MAMG21 Proceedings

The Middle Ages in Modern Games: Conference Proceedings Vol. 2

Edited by Robert Houghton

The Public Medievalist Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research, University of Winchester 2021 @MidAgesModGames

13: Experiencing Chivalric Texts through Gameplay in La Mancha 26

Chris Totten

Part Five: Urban Environments 27

14: What you Leave Behind Tracing Actions in Digital Games about the Middle Ages 28

Jonas Froehlich and Tobias Schade

15: The Medieval City in Computer Games 30

Stefan Ancuta

16: Medieval Japanese Warfare and Building Construction in Total War: Shogun 2 31

João Paulo da Silva Roque

17: Visiting the Unvisitable: Using Architectural Models in Video Games to Enhance Sense Oriented Learning 32

Blair Apgar

18: The Medieval Influence: Foundation (game) 33

Andy Ashton

Part Six: Chivalry and Feudalism ...........................................................................................................34 19: Feudal Law and MMOs: “I'm afraid he's AFK my liege” 35 Alec Thompson

20: “They're Rebelling Again?” Feudal Relations and Lawmaking as an Evolving Game Mechanic 36 Doug Chapman

21: Watch your paths well! On Medievalism, Digital Games and Chivalric Virtues ......................37 Nico Huss

Part Seven: Constructing a Middle Ages...............................................................................................38

22: It's Medievalism Jim, but not as we know it: Super Tropes and Bastard Tropes in Medievalist Games 39

Robert Houghton

23: Vikings and Tudors and Knights, Oh My!: Pick and mix medievalism in Old School Runescape41

Megan Bunce

24: How to Survive a Plague of Flesh Eating Rats: An Introductory Guide to Studying Remediated Gameplay Imaginations of Medieval Folklore and Beliefs in A Plague Tale: Innocence 43

Ben Redder and Gareth Schott

25: Iconic Bastards and Bastardised Icons: Plebby Quest’s Neomedievalist Crusades 44

Mike Horswell

Part Eight: Teaching and Research 46 26: Strange Sickness: Running a Crowdfunding Campaign for a Historical Research Based Game 47

William Hepburn and Jackson Armstrong 27: Presenting Your Research Through Games 48

Francesco Migliazzo, Jacob Morley and Giuseppe Celico 28: Analysing and Developing Videogames for Experimental History: Kingdom Simulators and the Historians 49

Vinicius Marino Carvalho 29: Age of Empires II as Gamic History: A Historical Problem Space Analysis 50 Jeremiah McCall Part Nine: Anachronisms 51 30: Vikings in Gaming, Gaming with Vikings 52 Lysiane Lasausse 31: The Middle Ages in Modern Board Games: Some Thoughts on an Underestimated Medium 53 Lukas Boch 32: “Is that Staff Egyptian?” Asset Reuse and Historical Argumentation in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 55 Adam Bierstedt 33: What Comes After the Apocalypse? Theories of History in Horizon Zero Dawn 56 Carolin Gluchowski Part Ten: Whiteness and Indigeneity 57 34: Fuck the Paladin and the Horse He Rode In On 58 Paul Sturtevant 35: The Middle Age as Meme: Medieval Spaces Remixed and Reimagined 59 Johansen Quijano 36: Absent Arabic Women in Assassin’s Creed.................................................................................61 Simran Dhaliwal 37: Erasing the Native Middle Ages: Greedfall and the Settler Colonial Imagination ......................62 Thomas Lecaque Part Eleven: Race and Nation................................................................................................................63 38: The Sovereign Code: The Eurocentric Mechanics of Nationhood in Strategy Games................64

Rhett Loban and Tom Apperly 39: Games and Fantasy in the Medieval Middle East.......................................................................65 Edmund Hayes

40: Problematising Representation: Elsinore and its Reimagination of Hamlet 66

Angshuman Dutta 41: What It Means To Be Swadian: Encoding Ethnic Identity in Medieval Games 68

James Baillie

Part Twelve: Modern Impositions 69 42: Trying not to Fumble in Medieval Times: Role Playing Games as a Medium of Historiography, Authenticity, and Experiencing the Past 70

James Reah 43: Medieval Letterings Gameplay, Argumentum and Conservation 71

Tea de Rougemont 44: Medieval Themes in Modern Board Games 72 Micael Sousa 45: Remakes and Remasters, Sequels and Expansions: Re addressing Implemented History 73

Daniel Wigmore

Part Thirteen: Closing Keynote .............................................................................................................74 46: Hearing the Middle Ages: Playing with and Contextualising Acoustical Heritage and Historical Soundscapes Research 75

Mariana Lopez

Introduction: The Middle Ages in Modern Games

Robert Houghton, @robehoughton, University of Winchester

The second Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter conference was held over four days in May 2021 and comprised papers from 50 scholars and game developers dealing with the medieval and medievalism in games of all sorts. Each paper comprised a 12 Tweet thread detailing the author's current research and work. Papers were grouped into thematic sessions and bookended by two 24 Tweet keynotes from Florian Nieser and Mariana Lopez. These proceedings compile the papers from this event in a permanent and more easily accessible format. In many cases, these papers represent embryonic ideas or work in progress. Nevertheless, a great range of important and innovative ideas are presented within this volume and the contributors future work should be watched with interest.

History games are important. They're hugely influential media both within and outside the classroom. This can be a positive thing as they can inspire interest in the field, help us think about the past, and help us discuss contemporary issues. But this can also be a problem. Games can present outdated or unfounded perspectives. They can struggle to present serious issues in an effective manner. From corpse Tetris in Playing History: The Plague to quiet imperialist doctrine in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, there's a plethora of issues with history in games.

Ludic representations of the Middle Ages are particularly important. There's growing evidence that these games can have the greatest impact on their players and the collision between medievalist and gaming tropes can lead to stronger stereotypes or unexpected accounts. But there's a huge amount of potential here too. Games can be fun and still historically valid. Serious games and critical play can make games valuable academic tools. There's growing constructive interaction between developers and scholars.

The papers in this conference address the issues and opportunities for games and the Middle Ages. Amongst diverse approaches from many fields of study and key industry voices, three key themes emerged:

First: many papers presented innovative and timely work on race, whiteness, and indigeneity within and around games and the Middle Ages. As many of our speakers demonstrated, there exists a huge amount of research within this subfield, but a vast amount remains to be explored and developed in practice. Of particular importance, many speakers looked at the causes of problematic representations and engagements and suggested solutions from commercial and scholarly standpoints.

Second: a substantial number of papers engaged with the creation of games for commercial, teaching and research purposes. This is an important move away from scholarly criticism of games towards a more active participation in their development and modification. There has traditionally been a divide between scholars and game developers around the study and construction of games and these papers show vital movements to collaboration from both sides.

Third: many papers provided a consideration of how the ludic Middle Ages are constructed. These papers consider the various influences on developers in constructing their representations of the period including the impact of modern medievalisms and socio political environments and the impact of the nature and expectations of games as a medium. Other papers have considered the role of players in developing these historical accounts. This is an important move from the ‘what’ towards the ‘why’ and ‘how’.

Ultimately, amongst an array of divergent papers, a movement away from old towards a more constructive and progressive approach to the Middle Ages in Modern Games can be observed.

This conference builds on the work presented last year at The Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter conference 2020. The papers from this earlier event are available here: https://issuu.com/theuniversityofwinchester/docs/final_mamg20_threads. The first (2020) iteration of this event was very much an ad hoc solution to the unfolding global crisis and the (eminently sensible) cancellation of the key in person conferences The Middle Ages in the Modern World and the International Medieval Congress (Leeds). Papers from the games strands at each of these events, augmented by several new speakers, formed the basis for this first event. The 2021 conference benefited from experience with the format and an extended lead in time which allowed a global call for papers and facilitated the organisation of a larger event.

The event was sponsored by The Public Medievalist sponsor whose huge range of open access popular articles on all forms of medievalism, including games may be found here: https://www.publicmedievalist.com/category/games/ The event was also sponsored by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research at the University of Winchester: https://www.winchester.ac.uk/research/our impactful research/research in humanities and social sciences/research centres and networks/centre for medieval and renaissance research/ . The incredible artwork used on the cover is taken from The Wagadu Chronicles with kind permission from Twin Drums. Details about their fantastic work are available here: https://thewagaduchronicles.com/

The third Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter conference will take place on June 8 11 2022. The call for papers will be released in December 2021 from the conference Twitter account: @MidAgesModGames

Part One: Opening Keynote

1: Immersion as an Intermedial Phenomenon in Medieval Literature and Modern Games

Florian Nieser, @FlorianNieser, University of Heidelberg

Introduction

In this paper I want to present some thoughts on the topic of immersion. I will build my argument up to the concept at the end of this paper by presenting ways of understanding and interpreting immersion before presenting my observations on the interdependency of reception and construction of fictional worlds. These observations are shown in the diagram at the end.

The ways of understanding and interpreting immersion as a literary and medial reception phenomenon are diverse. Within this piece I try to differentiate between the most important ones and to show basic lines of connections between them. To begin it must be stated, that no medium is made to be involuntarily immersive, but there are certain conditions that work to encourage Immersion. Although Immersion has become some kind of a vague concept involving ‘including’ or ‘absorbing’ the recipient, there are specific characteristics and conceptual lines.

Aside from the more audiovisual character of digital games, with which their mode of presentation can depict supposedly 'lifelike' spaces, the sentence "I was completely immersed" is primarily linked to a literary experience in the English language (Curtis, 90) where does this connection originate from?

This is not a coincidence, although one might initially associate immersion with audiovisuality, but there is no need to seek the primacy of the immersion experience exclusively in audiovisuality: "Immersion in a pictorial space is possibly not a genuinely optical question at all" (Bleumer, S. 8). As far as I can tell, there are two main conceptions to categorize and analyse Immersion. There are the more passive types of interpretation and the considerations aimed at active participation of the recipient. In both cases, however, an underlying basic concept can be identified.

Passive aspects of Immersion

A more common conception of immersive phenomena seems to be that the recipient experiences Immersion as “perceptual superimposition” it is about the “experience side” of a media induced “(out )controlled occupation of perception” (Lechertmann, 105). The text almost ‘captures’ the recipient and the immersive effect results from “the interplay of apparatus and disposition”. A performativity of the text that stimulates the imaginatio of the recipient and ‘draws’ him out of the role of viewer into the text seems to be central to this (Nemes, 43). Following these perspectives on immersion as a primarily experienced phenomenon, one ‘gets’ immersed by getting drawn into an artificial world, i.e. a state of self forgetfulness and emotional involvement, when the distance between the recipient and the medium is reduced. The aesthetically staged and the real world surrounding the recipient are blurred. Apart from these research approaches there is also the thesis about Immersion as an active construction of fictional realities.

Active aspects of Immersion

Starting from a more ‘active’ approach on Immersion gets more complex. It is distinguished by very dense hybrid and ambivalent mode of reflection and perception. H. Bleumer speaks of the “active, self observing immersion in imaginative worlds that are produced by the viewer as paradoxical aesthetic objects [...]” (Bleumer, 7). Based on the concept of Fascination as an emotion with a high cognitive component it can be stated that there is an alternation of attention between the

aesthetic object and the simulated situation. Immersion becomes a cognitive as well as a semantic search movement of the viewer towards an aesthetic object that he co constructs and that leads him to a deeper reading precisely because it makes the perception of his own reflective parts recede.

Immersion as a transmedial phenomenon

With the last observation from Bleumer it has to be emphasised, that regardless of media staging strategies, immersion as a transmedial phenomenon in active and passive form describes a ‘semantic search movement of the recipient’ that requires a certain ‘attitude’. This form of attitude lies at the core of any successful immersive effect. The assumption of a semantic search movement is already evident in medieval literature. The creation of a pictorial illusionary space with modern means is a renewal of the fundamental idea of a deep connection in between the image produced and the person receiving and interpreting it thereby co constructing narrative meaning.

Mechthild's von Magdeburg ‘Fließendes Licht der Gottheit’ for example is aurated in the reception by Heinrich von Nördlingen by targeting a certain attitude of the recipient. In spite of the religiously elevated character of the writing as divine presence in the word, instructions are given to the recipient to immerse himself in the text. The text and the object is not deprived, but in order to comprehend the text, the recipient has to appropriate the relation of the text through mantra like repetition, until her attention shifts from the real to the text mediated higher level of order of reality.

Furthermore there are intradiegetic prototypes of immersive images, more accurate literary mirror images, because the medium fulfils its function and eludes perception in the representation of an image (Witthöft, 125f.). Literary mirror images function as a metareflexive on immersive phenomena in fables. The shadow of Reinhart Fuchs in the reflection of a fountain for example suggests the presence of his wife, because the archetype image relation is not recognised (v. 836 840); Something similar happens with the wolf and its vivified shadow, that overpowers the wolf's perception (v. 874 876). Like immersion itself, these mirror images possess the quality of an existence in the in between of reflection and absolute immediacy. Something is visualised that does not exist or does not exist in the same place but the disillusionment is left to the recipient.

Final observations

To summarise: these examples show a core element of immersion, because whether it is created literarily or in an audiovisual format, it only works in the in between of distanced reflection and active involvement of the recipient. One is not so much drawn into a fictional world as that world is first actively constructed and permanently kept extant. The essence of a game is rooted in its interactive nature there is no game without a player and no narrative world without an active reader. This is linked to the Spatial Situation Model (SSM), where semiotic references to the nature of the space and its basic characteristics are given in the medial space mostly metonymically. The medial space must become the primary frame of reference to get ‘immersed’.

According to the hypothesis theory of perception, perception is not a direct image of the environment, but the result of the reconciliation between expectations (hypotheses) about its nature and the incoming information. In media reception situations, two hypotheses are formed based on the competing Egocentric Reference Frames (ERFs): The first states that the ERF of the recipient's real environment is his Primary Egocentric Reference Frame (PERF), the second takes the media environment as PERF. So the basic prerequisite for experiencing immersion is attention. Based on the SSM an ERF is built up and then it has always to be reconsidered which is the primary egocentric reference frame PERF. The more information about the media space, the more likely the acceptance

of the media environment as PERF and thus the spatial experience of presence. Constantly engaged in decoding semiotic references to the nature of space and its basic characteristics are given.

Finally building on these observations I will show you my understanding of immersion as a transmedial phenomenon. The immersive effect consists of an ongoing construction of fragile fictional worlds by the recipient. The effect is created by the momentary existence of two spaces with the same need for attention.

Figure 1.1: Transmedial Immersion

References

Bleumer, Hartmut: Immersion im Mittelalter: Zur Einführung, in: Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik (42/2012), p. 5 15.

Curtis, Robin: Immersion und Einfühlung. Zwischen Repräsentionalität und Materialität bewegter Bilder, in: montage AV (17/2/2008), p. 89 107.

Lechertmann, Christina: Momente des Vergessens. Immersion als Erwartung in der Crône Herinrichs von dem Türlin, in: Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 167(3), p. 104 123.

Nemes, Balázs, J.: Der involvierte Leser. Immersive Lektürepraktiken in der spätmittelalterlichen Mystikrezeption, in: Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik Bd. 42, (167/2012) p. 38 62.

Wirth, Werner / Hofer, Matthias: Präsenzerleben. Eine medienpsychologische Modellierung, in: montage AV (17/2/2008), p. 159 175.

Witthöft, Christiane: Der Schatten im Spiegel des Brunnens. Phänomene der Immersion in mittelalterlichen Tierepen und Fabeln (Reinhart Fuchs), in: Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik Bd 43. (167/2012) p. 124 146.

Part Two: Religion and Faith

2: What to Expect from the Inquisition: Historical Myth Unmaking in Dragon Age: Inquisition

Alicia Mckenzie, @merovingianist, Wilfrid Laurier University

It is fair to say that the name ‘Inquisition’ has some historical baggage in the eyes of the modern audience. BioWare’s choice to use it for the titular organization of their third Dragon Age game is strategic; by evoking the idea of conflicting interpretations of history, it foreshadows one of the game’s major themes.

Dragon Age: Inquisition opens with a devastating magical explosion, an act of apparent terrorism that destroys a peace conference called the Conclave. The explosion kills the Divine, the head of the Chantry and the religious leader of southern Thedas, as well as countless members of the warring factions. The Divine’s surviving lieutenants proceed to implement her back up plan and declare a new Inquisition.

The original Inquisition was founded centuries before, in the early days of the Andrastian religion. Thedasian history disagrees on its legacy: the Inquisition is remembered as a group of dangerous zealots by some, as an organization dedicated to justice by others. Like its predecessor, the new Inquisition’s mandate is to restore order (which also means investigating the attack on the Conclave).

The player character is the sole survivor from ground zero, left with the ability to mend the rifts in reality caused by the explosion. Seen as a potential saviour and dubbed the ‘Herald of Andraste’ by Thedas’s shaken people, they are inevitably drawn into a leadership role within the new Inquisition. Through conversations with NPCs, the Herald can explore different interpretations of the first Inquisition's history. Mother Giselle (a surviving Grand Cleric) calls the original Inquisitors "hunters and zealots" who spread the Andrastian faith by force, although she understands the Divine’s goals in reusing the name. Cassandra and Leliana, the Divine’s lieutenants, have more positive interpretations.

But it is the PC who becomes the Inquisitor, whose choices will ultimately shape the direction of the new Inquisition. Will the Inquisition be as ruthless in its pursuit of justice as its predecessor, or will it wield its power in more tempered ways? The Herald is faced by a constant series of choices, especially once they have been acclaimed as Inquisitor. Once acknowledged by the rulers of Thedas, the Inquisitor is given the right to judge prisoners taken by the Inquisition. Execution is always an option, but so are more creative or compassionate judgements. “Justice has many tools”, as the Inquisition’s ambassador Josephine points out.

