History in Games: Contingencies of an Authentic Past 9783839454206

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Martin Lorber, Felix Zimmermann (eds.) History in Games

Studies of Digital Media Culture | Volume 12

Editorial The series is edited by Gundolf S. Freyermuth and Lisa Gotto.

Martin Lorber (M.A.) studied musicology, philosophy and anthropology at the University of Cologne. He is co-founder of the Clash of Realities conference and teaches at the University of Cologne. Felix Zimmermann (M.A.) is a doctoral candidate at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne. His research focuses on experience-based engagements with the past and especially on the atmospheric potential of digital games and its implications for questions of authenticity. He is a member of the group »Geschichtswissenschaft und Digitale Spiele« (AKGWDS).

Martin Lorber, Felix Zimmermann (eds.)

History in Games Contingencies of an Authentic Past

TH Köln-University of Technology, Arts, and Sciences supported the publication of this volume.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http:// dnb.d-nb.de

© 2020 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover concept: Kordula Röckenhaus, Bielefeld Proofread by Anh-Thu Nguyen and Markus Zimmermann Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-5420-2 PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-5420-6 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839454206 Printed on permanent acid-free text paper.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Martin Lorber & Felix Zimmermann | 7 Introduction. Approaching the Authenticities of Late Modernity

Felix Zimmermann | 9

HISTORY AS TOLD BY THE GAME Quarry ± Playground ± Brand. Popular History in Video Games

Angela Schwarz | 25 Why History in Digital Games matters. Historical Authenticity as a Language for Ideological Myths

Eugen Pfister | 47 Social Practices of History in Digital Possibility Spaces. Historicity, Mediality, Performativity, Authenticity

Nico Nolden | 73 Tracing the Past with Digital Games. Historical Procedural Rhetorics

Rüdiger Brandis | 93

AUTHENTICITY IN AND OF HISTORY History in Video Games and the Craze for the Authentic

Angela Schwarz | 117 Crusading Icons. Medievalism and Authenticity in Historical Digital Games

Andrew B.R. Elliott & Mike Horswell | 137

The Auteur and the 80s Mixtape. Popular Music and Authenticity in M ETAL G EAR S OLID V: T HE PHANTOM PAIN

$QGUD,YăQHVFX| 157 Queer Authenticity in the History of Games. Experiences of Knowing, Performing and Portraying Queerness in Games throughout the Last Four Decades

Lara Keilbart | 179

THE P OLITICS OF AUTHENTICITY ³,ILW¶VDIDQWDV\ZRUOGZK\ERWKHU WU\LQJWRPDNHLWUHDOLVWLF"´ Constructing and Debating the Middle Ages of T HE W ITCHER 3: W ILD H UNT

Aurelia Brandenburg | 201 How to Get Away with Colonialism. Two decades of discussing the ANNO Series

Tobias Winnerling | 221 Toying with History. Counterplay, Counterfactuals, and the Control of the Past

Angus A. A. Mol | 237 You Do Have Responsibility! How Games trivialize Fascism, why this should concern us and how we could change it

Jörg Friedrich | 259

Contributors | 277

Preface and Acknowledgments M ARTIN L ORBER & F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

In 2019, the international conference on the art, technology, and theory of digital games, Clash of Realities ± International Conference on the Art, Technology, and Theory of Digital Games, provided for the tenth time the opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange and dialogue related to digital games. Lots of experts from fields like the humanities, economics, politics, and the game industry discussed pressing questions concerning the artistic design, technological development, and the relevance and role of digital games in society. The conference was organized by the TH Köln ± University of Applied Sciences and financed through the support of the Film und Medien Stiftung NRW, The City of Cologne, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Electronic Arts Germany. Since its foundation in 2006, the Cologne-based conference Clash of Realities has approached the medium of digital games from the perspective of many different scientific disciplines and has also included the practice of developers. However, the dedicated historical perspective did not appear until the tenth edition of the conference. Since the conference has become one of the most important interfaces of academic research and artistic creation, this was high time. Therefore, we want to thank the program board of the Clash of Realties conference which was open to the idea to organize a historical game studies summit at Clash of Realities and trusted us in our choice for the speakers (which was very much the work of Felix Zimmermann). And we thank the team of the Cologne Game Lab (CGL) of the TH Köln for the tremendous practical support both beforehand and during the conference. Also, we want to thank the speakers who came to Cologne, Germany, in November 2019 and made the summit possible: Adam Chapman, Maxime Durand, Angus Mol, Eugen Pfister, Angela Schwarz, and Esther Wright. They are WKHUHDVRQWKHVXPPLW³+LVWRU\LQ*DPHV± &RQWLQJHQFLHVRIDQ$XWKHQWLF3DVW´

8 | M ARTIN L ORBER & F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

has been a great success. Most of the lectures of the summit are collected in this volume, in addition there are some other papers which, for various reasons, were not presented at the summit but which complement this volume quite wonderfully. Additionally, we want to thank Gundolf S. Freyermuth and Lisa Gotto, the editors of the book series this volume is a part of, for welcoming the historical JDPHVWXGLHVLQWKHLUUHQRZQHGVHULHV³6WXGLHVRI'LJLWDO0HGLD&XOWXUH.´0RVW notably, we want to express our gratitude for the inspiring insights the authors in this volume offered us and for how friendly and professional our collaboration has been. And to Anh-Thu Nguyen and Markus Zimmermann we are grateful for their invaluable help with the editorial work and their thorough proof-reading of the chapters in this book. Furthermore, we want to thank Felix ZimmerPDQQ¶VFRO OHDJXHVDWWKHZRUNLQJJURXS³*HVFKLFKWVZLVVHQVFKDIWXQG'LJLWDOH6SLHOH´+LV torical Science and Digital Games [AKGWDS]) who inspired the summit with their commitment to establish the field of historical game studies in Germany, Austria and beyond. Finally, we want to give our thanks to the TH Köln for supporting this publication. We wish you, dear reader, a fruitful and rewarding time with this book.

Introduction Approaching the Authenticities of Late Modernity F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

A BSTRACT Where do we end up when we enter the time machine that is the digital game? In this introduction, I want to explain how to arrive at such a question and give some preliminary answers. I will first offer a short and cursory history of authenticity which leads to our present age, the world of late modernity. I will elaborate that authenticity has reached its status as an almost ubiquitous term because it signifies a condition of the individual of late modernity who appears to be in constant search for the authentic to satisfy a seemingly insatiable desire. In will continue in concluding that it is the digital game in particular that offers an authentic experience² especially when it appears to paradoxically give unmediated access to the past. We will have to (re)consider the relationship of the digital game to history, the past and consequently the kinds of authenticity we are dealing with. The papers in this book aim to do just that, as I will show at the end of this chapter.

A S HORT H ISTORY

OF

A UTHENTICITY

$VDWHUPRIWKHKLVWRULFDOVFLHQFHVµDXWKHQWLF¶FDQEHWUDFHGEDFNWRWKHinterpretatio authentica of juridical and religious texts in the 16th century. This approved interpretation of a given document was delivered by persons of authority.

10 | F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

µ$XWKHQWLF¶ZDVWKHUHIRUHXVHGWRLGHQWLI\DQREMHFWDVµDSSURYHG¶RUµOHJLWLPDWH¶ 1 7ZRVWLOOSRWHQWVHPDQWLFFRQWHQWVRIµDXWKHQWLF¶RULJLQDWHIURPWKLVHDUOLHVWXVHRI WKHWHUP)LUVWO\UHJDUGLQJVRPHWKLQJWKDWFDQEHFDOOHGµREMHFWDXWKHQWLFLW\¶µDX WKHQWLF¶FDQVWLOOUHIHUWRDQREMHFWZKLFKKDVEHHQDSSURYHGDVFRUUHFWRUYDOLGE\ DSHUVRQRIDXWKRULW\6HFRQGO\DQGEXLOGLQJRQWKLVµDXWKHQWLF¶LVVWLOOWRWKLVGD\ linked to questions of authority and power and therefore raises the question of who is in a position to declare something as authentic.2 In the 18th FHQWXU\WKHQRXQµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶FDPHLQWRSRSXODUXVH7KHKLVWRU ical sciences began to use the term to describe historical sources of verified origin.3 Simultaneously, the term was infused with another semantic level, one of an aesthetic kind. Consequently, the complexity of the term increased significantly in the 18th and 19th century. Thinkers of the Enlightenment and early Romanticism EHJDQWRXVHµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶WRdescribe untouched nature and the genuine, unaltered mannerisms of every human being.4 Susanne Knaller describes this as a merging of terms from philosophical and aesthetical theories of the 18 th and 19th century, ³VLQFHULWpQDLYLWpYUDLHWF´ZLWKWKHWHUPVµDXWKHQWLF¶DQGµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶5 From this point onward, authenticity no longer solely refers to the authenticity of an object but also of a person, a subject, hence the dichotomy of object and subject authenticity was established.

1

&I 6DXSH $FKLP ³$XWKHQWLFLW\´ LQ Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte 2016; http://docXSHGLDGH]J6DXSHBDXWKHQWL]LWDHWBYBHQB .QDOOHU 6XVDQQH ³*HQHDORJLH GHV lVWKHWLVFKHQ$XWKHQWL]LWlWVEHJULIIV´LQ6XVDQQH.QDOOHU/ Harro Müller (eds.), Authentizität. Diskussion eines ästhetischen Begriffs, München: Wilhelm Fink 2006, pp. 17± 35, here p. 18.

2

$V6XVDQQH.QDOOHUSRLQWVRXWµDXWKHQWLF¶RULJLQDWHVIURPWKH*UHHNWHUPµDXWKHQWLNyV¶ which referred to both something warranted and to holders of power; Ibid., p. 19.

3

&I,ELGS3LUNHU(YD8OULNH5GLJHU0DUN³$XWKHQWLzitätsfiktionen in populäUHQ*HVFKLFKWVNXOWXUHQ$QQlKHUXQJHQ´LQ(YD8OULNH3LUNHU(ed.), Echte Geschichte. Authentizitätsfiktionen in populären Geschichtskulturen, Bielefeld: transcript 2010, pp. 11±30, here p. 15.

4

Cf. Rehling, Andrea / Paulmann, JRKDQQHV ³+LVWRULVFKH $XWKHQWL]LWlW MHQVHLWV YRQ µOriginal¶ und ¶Fälschung¶. Ästhetische Wahrnehmung ± gespeicherte Erfahrung ± gegenwärtige PerIRUPDQ]´LQ0DUWLQ6DEURZ$FKLP6DXSH(eds.), Historische Authentizität, Göttingen: Wallstein 2016, pp. 91±125, here pp. 109-110; A. Saupe, Authenticity.

5

S. Knaller: Genealogie, p. 25.

I NTRODUCTION | 11

However, authenticiW\RQO\WXUQHGLQWRD³FDWFKZRUG´6 in the second half of the 20th century, still carrying this semantic burden, making it impossible to define authenticity without acknowledging that at least two and not always compatible levels of meaning are embedded in the term. To add another layer of complexity, the term is also cited by different actors with different intentions at different times. %\QRZµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶LVHYHU-SUHVHQWDQGKDVWKHUHIRUHEHHQFDOOHGD³NH\WHUP RIPRGHUQLW\´7 RUD³P\WKRIPRGHUQLW\.´8 I, however, prefer a different denomination.

A UTHENTICITY

AS

A ILMENT

AND

C URE

$XWKHQWLFLW\LVD³WHUPRIFULVLV´9 In this, it is as much indicative of a contemporary longing for the real and unmediated as it points towards practices which aim to satiVI\WKLVORQJLQJ,QKLVWKHRU\RQ³DHVWKHWLFFDSLWDOLVP´*HUQRW%|KPHGLI ferentiDWHV EHWZHHQ ³%HGUIQLV´ DQG ³%HJHKUQLV´ ZKLFK PD\ EH WUDQVODWHG LQWR ³QHHG´DQG³GHVLUH´10 While the former²elemental needs like food or water² can indeed be satisfied, the latter is perpetually intensified in the attempt to satisfy it. In these terms, authenticity can be understood as a desire, pointing to the next, even more authentic experience, to the ever more real, i.e. the seemingly unfiltered contact with the world. It is an ailment turned cure turned ailment, always promising to be an endpoint of the search for the individual of late modernity which so HDJHUO\ZDQWVWRUHSUHVV³IHHOLQJVRIODFN´11²but is only able to do so for a short PRPHQW-HDQ%DXGULOODUG¶VHPSKDWLF pessimism outlines what is meant when I

6

.QDOOHU6XVDQQH0OOHU+DUUR³(LQOHLWXQJ´LQ6XVDQQH Knaller / Harro Müller (eds.), Authentizität. Diskussion eines ästhetischen Begriffs, München: Wilhelm Fink 2006, pp. 7±16, here p. 7.

7

7UDQVODWLRQE\WKHDXWKRURULJÄ6FKOVVHOEHJULIIGHU0RGHUQH³$5HKOLQJ-3DXO mann: Historische Authentizität, p. 91.

8

7UDQVODWLRQE\WKHDXWKRURULJÄ0\WKRVGHU0RGHUQH³6DEURZ0DUWLQ³'LH$XUD GHV $XWKHQWLVFKHQ LQ KLVWRULVFKHU 3HUVSHNWLYH´ LQ 0DUWLQ 6DEURZ  $FKLP 6DXSH (eds.), Historische Authentizität. Göttingen: Wallstein 2016, pp. 29±43, here p. 30.

9

7UDQVODWLRQE\WKHDXWKRURULJÄ.ULVHQEHJULII³6.QDOOHU+0üller: Einleitung, p. 11.

10 Böhme, Gernot: Ästhetischer Kapitalismus (3rd ed.), Berlin: Suhrkamp 2018, p. 101. 11 Vidon, Elizabeth S. / Rickly-LOOLDQ0.QXGVHQ'DQLHO&³:LOderness state of mind: ([SDQGLQJDXWKHQWLFLW\´LQAnnals of Tourism Research 73 (2018), pp. 62±70, here p. 63.

12 | F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

UHODWHDXWKHQWLFLW\WRWKHVH³IHHOLQJVRIODFN´%DXGULOODUGFODLPVWKDWZHKDYHHQ WHUHGD³K\SHUUHDOQHEXOD´12 ZKLFKLVFKDUDFWHUL]HGE\DQÄLPSORVLRQRIWKHPH dium and of the real.´13 Following this train of thought I want to assume that the individual of late modernity is surrounded by medial representations of unclear RULJLQDQGWUXWKYDOXH,QWKLVWKHVHUHSUHVHQWDWLRQVDUHK\SHUUHDOPHDQLQJÄDUHDO without origin or reality.³14 I am by no means claiming here that there is no such thing as truth anymore or that everyday life has left the realms of reality. This chapter is not aimed at engaging with the philosophical discourse that such a claim would demand. Rather, I am claiming that our day and age is a time of an acutely felt uncertainty. It is my opinion that this uncertainty can be in part traced back to the role of medial representations as being one of the most important ways for the individual to conQHFWWRWKHZRUOG7KLVµZLQGRZWRWKHZRUOG¶LVtoday tainted by fake news and social bots, to just name two of the most prominent examples. What we see, what we hear and even who we talk to often needs to be taken with a grain of salt. As Ian Bogost astutely notes: ³7KHFURZGLVQ¶WPDGHXSRISHRSOHDQ\PRUHEut of pictures that might be people, of corporate brands impersonating them, of young people dancing politically in TikToks, of tweets about youths in TikToks, of disputes absent referents, of bots shouting into the YRLG´15

I would argue, then, that it is one of the most natural courses of action to dream of a time of certainty, a time of the real and unmediated and therefore, finally, the authentic. This time might be gone, but it might not be lost. As Zygmunt Bauman has DUJXHG³5HWURWRSLD´DSSHDUVWR be in reach.16 And in her famous discussion of nostalgia, Svetlana Boym uneDUWKV D QRWLRQ RI WKH SDVW DV EHLQJ D ³SHUIHFW

12 Baudrillard, Jean: Simulacra and Simulation, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press 1994, p. 82. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid., p. 1. 15 Bogost, IaQ³,W'RHVQ¶W0DWWHU,I$Q\RQH([LVWVRU1RW:KDWDZHEVLWHWKDWJHQHUDWHV LQILQLWHIDNHKXPDQVWHOOVXVDERXWPRGHUQOLIH´LQThe Atlantic, February 24, 2020; https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/how-generate-infinite-fakehumans/606943/ 16 Bauman, Zygmunt: Retrotopia, Cambridge, Malden: Polity Press 2017.

I NTRODUCTION | 13

VQDSVKRW´17 just waiting to be reconstructed. Thinking of the past as an idealized space-time and some trying to bring back what has never even existed entails a plethora of messy implications which I will not discuss here in detail. Following Eva Illouz, I want to ePSOR\D³SRVW-QRUPDWLYHFULWLTXH´18 as I see this turning to the past in search of the authentic as a practice which warrants research and cannot be dismissed as being a delusion of people idealizing the past. This leads me to the conclusion that authenticity is indicative for a crisis of certainty and that the search for authenticity can consequently be seen as a search for a cure²the real, the unmediated²for a contemporary ailment²the hyperreal, the mediated, in short: the unauthentic. As a practice, authenticity is linked to the time-space in which the authentic is hoped to be found: The Past²with a capital P as suggested by 6KDURQ0DFGRQDOGWRVLJQLI\WKHWUDQVIRUPDWLRQRI³VRPHWKLQJWKDWLVVLPSO\ there, or has merely happened, into an arena from which selections can be made DQGYDOXHVGHULYHG´19 I am intentionally not talking about history but about the Past. I want to stress that history, as a scientific but also pop-cultural or societal narration about past time-spaces, has a complicated relationship to authenticity. People turn to the Past to find what they think they are lacking in their everyday lives. But does that mean they also turn to history? Or are they creating their own histories in their search for authenticity? Of what kind are these histories?

H ISTORICAL G AME S TUDIES

AND

A UTHENTICITY

It is the aim of this collection of essays to untangle this complicated relationship between history and authenticity. The object of study for all the chapters in this collection is the digital game, an object which I would claim is a product of a ³JOREDO DXWKHQWLFLW\ LQGXVWU\´20 which aims to deliver authentic experiences to

17 Boym, Svetlana: The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books 2001, p. 49. 18 ,OORX](YD³7RZDUGDSRVW-normative critique of emotional authenticity: conclusion´, in: Eva Illouz (ed.), Emotions as Commodities. Capitalism, Consumption and Authenticity, New York, London: Bloomsbury 2018, pp. 197±213. 19 Macdonald, Sharon: Memorylands. Heritage and Identity in Europe Today, London: Routledge 2013, p. 18. 20 Translation by the authRURULJÄJOREDOEHWULHEHQH$XWKHQWL]LWlWVLQGXVWULH´; S. Knaller / H. Müller: Einleitung, p. 8.

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thHLUFRQVXPHUV,QWKLVGLJLWDOJDPHVDUHDOVRSDUWRI³WKHHPHUJLQJH[SHULHQFH HFRQRP\´LGHQWLILHGE\-RVHSK3LQHDQG-DPHV*LOPRre as early as 1998.21 There are numerous ways to offer authentic experiences but referring to the Past appears to be one of the most successful if the rise of heritage experiences like living history museums22, heritage tourism23 or historical reenactment24 is any indication. As Adam Chapman has argued, digital games can also be understood as affording heritage experiences.25 What all of these practices offer or claim to be offering are authentic experiences of the Past. Again, the question remains: As the Past is the time-space forever lost to human intervention, what are people really interacting with when they make use of the offers of the authenticity industry? If it is history, is this history revealed as being history²a mere approximation of what is past²or is the illusion of a direct access to the Past maintained? Especially digital games appear to allow for unhindered travel into this enchanted time-space where authenticity should be waiting²they feel like timetravel machines. It does not come as a surprise, then, that authenticity is a term so common in popular as well as scientific discussions surrounding historical digital games. It is a marketing buzzword deployed by developers and publishers who try to position their games as being close to the reality of the Past. It is demanded by consumers who expect the historical games they play to be authentic and by this² I would argue²to offer authentic experiences. And, finally, it is a controversial subject for scholars who are tasked with untangling the semantic contents of the WHUP,QWHUHVWLQJO\HQRXJKUHVHDUFKHULQWKHILHOGRI³KLVWRULFDOJDPHVWXGLHV´ 26

21 3LQH%-RVHSK*LOPRUH-DPHV+³:HOFRPHWRWKH([SHULHQFH(FRQRP\´LQHarvard Business Review 76:4 (1998), pp. 97±105, here p. 97. 22 Kerz, ChristiQD³$WPRVSKHUHVDQG$XWKHQWLFLW\7KH([DPSOHRI&RORQLDO:LOOLDPV EXUJ9LUJLQLD86$ ´LQ5pP\1LFRODV7L[LHU1LFRODV(eds.), Ambiances, tomorrow. Proceedings of 3rd International Congress on Ambiances, September 2016, pp. 915±920; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01409728 23 &KKDEUD'HHSDN+HDO\5REHUW6LOOV(ULQ³6WDJHG$XWKHQWLFLW\DQG+HULWDJH7RXU LVP´LQAnnals of Tourism Research 30:3 (2003), pp. 702±719. 24 Daugbjerg, Mads³µAs Real as it Gets¶: Vicarious Experience and the Power of Things LQ+LVWRULFDO5HHQDFWPHQW´LQ:LOOQHU6DUDK.RFK*HRUJ6DPLGD6WHIDQLH(eds.), Doing History. Performative Praktiken in der Geschichtskultur, Münster: Waxman 2016, pp. 151±171. 25 Cf. Chapman, Adam: Digital games as history. How videogames represent the past and offer access to historical practice, New York: Routledge 2016, pp. 173-230. 26 &KDSPDQ $GDP  )RND $QQD  :HVWLQ -RQDWKDQ ³,QWURGXFWLRQ ZKDW LV KLVWRULFDO game studiHV"´LQRethinking History 21:3 (2017), pp. 358±371.

I NTRODUCTION | 15

only recently started tRFRQVLGHUµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶LQLWVIXOOEUHDGWKDVDWHUPZLWKDW least two, possibly conflicting semantic levels (object and subject authenticity)² granted, historical game studies is still an emerging field in and of itself. As James 6ZHHWLQJSXWVLW³>7@Ke videogames medium increasingly considers authenticity and accuracy to be separate designations rather than twRVLGHVRIWKHVDPHFRLQ´27 although the generalization of video games as a whole should be regarded carefully. Misconceptions about accuracy and authenticity are still seen far and wide in the industry and in discussions by players. This is only changing selectively and primarily in academic contexts. A clear distinction between authenticity and accuracy has only been formulated in recent years and what this means for how we, as researchers, should assess historical digital games and what they offer to players is still not clear. For me, it becomes more and more evident that we are dealing with a clash of object and subject authenticity here. Heavily discussed concepts like realism, historicity and accuracy lie more on the side of object authenticity. They point towards verification²of dates, of historical agents, of semi-automatic rifles²but also make abundantly clear that the digital game and its virtual worlds cannot be verified in the same way a historical source could be. Digital game worlds are not real,28 and they never will be, but that does not mean that they cannot be authentic, or rather afford authentic experiences. This is the paradoxical quality of authenticity in media settings, signifying immediacy and a direct

27 6ZHHWLQJ-DPHV³$XWKHQWLFLW\'HSLFWLQJWKH3DVWLQ+LVWRULFDO9LGHRJDPHV´,Q0L chael Punt / Hannah Drayson (eds.), Transtechnology Research Reader 2018, pp. 6238, here p. 65; http://www.trans-techresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/TTRea der2018_WebVersion.pdf 28 In the words of Gernot Böhme, digital games do not operate in the realms of reality but RIÄDFWXDOLW\³LPSO\LQJDSRWHQWÃQRZ-QHVVµ9LUWXDOZRUOGVDUHSHUFHLYHGDVIDFWDQG in that they are actual. However, these virtual worlds do not correspond to a material reality. Following this phenomenological train of thought, games are ± as I mentioned ± not real but in their actuality they have real effects, making them a part of our reality. Therefore, as I am claiming that games are not real, I am by no means making a normative judgement diminishing the role of digital games in our reality. On the contrary, I think that a clear division between the actuality of games and our reality is not viable. Rather, I would argue that it is fruitful to examine the relationship between actuality DQGUHDOLW\%|KPH*HUQRWÄ:LUNOLFKNHLWHQhEHUGLH+\EGULGLVLHUXQJYRQ5lXPHQ XQG GLH (UIDKUXQJ YRQ ,PPHUVLRQ³ ,Q ,QVWLWXW IU ,PPHUVLYH 0HGLHQ (ed.), Atmosphären: Gestimmte Räume und sinnliche Wahrnehmung, Marburg: Schüren 2013, pp. 17-22, here p. 19.

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contact²for example to the Past²while being evidently mediated.29 The emphasis on accuracy by developers, publishers as well as players (and sometimes scholars) can be seen as an overcompensation for what the medium lacks in terms of its reality status. But rather than following these parties down the rabbit hole of acFXUDWHGHSLFWLRQDQGHQJDJLQJLQWKHHQVXLQJHQGOHVVGLVFXVVLRQDERXWWKHµUHDO QHVV¶RIDZHDSRQ¶VVRXQGRURIDNQLJKW¶VKHOPHW,VHHWKHIXWXUHRIDXWKHQWLFLW\ research in historical game studies in the realm of subject or rather subjective authenticity. Recent publications30 point in this direction. To my knowledge, the first fullblown authenticity theory on digital games has been brought forth by Andrew J. 6DOYDWLDQG-RQDWKDQ0%XOOLQJHUZLWKWKHLULGHDRI³VHOHFWLYHDXWKHQWLFLW\´DQG D³%UDQG::´31 +RZHYHUDV0LFKDá0Rchoki has recently pointed out,32 with WKHLULGHQWLILHGHOHPHQWV³WHFKQRORJ\IHWLVKLVPFLQHPDWLFFRQYHQWLRQVDQGGRF XPHQWDU\DXWKRULW\´33 they still remain somewhat grounded in the realm of object authenticity and its kindred concepts, namely accuracy and realism. GroundbreakLQJEXWRQO\EDUHO\DGRSWHGE\UHVHDUFKHUVLV7RELDV:LQQHUOLQJ¶VZRUNRQ³DI IHFWLYHKLVWRULFLW\´ZKLFKKHGHILQHV³DVWKHDWWHPSWWRFUHDWHUHSUHVHQWDWLRQVWKDW convey the feeling of (representations of) the past.³34 He was the first to point towards authenticity as a feeling in the context of digital games and urges us to

29 Cf. S. Knaller / H. Müller: Einleitung, p. 10. 30 See for example: Salvati$QGUHZ-%XOOLQJHU-RQDWKDQ0³6HOHFWLYH$XWKHQWLFLW\ DQGWKH3OD\DEOH3DVW´LQ0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP.DSHOO$QGUHZ%5(OOLRWt (eds.), Playing with the past. Digital games and the simulation of history, New York, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 153±168; WLQQHUOLQJ7RELDV³7KH(WHUQDO5HFXUUHQFHRI$OO%LWV How Historicizing Video Game Series Transform Factual History into Affective HistoULFLW\´LQEludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8:1 (2014), pp. 151±170; &RSSOHVWRQH7DUD-DQH³%XWWKDW¶Vnot accurate: the differing perceptions of accuracy in cultural-KHULWDJHYLGHRJDPHVEHWZHHQFUHDWRUVFRQVXPHUVDQGFULWLFV´LQRethinking History 21:3 (2017), pp. 415±438; J. Sweeting: Authenticity 0RFKRNL 0LFKDá ³+LVWRULFDO6LPXODWLRQLQ9LGHR*DPHs and Real-World Heritage Sites: Questions of $XWKHQWLFLW\DQG,PPHUVLRQ´8QSXEOLVKHG&RQIHUHQFH3DSHU International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference 2019; Alvestad, Karl / Houghton, Robert (eds.), The Middle Ages in Modern Culture. History and Authenticity in Contemporary Medievalism, London: Bloomsbury 2021. 31 A. J. Salvati / J. M. Bullinger: Selective Authenticity, p. 154. 32 Cf. M. Mochoki: Historical Simulation, p. 10. 33 A. J. Salvati / J. M. Bullinger: Selective Authenticity, p. 154. 34 T. Winnerling: The Eternal Recurrence of All Bits, p. 152.

I NTRODUCTION | 17

think about the processes that allow for these feelings to arise. Also, he makes the important distinction between history and affective historicity by claiming that ³>K@LVWRU\ZRUNVWRZDUGVWKHUDWLRQDOXWLOL]LQJUHDVRQVZKLOHDIIHFWLYHKLVWRULFLW\ WHQGVWRZDUGVWKHHPRWLRQDOXWLOL]LQJIHHOLQJV´35 As I said, the relationship between authenticity and history is complicated. I would argue that future research can heavily benefit from rethinking what it is that these historical digital games offer and if and to what degree they are even historical. Authenticity and especially authentic experiences might be a different beast, more prone to the Past rather than history²as for example Andrew Elliott and Matthew Wilhelm Kapell have imSOLHGLQWKHLUSLRQHHULQJFROOHFWLRQ³3OD\LQJZLWKWKH3DVW.´36 I for one see great value in turning to fields like tourism studies that have developed highly productive theories on authenticity in terms of a subjective, felt authenticity37 and to phenomenology which allows for an understanding of authenticity as the result of convincing atmospheres²not of history but of the Past.38 In this, we might even be dealing with three semantic levels of the term authenticity: authenticity of verification (object authenticity), authenticity of the self (subject authenticity) and felt authenticity (subjective authenticity).

A BOUT

THIS

B OOK

As I have presented, authenticity is a highly complex term, the potential of which we are merely beginning to grasp in historical game studies. Understanding it as a process, as an endless struggle between object authenticity, subject authenticity and even subjective authenticity, as an arena in which questions of power, staging, relationality and processuality are being debated, in which arguments and intentions of different social groups need to be considered, makes it a valuable ally

35 Ibid. 36 Elliott, Andrew B. R. / Kapell0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP³,QWURGXFWLRQ7R%XLOGD3DVW7KDW :LOOµ6WDQGWKH7HVWRI7LPH¶ ± Discovering Historical Facts, Assembling Historical 1DUUDWLYHV´LQ0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP.DSHOO$QGUHZ%5(OOLRWW (eds.), Playing with the past. Digital games and the simulation of history, New York, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 1±29, here p.3. 37 See for example E. S. Vidon / J. M. Rickly / D. C. Knudsen: Wilderness state of mind. 38 =LPPHUPDQQ)HOL[³+LVWRULFDO'LJLWDO*DPHVDV([SHULHQFHV± How Atmospheres of the Past SaWLVI\1HHGVRI$XWKHQWLFLW\´LQ%RQQHU0DUFHG Game | World | Architectonics ± Transdisciplinary Approaches on Structures and Mechanics, Levels and Spaces, Aesthetics and Perception, forthcoming.

