #MAMG20 Being a novice in game studies my paper is a discussion on how to approach study of historical games. My project focuses on KCD, game which provoked debates and controversies before its release. German gaming magazine even contacted medievalists to analyze the game. 2 #MAMG20 In the Czeh rep. the controversy was hardly mentioned. KCD received unprecedented coverage. Mainstream media reporting about a digital game for the first time focused mainly on revenues and presentation of Czech rep. in the world. There was sense of national pride. 3 #MAMG20 In 2018 a medievalist in Brno focused in her lecture on political views of KCD creative director and accused him and the game i.a. of anti-German tendencies and sexism. She also openly declared she didn't play KCD and made factual mistakes about its content.
4 #MAMG20 The developer, who often criticizes universities esp. humanities, made (Czech) YT video where he refused all criticism, accused historian of dilettantism and declared he considers filing a lawsuit. The video has 160.000 views after 2 mo. and 2.600 affirmative comments.
5 #MAMG20 The dispute is too complex to cover here but it polarized both sides and diverted the attention from the game to ad hominem level. Some KCD supporters publicly or via email attacked the historian, often based on her gender, even threatened her with violence and death. 6 #MAMG20 The central problem are concepts of historical accuracy, realism or authenticity, i.e. one of main selling points of KCD. When even a scholarly study can't ever fully record and undestand the past (Čornej), then there's no such thing as historically accurate game. 7 #MAMG20 The authenticity paradox is even more problematic in open-world RPGs, realist historical simulations with reconstructionist approach (Chapman). Moreover, KCD takes place inbetween recorded historical events focusing on "undocumented" but complex everyday realities. 8 #MAMG20 Developers talking about authenticity usually mention visible material representations (architecture, weapons, clothing). But there are game-wise crucial concepts like mental worlds of the common people literally inaccessible even for scholars due to lack of cources.
9 #MAMG20 Authenticity paradox gets more prominent in Czech rep. where KCD developer presents the game as promotion of "our history unknown abroad". But 14th and 15th c. are ones of the most internationally researched eras in Czech history, esp. among contemporary medievalist. 10 #MAMG20 To analyze KCD you need medievalists but they can't be fact checkers. The historical authenticity can't be defined as historical accuracy but as "believability or versimilitude a sense of genuineness of ‚medieval‘" (Clements) for the modern audience living in 2020s. 11 #MAMG20 There are inspiring ways how to analyze KCD and reflect its place in the gaming culture: Memory culture (Halbwachs, Assmann) focused on Czech environment, reserach of historical stereotypes (Rak) or autostereotypes (Holý); or Medievalism with its international context 12 #MAMG20 Reflecting being a medievalist working on a archaeological project focused on Sázava monastery, but also a gamer and one of 35.000 Kickstarter backers of KCD, I can analyze this game by respecting the genre and debating my affection for both my research and games.
Victoria Cooper. @DrSyrin https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279037419430596609 1 #MAMG20 Religion is a key element of medieval worldbuilding. Popular audiences see religion as a crucial, inescapable part of the Middle Ages. Across medievalist media, ideas of religious anti-intellectualism and excess church power are used as markers of premodernity. 2 #MAMG20 In medieval games (which typically focus on Europe), we generally see Christian (or analogous) constructions. Typically, religions are shown in dichotomy: large political entity (external power) vs set of beliefs with less interest in social control (internal power). 3 #MAMG20 Key point: large-scale organised religion is typically portrayed as negative, explicitly political, sometimes tyrannical, while personal ministry, individual faith and spiritual tradition tend to have more sympathetic portrayals. 4 #MAMG20 The Sims Medieval caricatures this paradigm in a useful way with its 2 religious factions. The humble Peterans are monastic, studious and preach the love of god. Conversely, the decadent Jacobans control through fear and shame, and can absolve sins for cash. 5 #MAMG20 We see a similar pattern in games with more complex worldbuilding. In Dragon Age, the Chantry is a highly organised political entity that wields significant power. It has called crusades and pogroms and uses dogma to justify its continued subjugation of mages. 