Judgements and other role playing choices affect the game’s approval mechanic, which governs the Inquisitor’s relationship with their NPC companions. High approval unlocks new conversations and quests, while acting like a brutal thug leads to painful and explosive confrontations as your supporters lose faith in you. Even more consequential choices come in main story quests like ‘Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts’, where the Inquisitor investigates an assassination plot at another peace conference. While there, they must help resolve the civil war in the Empire of Orlais by deciding which side will receive the Inquisition's support. But should they choose the claimant best for the empire, or the claimant who is best for the Inquisition? The ethical choice is not clear cut; the Inquisition’s needs favour one solution, while the well being of the Orlesian people favour another. The Inquisitor must decide which will be their priority.

Choices such as these shape the Inquisition's legacy. By the end of the game’s main storyline, the Inquisitor's actions determine the election of the new Divine and the future direction of the Chantry (moderate or radical reform, or a return to traditional ways). But such massive influence comes with a cost. In the game’s final DLC, “Trespasser”, the Inquisition is facing enormous pressure from the

secular rulers of Orlais and Ferelden to reform or disband; Orlais fears the Inquisition’s continuing independence, while Ferelden fears its military power. Throughout the game, the player is constantly encountering the complications of combining spiritual and secular power. Dragon Age: Inquisition actively encourages reflection on how faith backed by force can be dangerous, and how it can lead to an ambiguous historical legacy.

3: Where the Goddess Dwells: Faith and Interpretation in Fire Emblem Charlie Edholm, @c_s_edholm, Lee University and Southern Adventist University

Games often present religions in reductive ways, emphasizing objects of faith ritual, sacred text, belief, authority, and so forth at the expense of the subjective relationships these elements form within a faith practice. How can games better explore their faiths?

Fire Emblem: Three Houses develops a complex religious system with no single preferred vantage point through its fictional Church of Seiros. Neo medieval and alluding to Catholicism, the Church comes to life in the many interpretations of its practitioners and critics. At Garreg Mach Monastery students from across the realm study and train together in preparation for their futures as knights or in court. While the monastery hosts the most influential branch of the Church, everyone is keen to share their diverse religious opinions. Some students are devout, some believe reservedly, others don’t believe but join the church simply to help people. A few students from outside Fódlan describe their own religious traditions by contrast, like the polytheism of Duscar or the nature spirits of Brigid. Branches of the church fight over charges of heresy. Family members and nobles view the church’s power as evil, corrupt. One student studies the historical development of the Church, seeking to “read between the lines” and discover truths the Church would rather hide.

This complexity shifts the thematic focus; by exploring conflicts within a tradition, Fire Emblem: Three Houses isn’t asking whether the faith is true, but what acts of faith are best for the world. The issue isn’t what to believe, but how, i.e. what actions should belief engender. Rachel Wagner connects this to playing games: “Play, then, is how much freedom we have within a given rule based system. Play shapes how much wiggle room we have how much we can change a received text or tradition and not find ourselves isolated from our religious peers.”

Power complicates this relationship, though. Interpretation requires ambiguity, metaphor. When games turn faith into code, faith becomes literal. For example, in the game levelling up a ‘Faith’ skill grants magic powers (its dark magic opposite is ‘Reason’). Faith becomes a tool. In a game, a god can exist just as clearly as anything else. Virtually they are ‘real.’ In Fire Emblem: Three Houses the player character literally becomes the avatar of the goddess Sothis. Mechanized faith differs from contested faith in our world, in that there’s nothing left to ‘prove.’

This makes dissent all the more striking. What does it mean not to believe in a god standing right in front of you? If Fire Emblem: Three Houses was most concerned with an instrumentalized religion, powers and dragons would be enough. Its story isn’t about evidence, but interpretation. Faced with the Immaculate One a divine dragon students still question, doubt, and challenge the church. Each late game path takes a different approach, from forming a new theocratic state to reforming the Church or destroying it outright. Faith adapts to many ends.

Reductive faiths in our games and stories reduce our understanding of the varied and dynamic roles faiths play across human societies. Fire Emblem: Three Houses shows how a more nuanced exploration of the old can bring us to new explorations of the faith and conflicts of our modern world.

4: ‘Pseudo Pseudohistory: The Use and Misuse of Medieval Irish Literature in Scion Second Edition’

Emmett Taylor, @Emm3tTaylor, University College Cork

While medieval European literature inspires many historical games, they often struggle with their inspiration’s Christian context. Scion 2e exemplifies this struggle, removing all Christian and medieval features from its chapter based on Irish mythological literature. The 2019 rulebook, Scion: Hero strips the Túatha Dé Danann, literary characters partially based on pre Christian figures of their medieval and Christian elements. Other chapters, such as one based on the Òrìṣà of the Yoruba, includes complex Christian elements.

Scion accepts the medieval Irish pseudo historical claim that these texts faithfully represent a pagan past, and attempts to create a pagan authenticity out of these sources by removing their historical and religious context, creating a pseudo historical pseudohistory. The Túatha Dé Danann draws on and summarizes Lebor Gabála Érenn, an Irish pseudo historical text telling the history of Ireland from Noah’s flood, but removes or obfuscates all Christian elements, re framing the flood as a ‘flood that drowned everything in Ireland’.

Even in detailed discussions of Lebor Gabála Érenn’s contents, Christian elements are hidden. One of the figures presented is Éber Donn, step son of Scotia, niece of Moses, who has his Biblical basis and genealogy ignored, while other character descriptions often include genealogy. Another character, The Dagda, is ‘paganified’ by the chapter, altering his claim in Cath Maige Tuired to match the skills of any of the áes dána, skilled professionals (cupbearers, smiths, druids, etc), to be instead exclusively claiming to match the skill of any druid. Two explicitly Christian figures, Saint Patrick and Crom Cruach (shown to be a Christian invention by Borsje) are included, but stripped of their Christian basis. Saint Patrick is a demigod named Patricius and Crom Cruach is not a mind breaking idol but a giant maggot. Christianity’s only direct reference is presenting Saint Brigid as being an alias of Brig of the Túatha Dé Danann, something that is not found in any medieval source and is instead based on an ongoing scholarly debate regarding connections between the figures.

This erasure of Christianity from the game’s use of the texts creates a recursive pseudohistory, taking medieval Ireland’s imagined pagan past, deeming it to be too Christian, and removing or ‘paganifying’ Christian elements, creating a second layer of an imagined past. As this choice to remove or subsume Christian elements is unique to this chapter, as others happily include it, we can see that this was a specific choice for this Irish chapter rather than for the entire product. This gives us insight into the reason for this choice. Further, as this chapter transforms Christian figures into pagan ones, this decision is evidently not made to avoid outcry from Christian communities. Instead, I would argue that it is done to avoid challenging the public’s expectations for the Celts and Irish myths.

Scion alters their sources, the works of Christian literati who wove Christianity and local traditions together, into a ‘pure’ pagan past. Druids, violent passions and red hair, a Victorian image of the ‘Celts’. Giving an audience what they expect instead of the truth.

5: The Portrayal of the Third Crusade and Crusading Ideology in Dante’s Inferno

Juan Manuel Rubio, @jmrubio120, Central European University,

Dante’s Inferno is a 2011 game that offers the player a hack and slash adventure through the nine circles of Hell. Although based in the Divine Comedy, the game is set during the 3rd Crusade. Here Dante is a sinful crusader instead of a poet. Using shared ideas about the crusades, Dante’s Inferno condemns medieval religious violence in general, and the wars of the cross in particular through a key narrative change from the source, aesthetics and gameplay. Like the source material, Dante’s Inferno is a redemption story, but with a different focus. While in the poem Beatrice is key for the poet's redemption, in Dante’s Inferno it is Dante who must redeem both his wife and himself. In this sense, the crusader is an ideal figure for the game.

The shift from poet to crusader is key in Dante’s Inferno, it places the player in the lowest moral point conceivable within the medieval imaginary; this justifies the redemption arc. Dante as crusader embodies all sins: cruelty, gluttony, lust.

The Middle Ages in Dante’s Inferno is a narrative tool instead of a setting. Because the game takes place in Hell, it offers little to no exposition about the medieval context and the crusades. The context is provided by shared assumptions of the period reproduced both in authors and media. Making Dante a crusader goes beyond the need to provide the player with a warrior figure that fits the gameplay, it seeks to place the player at the lowest moral point in this “medieval” world. This makes the inversion of the redemptive arc from the poem possible.

Violence in general, and religious violence in particular, is key in Dante’s Inferno in the procedural and visual rhetoric of the game. Dante isn't just a crusader, he is a hyper masculine demon eviscerating warrior influenced by God of War’s Kratos, whose 3rd title came out in 2010. Violence plays an ambivalent role in DI. The game constantly makes the point that it was Dante’s crusading violence that condemned him. However, it is also the main gameplay mechanic and the way to redemption; the player cannot choose not to engage in violence.

The tripartite role of violence (as damnation, gameplay mechanic, and salvation) can be seen in Dante’s design. Dante is also a Christ like figure who judges and absolves the souls of the damned, and (literally) uses the power of death (the scythe) to defeat death. Other visual elements further reinforce the game’s understanding of crusading violence. The design and color of the bishop preaching the crusade equate him with demons and the combination of dialogue and image argues the hypocritical nature of religious violence.

The presence of crusader souls in the seventh circle (the violent) mechanically reinforces the idea. The fact that they are in the third sub section (violence against the deity) makes the point that crusading was first and foremost a distortion of Christian teaching. This is not to say that crusading was not violent, even chroniclers at the time seemed shocked by some episodes like the massacre at the Temple in 1099. However, by portraying crusading the way it does, Dante’s Inferno tells us more about religious violence today than in the Middle Ages

Part Three: Cultural Hybridity and Othering

6: “Everyone Knows Witches are Barren”: Images of Fertility, Witchcraft and Womanhood in Medievalist Video Games

Tess Watterson, @tesswatty, University of Adelaide

Representations of gendered bodies always reflect contemporary cultural imaginations. Witch’s bodies in medievalist fantasy RPGs are a layering of medieval/early modern visual culture, medievalism, and modern popular culture. (Content Warning: ableist/sexist language)

As Sarah Stang argues, labelling hag's bodies as monstrous hides their harmful nature as representations. But it is both the monstrous and the medievalist that functions together to mask this misogyny (and ableism and ageism). 'Historical' inspiration lends authority and we must contextualise these monstrous female bodies as part of the long tradition of depicting witches. The today's idea and image of the hag isn't actually medieval, but developed from the late middle ages into the early modern period. Images of the witch in this form (~ 15th C.) stem from both a revival of classical stories and a new interest in depicting naked bodies (See S. Schade, C. Zika, L. Roper). Witch images also shared visual codes, e.g. sagging breasts, with art of the embodiment of Envy.

The iconography of the breast was used to convey beliefs and anxieties about fertility and female sexuality. Through most of the Middle Ages, breasts were most commonly depicted in images of the Virgin Mary as the nursing Madonna, associated with God’s nurturing care. This shifted with what Miles calls the ‘secularisation of the breast’ in the 15th 17th C. The breast becomes common in other art, e.g. erotic and medical images. Demonised naked bodies are core to these depictions of witches, especially sagging “poison filled” breasts. Sagging breasts/hard nipples represented the antithesis of nourishment and care. These iconographies have carried through into the design of modern hags, eg. in The Witcher. The water and grave hag monster species are “inhuman”, supernatural, and always naked.

Both water and grave hags are drawn with “deformed”, “withered” female bodies, with enlarged heads and claw like hands, a crouched posture, and the iconic sagging breasts. All encounters with hags expect the player to fight (or flee), wherein success is killing the hag. The hag's evils relate to heteronormative "successful" femininity: e.g. a grave hag named Mourntart feasts on children’s bones (recalling witchcraft archetypes), and in the quest A Bard’s Beloved, a water hag lures men as lovers to then kill and devour them.

In the World of the Witcher book, character Dandelion jokes any who compare water hags with naiads “most certainly never saw one in daylight”, despite a folktale on the next page writing that water hags are naiads who lost their eternal youth by loving mortal men. Just like in late medieval and early modern art, the ageing hag body is depicted against the youthful seductress. The medievalism of The Witcher, and background of this visual tradition, enables these modern images to so explicitly cast failed fertility as monstrous. These images of female bodies reflect a continuity from the medieval period to today, indicating that perhaps cultural stereotypes about fertility and breasts are not as relegated to the history books (or canvases) as many would like to believe.

7: Cross Cultural Representation in Raji through Medieval Mythology and Architecture Priyanka Das,

@sacaterpillar,

Presidency University, Kolkata

The narrative technique of storytelling with puppets and mandalas in Raji immerses the gamer in a paradigm built to imitate the cosmos as reflected in diverse indigenous cultures across the Indian sub continent.

Floor paintings are a traditional form of folk art that unifies diverse indigenous cultures across India through aesthetic expression. It is democratic and religious in nature, known as Mandana in Rajasthan and Alpona in Bengal. Mandalas are complex geometrical manifestations of the universe based upon pre Vedic philosophies. They are meant to invoke the divine and contain memories, which are the essence of human life. Raji's memories about Golu strengthen her to fight the demons. The structure of the mandalas correspond to the structure of the nested bodies in Hindu Philosophy. They are the primitive form of mandanas, which were discovered in Mohenjo Daro. Upon reaching the core of a mandala, one can retrieve memories or gain knowledge.

Knowledge about the divine or self is equivalent to strength and immortality. The characters are surrounded by either divine or dark mandanas to indicate their strength, a departure from using health bars.

Stained glass was used in the medieval Europe as a medium for Biblical symbolism. Later, the style was revived during the neo Gothic period. It was introduced into the Indian architectural form during the colonial rule in the mid nineteenth century. The neo Gothic craftsmen had superficially imitated the red and blue palette on stained glass to achieve the 'dim religious light', which is inversed in Raji with dark mandana motifs to indicate the ominous. Medieval fortification included 'trou de loop', Rangda, the usurper choked the waters of Hiranya Nagari with poison so that the trespassers would be poisoned to death. Moreover, the eeriness is aggravated by the neo Gothic architectural form.

The weapons wielded by Raji instigate disassociation from gendered perspectives. The Trishul or Trident of Shiva is a manifestation of a medieval spear with three spikes, representing three divine states, the meaning of which is culturally diverse and contested. Sharanga is the celestial bow of Vishnu, the arrows represent the rudimentary elements thunder, fire and ice. The five distinct mandanas are symbolic constructions of divine incantations that are used to vanquish demons. The Sudarshana Chakra or Discus of Vishnu is an extension of the psycho active self or mind that executes the will of the person who wields it. The body in Hindu Philosophy is a psycho physical organism that exists in a body and soul continuum.

The cosmic construction of mandalas and mandamas indicate the strength of the characters, manifest in inversed neo Gothic stained glass architechtural form and divine incantations. They symbolise the division between gross and subtle body, and their vulnerability.

8: Cultural Spaces and Hybridity in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice Jéssica Iolanda Costa Bispo, @JIBispo1996, Nova University of Lisbon

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, a video game developed by Ninja Theory and released in 2017, draws attention to mental illness and episodes of violent psychosis. These are, undoubtedly, its main themes. However, most of the research on this video game has not shed light on its cultural significance, let alone analyse it from a certain theoretical framework within Cultural Studies. Therefore, I aim to briefly explore it considering Homi Bhabha’s concept of the Third Space of Enunciation.

In his well known work The Location of Culture (Routledge, 1994), Bhabha theorizes that hegemonic cultures are unable to obtain the purity which they sometimes brag about, since systems and cultural statements are constructed in an ambiguous space, which “(…) challenges our sense of the historical identity of culture as a homogenizing, unifying force, authenticated by the originary Past, kept alive in the national tradition of the People.” (37). Contrarily, the notion of an ambiguous non unified cultural space is highly disruptive, since from it stem cultural hybrids, people who dwell between two or more cultural identities, namely the one in which they were born and the one eventually brought by a colonizer.

In Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua is one of these cultural hybrids. Her Celtic heritage is confronted with that of the Norsemen during the latter’s invasions of Britain in the Early Medieval Age. As a result, Senua embarks on a journey in which her fear emerges as Nordic mythological creatures and distorted manifestations of Vikings.

Senua’s primary goal is to save her lover’s soul. For that to happen, she must reach Hel, one of the Nine Worlds in Nordic cosmology, as stated in the poem “Seeress’s Prophecy”, included in the foundational Medieval Icelandic work Poetic Edda compiled by Snorri Sturluson. Senua’s journey is hard not only because she needs to master combat skills but because her cultural identity becomes divided. Her cultural hybridity is manifested, for instance, through Druth, a Celtic slave of the Norsemen, whose voice Senua hears from time to time. Through his narration, she learns Nordic legends and we, as players, can unlock them through runestones. We are collecting stories, which symbolizes how Nordic culture is becoming embedded in Senua’s mind. If we do not ignore the runestones, the ending will reveal more about her father and the violent colonization of her village, as if Senua relying on Nordic myths ultimately leads her to the whole truth. However, the inevitability of her cultural hybridity and her acknowledgment of it becomes obvious during the final battle, where she confronts the Nordic goddess Hela: her mirror image. Senua realizes she is both Celtic and Nordic. She is in between. In the place where the battle ensues, even before confronting Hela/herself, Senua faces a swarm of Vikings. As players, we fight them, we refuse to give up despite Hela’s whispers telling us to “Let go”. In the end, we realize that we cannot progress further without indeed giving up. This symbolizes Senua’s ultimate acceptance of her hybrid identity: she is in a Third Space of Enunciation. Her identity is not Celtic nor Nordic but a third one, a mix between the two (also represented by the fragmented space in which the fight with Hela takes place).

By accepting herself and making peace with the Nordic culture, Senua is empowered and encouraged to finally let go of her lover, previously slain by the Norsemen, proclaiming “Goodbye my love”. She has reached her objective in her journey of self discovery.

9: Unicorn Symbolism in The Witcher Storyworld

Alan Lena van Beek, @thiliel, Christian Albrechts Universität zu Kiel

In this paper I analyse unicorn symbolism in „The Witcher“ Storyworld from a medievalist’s perspective to answer the question: Why do Yennefer and Geralt fuck on a stuffed unicorn?

