Author: Shawn Graham

We’ve got a lot of great scholarship here on Play the Past. I’m continually astounded by these authors – their insights, their wit, and their ability to surprise and delight. I’m confident that what we’re doing here on Play the Past is making a difference in the scholarship of gamesContinue Reading

…cross-posted at ElectricArchaeology.ca to see what the archaeology crowd thinks… One of the things I want my students to engage with in my ‘cities and countryside in antiquity’ class is the idea that in antiquity, one navigates space not with a two dimensional top-down mental map, but rather as aContinue Reading

Gamification – love it or hate it, any time you use some sort of game mechanic, you’ve done it. Which makes ‘being a student’ the ultimate game of all. Write an essay, do a mid term, ace the final, level up to the next course, forget the previous course’s content…Continue Reading

So I went into my local gamestore, looking for something to play on the Wii. I wanted a point and click adventure. “What?” said the gormless young man. “Point and click. You know… for kids!” Needless to say, they didn’t appear to have any. In which case, I thought I’dContinue Reading

Ian Bogost is always interesting to watch. He hit the blogosphere recently with a strong declaration that ‘Gamification is Bullshit‘, where bullshit is used to conceal, to impress or to coerce. Unlike liars, bullshitters have no use for the truth. All that matters to them is hiding their ignorance orContinue Reading