Playing with the Past in the Present and into the Future: How Games Change our Relationship with History

Research profile seminar

There can now be little doubt that games have become a potentially important popular cultural resource for the production of meaning about, and engagement with, history. Like all forms of historical representation, games introduce particular challenges, limitations and possibilities, each of which has the potential to influence the ways we relate to the past and the histories that are written about it. In this talk, Adam Chapman explores how the past is represented in games, how these games both inform and reflect the present, and how they might change our future engagements with history in popular culture. In particular the lecture considers the enfranchising potential of the popular access to historical practices, such as reenactment, heritage experiences and counterfactual history, that the game form offers. The lecture also concludes by considering the implications of new hardware developments (such as VR) and the latest directions of research in the historical game studies field.

Reading:
Chapman, A., Foka, A. & Westin, J. (2016). Introduction: What is historical game studies? In A.Chapman, A. Foka and J. Westin (eds.), Historical games special section, Rethinking History Journal 21 (3).