18 | F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

when trying to find out what makes historical digital games so successful and fascinating for so many players. It would be wise to look at how other fields are dealing with this volatile composition and to thereby realize that authenticity is a phenomenon much broader than what is often called a historical authenticity. Consequently, the authors in this collection approach authenticity from numerous different angles and thereby contribute to the vibrant field sketched above. 7KHILUVWVHFWLRQRIWKLVYROXPH³History as told by the Game´LVFRQFHUQHG with how history and the past are appropriated in and through digital games. The essays grouped in this section make far-reaching arguments about the relationship between games and history/the past. Angela Schwarz offers a broad system to categorize historical digital games in terms of their integration of gameplay and hisWRULFDO LQIRUPDWLRQ 7KH VSHFWUXP UDQJHV IURP ³4XDUU\´ WR ³%UDQG´ ZLWK WKH ³3OD\JURXQG´LQEHWZHHQ$GGLWLRQDOO\VKHSURSRVHVFDWHJRULHVLQZKLFKKLV torical digital gameVPLJKWEHVRUWHGUDQJLQJIURP³WKe first games with historical VHWWLQJV´WR³WKHUHQDLVVDQFHRIZHOO-NQRZQJDPHEUDQGVZLWKKLVWRULFDOVHWWLQJ´ and thereby contributes a short chronology of historical digital games to this volume. Eugen Pfister questions the ongoing demand for historical content. He argues that history in digital games is a place where identities are reaffirmed, ideologies discussed, and myths are naturalized. He aims to make these processes visible and therefore subject them to critical scrutiny. Nico Nolden argues for an understanding of games in terms of historical possibility spaces, especially when considering multiplayer online role-playing games. Possibility spaces like THE SECRET WORLD (2012) are presented as a technical form of collective historical memory which is performatively created in activities inside the game and surrounding the game. These activities are connected to notions of history with what Nolden calls authenticity anchors. Rüdiger Brandis GHSOR\VWKHFRQFHSWRI³SUR FHGXUDOUKHWRULF´LQWURGXFHGE\,DQ Bogost and thereby identifies historism as the driving force behind many historical digital games. Consequently, he argues to assess digital games less in terms of the authenticity of their depictions but of the authenticity of the procedures they deploy and invite players to engage with. 7KHVHFRQGVHFWLRQRIWKLVYROXPH³Authenticity in and of History´HQJDJHV with the numerous manifestations of authenticity in the context of (not only) historical games. It presents theoretical concepts and category systems as well as engaging case studies in an attempt to trace the janus-faced term. Angela Schwarz proposes a systematic approach to techniques of authentication deployed in hisWRULFDOGLJLWDOJDPHV7KHVHWHFKQLTXHVFRPSULVH³DXWKHQWLFDWLRQWKURXJKLPDJHs DQGRUVRXQGV´³WKURXJKIDFWVDQGGDWD´³WKURXJKSOD\HUV¶FRQWHPSRUDULHV´DQG ³WKURXJKILFWLWLRXVFKDUDFWHUV´Andrew B. R. Elliot and Mike Horswell deal with the depiction of the crusades in digital games based on the notion that

I NTRODUCTION | 19

understanding authenticity in this context means building on memory studies and LWVPHWKRGV7KH\LGHQWLI\³FUXVDGLQJLFRQV´ZKLFKFDQEHWUDFHGWKURXJKGLIIHUHQW popular formats and frequently re-appear in digital games. $QGUD,YăQHVFX turns to METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN (2015) to offer a ludomusicologist take on authenticity in digital games. She connects auteur and nostalgia theory to authenticity and explains how the game and its creator Hideo Kojima create different kinds of authenticity, for example an authentic feeling of the 1980s created by means of audio mixtapes. Finally, Lara Keilbart contributes to a history of queer representation by presenting examples of queerness in games from the 1980s till today. She aims to define queer authenticity and thus to encourage new perspectives on existing game material. 7KHWKLUGVHFWLRQRIWKLVYROXPH³The Politics of Authenticity´LOOXVWUDWHVWKH oftentimes heated discussion surrounding the concept, and its implications for broader societal processes and debates. Aurelia Brandenburg engages with the highly successful THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT (2015) and thereby enters the realm of medievalism and neomedievalism where history and fantasy collide. She identifies overlapping arguments in debates of advocates and adversaries of historical authenticity surrounding this game and concludes that both parties adhere WRDGLVWLQFWQRWLRQRIWKH0LGGOH$JHVDVEHLQJWKHµGDUNDJHV¶Tobias Winnerling analyses debates surrounding one of the most prominent strategy games from Austria and Germany: the ANNO series (since 1998). He focuses on how colonialism has been depicted in the series and identifies a systematic blanking of the colonialist implications RIWKHJDPHV¶VHWWLQJVDQGmechanics. Angus Mol outlines processes of playful interaction with authenticity. He demonstrates that the young SDUWLFLSDQWVRIWKHµ5R0HLQFUDIW¶SURMHFWFRXQWHUSOD\HGWKHSDVWDQGWKHUHE\LQWHU acted with expert authorities organizing and supervising the project. By doing this, Mol unearths the oftentimes implicit relationship of authenticity with questions of power and authority. Jörg Friedrich gives insight in the development of the critically acclaimed THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (2020), which thematizes the resistance in Germany under Nazi rule. He claims that to authentically and responsibly engage with problematic pasts, developers have to rethink what is deemed authentic and find their own access to the respective Past by not reproducing the aesthetic of the perpetrators but of those who stood against them.

20 | F ELIX Z IMMERMANN

B IBLIOGRAPHY Alvestad, Karl / Houghton, Robert (eds.), The Middle Ages in Modern Culture. History and Authenticity in Contemporary Medievalism, London: Bloomsbury 2021. Baudrillard, Jean: Simulacra and Simulation, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press 1994. Bauman, Zygmunt: Retrotopia, Cambridge, Malden: Polity Press 2017. %RJRVW,DQ³,W'RHVQ¶W0DWWHU,I$Q\RQH([LVWVRU1RW:KDWDZHEVLte that generates infinite fake humans tells uVDERXWPRGHUQOLIH´LQThe Atlantic, February 24, 2020; https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/ how-generate-infinite-fake-humans/606943/ Boym, Svetlana: The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books 2001. %|KPH*HUQRWÄ:LUNOLFKNHLWHQ. Über die Hybdridisierung von Räumen und die (UIDKUXQJ YRQ ,PPHUVLRQ³ LQ ,QVWLWXW IU ,PPHUVLYH 0HGLHQ HG , Atmosphären: Gestimmte Räume und sinnliche Wahrnehmung, Marburg: Schüren 2013, pp. 17-22 Böhme, Gernot: Ästhetischer Kapitalismus (3rd ed.), Berlin: Suhrkamp 2018 Chapman, Adam: Digital games as history. How videogames represent the past and offer access to historical practice, New York: Routledge 2016. Chapman, Adam / Foka, Anna / Westin, JonDWKDQ³,QWURGXFWLRQZKDWLVKLVWRULFDO game studies?´LQRethinking History 21:3 (2017), pp. 358±371. &KKDEUD'HHSDN+HDO\5REHUW6LOOV(ULQ³6WDJHG$XWKHQWLFLW\DQG+HULWDJH 7RXULVP´LQ: Annals of Tourism Research 30:3 (2003), pp. 702±719. CRSSOHVWRQH7DUD-DQH³%XWWKDW¶VQRWDFFXUDWHWKHGiffering perceptions of accuracy in cultural-heritage videogames between creators, consumers and critLFV´LQRethinking History 21:3 (2017), pp. 415±438. 'DXJEMHUJ0DGV³¶As Real as it Gets¶: Vicarious Experience and the Power of Things in Historical 5HHQDFWPHQW´in: Willner, Sarah / Koch, Georg / Samida, Stefanie (eds.), Doing History. Performative Praktiken in der Geschichtskultur, Münster: Waxman 2016, pp. 151±171. Elliott, Andrew B. R. / .DSHOO0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP³,QWURGXFWLRQ7R%XLOGD3DVW That :LOOµ6WDQGWKH7HVWRI7LPH¶± Discovering Historical Facts, Assembling +LVWRULFDO 1DUUDWLYHV´ in: Matthew Wilhelm Kapell / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the past. Digital games and the simulation of history, New York, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 1±29. ,OORX](YD³7RZDUGDSRVW-normative critique of emotional authenticity: concluVLRQ³in: Eva Illouz (ed.), Emotions as Commodities. Capitalism, Consumption and Authenticity, New York, London: Bloomsbury 2018, pp. 197±213.

I NTRODUCTION | 21

.QDOOHU 6XVDQQH ³*HQHDORJLH GHV lVWKHWLVFKHQ $XWKHQWL]LWlWVEHJULIIV´ in: Susanne Knaller / Harro Müller (eds.), Authentizität. Diskussion eines ästhetischen Begriffs, München: Wilhelm Fink 2006, pp. 17±35. .QDOOHU6XVDQQH0OOHU+DUUR³(LQOHLWXQJ´in: Susanne Knaller / Harro Müller (eds.), Authentizität. Diskussion eines ästhetischen Begriffs, München: Wilhelm Fink 2006, pp. 7±16 .HU]&KULVWLQD³$WPRVSKHUHVDQG$XWKHQWLFLW\7KH([DPSOHRI&RORQLDl WilOLDPVEXUJ9LUJLQLD86$ ´LQ5pP\1LFRODV7L[LHU1LFRODV(eds.), Ambiances, tomorrow. Proceedings of 3rd International Congress on Ambiances, September 2016, pp. 915±920; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01409728 Macdonald, Sharon: Memorylands. Heritage and Identity in Europe Today, London: Routledge 2013. MocKRNL0LFKDá³+LVWRULFDO6LPXODWLRQLQ9LGHR*DPHVDQG5HDO-World HeritDJH6LWHV4XHVWLRQVRI$XWKHQWLFLW\DQG,PPHUVLRQ´ Unpublished Conference Paper, International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference 2019. Pine, B. Joseph / Gilmore, James H.³:HOFRPHWRWKH([SHULHQFH(FRQRP\´LQ: Harvard Business Review 76:4 (1998), pp. 97±105. 3LUNHU (YD 8OULNH  5GLJHU 0DUN ³$XWKHQWL]LWlWVILNWLRQHQLQ SRSXOlUHQ *HV chichtskulturen: $QQlKHUXQJHQ´ in: Eva Ulrike Pirker (ed.), Echte Geschichte. Authentizitätsfiktionen in populären Geschichtskulturen, Bielefeld: transcript 2010, pp. 11±30. 5HKOLQJ $QGUHD  3DXOPDQQ -RKDQQHV ³+LVWRULVFKH $XWKHQWL]LWlW MHQVHLWV YRQ µOriginal¶ und µFälschung¶. Ästhetische Wahrnehmung ± gespeicherte Erfahrung ± gegenwärtiJH 3HUIRUPDQ]´ in: Martin Sabrow / Achim Saupe (eds.), Historische Authentizität, Göttingen: Wallstein 2016, pp. 91±125. 6DEURZ 0DUWLQ ³'LH $XUD GHV $XWKHQWLVFKHQ LQ KLVWRULVFKHU 3HUVSHNWLYH´ in: Martin Sabrow / Achim Saupe (eds.), Historische Authentizität. Göttingen: Wallstein 2016, pp. 29±43. 6DOYDWL$QGUHZ-%XOOLQJHU-RQDWKDQ0³6HOHFWLYH$XWKHQWLFLW\DQGWKH3OD\ DEOH3DVW´, in: Matthew Wilhelm Kapell / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the past. Digital games and the simulation of history, New York, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 153±168. 6DXSH $FKLP ³$XWKHQWLFLW\´ LQ Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte 2016; http://docupedia.de/zg/Saupe_authentizitaet_v3_en_2016. 6ZHHWLQJ-DPHV³$XWKHQWLFLW\'HSLFWLQJWKH3DVWLQ+LVWRULFDO9LGHRJDPHV´in: Michael Punt / Hannah Drayson (eds.), Transtechnology Research Reader 2018, pp. 62-38; http://www.trans-techresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/ 06/TTReader2018_WebVersion.pdf

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9LGRQ(OL]DEHWK65LFNO\-LOOLDQ0.QXGVHQ'DQLHO&³:LOGHUQHVVVWDWH of PLQG([SDQGLQJDXWKHQWLFLW\´LQAnnals of Tourism Research 73 (2018), pp. 62±70. :LQQHUOLQJ 7RELDV ³7KH (WHUQDO 5HFXUUHQFH RI $OO %LWV +RZ +LVWRULFL]LQJ ViGHR*DPH6HULHV7UDQVIRUP)DFWXDO+LVWRU\LQWR$IIHFWLYH+LVWRULFLW\´LQ Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8:1 (2014), pp. 151±170. =LPPHUPDQQ )HOL[ ³+LVWRULFDO 'LJLWDO *DPHV DV ([SHULHQFHV ± How Atmospheres of the Past Satisfy Needs of AuthHQWLFLW\´ in: Bonner, Marc (ed.), Game | World | Architectonics ± Transdisciplinary Approaches on Structures and Mechanics, Levels and Spaces, Aesthetics and Perception, forthcoming.

L UDOGRAPHY ANNO [series] (Sunflowers/Ubisoft 1998-2019, O: Max Design/Related Designs/Blue Byte). METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN (Konami 2015, O: Kojima Productions). THE SECRET WORLD (FunCom 2012, O: FunCom). THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT (Warner Bros. Interactive 2015, O: CD Projekt RED). THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (HandyGames 2020, O: Paintbucket Games).

History as told by the Game

Quarry ± Playground ± Brand Popular History in Video Games A NGELA S CHWARZ

A BSTRACT The article provides an overview of the use of history in video games. It takes the three terms given in the title as characteristic patterns of the ways in which history is employed to design entertaining, challenging, varied and in some cases instructive games. Quarry and brand are understood as two poles of a spectrum, with the open space between them as the third pattern called playground. The latter in particular strongly appeals to game designers and publishers alike, as it allows creativity great freedom in turning past events into an attractive game experience. As a reflection of highly diverse historical ideas, these three patterns represent an exciting field of investigation for those studying the social and cultural dimensions of video games as well as those interested in popular history, its forms and transformations in an interactive medium.

I NTRODUCING H ISTORY

IN

V IDEO

GAMES

Almost from the earliest beginnings, video games have toyed with history. They have done so for many reasons: For one, history is full of stories that can easily be transferred into game plots. It is full of opportunities for game designers to experiment with uses and interpretations of the past and for players to enter into and interact with it as an attractive playground. And it has the asset of a feature that can be turned into something recognizable, the precondition for creating games with historical settings and marketing them, in other words, it holds the key to branding. It began with fairly simple game mechanics and similarly rudimentary

26 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

narrative and visual opportunities that were to acquire more variety, more color by adding historic elements²if not to say clichés. It did not take long and game designers and gamers alike began to share a taste for this particular kind of colorful addition, since history offered much more than a linear narrative or quarry for facts, figures and fascinating events, something to be staged in all shapes and sizes, discussed, appropriated, discarded, reinterpreted, staged anew, and all this for or by nearly every segment of the general public. Today, the depiction of the past in video games has become remarkably diverse, not only in the range of historical events, characters, epochs covered but in the ways that these are presented through DJDPH¶VQDUUDWLRQYLVXDODXGLWRU\DQGPDWHULDOIHDWXUHVDVZHOODVLWVJDPHSOD\ From an academic point of view or, to be more precise, from the point of view of a historian sensitized to the manifestations of history in the media and society at large, the advances of the past or pasts into the digital medium are highly intriguing. In this, video games mirror a more general trend of an increasing interest in stories set in past environments, as can be deduced from the ever-growing number of TV series, documentaries, films, novels, comics, websites and other mass media. The history they present is popular history, much the same as the presentations users encounter in video games. When starting out from the observation that the history in digital games has obvious shortcomings, this is not to say that their versions of popular history only comprise an oversimplification or a pollution of the real thing, meaning academic history. Nonetheless, quite a large number of the games produced in the last thirty or forty years deserve to be censured, not for reducing or distorting the facts but for reproducing a conception of history up until today that is more akin to nineteenth-century historism than WRWRGD\¶VQRQ-linear approaches from multiple perspectives and multiple pasts, which is one of the key principles of academic history in democratic and pluralistic societies. Despite their present limitations in regard to their uses of the past, video games can achieve much more in that line than they have done yet²much more than film, comic or other bestselling media²for they have great potential in simulating history as a complex process. In doing so, they would follow the general trend in historical science: further away from mere facts towards an image of much more diverse, open (less linear) and controversial past realities.

U SING H ISTORY

AS Q UARRY , WHAT THE TERMS STAND FOR

P LAYGROUND , B RAND :

The keywords of the title²quarry, playground, brand²mark three of the most prominent ways in which the gaming industry has made use of history in video games since the first steps were taken in this direction. This chapter aims to define

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 27

these terms as a categorical system. To approach the subject properly, it is necessary to first explain in more detail what usage of history these three terms are to indicate. This leads to twelve additional categories I would like to suggest to group historical games into individual phases and emphasize characteristic ways of using history in digital games. µ4XDUU\¶DQGµ%UDQG¶ PDUNWKHSROHVRIDVSHFWUXPZKLOHKLVWRU\DVµ3OD\ JURXQG¶GHQRWHVVRPHIRUPEHWZHHQWKHVHWZRDNLQGRIRSHQVSDFHZLWKURRP for game designers and gamers alike for all kinds of experiments with the history represented in games. The three terms, just as their underlying approaches, will be studied separately for analytical clarity, notwithstanding the fact that in games and game design they appear in mixed rather than in pure form. Quarry means a strict separation of game mechanics and the use of historical material. This indicates the process in which history provides individual symbols, facts, historic figures, insulated chronologies to surround a gameplay with the flair of the past. The choice of set pieces is determined by their popularity. The better known a historical aspect is, the more likely it is to be used in a game²though WKHUHDUHDIHZH[FHSWLRQVWRWKLVUXOH+RZHYHUWKHLQGLYLGXDODVSHFW¶VKLVWRULFDO context and complexity are usually ignored. When talking about the usage of history as a brand, I am not referring to a marketing concept but to publishers and designers assuming their clientele to share a specific notion of history, one they try to reproduce as detailed as possible in their virtual worlds. In cases like these, history is understood as something clearly recognizable, something gamers expect. The specific notion of the past behind this is rather vague, quite similar to the image of a James Bond, Sherlock Holmes or even Star Trek or Star Wars setting. In its vagueness, it allows room for expectations and ideas with which a gamer may approach and actually embellish the medium. In contrast to using history as a quarry, then, the brand idea is steeped in an overall concept of what history is or should be when encountered in popular culture, especially in its media. The brand idea is about recognition too, but on a much more complex level than the quarry with its individual elements that are to be recognized as ones of past lives. When randomly taking elements that denote the historic, users may fail to connect to the past alluded to because their knowledge is too fragmentary. Those who do make the intended associations will hardly question whether the elements are truly historical or not, lacking detailed information or interest to do so. The more detailed a game following the brand pattern is in its image of history²more complex in terms of variety and detail, not more complex in terms of mirroring academic knowledge ±, the more likely it meets with corresponding expectations in one part of the gaming community, or even a more

28 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

general public for that matter. Other players may differ in their concepts and thereIRUHWHQGWRFULWLFL]HWKHEUDQGRIµKLVWRU\¶SUHVHQWHGLQWKHJDPH,QFDses like these, designers and publishers find themselves challenged to create their brand of history in such a way that it corresponds to the ideas of as many people as possible²this, of course, is what happens in branding of all media productions. To illustrate the point of different images of the past and the discussions they provoke: Think of female characters in some recent games with a historic setting that did allow them more freedom to move and act freely than women were actually allowed in the past referred to, or the discussion about presenting slavery as a mainstay of a colonial economy in ANNO 1800 (2019) or the absence of people of color in KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (2018). Examples such as these point to an important aspect of history as a brand: They often mirror social concepts or values that were prevalent at the time of their design, modern concepts that have been LQVFULEHGLQWKHµSDVW¶DJDPHLVWRUHSUHVHQW7KLVWREHVXUHLVQRWVLQJXODUWR games but rather a feature of all popular media productions of historical topics. Marketing games as particularly realistic or as historically authentic signals the approach to history as a brand. This is very often achieved by the integration RIµKLVWRULFGRFXPHQWVRUSLFWXUHV¶RULQIRUPDWLRQSURYLGed by academics in order WRDXWKHQWLFDWHDJDPH¶VQDUUDWLRQDQGYLVXDOV6XFKDUHFRXUVHWRKLVWRULFDOPDWH rials often underpins a claim to historical accuracy, which in turn becomes a prominent feature in the marketing campaigns of this kind of games. Naturally, you do not find such a claim in connection with those titles that simply use history as a quarry and an inexhaustible source of recognizable features. Rather, the latter games focus on their gameplay features or their graphical prowess in their marketing efforts and use history only as a loose frame of reference. So much about the terms quarry and brand. What about using history as a playground? To put it in a nutshell: The term is used to describe all the practices of creating historic settings that neither follow solely the quarry nor the brand concept. The playground is a kind of intermediate space that allows designers and producers to play with ideas, to test them and to negotiate ways of representing history in video games. Its uses of history go beyond the mere picking of individual elements and refrain from setting a clearly marked out tone or atmosphere that characterizes a specific title as historical. The majority of games with historical settings fit this description of a playful use of past events and characters. The degree to which they lean more towards either the brand or the quarry principle or reach the greatest distance from either pole varies greatly. An additional element in this tripartite model, introducing academic research as the characteristic usage of the past, is virtually non-existent as far as games produced for entertainment are concerned. If academic influences do have an effect on individual games, they

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 29

almost always do so in the form of didactic concepts, as is the case with educational games for school and extracurricular contexts, or as aspects of memory culture that induce individual design studios or publishers to position their games as a statement in the respective debate. The playground principle, then, allows for and presently shows a certain rapprochement towards academic historiography, though it clearly refrains from giving it precedence over other elements of a game like an interesting plot, a challenging and captivating gameplay or a colorful depiction of a gDPH¶s characters. Designers and publishers find in the playground a desirable space for ideas to move freely and assume various forms as concrete parts of a video game, very likely because the pure use of history as a brand can be too restrictive, whereas the pure quarry may be perceived as too arbitrary when it comes to activating ideas of history players may cherish. Probably the most well-known game fitting this description of the playground as the space between quarry and brand is the ASSASSIN¶S CREED series (since 2007). Actually, the term used here was inspired by the marketing slogan of the VHULHV ³+LVWRU\ LV RXUSOD\JURXQG.´1 Every title in the series starts with the reminder that the game itself is fiction, which is based on facts, events, and persons of the past. Whereas the individual titles go a long way to use history according to what is called the branding principle, they do not transfer historical processes oneto-RQHLQWRWKHJDPH¶VSORW,QVWHDGWKH\OHDYHHQRXJKURRPWRGHVLJQIHDWXUHV differently, to give them another twist or to allow the protagonists more freedom to act.2 You would never have met with a Native American at the First Continental Congress in 1774 or with a female athlete at the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece. This concept allows designers to toy with history. Game designers may point to this within the game itself, e.g. in facts contained in in-game databases or comments by characters in the plot. In addition, designers may count on the knowledge of a historical age that may be widespread in society. Discrepancies between this knowledge and the facts shown in the game may lead to questions.

1

8VHU µ8ELVRIW¶ ³$VVDVVLQµV &UHHG 8QLYHUVH >8.@´ in: YouTube, August 10, 2011; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVoVHSVaMAg, at 3:22 min.

2

The games make use of a trick to present historical contexts at least partially differently than one would expect from the history books. The game does not represent a past as it is known from research and text books, nor does it provide a journey in time ± though WKHPDUNHWLQJVRPHWLPHVFODLPVMXVWWKDW(YHQZLWKLQWKHJDPH¶VRZQUXOHVWKHSDVW depicted is not a reconstruction proper, but a computer animation which is fed by fragmentary memories, which holds the possibility to fill in the gaps with other information, e.g. fiction. In this sense, it mirrors the process undergone by game designers when devising the game.

30 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

Generating such questions is one of the ways in which video games may follow and pave the way to a less positivistic notion of history, since gamers may come to ask why, for instance, certain groups were barred from certain social activities and what that tells you about this particular past society. At the same time, it risks producing and/or confirming a distorted image of that particular past in cases where players lack the necessary knowledge to arrive at questions like these.

L OOKING B ACK ON THE U SES IN V IDEO GAMES

OF

H ISTORY

Now to the question as to how these three rather abstract categories fit in with the use of history in video games. In order to do justice to the remarkable variety of games with historical settings published in the last four or so decades, I would like to suggest a categorization distinguishing twelve different phases and types of games in relation to the use of history. Some of these categories will be the focus in a second step in order to spell out what the specific titles actually do with history and where they might go in the future. 1. The long way to Oregon: From the first games with historical settings to the end of the 80s. This group includes games like THE OREGON TRAIL (1971), TANKTICS (1978), CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (1981), BEYOND CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (1984), SID MEIER'S PIRATES! (1987), GOLD RUSH! (1988) as well as various turnbased strategy titles set in the Second World War like for example BATTLE FOR NORMANDY (1982). 2. The golden era of the historical economic simulation between 1984 and 1996. This covers games like KAISER (1984), HANSE (1986), DIE FUGGER (1988), DIE FUGGER II (1996), OLDTIMER (1994), 1869: HART AM WIND (1992), DER PATRIZIER (1992), DETROIT (1994) or SID MEIER¶S RAILROAD TYCOON (1990). 7KHµ$JHRI&LYLOL]DWLRQ¶7KHKH\GD\RIWKHKLVWRULFDOVWUDWHJ\JDPH (ca. 1991 to 2007). This category contains titles like SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION (the first four titles of the series, 1991-2005), AGE OF EMPIRES (the first three titles, 1997-2005), EMPIRE EARTH (the complete series, since 2001), EMPIRES: DAWN OF THE MODERN WORLD (2003), RISE OF NATIONS (2003), SUDDEN STRIKE (the first three titles, 2000-2007), BLITZKRIEG (the first two titles, 2003-2005), CODENAME PANZERS (the first two titles, 2004-2005), COMPANY OF HEROES (2006), COSSACKS (the first two titles, 2000-2005), AMERICAN CONQUEST (2002), AMERICA: NO PEACE BEYOND THE LINE! (2001), NO MAN¶S LAND (2003), HISTORY LINE 1914-1918 (1992). 4. World War II shooters and the creation of Triple A-shooter brands (ca. 1992 to 2008). This includes games like WOLFENSTEIN 3D (1992), RETURN TO

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 31

CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (2001), CALL OF DUTY (the first three and the fifth titles of the series, 2003-2008), MEDAL OF HONOR (all titles up to MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE, 1999-2007), BATTLEFIELD 1942 (2002), BATTLEFIELD VIETNAM (2004). µ5RPHZDVQRWEXLOWLQDGD\¶&LW\EXLOGLQJVLPXODWLRQVZLWKVHWWLQJV from antiquity to pre-modern times (ca. 1991 to 2009). The category covers games like GLORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (2006), IMPERIUM ROMANUM (2008), CIVCITY: ROME (2006), CAESAR (the complete series, since 1992), PHARAO (1999), ZEUS: MASTER OF OLYMPUS (2000), EMPEROR: RISE OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (2002), ANNO 1602 (1998), ANNO 1503 (2002), ANNO 1701 (2006), ANNO 1404 (2009). 6. Global strategy, empire management, mass battles and complexity monsters: the modern strategy heavyweights (since ca. 2000). This refers to games like EUROPA UNIVERSALIS (the complete series, since 2000), HEARTS OF IRON (the complete series, since 2002), CRUSADER KINGS (the complete series, since 2004), VICTORIA (both titles released so far, since 2003), TOTAL WAR (all titles except those referring to the Warhammer franchise, since 2000), SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION (the last two titles, since 2010). 7. Casual gaming with history: CRADLE OF ROME and its follow-ups (since ca. 2007). This category contains games and series like CRADLE OF ROME (since 2007), ROADS OF ROME (since 2011), 12 LABOURS OF HERCULES (since 2013), HEROES OF HELLAS (since 2007), MONUMENT BUILDER (since 2012), THE PALACE BUILDER (2010), BUILT-A-LOT: THE ELIZABETHAN ERA (2010), PIONEER LANDS (2011), HIDDEN MYSTERIES: THE CIVIL WAR (2008)²to name but a few examples out of a large selection of similarly structured games. 8. History is their playground: ASSASSIN¶S CREED franchise and its handling of history (since 2007). This refers to the $VVDVVLQ¶V &UHHG series with eleven main titles at present and the spin-offs like LIBERATION (2012), FREEDOM CRY (2013) or the CHRONICLES sub-series (since 2015) and several games for mobile devices.3

3

The DISCOVERY TOUR (since 2018) based on ASSASSIN¶S CREED constitutes a special case that is not so easy to classify. As a free add-on, the tours are part of the main games and replace the existing in-game database with historical information in previous versions. As such they are not a game in their own right but must be considered as part of ASSASSIN¶S CREED ORIGINS (2017) or ASSASSIN¶S CREED ODYSSEY (2018) ± which ZRXOGPDNHWKHPSDUWRIFDWHJRU\$WWKHVDPHWLPH8ELVRIW¶VWRXUVDUHDOVRVROGDV standalone products, and since the 2019 version they are explicitly sold without any official reference to ASSASSIN¶S CREED. With more products of the kind, this could

32 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

9. Open world = open history? Action-adventures and role-playing games between openness and historical determinism (2010s). This covers games like RED DEAD REDEMPTION (both titles, since 2010) or KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE²these are games with a similarly open world set in the past as offered in each of the ASSASSIN¶S CREED titles. 10. Telling stories between modern text adventures and interactive visual novels (since ca. 2014). This refers to games like VALIANT HEARTS: THE GREAT WAR (2014), 11-11: MEMORIES RETOLD (2018), ATTENTAT 1942 (2017), SVOBODA 1945 (announced for 2020), 80 DAYS (2014), or RENOWNED EXPLORERS: INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY (2015), which at least in parts fits in this category. 11. Steering people through critical moments in time: modern management games in times of war, suppression and resistance (since ca. 2014).4 This includes games like THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (2020), WARSAW (2019), THE BERLIN WALL (announced for 2020), UBOAT (2019) or BOMBER CREW (2017). 12. History is back in the game: the renaissance of well-known game brands with historical settings after excursions into other subject areas (since ca. 2016). This most recent category contains games like AGE OF EMPIRES IV (announced for 2020/21), COSSACKS 3 (2016), BLITZKRIEG 3 (2017), SUDDEN STRIKE 4 (2017), ANNO 1800, BATTLEFIELD 1 (2016), BATTLEFIELD V (2018) or CALL OF DUTY: WW II (2017). Admittedly, the categorization and the selection of games are incomplete and biased, but only to a certain extent. It provides an overview over a great variety of games with historical settings produced over the last four decades, and indicates overall tendencies in their development as a segment of video games in general. What has been left out is, for example, the great number of plane, submarine, tank and other vehicle simulations produced across the whole span of forty years of history in video games, like the SILENT HUNTER series (since 1996) or the IL-2 STURMOVIK series (since 2001). Games like these would give an impression of a

develop into a new category, consisting of video games which tone down gameplay to facilitate knowledge acquisition in an easy-going and entertaining manner. However, one could wonder whether these still rather rare titles, some of which may look like walkable virtual museums, are still games. 4

The first truly successful game of this kind was THIS WAR OF MINE (2014). It offers a plot taking place in a war of the present that remains quite vague ± rather than a concrete one of the past. There are, however, more recent titles fitting this category that cover concrete historical events and clearly specified wars.