Figure 9.1: Geralt and Yennefer in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the unicorn is mostly a sex toy and a running gag, for examples in the DLC quest Land of a Thousand Fables. Yennefer likes extravagant clothes, perfumes and makeup. So is this unicorn just a fetish or does it have another significance? Sapkowski playfully taps into unicorn lore. In medieval symbolism as well as in The Witcher books, the unicorn is a mythical creature associated with purity, virginity and celibacy. Sapkowski’s fiction is highly intertextual. The entry for the unicorn in a book called Physiologus within the novel Time of Contempt is a direct reception of the medieval Physiologus and bestiary traditions (p. 56). There, the unicorn is allegorically associated with Mary, Jesus and virginal conception. So, why do Yennefer and Geralt fuck on a stuffed unicorn? The unicorn stands for Ciri.

The desert episode in Time of Contempt is a pivotal moment in the uncovering of Ciri’s identity as a carrier of the Elder Blood. It is accompanied by a young unicorn (Ihuarraquax/LittleHorse) and its herd. (p. 280) Ciri embodies mariological analogies connected to unicorn symbolism in two core ways: firstly, Ciri‘s and the Virgin Mary’s children are prophesied to rule the world by Ithlinne and Gabriel respectively; secondly, Ciri’s virginity as Unicorns, guardians of time and space, help Ciri escape men trying to forcefully impregnate her and to access her power to jump to another world. Mariological and crucifixion symbolism pervades Ciri’sdepiction: penetration by the Ihuarraquax’s horn represents the blood on the lance and defloration; being pinned by three unicorns refers to the Trinity; Ihuarraquax placing their head in Ciri’s lap refers to the virginal conception and hortus conclusus. Yennefer and Geralt are infertile and act as Ciri’s parental figures. Their inability to conceive is being represented by the stuffed (dead) unicorn. Ciri’s identity is intertwined with unicorns in The Witcher

books. Ultimately, the dead unicorn also foreshadows the characters‘ deaths in Lady of the Lake: They are being transferred to another world by Ciri and the unicorn Ihuarraquax (p. 528).

Part Four: Texts and Cybertexts

10: Dante in Limbo: Playing Hope and Fear

Claudia Rossignoli, @ClauRossignoli, University of St Andrews

The transmediation of medieval literary texts into digital games, particularly of texts that like Dante’s Comedy continue to have a lasting impact on our collective creative imagination, is often motivated by designers’ interest to capitalise on their established cultural appeal and broad popularity. In this sense, Dante’s poem is particularly attractive as it uniquely combines a visible influential presence in the creative industries (through its lively and long established adaptive tradition) with an eminently ‘playable’ make up (retelling an immersive journey through a complex, multileveled, self referential cosmic architecture, with a strongly linear narrative and unprecedented world making ambitions).

Most digital games that adapt or refer to the Comedy would use its first section (or cantica), the Inferno, where it is easier to find visual, narrative, structural, and sensorial elements that can satisfy general assumptions about medieval visions of the world and of the afterlife. At the same time, Inferno, more than any other cantica, is characterised by an antagonistic environment and governed by a progressive logic, based on overcoming obstacles and defeating opposition. This makes it highly compatible with the common objective driven dynamic of play but also easily transferable to the established structures of gameplay in popular gaming genres, as demonstrated by the well studied case of RPG Dante’s Inferno (EA, 2010). Yet far more interesting creative relationships emerge when we explore connections that are not merely adaptive or referential but rooted in the emotional dimension of our fruition of a representation, a narrative or an experience as readers and/or gamers.

Limbo (Playdead, 2010) is a puzzle solving platformer, with a uniquely atmospheric minimalist design, which at first sight has absolutely nothing mediaeval about it. Its choice of title is intriguing though as there is very little in the game or gameplay that reflects the immobility, dullness and monotony that we would normally associate with this non place. However, from the outset, all elements of the design clearly aim to deepen the emotive state of being in a blurred and indeterminable place, intensifying the player’s sense of uncertainty, suspension, bewilderment and isolation As the game progresses, the ghostly environment around the boy protagonist becomes more threatening and hazardous, as dangers emerge unexpected from the dark contours of the shadowy and mostly achromatic gamescape. The eerie realistic sound increases the tension but also this game world’s disquieting immersive intensity. The boy’s explorative journey originally revisits the structure of classical katabatic narratives, which also inspire Dante’s poem, leading to a momentous but unsettling encounter (with a figure identified by some as the protagonist’s sister) that the player approaches with high expectations of enlightenment and resolution. This event however brings no closure and instead intensifies the initial sense of loss and disorientation, eliminating any remaining hope of ever finding a way out.

Limbo is the first circle of Dante’s Hell (Inf. 4), a sombrely sorrowful place, filled with sights anguish and yearning, uniquely devised to house a very particular kind of souls, notably including many children, who are here ‘suspended’ and devoid of all hope, though did not commit any sin. Dante’s limbo (as Limbo’s hostile otherworld) is a place of irreparable loss and permanent dimness, perplexing and morally disorienting, immersed in the bleakness of eternal hopelessness, yet filled with innocent and naïve desire for what can never come.

Dante’s medieval limbo, as its digital counterpart, explores our inability to understand the rules that govern the world we inhabit, our hope of finding the answers we look for as well as our fear of losing sight of our objectives, of following the wrong path and getting irremediably lost in an inescapable hostile wood. Of course, in the moral lucidity of Dante’s poem, limbo and its hopelessness are just a moment of a longer introspective journey that ends in the hight of the heavens, in the brightness of

the stars. In the digital, self contained game world of Limbo the experience never ends, as long as we continue to play, and its desolation remains inescapable. Yet they share a remarkably similar emotional landscape and a mirroring psychological framework, which encourage us to explore experiences of loss and notions of purpose. Reimagining the inner tragedy of this distinctive Dantean realm, Limbo represents a markedly layered instance of Dante’s cultural agency, adapting the text’s emotive substance to a contemporary and dynamic conception, and an intensely immersive experience.

11: Witcher 2: Evolution of Fantasy through the Cybertext Medium

Neil

Nagwekar, @NeilNagwekar,

The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Beowulf, an early primary epic, set the first tropes of middle age fantasy (kings, halls, monsters, brave warriors, good vs evil, etc.) Over centuries, alterations to these tropes began a slow transition toward epic fantasy through Faerie Queene, Childe Roland, etc. Tolkien stated: “Beowulf is so interesting as poetry that this quite overshadows the historical content”. The History of Middle Earth would add tons of ‘historical content’ core to Lord of the Rings. Similarly, George R R Martin added gritty realism to A Song of Ice and Fire and the epic fantasy tradition.

The Witcher games (2007 16) added distinctly POSTMODERN influences in (A) encouraging subjective canons (B) using cybertext medium (C) increasing ergodicity by allowing gamers to dictate story. Here, my primary focus is on Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

The author of The Witcher novels, Sapkowski declared: “I don’t believe different medias can converge. A comic book can’t be a prequel to a book, a game can’t be a sequel to a book”. But global support for the games contrasts this, shows the 'Death of the Author', and highlights subjectivity in canons. According to Aarseth, a cybertext reader is “a player, a gambler […] It is possible to explore, get lost and discover secret paths”. Witcher 2, as cybertext, can SIMULATE the elven world of Flotsam, stony ruins of Loc Muinne, etc. Simulations are not Narratives

Ergodic literature is a kind of storytelling that prioritizes the reader’s traversing of the text. It manifests in the gamer’s CHOICE in dialogues, order of quests, endings, etc. Due to ergodic literature, no two players can consume one cybertext in an identical manner. Witcher 2 has 46 paths to completing its quests. The most important choice is between Iorveth or Vernon Roche. Each side has some separate main quests + cluster of unique side quests + separate game worlds. Both cannot be accessed in one walkthrough. Crucially, themes, tones and character arcs change! Roche takes you to Aedirn to aid King Henselt. There are ramparts, barbed wires, drunken soldiers and a haunting music in the background. Similarly to political fiction narratives like A Song of Ice and Fire. Iorveth takes you to Vergen, where you help peasant leader Saskia defend Vergen from Henselt. You side with the elven and dwarven underclass. The music is soothing, the cause more just. The romantic underdog narrative is similar in tone to Helm's Deep, Lord of the Rings

To understand the limits of ergodicity in Witcher 2, Frasca’s division of Ludus and Paidia in ‘Simulations vs Narratives’ helps. Ludus comprises compulsory quests that determine win or lose scenarios. Paidia is free play e.g. roaming around the map, playing mini games, etc. In Witcher 2, paidia is often illusory. It nudges players into doing things the creators want. The best example is found in this video: Why let King Henselt live (in a game named Assassins of KINGS) after he says this in an optional dialogue? https://twitter.com/i/status/1397226262142275585

In conclusion: New canons, mediums, and more choices, are postmodern influences on epic tradition; The choice between Iorveth and Roche shows scope for subjective fantasy narratives; Paidia manipulations shows no game can have infinite choices and shows the limits of ergodic literature.

12: Dragons and their slayers: Skyrim in Comparison to Middle High German romances and Heroic Epics

Julia Kaspar, @KasparJulia, University of Bamberg

In this paper I will analyse dragons and their slayers using the example of the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda in comparison to Middle High German chivalric romances, whose protagonists are knights, e.g. Iwein, Tristan, Parzival, Wigalois, and heroic epics, whose protagonists are heroes, e.g. Nibelungenlied, Ortnit, Wolfdietrich.

In Skyrim players design their own character. An alter ego, who is the hero of the developing story and whose role can be compared to the protagonists in medieval narratives. Especially the romances have each a knight, whose journey the recipients follow. Examples are Iwein of Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein, that is one of the classical Middle High German Arthurian romances, and Tristan of Gottfried von Straßburg’s Tristan. In contrast to the romances, the character of the player does not have to be a knight but can take any role, that suits the player best.

The world of Skyrim is medieval with fantastic elements: Transport is mainly by horse. Other characters depict warriors, peasants, hunters, and merchants. These are also found in Middle High German romances and heroic epics as well as magic, giants, and dragons. The player must fulfil quests, which are like the âventiure in the Middle High German chivalric romances. Aline Holzer also shows this connection in her book: Holzer, Aline Madeleine: Digitale Heldengeschichten: medienübergreifende narratologische Studie zur Rezeption der mittelalterlichen deutschsprachigen Epik in Computerspielen. Frankfurt am Main, 2017. The main quest in Skyrim, which is similar to Iwein’s aim to be worthy of Laudine and the court again or Parzival’s (Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival) fate to ask the right question, leads to the battle with the first dragon.

This quest is given by a Jarl, who also resembles the noble commissioners in the romances. Iwein fulfils a lot of commissions for nobility because it is honourable and his duty. Wigalois (Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois) is specifically tasked by a king to kill a dragon. Also, Tristan must slay a dragon to woo the princess Isolde. The knights and heroes of Middle High German literature fight dragons, too. In Skyrim are nameless dragons like the ones in the romances, that are easier to kill. Iwein slays his dragon, in contrast to Tristan, without much effort. But both dragons have no names. They are just animals. While these are simply enemies, the fights against dragons with names have more meaning. In Skyrim they are stronger and mark important points, like the final boss Alduin. In Germanic sagas is Fafnir, who is slain by Siegfried, and the Midgard Snake, slain by Thor.

When in Skyrim the first dragon is killed, its soul is passed to the player, who is then revealed as dragonborn. Like Siegfried’s invulnerability after the bath in dragon blood the dragonborn gains the might of the slain dragon. Now dragon shouts, the power of dragons, can be used. In Skyrim dragons were thought dead. Alduin is the first to show up after a long time and resurrects the other dragons. This is unlike in the romances and epics, where dragons are somewhat common. Skyrim’s history has a dragon cult, too, which is not found in Middle High German stories, that are Christian. Medieval dragons are depicted as horrible with an awful stench and poison, and they breathe fire. But they stay on the ground. In contrast the dragons in Skyrim fly most of the time and have no poison. There are various dragons, the most breathe fire, but some use ice instead. In Skyrim you can use anything to kill a dragon, even just an iron dagger or your bare hands. So, players are not limited to one particular playing style. In contrast, the medieval knights and heroes use swords. In the epics Ortnit and Wolfdietrich only the sword ‘Rose’ can pierce dragon skin. While Skyrim has many swords with names, they do not live up to this significance.

Motifs used in medieval literature are still active today, especially in the fantastic genre. Alduin the World Eater resembles a lot of dragon myths. These, like the Germanic sagas and Biblical tales and Greco Roman legends, can be seen as archetypes.

13: Experiencing Chivalric Texts through Gameplay in La Mancha

Chris Totten, @totter87, Kent State

My research is in games’ relationship with the arts and older forms of media. I'm interested in how to use games as a means to explore and dissect a work, and allow players to do the same. This of course has led me to explore intersections of games and literature. Among the most popular books in the high medieval and early modern periods in Europe were chivalric romances stories of knights errant performing great feats and pining for their lady loves.

As literature is a mirror that recontextualizes art, history, or even our world, so are games. To explore this parallel, I decided to create a game based on a famous (and personal favourite) piece of literature, Miguel de Cervantes’ seminal novel, Don Quixote Published in 1605 (with a second edition in 1615), Cervantes’ Don Quixote juxtaposes the tropes of chivalric novels with the setting of Inquisition era Spain, providing such a mirror to both the books and the era.

While many know Don Quixote from his “madness” at reading too many books of chivalry (“tilting at windmills”), a central conceit is that Quixote is applying his vision of the bygone medieval era (as one built on chivalric ideals) to a later era that was anything but. The book itself offers a mirror to the time in which it was written, but has offered similar reflections over its 400+ year life as society evolved. This made me wonder what could happen in a game where players could become their own Don and Doña Quixotes.

I designed La Mancha, a storytelling card game where players encounter scenes from Don Quixote and create their own outcomes by playing cards with text from chivalric romances and building stories around them. You can find it at http://pfbstudios.com/games/la mancha/. Rather than having players match their stories to the novel, the game invites players to write their own version of Don Quixote. Emergent outcomes of play sessions have found play groups forming shared stories or adding delightful anachronisms https://youtu.be/lTwz_eN_w1c

Through playful remixing of chivalric text (through the eyes of a mad knight or a player’s whimsy) the game preserves the book’s exploration of evergreen themes like the evolution of personal and social identities or the moral absolutes of historical narratives. The game becomes a space for players to tell their own emergent quixotic narratives (Jenkins 2004) and a way to engage chivalric texts through play. In the full spirit of the novel, we’ve even had players use the game as a means to share autobiographical stories.

Metatextuality appears in the game as it did in Cervantes’ novel. As the novel would make frequent references to itself as a book (through a fictional “historian” narrator), the game lets players change rules or resist the chivalric theme (albeit momentarily). The game became a powerful paratextual tool for exploring not only The Quijote itself, but also its history, context, and interpretations. It made the novel approachable by new audiences, showing promise for games as tools to introducing and preserving seminal texts.

Part Five: Urban Environments

14: What you Leave Behind Tracing Actions in Digital Games about the Middle Ages

Jonas Froehlich and Tobias Schade, @tales_things, University of Tübingen

Games simulate an experience of historicised situations and enable players to take actions, and to do history in virtual worlds (McCall 2019, 29 30). This paper aims to analyse virtual remains left behind by players while taking actions in these worlds.

Through an interdisciplinary perspective archaeological and historical virtual remains can be identified, characterised, and studied similar to remains from the ‘real’ world. Following this premise, subsequent questions can be asked: Which things remain and why? In this regard, this paper focuses on four different games: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI including Gathering Storm (2K Games; 2016/2019), Crusader Kings III including Northern Lords (Paradox Interactive; 2020/2021), Foundation (Polymorph Games; Early Access Release 2019), and Valheim (Coffee Stain Publishing; Early Access Release 2021).

In these strategy and survival games players leave a variety of remains behind: Built structures are core elements. For example, a shelter in Valheim basic for the character to rest and to re spawn or a Builder’s Workshop in Foundation enabling players to construct buildings are essentially for game progress. Runestones in Crusader Kings III or churches in Foundation for instance are special monuments which yield bonuses. Moveable objects like work of arts, relics, and archaeological artefacts in Civilization VI generate benefits for the current holder and can be displayed, themed, traded, and stolen and can therefore be used as resources. In Valheim, crafted tools like the cultivator are used actively. These tools enable new players’ actions, like planting seeds and farming.

The most visible remains are left behind in the landscape in the form of built structures, but the environment itself is often shaped as well. This becomes most apparent in Valheim, where gaining substances by ‘harvesting’ the landscape and using them as resources is a core element of the game (Figure 14.1). In Valheim it is possible to gain raw materials and to shape the landscape with the players own ‘hands’ e.g., cutting trees to gain wood as building material. The community of Valheim discusses deforestation and strip mining as actions of landscaping. However, in Crusader Kings III the landscape is predetermined, and the transformations are mainly narrated, not visual.

Figure 14.1: Valheim, Early Access Release (Iron Gate AB / Coffee Stain Publishing, 2021).

Although the digital things that players leave behind vary widely, they all seem to have meanings for game mechanics. They have a function. It does not matter if they are visible or not: While the tools in Valheim are visibly stored and used to shape the world, documents in Crusader Kings III are only narrated things enabling players to claim territory and to move borders.

However, other remains of the ‘real’ past are neither visible nor narrated in many games this also applies to pottery, remains of consumption, which are often found in archaeological contexts (Figure 14.2): Waste from consumption, craftmanship, daily activities, or human needs and objects which lost their function like abandoned buildings, used documents, and broken things are often missing this also applies to human remains and subsequently to a remembrance of these.

These remains do not have a function in the game mechanic. For instance, in many strategy or survival games it is reasonable to remove structures which lost their functions for getting the building plots or the raw materials back. Therefore, most players’ actions would not be traceable by historians and archaeologists exploring the virtual worlds.

