Smoggy Pasts: Strategy Games and Ecology
Traditionally, the relationship between humans and our environment has not been the most prominent aspect of historical writing. Particularly before the institutionalization of historical studies in the nineteenth century, the natural world generally took a backseat to kings, monuments, explorers, and revolutions. It usually only made the history books whenContinue Reading
The Cathedral and the Simulacrum
Staring bewlidered at the images Notre Dame de Paris in flames, I was struck with how numb I’d become to news of the terrible. Numb. Incapable of knowing what I felt. The world’s news cameras had turned on the sad spectacle of France’s most famous cathedral overcome with churning flamesContinue Reading
Playing with Power: An Alternate French Revolution Role-Play
This article is part 2 of a series of posts on using the concept of ‘play’ to teach history in a Malaysian college setting. You can read part 1 by clicking here. On the first day of the final ‘Playing with Power’ session of 2018, I explained to the WorldContinue Reading
Jon Shafer’s At the Gates: First Impressions (Part 2)
This post is the second half of a two-part article on Jon Shafer’s At the Gates, at launch. You can read part 1 by clicking here. So I’ve given you a rundown of At the Gates’ (AtG) critical reception at launch, discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly ofContinue Reading
Jon Shafer’s At the Gates: First Impressions (Part 1)
This post is the first half of a two-part article on Jon Shafer’s At the Gates, at launch. You can read part 2 by clicking on this link. I have to confess that what sold me on getting Jon Shafer’s At the Gates right out of the gate – consideringContinue Reading
Presence, Preservation, and Virtual Reality
This week, KUED, a local PBS station premiered a new documentary titled Battle Over Bears Ears that looks at the fight over the Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah that was created by President Obama and later dismantled by President Trump. As one might expect, the issue is muchContinue Reading
Playing with Power: An Alternative World War 2 Role Play
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 Soviet Union, instead ofContinue Reading
Shovel Knight’s Pastiche of Backdrops
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, whenContinue Reading
The Bethesda Style, 2: Progression by Performance
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 universallyContinue Reading
The Bethesda style of oral formulaic epic, part 1
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, callsContinue Reading