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 33

consistent development of a game system from one title of the series to the next, which can very well do without changing the usage of history as well²keeping the love of technical detail, which became even more pronounced with the increasing sophistication of graphics. As this overview emphasizes the different approaches and developments in the use of history, they are only mentioned in passing. In addition, the succession of the individual categories has not been as clearcut over the last four decades as this list with its chronology might suggest. In fact, some genres of the earlier years may have proved more persistent than one might expect, some more recent ones may have had predecessors earlier on. By now, the medium is fully grown into its own, can be self-referential and nostalgic even in its ways to deal with history. Despite these limitations, the twelve groups can be seen as a workable categorization for several thousand video games with historical settings as they have been produced up until today.

MAKING AMPLE USE OF HISTORY How do some of these categories actually make use of history? This question will be addressed in more detail in respect to the first group marking the beginnings of using history in games (1), the third group with strategy games of the 1990s and early 2000s (2), the seventh group with its broad spectrum of casual games that are still growing ever more popular with a heterogeneous sub-community of players (3), and, less elaborately, the ninth group containing the action adventure and role playing games set in open worlds produced in the last couple of years (4). These four groups offer an important cross-section of the ways in which games are using history. (1) Since early video games were still very rudimentary in terms of graphic GHVLJQRQHPLJKWDVVXPHWKDWHDUO\WLWOHVLQWHQGHGWRSUHVHQWµKLVWRU\¶ as a collection of set pieces, mainly symbols and images users could easily decode as belonging to a certain past. This would correspond to the principle of using history as a quarry. CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN, one of the earliest games opting for a historical setting, seems to be a case in point. You only find a few elements, mainly in its graphic design and very sketchy plot, which hint at the World War II background: Swastikas identifying the enemy, a few words on the box containing the data carrier sketching RXWWKHJDPH¶VVHWWLQJÄ:RUOG:DU,,UDJHVDFURVV(urope. Castle Wolfenstein is occupied by the army of the Reich and converted into battlefront headquarters. You have been captured and brought to the Castle for interrogation by the dreaded SS. From a hiding place behind the stones of the dungeon a dying

34 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

cellmate produces a Mauser M-98 pistol fully loaded with ten bullets and gives it to you. Your new mission: Find the Nazi war plans and escape Castle Wolfenstein DOLYH³5 The mentioning of the Mauser M-98 is an early indication of the designHUVµORYHIRUGHtail, anticipating the detailed remodelling of historic weaponry in strategy games or shooters of a later phase. The highly popular CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN is a telling example how little history is needed, how well the usage of history as a quarry works in order to design a bestselling title. It does not come as a surprise that many games of this early phase copied this pattern. However, even as early as the 1980s, some games strove to offer a more detailed image of the past they chose for a setting. A notable case is THE OREGON TRAIL, which was designed in 1971 not by a game studio but by three teachers for educational purposes. Afterwards re-released for entertainment purposes on several home computer systems, some 65 million copies were sold. Quite predictably, the success of THE OREGON TRAIL encouraged the company to imitate the same pattern in additional titles, e.g. THE AMAZON TRAIL (1993) or THE YUKON TRAIL (1993). As was to be expected from an educationDOSURGXFWLRQWKHJDPH¶VIURQWLHU setting contained much more detail than mere name-dropping and a few symbols which would have sufficed for the quarry principle. Instead, the designers turned the historic background into the mainstay of the game. Thus, the game adheres to the pattern of history as a brand. As a game intended for educational purposes, however, THE OREGON TRAIL is one of the few games that moves the farthest away from the model of quarry, playground and brand and leans towards academic history, in this case considerably reduced for didactic purposes, since the it targeted eight to twelve-year-old children.6 History is no longer a brand, but a necessity for the game.7 The theme of a journey through the 19th century American wilderness also inspired other game designers. In 1988, Sierra launched GOLD RUSH!, an adventure game that offered a representation of the journey from New York to California at the time of the 1849 Gold Rush. In contrast to its title, the game is not about the efforts to become rich, but the ones to arrive safe and well on the opposite coast

5

CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (Main Street Publishing 1984, O: MUSE Software), back cover.

6

Cf. THE OREGON TRAIL 4th Edition (The Learning Company 1999, O: The Learning

7

A similar phenomenon can be observed in other learning games, for example in

Company), back cover. KREUZZÜGE: VERSCHWÖRUNG IM KÖNIGREICH DES ORIENTS (1998) ± released in Ger-

many by Cornelsen ±, which, too, is not advertised as a game but a multimedia learning adventure. The individually distributed DISCOVERY TOURs by Ubisoft also belong to this kind of product.

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 35

of the continent. To do this, players may choose one of three routes: overland through the American West, oversea around Cape Horn, and a combined sea and land voyage across the isthmus of Panama. In this game, too, the publishers stressed the point that everything was represented historically and geographically accurately and recommended the game for educational as well as entertainment purposes. To emphasize the applicability of the game to teaching history classes, Sierra added a 90-page brochure with background information about the gold rush and a large folding map with the three travel routes gamers were invited to choose from and follow. This is a proper example of history being sold as a brand. Sierra marketed the game with the promLVHWKDWLQSOD\LQJWKHJDPHXVHUVFRXOG³IDFH WKHVDPHREVWDFOHVDQGWUDYHOWKHVDPHURXWHVDVRXUHDUO\$PHULFDQIRUHIDWKHUV´ ZLWKWKHJXDUDQWHH³WRHQULFK>WKHLU@understanding of life on the American FronWLHU« .³8 In the 1980s, these elaborately produced adventures were rare occurrences when compared to the overwhelming majority of strategy titles. Even then, World War II was a favored setting, and many games presenting war battles on land, sea and in the air were marketed with an explicit claim to historical correctness and DXWKHQWLFLW\7RFKRRVHEXWRQHH[DPSOHRXWRIDODUJHJURXSRIWLWOHV³%$77/( FOR NORMANDY TM is the faithful recreation of D-Day and the 24 days that IROORZHGLW7RGRMXVWLFHWRWKLVJUHDW:RUOG:DU,,EDWWOHZH¶YHPDGHVXUHevery important historical detail has been realistically and accurately programmed into WKHJDPH³9 As early as 1983 you could find slogans like these, a sales trick that proved so efficient that it has been repeated with nearly every title in the strategy and war games segment up until today. The only change that had to be made over the years has been due to the constant improvement in graphic design, so that more recent games put more emphasis on the supposedly accurate visual remodelling than they used to. From the first inroads of history into the medium then, the ways of making use of the past were anything but simple and reducible to a single mode. (2) The last decade of the twentieth-century saw the heyday of historical strategy games. The most significant change in dealing with history came with the introduction of an encyclopaedia into the game. SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION (1991) pioneered this feature in 1991, which was afterwards copied and modified so many times as to become a standard with strategy games and some other genres with historical settings. The highly popular AGE OF EMPIRES series (since 1997) focused

8

GOLD RUSH! (Sierra On-Line, Inc. 1988, O: Sierra On-Line, Inc.), back cover.

9

BATTLE FOR NORMANDY (Strategic Simulation Inc. 1983, O: Tactical Design Group), back cover.

36 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

on the concept of an integrated, text-based additional source of information. First of all, this served to help gamers develop a feel for the historical context of the JDPH¶VVHWWLQJWKRXJKIURPDQDFDGHPLFSRLQWRIYLHZLWVOLPLWDWLRQWRIDFWVDQG simple connections still remained positivistic. Nonetheless, it contained elements that held the potential to sensitize gamers to a more complex story behind the narrated plot. The notion of depicted history corresponded to the understanding of history common in the general public at the time, so the series worked well within the pattern of historical branding. In some cases, the in-game databases could also serve as game instructions, CIVILIZATION¶S ³&LYLORSHGLD´ DJDLQ EHLQJ WKH PRVW prominent example. This device helped to ensure that gamers actually turned to the database while playing, even those who had no particular interest in the details or in history at all. It is a remarkable feature of the strategy games of the era² packed full with an astonishing amount of detail²that they attached great importance to the historical context. This is all the more remarkable since the plot of these strategy titles usually covered long stretches of time, many hundreds, often thousands of years, which always implies a considerable reduction of detail, if not to say (over-)simplification. It is precisely these simplifications that players must always be aware of, regardless of whether they make use of an existing encyclopaedia or not. This also applies to games from this segment that do not include such optional additional historical information, but otherwise operate according to the same standards with regard to the presentation of history. In particular, military units are standardized in these games and are equally available to all parties, regardless of the historical facts. However, games like CIVILIZATION or AGE OF EMPIRES use recognizable elements of the individual cultures²some historically authenticated, others more popular stereotypes²in order to mark the civilizations and cultures as unique. This is due to historical distinction just as much as to a varied gameplay. The selection quite often resembles the use of history as a quarry. Whether an information makes it into the game, is not decided randomly, nor is it based on the historical context. Thus, even though the titles fundamentally use history as a brand, depending on the individual case, they still leave some room for a playful dealing with past events. In these cases, an existing in-game encyclopedia with its background knowledge can help to classify the historical set pieces presented as game features, but does not necessarily have to do so. If it GRHVWKHQWKLVFDQEHVHHQDVDQDWWHPSWWRIXUWKHUXQGHUSLQWKHJDPH¶VIRFXVRQ the brand pattern. The in-game database is important, though by far not the only feature that paves the way to the characteristic historical atmosphere of a specific game or series, i.e. to branding. EMPIRES: DAWN OF THE MODERN WORLD is a good example for another type of historical branding, as it invests every culture or nationality

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 37

with a degree of individuality on the level of visuals and gameplay. Instead of bringing more and more peoples and cultures into play, which then had to become more and more alike for reasons of playability, EMPIRES resorted to a reduction, to a small number of selectable parties. These were designed to differ from each other not only visually, but also in their features within the game design. Although the basic and common types of²mainly military²units (e.g. sword infantry, gun cavalry, field weapons, fighter [aircraft]) were also part of the game, they achieved more depth in the sense that they were invested with certain culture-specific historical ideas or at least terms via their descriptions, their outward appearance and, in a few instances, their specific functions. In EMPIRES, then, one can find not only one gun infantry type unit playable for WKH:RUOG:DU,VFHQDULRVEXWRQHIRUHDFKRIWKHILYHFLYLOL]DWLRQVWKHµ7RPP\¶ 8QLWHG.LQJGRP WKHµ6ROGDW¶*HUPDQ\ WKHµ&RQVFULSW¶5XVVLD WKHµ3RLOX¶ )UDQFH DQGWKHµ'RXJKER\¶8QLWHG6WDWHV  These units differ not only in name and appearance, but also in their parameters. Nonetheless, the game makes ample use of elements taken from traditional stereotypes to create the branding effect, say the disciplined and combat-strong (Prussian) German soldier as compared to the mass of Russian soldiers who appear less well trained. In this, EMPIRES differs from the games mentioned before, as it goes without an in-game encyclopedia, and provides the historical detail by way of visualizing and describing the military units. Even if these decisions were often based more on clichés than on historical facts, they still worked well towards an image that fitted the notions prevalent in popular culture at the time, which reflects a clear leaning towards the brand principle in using history. It is hard to say if gamers appreciated the attempted representation of the diversity of cultures as a mirror to their individual parameters in the gameplay or if they would have preferred fewer and more detailed characterizations instead. Irrespective of the actual preferences of the players, both methods can be attributed to presenting history as a brand. The only difference between them is to be found in the (hi- VWRU\XQGHUO\LQJDJDPH¶VQDUUDWLYH2QWKHRQHKDQGWKHUHLV the Western model of progress and the focus on Western unit types, technologies and social achievements, consistently implemented in series such as SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION or AGE OF EMPIRES. On the other hand, games like EMPIRES: DAWN OF THE MODERN WORLD present cultures and civilizations in more detail and greater differentiation. Although this is still grounded in the classical notion of OLQHDUWHFKQRORJLFDOSURJUHVVDYHU\XQLIRUPSULQFLSOHNHHSLQJWKHJDPH¶VµFXO WXUHV¶LQDEDODQFHRQWKHOHYHORILWVJDPHSOD\LW is nevertheless combined with culture-specific terms to suggest a uniqueness of the individual cultures. This uniqueness is focused on specific elements to characterize a culture, though the

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underlying idea of progress remains the technological form for all of them. Both models use certain facts and historical aspects that are used to fill the aspired brand KLVWRU\ZLWKDSSURSULDWHFRQWHQW7KH\DUHQRWMXVWDUELWUDU\µSLFNV¶EXWVSHFLILF uses of the things that underpin the brand image they want to create. Some of these elements recur to historical facts, many more to popular ideas of the same historical facts. Those gamers who want to go beyond the mere fun of playing are challenged to tell which is which and to integrate them into their concept of history accordingly. Nonetheless, the strategy games of the era first and foremost used history as a means of branding, however, not with reference to a reproduction of historical facts accurate down to the smallest detail, but rather a credible representation of historical ideas fitting the overall concept of the respective game well. (3) In contrast to time-consuming strategy games, casual games are primarily designed for mobile devices, with gameplay and graphics that are rather simple to make them more easily accessible. The three most common genres are the Match 3 game, the Time Management game and the Hidden Object game. There are numerous titles with historical settings among the many thousand titles available on various online distribution platforms. A look at typical representatives of the three genres will prove the quarry principle to be the dominant one in this category. CRADLE OF ROME (2007), for example, differs from a CRADLE OF PERSIA (2007) or a HEROES OF HELLAS (2007) only in the choice of visual symbols, which suggest a representation of ancient Rome, ancient Persia or ancient Greece. None of these choices make for changes within the gameplay or the very rudimentary background story. Instead, history is reduced to a mere provider of isolated elements to produce a cute look and a pretty and colorful feel-good atmosphere, a cliché or satire rather than a serious attempt at a historic representation. In CRADLE OF ROME, for example, you receive an honorary title reminiscent of ancient Rome when you level up, e.g. Senator or Emperor. In addition, gamers can unlock buildings that add up to a Roman-looking city, including archetypal buildings such as amphitheatres or temples. They mirror popular images rather than reconstructions of historic buildings. A very similar picture emerges for the time management titles in the MONUMENT BUILDER series. Here too, the visual references are only sketchily EDVHGRQWKHWLPHDQGSODFHRIWKHPRQXPHQW¶VFRQVWUXFWLRQ7KHJDPHSULQFLSOH itself hardly changes, regardless of the culture and time frame in which the monument to be built is located, be it Cologne Cathedral, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Titanic or the Colosseum. The visualization clearly shows that its sole purpose is to create a certain atmosphere: no claim to historical authenticity, but rather game designers helping themselves to history as if they were cutting marble in a quarry.

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 39

This also applies to one of the special features of the series, which at first glance makes it stand out from similar games. The Monument series rewards the progress from one level to the next with some historical facts about the monument under construction. With forty to fifty levels in each game, this means providing and receiving quite a lot of these facts. However, the information is only loosely connected and arbitrarily chosen from a certain repository of details: They are fun facts, not elements of a coherent narrative that would contextualize the building, the time of its origin or the people and society that created it. Thus, the quarry principle remains intact. Games of this kind are perfect examples of the strict separation between game mechanics and the use of historical material as it defined the quarry principle. They present history exclusively as visual representations and narrated facts, which are completely independent of the actual gaming. HIDDEN MYSTERIES: CIVIL WAR, a hidden object game, is another case in point. Again, the gameplay, consisting of searching for objects hidden in images, has nothing to do with the history of the American Civil War. Only visually, in the stylized depictions of theaters of war at the time, the Civil War is at all present²once more the application of the quarry principle. Remarkably, the game constructs a story connecting the different levels on a narrative basis. Using three fictional biographies and letters written by soldiers of the Union as well as the Confederacy, it manages to evoke a picture of a time gone by that is not as minimalistic as one might have expected to find it in a hidden object game. Though references to the abolition of slavery or the right to self-determination remain brief, they surpass the oversimplification, if not to say distortion of history common to the majority of these games. This mirrors a use of history as a playground, since designers used the scope to create more than just one view of past events, more than just a sequence of chronological events, as they at least hint at the existence of different views of the war and its underlying issues. (4) Concentrating on the central elements of playground, quarry or brand, the category to be described in concluding is probably the most well-known and most popular, the one presenting past life in an open world game. Next to the most recent titles in the ASSASSIN¶S CREED series,10 the worlds created in both iterations of RED DEAD REDEMPTION and in KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE are among the most detailed and varied virtual worlds one can enter as a gamer at present. Potentially, they could be the most historically diverse and multifaceted. It is not easy to say if they really are.

10 Cf. my chapter on History in Video Games and the Craze for the Authentic in this volume, particularly the subchapter on Staging the Past and Creating Authenticity.

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On the one hand, the world of RED DEAD REDEMPTION (2010) seems deeply steeped in American frontier history, it is highly atmospheric, the dialogues and actions abound of familiar ideas about the North American continent as it must have existed at the turn of the twentieth century. For example, gamers are introGXFHGWRWKHTXHVWLRQRIZRPHQ¶VULJKWVRUWKHEURDGVSHFWUXPRILQWHUHVWVGLUHFWHG towards Native Americans, political as well as military, economic and even scientific. These are important approaches to social criticism which go well beyond the usual self-image of popular history. On the other hand, the world of RED DEAD REDEMPTION is highly fictitious. No real places exist and the maps the game includes are only roughly modelled on the physical and social geography of the USA. In RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2, this includes a city landscape modelled after industrialized East coast towns at the time to supplement the more rural landscape of the West. &RQVHTXHQWO\ WKHJDPH¶V developer Rockstar Games does not promote the game as historical, but as a Western. In this case, the type of brand is thus different from the ones described above, still one that claims to be in part rooted in history, though at the same time one that is rooted in the fictional tradition of a Western²with a historical tradition of its own.11 Consequently, gamers may not expect a realistic frontier narrative set in the late 19th century, but a representation of the Western genre with all its historical and ahistorical characteristics. RED DEAD REDEMPTION, then, is far removed from simply using history as a quarry, and it does not correspond one-to-one to the use of history as a brand either. In fact, it operates on a twofold branding process, implementing the Western genre as a brand and underpinning that with the historical one. This can lead to contradictory moments in the game, when Western genre elements, still being true to the genre, do not conform to historical facts and vice versa. And it is up to gamers which of the two they want to give priority over the other in these moments. It is a completely different story with KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE. Even before its release day, the game was advertised as one representing the historical and geographical setting of early 15th century Bohemia as accurately as possible, stating clearly the use of history as brand.12 This is remarkable, because the setting is an uncommon, even strange one and not well known among players. Very few people are likely to have heard anything about Bohemia in the late Middle Ages, either at school or elsewhere. The game was a commercial success, partly because of its challenging gameplay, partly, one can surmise, because of the attractivity of

11 Cf. Wright, EstKHU³2QWKHSURPRWLRQDOYDOXHRIKLVWRULFDOYLGHRJDPHV´LQRethinking History 22:4 (2018), pp. 598-608. 12 Cf. the chapter by Eugen Pfister in this volume.

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 41

the medieval world recreated in an open world format²which integrated most of the elements popularly taken for the essentials of a medieval world in general.13 Whatever led to its success eventually, the important factor here is that gamers did and do not fail to recognize aspects of their notion of mediHYDOOLIHLQWKHJDPH¶V visuals as well as its quests and narrative. Those who look for a brand one might call µ0LGGOH$JHV¶LQWKHVHQVHRIDZRUOGRIHPRWLRQVLPDJLQDWLRQFKLYDOU\DQG hero worship (not in the sense of a historical Middle Ages) will accept the world of KINGDOM COME as the right place to relive a certain²popular notion of²past times. Even with this rather classic form of branding and with the twofold branding of RED DEAD REDEMPTION, the potential of the uses of history in video games is not yet exhausted, the experimentation with it, ranging from the simple historical quarry to the complex, even PXOWLOD\HUHGEUDQGµKLVWRU\¶LVQRW\HWDWDQHQG and will not be for some time to come.

I N CONCLUDING This outline of the ways in which history is used in digital games leaves us with an unexpected result: For despite the fascination for many different historical eras and topics, you can boil down the usage of the past in video games to very few recurring patterns. Most widespread are the two patterns of using history as a quarry or designing it as a brand. The playground between these two is a testing JURXQGIRUDOONLQGVRILGHDVDQGLQWHUSUHWDWLRQVRIKLVWRU\¶VXVHV6RDOPRVWDOO games can be assigned to the playground pattern, because only comparatively few fit the brand or the quarry type completely. Nonetheless, more or less strong tendencies to one side or the other persist, which is why we can speak of games with history as a brand as well as of those in which more or less deliberate plundering is done in the quarry of history. The general notion common in most games even today is one steeped deeply in nineteenth-century concepts of a historic truth and the ability at least of academic historiography WRFOHDUO\UHFRQVWUXFWµWKHIDFWV¶

13 In this case, branding has worked both ways ± reality into fiction, fiction into reality ±, as the Bohemian tourist board advertised the region in which the game is set as the one depicted in the game KINGDOM COME&I6FKXO](OHQD³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHU ance in echt ± %|KPLVFKHV7RXULVWHQEURIKUWGXUFKGLH6FKDXSOlW]H´LQGameStar, August 1, 2018; https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/kingdom-come-deliverance-in-echtboehmisches-touristenbuero-fuehrt-durch-die-schauplaetze,3332982.html The leaflet is no longer available online; there is, however, a photograph of its frontpage in the article on GameStar.de.

42 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

Since considerable sections of the population still cherish these notions, games cater to it and transmit and reinforce these concepts, which, from an academic point of view, are clearly outdated. Admittedly, it does not seem opportune to change designs that work so well on an ever-widening market. What is more, representing complex historical situations and structures in a popular medium is a challenging task, and one that can only be met with to a certain extent. For reduction is inevitable and oversimplification always a risk in cases where the picture of the past has to be as complete as possible. Nonetheless, the medium has great potential in actually moving on, in offering a more diverse notion of history and of going beyond the quarry, brand, and playground pattern. Innovative game mechanics could be created on the basis of historical processes. They could sensitize for situation-related decisions made in the past, the limited scope of individual decisionmakers and the fundamental openness of history. This would considerably strengthen a use of history modelled on academic historiography, or at least would make it more likely than it is today. Attempts at introducing this into games are rare at present, to be found more often in educational productions rather than entertainment software. The few games of the latter kind have begun to reach out into the memory culture of a society, adding a new facet to the playground of history. It cannot yet be considered the reflection of a historical science, but it does begin to move in this direction nonetheless. Examples of this have been released in the last months and years. Since THIS WAR OF MINE has shown that it is possible to make a game out of civilians struggling to survive in a fictitious modern war and to be praised for this choice of setting and its challenging gameplay, game designers have increasingly ventured into previously untouched historical scenarios with similar game concepts. THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES, which puts gamers in the role of a group of civilians resisting during the Nazi era, pinpoints the direction game design is currently taking.14 It will be exciting to see how this development will continue. Another game with similar mechanics is announced for 2020, the Polish production THE BERLIN WALL, which will focus on escapes across the inner German border during the Cold War. In view of the fierce media debate in 2010 about the HALF LIFE (1998) modification 1378 (KM) (2010), the game could become a test of how far things can change and have changed to make even highly controversial subjects, in this case a particularly problematic part of German history, acceptable as the subject of a video game always designed with the intention to entertain. This would prove beyond all doubt that video games can actually sustain a much more

14 Cf. for insights into the design process of THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES the chapter by Jörg Friedrich in this volume.

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 43

diverse reflection of past lives, multiple perspectives and multiple pasts. This will truly catapult the history of present-day games into the future.

B IBLIOGRAPHY 6FKXO](OHQD³.ingdom Come: Deliverance in echt ± Böhmisches Touristenbüro IKUW GXUFK GLH 6FKDXSOlW]H´ LQ GameStar, August 1, 2018; https://www. gamestar.de/artikel/kingdom-come-deliverance-in-echt-boehmisches-touristenbuero-fuehrt-durch-die-schauplaetze,3332982.html 8VHUµ8ELVRIW¶³$VVDVVLQ V&UHHG8QLYHUVH>8.@´LQYouTube, August 10, 2011; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVoVHSVaMAg Wright, EsthHU³2QWKHSURPRWLRQDOYDOXHRIKLVWRULFDOYLGHRJDPHV´LQRethinking History 22:4 (2018), pp. 598-608.

L UDOGRAPHY 11-11 MEMORIES RETOLD (Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe 2018, O: Aardman Animations/Digixart) 1869: HART AM WIND (Max Design 1992, O: Max Design) 80 DAYS (Inkle 2014, O: Inkle/Cape Guy) AGE OF EMPIRES IV (Xbox Game Studios announced for 2020/21, O: Relic Entertainment) AMERICA: NO PEACE BEYOND THE LINE! (Data Becker 2001, O: Related Designs) AMERICAN CONQUEST (CDV Software Entertainment 2002, O: GSC Game World) ANNO 1404 (Ubisoft 2009, O: Related Designs/Blue Byte) ANNO 1503 (Sunflowers Interactive 2002, O: Max Design) ANNO 1602 (Sunflowers Interactive 1998, O: Max Design) ANNO 1701 (Sunflowers Interactive 2006, O: Related Designs) ANNO 1800 (Ubisoft 2019, O: Blue Byte Mainz) ASSASSIN¶S CREED ORIGINS (Ubisoft 2017, O: Ubisoft Montreal) ASSASSIN¶S CREED FREEDOM CRY (Ubisoft 2013, O: Ubisoft Quebec) ASSASSIN¶S CREED III: LIBERATION (Ubisoft 2012, O: Ubisoft Sofia) ASSASSIN¶S CREED ODYSSEY (Ubisoft 2018, O: Ubisoft Quebec) ATTENTAT 1942 (Charles University/Czech Academy of Sciences 2017, O: Charles Games) BATTLE FOR NORMANDY (Strategic Simulation Inc., 1983, O: Tactical Design Group)

44 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

BATTLEFIELD VIETNAM (Electronic Arts 2004, O: Digital Illusions CE) BATTLEFIELD 1 (Electronic Arts 2016, O: EA Digital Illusions CE) BATTLEFIELD 1942 (Electronic Arts 2002, O: Digital Illusions CE) BATTLEFIELD V (Electronic Arts 2018, O: EA Digital Illusions CE) BEYOND CASTLE WOFENSTEIN (MUSE Software 1984, O: MUSE Software) BLITZKRIEG 3 (Nival 2017, O: Nival) BOMBER CREW (Curve Digital 2017, O: Runner Duck) BUILT-A-LOT: THE ELIZABETHAN ERA (HitPoint 2010, O: HipSoft) CALL OF DUTY: WWII (Activision 2017, O: Sledgehammer Games) CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (MUSE Software 1981, O: MUSE Software) CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (Main Street Publishing 1984, O: MUSE Software) [IBM PC Version] CIVCITY: ROME (2K Games 2006, O: Firaxis Games/Firefly Studios) COMPANY OF HEROES (THQ 2007, O: Relic Entertainment) COSSACKS 3 (GSC Game World 2016, O: GSC Game World) CRADLE OF PERSIA (Awem Studio 2007, O: Awem Studio) CRADLE OF ROME (Awem Studio 2007, O: Awem Studio) DER PATRIZIER (Ascon 1992, O: Triptychon Software) DETROIT (Impressions Games 1994, O: Impressions Games) DIE FUGGER (Bomico Entertainment 1988, O: The Electric Ballhaus) DIE FUGGER II (Sunflowers Interactive 1996, O: Sunflowers Interactive) EMPEROR: RISE OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (Sierra Entertainment 2002, O: Impressions Games) EMPIRES: DAWN OF THE MODERN WORLD (Activision 2003, O: Stainless Steel Studios) GLORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (CDV Software Entertainment 2006, O: Haemimont Games) GOLD RUSH! (Sierra On-Line 1988, O: Sierra On-Line) HALF LIFE (Sierra On-Line 1998, O: Valve) HANSE (Ariolasoft 1986, O: Ralf Glau/Bernd Westphal) HEROES OF HELLAS (Alawar Entertainment 2007, O: Jaibo Games) HIDDEN MYSTERIES: THE CIVIL WAR (GameMill Entertainmen 2008, O: Gunnar Games) HISTORY LINE 1914-1918 (Blue Byte 1992, O: Blue Byte) IMPERIUM ROMANUM (Kalypso Media 2008, O: Haemimont Games) KAISER (Ariolasoft 1984, O: Creative Computer Design) KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (Warhorse Studios 2018, O: Warhorse Studios) KREUZÜGE: VERSCHWÖRUNG IM KÖNIGREICH DES ORIENTS (Cornelsen Software 1998, O: index+)

Q UARRY ± P LAYGROUND ± B RAND | 45

MEDAL OF HONOR AIRBORNE (Electronic Arts 2007, O: Electronic Art Los Angeles) NO MAN'S LAND (CDV Software Entertainment 2003, O: Related Designs) OLDTIMER (Max Design 1994, O: Max Design) PHARAO (Sierra On-Line 1999, O: Impressions Games) PIONEER LANDS (Nevosoft 2011, O: AstarGames) RED DEAD REDEMPTION (Rockstar Games 2010, O: Rockstar San Diego) RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 (Rockstar Games 2018, O: Rockstar Studios) RENOWNED EXPLORERS: INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY (Abbey Games 2015, O: Abbey Games) RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (Activision 2001, O: Grey Matter Interactive) RISE OF NATIONS (Microsoft Game Studios 2003, O: Big Huge Games) SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION (Microprose Software 1991, O: Microprose Software) SID MEIER¶S PIRATES! (Microprose Software 1987, O: Microprose Software) SID MEIER¶S RAILROAD TYCOON (Microprose Software 1990, O: Microprose Software) SUDDEN STRIKE 4 (Kalypso Media 2017, O: Kite Games) SVOBODA 1945 (Charles University/Czech Academy of Sciences announced for 2020, O: Charles Games) TANKTICS (Chris Crawford 1978, O: Chris Crawford) THE AMAZON TRAIL (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium 1993, O: Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium) THE BERLIN WALL (PlayWay announced for 2020, O: K202) THE OREGON TRAIL (not published 1971, O: Don Rawitsch/Bill Heinemann/Paul Dillenberger) THE OREGON TRAIL 4TH EDITION (The Learning Company 1999, O: The Learning Company) THE PALACE BUILDER (PlayFirst 2010, O: Joju Games) THE YUKON TRAIL (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium 1993, O: Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium) THIS WAR OF MINE (11 bit Studios 2014, O: 11 bit Studios) THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (HandyGames 2020, O: Paintbucket Games) UBOAT (PlayWay 2019, O: Deep Water Studio) VALIANT HEARTS: THE GREAT WAR (Ubisoft 2014, O: Ubisoft Montpellier) WARSAW (Gaming Company 2019, O: Pixelated Milk) WOLFENSTEIN 3D (Apogee Software 1992, O: id Software) ZEUS: MASTER OF OLYMPUS (Sierra On-Line 2000, O: Impressions Games)

Why History in Digital Games matters Historical Authenticity as a Language for Ideological Myths E UGEN P FISTER

A BSTRACT Some of the best-selling digital games have a historical setting. Many games are advertised with historical authenticity ² ¶+LVWRU\VHOOVµ7KHUHVHHPVWREHDRQ going demand for historical content. This realization itself is not new. One question that has rarely been asked so far, however, is the question of the cause for this persistent demand. Why are we looking for accurate and/or authentic accounts of our shared past? What is it that fascinates us so much about World War II firstperson shooters, action-adventures in the Middle Ages and economic simulations in the Renaissance? In the following paper I would like to dissect the functions of history in digital games in order to approach this question, both on a systemic macro level as a place of negotiation for world views and ideologies, and on a micro level when it comes to the question of our collective identities.