6 #MAMG20 E.g. from DA Alistair: naïve Templar (the military arm of the Chantry), resents his institutional upbringing and the work of the Chantry. Leliana: devout believer with a personal relationship with the Maker, but similarly critical of the Chantry’s oppressive dogma. 7 #MAMG20 Organised religion as political entity with little investment in faith is seen most clearly in strategy games: belief is entirely unimportant, and the Church is just another political faction with which to exercise power & earn relationship points. (Cf. @historicus_rex) 8 #MAMG20 The Witcher series is similarly sceptical of organised religion & connects it with anti-intellectualism. The Church of Eternal Fire, for example, is decadent, fanatical, and corrupt, with a military arm that pursues supernatural beings – sometimes including witchers! 9 #MAMG20 A key issue here, esp. in fantasy, is the mechanics of supernatural power. Furthermore, players sometimes interact directly with gods. Distinguishing between miracles and magic and portraying complexity and multiplicity in faith and practice is hard in this environment. 10 #MAMG20 The MA is inseparably connected with religiosity in the modern imagination. This isn’t bad or unfair, but reductionism in religious portrayals serves to reinforce ideas of intellectual darkness and religious tyranny commonly associated with the era. See common memes: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eb_7UPWkAcCSAa?format=jpg&name=medium 11 #MAMG20 Religion and spirituality are important elements of the MA, but the Corrupt Church vs Jolly Monk model is reductionist & problematic (without even mentioning non-Xian models!). So, how can we worldbuild with (medieval) religion in a more sophisticated way?
Lysiane Lasausse, University of Helsinki. @nordllys https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279043050367524865 1 #MAMG20 The Viking & French Middle Ages historically had different visions of life and death. However, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and A Plague Tale: Innocence are here to show us that (im)mortality, redemption and the chase of eternality may be time-/spaceless pursuits. 2 #MAMG20 In #Hellblade, Pict warrior Senua is on a mission to recover Dillion's - her lover - soul from Viking hell, Helheim. Hela, the ruler of the realm, is the only one who can bring him back - a power borrowed from Norse mythology. 3 #MAMG20 Hela shows Senua that Dillion was not meant to be saved, and that she has to come to terms with his death, as well as her own trauma and psychosis. In Viking culture, death was unavoidable, and no one was supposed to come back (not even gods, see the story of Baldr). 4 #MAMG20 This contrasts with the setting of A Plague Tale: Innocence, set in 1348 France. Heroes Amicia and Hugo escape from the Inquisition to seek help for Hugo's illness, an evil power believed to be responsible for the hordes of plague rats taking over Aquitaine. 5 #MAMG20 Grand Inquisitor Vitalis Bénévent covets Hugo's powers to cure himself of The Bite (the plague). Mad with power, he also seeks to control the plague rats to establish a new world order and ascend to a god-like status. The church banishes him and the heroes defeat him.
6 #MAMG20 Although set in two different timelines and spaces, the stories of Hellblade and A Plague Tale bring forward the ancestral fear of death, and the race against human temporariness. 7 #MAMG20 Playing with the concepts of light and darkness, both games reverse these notions' roles. In Hellblade, Senua delves into the shadows of Hell to find a reason to keep fighting. She faces her own darkness, her illness, to begin grieving for her lost love. 8 #MAMG20 In A Plague Tale, the Catholic church, overtaken by Vitalis' lust for power, reminds us of the bloody history of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. The game reminds us through religious zealotry and superstitions of the human propensity to turn to the dark side. 9 #MAMG20 Most importantly, these games bring us closer to the Middle Ages. As a historical period that is often portrayed as superstitious and in opposition to the intellectual Age of Enlightenment, modern culture tends to distance itself from this era.
10 #MAMG20 But these games establish a point of contact with this time period, to remind us that perhaps it is not, spiritually, as far as we’d like to believe. The light/dark, good/bad dichotomy is ever present, and the need for control over death is still a major concern. 11 #MAMG20 Medieval fears and superstitions around death still exist. These games appeal to our idea of medieval fantasy, but also bring the medieval concerns back to us: diseases, life after death... The underlying message is that we lack control over our mortal enemy. 12 #MAMG20 Perhaps these stories resonate with us, now more than ever, because of like the heroes of Hellblade and APTI, we keep fighting for our light to perhaps finally triumph over the darkness of death.