Based on these observations, we make three assumptions:

1. To do history in virtual worlds means to leave virtual remains;

2. Players’ actions result in visible remains as well as narrated ones;

3. Remains have a function unfunctional things are not part of these worlds.

From an archaeological and historical point of view these remains could be studied as (virtual) sources of a (virtual) past. Following this concept, intentional remains (‘Tradition’) seem to be more present than unintentional remains (‘Überrest’) in the sense of Droysen (Droysen 1868, 14).

While not intentional or not functional remains (‘Überreste’) are often key elements to narrate past in the ‘real’ world, they are marginalised in virtual worlds presumably in the favour of game mechanics. They seem unimportant for doing history.

However, playing historicised games and subsequently leaving virtual remains which enable players to trace own actions as well as (virtual) daily routines and (virtual) human activities can create more awareness for the variety and value regarding remains of the past, both historical and archaeological, in the ‘real’ world.

Bibliography

• Johann G. Droysen, Grundriss der Historik (Leipzig 1868).

• Jeremiah McCall, Playing with the past: history and video games (and why it might matter). Journal of Geek Studies 6(1): 29 48 (2019).

Figure 14.2: Giorgos Peppas; Panagiotis Koutis, CC BY SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

15: The Medieval City in Computer Games

Stefan Ancuta, @emanuelancuta, University of Vienna

Cities are powerful symbols for the middle ages and have been a central focus of medieval studies since the 19th century. Cities are spaces with a high density of buildings, socially stratified populations, and spaces of trade, production, culture, religion, and power. The broad applicability of this definition allows us to look at a multiplicity of settlement forms as cities, which is necessary since many places of interest in games can play the same roles. Depending on the genre, different functions of cities are emphasized.

RPGs and other narratively driven games often use cities as scenery, but they are also gameplay hubs that structure the narrative through resources and quests. As part of a geography that is to be explored, cities serve as landmarks, contrasted with the wilderness. In the Gothic series, the city becomes a network of political and social communities, something the player joins. The social stratification is reflected in the structure of the city, with special quarters controlled by various factions the player can interact with.

Cities are best delineated in strategy games, where they represent the fundamental centres of power, wealth, and production. They are the conduits of growth that progresses human development, regardless of historical age. In the Crusader Kings series, cities are but one of the multiple power centres that make up a realm. They differ not only in the buildings available (ex: universities), but also in their political structure: republics ruled by patrician families. In games like Rise of Nations or Civilization, that span multiple ages, cities develop and progress with technology. Once the middle ages have been reached, the visuals change to reflect a medieval aesthetic and new medieval buildings can be constructed.

In city builders players become the embodiment of cities. They are in control of the development of the city and of the wellbeing of their citizenry. This is based on their consumption needs, be it food, religion, or luxuries. A city that provides is a city that grows. Foundation, having a newer spin on the genre, creates a feeling of organic growth by taking away control from the player. The population has some autonomous influence over the appearance of the city. The medieval city is a phenomenon in progress. In Banished the city is a refuge against nature. Needs can only be taken care of through collective effort and a specialization of production. This happens in other strategy games too, where cities need to be developed according to their comparative advantage.

Cities are portrayed as reflections of the human condition and represent mostly vehicles for or achievements of human progress: dense population centers with complex socio economic relations reflected in the architecture and cityscape. The medieval ness of cities in video games erodes beyond the aesthetic of the architecture and the material culture of the population (clothing, armor, weapons) conforming in function to the general genre requirements.

16: Medieval Japanese Warfare and Building Construction in Total War: Shogun 2 João Paulo da Silva Roque, @JooP16996186

Total War: Shogun 2 (by Creative Assembly, 2011) is a turn based strategy game set during the Sengoku period (1467 1616), when Kyoto was the capital of Japan and the country was in a state of constant civil war, which began with the Õnin War to decide who should succeed the Shogun. This was called the Warring States period, which is depicted in the video game, with twelve independent states (or factions), each ruled by a Daimyo whose objectives are to control Kyoto and become the Shogun.

The video game details different characteristics of the Japanese warfare. There are different weapon types, from the lesser known Yumi (Japanese bow), Horokubiya (containers filled with gunpowder with a fuse), Naginata and Yari (both can be classified as spears, however the first has a sword like blade, excelling in cutting and slashing), to the famous Katana, the samurai sword. However, the Yumi is the original samurai weapon: firstly made for hunting, this bow was improved over the ages until it became one of the deadliest weapons in the history of Japan. This is also represented in the video game. Furthermore, there are advantages in the use of different kinds of weapons in a player controlled army: e.g., the Katana, being fast, is better suited to fight against the slower Yari, but the Naginata has a longer reach and stronger strikes due to its weight, offering a counter to the smaller sword.

Total War: Shogun 2 also accurately depicts Japanese castles. These differ from the European ones in both construction and function. Japan lies at the intersection of several tectonic plates, making it predisposed to earthquakes. This influenced how castles were made, with high stone walls built inward so they buttress themselves during tremors, and the living quarters were constructed with wood so as to absorb the shocks. Since natural disasters will randomly occur in the video game, such as earthquakes, these features keep the populace safe. It is interesting to note that in Rome: Total War, also developed by Creative Assembly (2004), natural disasters often end with ruined cities and population decline, due to deaths or the plague. Japanese castles often consisted of several defence rings, with gates placed at a 90 degree angle with each other, creating a heavily defended inner yard, with the inner castle tower (built to demonstrate the power of its owner) being the best defended structure. Earlier castles had a palace house which was lost over time. Total War: Shogun 2 presents the player with palace houses in the early game, which evolve to castles as the towns grow. However, Kyoto castle, the endgame objective, already depicts a castle tower with several defence rings, gates, guard towers and a moat, forcing the player to plan carefully before attacking.

The player wins if they manage to secure Kyoto and a set number of provinces, decided by the video game difficulty, but getting close to completion will trigger an event called Realm Divide, in which all the remaining factions will become hostile and attack the player, bringing the video game’s narrative back to the state of civil war that was prevalent during this historical time period in Japan.

17: Visiting the Unvisitable: Using Architectural Models in Video Games to Enhance Sense Oriented Learning

Blair Apgar, @blairapgar, University of York

One of the challenges of teaching art history is inherently philosophical: how can the student experience three dimensional objects or buildings when they are only available for them in a two dimensional form? Logistically, this challenge serves as a giant asterisk for the entire discipline: scholars of art history acknowledge the inherent difference between the images we show on screen, and the real object which exists, likely many miles away from our current classroom. There is often little to be done to reconcile the loss of the materiality and experience of the 3D object. This is how video games such as Ubisoft's Assassin’s Creed: Unity (2014) can close the gap left by traditional educational methods.

The game’s surprisingly faithful and intricate model of Notre Dame serves as an accessible alternative to even the most detailed photographs. Students who have not visited Notre Dame lack the spatial awareness of the monumental nature of these structures. Photographs alone cannot replicate the experience of such a vast scale. The sensorial nature of gothic architecture is critical to understanding the period’s relationship between man and god; witnessing the church's seemingly endless upwards thrust demonstrates this.

This is where Assassin’s Creed: Unity can be useful to students. In the game, Notre Dame is rendered as in the 18th century, though it uses a 21st century model, and has been modified in some key ways for playability and to match the average gamer’s perception of the modern cathedral. This means Viollet le Duc’s 19th c. modifications appears a century earlier in game than in reality. However, these distemporal features present no more difficulty they do in traditional pedagogic approaches. The experience of moving within the cathedral, anachronisms and all, can reclaim some of experientiality otherwise only possible with in situ instruction. Moreover, design choices such as a soundscape intended to replicate echoes throughout the cavernous nave or light effects which varyingly display the shimmering beauty of sun through the highly detailed stained glass, and the effect of unelectrified darkness. Furthermore, 3rd person perspectival manipulation of the player camera encourages students to literally and metaphorically shift their perspective on the space. Players can scale the walls and roofs, and due to the fidelity of the game’s model, and interact with areas unavailable to the general public. These game play features reveal more than photographs and floorplans, and can even provide access beyond in situ instruction.

With guided instruction, these explore focused features can activate the students’ additional senses while allowing them to engage with the building as a 3D object. Future prospects of virtual reality only strengthen the appeal of such games as learning tools. Though imperfect, games such as AC:U can help bring medieval architecture to life and activate the sense oriented nature of gothic architecture in students who might otherwise never experience the physical structure itself, making it an invaluable tool for educators.

18: The Medieval Influence: Foundation (game)

Andy Ashton, @Its_MrAsh, Polymorph Games

We are bringing you a glimpse of Foundation and its ‘Medieval’ game development. Of course, actual development is medieval in itself, being full of alchemy, magic and witchcraft!…or something, something…moving swiftly on!

Some games delve deep into politics and policies of the medieval period. Foundation is not trying to do this. It still has its feet in medieval history but we keep the time period broad for artistic license and playability. Foundation is meant to be fun and relaxing, without taking itself too seriously. This allows us to reach a wider audience and demographic that may have missed out. As such, medieval immersion is more important than 100% accuracy, for gameplay and aesthetic diversity

That being said, we do not throw historical accuracy out of the window. Both with regards to gameplay and art style, we research both online and physical publications, cross referencing to ensure we stick as close to historical ‘truth’ as we can. Our focus is to allow players to recreate a medieval societal structure and additionally create (or recreate) authentic looking towns and historical monuments. Political intrigues and narrative are used to complement the medieval setting.

Looking at political gameplay, we chose to focus on the traditional medieval estates, or ‘Estate of the Realm’ (Peasantry, Monarchy and Religion). These estates are our way to introduce the player to medieval political intrigue as well as having impact on the gameplay. To complement the estates, we will introduce the player to historical intrigue by including narrative quests and events. Thus creating the feel of the medieval time period and maybe even piquing new interest in history!

We also wanted to create a connection between players and villagers. The player as the local ruler, is able to determine the fate of their villagers, from jobs, resources to status. Leaving the custom villager AI to do the heavy lifting; to work, eat and play. Historically, City Builders are laid out on a grid which works well for modern settings but less well for the medieval period. We created our own technology allowing us to generate a gridless world and villages organically grow into cities much like in medieval Europe. Only the building of housing and paths are taken out of players hands. Housing via a painting system, where villagers (not architects) build their own housing. Whilst the AI creates paths that adapt to the topography, thus reflecting a medieval city layout.

We wanted players to be able to use their creativity and so developed the Monument system. This allows players to create soaring monuments, of their own design or based on historical buildings, using a flexible modular system of interlocking and/or freeform parts. Finally, to round out the whole medieval authenticity of the game we have been working with some incredible talent in the audio industry. Jonathan Grover has nailed the medieval soundscape whilst Audinity have brought music to our ears using medieval instruments.

Part Six: Chivalry and Feudalism

19: Feudal Law and MMOs: “I'm afraid he's AFK my liege” Alec Thompson, @AlecThomspon, University of Cambridge

A simple question: does law require physical space? Apparently not in 2006 a fully functioning legal system grew out of the medieval MMO Darkfall Online. At its peak, the system regulated over 5000 citizens. The ‘Duchy of Wessex’ was modelled on feudal England, created by dedicated roleplayers. It had judiciary, courts, feudal pyramid, and King; further, precedent, statutes and a constitution. With Law the Duchy coordinated the most powerful guild on the server. The entire system was socially constructed, using time, forums, and spreadsheets, with no assistance from game features. The court used a self informing jury and judge combo. Jurors were summoned and challenged; they then interrogated evidence such as screenshots and witness testimony.

In a video game, crime works differently. Throwing fireballs brings a 50 gold fine (for the annoyance). Duelling to the death is naturally acceptable for consenting individuals in private. Murder was considered a form of aggravated battery. After all, what is murder without death and assault without pain? The answer, something entirely different. There must have been another wrong making it criminal... Because health regenerates, a fireball hit won’t make the game unplayable; however, being repeatedly murdered will. Hence, murder as aggravated battery: it’s just another annoyance, albeit more severe.

But how to punish criminals without death or pain? For murder the punishment was execution and exile. For petty crimes: walking in circles for hours, another, fines to pay off, another forced work. What was the punishment? Boredom. Going beyond boredom? Stocks. For a roleplayer, allies pretending to throw rotten fruit at their character is insulting and hurts. For that modern Dr Jekyll, the dual account user: IP tracking could be used to hunt them down.

But the dual account user raises a puzzle: what is the crime of account theft? The real life version would be someone stealing your body and walking about with it. Is this property theft or identity theft? Or perhaps even kidnapping? And who is suing? Obviously not the character, who has been ‘stolen.’ Could it be some kind of new legal entity, an intelligence controlling various avatars from afar? For the first time in history, the legal body is detached from the acting physical body.

Wacky, bizarre, but incredibly fun, Darkfall shows Law can crop up wherever humans abound, regardless of the laws of physics, bodies, death, pain, eating, sleeping or identity. For more, try at808@cam.ac.uk and this longer blog post: https://t.co/48evCCpHok?amp=1

20: “

Rebelling Again?” Feudal Relations and Lawmaking as an Evolving Game Mechanic

Doug Chapman, @DouglasRChapman, University of Cambridge

The Middle Ages have proven to be a fruitful source of inspiration in gaming in large part due to the feudal complexities that characterized the period. Medieval rulership was rarely a straightforward affair, and the feudal contract bound both ruler and subject alike. Two inherent elements of feudalism that have translated particularly well to the world of video games are the feudal contract and the role of monarch as lawmaker. These have evolved from basic origins to become compelling game mechanics in modern medieval titles. The tension between the monarch as lawmaker and as subject to the law was one of the principal characteristics of the period. The inherently legal nature of the feudal relationship was likewise a source of constraint and opportunity for both vassal and ruler. These dynamics were initially absent from the earliest examples of medieval strategy games. Many were of the classic RTS type, in which subjects followed the orders of the player without complaint. One can only imagine how medieval rulers would envy this authority! The genre would soon see the addition of rebellions, a mechanic that represents the limitations inherent in feudalism. Rebellions could be caused through taxation, creating a cycle of war taxes rebellion war that would have been familiar to many across the Middle Ages.

Recent titles have evolved mechanics related to feudal lawmaking and relations even further, although the rebellion is still a mainstay of games set in the Middle Ages. Two examples in different genres stand out in particular: Crusader Kings III and Mount & Blade II

Mount and Blade II offers an example of feudal lawmaking in an RPG through its policy mechanic. Players can propose new laws even as vassals given sufficient support from other lords, and these laws can have both positive and negative effects for each level of feudal society. Magna Carta is a prime historical example of this dynamic. As the product of a baronial rebellion it cut strongly against the power of King John, but it also empowered the royal justice system and would later be used to solidify the succession of his son Henry III.

Crusader Kings III includes a number of feudal mechanics in its vision of medieval grand strategy. From count to emperor the player is able to modify feudal contracts directly with both vassal and liege, and can pass laws to modify the method of succession. Lawmaking is additionally represented through both a crown authority and a policy mechanic, and increases in authority are often accompanied by (you guessed it) rebellions by disgruntled vassals. Large increases in player holdings can likewise provoke dissent.

These recent mechanical innovations presage future growth across multiple genres. New mechanics might examine the unknown effects of passing certain laws, the grouping of laws into a charter, or perhaps the need to seek approval from a parliament before raising taxes. The inherent limitations of feudal rulership greatly enrich games set in the Middle Ages. Although the frequent rebellions against all of us monitor monarchs will never cease, the causes and effects of the mechanics behind them have evolved and will continue to do so.

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21: Watch

paths well! On Medievalism, Digital Games and Chivalric Virtues

Nico Huss, @NiHuMedieval

Today I will talk about chivalric virtues and their reception from the medieval text to digital games. I will show on Crusader Kings III and The Witcher 3, how modern games adopt medieval ideas of indexing virtues and discuss the role of game’s genres.

As a medieval example I will refer to the ‘doctrine of virtues’, which is unfolded on the ‘Brackenseil’ (a hounds leash) in Albrecht’s Younger Titurel a ‘post classical’ Arthurian Epic of the late 13th century. There (JT St. 1911 25) we find a catalogue of virtues: zuhtec (mannerly) or balt (bold) kiusch (chaste) milt (clemency) triuwe (loyalty) mâze (temperance) sorge (care) scham (pudency) bescheidenheit (prudence) staete (constancy) diemüete (humility) gedulde (patience) minne (love [to god]). This specific catalogue is already mentioned as ‘Fürstenspiegel’ in the testament of Gerhard v. Sayn when he tells his sons to listen to the ‘Brackenseil’ (Hound's Leash). This is also what connects the virtues to today’s reception: a guide for chivalrous lifestyle. Crusader Kings III refers to it in a sort of ‘Object related Medievalism’. Witcher 3 in contrast does it in a more neomedieval way, referring to already existing medievalism. For the categorization of (Neo)Medievalism please see my article on Mittelalter Digital https://mittelalter.digital/

Looking at Crusader Kings III we see, that ‘virtues’ are ‘personality traits’, which can be virtues in certain religions. The pre set virtues for Christianity are ‘Compassion’, ‘Chaste’ and ‘Forgiveness’; all can be found in the catalogue above: sorge, kiusche and milte. Virtues are indeed pre set to religions but differ between ‘faiths’ or when creating a new faith by choosing ‘tenets’. Catholicism adds ‘Temperate’ and ‘Honest’ to its virtues. Here we find ‘maze’ and by bending translations also ‘zuht’ in the sense of modesty. Crusader Kings III fulfils its sandbox promise. At the same time, it sticks to medieval sources. Players decide if they want to play ‘object related’ or in a more ‘neomedieval’ way by choosing own traits they want to count as virtues for the new created faith.

In Witcher 3: Blood and Wine players can collect virtues by ‘right’ decisions for the quest ‘There Can Be Only One’. Even before the quest logs, players must prove their ‘valor’, ‘honor’, ‘compassion, ‘generosity’ and ‘wisdom’. Those virtues seem rather deflected through pop cultural medievalism than derived from medieval sources. The object related medievalism is outsourced in recipients’ cultural memory and not such strong pre set like in Crusader Kings III which sticks closer to the ‘medieval’ examples.