I NTRODUCTION *HUGD/HUQHUZURWHLQKHUHVVD\µ:K\KLVWRU\PDWWHUV¶³$OOKXPDQEHLQJVDUH SUDFWLFLQJKLVWRULDQV´1 Given the abundance of games with a historical setting, this sentence seems to take on a new immediacy. Historians such as Adam ChapPDQLQSDUWLFXODUDUJXHWKDWGLJLWDOJDPHVDV³KL VWRU\-play-VSDFHV´ have become

1

Lerner, Gerda: Why History Matters: Life and Thought, New York: Oxford University Press 1997, p. 199.

48 | E UGEN P FISTER

a new historical form, enabling millions of people to virtually (re-)live history.2 In WKHIROORZLQJ,ZLOODOVRXVHWKHWHUPµKLVWRULFL]LQJJDPHV¶DIWHU)ORULDQ.HUVFK baumer and Tobias Winnerling thus underlining the idea, that these games take part in processes of making history and are not just history in and of themselves.3 Digital games with a historical setting are among the most financially successful. A historical setting is of course no guarantee for commercial success, but it can help games to stand out from others: in marketing terms, it serves as a USP or unique selling proposition.4 But when history becomes a selling point, it also means that there must be a demand for it that outstrips the supply. And here we touch on a central question for historical research, but which²for various reasons²is almost never directly addressed: Where does our thirst for history come from? I am aware that I will not find satisfactory answers to this fundamental question in the course of this essay, so I am more concerned with asking some initial questions to stimulate debate and future intensive research on this topic. To this end and based on my previous research and experience, I will make use of a historical discourse analysis. That means ² to put it in a simplified way ² I will ask about the discursive rules, the sayable and the thinkable in historicizing games.5 Thus, I want to focus on whether history serves a function both at the level of the individual and at the level of society and, if so, identify what kind of function it serves. One analytical challenge is that we are no longer used to asking these

2

Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History. How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice, New York: Routledge 2018, pp. 33-34; see also .DSHOO0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP(OOLRWW$QGUHZ%5³,QWURGXFWLRQ³LQ0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP Kapell / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the Past. Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York: Bloomsbury 2013, pp. 1-30.

3

.HUVFKEDXPHU )ORULDQ  :LQQHUOLQJ 7RELDV ³3RVWPRGHUQH 9LVLRQHQ GHV 9RU-MoGHUQHQ³LQ)ORULDQ.HUVFKEDXPHU7RELDV:LQnerling (eds.), Frühe Neuzeit im Videospiel. Geschichtswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Bielefeld: transcript 2014, pp. 1126, here p.14.

4

Nolden, Nico: Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen. Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme, Berlin: De Gruyter 2019, p. 34; see also Schüler, Benedikt / Schmitz, &KULVWRSKHU/HKPDQQ.DUVWHQ³*HVFKLFKWHDOV0DUNH+LVWRULVFKH,QKDOWHLQ&RP puterspielen aus der Sicht der Softwarebranche, in: Angela Schwarz (ed.) ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 199-216.

5

F. Kerschbaumer / T. Winnerling: Postmoderne Visionen, p. 18.

W HY H ISTORY IN D IGITAL G AMES MATTERS | 49

question about the meaning of history.6 Among digital game historians only Angela Schwarz and Alfred Martin Wainwright have come to my attention so far with similar questions, 7 without dealing with them in detail either. We ² both historians and game players ² are usually not asking why we are interested in history. In the following essay I will approach this question by using Roland Barthes' concept of mythologies. Using a small selection of such myths, I will try to show that history as a setting particularly invites ideological statements, whether consciously or unconsciously. In this context, I will examine how the inYRFDWLRQRIKLVWRULFDOµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶KDVDOHJLWLPL]LQJIXQFWLRQLQWKLVP\WK-making. Finally, I would like to present a first hypothesis as an answer to the question asked in the title of this paper.

R OLAND B ARTHES ¶ M YTHOLOGIES Our interest in history seems so natural to us that it would be strange to question it. For this reason, I will UHIHUWR5RODQG%DUWKHVFRQFHSWRIµP\WKRORJLHV¶ZKLFK I previously adapted for my research into games. 8 ,QKLVµ0\WKRORJLHV¶%DUWKHV UHYHDOHGLGHRORJLFDOµP\WKV¶KLGGHQLQVXSSRVHGO\DSROLWLFDO artefacts and narratives, that is, ideological messages that are not immediately recognizable as such.9 The concept of myth is not bound to any particular medium, but is so open that a myth could potentially be found in any communication process. Barthes examines myths as diverse and moral concepts in wrestling, the nationalistic charge of )UHQFKUHGZLQHWKHLGHDRIµGHSWK¶LQDGYHUWLVLQJIRUFOHDQLQJSURGXFWVHWF,WLV significant that the myth, according to Roland Barthes, is never a single object,

6

Tschiggerl, Martin / Walach, Thomas / Zahlmann, Stefan: Geschichtstheorie, Berlin: Springer VS 2019, pp.4-5.

7

6FKZDU]$QJHOD³6LHJHQLVWHUVWGHU$QIDQJRGHU:DVNRPPWQDFKGHU$QQlKHUXQJ DQ GLH *HVFKLFKWH LP &RPSXWHUVSLHO"´ LQ $QJHOD 6FKZDU] HG  ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte in Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 217228, here p. 220; Wainwright, Alfred Martin: Virtual History. How Videogames Portray the Past, New York: Routledge 2019, pp. 11-12.

8

Pfister, (XJHQ³'HU3ROLWLVFKH0\WKRVDOVGLVNXUVLYH$XVVDJHLPGLJLWDOHQ6SLHO(LQ %HLWUDJDXVGHU3HUVSHNWLYHGHU3ROLWLNJHVFKLFKWH´LQ7KRUVWHQ-XQJH&ODXGLD6FKX macher (eds.), Digitale Spiele im Diskurs. Fernuniversität Hagen 2018; https://ub-deposit.fernuni-hagen.de/receive/mir_mods_00001258

9

Barthes, Roland: Mythologies, Paris: Seuil 2014, pp. 209-272.

50 | E UGEN P FISTER

word, image, thought or idea but always a system of symbols that is composed of all these set pieces, giving them added meaning.10 In Barthes opinion, the secret RIWKHP\WK¶VVXFFHVVDOVROLHVLQWKHIDFWWKDWLWVXSSRVHGO\FRDJXODWHVKLVWRU\WR nature, whiFKPHDQVWKDWLWLVQRWTXHVWLRQHGEHFDXVHLWVHHPVµQDWXUDO¶11 Successful myths reproduce themselves, they do not need authors with corresponding intentions. This also means that the reproduction of myths often does not take place FRQVFLRXVO\ ³7KH WKLQJ that causes the mythical statement to be made is completely explicit, but it immediately coagulates to nature. It is read not as a motive, EXWDVDMXVWLILFDWLRQ´12 0LFKHO)RXFDXOWDUJXHGVLPLODUO\LQWKHFRQWH[WRI³SHU IRUPDWLYHXWWHUDQFH´WKDWWKHUHSHDWability of signifiers allows them to be naturalized in the first place, that is, to be taken for granted.13 In the following, I have decided to use Roland Barthes' concept of myth because I think it conveys particularly impressively that not only ideological but also and especially political statements can often be reproduced unconsciously. This means that such myths in our popular culture often also construct and communicate statements about our governance and community. (This is of particular concern to me because I analyze a political history of ideas in gameV ,DPUHIHUULQJSULPDULO\WR%DUWKHV¶FDVHVWXG LHV DQG OHVV WR KLV WKHRU\ WH[W µ/H P\WKH DXMRXUG KXL¶ ZKLFKZDV ZULWWHQ ODWHU Based on this, I propose my own political myth concept adapted to my question (point 1) while at the same time concretizing the term for my research needs (points 2-4). In summary: The political myth in the digital game refers to a political or ideological statement (with implied instructions for action ² which I will elaborate on later) that has taken on the appearance of naturalness and is therefore (often) not understood as such by game developers and by players. Accordingly, the myth is reproduced unconsciously and can ² continuing to go unnoticed ² change its quality in the process of media reiteration.14 The political myth is characterized by the following four features:

10 ,ELG³/HP\WKHQHVDXUDLWrWUHXQREMHWXQFRQFHSWRXXQHLGpHF¶HVWXQPRGHGH VLJQLILFDWLRQF¶HVWXQHIorme.³ 11 ,ELG ³1RXV VRPPHV LFLDXSULQFLSH PrPH GX P\WKH LO WUDQVIRUPH O¶KLVWRLUH HQ nature.³ 12 Barthes, Roland: Mythen des Alltags, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2013, p.85. (Translation by the author). 13 Hoffarth, Britta: Performativität als medienpädagogische Perspektive, Bielefeld: Transcript 2009, p. 49. 14 6HHDOVR-DFTXHV'HUULGD VFRQFHSWRILWHUDELOLW\³$VLJQLVUHSHDWDEOHLWGRHVQRW H[ haust' itself and therefore can give cause for 'iteration'; but at the same time it contains

W HY H ISTORY IN D IGITAL G AMES MATTERS | 51

1. The political myth is never a single sign (a clichéd figure, a motif, a symbol, etc.) but a political statement, which is composed of a system of mutually reinforcing signs. 2. The political myth is a immediately obvious political statement. That is why it is often repeated in several contexts, i.e. in several games or media forms without being questioned. Through its repetition (reiteration) the myth reinforces the DSSHDUDQFHRI¶QDWXUDOQHVV¶DQGLVKHQceforth reproduced unconsciously.15 3. Political myth veils history in its argumentation. It quotes well-known aesthetic models and transfers them to current phenomena without becoming historically speciILF7KDWLVWKHP\WKSUHWHQGVWRUHIHUHQFHVµUHDO¶and concrete historical phenomena when in fact only referencing their (no less real) aesthetic shell.16 It references its own historicity.17 It gains its persuasive power from this reference to its supposed predecessors, which again reinforces an appearance of naturalness. 4. Despite its superficially historical argumentation, every political myth can be clearly located in its topicality and can only be found in a concrete historical context. This means that there are no centuries-old myths that communicate an everlasting truth, but only contemporary ideological statements.

T HE M YTH TRANSFORMS H ISTORY

INTO

N ATURE

Attentive readers will have already noticed some parallels to historicizing games at this point. Indeed, in the following I would like to show, on the basis of the four points mentioned, that historical settings are particularly well suited for the construction and communication of such myths:

a power to µbreak with its context,¶ it is in itself and finally always a realized possibility WKDWE\FRPELQLQJLWZLWKRWKHUVLJQVFDQDOVREHGLIIHUHQW³7UDQVODWLRQE\WKHDXWKRU  in: Zorn, Daniel Pascal: Vom Gebäude zum Gerüst. Entwurf einer Komparatistik reflexiver Figurationen in der Philosophie, Berlin: Logos 2016, p. 74. 15 Judith Butler has taken over from Derrida the notions of citation and iteration (see previous footnote) and developed them further. For her, the subject is directly conceived as the product of the orderly citation and repetition of discursive norms. Cf. Rosen, Nadine / Koller, Hans-&KULVWRSK³,QWHUSHOODWLRQ± Diskurs ± 3HUIRUPDWLYLWlW³LQ1RUE ert Ricken / Nicole Balzer (eds.), Judith Butler: Pädagogische Lektüren, Wiesbaden: Springer VS:, pp. 75-94, here p. 91. 16 The myth never refers to a reality outside the media communication which, however, is always only a mediated reality. 17 I would like to thank Felix Zimmermann for this sentence.

52 | E UGEN P FISTER

1. A system of mutually reinforcing signs. This can be demonstrated particularly impressively in games because here, in addition to the narrative level, we have an audio-visual aesthetic level and a game mechanical level. So for the historian seeking answers, it is not enough to concentrate on the story or on the gameplay alone. In the game ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY (2014), for example, the ideological charge of the depicted epoch of the French revolution ² i.e. the illegitimacy of a bloody uprising ² is fed in equal parts by the framing narrative, the depiction of the characters, the ambient architecture as well as the gameplay and game rules.18 2. The myth as an immediately obvious political statement. Digital games also lend themselves to this aspect of a myth, as they afford much less room for reflection and criticism than, for example, the novel or the film. The player's actions are XVXDOO\GHWHUPLQHGE\WKHJDPHPHFKDQLFV$GDP&KDSPDQDGDSWVWKHWHUPµDI IRUGDQFHV¶Ior this phenomenon.19 Because they do what the game tells or, rather, affords them to do the players are normally not questioning their actions. The idea that a limited number of resources must automatically lead to competition or conflict between interested parties is a good example. This thinking is the basis of most of the so-called 4X Games like the Civilization series (1991-2016) in which the player has to achieve world domination. While in later games of the series a diplomatic and cultural victory became possible, the never were as gratifying as the military victory, because most of the game mechanics focus on expansion and the development of military units, 3. Myths argue using history. Here we enter the core area of my thoughts. History becomes the legitimizing instance of current ideological statements. In the following I will delve into this aspect in more detail. 4. Myths are always a contemporary phenomenon. Here we are entering terrain familiar to historians. The depiction of the Middle Ages in games like CRUSADER KINGS (2004-2013) and MEDIEVAL: TOTAL WAR (2002) is not a source for the history of the Middle Ages but for the society that created it. This means that historians learn from the analysis of KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (2018) something about the context of its creation, the developers, the industry and contemporary Czech history but not about the history of a Czech Peasantry in the 15th century.

18 3ILVWHU(XJHQ³¶'HVSDWULRWHVFHVDEUXWLV¶,PDJLQDWLRQHQGHUIUDQ]|VLVFKHQ5HYROX tion im digitalen SpLHO$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\³LQ Frühneuzeit-Info 27 (2016), pp. 198-201. 19 A. Chapman: Digital Games as History, pp. 173-197.

W HY H ISTORY IN D IGITAL G AMES MATTERS | 53

,WLVLPSRUWDQWWRUHPLQGXVWKDW³+LVWRU\ZLWKDFDSLWDO+´20 does not function as a myth in itself, rather it enables such myths. History becomes a language that potentially allows an infinite number of different statements, and thus becomes ² for the reasons mentioned above ² particularly suited for the construction of myths. In the following, I would like to illustrate these thoughts by means of three selected myths.

M YTH 1: T HE P IRATE

AS I NDIVIDUALIST

A good example to begin with is ASSASSIN'S CREED: BLACK FLAG (2013), an action-adventure, which is part of the overarching ASSASSIN'S CREED narrative of a centuries-long battle between two secret societies. In this case, the game takes us to the Caribbean at the time of the so-FDOOHGµ*ROGHQ$JHRI3LUDF\¶LHWKHEH ginning of the 18th century. We assume the role of the British pirate Edward KenZD\DQGLQWKHFRXUVHRIWKHJDPHZHDGYDQFHWREHFRPHDPDVWHUIXOµDVVDVVLQ¶ (one of the two secret societies mentioned above) in search of an alien artifact. In the meantime, however, the game sends us on a history tour in a similar fashion to previous iterations of the series. We encounter a selection of more or less wellknown pirates, such as Edward Teach, better known under his nom de guerre µ%ODFNEHDUG¶ $QQH %RQQ\ 0DU\ 5ead and Jack Rackham, and can marvel at beautifully reconstructed historical colonial architecture and ships. According to their own statements, the developers based their world-building mainly on the ERRNµ7KH5HSXEOLFRI3LUDWHV¶E\WKH$PHULFDQMRXUQDOLst Colin Woodard21 and received additional support from the experienced weapons historian Mike Loades, KLPVHOIFRPPHQGLQJWKHGHYHORSHUVIRUZDQWLQJWRVHWWKHJDPHLQDQ³authentic KLVWRULFDO ZRUOG´22 Certain anachronisms ² such as the sailor songs, most of which date back to the 19th century ² were apparently tolerated because of the

20 5RVHQVWRQHFLWHGDIWHU5ROOLQJHU&KULVWLDQ³3OD\LQJZLWKWKH$QFLHQW:RUOG$Q,Q troduction to Classical Antiquity in VideR*DPHV³LQ&KULVWLDQ5ROOLQJHUHG Classical Antiquity in Video Games. Playing with the Ancient World, London: Bloomsbury 2020, pp. 1-18, here p. 7 and M. W. Kapell / A. B.R. Elliott: Introduction, p. 3. 21 &DPSEHOO&ROLQ³7UXWKand fantasy in AssaVVLQ V&UHHG%ODFN)ODJ´LQPolygon, July 22, 2013; https://www.polygon.com/2013/7/22/4543968/truth-and-fantasy-in-assassins-creed-4-black-flag. 22 8VHU µ8ELVRIW 1RUWK $PHULFD¶ ³$VVDVVLQ V &UHHG ,9 %ODFN )ODJ +LVWRULFDO 3LUDWH Weapons | 7UDLOHU _ 8ELVRIW >1$@³ LQ YouTube, October 17, 2013; https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=RgmIg5CKugc

54 | E UGEN P FISTER

atmosphere they evoke.23 The gameplay is predetermined by the series ² a mixture of combat, stealth play and parkour. In addition to this, halfway through the game sea battles and the management of a player base and a small fleet of pirate ships are unlocked and dominate the gameplay experience henceforth. The game is interesting for us here because it partially breaks with a popular cultural tradition of the pirate image. In fact, since the 17th century a very successful myth of the pirate as outcast has been established, who is able to rehabilitate himself (or in a few cases herself) in society through honourable behaviour and assisting the community. One can clearly see the socially disciplining motive of the narrative, which had been successful up until the pirate movies of the post-war period.24 In early games like SID MEIER'S PIRATES (1987) ² analyzed for example by Gunnar Sandkühler ²25 and THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND (1990) we could VWLOOVHHYHVWLJHVRIWKLVWUDGLWLRQDOP\WKRIWKHµ*HQWOHPDQ3LUDWH¶$WWKHVDPH time it was the success of pirate simulations like SID MEIER'S PIRATES and PORT ROYALE (2002-2020) that made it possible to recode the pirate into a new myth: from gentleman pirate to adventure capitalist.26 In ASSASSIN¶S CREED BLACK FLAG Kenway does ² accordingly ² not rescue a princess, he does not return into the lap of society at the end of the story. Life as a pirate, as the culmination of individual freedom becomes an ideal in itself (as in, by the way, the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (2003-2015) film franchise).27 Being a pirate is no longer a rite of passage into society to serve as an officer or governor. The narrative of the JDPHVWDJHVWKHµ%URWKHUKRRGRIWKH&RDVW¶DVDTXDVL-democratic liberal association of individual pirates. The striking appearance of Kenway ² the white hooded dress of the assassins ² as well as the flamboyant clothing of the other pirates, especially against the background of otherwise uniform NPCs, reinforce this impression. This becomes also apparent in its game mechanics and the importance of improving one's own ship and base through good resource and time

23 M. W. Kapell / A. B.R. Elliott: Introduction, p. 12. 24 3ILVWHU(XJHQ³µ,QDZRUOGZLWKRXWJROGZHPLJKWKDYHEHHQKHURHV¶&XOWXUDO,PDJ inations of 3LUDF\LQ9LGHR*DPHV´LQFIAR 11:2 (2018): (QFRXQWHUVLQWKHµ*DPH2YHU(UD¶7KH$PHULFDVLQDQG9LGHR*DPHV, pp. 30-43; http://interamerica.de/current-issue/pfister/ 25 6DQGNKOHU*XQQDU³6LG0HLHU¶V3LUDWHV´LQ)ORULDQ.HUVFKEDXPHU7RELas Winnerling (eds.), Frühe Neuzeit im Videospiel. Geschichtswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Bielefeld: transcript 2014, pp. 181-194. 26 E. Pfister: In a World without Gold. 27 3ILVWHU(XJHQÄ'HU3LUDWDOV'HPRNUDW$VVDVVLQµV&UHHG,9%ODFN)ODJ± eine RezenVLRQ³LQFrühneuzeit -Info 26 (2015), pp. 289-290.

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PDQDJHPHQWDQGWKHPRVWHIILFLHQWUDLGVRQXQLIRUPµHQHP\¶VKLSV:hat emerges is the pirate as entrepreneur who decides alone on basis of his own experience what is right and what wrong. Thus, a system of mutually reinforcing signs is identified. He does not listen to the decisions of a community (not even those of the assassins) but trusts only his own decisions. Opposite him ² exemplified in the person of the pirate hunter Woodes Rodgers ² stands the colonial administration, largely infiltrated by Templars and thus corrupted. What emerges is the myth of the freedom-loving pirate as the epitome of the individual, who alone is capable of making ethical decisions. This should be of no surprise to us as it simply corresponds to a currently dominant statement in line with the neoliberal paradigm, confirming my earlier statement that myths are always a contemporary phenomenon$V=\JPXQW%DXPDQVKRZVLQKLVERRNµ/LTXLG0RGHUQLW\¶LQGLYLGXDOL]D tion is fate and not choice in the neoliberal state. 28 This new emerging pirate narrative was certainly facilitated by traditional game mechanics, which conventionally tend to strengthen the agency of the player, and thus to propagate consciously or unconsciously a strong impression of individualism. Traditional ideas of gameplay focusing on conflict, concurrence and the accumulation of resources and wealth defined a new imagination of the pirate, from gentleman-adventurer to adventurer-capitalist. According to Bruno Amables, neoliberals have realized that in order for tKHLULGHRORJ\WREHVXFFHVVIXODVWDWH¶VSRSXODFHPXVWLQWHUQDOL]H the belief that individuals are only to be rewarded based on their personal effort.29 We not only encounter the dominant individual in pirate games, we generally also encounter it frequently in first person shooters and action adventures: The Master Chief of HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED (2001), Commander Shepard of MASS EFFECT (2007), Adam Jensen of DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION (2011). The explanation for this is usually the need for player agency, although to my knowledge there are no studies to support this anticipated demand for agency by the players. In its seamless integration with popular game mechanics, the myth as an immediately obvious political statement becomes visible. In a historical setting this myth quickly becomes naturalized because history serves as a legitimizing instance. µ/RRNKHUH¶WKHP\WKFDOOVRXWµHYHQWKHSLUDWHVLQWKHWKFHQWXU\NQHZWKDWLQ the eQGRQO\WKHLQGLYLGXDOLVLPSRUWDQW¶7KLVLVHVVHQWLDOWRQRWHEHFDXVHRQO\ a few decades earlier and in other media the pirate image conveyed a completely different message. These myths argue by means of history and imply a long tradition where there actually is none.

28 Bauman, Zygmunt: Liquid Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press 2001, p. 69. 29 $PDEOH%UXQRÄ0RUDOVDQGSROLWLFVLQWKHLGHRORJ\RIQHR-OLEHUDOLVP³LQSocio-Economic Review 9 (2011), pp. 3±30, here p. 5.

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It is interesting that both pirate myths ² i.e. the honorable pirate as saviour of society as well as the individualist pirate as entrepreneur ² have a historical reference, but at the same time both are anachronistic because they charge the historical pirates with contemporary ideological statements. Both myths were or are in harmony with dominant ideological statements of their epochs.30

M YTH 2: T HE P ERPETUAL W AR Many historians have already pointed out the peculiar fact that history in games means one thing above all: war.31 Without claiming completeness here, a quick look at games with the tag ³Historical event´ in the MobyGames database gives us a good first impression. Of course, you have to say in advance that the categorization does not meet any scientific standards for example none of the ASSASSIN'S CREED games are mentioned. Also, you can find SID MEIER'S COLONIZATION (1994), but not CIVILIZATION,WPXVWEHDVVXPHGWKDWWKHDPELJXRXVWHUPµHYHQW¶ is the cause. Nevertheless, it is a statement in itself that in 2017, out of 1,115 games (from 1981-2017) that were tagged, 757 referred to very specific historical wars.32 Angela Schwarz summarizes: ³The narrated history usually consists of a kind of chronology of militarily relevant events.´33 The war fetish of historicizing digital games can also be recognized in marketing. Zied Rieke, chief developer of CALL OF DUTY 2 (2005) H[SODLQHGKLV³FDUHIXO DWWHQWLRQWRZHDSRQU\´DFFRUGLQJO\³>:@H¶YHUHGRQHHYHU\VLQJOHZHDSRQWRDGG more detail and take advantage of our new graphics technology, which allows us to make the wood look real and metal to shine²like real metal²as well as include

30 E. Pfister: In a World without Gold. 31 ³(EHQVR GHXWOLFK ZLUG LQ DOO GLHVHQ 7LWHOQ GLH ÃXQDElQGHUOLFKH 1RWKZHQGLJNHLW GHV .ULHJHV¶´ LQ :LQQHUOLQJ.HUVFKEDXPHU Postmoderne Visionen pp. 15-16; also see 3DVWHUQDN-DQ³-DKUHDQHLQHm Tag. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der DarstelOXQJ YRQ *HVFKLFKWH LQ HSRFKHQEHJUHLIHQGHQ (FKW]HLWVWUDWHJLHVSLHOHQ³ LQ $QJHOD Schwarz (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte in Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 29-62, here pp. 40-41 32 Pfister, Eugen: ³9RQ.ULHJHQXQG6SLHOHQ³LQWASD 13 (2018), pp. 134-137. 33 6FKZDU]$QJHOD³*HVFKLFKWHHU]lKOHQLQ9LGHRVSLHOHQ´LQ)ORULDQ.HUVFKEDXPHU Tobias Winnerling (eds.), Frühe Neuzeit im Videospiel. Geschichtswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Bielefeld: transcript 2014, pp. 27-54, here p. 34, translated by the author.

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WKHWLQLHVWGHWDLOV«DOOWKHZD\GRZQWRWKHVHULDOQXPEHU´34 Similar to filmmakers, game developers consult military consultants for the most realistic reproduction of weapons and uniforms. Above all, however, they know how to present these consultants in public relations.35 Historical weapons are being experimented with to great public effect. For MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE (2007), sound engineers recorded the engine noise of a flying Douglas C-47 Skytrain.36 This focus on weapons and uniforms is also reflected in corresponding forum debates. The XVHU³&$'DYH´ZULWHV³$Q\WKLQJ± from the flags to the soldier's boots ± accuracy of muskets ± historical events, etc etc. Im [sic!] really inteUHVWHG´37 Naturally, we must not be subject to the misconception that the opinions of some players who are particularly active on forums are representative of the majority. An indication for this widespread perception, however, is provided by a survey on first person shooters from 2005, which Steffen Bender quotes. 38 This survey revealed that the historicizing WWII shooters were awarded the highest degree of realism by the audience. Of course, we must not forget that the focus on conflicts and the use of violence to solve these conflicts is not a peculiarity of historical games but applies to all digital games ² and, to a lesser degree, to games in general. So much so that it is often explained in a circular argument that games as a whole can only be thought of in terms of conflict, from Chess to Risk to CALL OF DUTY: WORLD WAR II (2017) %HFDXVH ZH¶UH XVHGWR JDPHV DV VLPXODWLRQVRI FRQIOLFW ZH FDQ RQO\ imagine games as simulations of conflict. In the vast majority of first-person shooter and strategy games, the use of weapons is the only means to solve these conflicts.39 Even historicizing city-building games like the CAESAR (1992-1998)

34 Salvati, Andrew / Bullinger, -RQDWKDQ³6HOHFWLYH$XWKHQWLFLW\DQGWKH3OD\DEOH3DVW³ in: Matthew Wilhelm Kapell / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the Past. Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York: Bloomsbury 2013, pp. 153-168. 35 B. Schüler / C. Schmitz / K. Lehmann: Geschichte als Marke, pp. 208 and 211. See also BHQGHU6WHIIHQ³'XUFKGLH$XJHQHLQIDFKHU6ROGDWHQXQGQDPHQORVHU+HOGHQ:HOW NULHJVVKRRWHUDOV6LPXODWLRQKLVWRULVFKHU.ULHJVHUIDKUXQJ³LQ$QJHOD6FKZDU]HG  ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte in Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 123-148, here p. 129. 36 Ibid p. 128. 37 See https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/5584/historical-accuracy from January 2011. 38 S. Bender: Durch die Augen einfacher Soldaten, pp. 128-129. 39 S. Bender: Durch die Augen einfacher Soldaten, p. 133.

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and PHARAOH series (1999-2000) would not do without accompanying military campaigns, not to mention the AGE OF EMPIRES (1997-2019) series. Exceptions such as the 1869 HART AM WIND! (1992) trade simulation or SIMS MEDIEVAL (2011) only show us how much we have otherwise accepted to play history primarily in terms of war. What are the reasons for that? At this point I cannot yet give a clear answer to this question. However, I deeply distrust the argument that games can only be thought of as a conflict. I think there is a myth at work here as well, which prevents us from questioning the motives of its constant repetition. Here, a historical view on the two genres of strategy game and first-person shooter is helpful. The first historical strategy games came from the USA and Great Britain. They were a digitalized sequel to the popular board games of game manufacturers like Avalon Hill and Victory Games. Then ² similar to today ², the Second World War dominated as a historical setting. In the 1980s and 1990s, war was portrayed in games as a sporting contest between two equal opponents.40 This becomes visible in the texts of the game manuals, as well as in the presentation of German generals and weapons on the cover, but especially in the game mechanics, which consistently ignored civilians and human rights crimes. In other words, war had to be fun. And while other media have evolved dramatically in their depiction of the war in the last twenty years, digital games discursively still lag behind. Even IRUWKHµJRRGZDU¶LH:RUOG:DU,, 41 films or Netflix series simply glorifying the war would be unimaginable today. A diachronic comparison of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) with THE LONGEST DAY (1962) shows this development that even in mainstream blockbusters, war now must be depicted critically, at least in part. Such a discursive development only came with delay in digital games, where we can see some first discursive especially in first-person shooter games who, since CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (2008), have increasingly, albeit reluctantly, embraced the dark sides of war. This notwithstanding, strategy games like the HEARTS OF IRON series (2002-2016), which depoliticizes the Second World War presumably to make it playable, are still common today. I therefore ask the question: Are we encountering here the last remnants of an outdated myth²corresponding to dominant discursive statements of the late 19th century,

40 3ILVWHU (XJHQ³ 0DQ VSLHOWQLFKWPLW +DNHQNUHX]HQ!' Imaginations of the Holocaust DQG&ULPHV$JDLQVW+XPDQLW\'XULQJ:RUOG:DU,,LQ'LJLWDO*DPHV´LQ$OH[DQGHU von Lünen et al. (eds.), Historia Ludens: The Playing Historian, London: Routledge 2019, 267-284. 41 S. Bender: Durch die Augen einfacher Soldaten, p. 126 and A. Salvati / J. Bullinger: Selective Authenticity, p. 155.