Liam McLeod, University of Birmingham. @LiamMcLeod_e Catherine Watts, University of Cambridge. @catchantwatts https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279047483604316160 https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279047851360817153 1 #MAMG20 Afternoon all! Co-presenting with @catchantwatts so we don’t have much space, do check our image descriptions for more detail! @AsoboStudio's @APlagueTale is set in 14th-century Aquitaine, amid plague and war. We follow Amicia and Hugo de Rune. CW: Spoilers+BodyHorror 2 #MAMG20 We're going to start by looking at how the game's topographical and iconographical choices, though appearing medieval at a glance, are rooted in familiar, modern fantasy worldscapes. The example I'll be using here is the so-called 'village' near the de Rune homestead. 3 #MAMG20 The size of village is key. When later we see its entirety, the village appears more like a large medieval town. The size inconsistency isn't a mistake though: Asobo is offering familiar vistas in a visual language which evokes scenes which *feel* authentic.
4 #MAMG20 This vista is seen at the monastery of the three saints, where we encounter a real shift away from what *appears* authentically medieval into a true dark fantasy. As we reach the apse of the chapel, we see that the ‘three saints’ are in fact the de Rune's themselves.
5 #MAMG20 This dip into a fantasy visual language is important for what happens next in the game as we delve into the monastery. The rats, it seems, are more than just rats, and their collections of human body parts in the crypt evokes the sense of stepping into a literal hell. 6 #MAMG20 Death is the de Rune children's constant companion in their quest to save each other. Amicia takes her first life before entering the monastery, and the iconography of that death follows the two as they are led by Father Thomas through dark corridors. 7/12 #MAMG20 If medieval iconography makes the landscape legible, modern mechanics make it navigable and give it powerful affective properties. Legible guidance in medieval manuscript becomes an affective warning in the toolkit of the modern game. 8/12 #MAMG20 Important to these early levels is the use of light to create contrast which guides the player’s actions, introducing linearity to what might otherwise be an overwhelmingly rich landscape. Light is used affectively to direct instinctual movement in chase sequences. 9/12 #MAMG20 PT:I makes this guidance explicit in the next chapter, introducing the mechanic whereby light repels the flesh-eating rats. Light is “highly visible but uninformative” (Vincent et al) in traditional media; PT:I leads the player to enact their relationship to light. 10/12 #MAMG20 An implicit value system of light is created through the player’s participation. Light is understood as a goal, a tool, and a form of protection, calling back to Ch.1 where the idyllic autumnal light indicated that perhaps we’d be telling a different kind of story. 11/12 #MAMG20 PT:I forces attentiveness to the mechanism of your navigation and endows it with affective value. When Amicia and Hugo begin to commit atrocities to survive, light takes on a moral ambivalence which mirrors the protagonists’ journey. 12/12 #MAMG20 PT:I is a dark musing on the human condition made legible through medieval iconography and modern mechanics. As the player embodies Amicia, they stand with one foot in the dark, the value of their only path medieval in its moral ambivalence.
Mike Horswell. @mjhorswell https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279060068944805891 1 #MAMG20 Welcome all! I’m a historian who works on perceptions of the crusades in the modern era. I increasingly think that games – along with films & TV shows – can be considered as a primary source for forming what the crusades are thought to be. How so? 2 #MAMG20 The crusades and crusaders are common features of medievalesque digital games. Crusading in games, however, usually consists of bitesize ‘icons’, or tropes, of crusader medievalism. Icons, because they stand symbolically for larger sets of meanings. 3 #MAMG20 @t_winnerling has talked about the development of a ‘historicised iconography’ for historical games more broadly, and we see this with the crusades. Crusading is disassembled into icons & deployed in games – in fact, across modern mass media entertainment.