The genre of a game as well as the developers’ and players’ intention are essential in what they perceive as ‘medieval’. Chivalric virtues are a great example how fluid ‘authentic’ experience is and that these experience lays at last in players’ responsibility. Witcher 3 takes some first steps on ‘sandboxing’ reception, when it lets you choose how to act out virtuousness. Loose bounding to medieval sources and medievalisms let players establish their own ‘authentic’ play. Maybe this is a way out from endless discussions on Authenticity.

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Part Seven: Constructing a Middle Ages

Robert Houghton, @RobEHoughton, University of Winchester

Representations of the Middle Ages and pseudo medieval worlds in games are driven by popular medievalisms in combination with game design traditions and restrictions. This can result in the exaggeration of stereotypes (super tropes) or the emergence of entirely new visions (bastard tropes), the combination of which presents a unique and original form of medievalism within games.

Super tropes are mostly straightforward. Games have a strong tendency towards violence. The Middle Ages are seen as endemically violent. So medievalist games are more likely to be violent. They tend to focus on conflict and conquest. Visceral and casual violence abound. Likewise, games in general are heavily Eurocentric (if not Anglocentric) and medievalism tends strongly towards Northern European settings. Games set in this period are mostly positioned in Europe (and almost inevitably in British Isles/Scandinavia) with homogenous white casts. The medievalist notion of Chivalry also finds reinforcement in games: this vision of a rules heavy and black and white morality ties in neatly with the rules and mechanics required by games to function. It also fits with the need for balance and ‘fair play’ in games.

Bastard tropes are consequences of competing gaming and medievalist tropes. Medievalist games are amongst the most violent, but this violence can be innovative. For example, Permadeath (you die, you lose) and Iron Man (only one save, updated automatically) are common in medievalist games Dark Souls is a prominent example and emerge to a large extent from a drive to match mechanics to medievalism. Religion in medievalist games is a melange of rival tropes. Medievalism dictates a prominent Church. But games are reluctant to do anything deep with religion. So medievalist games have ubiquitous but trivial religion: symbols, architecture and material culture are everywhere, but there is little of substance in terms of mechanics or even story Science and ‘progress’ is another area with notable bastard tropes. Strategy games demand ‘progress’ as a core mechanic, usually represented through a ‘tech tree’. But medievalism dictates a Dark Age giving a narrative of stagnation alongside progress mechanics.

Although super tropes are important, bastard tropes can be just as influential. Games doing something differently doesn’t lessen their impact. There are growing signs that games are seen as more authoritative sources than other fiction media by a large part of their audience and that games may have a substantially deeper impact on their audience’s understanding of the Middle Ages than any other media format Hence it is vitally important to consider not only where games exaggerate existing medievalist tropes, but where they subvert or bastardise them.

Obviously these super tropes and bastard tropes aren’t present in every medievalist game. There are plenty of nuances, subversions and deconstructions. Counterplay and modding allow players to mess with dev expectations. Devs often look to history beyond medievalism. But we can see examples of bastard tropes all over medievalist games. Game tendencies and requirements (such as balance, progress, victory conditions etc.) clash with medievalist visions. Often this leads to exaggerations, but frequently we see new accounts emerging.

Hence we can see a new variety of medievalism emerging within games. One which draws on literary and audio visual medievalisms, but which is fundamentally different in diverse (and unexpected) ways as a consequence of the expectations and limitations of the medium. The idea that games set in the Middle Ages are influenced by both gaming and medievalist tropes isn’t earth shattering. But we need

22: It's Medievalism Jim, but not as we know it: Super Tropes and Bastard Tropes in Medievalist Games

to think more about how these two sets of tendencies interact and how these interactions create a new and distinct branch of medievalism.

23: Vikings and Tudors and Knights, Oh My!: Pick and mix medievalism in Old School Runescape

Megan

Bunce, @MeganBunce12, University of Oxford

Fantasy settings inspired by medieval history have always been the most popular for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). Of around 200 MMORPGs released since the term was coined in 1997 by Ultima Online creator Richard Garriott, at least 120 have medieval settings with varying degrees of fantasy. Eight of the ten most played MMORPGs in 2020 have medieval fantasy settings. Among them is Old School RuneScape (OSRS). RuneScape was first released in 2001 and Old School RuneScape is a 2007 version of RuneScape which was re released in 2013 to meet popular demand. Old School RuneScape now has a larger player base than RuneScape 3.

Old School RuneScape has fewer high fantasy elements than many other MMORPGS: players can only play as humans and navigate a world in which human society is central and fictional creatures occupy a peripheral space in storylines. Yet the setting conflates several centuries of medieval history. The castles and settlements of Lumbridge, Varrock and Falador are based on architectural forms from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries but many of the interiors, notably the churches, have a later, almost modern, feel.

The early medieval is represented by the presence of ‘barbarians’ whose settlement and character design evokes post Roman Germanic speaking peoples. The inhabitants of Fremennik are specified to be ‘Norsemen’ with Old Norse names and Scandinavian material culture. However, in general the social structures of Old School RuneScape are high medieval and express chivalric values. A lot of the early content develops high medieval themes, with quests about Arthurian legend, orders of knights, priests, monks, and missions to the Arabic inspired land of Al Kharid. This is unsurprising given that the high medieval period is the second most popular historical setting for films. For Old School RuneScape’s early twenty first century audience though, the medieval world with which they are familiar is a fantasy world. In the game you find the same playful, eclectic medievalism as in The Princess Bride (1987), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), A Knight’s Tale (2001) and Shrek (2001). Figure 23.1: Old School Runescape

However, it is not just wider pop culture trends that caused MMORPGs, like Old School RuneScape, to create such anachronistic, mix and match, medieval worlds. It is a legacy of their development from tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons and a result of their unique gameplay and persistent worlds. Instead of moving through the story with one character, as in Action Adventure games, or viewing history from outside, as in strategy games, players of Old School RuneScape must all access the same world, with the same content, in real time. This means the world must be static. The setting, society and politics of the game world must be unchanging, but the world need to provide a large amount of varied content to hold players’ interest. A way to achieve this is to create a world in which all medieval history is happening simultaneously.

Figure 23.2: Old School Runescape

The in game history of Old School RuneScape, marked by 5 ‘ages’, is referenced in quests, but from the players’ perspective it has been year 169 of the Fifth Age for the last 20 years. The society of the game is never disrupted, it never develops, it is a dream of medieval life. When players travel around the game map they also travel through time. This collapsing of chronology allows developers to create a palimpsest of popular medievalism, featuring the perennially popular chivalric heroes and crusading knights as well as barbarians and Vikings.

24: How to Survive a Plague of Flesh Eating Rats: An Introductory Guide to Studying Remediated Gameplay Imaginations of Medieval Folklore and Beliefs in A Plague Tale: Innocence

Ben Redder, @BenRedder, University of Waikato

Gareth Schott, @gareth_schott, University of Waikato

Medieval games are exhibiting more authentic gameplay animations of past imaginative fantasies. This presentation unpacks this statement and explores the value of historical fantasy via a few exemplar remediations of Medieval folklore in A Plague Tale: Innocence Historical fantasy is one of several key areas of my (Ben Redder’s) current PhD study into the ways different modalities of gameplay represent history. This includes a developing historical modality concept ‘Imaginative History’ (poetic and fictional imaginations of history).

Historical fantasy is just one type of gameplay style of imaginative history. It utilizes content, narratives, and aesthetics that bear traces of literacies on past imaginations within old folktales, legends, mythology, religion, visual art, literary and dramatic works. Plague Tale exhibits varying imaginative histories of the plague. Set in fourteenth century France, the game re imagines or substitutes the real Black Death with a supernatural rat plague called ‘The Bite’. Plague Tale’s plague rat swarm, while partly connected to the popular perception of rats as disease carriers and the origin of the Black Death, are closely authenticated to premodern folkloric evidence of representing plague disasters through rats such as ‘Rat King’ and Popiel.

As a prime source of imaginative history on the plague, Plague Tale’s rat swarm remediates several past plague imaginations as fantastical gameplay experiences via its supernatural pestilential powers, each power relating to the plague as famine, disease, and urban pollution. Rats physically devour both humans and animals, transmit diseases through biting victims, and decimate urban centers through putrefaction. Their ability to consume flesh is experienced on many occasions like the death of the monk Father Thomas. Piles of deceased victims with large black buboes and discharges of blood are found. These images of death constitute fantasized yet authentic referents to bubonic deaths as witnessed and documented by Medieval writers (e.g. Giovanni Boccaccio and Michele de Piazza). Finally, the game contains rat breeding nests that comprise a strange black substance, playing on early modern body metaphors of cities as corrupt pestilential bodies in order to playfully subvert Medieval motifs of cities as order, light, and civilization.

These rat powers combined are a consistently horrific experience. As fantasy constructs, they elevate the rat plague to an apocalyptic and unrelenting force of nature sparing neither good nor evil in similarity to other plague adaptations like The Red Masque of Death. Concurrently, they constitute as a particular imaginative history on pre modern plague folklore by being historical gameplay remediations of personifications evident in Medieval rat folktales like Mouse Tower and The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

In conclusion, the rat horde is only one of Plague Tale’s imaginative histories via gameplay that offer fantasized historical knowledge on actual past imaginations of Medieval plague in its past usage as a complex all encompassing expression for different types of disasters.

25: Iconic Bastards and Bastardised Icons: Plebby Quest’s Neomedievalist Crusades Mike Horswell, @mjhorswell

I’m a historian who works on modern uses of the crusades. I’m going to talk about the game Plebby Quest: The Crusades as an example of ‘neomedievalism’ an image of the Middle Ages reflecting an imagined medieval past.

Figure 25.1: Plebby Quest (Neowiz, 2021)

Medievalism, and medieval digital games in particular, employ bitesize, self referential tropes or ‘icons’ to signal and reinforce their ‘medieval’ status in modern culture. I introduced some tropes about the crusades last year: https://twitter.com/mjhorswell/status/1279059823552679937

Plebby Quest: The Crusades (2020) offers a quintessential example. A grand strategy game for mobile gamers that is set in the medieval world PQ reduces historical figures to soft cornered rectangles& promiscuously mixes in pop culture references. In its irreverent, offbeat scenarios, players encounter a ‘bricolage’ of neomedievalism, where the medieval is bastardised to produce ‘icons’ recognisable in the context of knowing invocations of the pop historical Middle Ages. The cast includes a jumble of iconic medieval figures: the antagonists of the Third Crusade (1189 92) Saladin, Richard ‘the Lionheart’ and Philip Augustus; as well as Machiavelli, Ibn al Athir, and Baybars. Richard wears a lion pelt for easy identification.

But these are bastardised versions filtered through modern lenses. In the game’s promo art Saladin is recognisably that of Kingdom of Heaven, as is Baldwin IV, leprous king of Jerusalem who wears a distinctive metal mask. Indeed, the mask becomes THE identification with the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the game. If, as Saladin, you capture Jerusalem, the defeated state will reappear elsewhere as ‘neo Jerusalem’, its characters distinguished by all wearing the same mask.

It is with the liberal admixture of fictional medieval & modern characters that the neomedievalism of PQ is most visible, including Ezio (Assassin’s Creed), Adso & William of Baskerville (Eco’s Name of the Rose), Indiana Jones, Lara Croft and… Gaius Baltar (Battle Star Galactica)?! These serve as knowing, playful gestures to both modern fictions of the medieval past and to the confected pastiche the game is creating. Less harmless is the use of Shakespeare’s Jewish character Shylock as a stereotyped avaricious, controlling money lender. The game’s devs disown notions of historical accuracy with an Assassin’s Creed style disclaimer & detailed disavowals within. These anticipate ‘historical’ objections but dismiss them on ludic grounds. Similarly, those seeking geographical fidelity should look away.

The effect of this isn’t ‘accuracy’, or even ‘authenticity’ but instead a playground of neomedievalism, heightened by its quirky design, high contrast juxtaposition of pseudo & pop medieval elements & badly translated dialogue, all emphasising its synthetic nature. Overall, Plebby Quest provokes us to think about the selective nature and use of the medieval past today, and what that consists of.

Part Eight: Teaching and Research

26: Strange Sickness: Running a Crowdfunding Campaign for a Historical Research Based Game

William Hepburn and Jackson Armstrong, @medievalabdn, University of Aberdeen

We ran a successful #ickstarter campaign to make Strange Sickness, a narrative game based on our research into Aberdeen’s medieval records at Aberdeenshire Archives. We’ll share some of what we’ve learned so far, especially thinking of those who want to do something similar. The Strange Sickness Kickstarter ran from 25 Nov to 17 Dec 2020. It raised £6,611 from 220 backers, exceeding our minimum funding target of £5,000. This has allowed us to progress to development of the game, with release planned for summer 2021.

The game idea grew out of a series of projects investigating Aberdeen’s medieval council registers. William explored games as a possible output while working on one of these projects, & secured a Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities Creative Economies Fellowship held in 2019, with Jackson. Out of this work came the idea of releasing a game about medieval Aberdeen. This was developed over a long series of discussions with existing and potential partners, including wonderful people from Aberdeenshire Archives, University of Aberdeen, Intelligent Plant, and ONE Codebase.

We explored funding (academic, arts, commercial), audience (games, history, local interests), organisation, what each party wanted to achieve. William connected with & researched game developers working in similar areas via events & reading (& playing games!). We were thrilled to find Katharine Neil via her work on the ground breaking Escape From Woomera and Astrologaster by Nyamnyamgames, and also visual artist Alana Bell, with interests in games & history, from Grays School of Art 2020 online degree show at Robert Gordon University.

In 2019 20 from ChivasBrothers, Chivas News Room funded William to work on creative responses to the Aberdeen records, including game ideas. This led to a grant application to a call for projects from humanities addressing covid 19. The app didn’t get funding. But we believed in the game behind the app & explored other routes to raise awareness & funding, esp. with support of University of Aberdeen Development Trust. We decided on crowdfunding a nonprofit project to build a game to raise support for Aberdeen Covid 19 Emergency Appeal. So we founded Common Profyt Games.

We read advice on how to give campaigns the best chance of success on KS site and elsewhere. Worked out issues such as budget and scope of game, stretch goals, rewards and how best to present all of this on campaign page. Shared drafts and built up campaign gradually. We benefited from fantastic publicity support from Scottish Games, ONE Code Base, Interface, Scotland IS, chambertalk, University of Aberdeen Development Trust, Aberdeen Uni Alumni, and Aberdeen University Students' Association. This helped broaden our reach, on top of networks around http://aberdeenregisters.org and Medieval Aberdeen Success and publicity gave profile and track record for other potential funders to see. Led to additional support from Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service and match funding via Aberdeen University. We doubled the amount raised by crowdfunding. This allowed us to widen scope.

Challenges: building campaign while doing day job; connecting with people in other professional fields; impossible to plan everything a step into the unknown. Opportunities: learning new skills; bringing research to wider audience. We hope to see more such projects!

27: Presenting Your Research Through Games

Francesco Migliazzo, @FrancescoMHisto, University of Edinburgh

Jacob Morley, @JacobFMorley, University of Edinburgh

Giuseppe Celico, @GCelicoGlasgow, University of Glasgow

What if you could take your research and then make a game out of it that lasts for 20 minutes for a presentation? We have looked through 60 Doctoral projects and we found 3 general categories that fit them all: Custom design; Road to Success; and Matchmaking

Custom design fits all those who are researching a creative method, or the structure of something. It makes your audience experience the process of creation or it demonstrates why certain structures worked. For example: You study the structure of a crusade, and its different elements (participants, money, ships). You divide your audience into groups, and they choose how to spend points. After 20 minutes you review the decisions and suggest the outcomes of each Custom Designed crusade. This works also with artistic or creative research. E.g. the structure of plays. You give them elements of a play, (characters, location, etc) and choices for each category (revenge, betrayal, etc). Then they would make a play based on them.

Road to Success uses basic RPG mechanics to illustrate projects which involve change over time. It can also represent multiple institutions or actors interacting with each other or a single actor evolving over time. The audience can make choices and deal with challenges. This gives the audience the unique opportunity to experience the research. This can lead to alternative history and to understand and highlight the key turning points. “Road to Success” allows audience and researcher to consider complex problems in a simulated environment based on real human interactions. Participants think creatively about ways to tackle issues and deal with the consequences of decisions. Based on Francesco Migliazo’s historical research, we developed a game on the Italian communes and their transformation into lordships. Participants play one family and interpret its relationships with other families, to increase their power and influence over the city and overcome the rivals.

Matchmaking demonstrates simply and effectively a methodology. You present a set of criteria which you use to identify certain outcomes, agents, time periods, or artistic styles. They must then use these criteria to match a set of examples. E.g. Dutch books of hours in the late middle ages. You could provide the audience with key indicators to look out for in these books, e.g. the twigs and petals typical of the illuminators in Haarlem. The audience is split into groups and compete to find more matches. This game has wide applications, from the sociological to the educational sphere The matchmaking methodology has the benefit of allowing the audience to take part in what it is you are looking for, rather than just being provided with the results.

This alternative presentation method and the interaction with the audience can provide a different perspective on your project, new avenues of research, and help identify flaws. It also has great potential when it comes to public engagement and education.

28: Analysing and Developing Videogames for Experimental History: Kingdom Simulators and the Historians

Vinicius Marino Carvalho, @carvalho_marino, Universidade de São Paulo

Today I’ll talk about experiments. Historians and archaeologists sometimes use experiments to get insights about the past. Andrew Reinhard once compared videogames to sims like Agent Based Models, arguing that gamers can act as researchers by tinkering with virtual worlds. Agent Based Models and the like are related to complexity theory, an approach that allows us to explore less anthropocentric understandings of history. It can be used to investigate the many ways in which natural and environmental processes influence human decisions and vice versa.