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i.e. that imagines war as a game?42 The question must remain unanswered for the time being, since the answer depends on how historical wars are represented in games in the future. It is important to note that wars were for the longest times narratively and aesthetically legitimized in video games: not only the Second World War but almost all historical wars. They were shown as the only way to solve the conflicts depicted by the games, be it the fight for the Japanese shogunate or the European crusades. Above all though, they are legitimized in terms of game mechanics, because there are ² in fact ² no other possibilities: Most games do not allow for any conflict resolution other than war. Thus they become a system of mutually reinforcing signs. As with all myths, however, we can assume that it is not historical worldviews but contemporary ones that are being negotiated here. In his conYHUVDWLRQZLWK*X\/DUGUHDXWKHPHGLHYDOLVW*HRUJH'XE\H[SODLQHG³,DPFRQ structing something that is the expression of myself, of my worldview.´43 Steffen Bender, for example, has convincingly pointed out how the Second World War as DQDUUDWLYHDOVRVHUYHGDVDWHPSODWHIRUFXUUHQWZDUVVXFKDVWKHµ:DURQ7HUURU¶44 Myths argue with history. Politicians again resorted to war rhetoric during the Corona Pandemic, which appears to be yet more evidence of an ongoingly potent myth which again shows that myths are always a contemporary phenomenon. Put simply, this myth has an immediately obvious political statement, he perpetuates the legitimization of warfare as an opportune foreign policy action.

42 The different political confrontations between the British and the Russian in the 19th FHQWXU\ZHUHFDOOHGWKH³*UHDWJDPH.³ 43 Duby, George / Lardreau, Guy: Geschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft. Dialoge, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1982, p. 43; also cf. Landwehr, Achim: Die anwesende Abwesenheit der Vergangenheit. Essay zur Geschichtstheorie, Frankfurt a. M.: S. )LVFKHU  S  ³'LH 6FKZLHULJNHLW VROFKHU JHJHQZDUWV]HQWULHUWHU 9HUVWlQGQLVVH ist, dass die Vergangenheit darunter zu verschwinden droht, weil sie nur noch Steigbgelhalterin eines jeweils aktualisierten Selbstverständnisses wäre und so gut wie NHLQHQ(LJHQZHUWPHKUEHVl‰H³ 44 S. Bender: Durch die Augen einfacher SoldatenSDOVRVHH6DEURZ0DUWLQ³*HV chichte als Instrument: VariatiRQHQEHUHLQVFKZLHULJHV7KHPD³LQAPuZ 63 (2013), pp. 3-11.

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M YTH 3: T HE N ATION IN D ANGER Having presented two very popular and dominant myths, both of which ² despite certain geographical foci ² must be analyzed from a global historical perspective, I would now like to present a localized myth. As already mentioned, history as a language allows not only one particular myth but potentially countless. The question is always only how successfully a myth can assert itself and whether it becomes part of our collective identity. Now, if we consider that in the vast majority of games traditional nationalism does not play an important role ² if only because of the globally targeted global market ² it is all the more intriguing when we do find an example of clear nationalistic statements in games. The fact that not all players consider themselves part of a post-national global community has been proven by Istvan Sudar, who took a closer look at forum debates on EUROPA UNIVERSALIS II (2001).45 He shows how Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian and Croatian players engaged in heated debates as to what allocation of core provinces in the game would be historically justified. It is exciting that the players also made intensive use of historicizing paintings, maps, and literature for this purpose. 2QWKHGHYHORSHU¶VVLGHZHUDUHO\ILQGVLPLODURSHQO\QDWLRQDOLVWLFKLVtorical arguments, but we find nationalistic myths nonetheless. One recent example is the µUHDOLVWLF¶ UROH-playing game KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (KC:D) from the Czech Warhorse Studio. It was aggressively sold as historically authentic, as can be seen in tKLVSURPRWLRQDOWH[W³.&'LVDQRSHQ-world, realistic RPG set in the ODWH0LGGOH$JHV7KHJDPH¶VIRFXVLVWKUHHIROGODYLVKYLVXDOVrealistic first-person melee combat and an immersive, credible story played out in an authentic setting that provides a refreshing alternative to corny, save-the-ZRUOGVFHQDULRV´46 ,WSD\VRIIWRWDNHDFORVHUORRNDWWKH³UHIUHVKLQJDOWHUQDWLYHWRFRUQ\ save-theZRUOGVFHQDULRV´,QWKHJDPHZHSOD\\RXQJ+HQU\VXSSRVHG VRQRIWKHORFDO blacksmith, who loses both his parents when Cuman soldiers under the control of Sigismund, king of Hungary and Croatia, attack the small village of Skalitz. The players then get a chance to avenge Henry's parents when Sir Radzig Koblya accepts him as his envoy. It is later revealed that Henry is in fact an illegitimate son of Radzig. The narrative framework is therefore the same as the story of the young blacksmith Balian in Ridley Scott's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (2005). The reason why the story seems so familiar to us is that we have heard it countless times in one

45 6XGDU,VWYDQ³:KHQ7KHUH$UH'LIIHUHQW+LVWRULHV%XW2QO\2QH*DPH³LQThe Ontological Geek, April 5, 2017; http://ontologicalgeek.com/when-there-are-different-histories-but-only-one-game/ 46 See https://warhorsestudios.cz/our-games/

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form or another. It is also the story of young William Thatcher in A KNIGHT¶S TALE (2001) or the story of Luke 6N\ZDONHULQ*HRUJH/XFDV¶STAR WARS (1977). This teenage fantasy of a boy saving the community is in itself not problematic, but what becomes problematic in KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE is that the developers claim the game to be more historically accurate than any other RPG when in fact it is not. There may be no orcs, dragons, demons, warlocks, or elves and most of the mentioned historical personalities did actually exist at the time the game takes place in. It is also true that the developers have spent many hours painstakingly recreating the architectural façade of a medieval Bohemia. However ³+LVWRULFDODFFXUDF\´LVXVHGLQWKHJDPHILUVWDQGIRUHPRVWDVDIDoDGHDKLVWRUL cizing background for a timeless boy fantasy. We learn almost nothing about the actual everyday life of Bohemian peasants or craftsmen in the 15th century, we learn nothing about their way of thinking ² an intricate and intelligently woven side quest about Hussites being the noteworthy exception. We certainly learn nothing about the life of women in this period of time, because apart from a mother, JLUOIULHQGDQGVRPHSURVWLWXWHVZHGRQ¶WLQWHUDFWZLWKZRPHQLQWKHJDPHDVLI they became part of the scenery.47 And WKLVLVZK\OHDGGHVLJQHU'DQLHO9DYUD¶V declaration becomes problematic, ZKHQKHH[SODLQV³6LQFHWKH&]HFKKLVWRULDQV were kind of cut off from the world, there was no one to tell our history. So basiFDOO\ZHDUHXVLQJSRSFXOWXUHWRVSUHDGWKHZRUG´48. This must be read as a marketing ploy. Here, a myth of an endangered Czech identity arises from the interaction of the game narrative, the audio-visual aesthetics (Cumans dehumanized as WKHIDFHOHVVµEDUEDULDQV¶ WKHJDPH PHFKDQLFVILJKWLQJDVWKHRQO\Volution to defend oneself against the conquerors) and the extradiegetic statements of the game developer.49 Thus the game mechanics and the narrative in the game became together with the public statements of its developer a system of mutually reinforcing signs. The myth is fuelling national resentments of a neglected Czech nation: ³)RUWKHSXUSRVHVRI'HOLYHUDQFHLW¶VHQRXJKWRVD\WKDWVHWWLQJDJDPHGXULQJWKH struggle for power between Sigismund and Wenceslas IV is loaded with historical significance relevant to the modern day. By turning them into easy symbols for good/Czech vHUVXVHYLOIRUHLJQWKH\IRUHVKDGRZDQDWLRQ¶VFHQWXU\ORQJILJKWIRU

47 %UDQGHQEXUJ$XUHOLD³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFHLVW5HDOVDWLUH´LQGeekgeflüster, September 2, 2018; https://geekgefluester.de/kingdom-comedeliverance-ist-realsatire 48 %ULOODXG%HQMDPLQ³+LVWRU\ V&UHHG ³LQarte.tv, 2017; https://www.arte.tv/de/ videos/074699-004-A/history-s-creed-4-10/ 49 3ILVWHU(XJHQ³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFH$%RKHPLDQ)RUHVW6LPXODWRU´LQ/LVD Kienzl / Katrin Trattner (eds.), Gamevironments 11 (2019): Special Issue on Nation(alism), Identity and Video Games, pp. 142-143.

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sovereignty, recalling a more recent past in which the Czech lands have had to contend with Soviet, Nazi and Austro-+XQJDULDQGRPLQDWLRQ´50 The myth is thus an immediately obvious political statement. In the end, the game teaches us nothLQJ QHZ DERXW &]HFK KLVWRU\ LWV µKLVWRULFDO DXWKHQWLFLW\¶ VHUYHV WKH SXUSRVH RI propagating a Czech national identity. It tell the story of an endangered nation surrounded by enemies trying to steal its sovereignty. This use of history as a political argument defines the Myth as a contemporary phenomenon. It remains to be seen whether we will encounter an increased number of nationalist myths in games in the future. This myth was successful in that the game sold over two million copies51 and Daniel Vavra gained enough local fame for his political comments to be heard in the Czech Republic. The myth of the endangered nation is also potent in that it draws directly on nationalist narratives of the past century.52

T O AUTHENTICATE THE M YTH

THE

M YTH = TO NATURALIZE

I would like to point out that I have presented here only three of an infinite number of possible myths: two of which I think are very dominant in that they are reproduced abundantly and globally in digital games (the myth of individualism and the myth of perpetual war) and a geographically limited but nevertheless financially successful one (the myth of an endangered Czech nation). With these three examples we can now approach the question of how political myths function in relation to historical authenticity. As previously stated, for a historicizing myth to function in the game it is, above all, necessary that it is perceived by players to be authentic or accurate, i.e., real. Only in this way can a myth avoid being challenged. As $GDP&KDSPDQZULWHV³OWPXVWDOVREHQRWHGWKDWIUDPLQJVRPHWKLQJDVKLVWRU\ in certain ways within popular culture can carry a particular authority and invoke

50 0F&DUWHU5HLG³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFH± Myth-making and Historical AccuUDF\³ LQ Unwinnable, March 2, 2018; https://unwinnable.com/2018/03/02/deliverance-myth-making-and-historical-accuracy/ 51 -RQHV$OL³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFHKDVVROGWZRPLOOLRQFRSLHV´LQ3&*DPHV1 February 13, 2019; https://www.pcgamesn.com/kingdom-come-deliverance/kingdomcome-deliverance-sales-numbers 52 Cf. Dörner, Andreas: Politischer Mythos und symbolische Politik. Der Hermannmythos: zur Entstehung des Nationalbewußtseins der Deutschen. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch 1996.

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QRWLRQVRIDXWKHQWLFLW\´53 Accuracy and authenticity are used by researchers and by an interested public as two distinct notions, but the definitions vary. 54 For my SXUSRVHV,GLVWLQJXLVKLQWKHIROORZLQJEHWZHHQµDFFXUDWH¶ZKHQJDPHVWU\WRHQ sure that certain details correspond as closely as possible to historical depictions DQGµDXWKHQWLF¶ZKHQLWFRPHVWRFUHDWHDIHHOLQJRISDVWQHVV$FFXUDF\WKXVVHUYHV the authentication of games or rather the feeling of authenticity (and its inherent cultural and ideological statements) in the traditional sense. Let us not forget that games with a historical setting, like films, series and novels ² here in contrast to history as a science ² have no obligation to reproduce the past as accurately as possible. Nevertheless, both the manufacturer and the user pay an increased attention to accuracy and authenticity. Indeed, historical accuracy ² as KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE has shown ² appears to work as a selling point. This also means that ² in the absence of our own surveys ² we must assume that there is a constant demand for historical authenticity, which would explain the success of these games. This is at least the viewpoint of those responsible for production and marketing of these games: According to Benedikt Schüler, Marketing Director at Ubisoft Germany, history is used similarly to a brand,55 to reduce the business risk involved in launching a game, because a product must be successful and recoup the sometimes very high production costs. 56 This demand, however, is not the result of a desire to experience history by completely simulating the life of the historical persons depicted in the games. Game developers still assume that nobody wants to re-enact days and weeks of waiting and doing nothing in war, the experience of receiving realistic injuries. Nor do these games give us the possibility to re-enact the lives of millions of historical peasants, but only those of a small handful of privileged regents and warriors. What, then, is perceived as authentic by a majority of players? The answer is repeatability. Authentication works by comparison.

53 A. Chapman: Digital Games as History, p. 36. 54 Cf. the introduction by Felix Zimmermann to this volume. 55 2QWKLVWRSLFVHHWKHFKDSWHUV³4XDUU\± Playground ± Brand. Popular History in VidHRJDPHV´E\$QJHOD6FKZDU]DQG³&UXVDGLQJ,FRQV0HGLHYDOLVPDQG$XWKHQWLFLW\LQ Historical DLJLWDO*DPHV´E\$QGUHZ%5(OOLRWWDQG0LNH+RUVZHOOLQWKLVYROXPH 56 B. Schüler/ C. Schmitz/ K. Lehman: Geschichte als Marke, p. 211; One should however specify that it is not history itself that becomes a brand, but rather concrete episodes known from popular culture, such as World War II. Salvati and Bullinger, accordingly, VSHDNRIWKH³%UDQG::´$6DOYDWL-%XOOLQJHUSelective Authenticity , p.154.

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As Felix Zimmermann convincingly demonstrated in the introduction to this volume, with recourse to Baudrillard and Winnerling, it is not a matter of scientific YHULILFDWLRQRUIDOVLILFDWLRQEXWPRUHRIµIHHOLQJ¶57 It is a matter of comparing the historical representation in a game with already known historical representations. Most people do not use scientific papers or monographs for this purpose, but rather memories of comparable depictions in popular culture. We find a nice anecdote about this in a forum for SHOGUN: TOTAL WAR II (2011). On the occasion of the debate whether the use of Horos58 LVDXWKHQWLFWKHXVHU³SXOSQRILFWLRQ´VDUFDV WLFDOO\ FODLPV ³7RP &UXLVH WKH ODVW DQG PRVW LPSRUWDQWRI DOO VDPXUDL GLG QRW wear one. Therefore they VKRXOGQRWEHLQWKLVJDPH´59 The search for authenticity is comparable to the search for the watermark on banknotes or to the checks made to discern whether a branded product is genuine or counterfeit. Valentin Groebner explains in his comments on history tourism that the more often and intensively the experience is reproduced and re-enacted, the more authentic it can claim to be.60 Concerning authenticity in the depiction of antiquities in digital games, Dunstan Lowe has called this a ³ER[WLFNLQJDSSURDFK >«@ZKHUHE\FHUWDLQKLJKOLJKWV of the classical world (those firmly anchored in the popular imagination) must be present regardless of chronological, geographical and other pragmatic constraints.´61 In sum: We can always only verify what we already know. Steffen %HQGHUVSHDNVRI³DXWKHQWLFLW\VLJQDOV´WKDWDUHXVHGLQJDPHV62 Carl Heinze used WKHWHUP³VFHQHU\DXWKHQWLFLW\´$QGUHZ6DOYDWLDQG-RQDWKDQ%XOOLQJHU³VHOHFWLYH

57 &IWKHLQWURGXFWLRQE\)HOL[=LPPHUPDQQWRWKLVYROXPHDOVRFI3ILVWHU(XJHQ³¶Wie es wirklich war.¶± :LHGHUGLH$XWKHQWL]LWlWVGHEDWWHLPGLJLWDOHQ6SLHO³LQGespielt | Blog des Arbeitskreises Geschichtswissenschaft und Digitale Spiele, May 18, 2017, https://gespielt.hypotheses.org/1334 58 A cloak looking like a balloon attached to the back of the armor worn by samurai. 59 See http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?437802-The-Great-Horo-Misunderstanding-(the-back-balloons-for-the-uninformed)/page2 from April 2010. 60 Groebner, Valentin: Retroland. Geschichtstourismus und die Sehnsucht nach dem Authentischen, Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer 2018, p. 32. 61 C. Rollinger: Playing with the Ancient World, p. 5. 62 Translation by the author, RULJ Ä$XWKHQWL]LWlWVVLJQDO³  %HQGHU 6WHIIHQ Virtuelles Erinnern. Kriege des 20. Jahrhunderts in Computerspielen, Bielefeld: transcript 2012, p. 44.

W HY H ISTORY IN D IGITAL G AMES MATTERS | 65

DXWKHQWLFLW\´631LFR1ROGHQ³REMHFWIL[DWLRQ´64 and Felix ZiPPHUPDQQ³REMHFW authenticLW\´65. The authentication of historicizing digital games therefore works primarily by comparing the representation with other popular cultural representations. First-person shooters set in World War II are therefore first compared to known movies and series like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or ENEMY AT THE GATES (2001). The reasons for why this need for authentication of experienced past exists and persists are not yet clear to me in their entirety. However, this desire for authentication should be understood as an integral part of the game fun if historicizing settings are involved. According to Winnerling, an assumed historical accuracy is VXSSRVHGWRKHOSDJDPHUHDFK³DVWDWHRIDXWKHQWLFDWLRQLQZKLFKLWFHDVHVWRLUUL tate players and succeeds in immersing them LQVWHDG´66 Once a historical representation has been authenticated in the game, most people no longer question it. It is thus naturalized in the sense of Roland Barthes and reinforces the communicated discursive statements.

P OLITICAL C OMMUNICATION AND I DENTITY C ONSTRUCTION IN V IDEO G AMES But where does this need for historical authenticity come from? In the following I would like to show that this demand is also produced by our socio-political system. For the reproduction of history in our popular culture also has a systemic function: If we assume, following Niklas Luhmann, that we witness an increase of functionally differentiation of an already complex society in the recent

63 7UDQVODWHGE\WKHDXWKRURULJÄ.XOLVVHQDXWKHQWL]LWlW³+HLQ]H&DUOMittelalter Computer Spiel. Zur Darstellung und Modellierung von Geschichte im populären Computerspiel, Bielefeld: transcript 2012, pp. 182-183. 64 7UDQVODWHGE\ WKH DXWKRU RULJÄ2EMHNWIL[LHUXQJ³ 1 1ROGHQ Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen, p. 54. 65 Cf. the introduction by Felix Zimmermann to this volume; Ibid: Digitale Spiele als historische Erlebnisräume. Ein Zugang zu Vergangenheitsatmopshären im Explorative Game, Glückstadt: vwh 2019, pp. 66-70. 66 :LQQHUOLQJ 7RELDV ³7KH (WHUQDO 5HFXUUHQFH RI $OO %LWV +RZ +LVWoricizing Video *DPH6HULHV7UDQVIRUP)DFWXDO+LVWRU\LQWR$IIHFWLYH+LVWRULFLW\³LQEludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8/1 (2014), pp. 151-170, here p. 159; Adam Chapman speaks in DVLPLODUFRQWH[WRI³FRQILJXUDWLYHUHVRQDQFH³LQ: A. Chapman: Digital games as History, 45.

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centuries, then we should also ask how these new highly specialized subsystems /XKPDQQJLYHVXVDVH[DPSOHV³(FRQRPLF3URGXFWLRQ´³3ROLWLFDO(QDEOLQJRI &ROOHFWLYHO\%LQGLQJ'HFLVLRQV´LHSROLWLFV ³/HJDO'LVSXWH6HWWOHPHQW´³0HG LFDO&DUH´³(GXFDWLRQ´³6FLHQWLILF5HVHDUFK´HWF FDQFRPPXQLFDWHZLWKHDFK other.67 Who today can still keep track of all economic, cultural, scientific, and political factors, even in a small state, and equally in all areas? Furthermore, each VXEV\VWHPFRQWDLQVLWVRZQVHPDQWLFVLWVRZQµODQJXDJH¶DQGLWVRZQYDOXHVDQG culture. For a society made up of politicians, workers, researchers, salespeople etc. to function as a whole, these subsystems must continue to be compatible with each other despite all their differentiation. For this reason, a common language and a shared world-view must exist. For example, there must be a consensus on the right form of government, the legitimacy of a monopoly of power, the definition of freedom or the question of taboos and boundaries in art and science, and how the legal system should operate. For the police and the courts to effectively function, DQRYHUZKHOPLQJPDMRULW\RIWKHSRSXODWLRQPXVWµEHOLHYH¶LQWKHUXOHRIODZ,V sues of relevance to society as a whole, such as climate protection or refugees, but also questions of scientific ethics or of gender equality must be constantly negotiated and communicated publicly. This process of political negotiation takes place, in part, in the corresponding political environments: in parliaments, within parties, and sometimes in specialized subsystems such as academic structures. However, in order for the decisions made here to become binding, they must be communicated to as many citizens as possible in democratic societies ² as well as in autocratic ones, by the way. I would argue that our popular culture and also video games serve the function to enable such communication. One such language, in possession of its own syntax and grammar, is the language of historicizing games. In my opinion, historical settings are particularly suitable for this purpose because ² in contrast to science fiction and fantasy settings ² they also provide their legitimation in the form of a historicized myth through the constant demand and supply for authenticity. I would argue that our cultural system itself produces a lot of these myths in order to reproduce and thus stabilize itself. Let us take one of the examples I have given as an illustration: I don't think that game developers of ASSASSIN¶S CREED BLACK FLAG consciously wanted to spread the myth of the individual as the only instance of morality. What happens here is rather a reproduction of dominant discursive statements. A historical setting ² in my example, the golden age of piracy ² thus

67 /XKPDQQ1LNODV³*HVHOOVFKDIWOLFKH6WUXNWXUXQG6HPDQWLVFKH7UDGLWLRQ³LQ%DUEDUD Stollberg-Rilinger (ed.), Ideengeschichte. Basistexte, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner 2010, pp. 187-221, here p. 210.

W HY H ISTORY IN D IGITAL G AMES MATTERS | 67

also serves the purpose of communicating that this social paradigm is historical. This prevents us from questioning it, which in turn means continued stability of the system. That is not a bad thing in itself. In order for our societal and political system to work we cannot constantly question everything but must accept many things as plausible and legitimate. At the same time, the example of the myth of the good war shows that the system, despite its tendency towards stability, also changes over time. Above all, this can occur whenever we become aware of these ideological statements in games and can thus question them. In recent years, public debate in Germany and elsewhere has led to a renewed interest in the question of the extent to which the crimes of the Nazi regime must also be portrayed in games which stimulated a different view of war in digital games.68 I have only described the tip of the iceberg in terms of the historicizing myth in video games. This fundamental process of identity construction has so far received too little attention from researchers, especially in the field of digital games. The authentication of the historicizing myth leads to its naturalization. With some distance, this can also be understood as a protective mechanism of the myth. It protects it from prying eyes. If we were not used to always playing historical wars from hundreds of comparable games, we could ask how many wars really were IRXJKWLQWKH0LGGOH$JHVDQGWKH5HQDLVVDQFH,IWKHJDPHVZHUHQ¶WIRUFLQJXV to wage war, we could ask ourselves if there were no other conflict resolution tools in the long history of mankind. Players could ask the question whether dynastic wars in the Middle Ages really threatened the Bohemian identity if Kingdom &RPH'HOLYHUDQFHZDVQ¶WSUHVHQWHGDVDQDXWKHQWLFUHSUHVHQWDWLRQRIDQDWLRQDO past. And those who study the history of piracy could ask questions about whether the golden age of piracy was not so much a struggle for freedom as a desperate fight for better living conditions for British sailors.

I NSTEAD OF A C ONCLUSION I think that the hypothesis I put forward, namely that historiographical games also serve as a language for system stabilizing myths is plausible precisely because the statements transported within them are so obvious. It is not about working out hidden messages from a text by means of close reading. It is about making the obvious visible through a certain distance. This answers the question of why our cultural and societal system promotes historicizing settings in popular culture, but

68 E. Pfister: ³0DQVSLHOW nicht mit Hakenkreuzen!, p. 267.

68 | E UGEN P FISTER

it does not answer why we demand it on an individual level. Why do we ³FUDYH´69 representations of the past?70 In the following ² in the absence of detailed studies on this question ² I can only argue historically. Until the (temporary?) end of the great comprehensive philosophies of history in the course of post-structuralism, history and the science of history were attributed an unambiguous function by philosophers such as Hegel and Marx: simply put, knowledge allows progress and/or liberation. I believe that such theories are partly the answer to our individual desire for history. We look for explanations for the world we live in. History gives us ² among many other things ² RULHQWDWLRQ*HUGD/HUQHUVSHDNVDFFRUGLQJO\RID³GHHSQHHGIRUKLVWRU\´ 71 that ³VHUYHVDVDQHFHVVDU\DQFKRUIRUXV,WJLYHVDVHQVHRISHUVSHFWLYe about our own lives and encourages us to transcend the finite span of our life-time by identifying ZLWKWKHJHQHUDWLRQVWKDWFDPHEHIRUHXV´72 We seek confirmation of our identity on an individual level. At the same time, however, Gerda Lerner had OLWWOH ORYH IRU ³IDOVH´ KLVWRU\ FRPPXQLFDWHGE\WKHPHGLD³E\SDFNDJLQJWKHSDVWLQWRER[HVQHDWO\ODEHOHGE\ GHFDGHVDQGRIIHULQJWKHVHIRUQRVWDOJLFUHOLYLQJ´6KHFDOOHGWKLVSKHQRPHQRQ³D VXUURJDWH KLVWRU\´73 I think we should understand her criticism as follows: The myth itself is neither good nor bad, it is only a matter of preserving the system as it is. But if one wants to change the system, it is first of all necessary to make the myth visible and thus open to scrutiny.

B IBLIOGRAPHY Amable, BrunRÄ0RUDOVDQGSROLWLcs in the ideology of neo-OLEHUDOLVP³LQSocioEconomic Review 9 (2011) pp. 3±30. Barthes, Roland: Mythen des Alltags, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2013. Barthes, Roland: Mythologies, Paris: Seuil 2014 Bauman, Zygmunt: Liquid Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press 2001. %HQGHU6WHIIHQÄ'XUFKGLH$XJHQHLQIDFKHU6ROGDWHQXQGQDPHQORVHU+HOGHQ :HOWNULHJVVKRRWHU DOV 6LPXODWLRQ KLVWRULVFKHU .ULHJVHUIDKUXQJ³ LQ $QJHOD

69 Carr, Edward Hallet: What is History? London: Penguin, p. 109. 70 2QWKLVWRSLFDOVRVHH³+LVWRU\LQ9LGHR*DPHVDQGWKH&UD]HIRUWKH $XWKHQWLF´E\ Angela Schwarz in this volume. 71 G. Lerner: Why History Matters, p. 200. 72 Ibid. p. 201. 73 Ibid. pp 200-201.

W HY H ISTORY IN D IGITAL G AMES MATTERS | 69

Schwarz (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte in Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 123-148. Bender, Steffen: Virtuelles Erinnern. Kriege des 20. Jahrhunderts in Computerspielen. Bielefeld: transcript 2012. Brandenburg, AurelLDĶ.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFH¶LVW5HDOVDWLUH´LQ Geekgeflüster, September 2, .2018; https://geekgefluester.de/kingdom-comedeliverance-ist-realsatire. &DPSEHOO&ROLQÄ7UXWKDQGIDQWDV\LQ$VVDVVLQ V&UHHG%ODFN)ODJ³LQPolygon, July 22, 2013; https://www.polygon.com/2013/7/22/4543968/truth-andfantasy-in-assassins-creed-4-black-flag. Carr, Edward Hallet: What is History? London: Penguin 1990. Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History. How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice, New York: Routledge 2018. Dörner, Andreas: Politischer Mythos und symbolische Politik. Der Hermannmythos: zur Entstehung des Nationalbewußtseins der Deutschen. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch 1996. Duby, George / Lardreau, Guy: Geschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft. Dialoge, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1982. Groebner, Valentin: Retroland. Geschichtstourismus und die Sehnsucht nach dem Authentischen, Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer 2018. Heinze, Carl: Mittelalter Computer Spiel. Zur Darstellung und Modellierung von Geschichte im populären Computerspiel. Bielefeld: transcript 2012. Hoffarth, Britta: Performativität als medienpädagogische Perspektive, Bielefeld: transcript 2009. Jones, Ali: ³.LQJGRP &RPH 'HOLYHUDQFH KDV VROG WZR PLOOLRQ FRSLHV³ LQ PCGamesN, February 13, 2019; https://www.pcgamesn.com/kingdom-comedeliverance/kingdom-come-deliverance-sales-numbers Kapell, Matthew Wilhelm / Elliott, Andrew: ³,QWURGXFWLRQ³LQ0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP Kapell / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the Past. Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York: Bloomsbury 2013, pp. 1-30. Kerschbaumer, Florian / Winnerling, Tobias: ³Postmoderne Visionen des Vor0RGHUQHQ³, in: Florian Kerschbaumer / Tobias Winnerling (eds.), Frühe Neuzeit im Videospiel. Geschichtswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Bielefeld: Transcript 2014, 11-26. Landwehr, Achim: Die anwesende Abwesenheit der Vergangenheit. Essay zur Geschichtstheorie, Frankfurt a. M.: S. Fischer 2016. Lerner, Gerda: Why History Matters: Life and Thought, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 199-212.