4 #MAMG20 @AndrewBRElliott & I have suggested that crusading has popularly become a self-reinforcing brand of medievalism. The repetition of these icons shapes & fulfils expectations of what crusading is thought to be, generating ‘affective authenticity’. 5 #MAMG20 Ok, so what are some of these ‘icons’, and what do they do? I’ve chosen three: 1) the crusader knight, 2) the ‘clash of civilisations’, and 3) occult Templars. 6 #MAMG20 1) Crusader Knight: With a red cross on a white background across his chest, the mailed crusader knight is a ubiquitous figure which transcends popular culture and digital games. @DrSyrin has traced the crusader/paladin type in RPGs beyond ‘crusading’ games. 7 #MAMG20 The distinctive assemblage of cross, & armour can function as a symbol of Christian militancy, unstoppable zeal, uncompromising purity, chivalric masculinity, or combination of these. They also seep into noncrusading games through visual mods. 8 #MAMG20 2) Clash of Civilisations: The mechanics of many crusading games, especially strategy games, replicate the logic of the ‘clash of civilisations’ paradigm which has framed the crusades as binary contests of monolithic religio-cultural civilisations. 9 #MAMG20 E.g. East vs West, or Christians vs Muslims. This simplifies and explains the crusades as inevitable outbreaks of violence and the ‘natural’ product of civilisational encounter, and provides an ideal setting for games of conquest between two opposed forces. 10 #MAMG20 3) Occult Templars: Associations between crusading and occult mysticism tend to flow through the Templar Knights – a crusading military order – and a staple of conspiracy theorists and Umberto Eco’s ‘lunatics’. Templars + grail = … 11 #MAMG20 Crusading icons are atomised, bitesize pieces of popular culture medievalism - an access point to the broader, more complex historical reality of the medieval crusades. They provide a buffet of crusade-themed ‘affective authenticity’ for ‘historical’ games. 12 #MAMG20 Their frequent repetition heightens their association with crusading, setting the expectations of players and reinforcing existing perceptions. E.g. https://bit.ly/3grUIJn Thanks for tuning in – feel free to ask about specific examples or any other questions!
Katherine J. Lewis, University of Huddersfield. @drkjlewis https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279065161068949504 1 #MAMG20 I work on depictions of crusading masculinities in narratives medieval & modern, examining the sociocultural contexts in which they’re produced & the ideological purposes which they serve. Hence my interest in Dante’s Inferno (2010) & its place within this discourse. 2 #MAMG20 There’s been analysis of Dante’s masculinity in relation to the game’s use of the original poem Inferno & of broader medieval motifs. But not of the role of D’s Third Crusade backstory, nor how this setting informs the representation & evolution of his gender identity. 3 #MAMG20 DI fits into established convention whereby crusading is not the main focus but an experiential backdrop suffusing the protagonist’s subsequent character & actions; affecting those to whom he returns. This aligns the game with Robin Hood who has become a Third Crusader. 4 #MAMG20 As in Robin & Marian (1976) & Robin Hood (2010) in DI the Massacre at Acre is shorthand for the essentially brutal, immoral & hypocritical nature of crusading; thus reflecting wider popular opinions & highlighting the cultural currency of this notorious event. 5 #MAMG20 The Massacre is pivotal: instigated by D’s anger, the culmination of his surrender to bodily passions, hypocritically indulged under papal indulgence. The game hinges on D’s status as a man; his passage through Hell becomes a recuperation of his vitiated masculinity. 6 #MAMG20 We witness D’s past via the cloth cross he stitches to his chest (a great narrative ploy, I wish I could say more about it!) He relives his sinful & essentially unmanly conduct & its terrible consequences for those he loves, especially Beatrice & her brother Francesco. 7 #MAMG20 D’s actions on crusade rebound on him: B is killed because of his lust (& Lucifer enslaves her), F takes the blame for the Massacre & is hanged while D cravenly flees. D has violated virtuous norms & is incapable of exercising self-mastery, thus he goes to Hell. 8 #MAMG20 Initially D abnegates responsibility: he had absolution for his sins so was licensed to indulge them. Francesco repeatedly questions this view (& is a principled foil to D), but only in Hell does D comprehend the Church’s innate fraudulence & his own gullibility. 9 #MAMG20 D also blames nurture: brought up by a dissolute father who drove his mother to suicide, thus doomed to become his father. But his father is also in Hell & points out the fallacy of this: D had free will & could have behaved honourably. The fault is D’s alone. 10 #MAMG20 D finally takes responsibility for his debased manhood, accepting damnation. B is released; D is empowered to defeat Lucifer & escapes Hell. Redemption strips D of his crusader apparel; his sins & gendered transgressions expunged he emerges naked into Purgatory. 11 #MAMG20 DI is a compelling expression of certain perceptions both of crusading & masculinity & their interrelationship, dramatizing the destructive effects of rampant masculinity on victims & perpetrator. D learns that true manhood lies in surmounting not indulging passions. 12 #MAMG20 But progressive readings are problematic: D is an avatar of unabashedly violent medieval manhood. Does playing D really invite reflection on the patriarchal hierarchies which enabled his atrocities, or just reinforce their pernicious ideological & socio-cultural sway?