The potential to use games as ‘virtual labs’ for this kind of analysis is evident in grand strategy games & city builders. Yet, historians and archaeologists have a lot to gain from extending their attention to simpler games such as kingdom simulators. As Robert Houghton wrote, these games are interesting because they attempt to model the political and informational constraints faced by medieval rulers. In this presentation, I’ll run by some examples and highlight what we should be in the look out for.

First, some king sims are scripted. These games rely on what Adam Chapman calls framing controls to create the illusion of reactive agents. They can be useful, but not as experiments, unless coded with non deterministic outcomes (they are usually not). Reigns provides such outcomes thanks to a semi randomized, card game styled structure. There are both individual and collective parties to appease. The binary nature of choices reflects the limits of royal agency. Often, one has to “go with the flow”. Kingdom: Classic takes an ecological approach to medieval society. NPCs have simples schedules that add up to complex social behaviour. Social mobility is a thing. Limited non human agency, but the procedural environment has a great impact on gameplay. King of Dragon Pass has many examples of non human agency, such as the weather, the gods and a complex seasonal model. It also represents the body politic as a social entity with conflicting interests rather than an “experimenting deity” (cf. Jeremiah McCall).

So, what can we take from them? FEASIBILITY: Let’s not kid ourselves. A well polished game needs the pros. Yet, a basic "lab" can be created and experimented with with widely available tools. Games like Reigns can be made as traditional card games. INFORMATION is deliberately scarce to reflect bounded rationality. A notable exception is King of Dragon Pass; as a) we play as a whole clan, b) it’s a “saga sim”. The confines of narrative are its main theme; knowledge of tropes are necessary to play with them. HISTORICAL CHANGE is the Achilles heel of model based history, and king sims are no different. “Change” happens within strict confines; fundamental rules are not challenged. This is most visible in Reigns and Kingdom: Classic, which equate “medieval” with stagnation. To truly account for historical change, we’d need games in which mechanics themselves have room to procedurally evolve. King sims are not there yet, but they are a gateway to master the world of game developing and for us to one day contribute to it.

29: Age of Empires II as Gamic History: A Historical Problem Space Analysis

Jeremiah McCall, @gamingthepast, Cincinnati Country Day School

Historical videogames ARE gamic histories. They transform historical content into historical problem spaces (HPS). The Historical Problem Space framework is a medium sensitive, design focused tool for studying problem spaces of gamic histories. http://gamestudies.org/2003/articles/mccall

My main point is that videogame form shapes content. Realtime strategy game (RTS) Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as a gamic history shapes its medieval world history content into a historical problem space and offers us excellent examples of what this can look like. The HPS comprises: a PLAYER AGENT with a specific GOAL, which operates in a GAMEWORLD, containing ELEMENTS that enable and/or constrain. The player is expected to make & adopt goal oriented CHOICES, STRATEGIES, and BEHAVIORS. All shaped by GENRE conventions. Let’s apply this to Age of Empires II.

The genre and gamic form of Age of Empires II shapes its content. Designer Bruce Shelley outlined the design approach as: “let’s take the ideas of Civilization, a historical game, and do a Warcraft 2, Command and Conquer RTS based on the Civilization … world.” Age of Empires II was from the very start an RTS gamic form imposed upon medieval history. Like Warcraft 1&2, Age of Empires II is a genre conforming RTS with an unembodied PLAYER AGENT (no gameworld body), an “experimenting deity” who completely controls simple economic engine (RESOURCES: wood, food, stone, gold); & guides MINIONS (workers & military units). With the ultimate GOAL: to dominate rivals.

The form of the game shapes its content. Age of Empires II presents 37 historical “Civilizations” each encoded to fit the problem space and given a few special features: an architecture set; some bonuses and penalties; a unique unit; a few unique techs. A Civilisation’s historical complexity is compressed into the stats of a RTS competitor. Likewise, the technological developments of the medieval world were selectively encoded and shaped into about 75 technologies, and militarized to fit the RTS gameworld. More than 50 of these technologies have only military effects and some technologies, like looms and forges, were militarized to provide combat bonuses.

For the balance required by RTS games, every Civilization has access to monks and the associated technologies. The religious, cultural, and social, roles of medieval European monks are encoded in Age of Empires II into an HPS element of military power and provided to all factions. The Monk's main power is military: they can “convert” enemy units & buildings. The Technologies for monks are inspired by historical religious concepts and then encoded into military functions for an RTS HPS. ‘Heresy’ allows monks to kill “converted” enemies. ‘Atonement’ grants the power to convert enemy monks ‘Block printing’ increases conversion range and ‘Redemption’ lets monks convert enemy buildings.

The RTS form also includes economic base building when representing historical conflicts. The Joan of Arc campaign is a strong example here. Historically, Joan was an inspiring field commander, who lifted the siege of Orleans. In the Age of Empires II Orleans mission Joan must follow the gameplay of an RTS and build a base, gather resources and build units before relieving the seige Likewise, the Battle of Hastings is turned into an exercise in RTS style base building, resource extracting, and army building which is not very analogous to that particular historical battle. But it’s an RTS & RTSs have base building.

In conclusion, form shapes content & the gamic form renders historical content as an historical problem space AoE2 imposes its RTS historical problem space on medieval historical content as much if not more than medieval historical content shapes game.

Part Nine: Anachronisms

30: Vikings in Gaming, Gaming with Vikings

Lysiane Lasausse, @nordllys, University of Southeastern Norway

Vikings in video games have been represented for a long time, with some changes being implemented as mediums evolved. As technical limitations and cost to produce changed, so did the appearance of Vikings. Vikings, as others, have been victims of stereotyping, especially regarding their character: warriors, drunks, comic relief are a few traits that have been attributed to them in games for decades. But video games are slowly coming around to more well rounded characters.

With its latest release in the Assassin’s Creed franchise in November 2020, Ubisoft was keen on promoting their collaboration with scholars and historians to continue "the franchise’s rich tradition of immersing players in history”. Going as far as releasing a podcast before Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s debut, as “the 1st immersive historical documentary series in audio”. There is a lot of emphasis on historical accuracy surrounding the development of this game. A point of contention has been the mini game Orlog, a tabletop dice game created “de toutes pièces” by Ubisoft. Ubisoft very recently published a news article on their website detailing the story behind the creation of Orlog (historical accuracy is mentioned again).

Is Orlog a real Viking age game? The short answer is no. The long answer is no, but. The addition of Orlog to Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla allows to show a different side of Vikings that hasn’t been capitalized on in many games so far: the everyday Viking. As fun as raiding, battling Vikings are, it is always interesting, particularly from a research point of view, to see a representation of the "average" Vikings in a triple A game. They play, they sit around fires and tell stories, have parties, reminisce about lost loves, shiver in the cold and deal with very real problems, which sometimes the protagonist helps solve (by burning down a house in The Rekindling, for example!).

While Orlog is no a real Viking or Viking age game, it does bring the player to consider these other facets of Vikings. Ubisoft did prototype Viking chess, Hfenatafl, for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, but was not satisfied with the balance brought by the game. They decided to go back to the drawing board to make a game that could be “credibly played in real life” and Orlog was born: a fun, rather relaxing dice game to play between raids and quests in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. So is the physical version of the game, set to be released in 2021. At a time when more and more Viking themed board games based on video games are coming out, (Northgard, The Banner Saga), this is certainly not a fluke on Ubisoft’s part.

Here are a few links. Echoes of Valhalla podcast: https://www.ubisoft.com/en gb/game/assassins creed/valhalla/podcast

Orlog article: https://bit.ly/3ur091I

My previous work on Vikings and Norse mythology in games: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/2

31: The Middle Ages in Modern Board Games: Some Thoughts on an Underestimated Medium

Lukas Boch, @boardgamehisto, University of Münster

The field of game studies almost exclusively examines digital games under the term "games". I would like to outline why analogue games should be considered as well. Especially in Germany, there has been a real boom in boardgames in recent years. The SPIEL Messe attracted over 200,000 visitors in 2019 and over 1,500 new games were presented at the fair. Furthermore the Spiel des Jahres award is like the Oscar for board games.

Figure 31.1: @Lukas Boch

But why should „serious“ medievalists deal with modern boardgames? One could argue that the ideas of history found in these games do not correspond to the state of historical research. The concept of historical culture (Jörn Rüsen) provides a different perspective. Historical culture encompasses the entire spectrum of possible references to the past; and popular culture can influences people's historical consciousness, too. The study of boardgames, can therefore help us examine the ideas about the Middle Ages in society.

The Middle Ages are a time about which many different ideas exist. Thus, in anglophone scholarship, the concept of medievalism has become established. In Germany, this topic is barely dealt with so far, so the concept of historical culture seems to be a good starting point. The focus is not on the validity of the depiction of the Middle Ages, but rather which tropes about the period are reflected in a game. After all, most of the authors want to sell their game well. So they tend to rely on popular ideas rather than scientific results.

But which tropes of the Middle Ages can be found in modern boardgames? Gerhard Oexle speaks of a divided (entzweites) image of this time, according to him the Middle Ages are relevant for the thinking of modernity in a positive and a negative way. Many boardgames with a medieval setting present the Middle Ages as a time of bliss with blooming landscapes: Everything had its place and "values" like honour and loyalty still mattered. Good examples are Majesty from Hans im Glück

Spieleverlag and Era: Medieval Age from Pegasus Spiele. The image of the Dark Ages also exists in many boardgames. In this case, the Middle Ages are seen as a time of squalor. Everyday life is dominated by injustice and violence and the Church suppresses progress. A game that serves this stereotype like no other is Zombicide Black Plague from Asmodee Deutschland.

Apart from these broad distinctions, individual aspects of the Middle Ages, such as warfare, economics, religion and even specific topics like relics can be examined for their presentation and use in boardgames. What is depicted is just as interesting as what is left out. The world of boardgames offers a large number of questions to be investigated, from the authors’ intentions in choosing a medieval setting for their game to the sources of information they use to construct their idea of the Middle Ages. To answer these questions, boardgames need to be perceived as a historical source genre in their own right, with their own mechanisms for representing history that differ from digital games. That’s the goal we want to advance with our work at Boardgame Historian.

More information about the Project Boardgame Historian on the official Blog: www.boardgamehistorian.com

Article about “Vikings in modern Boardgames” with some theory about History in Boardgames: L. Boch/ A. Falke: Wikinger im modernen Brettspiel, in: Mittelalter Digital 1, Ausgabe 2(2020), 95 117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17879/mittelalterdigi 2020 3289

32: “Is that Staff Egyptian?” Asset Reuse and Historical Argumentation in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Adam Bierstedt, @sagathain

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s Glowecestrescire arc features a fight against a generically Celtic pagan, vaguely Wiccan priestess. She shoots poison arrows and uses a staff that has Pharaonic beards, cobras, and the Wings of Isis. The staff is likely a mix of assets from Assassin’s Creed: Origins, though it’s been heavily altered, and is indicative of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s reuse of new and old assets. In this paper, I outline 3 main types of asset reuse: practical, argumentative, and disguised.

“Asset reuse” refers to objects that repeat multiple times in a game world. A game has a finite number of objects in its files, and so objects frequently repeat. Assets can also be purchased or imported from other games in the same engine. Asset reuse is mostly relevant for high fidelity embodied games, like RPGs. Historical games in this genre, like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, have different concerns than a game like Total War, which is already abstracted, changing the arguments asset reuse might make.

Most asset reuse is practical to provide visual clutter and interest. Ex: there is a mix of new pots (identified by Futhark runes) and pots from Odyssey, and so it’s pretty common to see pots with Classical Greek styles scattered across 9th c. CE England. Practical asset reuse still causes incoherence in the historical milieu of the game Belas Knap, a Neolithic long barrow, has pottery with Elder Futhark writing on it. However, this incoherence doesn’t make a historical argument the pot is just a pot.

Asset reuse can make historical arguments, however. The clearest example is the Roman structures that are inescapable in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s England. Check out these statues (of Aquarius, I think) in Gloucester, Colchester, York, and Nottinghamshire. These fit into the larger argument that Early Medieval England is obsessed with the Roman past. Characters bring it up constantly, and cities are built around and inside the ruins. This is a big deal a massive statue demands attention where breakable pots do not. This repetition constructs a Romanized Britain, where every town feels similar, from the same roots. It’s not historically true many ruins were raided for bricks or metal, not left standing! But the anachronism makes a historical argument abt medieval mindsets.

The last type is disguised the staff falls into this. When Modron uses it, it lights on fire. The developers reused assets, then hid their reuse. This interests me a lot: it suggests that the authenticity breaking potential of asset reuse was recognized and concealed This could be argumentative, derived from some outdated popular culture, but I doubt it. I don’t understand though, is why it was asset reuse at all! It is so detailed, and yet I cannot believe anyone would find it authentically plausible, and so it is hidden.

This staff, like all reuse, strains the constructed authenticity of the game world. However, reuse offers insight into the bounds of authenticity and the historical arguments of the game, and therefore are a promising avenue for broader analysis.

33: What Comes After the Apocalypse? Theories of History in Horizon Zero Dawn Carolin Gluchowski, @CariGluchowski, University of Oxford

The retro futuristic PGR Horizon Zero Dawn (HZD) asks one crucial question: What would life after an apocalypse be like? Would we Build Back Better, or fall back into the Middle Ages (stereotype)? Guerrilla's (the studio behind HZD) answer is complex: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qtytPUy_Q2s

HZD is set in a 31st cent post apocalyptic world. Survivors have little knowledge about the former civilization, called The Old Ones. Their once great cities have become ruins & their cultural/technological achievements are forgotten Humans are now organized in tribes: the hunting Nora, the trading Carja, the metal working Oseram, & the nomadic Banuk. Throughout the game, the player gets to know the each tribe and its distinctive culture. https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Tribe

Players perform the Nora huntress Aloy. Anointed as a seeker, Aloy is sent out to investigate the rise of the Eclipse, a cult that had attacked the tribe. On her journey through the known world, Aloy learns about the events of the apocalypse & uncovers her past. Aloy learns that the Old Ones were destroyed by robots that caused the extinction of life on Earth (Faro Plague). Humanity’s only hope was Project Zero Dawn, a large terraforming system (GAIA) to restore life on Earth after its extermination. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_FSsbZ

GAIA created large animalistic machines, now the dominant species on Earth, to support the terraforming process. Originally peaceful, these machines recently became corrupted & turned violent against humans. https://youtube.com/watch?v=G1f6QRBN2_M https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Machine. 299 years into the terraforming process, the first humans were born in cradle facilities. But due to a malfunction of the APOLLO system, the future generations never learned about humanity’s past. https://youtube.com/watch?v=o20cJn

HZD is an experimental setup demonstrating the macro patterns of human history in the game medium. It does not simply replicate the stages of history in a postapocalyptic setting. Rather, HZD imagines how humanity would evolve in the new world dominated by machines. Doing so, HZD draws from research debates. Its understanding of the development of human societies is informed by theories in anthropology and history. Diamond (1997) and Morris (2010) identified geography as a key motor in social deveopment. https://youtube.com/watch?v=wnqS7G

All known tribes in HDZ developed from a single proto tribe which settled in the Savage East close to the ELEUTHIA 9 cradle facility. With time, the proto tribe split, and fractions migrated to various different areas located in today’s Arizona https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_R Without the APOLLO archives, the HZD tribes developed freely. Each culture reflects how the HZD societies adopted to their unique environment: The tribes had different #resources at hand, and thus developed in different directions https://youtube.com/watch?v=Us_S7a. Some game elements, especially in the Oseram culture, evoke the Middle Ages, but without falling into a nostalgic medievalism. What counts is geography! Aloy’s story will continue in the Horizon Forbidden West! http://play.st/30PvHTE

Part Ten: Whiteness and Indigeneity

34: Fuck the Paladin and the Horse He Rode In On Paul Sturtevant, @past_present, The Public Medievalist

Thanks to Sabina Rahman and Luiz Guerra for some early feedback on this.

“Paladins” are a stock figure in medievalist fantasy whether that’s books, films, or games. But it was not always so. Though they have a long history (more below), the version we know sprang from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) Player’s Handbook in 1978. Paladins are long overdue to be put out to pasture. This is for two core reasons: 1) they tie together holiness and violence, and 2) that violence is built on anti Muslim bigotry, root and branch.

The idea of the Paladin comes to us from the medieval story cycle “The Matter of France”, which is basically the French equivalent to the Arthurian legends. It centres around Charlemagne as its mythical king (though Charlemagne was real and Arthur wasn’t). Charlemagne’s round table equivalent are his “12 Paladins”. The most famous story about them is The Song of Roland The Song of Roland was a medieval work of historical fantasy; it was written in the 11th century, but it’s about the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778CE.

Like Le Morte DArthur (probably the most famous Arthurian story), Roland is a tragedy; by the end, despite personally slaying tens of thousands of enemies, Roland and the 12 Paladins are dead. And all those enemies? Muslims. At least, it’s Muslims in the story (in reality, it was Basques serving some hot justice on Charlemagne for the destruction of their city’s walls). That’s the core trait that makes Roland’s Paladins “holy;” they didn’t cure the sick. They killed Muslims.

Fast forward to 1978. Paladins come to AD&D through fantasy lit that cribs from Roland. Not coincidentally, they arrive in AD&D with the 9 part alignment system; Paladins must be “Lawful Good.” Only humans can be Paladins, perhaps a part of D&D's racialized morality. As the decades go on, fantasy medievalisms combine the Paladin with the other icon of medieval anti Muslim violence: Crusaders, particularly Templars in name and in aesthetic. D&D 3.5 has Templar, Inquisitor, and Hospitaler prestige classes. But it’s not just in D&D…

It’s kind of understandable. Both Roland and the Crusades were born from 11th century attempts to justify violence particularly against Muslims within an ostensibly pacifist religion. And both have been intensely mythologized and re adapted ever since. Some recent mythologizing has been very ugly. Crusader memes are one right wing tactic to attract an “edgelord” audience online; it’s radicalization in a jokey joke hat. Paladins are often interchangeable with Crusaders; violence against “infidels” *is* the joke. In D&D 5e, the core of the Paladin is its fusion of religion and violence: the Divine Smite. While D&D’s creators are trying replace religion with “oaths”, the words are still there: divine, sacred. The game mechanics reify the Lawful Good serial killer’s claims to godliness.