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Luhmann, Niklas: ³Gesellschaftliche Struktur und SemanWLVFKH 7UDGLWLRQ³ in: Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (ed.), Ideengeschichte. Basistexte, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner 2010, pp. 187-221. McCarter, Reid: ³Kingdom Come: Deliverance ± Myth-making and Historical $FFXUDF\³LQ Unwinnable, March 2, 2018; https://unwinnable.com/2018/03/ 02/deliverance-myth-making-and-historicalaccuracy Nolden, Nico: Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen. Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme, Berlin: De Gruyter 2019. Pasternak, Jan: ³500.000 Jahre an einem Tag. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Darstellung von Geschichte in epochenübegreifenden EchtzeitstrategiesSLHOHQ³ LQ $QJHOD 6FKZDU] HG  ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte in Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 29-62. Pfister, Eugen: ³'HU3LUDWDOV'HPRNUDW$VVDVVLQµV&UHHG,9%ODFN)ODJ± eine 5H]HQVLRQ³LQFrühneuzeit -Info 26 (2015), pp. 289-290. Pfister, Eugen: ³¶'HV SDWULRWHV FHV DEUXWLV¶ ,PDJLQDWLRQHn der französischen 5HYROXWLRQLPGLJLWDOHQ6SLHO$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\³LQFrühneuzeit-Info 27 (2016), pp. 198-201. Pfister, Eugen: ³9RQ.ULHJHQXQG6SLHOHQ³LQWASD 13 (2018), pp. 134-137. 3ILVWHU(XJHQ³'HU3ROLWLVFKH0\WKRVDOVGLVNXUVLYH$XVVDge im digitalen Spiel. (LQ%HLWUDJDXVGHU3HUVSHNWLYHGHU3ROLWLNJHVFKLFKWH´LQ7KRUVWHQ-XQJH Claudia Schumacher (eds.), Digitale Spiele im Diskurs. Fernuniversität Hagen 2018. http://www.medien-im-diskurs.de 3ILVWHU(XJHQ³µ,QDZRUOGZLWKRXWJROGZHPLJKWKDYHEHHQKHURHV¶&XOWXUDO ,PDJLQDWLRQVRI3LUDF\LQ9LGHR*DPHV´LQFIAR 11:2 (2018): Encounters in WKHµ*DPH-2YHU(UD¶7KH$PHULFDVLQDQG9LGHR*DPHV, pp. 30-43; http://interamerica.de/current-issue/pfister/ 3ILVWHU (XJHQ ³¶Wie es wirklich war.¶ ± Wieder die Authentizitätsdebatte im digitalen 6SLHO³ LQ Gespielt | Blog des Arbeitskreises Geschichtswissenschaft und Digitale Spiele, May 18, 2017, https://gespielt.hypotheses.org/1334

Pfister, Eugen: ³'Man spielt nicht mit Hakenkreuzen!' Imaginations of the HoloFDXVWDQG&ULPHV$JDLQVW+XPDQLW\'XULQJ:RUOG:DU,,LQ'LJLWDO*DPHV³ in: Alexander von Lünen et al. (eds.), Historia Ludens: The Playing Historian, London: Routledge 2019, pp. 267-284. Pfister, Eugen: ³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFH$%RKHPLDQ)RUHVW6LPXODWRU³LQ Lisa Kienzl / Katrin Trattner (eds.), Gamevironments 11 (2019): Special Issue on Nation(alism), Identity and Video Games, pp. 142-143. Rollinger, Christian: ³Playing with the Ancient World: An Introduction to ClassiFDO $QWLTXLW\ LQ 9LGHR *DPHV³ LQ &KULVWLDQ 5ROOLQJHU HG  Classical

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Antiquity in Video Games. Playing with the Ancient World, London: Bloomsbury 2020, pp. 1-18. Rosen, Nadine / Koller, Hans-Christoph: ³Interpellation ± Diskurs ± PerformativiWlW³LQ1RUEHUW5LFNHQ1LFROH%DO]HUHGV  Judith Butler: Pädagogische Lektüren, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 75-94. Sabrow, Martin ³Geschichte als Instrument: Variationen über ein schwieriges 7KHPD³LQAPuZ 63 (2013), pp. 3-11. Salvati, Andrew / Bullinger, Jonathan ³Selective Authenticity and the Playable 3DVW³LQ0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP.DSHOO$QGUHZ%5(OOLRWWHGV Playing with the Past. Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York: Bloomsbury 2013, pp. 153-168. Sandkühler, Gunnar: ³6LG0HLHU¶V3LUDWHV³LQ: Florian Kerschbaumer / Tobias Winnerling (eds.), Frühe Neuzeit im Videospiel. Geschichtswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Bielefeld: transcript 2014, pp. 181-194. Schüler, Benedikt / Schmitz, Christopher / Lehmann, Karsten: ³Geschichte als Marke. Historische Inhalte in Computerspielen aus der Sicht der Softwarebranche, in: Angela Schwarz (ed.) ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 199216. Schwarz, Angela: ³Siegen ist erst der Anfang, oder: Was kommt nach der Annäherung an die Geschichte im Computerspiel?, in: Angela Schwarz (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte in Computerspiel. Münster: LIT 2010, pp. 217-228. Schwarz, Angela: ³Geschichte HU]lKOHQ LQ 9LGHRVSLHOHQ³ LQ )ORULDQ .HUVFK baumer / Tobias Winnerling (eds.), Frühe Neuzeit im Videospiel. Geschichtswissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Bielefeld: transcript 2014, pp. 27-54. Sudar, Istvan: ³When There Are Different Histories But Only One GaPH³in: The Ontological Geek; http://ontologicalgeek.com/when-there-are-different-histories-but-only-one-game/ Tschiggerl, Martin / Walach, Thomas / Zahlmann, Stefan: Geschichtstheorie,: Berlin: Springer VS 2019. Wainwright, Alfred Martin: Virtual History. How Videogames Portray the Past, New York: Routledge 2019. Winnerling, Tobias, ³The Eternal Recurrence of All Bits: How Historicizing 9LGHR*DPH6HULHV7UDQVIRUP)DFWXDO+LVWRU\LQWR$IIHFWLYH+LVWRULFLW\³in: Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture. 8:1 (2014), pp. 151-170.

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Zimmermann, Felix. Digitale Spiele als historische Erlebnisräume. Ein Zugang zu Vergangenheitsatmopshären im Explorative Game. Glückstadt: vwh 2019. Zorn, Daniel Pascal. Vom Gebäude zum Gerüst. Entwurf einer Komparatistik reflexiver Figurationen in der Philosophie, Berlin: Logos 2016.

L UDOGRAPHY 1869 HART AM WIND! (Max Design, O: Max Design 1992) AGE OF EMPIRES [series] (Microsoft/THQ 1997-2019, O: Ensemble Studios et al.) ANNO [series] (Sunflower/Ubisoft 1998-2019, O: Max Design/Related Designs/Blue Byte) ASSASSIN'S CREED: BLACK FLAG (Ubisoft 2013, O: Ubisoft Montreal) ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY (Ubisoft 2014, O: Ubisoft Montreal) CAESAR [series] (Sierra 1992-1998, O: Impressions Games) CALL OF DUTY 2 (Activision 2005, O: Inifinity Ward) CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (Activision 2008, O: Treyarch 2008) CALL OF DUTY: WW II (Activision 2017, O: Sledgehammer Games / Raven Software) CRUSADER KINGS [series] (Paradox Entertainment 2004-2013, O: Paradox Entertainment) EUROPA UNIVERSALIS II (Paradox Entertainment 2001, O: Paradox Entertainment) HEARTS OF IRON [series] (Paradox Entertainment 2002-2016, O: Paradox Entertainment) KINGDOM COME; DELIVERANCE (Deep Silver 2018, O: Warhorse Studios) MEDAL OF HONOR: AIRBORNE (Electronic Arts 2007, O: EA Los Angeles) MEDIEVAL: TOTAL WAR (Activision 2002, O: Creative Assembly) PHARAOH [series] (Sierra 1999-2000, O: Impressions Games) PORT ROYALE [series] (Ascaron/ Take 2/ Kalypso 2002-2020, O: Ascaron / Gaming Minds) SHOGUN: TOTAL WAR II (Sega 2011, O: Creative Assembly) SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION [series] (MicroProse / Infogrames / 2K Games 19912016, O: MicroProse / Firaxis) SID MEIER'S COLONIZATION (MicroProse 1994, O: MicroProse) SID MEIER'S PIRATES [series] (MicroProse / Atari / 2K Games 1987-2004, O: MicroProse / Firaxis) THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND (Lucasfilm Games 1990, O: Lucasfilm Games) THE SIMS MEDIEVAL (Electronic Arts 2011, O: Maxis Redwood Shores)

Social Practices of History in Digital Possibility Spaces Historicity, Mediality, Performativity, Authenticity N ICO N OLDEN

A BSTRACT This article highlights mechanisms of authenticity that anchor the game experience as historically credible. Comparing the historical stagings of the three multiplayer online games THE SECRET WORLD (2012), TOM CLANCY¶S THE DIVISION (2016) and BATTLEFIELD V (2018), references can be found that link the historical knowledge provided to the collective memory of the acting players. A look into mediality and historicity of MMOs highlights key traditions that have shaped technical and game-cultural fundamentals. Possibilities for the players to act distinguish different spaces of historical agency among these examples. Communication in social communities finally hints at what players believe to be historically authentic in the knowledge offered.

D IGITALLY

PLAYING AROUND WITH

H ISTORY

TOM CLANCY'S THE DIVISION (2016) is an unusual combination of shooter, roleplaying and multiplayer online game (MMOG) in the guise of a science fiction thriller. After Manhattan plunges into chaos following a terrorist attack, the players swarm out as state-loyal sleeper agents to restore public order. Critique was sparked by the historical relevance of its contemporary setting as it painted a picture of society in which only the state prevents New Yorkers from robbing and

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murdering each other.1 Moreover, the eponymous program of the "Division" reminds²especially in Manhattan²of a controversial real-life incident: After the terrorist attacks in 2001, George W. Bush's Presidential Directive 51 allowed for the establishment of government-loyal strike forces in the country, bypassing democratic bodies of control.2 Plausibly depicted from a perspective of their life-world,3 the players act through the eyes of the agents in a game world where the thematic framework is determined heavily by historical and political ways of thinking. It seems unlikely that players would appropriate the background stories of the game world and its game mechanical rules but could remain unimpressed by any socio-cultural conception about the life-world that shapes the game. After all, players usually spend dozens of hours in game worlds. Exercising the mechanics of play and being exposed to the procedurally calculated world models, games in general influence SOD\HU¶VFRQFHSWLRQVRIWKHLUOLIHZRUOGVZLWKRXWLQYLWLQJUHIOHFWLRQDERXWWKLVSUR cess. Reviews seldom deal with such implications and many producers vehemently deny them by claiming their games were inherently unpolitical. Considering the references to the life-world mentioned above, THE DIVISION shows that digital games can definitely be of historical and political impact.4 To grasp the extent of how actively engaging with historic-political spaces affects the players, more studies need to systematically record and evaluate recipients as part of such a staging.5 More than ever, digital games are created as social

1

0DUWLQ*DUHWK'³7KH3HUYHUVH,GHRORJ\RI7KH'LYLVLRQ´LQKill Screen, March 16, 2019; https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/the-perverse-ideology-of-the-division/

2

(KUKDUGW0LFKHOOH³7KH'LYLVLRQGRHVQ WZDQW\RXWRWKLQNDERXW´LQKill Screen February 8, 2016; https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/the-division-doesnt-wantyou-to-think-about-911/

3

7KLVDUWLFOHUHIHUVWR¶OLIH-ZRUOG¶DVDVRFLR-cultural concept for the everyday environPHQWRIDKXPDQEHLQJ,QFRQWUDVWWRWKHFRQFHSWRIWKH¶UHDO¶ZRUOGZKLFK for examSOHFRQVLGHUVDGLJLWDOJDPLQJH[SHULHQFHWREHOHVV¶UHDO¶WKDQWKHDQDORJXHSK\VLFDO world. From a point of view of perception, however, such a separation cannot be maintained.

4

6LJO5DLQHU³'HU0\WKRVYRPXQSROLWLVFKHQ6SLHO³LQ Grimme Game, January 17, 2019; https://www.grimme-game.de/2019/01/17/der-mythos-vom-unpolitischen-spiel/

5

Giere, Daniel: Computerspiele ± Medienbildung ± historisches Lernen. Zu Repräsentation und Rezeption von Geschichte in digitalen Spielen. Frankfurt a. M.: Wochenschau +RXJKWRQ5REHUW³:KHUHGLG\RXOHDUQWKDW"7KHVHOI-perceived impact of hisWRULFDOFRPSXWHUJDPHVRQXQGHUJUDGXDWHV´LQ Gamevironments 5 (2016), pp. 8±45; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00105656-16

S OCIAL P RACTICES OF H ISTORY IN D IGITAL P OSSIBILITY S PACES | 75

and collaborative spaces of experience and a significant share of them use historical, contemporary, and political scenarios. Historical and game studies need a better understanding of those phenomena, because games constitute open spheres with high degrees of freedom through procedural rule systems and game mechanics, in which players exercise historical practices, perhaps even adopt principles.6 This points towards approaches in fields of historical sciences that focus on performative acts RIDJHQF\HJÄ'RLQJ+LVWRU\³DQG3XEOLF+LVWRU\  This article highlights mechanisms of authenticity that anchor the game experience as historically credible, using the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) THE SECRET WORLD (2012) as a case study. In comparison to properties of BATTLEFIELD V (2018) and THE DIVISION as further shapes of multiplayer games, the article distinguishes different spaces of historical agency. A community study on THE SECRET WORLD reveals valuable insights on how players communicate about their historical experiences and thus create a commemorative culture. These findings are not only relevant for approaches regarding performativity and commemorative culture in historical and game studies, but also enable game designers to develop innovative methods to stage history.

C OMMEMORATION

AND

A UTHENTICITY

When societies remember their history, they use external storage media and culturally acquired practices.7 Individuals and cultures build their memory interactively through communication. Memories are transported medially through metaphors, through writing and pictorial representations, with the help of the body itself (e.g. by traumata) and through places of remembrance. Without such external storage media, it would not be possible to build up a memory spanning generations and epochs. This means that the changing state in the development of media also alters how memory itself is composed. In an understanding of technical-cultural historiography, technology, culture and society keep on spiralling, as societies meet their needs that arise from their specific culture through technical solutions.8 Using them, this culture changes and thus new needs emerge. Technical solutions will then in turn be sought to satisfy these needs again. Digital multiplayer games that are framed by historical and

6

See Rüdiger Brandis analysis of historical procedural rhetorics in this volume.

7

Assmann, Aleida: Erinnerungsräume: Formen und Wandlungen des kulturellen

8

Heßler, Martina: Kulturgeschichte der Technik, Frankfurt a. M.: Campus 2012.

Gedächtnisses, München: Beck 2010, p. 19.

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political conceptions can thus be understood as a technical form of collective historical memory that has adapted to the needs and conditions of a digital network age.9 The technical form of the memory storage depends on the content that a society considers worth preserving. Material data carriers like books or hard disk drives support this process as mnemonic tools.10 In this sense, the intricate staging of political and historical environments in THE DIVISION and THE SECRET WORLD expresses collective needs to remember history and politics in a technically desired and achievable form of their time. Especially in a multiplayer game the individual memory of each player cannot be separated from a collective memory. Both are connected by social practice (in this case playing) and communicative processes.11 They transfer ephemeral individual memories into the cultural memory of a social community, in other words also communities of players intersecting in and around the game world. Similar to WKHFRQFHSWRIDVRFLDOO\FRQVWUXFWHGµUHDOLW\¶QRWLRQVRIWKHSDVWDULVHfrom social construction, which appear under the impression of the needs and conditions of its respective present.12 When social groups such as player communities in an MMO encounter and exchange historical and political knowledge, they interpret the past in terms of a commemorative culture. What needs to be clarified, then, is how the players determine that the knowledge offered in a digital game is presumably historically authentic. Most importantly, the following has to be addressed: Which forms of authentication are revealed through media? Which milieus are negotiating what is considered historically authentic?13 Unfortunately, there is no data about the players and their social milieus in this respect.

9

+DXVDU*HUQRW³*HVSLHOWH*HVFKLFKWH'LH%HGHXWXQJYRQ/RUHLP0DVVLYH0XOWL SOD\HU6SLHO(YH2QOLQH´,QHistorische Sozialkunde, 4 (2013), pp. 29±35, here p. 29; ChristiDQVHQ3HWHU³6RFLDO&RQVWUXFWLRQRI7HFKQRORJ\LQ*DPHV´Play the Past, June 11, 2014; http://www.playthepast.org/?p=4819

10 A. Assmann: Erinnerungsräume, p. 21. 11 Welzer, Harald. Das kommunikative Gedächtnis: Eine Theorie der Erinnerung. München: Beck 2008, pp. 225 and 235. 12 Assmann, Jan. Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. München: Beck 2007, pp. 34±48. 13 6DEURZ0DUWLQ6DXSH$FKLP³+LVWRULVFKH$XWKHQWL]LWlW=XU.DUWLHUXQJHLQHV)RU scKXQJVIHOGHV´LQLGHP(eds.), Historische Authentizität, Göttingen: Wallstein 2016, pp. 7±28, here p. 27.

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Statements by developers, however, reveal basic principles on how they implement historical offerings.14 (1) Objects and materials such as the architecture of a temple or the measurements of a submarine still take center stage. (2) Others rely on networks of narratives, consisting for example of cutscenes, missions and entries in databases, which the players themselves combine into a historical game experience. (3) Some rely on macro-historical models for game mechanics and computational systems that simulate, societal processes or the global economy in a strategy game. (4) And not least, historical world designs increasingly stage a specific segment of land, elaborating a medieval village, for instance, with wind and weather, flora and fauna and the everyday encounters of its inhabitants. These four aspects, which the developers consciously create, can serve as starting points for getting closer to the recipient's understanding of historical stagings.

A GENCY

WITHIN

H ISTORICAL P OSSIBILITY S PACES

In historically themed spaces of digital games, however, it is not sufficient to concern oneself only with the historical offerings. From the perspective of players, possibilities to interact with the historically themed spaces have a huge impact on historical perceptions. Especially if designed in the specific form of a multiplayer online game, researchers need to include the possibilities for players to act together and communicaWHZLWKHDFKRWKHU+RZRIIHULQJVDQGSOD\HU¶VDJHQF\DUH arranged constitutes the historical possibility space of an MMO. 6HYHUDOSDUDOOHOVWRSUDFWLFHVRI³'RLQJ+LVWRU\´FDQEHUHFRJQL]HGKHUHHV pecially to those of historical re-enactment:15 Like the people involved in such practices, players act autonomously in procedural, spatial environments that provide them with historical scenarios. They orchestrate their individual historical staging in co-authorship with developers in the same way the organizers of a reenactment prepare the offerings of historical knowledge.16 But this knowledge is only realized in the act itself. Multiplayer online titles, but increasingly also hybrids of single and multiplayer gameplay, offer social and collaborative experiences. Using individually customizable avatars, well-directed game-mechanical

14 Nolden, Nico. Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen: Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2019, pp. 42-56. 15 1ROGHQ1LFR³'LJLWDOHV6SLHOHQXQG5HHQDFWPHQW³LQ-XOLDQH7Rmann / Sabine Stach (eds.), Reenactment, Berlin: de Gruyter, tba. 16 Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History: How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice. New York: Routledge 2016, 198-230.

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systems and audio-visual methods, digital games support players in many ways to identify themselves emotionally with their embodiment in the digital space. This sensual-physical experience of agency, tied to a specific present-day space and the interplay of the atmospheric experience of presence with the relationships to and the meaning of objects, can lead to impressive subjectively and culturally induced imaginations of the past.17 The emerging historical cultures are worth investigating both in various pasts and for the present. As an essential source for the cultural history of digital media societies, multiplayer online games should also be investigated in this respect.18 The field of Public History provides four concepts to grasp a cultural-historical orientation of a possibility space.19 (1) Regarding Historicity, this approach investigates the level of contemporary history as well as reflections of pasts in their respective time contexts. (2) Performativity describes historical stagings as creative transformation processes of human beings with themselves and in their environment. (3) The concept of cultural heritage is based on the materiality of historical relics from which a staged performance draws its authenticity. (4) Understanding relics as a medial transport route for history, the term materiality must be substituted with mediality for digital games. This term refers to the media properties that form the character of the historical staging. References that link the historical offers to the collective memory of the acting players and are therefore deemed as authentic, then, can be identified especially for digital games. As anchors from the game world to the life-world they sustain the authenticity of a historical staging in spaces of playful possibilities. The following section considers the mediality of multiplayer online games together with their historicity to highlight key traditions that have shaped technical and game-cultural fundamentals for the mnemonic carrier medium. On this basis and in the next step, anchors for authenticity can be found in the historical knowledge provided by the games in the next step. The article then outlines the options available to the players to act in this historical space of possibilities. Communication of players in social communities finally hints at what they believe to be historically authentic in the knowledge offered.

17 Samida, Stefanie / Willner, SaraK  .RFK *HRUJ ³'RLQJ +LVWRU\ ± Geschichte als 3UD[LV³LQLGHP(eds.), Doing History. Performative Praktiken in der Geschichtskultur, Münster: Waxmann 2016, pp. 1±25, here p. 17. 18 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 474. 19 6DPLGD6WHIDQLH³3XEOLF+LVWRU\DOV+LVWRULVFKH.XOWXUZLVVHQVFKDIW(LQ3OlGR\HU³ in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, June 17, 2014, pp. 1±11, here p. 6-8; https://docupedia.de/zg/Public_History_als_Historische_Kulturwissenschaft

S OCIAL P RACTICES OF H ISTORY IN D IGITAL P OSSIBILITY S PACES | 79

M EDIALITY

AND

H ISTORICITY : C HILDREN OF

THEIR

T IME

Online role-playing games like THE SECRET WORLD have grown from a long tradition of analogue games since the seventies.20 Their conventions originate from role-playing games, based on paper, pen and dice (Pen&Paper). At the same time, they breathe the spatial atmosphere of collaborative performances on site like Live Action Role-Playing (LARP). Multiplayer shooters like THE DIVISION refer to an analogue tradition of battle simulations, for example military conflict simulations (CoSims) in the form of board games and tabletop battles with miniature figures. All those predecessors are still being played and provide beside fantasy and science-fiction also historical scenarios. Computer-aided forerunners can be found in development lines of singleplayer and arena shooters, which were played in local networks at LAN parties of the nineties. At the turn of the millennium, multiplayer shooters like UNREAL TOURNAMENT and COUNTER STRIKE (both 1999) increasingly shifted to online communities. Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) have been offering computer-supported preliminary stages of today's online role-playing games since the eighties. They also gathered the first online communities to play. From the mid-1980s onwards, the cost of PCs fell, which massively spread the operating system Windows, making the platform attractive as a gaming system. But it was not until the end of the nineties that MMORPGs united larger numbers of players on their servers. Because of cheaper and time-independent tariffs more powerful Internet connections became affordable for the general public. Since then, MMORPGs have developed a distinct tradition. Representatives like WORLD OF WARCRAFT (2004) had a lasting influence on technical conventions and usage habits, for example in shooters too. Which actions a multiplayer online role-playing games enables the players to perform has been determined by basic characteristics still in use by and originating from these predecessors.21 They span game worlds where people come together for an online adventure. Players may customize their avatar in terms of attributes like physique, hairstyles and their clothing. They choose skills and traits whose numerical values determine whether actions fail or succeed. Some weapons can only be handled with sufficient strength, and it requires dexterity to pick locks. Embodied by this character, players enter environments to fight creatures or other players, and to collaborate on tasks. If they are successful, they earn experience

20 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 336-381. 21 0RUWHQVHQ7RULOO³:R: LVWKH1HZ08'6RFLDO*DPLQJIURP7H[WWR9LGHR´LQ Games and Culture, 1(2006), pp. 397±413; https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412006292622

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points, which they use to improve skills and character values. As additional equipment improves their embodied self, their avatars advance into more challenging areas, explore narrative backgrounds more deeply and master more difficult missions. Within the framework of the technical and game mechanical specifications, they develop a game world representative of themselves according to individual preferences and their desired playing style. Creating this individual character significantly shapes the access to the game world. Players of THE SECRET WORLD may customize male or female avatars by age and height, with hairstyles, face shapes and skin colors.22 Consistent with this game world, outfits, hairstyles and external attributes can be changed later only when players visit garment stores, hairdressers or even a plastic surgeon.23 The setting includes a contemporary selection of clothing and accessories.24 Both play an important role in the staging of their game world self.25 Sporty outfits, jeans and sweaters up to suits and cocktail dresses are selectable. Voluminous armour does not match the contemporary historical setting. More discreetly, however, amulets, rings and talismans bestow attributes such as shielding, healing or attack powers. Some garments display prestige because their wearers must have completed certain missions or hold a special rank in their faction. Which aspects the players emphasize remains up to their preferences. As the game progresses, players invest their experience points into a talent wheel of hundreds of skills. These influence each other and, in combination with equipped objects and weapons, enhance certain skills, such as accurate shotgun hits or healing powers. Overall, the game systems concentrate on the player's embodiment and its enhancement. Almost all interactions of players are based on actions using their avatars. Its GHVLJQDQGGHYHORSPHQWVWUXFWXUHWKHSOD\HU¶VFRJQLWLYHRULHQWDWLRQDQGKLVRUKHU understanding of the game world.26 Avatars thus establish bridges between the players and the game world; not only mentally, but as an extension of the physical

22 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 484. 23 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 501. 24 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 444-45. 25 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 499-504. 26 )DKOHQEUDFK.DWKULQ6FKU|WHU)HOL[³(PERGLHG$YDWDUVLQ9LGHR*DPHV0HWDSKRUV LQ WKH 'HVLJQ RI 3OD\HU &KDUDFWHUV´ LQ .DWKULQ )DKOHQEUDFK (ed.), Embodied Metaphors in Film, Television, and Video Games, London: Routledge 2016, pp. 251±68, here pp. 252 & 256.

S OCIAL P RACTICES OF H ISTORY IN D IGITAL P OSSIBILITY S PACES | 81

body into the game world.27 Digital games have developed subtle methods for this.28 For example, the acoustic staging evokes a feeling of embodiment.29 Its spatial depth helps the players to situate themselves in the game world. If their avatars move across surfaces like gravel and forest soil, sound effects transfer physical impact through weight and the composition of materials. Essentially, all these technical and gameplay standards are still in use for online role-playing games, but since the 2010s, they have increasingly spread to other multiplayer games. Even a team tactical shooter like BATTLEFIELD V (2018) constantly delivers new content for its World War II scenario as a continuous service. Developers add combat zones such as the Pacific War, new vehicles or weapons. In addition, the shooter took over central game systems regarding the customization of avatars. Admittedly, players have always decided on certain ways of playing with archetypes of supporter, medic, assault soldier and scout. However, BATTLEFIELD V allows them to customize their appearance in the battles. Because a world war shooter is hectic, outward appearance to other players should play OHVVRIDUROHDQGLVUDWKHUPHDQWIRUWKHSOD\HU¶VRZQSOHDVXUHWRSRUWUD\YLUWXDO embodiment. In an elaborate progress system, players continuously unlock new paint for weapons and vehicles, items, clothing and game archetypes. THE DIVISION mixes typical elements of shooters, such as accurately shooting at target zones on the body with elements of role-play. Expecting a shooter, it seems unusual that opponents would survive severe headshots, just because the VNLOOVRIWKHSOD\HUV¶DYDWDUQRWHYHQO\PDWFKWKRVHRIWKHRSSRQHQW$VWKHJDPH progresses, the agency level for their character increases. Players customize and equip their agents according to their own preferences. During exploration of the destroyed Manhattan, they present themselves to other players outside of battles too. Weapons and equipment improve properties like penetration and accuracy, so they are to be understood as extended properties of the avatar. While single-player campaign and multiplayer experience fundamentally differ in BATTLEFIELD V, THE DIVISION merges both into a hybrid game system. Parts of the game experience can be undertaken alone, but many missions require players to form groups spontaneously. Some players join together from the outset for all experiences. From the historical origins to the current state of MMOs all lineages reveal a common thread: Their environments provide players with opportunities to choose

27 6FKU|WHU )HOL[ ³:DON D 0LOH LQ 0\ 6KRHV 6XEMHFWLYLW\ DQG (PERGLPHQW LQ 9LGHR *DPHV´LQ0DLNH65HLQHUWK-DQ-Noël Thon (eds.), Subjectivity Across Media, London: Routledge 2016, pp. 196±213, here pp. 197 & 201. 28 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 504/5. 29 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 456-461, esp. pp. 457 & 459.

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how to represent themselves in the game world and how to shape their access with a gameplay style they desire. The three examples show that this aspect has spread increasingly as a default from MMORPGs to other types of MMOs in recent years.

A UTHENTICITY : A NCHORS

OF A

S ECRET W ORLD

MMOs also have different approaches with historical perspectives. BATTLEFIELD V promises that players could immerse into the combat experience on World War II battlegrounds set in the historical period. In contrast, THE DIVISION uses a historical-political framework to showcase near-future Manhattan rather implicitly. THE SECRET WORLD, however, adopts a contemporaneous, per se commemorative perspective, in which players look back on manifestations of cultural history. All of them use the four components, mentioned in the preliminary theoretical considerations, to present history as authentic: In the first two cases, objects include world war weapons and iconic sites like the devastated Times Square. They use narrative networks of database entries, text fragments in the game world or recorded scenes of previous events. Macro-historical assumptions are reflected by choice and composition of warring parties for instance: BATTLEFIELD V fades out the entire Eastern European theatre with the Nazi extermination campaign, and THE DIVISION designs the hostile social model mentioned above. The micro-historical world concepts of both games stage everyday historical environments, too. In THE DIVISION, automated routines of social turmoil affect Manhattan communities namely reoccurring gang attacks and survivors who seek help. These routines frame a specific everyday historical conception of life during riots. The game PRGH³%UHDNWKURXJK´RIBATTLEFIELD V deploys players on a battlefield with advancing strategic objectives, for example during the U.S. landing operation on Iwo Jima. Because other game modes lack this authenticity anchor of a frontline being continuously pushed forward, they suit urban warfare better. THE SECRET WORLD deploys such anchors in an even more complex way by offering a carefully woven historical fabric that positions the contemporary game world as plausible. Its fibers consist of historical findings, legends and myths, popular culture and conspiracies. Each region addresses various tiers of epochs: History spans from early Egyptians to late Roman antiquity and medieval references, on to early modern Transylvania, up to the East-West conflict of the last century and into the globalized present-day world after the turn of the millennium.30 Historical topics become linked worldwide. For example, the British

30 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 469-71.

