Play The Past |

Playing with Power: An Alternative World War 2 Role Play

Aug 29, 18

Michelle Low is an educator with an interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Science background who spends her time outside of lecture rooms, tweeting and blogging about gaming and pedagogy, watching gameplay, and researching and writing about Ancient Egypt Reception Studies and archaeogaming. Imagine an alternate universe where...

Shovel Knight’s Pastiche of Backdrops

Aug 15, 18

Posted by Zach Wolf in Articles

The following is a guest post by Zach Wolf, a recent graduate in humanities from Willamette University. History-themed games are a popular niche of video games. But if many players care about historical accuracy, historical setting seem to take a back seat in most discussion about such games. Often, when a setting is discussed,...

The Bethesda Style, 2: Progression by Performance

Jun 06, 18

Posted by Roger Travis in Articles

I apologize for not replying to comments on the first post of this series! I’ll remedy that now, and promise to be more vigilant with this post! Digital RPGs have a wide variety of ways to allow the player-performer to progress their player-character towards greater prowess. The process is universally referred to as leveling...

The Bethesda style of oral formulaic epic, part 1

May 22, 18

Posted by Roger Travis in Articles

In a series of essays starting in 2004 and including a series of posts here on Play the Past, I’ve described player-performance in adventure games of various genres as examples of what Albert Lord, in The Singer of Tales, the seminal work on oral formulaic composition of homeric epic, calls thematic recomposition. Briefly put,...

Videogames and Memory

Mar 20, 18

Posted by Peter Christiansen in Articles

Public Memory is a concept that is intertwined with history in many different ways, so it’s no surprise that memory is a theme that has come up over and over again here on Play the Past. Memory and videogame intersect in a number of different ways, from prompting us to reflect on the memories of real events to using...

History’s Creed: Episodes 6 to 10

Mar 06, 18

Posted by Gilles Roy in Articles, Video

Below are episodes 6 to 10 of History’s Creed, and ARTE Web Series on History in Video Games. To read Play the Past’s introductory remarks on the series, please click on this link. Episodes 1 to 5 are discussed here. Note: if subtitles do not autoplay, please click on the settings wheel at the bottom right of the...

History’s Creed: Episodes 1 to 5

Mar 01, 18

Posted by Gilles Roy in Articles, Video

Below are episodes 1 to 5 of History’s Creed, and ARTE Web Series on History in Video Games. To read Play the Past’s introductory remarks on the series, please click on this link. Episodes 6 to 10 are discussed here. Note: if subtitles do not autoplay, please click on the settings wheel at the bottom right of the...