What should we do? Banish, complicate, or mock “Paladins” in fantasy. In both function and aesthetics they invoke and excuse medieval atrocities by Christians, and give cover to bigotry today. They are a gross “Deus Vult” joke waiting to happen.

35: The Middle Age as Meme: Medieval Spaces Remixed and Reimagined Johansen Quijano,

@QuijanoPhD,

Tarrant County College

Mainstream discussion about the Middle Ages has been dominated by romantic notions of Knights Errant galivanting through the countryside and feudal lords who rule over peasants. Despite the Middle Ages spanning over 1000 years and evidence that a number of cultures and religions routinely interacted with each other, many conceptualize the period as exclusively Arthurian: knights on grail quests and crusades. Indeed, mainstream discussions go as far as suggesting that the Age of Vikings is separate from the Middle Ages and that there were no Black or African people in Medieval Europe. These assertions, however, are not accurate and are at odds with scholarly understanding of Medievalism.

Differences in the understanding of the Middle Ages as depicted in popular culture versus scholarly research leads to a disconnect between how "Medieval" is processed in the cultural unconscious and the Middle Ages as perceived in academia: a rich tapestry of diverse networked cultures with unique arts and literatures. These clashing views have a curious effect on games. Since pop culture often imagines the Middle Ages as white only spaces, attempts at making mimetic virtual spaces often result in games with accurate architecture and anachronistic characters & stories.

There are records of Medieval trade routes from Spain to Africa and China, as well as art depicting people of color in the Middle Ages, but games that claim historical accuracy focus on white European knights inspired by Arthurian tradition. Fantasy games, however, don’t constrain themselves to these tropes. As such, it may be possible that contemporary fantasy games informed by Medieval aesthetics recreate a more authentic rendition of the Middle Ages than attempts at creating more mimetic play spaces.

This discussion reached game spaces in 2015 with Kingdom Come: Deliverance. While it was promoted as a historical representation of Medieval Bohemia, the game was criticized for its lack of people of color. This led to heated discussions about race in the Middle Ages. Despite the game’s compelling story, accuracy of its spatial design, and detail to characters, much of the conversation around its release was about whether it was racist or not

Another game that seems to discard the presence of people of color is Innocence: A Plague Tale. A groundbreaking game by all accounts, Innocence: A Plague Tale is set in 14th century France and follows two siblings as they escape rats, the plague, and the Inquisition. There are records of Moors in France dating back to 711 AD, but the game fails to include characters with North African traits.

Certainly, an argument can be made that these games were designed with the populations indigenous to those areas in mind and that it would have been unlikely to see a person of African origin in those specific few kilometres in those specific dates. While this could be a sound rebuttal, those familiar with the movements of races and cultures throughout the Middle Ages might find the omission of Middle Eastern and African characters from these ludic spaces jarring.

Medieval Fantasy games, on the other hand, seem to more faithfully recreate the ethos of the Middle Ages. This is specially true of games in The Elder Scrolls series and MMOs like Black Desert Online These games depict fictive spaces inspired by Medieval architecture, but because they are not constrained by popular culture notions of Medievalism they break away from the Arthurian only perspective of the Middle Ages. Skyrim, for example, includes several Redguard characters along with the invading Bretons and the native Nords. This shows that when designers are not constrained by notions of what pop culture claims is Medieval, they become unshackled from stereotypes of Middle

Ages as white only spaces and create games that are, ironically, more faithful to the Medieval zeitgeist than “realistic” simulations.

To be clear, this is not a re litigation on whether there were PoC in the Middle Ages there were, from Vikings to the Golden Age and beyond nor is it a call for designers to change their games: they have the artistic freedom to do as they will. It is, however, a statement on how sometimes what we imagine as "true" due to pop culture might be counter factual and how fantastic spaces inspired by these histories might depict networks & spaces closer to historical reality

36: Absent Arabic Women in Assassin’s Creed

Simran Dhaliwal, @simcardtoiling, University of British Columbia

Assassin’s Creed’s developers are careful to avoid depicting religion or race and present a neoliberal version of the Crusades. My attention was drawn to there being no female Arabic characters in the original Assassin’s Creed.

The absence of Arabic women stands out in a setting that is otherwise Middle Eastern. As there are no named or plot relevant Arabic female characters, I set out to find every quest giver and background character I could. Most of the women in Assassin’s Creed live out their day to day lives in the background of the player’s adventure. Interactable female characters include jar carriers and beggars. Both types of women serve as an obstacle to the player, potentially ruining stealth. In repeating side quests, you have the option to save the female relatives of "vigilantes" from harassment. You can also choose to ignore this harassment. If you help, you unlock support from the male vigilantes in gameplay.

This invokes the role of women in Crusader narratives, being used to characterize the morality of Muslim or Christian Crusaders. In Assassin’s Creed, Arabic women are reduced to possessions in narratives about heroic and wicked men. Common western portrayals of the historic Muslim Assassins originate from Marco Polo. The Assassins have traditionally been depicted as hedonist, serving their master in promise of a mock garden of paradise filled with consumable women and wine. The game’s Assassins are portrayed as agnostic to better appeal to Western audiences. The in game master even jokes about the absurdity of such a garden existing. I did not think much of this, until I realized that there IS a garden of paradise in Assassin’s Creed. In the game’s opening screen, the player sees Altaïr, standing in the courtyard of a garden. Altaïr is surrounded by faceless, scantily clad women. This opening feels surreal and unfinished, unlike any of the game’s other constructions of the historical past. After Altaïr and his master have the exchange about the garden, the player is granted access to the garden from the opening, occupied by the same women. They do not speak or react to the player’s presence.

The garden is clearly meant to be a reference to the myth of the garden of paradise. The alarming part is that it gone unacknowledged by developers and critics, despite the garden being the setting of both the opening and concluding moments of the story. The player returns to the garden for the final fight of the game, in which they fight the Master. This time, there are no women in the garden, despite their presence in the parallel opening. What stands out about the garden is how unmemorable it is.

By reducing Arabic women to decorative roles, players can impose their own Orientalist fantasies onto the landscape. The absent Arabic women in Assassin’s Creed must be spoken of, as it reveals an unwillingness to engage with Arabic women as anything more than decoration.

37: Erasing the Native Middle Ages: Greedfall and the Settler Colonial Imagination

Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque Grand View University

Greedfall (https://youtube.com/watch?v=_if32pyZP2w) is a Baroque themed roleplaying game of colonization, with the player building reputation and power for himself and his country, intent on uncovering the riches of the mythical island of Teer Fradee (a stand in for the Americas). While the game presents itself as giving choices to take the side of the native inhabitants , the Yecht Fradí, or the colonizers, the story only allows the player, via the diplomat De Sardet, to act in colonial interests, either through destruction or manipulation. There is a LOT to say about the game, but I want to focus on how it handles the idea of the past in the game world, specifically the Yecht Fradí (who are the native inhabitants) and their history or, more importantly, the way we don’t get their history.

First and foremost, while there are architectural examples of their history in the background, almost all of the sites the character investigates on the island, the history they uncover, is really that of previous continental colonizers. The continental kingdoms are very much based on specific Eurasian empires Ottomans, Spanish, something akin to London and many of the “ruins” you explore in game are very clearly (architecture & storywise) really products of secret previous continental colonizations. The developer, Spider, imprints myths of pre Columbian European exploration and settling of the Americas into the gameworld and especially into the quest lines. There are a handful of important Native sites, largely places the player goes rather than investigates. Instead the places whose history must be looked into, that expand the story and reveal key details of the plot, are all locations of previous continental settlement: the ruins of Didrí, the Didgídensen Camp, Díd e Kíden Nádaigeis large ancient continental settlements.

Secondly, there is a questline showing that the founder of the pseudo Catholic faith, Saint Matheus and Thélème, settled on Teer Fradee at the end of his life, preached there, and built a syncretic faith there. (minutes 10 13 here https://youtube.com/watch?v=kCBDE gtuVk )

Third, for all that the game very deliberately is modeled on European colonization of the New World, the Yecht Fradí are not based on any Native American cultures, but modeled on the Gauls and Celtic nations, including their language (https://vg247.com/2019/04/19/greedfall an rpg where spoken language is actually important/ ). This is actually an old English settler trope, comparing Natives to the Irish or ancient inhabitants of the British Isles. Combined with the depiction of Yecht Fradí guardians as woodland monsters giant Green Man figures makes the Native as Celt even more problematic.

Rather than deal with the colonial history of England (or, given Spider’s French headquarters, France), they recreate settler colonial imagination but as in game truth (See https://daily.jstor.org/the construction of america in the eyes of the english/ and https://bl.uk/collection items/coloured engravings of native americans and picts and https://americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44517785.pdf for ex.) Greedfall presents a world to explore with indigenous people, settlements & history to learn, and then overwhelmingly makes it Eurocentric, in game and out the idea may have had merit, but the game is a series of erasures in the guise of nuanced colonial roleplaying.

Part Eleven: Race and Nation

38: The Sovereign Code: The Eurocentric Mechanics of Nationhood in Strategy Games

Rhett Loban, @rhett_loban, Macquarie University

Tom Apperly, @t0mm7, Tampere University

This work is a collaboration between Dr. Rhett Loban an Australian based Torres Strait Islander Scholar and Game Designer and Dr. Thomas Apperley a Finland based scholar from Aoteroa’s Pakeha (White Settler) community. We are going to discuss some work we did together exploring the potential of videogame mods to add indigenous perspectives to videogames. Indigenous game developers have been active in producing/creating games from an indigenous perspective ( https://theconversation.com/video games encourage indigenous cultural expression 74138 ). Yet the representation of indigenous peoples and cultures in games is often disappointing.

Grand strategy games often present indigenous peoples merely as potential subjects for European style colonialism and are often presented in an ahistorical, ad hoc, and generic way. Within the genre Europa Universalis IV by Paradox Interactive has generally depicted indigenous people with more frequency and detail than other Grand Strategy games especially in the ‘Conquest of Paradise’ and ‘El Dorado’ expansions to the game. The complexity of Europa Universalis IV offered the potential for exploring history as a multiplicity. https://bit.ly/3fPSSmH

To explore how an indigenous perspective might work in #EUIV Rhett Loban developed a mod ‘Indigenous People of Oceania’ ‘Indigenous People of Oceania’ added new technology groups that reflected the differing lifestyles of the Oceanic peoples, and many new indigenous pacific nations (including Mabuiag, Fiji, Hawai’i, Ngāi Tahu, Asaro, Gubbi Gubbi), including information about the nation's history and culture. The mod successfully added details which portrayed many aspects of indigenous cultures.

BUT the mod still had to work within European/Eurocentric concepts of nationhood, territory and sovereignty. Nation, State and Sovereignty are the conceptual tools that European colonial powers and white settlers used to justify displacing Indigenous people from their lands and instituting new forms of colonial governance. By encoding these concepts in the game Europa Universalis IV excludes the addition of indigenous perspectives. While information can add a richer depiction of indigenous people and cultures, it only makes a more colourful perspective for the colonizer. See: https://bit.ly/3vtBURW

39: Games and Fantasy in the Medieval Middle East

Edmund Hayes, @HedHayes20, Radboud University

in Nijmegen

Most games drawing upon the Medieval Middle East fit into a few archetypes: Arabian Nights; Bazaar trading; the Desert; Crusades. To acknowledge the obvious: a lot of the original source material for the Medieval Middle East in pop culture is racist. Tolkien’s Haradrim sided with Sauron. The Necronomicon was written by the mad Arab Abul Hazred. Arabian Nights is great, but became conflated with 19th C wet dreams about harem girls in tinsely bikinis. The Crusades are a little different. I’ll come to that.

Different media and genres relate to slightly different archetypes: boardgames often include Middle Eastern trading setting. It’s hard not to link this to old stereotypes of the hook nosed Semite haggling in the Souq. To be fair, trade is ubiquitous in boardgames, but Middle Eastern games emphasize theft. But a trade theme can also allow designers to present hybrid settings that evoke historical mixing.

Positive images appear more often in Central Asian silk road settings, as opposed to the Middle East itself, especially for Italian designers. For example, Merv refers to historical routes.

In RPGs, the Arabian Nights is a common fantasy, perhaps the most visible Medieval Middle East setting, with an emphasis on the exotic & fantastic, and a blurring of cultural lines between North African, Middle Eastern, Persian and Indian. True, the 1001 Nights had vague settings & exoticized its own East, but while games create a fantasy playground, cultural blurring allows consumers to ignore humanizing historical specificities, perpetuating old visions of an eternal Orient starting somewhere east of Vienna and blurring up to the borders of China.

If a game aims at genuine history, it’s focus will be on the Crusades. Ironic given the goal of establishing Christian hegemony in the Middle East, Crusade settings offer the most positive vision of the Medieval Middle East. It goes back to Walter Scott’s revival of medieval European romance with Saladin as chivalric hero Saladin indeed is everywhere, especially in strategy games like Crusader Kings and Civilization. Occasionally you see other historical settings are explored in some marginal contexts. See the indie boardgame al Rashid, set in the golden age of the Abbasid caliphate.

The Medieval Middle East, absurdly, is often seen as an intrinsically more religious place than Europe, with bonuses in strategy games for ME leaders who capitalize on religion. https://t.co/T66jsSkfzh?amp=1 Game designers have difficulty, perhaps understandably, positioning Islam. Christianity and paganisms, by contrast are handled as neutral background or mythologized. Islam is avoided. "Through the Ages" has a modern Islam giving military advantage & lost science. The issue of religion and the Ismaili Nizari “Order” portrayed in Assassin’s Creed needs its own paper. Briefly, it deracinates a real group from religious roots and projects it as sceptical philosophy. Much of the representation of Medieval Middle East in games is itself rather medieval: distant, exotic, and blurred

Historical detail often traces to MEDIEVAL European romances lionizing Saladin, or thrilling over the Assassins. Public taste can be blamed… but also historians Unlike European medievalists, historians of the Medieval Middle East haven’t seriously embraced the ludic. Perhaps it’s time.

40: Problematising Representation: Elsinore and its Reimagination of Hamlet Angshuman Dutta, @angman_dutt, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Golden Glitch’s 2019 game Elsinore is among the innumerable works that have reimagined the Bard and his plays in different contexts, eras and mediums. What sets Elsinore apart, other than it being a game, is how the creators negotiated with the medieval text. They brought out the multiple possibilities which were already present in it through the paratexts of the game. The character of Ophelia is reimagined in the game. Although being the narrative drive in the play, she seldom appears and suffers an off screen death.

The medium affords Ophelia an agency (Murray, 1997) which she doesn't enjoy in the play. Set in a time loop, Ophelia, the protagonist, dies repeatedly as she learns further about the happenings in Elsinore and tries to stop it. Ophelia's actions write the narrative. Another interesting change is that Ophelia is a person of color. Katie Chironis, one of the designers, explain this by describing her research in an interview and displaying that it was historically plausible for Ophelia’s mother to be Spanish American in Denmark.

Figure 40.1: Elsinore (Golden Glitch, 2019)

Elsinore’s premise and mechanics allowed the creators to flesh out other characters present in the playtext and use them to reinterpret and reimagine the world of Hamlet. Chironis states that ‘each character in Elsinore has a deep and individualized history; they come in all shapes and sizes a multitude of races and ethnicities, economic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual identities, and personalities’. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are women in the game and are lovers. The former is cheerful and enjoys pranks. The latter is of a serious tone and scolds the former. A homosexual relationship between Hamlet and Horatio is hinted at quite early in the game when the player asks various characters about their friendship. There is also the presence of a genderqueer character. Bernardo, who was an officer in the original text and the chief of the castle guards here, becomes Katherine for a play in the village. Bernardo’s reply, when Ophelia recognizes Katherine as Bernardo, shines a light on the actors performing women roles of that time.

B “For many years, I’ve been a player. It started when I was a child, playing Juliet. And tonight it ended, as Katherine.”

B “For a boy player, there are only two options when one grows old: Take the male parts, or leave the stage. And I would rather leave. I never thought the day would come when I would have to stop. I never wanted to. In the moments when I was up there… I felt… like I was showing the world the truer form of myself. The ‘me’ who was not just strong, but beautiful.”

The rhizomatic possibilities that pervade the medieval space of Elsinore nuances the Shakespearean representation of characters. The gameworld is populated with marginalised identities provided voice and agency. The game’s introduction of diversity enriches the text. The introduction of the aforementioned characters, the attempt at queering the text and pluralising the voices problematises the portrayal of such characters in contemporary transmedial approaches to medievality making Elsinore a unique retelling of Hamlet.

O “Why must it end?”

41: What It Means To Be Swadian: Encoding Ethnic Identity in Medieval Games

James Baillie, @JubalBarca, University of Vienna

Identity. Culture. Social categories and traits are key to us understanding how we relate to our world and one another. Games represent ethnic and cultural identity to navigate created worlds too. Often it's a simple choice, a box into which an actor or group fits. In reality, identities are layered & contextual. I'm European, British, English, East Anglian, from Norfolk, and Viennese in different ways: being British is notable in Vienna, in the UK it's normal but in Britain, my European ness is notable & highly politicised. Three considerations when looking at how games handle identity: How layered is it? Can one have multiple identities? How malleable is it? Can identities change over time? How contextual is it? Do different situations lead to emphasising different aspects?

In Mount & Blade’s Calradia, villages and units have intrinsic faction identities: a village always retains one culture and produces that culture's troops, even if the overarching faction changes. This creates a system where culture is inherent to place. What it means to be Swadian in Mount & Blade is twofold: there's a Kingdom of Swadia, but also an autochthonous Swadian culture, bound to land and mutually exclusive with others. Regardless of the game's politics, this perfect proto nation state lies unchanged. Some strategy games add malleability: see changing province cultures in Crusader Kings for example. But here, too, complexity is avoided. Culture here is a tool of control: characters ultimately have a single cultural identity and cultural change is wholesale or not at all.

