Our next theme is focused in and around ‘technology’ and historical games. We define historical games broadly, and we encourage contributions that consider technology in all its guises. We’re interested in a wide-range of technology-inspired contributions, whether these are reflections on technology represented in games, narrative techniques, game progression, aesthetic choices, user-generated content tools or […]
(header photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash) The historical consequences of historical games do not end with the interaction between the player and the designed game. As discussed in our Education theme, players are often prompted by historical content to undertake further research and engagement with the past (Beavers, 2020), and to discuss it and […]
Our next theme concerns how games connect and interact with “Memory”. We’re interested in exploring how games – as always, broadly defined – engage with memory, commemoration, cultural remembrance (and forgetting), remembrance practices and memory organisations. Our aim has always been to bridge the gap between academia, the games industry and cultural heritage organisations and […]
Event details Date 26 May 2023 Time 13:30PM CET (11:30 UTC) Location Virtual (Twitch) | Join here Speakers Edmund Hayes | Johnnemann Nordhagen | Corine Gerritsen [Chair: Esther Wright] We’re trying something new! Working with the fabulous VALUE Foundation, the next Historical Games Network Panel will be coming to you from The Interactive Pasts 3 […]
We are delighted to announce that HGN will be hosting a workshop at DiGRA 2023 in Seville, Spain on 19 June 2023. Overview In 2016, the Playing with History workshop at the DiGRA/FDG conference saw game scholars and developers present 16 papers on broad themes encompassing historical games. Since then, Historical Game Studies (HGS) has […]
Alternatives are essential to games as a cultural form because agency is a foundational characteristic of the experiences they offer. The possibility for players – the audience – to influence the outcome of at least some events means that games must always contain competing alternatives, with their final outcome determined through the player’s actions. These […]
It’s something of an open secret that increasingly, people are learning much more about the past from games than they are from “older” forms of popular history. Students of all ages develop an interest in particular periods and events by engaging with digital and analogue games of all kinds (Houghton 2016; 2021; Stirling and Wood […]
