Operation LAPIS: Iteration of the CARDs
A few months ago here at Play the Past, I wrote about the collection mechanic that’s a large part of the grammatical instruction in Operation LAPIS. The rewards for completing categories in that collection mechanic were those wonderful CARDs (digital only) that would then appear in their personal dossiers. FromContinue Reading
Meaningful Play in Archaeology
When looking at the range of games that are currently available on the topic of archaeology there is an obvious divide in definitions of the discipline. On the one hand there is the antiquated yet appealing portrayal of archaeology as grave robbing, looting and a continuation of 19th century imperialismContinue Reading
Where Else Can You Read about Games and Cultural Heritage?
While Play the Past is no doubt your favorite and most important source of smart, scholarly explorations of games and cultural heritage, we know we are not the only people writing about the intersection of meaningful play, history, and culture. I wanted to take the time in this post toContinue Reading
Operation MENIS after-action report
Operation ΜΗΝΙΣ is very nearly in the books. Most of the nine students who stuck it out have done extraordinary things. Seven of the nine have some kind of A, and I sincerely believe that they would have those A’s no matter how the course was being assessed, but thatContinue Reading
The Adventuring Archaeologist Trope
Archaeology is a fairly common video game theme, and why wouldn’t it be? Distant lands, searching for lost treasures, the threat of competing looters and foreign governments, the possibilities of cursed tombs, with only the lone archaeologist to right the wrongs and triumph. This fantasy is not unique to theContinue Reading
Lies Here
Last week I ran a historical ARG created for a conference called Interacting With Immersive Worlds. The conference was, among other things, a coming out party for the Ontario Augmented Reality Network, which is the new home (and funder) of the history games research I’ve been describing in this highlyContinue Reading
The Cat and the Coup
While browsing my friends on Steam the other day, I noticed a game some of them had been playing called “The Cat and the Coup”. As a lover of cats (especially those politically inclined), I couldn’t help but be interested. Termed a documentary game by its creators Peter Brinson andContinue Reading
The Achievement Game
I stumbled upon this delightful image while browsing the web for some project of mine. It prompted me to start wondering just how much of the game frameworks we spend so much time in have impacted our worldview. Occasionally, I’ve thought of my own needs in terms of The SimsContinue Reading
Call of Duty as Historical Reenactment
When I was 8, I was enrolled into a summer camp at Genesee Country Village and Museum. The village was a living museum where costumed interpreters talked about the life of an eighteenth to nineteenth century village. The purpose of the summer camp was to learn about lifeways during this period, asContinue Reading
Operation MENIS: a soldier, a rhapsode, and a tragedian walk into the agora
This post is a reflective update on the course I was feverishly developing all this past year (and which I teased here a couple months back), Operation ΜΗΝΙΣ. As readers of Play the Past know, the brand of game-based learning in cultural heritage (and other) fields on which my UConnContinue Reading