Such decisions are explicit in Mount & Blade 's game code. Storing identity as a singular marker means there's no option to make it layered or contextual. We can't model all the complexity of identities, but should still recognise the complete flattening of them as a choice. Category simplification is normal in games: when trying to get unfamiliar worlds across to players in limited time, simplifications are necessary. But it's a choice what to simplify, and that choice has knock on effects in the kinds of stories that games can tell.

We have alternative ways to model this: in prosopography, multiple tagging for identities gives a simple but effective basis for allowing multiple IDs in a category. One could have multiple "state level" cultures, or add region or ethnicity based cultural groups. Games could thus speak to history and our present better as characters and places negotiate like us different parts of themselves. To utilise this system further, tags could be used interrelated with player location, items/dress, or surrounding characters. Capacity to show cultural exchange, contacts, and differences between local & wider identities, offers much: an alternative framing for how identity works, and the chance for stories that use those tensions & interactions rather than simplistic "clash" narratives.

Improving game culture models could powerfully grow storytelling possibility, and build medieval worlds that include histories and experiences too oft untold. Game designers, digital history scholars, and players alike have much to gain & learn. I hope we do so!

Part Twelve: Modern Impositions

42: Trying not to Fumble in Medieval Times: Role Playing Games as a Medium of Historiography, Authenticity, and Experiencing the Past James Reah, @jamesreah123, University of Winchester

Engaging with Tabletop Role Playing Games (TTRPGs) are as beneficial as videogames and can offer new perspectives and freedom. TTRPGs engage with History differently to video games. This is not simply visually, but the relationship experience players have with the game. TTRPGs offer freedoms and considerations not possible from videogames. TTRPGs are not limited by controller simplicity or game engines. Instead, they offer new degrees to authenticity in games, such as survival realistic combat, biological needs, and climate dangers.

Videogames presents players with foes, and 'fatal' threats, but are designed for the character to win. TTRPGs allow for a more authentic character and story development in that players can easily die with no reset, such as in The Witcher TTRPG, and Mythic Iceland The Witcher TTRPG, set in the grim fantasy world of The Witcher, requires players to 'play smart'. Weapons and armour can break, with the combat system unforgiving, making fights and battles a real danger for the players. Without preparation and care, players will die. Mythic Iceland, set in the Historical environment of Nordic Iceland, mixes elements of myth with recorded history. It presents players with dangers and concerns experienced during this period; farming, food supplies, and climate survival are essential for survival

Both games present players with dangers of the Medieval period. While fantasy, the Witcher presents 'real' dangers such as banditry, hunger issues, and disease. If players die, there is no reset or save point. These considerations can act as comparisons to those of the past. Players have to consider these threats seriously for their character to survive and potentially view them through similar eyes as one from that period. Authenticity is in the survival, engaging with the main issues, risks, and fears of Medieval everyday life for people.

Storylines can revolve around major historical and/or narrative events, which players may engage with. Players may interact with key historical or political figures, with their actions determining possibly the outcome of these events, such as in Chronica Feudalis: a collection of 12th century fragments to a game manuscript for role playing during its contemporary times. It offers insight into digesting and interacting real world events by those living through it, albeit with modern mechanics interjected for playability. Chronica Feudalis is relatable by allowing that period of history to be explored and engaged with in homogenous ways to those who digestated such events. Today, even, TTRPGs can take the form of modern time for the exact same purpose, such as "Shadow of Mogg" and post Brexit Britain.

TTRPGs invite reflective views of history, particularly for historical pedagogy. These games can be used to engage with modern historical thinking such as post processualism and how past events can unfold through reactive decisions rather than a grand narrative. TTRPGs offer engagement with the Medieval period from a different perspective. Over arching narratives are often present, but experience can be non linear and non scripted. While not as 'historically accurate', their immersion is worthy within authenticity discussions.

43: Medieval Letterings Gameplay, Argumentum and Conservation Tea de Rougemont,

@nimblenib,

Kings College London

Today I’ll be talking about the multimodality of textual artefacts (diegetic, (non)interactive text) written in medieval alphabets in games. We’ll be looking at gameplay use, typography, temporalities, ludo hermeneutics and more.

Textual artefacts appear traditionally as Latin, Runes or Glagolitic but other variations exist. In gameplay, they are world building elements requiring no interaction. Archaeological collections to unlock a success, or simple writings on a wall with no added translation. Nowadays, textual artefacts have been given more gameplay freedom. Acting as keyhole elements to finish a puzzle, or elements requiring palaeographical analysis from the player to advance in a quest. Textual artefacts offer semiotic significance and narrative relevance to objectives.

Speaking of semiotics, the player might encounter the same alphabet through a distinct typography the associations will not be the same and the reactions might differ according to players. Colours, shapes and context are changed, leaving authenticity behind. As medievalists, typography enables us to define political boundaries or advances in the writing system. As players, it allows us to create a system of patterns which will translate into game choices. Think of a bloodied lettering on a wall fight or flight?

Authenticity is not an element required in order to transmit gameplay information reliably, and yet games strive to be more historically credible. Textual artefacts encompass those two goals, as a single look at the writing describes past realities and current in game targets. Glagolitic defines a linguistic area as well as a political motive (with Cyrillic in later centuries). Temporally, we can frame the beginning and end. Textual artefacts in game are digital conservations of concepts if not close to authentic typographical representations. Using a Medieval textual artefact inside a game confines the player to using the knowledge they associate with said textual artefact in real life, in the game, as well as a combination of both (argumentum).

To infer meaning from a word, a player must be able to read a textual artefact. What if the player does not know how to read it? If a textual artefact cannot be read by everyone, it must be useful for the game in another way. Ascribing value to a game design element is tricky, because it depends on the player’s objectives and play style, as well as the game designer’s intended use of the textual artefact inside the game. Textual artefacts also switch our attitude towards game design elements. We can react to TAs visually, say, but to understand them requires us to read and interpret, see if our expectations are confirmed and start anew essentially, to start a ludo hermeneutic circle.

The complexity of textual artefacts comes from their duality as program and material. Textual artefacts play by their own rules they ascribe meaning to the context of the game through their structure and existence: required reading in an otherwise visually (mis)informative environment. Medieval textual artefacts are multimodal with the past/present they represent in real life/in game, active/passive states in players, semiotic meanings and their relationship to the game as a gameplay element. Constrained by player knowledge and the rules of the game, textual artefacts manage to offer freedom.

44: Medieval Themes in Modern Board Games

Micael Sousa, @MicaelSS, University of Coimbra

In the last 20 years, modern board games have risen. These hobby games spread all over the world without being restrained by national borders or languages. Now it is easy to get information about the new games and find other enthusiasts and places to play regularly. Modern board games were not historical and mass market games. The influence of these hobby games, wargames, role playing games, the thematic Americangames, and the mechanical elegance of Eurogames delivers new experiences to players. The face to face play was reborn. Despite the design innovations in modern board games, players value face to face social interactions above all. The game components fascinate players, but people desire to share a playable experience. This rediscovery can be an effect of the post digital movement. The Middle Ages are one of the most used thematics in modern board games. We can find examples of this in the different genders of modern and hobby board games. I propose to explore the top 100 games of Board Game Geek related to the Medieval Ages, directly/indirectly.

Board Game Geek top 100 games show several Medieval games. Most of them are fantasy games, where a medieval like type of context helps to build role playing board game adventures and combat games. We see the influence of the dungeon crawlers and some adapted economic games. Phantasy games: Gloomheaven, Gloomheaven: Jaws of the Lion, War of the Ring, Mage Knight, Root, Caverna, Blood Rage, Kingdom Death Monster, Too Many Bones, Aeon’s End, Clank!, Five Tribes, Tainted Grail, Rising Sun, The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth Contrasting with the previous 15 examples of phantasy games, we found 11 other games appearing in the Board Game Geek Top100 that explore medieval historical reality. They are not simulations for sure, but they deliberately try exploring History to deliver a playable experience. Examples of some games with medieval historical background: A Feast for Odin, Orleans, The Voyages of Marco Polo, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Paladins of the West Kingdom, Caylus, Architects of the West Kingdom, El Grande, Troyes, Dominion, Raiders of the North Sea. We can conclude that 26 games in the Board Game Geek Top100 are related to Medieval aesthetics and influences: 15 games (Americangames related, with two exceptions) use the Middle Age context to explore phantasy; 11 games (Eurogames related) try to connect to factual History.

Americangames, described as more “thematic” games, have been using Medieval contexts, myths, legends, and aesthetics to build engaging adventures where conflict, combat, and narrative plays dominate. Detailed components and exuberant art define these games. Eurogames try to explore the economic Medieval systems and relations. They transform conflicts into an accumulation race. Some use cities' names or historical events. Eurogames mechanical elegance sometimes simplifies historical drama to focus on the game system.

Medieval related themes are 26% of the top 100 Board Game Geek games, which is relevant. This historical period has been a rich influence over games of many genders. It influenced the development of conflict and narrative games, but also strategic economic and building games.

45: Remakes and Remasters, Sequels and Expansions: Re addressing Implemented History

Daniel Wigmore, @WigorMortis, University of Southampton

Games have always been a great way of bringing historical periods to life and offer ‘small steps’ of understanding and education of the medieval world to the wider public. However, games and their depictions of the past become dated, and often need modernising. ‘Live’ games, actively supported or being developed, are naturally evolved by patches, updates, or expansions (sometimes with sequels) to build upon player feedback. These address features or mechanics, that are deemed to be missing or crucial to the period they cover. Remasters refresh ‘dead’ games, renewing audio and visuals, and improving device compatibility. Yet surface level changes and consumer expectations can cobble attempts to mechanically update games to modern gaming culture or current historiographical trends.

Sequels and remasters allow the expansion of what is ‘medieval’ into gaming culture, mechanically or otherwise. Sequels/expansions are freer; not bound by an expectation to follow a previous development, yet remasters can directly challenge issues in the original game. Mount and Blade’s ‘Warband’ standalone expansion shows how fundamental gameplay can be advanced in line with the medieval world. A new non European themed faction, political and combat changes, and more depth to societal elements touch on core tenets of medievalism. Alternatively, games such as Crusader Kings 2 and Medieval 2: Total War offer targeted expansions to cater to what customers may prefer and highlight aspects of medieval history. Collated, they can offer a holistic experience and stimulate more development but risk catering to popular topics. Following trends can make sequels more stylised: The Heroes of Might and Magic games have made transitioned from ‘Renaissance style’ fantasy to more ‘grim dark/soulsian’, echoing a trend within modern media to depict the medieval period as a ‘dark age’. Gaming culture can have a greater impact than historiography.

Games often underestimate, & are underestimated for, their impact on public perception of historical periods, but it is this influence that can be harnessed to inform and aid public understanding. In game encyclopaedias & campaigns can act as educational tools to players. Opportunities to implement these and change falsities in remasters are often overlooked. Pressure to conform to past portrayals limits the possibility to advance beyond aged audio visual depictions of the past. Few games risk angering fans by making minor alterations. Some expansions can emphasise altered perspectives: Age of Empires II’s various expansions change from Early Medieval Western Europe to Late Medieval or African or Asian perspectives. Tying new gameplay to less publicly known areas forces players to shift their focus.

At their heart expansions change a ‘live’ game, while remasters can update a developmentally ‘dead’ game. When remasters are committed to continue & expand, they have a unique opportunity to update historical perceptions and develop ideas using a known popular medium. As many popular medieval games age and feel increasingly dated, remasters or remakes seem increasingly likely. Will future sequels or remakes take this opportunity to reflect and educate gamers with modern ideas, or do they risk perpetuating old myths?

Part Thirteen: Closing Keynote

46: Hearing the Middle Ages: Playing with and Contextualising Acoustical Heritage and Historical Soundscapes Research

Mariana Lopez, @Mariana_J_Lopez, University of York

I am a Senior Lecturer in Sound Production and Post Production at the Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media at the University of York. This short article explores the challenges and opportunities of using digital games to present sound heritage research.

Although I will be drawing from my work on sound in the ‘York Mystery Plays’ medieval drama cycle, and the creation of the interactive web experience 'The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays', which can be visited here, the findings and lessons learnt are widely applicable.

Acoustical heritage and historical soundscapes work are not new but the challenges of presenting findings in a transparent and engaging manner to non expert audiences has received limited attention. But what do I mean by 'transparent'? Acknowledging the unknowns and limitations in sound heritage work. Unknowns are linked to (1) the way history often relies on fragmented sources that may make several interpretations possible. (2) The fact that acoustical work is limited by the acoustical theories and techniques utilised, for example, the difficulty in knowing the acoustic properties of historical surface materials, the determination of sound source and listener positions and the geometric acoustic theory used by computer models (Vorländer 2013; Álvarez Morales, López and Álvarez Corbacho 2020). Moreover, and very importantly, acoustical work is limited by the assumptions made by researchers, which include which spaces are deemed ‘worthy’ of study. (3) The importance of understanding the cultural context of listening experiences: we cannot ‘hear’ as our ancestors did, the senses are time and space specific (Smith 2007). Understanding context is key, but acoustical heritage work tends to leave this aside.

Whereas linear sound recreations, such as those at museums, often present one version of the past, the non linear nature of digital games allows for the exploration of different possible sonic pasts. By presenting different options, we welcome uncertainty and reflection (Lopez 2020).

'The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays' was designed to explore how to present the uncertainty and multiplicity of sonic renditions by inviting users to change the performance setting of the plays based on historical findings and possible scenarios (see Figure 46.1).

Figure 46.1: The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays interface. Visual design by Oswin Wan.

Scenarios include some of the most commonly discussed unknowns regarding performances of the York Mystery Plays: how the wagons utilised were actually used for performances; how they were positioned in the streets of York; and where performers and audiences were located (see Figure 46.2). The available scenarios also allow users to explore the impact of audiences on the acoustics of the performance spaces, by including scenarios with and without audiences. Furthermore, different listening positions can be selected, which are then visually indicated in red. As the user selects the performance settings, different acoustical renditions (auralisations) are played. They are the result of thorough studies based on acoustic measurements in York and computer models, combined with recordings of extracts from the plays.

In addition to changing the acoustical setting, the user can also mix in sounds that are likely to have been present during the performances in the medieval streets of York. Thus, creating richer soundscapes and allowing for further exploration. Said sounds include wagon wheels, audience related sounds, animals, bells and sound effects connected to the weather.

The user can explore multiple aural experiences, all plausible, all the product of in depth research, some differences very noticeable and others subtler. Very importantly, through this process the user can engage playfully with the sounds of the Mystery Plays. The interface allows for the exploration of historical acoustics and soundscapes while also placing the listening experience in the users’ hands by allowing them to create customised aural experiences.

The interface, therefore, refuses to settle for one aural version of the York Mystery Plays, embracing multiplicity. A challenge though was, and is, how to contextualise the different aural experiences presented without overcrowding the interface. This was partly addressed by following Jenkins’ concept of ‘Environmental Storytelling’ (2004), seeking to use visual design to aid the narrative. Work included an avatar communicating through text on an illuminated manuscript, who introduces the plays to the user by reading ‘Dear friend, The Lord Mayor has issued the billets, we are bringing forth the wagons for the York Mystery Plays, will you join us in Stonegate?’ A manicule with the text ‘Take me there!’ was also included at the bottom of the illuminated manuscript. By clicking on it, the user is then led to a map of medieval York indicating the site of the performances (the site used for the simulations, Stonegate). Once within the main page of the interface, the background images change to indicate the performance setting chosen by the user.

Figure 46.2: Different possible performance settings available to users in The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays interface. Visual design by Oswin Wan.

‘The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays’ borrows elements of its visual design and interaction mechanics from digital RPG and strategy games, but it is not a game, it is a historical simulation, as there are no goals/challenges that need solving and no rewards (Salen and Zimmerman 2003). Feedback collected indicated users enjoyed combining sounds and exploring the acoustics; they also praised the high quality of the audio and enjoyed the atmospheric nature of the experience, as well as the visual design. However, more was felt could be done to help users fully grasp the meaning of sounds and settings, and the research behind them. Further contextualisation would increase awareness of the historical context, relevance of the sounds, and rationale behind the choices made.

Future work will explore how further contextualisation could be provided without cluttering the interface and without relying on overly long text extracts and without requiring the user to delve into obscure menus. An interesting strategy is used in the 1990s game 'Cosmology of Kyoto' (Softedge 1993), featuring a Reference tab available throughout, and intrinsic to the experience. As the user progresses, the information available through the Reference tab changes.

‘The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays’ is the first online interface to engage playfully with sound heritage while also articulating a critical view of the static approach of acoustical heritage experiences, which risk presenting a rigid version of the sonic past. Techniques and reflections will hopefully invite researchers on sound heritage to consider playful and transparent approaches to presenting research outcomes. At the same time, I hope researchers in the field of historical games are encouraged to widen their focus beyond visual elements.

References:

Álvarez Morales, Lidia, López, Mariana and Álvarez Corbacho, Ángel “The acoustic environment of York Minster’s Chapter House.” Acoustics 2:1 (2020).

Jenkins, Henry “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, Game, edited by Noah Wardrip Fruin and Pat Harrigan. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004.

Lopez, Mariana “Heritage Soundscapes: contexts and ethics of curatorial expression.” In The St. Thomas Way and the Medieval March of Wales: Exploring place, heritage, pilgrimage, edited by Catherine A.M. Clarke, 103 120. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2020.

Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press, 2003.

Smith, Mark. Sensory History. Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2007.

Softedge, Cosmology of Kyoto 1993.

Vorländer, Michael “Computer simulations in room acoustics: Concepts and uncertainties” Journal of Acoustical Society of America 133 (2013).