This War of Mine: Human Survival and the Ethics of Care
This article is part three of a four-part series on the future of quantification in history. For the thematic introduction to the series, please click here. Or click on the following links for part one, or part two. It’s when your favorite character gets pointlessly killed that you truly beginContinue Reading
Open Thread: Public Memory & Pokemon Go
I know. I know. Everyone is writing about how Pokemon Go connects to whatever they work on. But here we are. Given how Pokemon Go has kicked up controversy around how it uses public sites of memory and conscience, without in any way considering if it is appropriate to doContinue Reading
Let’s Play: Far Cry Primal Ep.4: An “Archaeological” Exploration
This is a guest post by Philip Riris, an archaeologist with the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. His research interests run the gamut from digital data in archaeology to cave art to the archaeology of South America. Philip’s first post in this series is here, his second is here,Continue Reading
Socrates the Gamer
In this post I’ll expand on some points I made in my last. By opening out the notion of Socrates as fundamentally a participant interactive performances (that is, like his fellow Athenian elites, steeped in a culture founded on homeric epic), I mean to launch the principal argument of this post-series/book.Continue Reading
The Long Dark: the Last Lonely Days of the Quantified Self
This article is part two of a four-part series on the future of quantification in history. For the thematic introduction to the series, please click here. For part one, click here. “You’ve faded into the Long Dark”… Thus ends each “survival trial” in the frozen and hostile, yet beautifullyContinue Reading
Games and Learning: Building Sustainable Communities
E3, The Electronic Entertainment Expo, was just last week, so there’s quite a bit of videogame news circulating about the internets right now. Amid the waves of game trailers and press releases, most of us could be forgiven for not knowing that during the hubbub of the convention, a numberContinue Reading
Big Data: Endgame of Virtual History
This article is part one of a four-part series on the future of quantification in history. For the thematic introduction to the series, please click here. At face value, it might appear to the casual reader of Play the Past, that the main focus of this blog is theContinue Reading
Let’s Play: Far Cry Primal Ep.3: An “Archaeological” Exploration
This is a guest post by Philip Riris, an archaeologist with the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. His research interests run the gamut from digital data in archaeology to cave art to the archaeology of South America. Philip’s first post in this series is here and his second isContinue Reading
Play the ancient game
I’m glad to say that I have real hope of starting to contribute to PlaythePast again. I’m working on a book I’m excited about, though I have no idea whether it will ever actually emerge in any traditional “book” format. In any case, I’m going to start broaching the subjectContinue Reading
Systems of Science: Games Shaping Cultural Perceptions
Science and media have a complicated relationship. Film and television crews regularly hire science consultants both to improve the realism of their productions and to give themselves an air of authority and respectability. Scientists also have a vested interest in being involved in such productions. Since most people invest moreContinue Reading