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Imperial Era connects London with the New English colonies, but also with archaeology and resource exploitation in Egypt. Moreover, interpretations of historical developments contradict each other, in part because the game breaks up an Eurocentric view through perspectives of global history and postcolonialism. Iconic objects encode the locations around the world into a historical game environment.31 They dock in an abstract, yet recognizable way at the collective knowledge about these locations.32 Western clothing and vehicles indicate a time horizon around the year 2010, when players travel to larger game areas in New England, Egypt and Romania, and metropolitan districts of New York, London, Seoul and Tokyo. Developers use architecture of buildings and infrastructure, vehicles, clothing, everyday objects and mythical creatures to create plausible impressions with historical references. The London architecture of the late 19th century underlines the imperial aspirations for worldwide dominance of the faction there. Land Rover Defenders mark the Egyptian territories as places for safaris and research expeditions. Style and accessories emphasize historical contexts of clothing, for example in case of the indigenous Wabanaki in New England. Many everyday objects capture contemporary historical conflicts between tradition and modernity: Shishas on low tables with cushions characterize a traditional Egyptian teahouse. Not far away, in the café of the village, a young female bar owner offers colorful soft drinks on white plastic furniture. The more important objects are for player actions, the more historically accurate they get. Although many hieroglyphs are pure ornaments, a secret chamber will open only when players properly arUDQJHWKHV\PEROVRIDSKDUDRK¶VOLIHSKDVHV2EMHFWVOLNHVPDUWSKRQHVKDYHFUHG ible functions in the game world because player characters receive calls on them. Creatures reveal differentiated cultural historical strategies: Motifs for werewolves are rooted in popular culture. Vampires are modified, because developers let them fight by day. Transregionally unknown types draw on folkloric origins just like the fairy peoples Vântoase. Experimental mutations of Soviet soldiers complement creations that originate in the game world itself. As a second pillar, networks of narrative fragments connect game world, present and historical levels.33 At its core the game elaborates a meshwork of over one hundred personalities. They express diverse views about factions, game world events, cultural-historical content and the attitudes of third parties. Demographic, social and ethnic conditions shape their personal attitudes. In New England, for H[DPSOHDIRUHPDQ¶VZLGRZDQGWKHLQGLJHQRXVWabanaki quarrel over a mining

31 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 382-423. 32 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 387. 33 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 424-43.

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accident. This dispute involves colonial background and the recent economic decline. Now, a few decades later, many participants are rethinking their former persuasions because of their life-time experiences. In addition, worldviews frame these perspectives, especially dependent on the faction the players initially chose to be part of. The personalities provide missions and players report to this faction after they succeed, with their corresponding headquarters providing a final statement on these events. Components of these missions like the final reports and intermediate sequences add further narrative elements. Among missions, especially the investigative type requires players to extrapolate the next tasks from incomplete information of conversations or documents. Because they need to consult external knowledge on the Internet, the game world reaches beyond the game content. Further fragments add knowledge on various topics to an encyclopaedic database. The range of knowledge varies fluidly due to updates or seasonal reoccurring content. The game world makes macro-historical model assumptions about society, economic and political influence as well as sciences, especially historical science.34 These models stage a western-style, globally linked society, sporadically displaying cultural areas through accessories. Diversity is valued in terms of gender, demography, socialisation, cultures and ethnic roots. Hermetically sealed off game zones, surrounded by military and emergency forces, hint at a majority society that tends to exclude any otherness. Noticeably, all personalities in the game suffer from this, because they live in grey areas. The game world reveals conflicts about the benefits of science and ethical responsibility constantly. Both game systems and personalities sketch a fluid, variable character of historical knowledge of changing multi-perspective interpretations, which, depending on their respective historical contexts, are reassessed and reinterpreted. Fourthly, from a micro-historical point of view, world designs concentrate on small-scale environments.35 Dynamic systems combine atmospheric stagings from topography, flora and fauna, weather and climate, sound and lighting as well as automated routines to generate plausible everyday historical settings. Topographical and geological features such as extensive sandy beaches in front of rugged cliffs with a hilly, darkly wooded hinterland define the New England coast. If a misty coastal climate dominates there, chilly, bluish nights turn into shimmering daytime heat in Egypt. Routines of wandering creatures and humans bring life to the areas. Lighting conditions contribute extensively to the atmospheric mood, alternating from day to night. The transition from a sun-drenched fog over meadows

34 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 443-52. 35 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 452-67.

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shifts the light spectrum towards a dampened greenish forest area. Noises, sounds and music form complex soundscapes. When rotors approach or a distant gunshot echoes, they imbue the game world with spatial depth. Sound effects of steps differ on a wooden bridge, a gravel path or an asphalt road. In addition, developers blur the boundaries of where the game world begins and the life-world of the players ends, deploying websites for game-world companies such as the Orochi Group, blogs or accounts for characters in social media.36 The four core aspects thus interact to form a knowledge system that makes a historical experience plausible to the players. Each of these components provide reference points for this credibility, functioning as authenticity anchors in their own way and thus set the stage for a playful experience. The existing options to interact with all these elements establish the historical possibility space for the players. These individual anchors each set linkages to knowledge assets of a collective memory in a commemorative culture. The game thus becomes a medial memory storage that has adopted a contemporary technical form as an archive to satisfy the need for historical memories.

P ERFORMATIVITY : P LAYERS , I NTERACTION , AND C OMMEMORATION Within the rules framework of the game system, players can act self-determined. This section therefore examines how players deal with the authenticity anchors offered. In the continuum of MMOs, BATTLEFIELD V, THE DIVISION, and THE SECRET WORLD vary not only in scenarios and historical access, but also in the technical approaches of their media conception. This results in very different spaces of action for the players. BATTLEFIELD V, for example, focuses on the immediate combat situation. Players of THE DIVISION go beyond combat to investigate a terrorist bioweapon attack at a specific location in southern Manhattan. Actions of players, the constitution of their communities and the commemorative culture are linked particularly intensively in THE SECRET WORLD, hence this section focusing on this case study in particular. Developers deliberately enable different ways of playing. This flexibility was reflected in the archetypes of soldiers in BATTLEFIELD V, for example, that suit different playing styles: While Medics patch up teammates, the Assault carries out

36 2URFKL*URXS³2IILFLDO:HEVLWH´; http://www.orochi-group.com; Freeborn, TyOHU³0RQVWHUVRI0DLQH$Q,QYHVWigation into the Cryptozoological and Occult Events 2FFXULQJRQ6RORPRQ,VODQG´; http://bit.ly/2sn4lkR

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firefights, and scouts spot foes from afar. More complex by design, MMORPGs distinguish between player types of Achiever, Socializer, Explorer and Impostor.37 Roughly put, the former are driven to reach goals. Socializers rather enjoy meeting with players. The third type explores stories and the game world. The latter attempts to break the rules. In between hybrid forms mingle, because Achievers among Socializers try to accomplish goals through group activities. One type usually dominates the others and significantly tints the access to the authenticity anchors.38 Although all players interact with them, each style results in different overall impressions.39 The historical reference appears obvious with Explorers, because they explore the game world and search for knowledge. However, the search for challenges also fills the encyclopaedic database, while Achievers work through specific awards. Because they process documents, creatures, and places, they may also gain intense historical impressions. Socializers may develop historical understanding because they communicate more with others about the game world. Additionally, they bind more closely to it because they perform their avaWDU¶VHPERGLPHQWPRVWH[WHQVLYHO\ Using the options for action provided by the game system, and embodied by their avatar, players orchestrate their historical staging in a co-authorship with developers.40 Sure, the latter create the historical content in the development process. Players, however, individually combine the components of the historical knowledge system they are interested in into a historical experience. This act of playing digitally in the historical space of possibilities enables a sensual and physLFDOH[SHULHQFHLQWKHVHQVHRI³'RLQJ+LVWRU\.´41 The atmospheric experience of presence interplays with relationships to objects and their meanings. Even lighting and sounds of artifacts is used as interactive components during missions. In one, players search for the corpse of the historical figure of St. Nicholas of Myra. For

37 Bartle, Richard A.: Designing Virtual Worlds. Berkeley: New Riders 2006, S. 128-157. 6HHIRUWKHFRPSOH[LW\.RVWHU5DSK³8OWLPD2QOLQH V,QIOXHQFH´LQRaph Koster's Website September 28, 2017; https://www.raphkoster.com/2017/09/28/ultima-onlinesinfluence/; Garriott, Richard: Explore/Create. Gamer Adventurer Pioneer ± My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark. New York: Harper Collins 2017, pp. 151-92. 38 Yee, Nick: The Proteus Paradox. How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us ± And How They Don't. Yale 2014, p. 29; N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 499-504. 39 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 506. 40 A. Chapman: Games, p. 14-15 and 283 point to this complementary collaboration as FRQFHSWVRI³SOD\HU-KLVWRULDQ´DQG³GHYHORSHU-historian.´ 41 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 506.

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this purpose, they decode motifs from Mozart's The Magic Flute, with which they are able to influence their environment.42 Such sensual-physical experiences can spawn subjective-cultural imaginations of the past.43 Significant portions of the game experience group players together. Some compete against each other; others collaborate to solve tasks. A third group hunts creatures of the game world on raids. Role players, in turn, do not leave the perspective of their imagined characters when they gather. Temporary groups are formed by small numbers of people spontaneously.44 Loose Parties play together regularly. Clans or guilds form larger networks that also organize outside of the game. In alliances even several guilds may cooperate. Their organization is determined by the design of the gaming environment, but general habitual codes have been established which are maintained outside of the gaming environment, such as on websites too. Dispute resolution, gift economies or the importance of social capital reveal such complex social phenomena that players quite clearly do not just come together to play, but play to come together.45 Because the game environment is designed that way, communication among the players fulfils a central function by in-game, hybrid and external means.46 Internally, they type short messages in text chat. Closer connected groups use voice telephony (VoIP) from external providers. Because they communicate at the same time and on the occasion of the game, it is both internal and external. Hierarchically higher group forms organize externally on own websites and forums. Their players communicate with one another even beyond the gaming experience. Channels extend further than just verbal communication. For example, players enjoy showing off unusual equipment, their prestige through ranks or other achievements. With the aid of non-verbal, symbolic communication, they express through IDFLDOH[SUHVVLRQVDQGJHVWXUHVRIWKHLUFKDUDFWHU³(PRWHV´  Written testimonies in the official forum on THE SECRET WORLD demonstrated that communication about historical content was continuously taking place for the period 2007 to 2017.47 Fluctuating in density and intensity, players discussed most aspects of the historical knowledge system in hundreds of contributions. Discussions ranged from object culture and narrative networks to micro-historical world

42 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. 438. 43 S. Samida / S. Willner / G. Koch: Doing History, p. 17. 44 N. Nolden: Geschichte, p. S. 513. 45 Inderst, Rudolf T.: Vergemeinschaftung in MMORPGs, Boizenburg: vwh, 2009, pp. 316-17. 46 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 516-518. 47 N. Nolden: Geschichte, pp. 519-532.

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designs. They addressed macro-historical conceptions rarely though. Contributions show that the players communicate in terms of commemorative culture. They put the elements of the historical knowledge system in relation to historical concepts and their own life-world experiences they drew from material of historical culture beyond the game and reached an understanding with discussants. As a result, their communication in between game contents, playful agency (whether individual or in groups), and the feedback on the knowledge offered creates a complex system of commemorative knowledge in a social-historical space of action. Similarly, long-term studies on the examples of BATTLEFIELD V and THE DIVISION would be desirable. A first look into contributions in forums indicate that their players exchange similar experiences. The historical and political questions, raised by the latter, were addressed by the introduction. Before the World War II shooter was published, a trailer sparked harsh controversy over its historical credibility.48 Even if most players do not use the academic term authenticity in their communication explicitly, they recognize the anchors for historical authenticity in the game worlds that the developers create as historical elements. In the forums they share what they identify as historical elements and evaluate their plausibility. Communicating individual assessment of quality and relative weight of anchors, they exchange historical perceptions. By doing so they create a community of understanding. If players of MMOs regularly communicate about the historical experience, they create a specific commemorative culture around these games, which corresponds with a general commemorative culture. To what extent they accept anchors as historical, this community of understanding negotiates in a continuous process.

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Looking into three different versions of multiplayer online games with a deeper focus on online role-playing, revealed very different ranges of possibilities for players to act with the historical elements in the spatial environments. Beyond the central example, their intensive communication about it also suggests distinctive commemorative cultures.

48 8VHUµ&RQDQBZRQJBPS¶³EDWWOHILHOGJDPHVZHUHQHYHURQFe a historically accurate SRUWUD\DO RI SDVW KLVWRU\´ LQ Battlefield Official Forum, May 24, 2018; https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/142274/battlefield-games-were-never-once-ahistorically-accurate-portrayal-of-past-history

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As a result, the historical and political stagings of digital games obtain a considerable relevance as commemorative spaces which, as knowledge storages of their time, make the societal needs for historical and political topics visible. The lines of tradition traced between mediality and historicity suggest many starting points to investigate these needs for different historical contexts, such as the late 1990s, through MMOs. The spectrum of historical authenticity anchors showed complex, mutually influencing systems of created offers, with which the players interact according to their preferences and combine them into a personal historical gaming experience. Exploring more examples of MMOs could expand this catalogue of elements. The action spaces with their specific agency offer players numerous opportunities to interact with historical components. Because players also perceive this on their own and exchange information about the historical productions with others, they exercise historical practices in the sense of ³Doing History´ After all, an intensive communication about the historical contents could be proven over a period of ten years. Which parts of the communities are involved, in which group forms they are more likely to appear, and which social milieus among the players they support, needs to be investigated further in studies about the players and their orientation according to player types.

B IBLIOGRAPHY Assmann, Aleida. Erinnerungsräume: Formen und Wandlungen des kulturellen Gedächtnisses, München: Beck 2010. Assmann, Jan. Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. München: Beck 2007. Bartle, Richard A.: Designing Virtual Worlds. Berkeley: New Riders 2006. Chapman, Adam. Digital Games as History: How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice. New York: Routledge, 2016. &KULVWLDQVHQ3HWHU³6RFLDO&RQVWUXFWLRQRI 7HFKQRORJ\LQ*DPHV´Play the Past, June 11, 2014; http://www.playthepast.org/?p=4819 (KUKDUGW 0LFKHOOH ³7KH 'LYLVLRQ GRHVQ W ZDQW \RX WR WKLQN DERXW ´ Kill Screen, February 8, 2016; https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/the-division-doesnt-want-you-to-think-about-911/ Fahlenbrach, Kathrin / Schröter, Felix: ³Embodied Avatars in Video Games. MetDSKRUVLQWKH'HVLJQRI3OD\HU&KDUDFWHUV´in: idem (eds.), Embodied Metaphors in Film, Television, and Video Games, London: Routledge 2016, pp. 251±68.

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)UHHERUQ7\OHU³0RQVWHUVRI0DLQH$Q,QYHVWLJDWLRQLQWRWKH&U\SWR]RRORJLFDO DQG2FFXOW(YHQWV2FFXULQJRQ6RORPRQ,VODQG´; http://bit.ly/2sn4lkR Garriott, Richard: Explore/Create. Gamer Adventurer Pioneer ± My Life in Pursuit of New Frontiers, Hidden Worlds, and the Creative Spark. New York: Harper Collins 2017. Giere, Daniel: Computerspiele ± Medienbildung ± historisches Lernen. Zu Repräsentation und Rezeption von Geschichte in digitalen Spielen. Frankfurt a. M.: Wochenschau 2019. +DXVDU*HUQRW³*HVSLHOWH *HVFKLFKWH'LH%HGHXWXQJYRQ/RUHLP0DVVLYH 0XOWLSOD\HU6SLHO(YH2QOLQH´in: Historische Sozialkunde, 4 (2013), pp. 29± 35. Heßler, Martina. Kulturgeschichte der Technik, Frankfurt a. M.: Campus 2012. Houghton, Robert: ³Where did you learn that? The self-perceived impact of hisWRULFDOFRPSXWHUJDPHVRQXQGHUJUDGXDWHV´in: Gamevironments 5:2016, pp. 8±45; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00105656-16 Inderst, Rudolf T.: Vergemeinschaftung in MMORPGs, Boizenburg: vwh, 2009. .RVWHU5DSK³8OWLPD2QOLQH V,QIOXHQFH´in: Raph Koster's Website, September 28, 2017; https://www.raphkoster.com/2017/09/28/ultima-onlines-influence/ 0DUWLQ *DUHWK ' ³7KH 3HUYHUVH ,GHRORJ\ RI 7KH 'LYLVLRQ´ in: Kill Screen, March 16, 2019; https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/the-perverse-ideology-of-the-division/ 0RUWHQVHQ7RULOO³:R:LVWKH1HZ08'6RFLDO*DPLQJIURP7H[WWR9LGHR´ in: Games and Culture 1 (2006), pp. 397±413; https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1555412006292622 Nolden, Nico. Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen: Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2019. Nolden, Nico: ³'LJLWDOHV6SLHOHQXQG5HHQDFWPHQW³in: Juliane Tomann / Sabine Stach (eds.), Reenactment, Berlin: de Gruyter, tba. 2URFKL*URXS³2IILFLDO:HEVLWH´; http://www.orochi-group.com Sabrow, Martin / Saupe, Achim³+LVWRULVFKH$XWKHQWL]LWlW=XU.DUWLHUXQJHLQHV )RUVFKXQJVIHOGHV´ in: idem (eds.), Historische Authentizität, Göttingen: Wallstein 2016, pp. 7±28. Samida, Stefanie: ³Public History als Historische Kulturwissenschaft. Ein 3OlGR\HU³in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, June 17, 2014, pp. 1±11, here p. 68; https://docupedia.de/zg/Public_History_als_Historische_Kulturwissenschaft Samida, Stefanie / Willner, Sarah / Koch, Georg: ³Doing History ± Geschichte als 3UD[LV³ in: idem (eds.) Doing History. Performative Praktiken in der Geschichtskultur, Münster: Waxmann 2016, pp. 1±25.

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6FKU|WHU )HOL[ ³:DON D 0LOH LQ 0\ 6hoes. Subjectivity and Embodiment in 9LGHR *DPHV´ in: Maike S. Reinerth / Jan-Noël Thon (eds.), Subjectivity Across Media, London: Routledge 2016, pp. 196±213. Sigl, Rainer: ³'HU0\WKRVYRPXQSROLWLVFKHQ6SLHO³in: Grimme Game, January 17, 2019; https://www.grimme-game.de/2019/01/17/ 8VHUµConan_wong_m76p¶³EDWWOHILHOGJDPHVZHUHQHYHURQFHDKLVWRULFDOO\DF FXUDWHSRUWUD\DORISDVWKLVWRU\´in: Battlefield Official Forum, May 24, 2018; https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/142274/battlefield-gameswere-never-once-a-historically-accurate-portrayal-of-past-history Welzer, Harald. Das kommunikative Gedächtnis: Eine Theorie der Erinnerung. München: Beck 2008. Yee, Nick: The Proteus Paradox. How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us ± And How They Don't. Yale 2014

L UDOGRAPHY BATTLEFIELD V (Electronic Arts 2018, O: Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment) COUNTER STRIKE (Sierra 1999, O: Valve). THE SECRET WORLD (FunCom 2012, O: FunCom). TOM CLANCY'S THE DIVISION (Ubisoft 2016, O: Massive Entertainment). UNREAL TOURNAMENT (GT interactive 1999: O: Digital Extremes, Epic Games). WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Vivendi 2004/5, O: Blizzard Entertainment).

Tracing the Past with Digital Games Historical Procedural Rhetorics R ÜDIGER B RANDIS

A BSTRACT As historical knowledge is never universal, game creators always reference certain academic research (even if just indirectly) and its underlying argumentative structure in their work. In the following article, I will examine the most prominent theoretical influence on digital historical games, historism, by analyzing how game creators talk about their approach to history. Based on this, I will argue that KLVWRULFDOWKHRU\FDQEHXVHGLQFRPELQDWLRQZLWK,DQ%RJRVW¶VFRQFHSWRI³SURFH GXUDOUKHWRULFV´WRJLYe game creators a wide array of tools to approach history in GLJLWDOJDPHVIURPPXOWLSOHDQJOHVEUHDNLQJDZD\IURPKLVWRULVP¶VSHUVSHFWLYH focused on the individual and the single, unique event.

I NTRODUCTION When it comes to the depiction and simulation of history in digital games, a primary stance of analysis in production as well as in academia and games journalism is to focus on the representation of historical data and their accuracy. The reason for this can be found in the positioning of these games within game culture and the games market. In opposition to most other games, historical games strive to create something different than the usual fictional worlds within digital games. They create spaces that are based on the real world of the past or rather what is known of this world. That means they always aim for a certain form of realism. This might be seen in their visual representation, narration, or mechanics. In any of these cases, if the argument is mounted by the developers that they have created

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a realistic representation of the past, this will of course then be tested and chalOHQJHGE\WKHJDPH¶VDXGLHQFH7KLVDUJXPHQWGRHVQRWHYHQKDYHWREHVSHFLIL FDOO\YRLFHGWKHPHUHUHIHUHQFHWRKLVWRU\DVWKHVRXUFHRIDJDPH¶VHOHPHQWZLOO result in the inspection of said element. 7KHVHLQVSHFWLRQVRIWHQOHDGWRKHDWHGGLVFXVVLRQVDERXWWKHJDPH¶VVXFFHVV or failure to depict a certain historical element accurately. This is nothing new and it has happened to all forms of media, may it be the novel, film or theatre. The interesting thing about games is that the medium has a hard time moving past its claims of realism and approach history from different perspectives using its own medial properties to engage actively in the historical discourse. There are many reasons for this, but in this article, I will focus on a specific academic theory, which is at the core of the production of digital historical games. This theory is called historism *HUPDQµ+LVWRULVPXV¶ . Historism is a historical theory focusing on individuality as the driving engine of history. This leads to an emphasis of the singular, unique event, shaped by people, states or nations.1 Most historical digital games are influenced by this notion RIKLVWRU\ZKLFKDOWKRXJKRXWGDWHGLQWRGD\¶s academic discourse, has survived in an everyday notion of history, which sees history as the neutral collection and depiction of facts about the past. This can be summarized in the words of the famous historian Leopold von Ranke, who described a historiaQ¶VWDVk as showing, ³ZLHHVHLJHQWOLFKJHZHVHQ´PHDQLQJ³OLNHLWUHDOO\KDSSHQHG´2 Due to this usually unconscious focus on a specific historical theory and method, digital historical games often mount very similar arguments about history: a clearly defined chronology, the importance of single actors for the overall progression of events and a seemingly unpolitical, neutral portrayal of history.3 In the following I will analyse how historism is influencing the depiction of history in games by putting an emphasis on the perspective of the developers themselves. Subsequently, I will suggest an alternative approach to game develRSPHQWXVLQJ,DQ%RJRVW¶VFRQFHSWRI³SURFHGXUDOUKHWRULF´ 4

1

Cf. Jordan, StHIDQ³+LVWRULVPXV³LQ6WHIDQ-RUGDQHG Lexikon Geschichtswissen-

2

Ranke, Leopold von: Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494

schaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 171-173. bis 1514. Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber, Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot 1885, p. VII. 3

([DPSOHVIRUWKHVHSRLQWVRIYLHZZLOOEHGLVFXVVHGLQWKHVHFWLRQV³7KH,QGLYLGXDO´

4

Cf. Bogost, Ian: Persuasive Games. The Expressive Power of Videogames, Cambridge,

DQG³+LVWRULFDO7UXWK´. MA/London: The MIT Press 2007, pp. 1-64.

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Instead of focusing on history as a chronicle of events or static factual data that is used and represented in a game, I will shift the focus onto the argument a game is making about history through the usage of its defining medial properties: procedurality and interactivity foremost, but also additionally visual representation, text and narrative.

H ISTORISM

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Before we talk about procedural rhetoric, we must understand how historism is influencing the development of historical games.5 Historism was the primary form of thinking about history during the 19 th century. It was especially prominent in Germany, where it was practiced way past its prime until the 1960s. Historism made use of hermeneutics to analyze and understand historical events by focusing on the power and influence of individuals. Individualism is one of the most important traits of historism, which can also be seen in its disregard for the relevance of social movements and clear focus on the history of individual politics. In historism, structural conditions or causalities between actions do not exist, because this would mean that there are causing factors that could explain the actions of an individual. Instead, only the human condition determined by the creativity of the individual makes history.6 Thus, historism focuses on the unique, the genius, the maker of history. The historian is the medium to tell the stories of these makers, DQGEHFDXVHWKHSDVWLVQRWFKDQJLQJDQ\PRUHWKHKLVWRULDQ¶VXQGHUVWDQGLQJRIWKH

5

The relationship between historism and historical games has been discussed since the VDOUHDG\&I:ROI3HWHU³)UHLEHXWHUder Chronologie. Geschichtsbilder des HisWRULVPXV LP &RPSXWHUVSLHO ¾'HU 3DWUL]LHU½´ in: Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 44 (1993), pp. 665-:ROI3HWHU³+LVWRULVPXVDXIGHP%LOGVFKLUP"hEHU legungen zu Computerspielen mit historischer ThematLN´ LQ %HUJEDX- und Industriemuseum Ostbayern (ed.), EDV-Tage Theuern 1997, Kümmersbruck: Bergbau- und Industriemuseum Ostbayern 1998, pp. 68-3|SSLQJKHJH5DLQHU³:HQQ*HVFKLFKWH NHLQH 5ROOH VSLHOW +LVWRULVFKH &RPSXWHUVSLHOH´ LQ :ROIJDQJ +DUGWZLJ/Alexander Schug (eds.), History sells! Angewandte Geschichte als Wissenschaft und Markt, Stuttgart: Steiner 2009, pp. 131- 6FKZDU] $QJHOD ³*DPH 6WXGLHV XQG *HV FKLFKWVZLVVHQVFKDIW´LQ.ODXV6DFKV-Hombach/Jan-Noel Thon (eds.), Game Studies. Aktuelle Ansätze der Computerspielforschung, Köln: Herbert von Halem 2015, pp. 398447.

6

Cf0XKODFN8OULFK³,QGLYLGXDOLWlW³LQ6WHIDQ-RUGDQHG Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 179-180.

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past is also fixed. This means that a historian can either be successful in their reteOOLQJRIWKHSDVWRUQRW7KHUHLVRQO\µWUXH¶RUµIDOVH¶,IDKLVWRULFDOLQVLJKWLV analogous with history itself, then it is true.7 7KLVORJLFLVFDOOHG³FRUUHVSRQGHQFH WKHRU\RIWUXWK´,WEDVHVWKHGLIIHUHQFHEHWZeen truth or falsity solely on whether a statement is accurately describing the world. This means that if a statement corresponds with the perceived reality, it is true. The relation between a statement and reality is the defining factor of this theory.8 An important reason why historism has been so prominent even in academia but especially in the public discourse of history is its methodology. Among others, historism established source criticism as a central method of the historical sciences and thus created the foundation all other historical methodologies have since been building on.9 The link to historism in historical digital games is twofold. First, it relates to the focus in design on powerful individual heroes, equipped with mechanics which enable them or at least create the notion of being able to have direct influence on the course of history. And second, this link relates to the understanding of truth in historism. Today this becomes more complicated as philosophical concepts of truth are mixing with ideas about and approaches to reality in general: subjectivity and narrativity.10 While the concept of subjectivity in the context of history reaches back at least to the late 18th century, the concept became prominent again in the second half RIWKHWKFHQWXU\,QKLVERRN³0HWDKLVWRU\´+D\GHQ:KLWHDQDO\]HVWKH narrative structures that are employed by historians to shape their interpretations

7

Both the concept of realism in historiography as well as the idea of historical truth are relevant KHUH&I5LF°XU3DXO³:DKUKHLWKLVWRULVFKH³LQ6WHIDQ-RUGDQHG  Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 316319; Goertz, Hans--UJHQ ³:LUNOLFKNHLW³ LQ 6WHIDQ -RUGDQ HG  Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 328-330.

8

&I'DYLG0DULDQ³7KH&RUUHVSRQGHQFH7KHRU\RI7UXWK´LQ(GZDUG N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-correspondence/ from 18.04.2020.

9

&I$UQROG.ODXV³4XHOOHQNULWLN³LQ6WHIDQ-RUGDQHG Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 255-257 and http://www.geschichtstheorie.de/4_3_2.html from 18.04.2020.

10 &I %ODQNH +RUVW :DOWHU ³+LVWRULRJUDSKLH´ LQ 6WHIDQ -RUGDQ HG  Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 152-153; 3UIHU7KRPDV³6XEMHNWLYLWlW,QWHUVXEMHNWLYLWlW´LQ6WHIDQ-RUGDQHG Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 276-279.