Thomas Lecaque, Grand View University. @tlecaque https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279069729433493504 1/ #MAMG20 The influence of neomedievalism in first-person video games is everywhere, but particularly prevalent in Bethesda Games—be it Skyrim or Wolfenstein or #Fallout4. Umberto Eco, who coined the term, thought “fantastic neomedievalism” was garbage, that the “avalanche of 2/ #MAMG20 pseudo-medieval pulp in paperbacks, midway between Nazi nostalgia and occultism” was not an area for academic study. He’s wrong on that last part, but unfortunately not on how Bethesda has used neomedieval tropes in their games. The Brotherhood of Steel in the #Fallout 3/ #MAMG20 series is pure neomedievalism—“knights” & “paladins” following a code, wearing massive suits of armor, fighting under the symbol of the sword & gear, they are a military order—austere in lifestyle, focused on mission, ready for combat. See https://youtube.com/watch?v=tkXsyRQRZ8M. 4/ #MAMG20 In Fallout 3, they change from the covert, technocratic and techno-hoarding nature to becomes heroes—paladins in the chanson de geste kind of way, resembling more a science fiction Knights of the Round Table than in other games. This was 2008. The BoS and the Enclave, 5/ #MAMG20 villains of Fallouts 1-3, are mirrored opposites, different visions of the post-apocalyptic evolution of a retrofuturistic US military. In 3 the Enclave offers the option of committing mass genocide throughout the Capital Wasteland, clearly an evil choice but 1 of many 6/ #MAMG20 genuinely monstrous options offered as “lolz”. In to 2011 and #Skyrim, also written by Emil Pagliarulo, one of the main factions in the game, the Stormcloaks, advocate ethnic cleansing. The Stormcloaks are important because they become the intellectual forefathers of 7/ #MAMG20 the Brotherhood of Steel in #Fallout4—separatists who are also Nordic supremacists who want to cleanse the land of all mer (elves, Khajit, Argonians, etc.) Ethnic cleansing as play. The Brotherhood in #Fallout4, released Nov. 2015, is the Stormcloak ideology realized, 8/ #MAMG20 They become the crusaders (see https://twitter.com/mjhorswell/status/1279063131780677633?s=20) of the post-Gamergate world where the alt-right began increasingly relying on memes and online trolling to recruit and bolster their movement. This Brotherhood maintains the neomedieval aesthetic but flips the 9/ #MAMG20 benevolent knighthood of the Fallout 3 into the violence of the Knights Templar of Kingdom of Heaven or an alt-right meme. That neomedieval knightly aesthetic meets a clash of civilizations with an invasion of the Commonwealth under a charismatic leader with a massive 10/ #MAMG20 zeppelin, the Prydwen, & a messiah complex—as Arthur Maxson says in Fallout 3, “ You see, I am descended from the great Roger Maxson, founder of our order. I am the last of his line. They say my soul was forged from eternal steel...” His mission is human supremacy & 11/ #MAMG20 ethnic cleansing of the Commonwealth, and there’s no in-game indication that the Brotherhood are seen as villains for this—they are portrayed as heroic knights. The ethnic cleansing is of super mutants, ghouls, synths, often but not exclusively used as villains. 12/ #MAMG20 This vision of the Brotherhood is the Knights Templar as seen by the far right—heroic defenders of humanity against other sentient races in game, but used IRL to defend notions of whiteness constructed along the Nazi nostalgia Eco warned about. And that’s the problem.
Robert Houghton, University of Winchester. @robehoughton https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279083168998580224 1/22 (sorry) #MAMG20 – This has been great. We’ve had technical glitches, time zone issues, and challenging weather, but almost all our papers have run successfully. We’ve had speakers from 14 countries from China to Estonia to Brazil.
