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
