From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. With successful series such as "Assassin's Creed" or "Civilization" selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception.
This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
[This] is an interesting collection which will be an important reference for the growing number of works on gaming and classical reception in ancient history. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review * A valuable addition to the sub-discipline of Reception Studies, and invaluable to anyone interested in learning more about classics, ancient history, and classical archaeology in computer games. * Classics for All * There is no doubt that the pieces collected by Rollinger amply fulfil his main objective, that of showing interested historians all the possibilities offered by this new and attractive field of study. This collection makes a valuable contribution to the field, not only because it will inspire further research on the subject matter, but also because it will be especially interesting for all those players whose core passion is reliving ancient history in the first person. * The Classical Review * There are many merits to this volume and important new paths of research are highlighted ... [The book] demonstrates the importance of the study of video games for research into multiple areas of ancient world studies ... [It] offers exciting opportunities for everybody interested in ancient history. * Manchester Game Studies Network * A fine example of what an impressive range of scholars can achieve when they look beyond the player's point of view to consider the broader issues of how, in video games, history is invoked and constructed, game and software architectures are deployed, and player attention is pursued. -- Thomas M. Malaby, Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA It opens windows of immense opportunities that will undoubtedly serve as a "playground" for Francophone researchers. * Revue des Etudes Anciennes [Bloomsbury Translation] *
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 232 mm
Breite: 154 mm
Dicke: 18 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-350-19386-4 (9781350193864)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Christian Rollinger is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Trier, Germany. He is co-editor of the online journal Thersites: Journal for Transcultural Presences & Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date.
Herausgeber*in
Lecturer in Ancient HistoryUniversity of Trier, Germany
List of illustrations
Glossary of video game terms
Notes on Contributors
Preface
PROLOGUE
Playing with the Ancient World: An Introduction to Classical Antiquity in Video Games
1. Christian Rollinger: An Archaeology of Ancient Historical Video Games
PART I: A BRAVE OLD WORLD. RE-FIGURATIONS OF ANCIENT CULTURES
2. David Serrano Lozano: Ludus (not) Over: Video Games and Popular Perceptions of Ancient Past Re-Shaping
3. Andrew Gardner and Tristan French: Playing in a 'Real' Past: Classical Action Games and Authenticity
4. Sian Beavers: The Representation of Women in Ryse: Son of Rome
PART II: A WORLD AT WAR. MARTIAL RE-PRESENTATIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
5. Dominic Machado: Battle Narratives from Ancient Historiography to Total War: Rome II
6. Jeremiah McCall: Digital Legionaries: Video Game Simulations of the Face of Battle in the Roman Republic
PART III: DIGITAL EPICS. ROLE-PLAYING IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
7. Roger Travis: The Open-World RPG as Formulaic Epic
8. Ross Clare: Postcolonial Play in Ancient World Computer Role-playing Games
9. Nico Nolden: Playing with an Ancient Veil: Commemorative Culture and the Staging of Ancient History within the Playful Experience of the MMORPG The Secret World
PART IV: BUILDING AN ANCIENT WORLD. RE-IMAGINING ANTIQUITY
10. Neville Morley: Choose your own Counterfactual: The Melian Dialogue as Text-Based Adventure
11. Maciej Paprocki: Mortal Immortals: Deicide of Greek Gods in Apotheon and its Role in the Greek Mythic Storyworld
12. Alexander Flegler: The Complexities and Nuances of Portraying History in Age of Empires
13. Erika Holter, Una Ulrike Schaefer, Sebastian Schwesinger: Simulating the Ancient World: Pitfalls and Opportunities of Using Game Engines for Archaeological Research
EPILOGUE
14. Adam Chapman: Quo Vadis Classical Receptions and Historical Game Studies? Moving Two Fields Forward Together
Notes
Bibliography
Mediography
Ludography
Index