2 #MAMG20 - We’ve had a series of incredible papers addressing a vast range of research on games and the Middle Ages. If you’ve missed any of them, I strongly suggest you take a look at @MidAgesModGames and #MAMG20 3 #MAMG20 - It’s been a challenging format, to fit a cogent academic argument into 12 Tweets is as hard as I anticipated (and I’m breaking that rule in this thread). But we’ve seen a lot of impressive approaches to this restriction and I really appreciate everyone's efforts. 4 #MAMG20 - At least four themes have emerged over the last four days: Firstly: This is a young field. The majority of our speakers have been postgrad students or Early Career Researchers and we’ve seen a lot of engagement from undergrad and pre-uni students. 5 #MAMG20 - This makes the papers all the more impressive and underlines the future potential of the field. The contributions of more established academics highlights that the study of the Middle Ages in Modern Games is increasingly taken seriously in some parts of the academy. 6 #MAMG20 - Secondly: This is a diverse field. We’ve had contributions from historians, literary scholars, archaeologists, game designers, media scholars, sound engineers and more. We need to talk between institutions and between disciplines. 7 #MAMG20 – We also need to do more to ensure that voices from all parts of the world and all sections of society are heard. We’ve managed some important steps towards that in this conference, but need to do more. 8 #MAMG20 - Thirdly: some old bugbears are alive and well. The use and misuse of claims to accuracy and authenticity is present across genres and audiences. Gaming and medievalist tropes meet and exaggerate and distort each other.
9 #MAMG20 - These issues have rightly been addressed in many ways throughout the conference. It’s important to continue to highlight them and their causes, but also to consider ways in which they can be and have been overcome (as many of our speakers have done). 10 #MAMG20 - Finally: despite their many pitfalls, games can be incredibly useful tools for presenting the Middle Ages whether inside or outwith the academy. We just need to address their selection, use and creation critically. 11 #MAMG20 - In sum: I’m cautiously positive about the state of the field. We face many practical challenges, but our papers this week have demonstrated the vibrance and versatility of current study and huge potential for future development. 12 #MAMG20 – I need to thank @DrSyrin and @NiHuMedieval for all their help in organising this event, and our planned strands for @TheMamoConf and @IMC_Leeds. They’ve done a huge amount in very challenging circumstances and the result has been incredible.
13 #MAMG20 – We also owe a debt of gratitude to @stuffofwar and @laurasharrison in particular for their advice on creating a Twitter conference. If you’ve not done so already, you should definitely have a look at their work: https://t.co/cwEUESuPyu?amp=1 14 #MAMG20 – I personally need to thank @polymorph_games for letting us use images from the beautiful and excellent @Foundationgame. You can find the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/690830/Foundation/ and a guide from @WorldofKeralis here: https://youtu.be/BpXwmn8-aEU 15 #MAMG20 - I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read any/all of our papers and to engage with them. We’ve seen some very useful discussion and over 1,200 people have engaged with at least some element of the event.
16 #MAMG20 – Most of all, I need to thank all of our speakers. I’ve been overwhelmed by the depth and quality of these papers. We’ll be posting a list of their Twitter handles through the @MidAgesModGames account shortly and I suggest you follow all of them. 17 #MAMG20 – The conference is sponsored by @PublicMedieval. You can find their games column here: https://publicmedievalist.com/category/games/. I strongly encourage all of our speakers to consider pitching any of their ideas to the editors.
18 #MAMG20 – We’re also sponsored by @CMRR_Winchester in @WinchesterHist. It’s a great place to study history – especially the Middle Ages - and it's not too late to apply for our BA courses this year: https://winchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/ba-hons-history/ https://winchester.ac.uk/study/undergra 19 #MAMG20 We also run an excellent Masters in history: https://winchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/ma-history/. Contact Robert.Gray@Winchester.ac.uk for Undergraduate, Xavier.Guegan@winchester.ac.uk for Masters. Find us @WinchesterHist and Facebook @uowhistorydept. 20 #MAMG20 - As to next steps, the papers will be collated and posted to the @_UoW website for ease of reference. We’ll post links from the @MidAgesModGames account when the document goes up. Copyright remains with individual authors.
21 #MAMG20 - Many of our speakers are presenting at #IMC2020 - @DrSyrin has put together an excellent guide: https://twitter.com/DrSyrin/status/1278709659956916226. The conference is free this year and it’s well worth registering. 22 #MAMG20 – Beyond that, thank you all again for making this work so much better than I ever could have hoped. Oh, and keep an eye out for our upcoming Calls for Papers for #MAMG21, #MAMO2021 and #IMC2021. Next year will be even bigger and better.
