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

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 53

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

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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.

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