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of the past into a readable form.11 Thus, not a correspondence with the past becomes defining for history but its literary form, historiography. Niklas Luhmann expanded on this by understanding knowledge as the construction of a social communication system. Micheal Foucault follows a similar approach by describing knowledge as a product that is formed through the power and rules of its discours, in which the individual has no longer any influence on themselves and their knowledge.12 The parallel existence of historist and subjective approaches to the past leads to an understanding of history that is still based on the idea of factuality, at its core an idea of truth, but adds the notion that as it is written by people, who are always subjective, history itself is also always a subjective perspective. This contradiction turns around the basic ideals of historism, an unbiased true account of history, defines it as a goal, but declares it at the same time as unreachable. The creative director of ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITY (2014), Alex Amancio, made this notion very clear in an interview discussing the political implications of the game: ³:KDWZHDFWXDOO\try to do, and I think this is just a personal belief that we have, is to avoid UHGXFLQJKLVWRU\«@ +LVWRU\LVDOZD\VVXEMHFWLYHEHFDXVHLW¶VZULWWHQE\SHRSOHDQGQRPDWWHUKRZREMHFWLYH you try to be, human nature makes it subjective. We try very hard to portray things as facWXDOO\DVSRVVLEOH´13

T HE I NDIVIDUAL Especially adventure games casting the player in the role of a single individual have the tendency to emphasize the impact the individual has on the game world and its story. Most of the time these games employ a first- or third-person-perspective and let the player directly control the main character. ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITYWKHHLJKWKPDMRUHQWU\LQ8ELVRIW¶VRQJRLQJASSASSIN¶S CREED series (running since 2007), offers an example of such a perspective. The game is set during the French Revolution in Paris in the late 18th century, and the player takes on the

11 Cf. White, Hayden: Metahistory. The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe, London/Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press 1973, pp. 1-42. 12 Cf. T. Prüfer: Subjektivität/Intersubjektivität, pp. 279. 13 3HFNKDP0DWW³+RZ$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\1DYLJDWHVWKH)UHQFK5HYROXWLRQ¶V3RO itics, in: TIME, October 6, 2014; https://time.com/3471390/assassins-creed-unity/

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role of the Assassin Arno Dorian, who is drawn into a net of intrigue and mystery in a fictional story world and plot, which however revolves around real world events and known historical characters. ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITY, like all the ASSASSIN¶S CREED games, contains a game world that is populated by details and a visual richness that creates the notion for the player of walking through an accurate portrayal of the past. This is not only achieved through visual detail, but also systemically, as the streets of Paris are full of people that talk, laugh and fight, creating the visceral sense of a living world. What adds to this notion are the occasional explanatory texts sprinkled through the game world, giving more detailed backgrRXQGLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWSODFHVSHRSOHDQGHYHQWV,IZHWKLQNRI$PDQFLR¶V words again, then these are the elements that the production team of ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITY DUHWU\LQJ³>«@YHU\KDUGWRSRUWUD\>«@DVIDFWXDOO\DVSRVVLEOH´14 The game world represents the stage on which the actual makers of history play out their meaningful roles. In ASSASSIN¶S CREED these roles are filled by known historical characters like Maximilien de Robespierre, but the game adds a fictional cast including the main character Arno Dorian to them, to make history accessible to the player in a participatory sense. While historical events still play out in their generally accepted order (e.g. based on the current state of historical research), the decisive power is partly shifted towards the fictional characters of the game. While this can create a very engaging and entertaining narrative, it mounts the same argument about history as if the player would have been cast in the role of Robespierre himself. Like any other historist retelling of history, it is single individuals WKDWPDNHWKHLPSRUWDQWFKRLFHVWKDWGULYHKLVWRU\DQGWKXVDOVRWKHJDPH¶VSORW forward.15 This becomes even more clear looking at the frame story that all main plots of the ASSASSIN¶S CREED games are implemented in. In a narrative twist, which also results in an argument about the very nature of history, the historical stories of ASSASSIN¶S CREED are not played out directly but are instead engaged with through a simulation. It is accessed through the genetic memory of an ancestor of

14 Ibid. 15 $IWHU$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\¶VUHOHDVHWKHJDPH¶VIRFXVRQDEORRGy revolution completely ignoring its achievements (like signing a constitution) lead to a heated public DUJXPHQWDERXWWKHJDPH¶V depiction of history. This public debate, led by French polLWLFLDQVDQGKLVWRULDQVVKRZVDJDLQKRZXQUHDOLVWLF$PDQFLR¶VJRDO RID³PRVWXQELDVHG ZD\´LVDQGKRZLWFRQWUDGLFWVWKHSROLWLFDOUHDOLWLHVDQGGLVFRXUVHVKLVWRULFDOUHVHDUFK is embedded in. Cf 3ILVWHU (XJHQ ³µ'HV SDWULRWHV FHV DEUXWLV¶ ,PDJLQDWLRQHQ GHU französischen Revolution im digitalen Spiel $VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG Unity´,Q FrühneuzeitInfo 27 (2016); https://fnzinfo.hypotheses.org/852

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the varying main characters by using a device called the Animus. The device is a virtual reality machine that enables anybody to relive the life of an ancestor. :LWKLQWKHVLPXODWLRQWKHERXQGDULHVRIWKHJDPH¶VZRUOGDUHHYHQH[SOained by stating that the ancestor never ventured into a certain place, thus this part of history is also not accessible. Again, we can see the influence of historism by comparing this depiction with the above-mentioned correspondence theory of truth. The difference in ASSASSIN¶S CREED is that source criticism is not based on the reading of texts or other classic medial materials. Instead, memory itself becomes a seemingly unmediated source of the past. In ASSASSIN¶S CREEDKLVWRULVP¶VLQIOXHQFH becomes notable not only in the contents of the game but also in the way the method of accessing historical knowledge is represented. But not only games with a clearly defined protagonist show influences of historism. They can also be found in the setup of many strategy games like AGE OF EMPIRES II (2013 ± HD Edition).16 AGE OF EMPIRES¶ campaigns focus on the lives RINLQJVDQGWKHLUFRQTXHVWVZKLFKLVDOUHDG\KLQWHGDWLQWKHJDPH¶VVXEWLWOH³7KH $JHRI.LQJV´7KH\UHWHOOWKHVWRULHVRI*HQJKLV.KDQ%DUEDURVVD¶V&rusade, 6DODGLQ¶VGHIHQVe of the Holy Land, as well as the stories of William Wallace and Joan of Arc. In the campaigns of the latter two it is even possible to control a unit ZLWK WKH FKDUDFWHU¶V QDPH ,Q JHQHUDO WKH SOD\HU WDNHV RQ WKH UROH RI WKH FRP mander of these great histRULFDOFKDUDFWHUV¶DUPLHV%\SOD\LQJRXWLPSRUWDQWEDW tles and events on dedicated stages the player is cast in the role of a stage master which is replaying premade historical stories based on the lives of these historical figures. AGE OF EMPIRES II focuses on single events, e.g. battles, and can through WKLVDYRLGFKDQJLQJWKHRYHUDOOUHFRUGHGRXWFRPHRIKLVWRU\7KHVWDJH¶VOLPLWVDUH set by the historical event but allow to use the game mechanics in whatever form possible even if this does not align with recorded historical knowledge. This reveals an interesting contradiction inherent in the usage of historism in digital games. While the perspective and role the player takes in AGE OF EMPIRES completely aligns with the idea of great individuals being responsible for history, the JDPH¶VV\VWHPVWHOODFRPSOHWHO\GLIIHUHQWVWRU\,QGRLQJVRWKHJDPHFUHDWRUV cast the player in the role of great historical characters or at least somebody executing their decisions and thus showing the power and influence they had on the course of history. But the tools they give the player to do so are not individual at all. Instead they are highly structured and repetitive, like mechanics in a game tend to be.

16 Cf. Wiemer, Serjoscha: "Strategie in Echtzeit. Ergodik zwischen Kriegsspiel und Wirtschaftssimulation", in: Rolf F. Nohr/Serjoscha Wiemer (eds.), Strategie spielen: Medialität, Geschichte und Politik des Strategiespiels, Berlin: LIT 2008, pp. 213-248.

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AGE OF EMPIRES II features mechanics that serve the construction of the SOD\HU¶VDUPLHVEDVHGXULQJHDFKOHYHO7KHVHEDVHVFRPHZLWKDSUHGHILQHGVHWRI buildable houses and can be levelled up by advancing to the next age, which repUHVHQWV D FHUWDLQ OHYHO RI FLYLOL]DWLRQ 7KHVH DUH WKH ³'DUN $JH´ SUH-medieval times WKH³)HXGDO$JH´WKH0LGGOH$JHV WKH³&DVWOH$JH´DJHQHUDOUHIHUHQFH WRWKH(XURSHDQ+LJK0LGGOH$JHV DQGWKH³,PSHULDO$JH´UHIHUULQJWRWKH5H naissance). This structured approach of base creation contradicts the previous argument of the single individual as the master of history. Rather, it resembles a PRUHVWUXFWXUDOLVWXQGHUVWDQGLQJRIKLVWRU\$GLVVRQDQFHEHWZHHQWKHJDPH¶VV\V tems and its historist portrayal of history becomes visible. I will explore this dissonant relationship further in the next section of this text.

H ISTORICAL T RUTH $VVWDWHGEHIRUHLQKLVWRULVPWKHKLVWRULDQ¶VWDVNLVWRXQFRYHUDQGUHWHOOKLVWRU\ like it really happened. If the retelling aligns with history, it is true, if not, it is false. This notion of truth has been challenged multiple times, and the humanities and social sciences of today do not operate with it most of the time anymore, but rather prefer a more complex understanding of reality that is influenced by multiple factors, among them its medial representation. Without going into too much detail, the concept of truth has been detached from the question of the real, making the latter a more complex phenomenon.17 However, truth has not vanished from the public discourse of history. Instead it has been adapted to the new conditions of how it is being discussed. It has moved from a simple true or false statement to a gradient. While the wish to be true to history has remained, the realization that this is hardly possible has been added to the equation. This results in statements like the previously discussed argument by ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITY¶V FUHDWLYH GLUHFWRU$OH[$PDQFLR³:HWU\YHU\KDUGWRSRUWUD\WKLQJVDVIDFWXDOO\DVSRVVL EOH´18 Truth has become something that you come close or less close to. A similar notion can be observed in the marketing and online discussions around KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (2018). KINGDOM COME is a single-player first-person roleplaying game set in 15th century Bohemia. The player takes on the role of Henry, son of a blacksmith, who is thrust into a political conflict raging through the country.

17 Cf. Bachmann-Medick, Doris: Cultural Turns. New Orientations in the Study of Culture, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2016, pp. 1-37. 18 M. Peckham: +RZ$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\1DYLJDWHVWKH)UHQFK5HYROXWLRQ¶V3ROLWLFV.

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2QWKHJDPH¶VRIILFLDO6WHDP6WRUHSDJHWKHIROORZLQJLVOLVWHGDVRQHRIWKH JDPH¶VIHDWXUHV³+LVWRULFDODFFXUDF\0HHWUHDOKLVWRULFDOFKDUDFWHUVDQGH[SHrience the genuine looNDQGIHHORIPHGLHYDO%RKHPLD´19 The developers do not PHQWLRQWKHZRUGV³WUXH´RU³WUXWK´EXWLQVWHDGXVH³DFFXUDF\´DQG³UHDO´ZKLFK both hint at an understanding of history which considers as the highest goal to achieve a form of representation that is as close as possible to a perceived original. 2QWKHJDPH¶VRIILFLDOZHEVLWHUHDOLVPLVHYHQOLVWHGDVWKHILUVWIHDWXUHDQGWKXV appears as the most important for the game. Here the developers write about the VWRU\RIWKHJDPH³7he game is based on a true story ± a story of kings, heirs, a NLQJGRPFDVWOHVLHJHVDQGEORRG\EDWWOHV´20 1RZ³WUXH´LVXVHGEXWLWLVPRUH reminiscent of the popular disclaimer in film that roots the story in a factual basis than it is of the idea of historical truth. Nonetheless, the claim of truth is made here as well, which is especially interesting as the game features a fictional main charDFWHUDQGVWRU\7KH³WUXH´HOHPHQWVWKXVPXVWEHIRXQGVRPHZKHUHHOVHEXWLW again shows the notion of truth being something to strive for. Another hint for KINGDOM COME¶V FODLP RI KLVWRULFDO DFFXUDF\ FDQ EH RE VHUYHGLQWKHGHIHQVHWKDWWKHJDPH¶VGLUHFWRU'DQLHO9iYUD made against criticism RIWKHJDPH¶VSRUWUD\DORIQRQ-white people. After the release of the game, a controversy arose mainly in US-American and later European games journalism about the portrayal of the ethnicity of the Cumans and the lack of any people of colour LQWKHJDPH,QDQLQWHUYLHZ9iYUDGHIHQGVWKHJDPH¶VGHSLFWLRQE\UHIHUHQFLQJ historical research that does not account for any people of colour within the JDPH¶VZRUOGDVTPSLHFHRIODQGLQPHGLHYDO%RKHPLD+HJRHVRQE\HP phasizing the great effort the developers have been putting into historical research as a basis for depiction aQGJDPHGHVLJQIURPWKHYHU\VWDUWRIWKHJDPH¶VSURGXF tion, which they have been intensifying again after the first accusations arose. 21 In the statement origiQDOO\SXEOLVKHGLQ*HUPDQKHVD\V³:KHQWKHILUVWDOOHJDWLRQV were made, I resumed and intensified this discourse to ensure that we do not depict KLVWRU\LQDQ\FKDQJHGIRUP´22 Most important is the latter part of this statement,

19 https://store.steampowered.com/app/379430/Kingdom_Come_Deliverance/ from 17. 04.2020. 20 https://www.kingdomcomerpg.com/en/game-features/realism from 17.04.2020. 21 An interesting insight into the production of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and the acFRPSDQ\LQJKLVWRULFDOUHVHDUFKFDQEHIRXQGLQWKHIRXUWKHSLVRGH³7UXWK´RI$UWH¶V +LVWRU\¶V &UHHG, a web series dedicated to the depiction of history in digital games: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/074699-004-A/history-s-creed-4-10/ from 17.04.2020. 22 Translation by the author; GameStar Redaktion³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFH± Die Reaktion auf die Rassismus-9RUZUIH³LQ*DPH6WDU-DQXDU\; https://www.

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in which he states that the developers made sure that they do not depict history in any altered form. Vávra does not clearly state what original form he is referring to, but it is safe to assume that he is talking not only about the previously mentioned research but also about a general understanding of history as being the true one. Although less complex in its narrative as well as systemic expression, CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (2008) does represent the notion of a single and true version of history even more clearly. It is a first-person shooter set in the battlefield of Europe and the Pacific of World War II. The game features a deterministic retelling of World War II casting the player in the role of three different foot soldiers from the US military and the Red Army of the Soviet Union. The game is separated into different missions which are all based on famous battles of the Second World War. In between these missions the story connecting the battles and the general history of the World War is told with the help of archival materials, mainly in form of texts and pictures. The player has no control over the outcome of these events but is merely following a strictly enforced goal. This suggests that history has played out in a similar manner. Failure is not represented in this narrative and simply results in the necessity to repeat a certain challenge. The linear story in between is giving the strict historical framework the game is operating in and enhances the notion of the real through the usage of archival materials. Jamie BDURQGHVFULEHVWKLVDVD³SKHQRPHQRORJLFDOH[SHULHQFH´E\UHIHUULQJWR9LYLDQ 6REFKDFN¶VWH[W³7KH &KDUJHRIWKH5HDO´23 ³>«@WKHSDUWLFXODUZD\VLQZKLFKGRFXPHQWDU\DUFKLYDOIRRWDJHLVXVHGLQWKLVJDPHKDYH a powerful potential to shape how users experience and think about the past events represented. Indeed, the appropriation of indexical archival footage into any videogame may proGXFHLQWKHXVHUDSKHQRPHQRORJLFDOH[SHULHQFHRIZKDW9LYLDQ6REFKDFN>«@UHIHUVWRDV µWKHFKDUJHRIWKHUHDO¶RUDµGRFXPHQWDU\FRQVFLRXVQHVVFKDUJHGZLWKDVHQVHRIWKHZRUOG existence, bodily mortification and mortality, and all of the rest of the real that is in excess

gamestar.de/artikel/kingdom-come-deliverance-die-reaktion-auf-die-rassismus-vorwuefe,3324854,seite5.html; The RULJLQDOWH[WLQ*HUPDQ³$Os die ersten Vorwürfe laut wurden, habe ich diesen Diskurs erneut aufgenommen und intensiviert, um sicher zu stellen, dass wir Geschichte nicht in irgendeiner veränderten Form abbildHQ´ 23 &I6REFKDFN9LYLDQ³7KH&KDUJHRIWKH5HDO(PERGLHG.QRZOHGJHand Cinematic &RQVFLRXVQHVV´LQ9LYLDQ6REFKDFN(ed.), Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture, Berkeley: University of California Press 2004, pp. 258-285.

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%DURQ¶VDQG6REFKDFN¶VGHVFULSWLRQVIRFXVRQWKHUHDODVVRPHWKLQJWKDWFDQH[LVW in stages of intensity. The archival footage appears more real than the game itself, DWOHDVWZKHQLWLVSUHVHQWHGEDFNWREDFNZLWKWKHJDPH¶VYLUWXDOZRUOGOLNHLWLV done in CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR. Again, the developers are using a homogenous understanding of history to invoke the true history of the Second World War. It is telling that they do so by contrasting text and photography as an older, PRUHVWDWLFYLVXDOPHGLDZLWKWKHJDPHLWVHOI,QRUGHUWRWHOOWKHOLQHDUDQG³WUXH´ story of the war they want to portray, text and photography is used to create the IUDPHZRUNWKDWLVOLPLWLQJWKH JDPH¶VLQKHUHQWPHGLDOSURSHUWLHVSURFHGXUDOLW\ and interactivity. The persistence of individual agency and historical truth as arguments in digital historical games as well as arguments of their creators makes is necessary to question the fundamental understanding that goes into the production of these types of games. Historism is a helpful lens to name the ideologies that are at work here and compliment them with a broader tool set for developers themselves. This does not mean that there are not already games out there that do employ other approaches of historiography than historism. Its influence is mainly felt in the approach, justifications and arguments of the developers themselves, while their games by order of their medial properties often subvert this notion on their own.

P ROCEDURALITY , I NTERACTIVITY

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Procedurality is the defining medial property of digital games. In her seminal work ³+DPOHW RQ WKH +RORGHFN´ -DQHW 0XUUD\ DGHTXDWHO\ VWDWHV WKDW WKH ³>«@ PRVW important element the new medium adds to our repertoire of representational powers is its procedural nature, its ability to capture experience as systems of interreODWHGDFWLRQV´25 Murray focuses on interaFWLYHPHGLD¶VSRVVLELOLW\WRPRGHOV\V tems that can embody behaviorism. This distinguishes them from older media, which could only represent processes through description but could not provide

24 Baron, JDLPLH³'LJLWDO+LVWRULFLVP$UFKLYDO)RRWDJH'LJLWDO,QWHUIDFHDQG+LVWorioJUDSKLF(IIHFWVLQ&DOORI'XW\:RUOGDW:DU´LQEludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 4:2 (2010), pp. 303-314, here p. 303. 25 Murray, Janet H.: Hamlet on the Holodeck. The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, New York i.a.: The Free Press 2016, p. 254.

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their audience the possibility to interact and experience the s\VWHP¶V UXOHV E\ themselves.26 In digital games these systems are constructed from single mechanics and are defined by the degree of affordances they allow and demand from their users. These affordances then influence how a certain experience is playing out EDVHG RQ WKH SOD\HU¶V FRQFUHWH LQWHUDFWLRQV +RZHYHU WKH GHJUHH DQG VFRSH RI these affordances depend on the game creators and how much agency they want to give the players of their game. I have already hinted at the contradiction between historism, its focus on indiYLGXDOLVPDQGWUXWKDQGGLJLWDOJDPH¶VFRUHPHGLDOSURSHUWLHVSURFHGXUDOLW\DQG interactivity. There is an obvious clash between the intent to portray history as a XQLTXHUHVXOWRIWKHLPSDFWIXODFWLRQVRIDIHZLQGLYLGXDOVDQGWKHPHGLXP¶V inherent desire to give players the ability to change these actions. William Uricchio describes this as a form of subversion revealing that digital historical games in general follow a more structuralist form of historical representation: ³>«@KLVWRU\ LQ WKH 5DQNHDQVHQVH RI µZLHHV HLJHQWOLFKJHZHVHQ LVW¶ LV VXEYHUWHG E\DQ insistence on history as a multivalent process subject to many different possibilities, interpretations, and outcomes. Not surprisingly, some historians and educators have attacked the game industry for its inadequate engagement with the facts and its inappropriate irreverence IRUWKHSDVW´27

This contradiction results in a WHQVLRQEHWZHHQZKDW8ULFKLRFDOOV³WKHFRQVWUDLQW RIGHWDLODQGWKHH[KLODUDWLRQRILPSURYLVDWLRQ´28 ³>«@WKe tension between the specific and the speculative gives this genre [historical digital games] its power >«@. Indeed, the richer the specific historical detail, the more profound and pleasXUDEOHWKHSOD\ZLWKWKHVSHFXODWLYH´29 This tension can be utilized by detaching accuracy from its realist definition: to portray the world like it is. Instead of striving for truth, game creators could focus on the accuracy of their argument within the given perspective they have chosen to employ on history. Accuracy relates now directly to the body of research, the mode of representation and the medial properties that are used for creating a certain form of expression. Suddenly, the

26 Cf. Freyermuth, Gundolf S.: Games | Game Design | Game Studies, Bielefeld: transcript 2015, pp. 53-57. 27 8ULFFKLR:LOOLDP³6LPXODWLRQ+LVWRU\DQG&RPSXWHU*DPHV´Ln: Joost Raessens / Jeffrey Goldstein (eds.), Handbook of Computer Game Studies, Cambridge/London: The MIT Press 2005, pp. 327-338, here p. 328. 28 Ibid., p. 329. 29 Ibid.

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making of digital historical games would be freed of the limiting nature of truth to engage more freely and more self-confidently in the public discourse of history. If we return to the kind of argument Daniel Vávra has been using to explain KINGDOM COME¶V FODLP IRU KLVWRULFLW\ LW EHFRPHV REYLRXV WKDW WKLV LV DOUHDG\ happening. The developers are referring to historical research, have been even employing a historian throughout production, while however still trying to adhere to the idea of a historical truth.30 Uricchio distinguishes loosely between two types of historical games: Those that are based on a specific event, and those which do not reference a specific event.31 He argues that the latter, freed from a specific referent, can make greater XVHRIGLJLWDOJDPHV¶Pedial properties to engage players in interrogating the argument a game is puWWLQJIRUZDUG³5DWKHUWKDQDZKDWLIVLPXODWLRQZLWKDNQRZQ case study as the referent, nonspecific simulations provoke a wider range of interrogations, encouraging a more abstract, theoretical engagement of historical proFHVV´32 While he is referring mainly to simulation games like CIVILIZATION (1991), which cast the player in a god-like position in control of whole armies, nations or civilizations, this also applies to narratiYHJDPHVLQZKLFKWKHSOD\HU¶VDIIRUGDQFHV are much more limited. An example for such a perspective is MAFIA II (2010), which lets players experience the story of Italian immigrant Vito Scaletta, who, after a failed robbery, joins the US army to fight in World War 2 and avoid prison. After he returns home, he is forced to work for the criminal underworld to help support his family. The connection to this kind of life is set up by his Italian childhood friend Joe Barbaro. The game is set in the fictional city of Empire Bay, inspired by New York, in the Mid 1940s until the early 1960s. The game draws heavily on known narrative tropes of American gangster films, but nonetheless also thematizes the influence of class and social standing through the main character Vito Scaletta who struggles to escape the financial strains of his migrant family. A character like Vito would not be considered relevant from a standpoint

30 ,Q9iYUD¶VVWDWHPHQWSXEOLVKHGLQWKHRQOLQHYHUVLRQRI*DPH6WDUKHPDNHVPXOWLSle UHPDUNV WR WKH VWXGLR¶V DSSURDFK WR KLVWRULFDO UHVHDUFK. Especially his formulation ÄVSUHFKHQGLH4XHOOHQ³WKDWGLUHFWO\WUDQVODWHVWR³WKHVRXUFHVWDON´LVDJDLQUHLQIRUFLQJ the historist notion that it is possible to uncover the truth by listening to historical VRXUFHV 1RQHWKHOHVV LW DOVR VKRZV WKH VWXGLR¶V ZLVK WR EDVH their game on detailed historical research. Cf. GameStar Redaktion: Kingdom Come: Deliverance ± Die Reaktion auf die Rassismus-Vorwürfe. 31 Cf. W. Uricchio: Simulation, History, and Computer Games, p. 330. 32 Ibid.

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of historism. In this sense MAFIA II is using a historical perspective much closer WR³$OOWDJVJHVFKLFKWH´DIRUPRIPLFURKLVWRU\IRFXVLQJRQWKHHYHU\GD\OLIHWKDW was especially prominent in Germany during the 1980s.33 The game is doing this mainly through its story while the mechanics still relate to an action-focussed sensationalized feeling. It does not use its systems to tell players something about the hardships of Italian immigrants in the United States and their influence on society, but rather uses story to convey that information. In that sense MAFIA II is not much different from a film. It can even be argued that the limited player affordances in MAFIA II work towards IXUWKHULQJ WKH FODLP RI LQGLYLGXDOV¶ OLPLWHG LQIOXHQFH RQ WKH FRXUVH RI their lives. In any case, MAFIA II¶VILFWLRQDOVHWWLQJIUHHVLWIURPWKHOLPLWVRIIDF tual historical accuracy and instead allows a freer presentation of its argument. THE OREGON TRAIL (1990)34 is an example of a historical game that is orienting itself more towards a structuralist presentation of history. This puts it closer to 8ULFFKLR¶V ³>«@ QRQVSHFLILF simulations of the Civilization type [that] are abstracted from the particularit\RIKLVWRULFDOHYHQW>«@´35 In THE OREGON TRAIL the player takes charge of a group of settlers wandering West from Missouri through North America to reach Oregon. The game is set in 1848 and was originally created in 1971 to teach the realities of the American pioneer life. To succeed the player must buy resources and deploy them to battle hunger but also to deal with events like sickness among the group of settlers. The core mechanics are separated into traveling, hunting and acquiring resources in general. There are also events that can be encountered, for example the crossing of a big river, which can have different outcomes depending on the preparations the player made. THE OREGON TRAIL is not so much concerned with historical detail but rather puts emphasis on the general structure of history. It communicates the conditions and obstacles people could have encountered on the Oregon trail and asks the player to deal with theP7KHUHVSRQVHVE\WKHJDPH¶VV\VWHPVWKXVFRPPXQLFDWH WKHFUHDWRU¶VDUJXPHQWVDbout the rules of living on the Oregon trail. Thus, it also asks the player to reflect on what this might have meant for the people originally taking on this journey. The employment of multiple historiographic theories in the design of game mechanics can thus lead to a representation of history that is

33 &I/GWNH$OIUHG´Alltagsgeschichte: Aneignung und Akteure. Oder ± es hat noch NDXPEHJRQQHQ³LQWerkstattGeschichte 17 (1997), pp. 83-92. 34 There are many different versions of THE OREGON TRAIL. I am referring here to the PC DOS-Version published in 1990. A playable browser version is available here: https://classicreload.com/oregon-trail.html from 17.04.2020. 35 W. Uricchio: Simulation, History, and Computer Games, p. 330.

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focusing on complexity, the relevance of argument and perspective, which set itself apart from an antiquated notion of historical truth.36

H ISTORICAL P ROCEDURAL R HETORICS With all of this in mind, I would lLNHWRWXUQWR,DQ%RJRVW¶V concept of procedural rhetoric to add a practical approach for putting forward an argument about history WKURXJKGLJLWDOJDPHV,QKLVERRN³3HUVXDVLYH*DPHV´,DQ%RJRVWGHILQHVSUR cedural rhetoric as follows: ³>«@SURFHGXUDO rhetoric is the practice of using processes persuasively, just as verbal rhetoric is the practice of using oratory persuasively and visual rhetoric is the practice of using images persuasively. Procedural rhetoric is a general name for the practice of authoring arguments through processes. Following the classical model, procedural rhetoric entails persuasion²to change opinion or action. Following the contemporary model, procedural rhetoric entails expression²to convey ideas effectively. Procedural rhetoric is a subdomain of procedural authorship; its arguments are made not through the construction of words or images, but through the authorship of rules of behavior, the construction of dynamic models. In computation, those rules are authored in code, through the practice of programminJ´37

3URFHGXUDOUKHWRULFDWLWVFRUH³HQWDLOVH[SUHVVLRQ´DQG³LWVDUJXPHQWVDUHPDGH >«@WKURXJKWKHDXWKRUVKLSRIUXOHVRIEHKDYLRU>«@´ 38 In relation to history this means that game creators must ask themselves the question what they want to express about history that goes beyond mere content. At the heart of the persistence of historism in digital historical games is the idea of a static history that must be uncovered by historians as well as possible and subsequently portrayed as accurately as possible. Procedural rhetoric offers an approach to ignore all of this and instead ask what kind of argument game creators want to make about history. ,Q KLV ERRN ³'LJLWDO *DPHV DV +LVWRU\´ $GDP &KDSPDQ IRUPXODWHV WKLV DV DQ inherent trait of games as interactLYH PHGLD ³5HSUHVHQWDWLRQV RI >«@ KLVWRULFDO affordances, in turn, must offer players new gameplay affordances, which yet must

36 Cf. ibid., p. 336. 37 I. Bogost: Persuasive Games, pp. 28-29. 38 Ibid.

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generally in some way say something about the claimed nature of the original relationship. This is the very essence of proceduraOUKHWRULF´39 But Bogost even goes further by including the classical model of rhetoric in his definition, which entails persuasion. Persuasion appears as a term that is thoroughly unsuited to be used in the context of any form of research or science, but it is impossible to imagine any form of medial representation that is not in some way partially persuasive. Every form of expression mounts a suggestion, may it be openly, or simply by the context in which an expression is placed. This applies to this texWOLNHLWGRHVWR5DQNH¶VKLVWRULRJUDSK\IURPWKHth century. Thus, procedural rhetoric relates to authorship. Bogost relies on Noah Wardrip-)UXLQ¶VWHUP³RSHUDWLRQDOORJLFV´WRJLYHDIHZ examples of procedural rhetorical figures drawing a comparison to literary figures. Wardrip-)UXLQGLVWLQJXLVKHVEHWZHHQ³JUDSKLFDOORJLFV´DQG³WH[WXDOORJLFV´WKH first being related to logics like movement or gravity while the latter relates to systems of textual processing. An example of such a system are chatbots that search for certain keywords and phrases and respond accordingly.40 The continued combination of those figures eventually leads to the formation of genres, like it happened before in literature or film. We already discussed typical game genres in this text that are defined by their core mechanics: the first-person shooter (CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR) or the real-time strategy game (AGE OF EMPIRES II). If we take procedural rhetorics into the realm of history, new genres are bound to emerge. Right now, we are dealing mainly with games following historism. They could be called historist games. Games like THE OREGON TRAIL on the other hand might be fittingly called structuralist games, and games like MAFIA II microhistorical games. Their defining aspects stem from the historical theory or perspective and subsequently from the arguments about the past they employ through their procedural figures. Together procedural rhetorics and historical theories amount to what I would call historical procedural rhetorics. And contrary to BoJRVW¶VVXJJHVWLRQRWKHUIRUPVRIUKHWRULFPRUHFORVHO\OLQNHGWRWKHFRQWHQWVRI games matter as well for them.41 They will still be necessary to provide the context in which the procedural argument is implemented. I want to conclude by addressing the obvious dissonance between academic arguments about history and games and the production of entertainment games

39 Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History. How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice, New York, NY/Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge 2016, p. 174. 40 Cf. I. Bogost: Persuasive Games, p. 13. 41 Cf. Ibid., p. ix.

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that use history as a stage that this text is also suffering from. Without a doubt, historical theory provides plentiful material for game creators in their endeavor to create engaging, interesting interactive media. But just as it cannot be expected of a historian to master every aspect of game creation to fully integrate this point of view in their works about history and games, it also cannot be expected that game creators always have the time and more importantly the resources to either research philosophical theories of history themselves or employ a historian that does it for them. Most of the time, historians at game studios are contracted for their expert knowledge of a certain time period. The production team of the ASSASSIN¶S CREED games has been doing this, as well as the developers of KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE. In the latest two entries in the ASSASSIN¶S CREED series, ASSASSIN¶S CREED ORIGINS (2017) and ASSASSIN¶S CREED ODYSSEY (2018), the engagement of the leading historian advisor has even led to the creation of the ³'LVFRYHU\7RXU´PRGHGHVFULEHGDV³SXUHO\HGXFDWLRQDO´RQWKHRIILFLDOVXSSRUW wHEVLWHRIWKHJDPHV¶VWXGLRDQGSXEOLVKHU8ELVRIW³3XUHO\HGXFDWLRQDOWKHPRGH LVDYLUWXDOPXVHXPZLWKJXLGHGWRXUVDQGKLVWRULFDOVLWHVWRGLVFRYHU´42 This alone shows the interest in a more diverse presentation of history in games and interactive media in the entertainment sector. But not everybody has the resources of a big AAA-studio like Ubisoft at their disposal. Instead, it helps to consider the classic model of rhetoric that entails, like Bogost says, persuasion and to subsequently ask the question of what form of history should be argued for in a game and with what form its players should be persuaded to engage. This will change from game to game, from creator to creator, from topic to topic, and applies to the academic study of history just as well as it applies to its presentation within popular media. In comparison to theatre, it can be described similarly to the distinction that Bertolt Brecht makes between what he calls the ³$ULVWRWHOHDQWKHDWUH´DQGKLVRZQFRQFHSWRI³HSLFWKHDWUH´:KLOHthe first focuses on individual drama to tell rousing stories and move the audience to sympathize with the heroes of their stories, the latter focuses on shaking the audience out of their passive role as a consumer and instead asks them to question the events on the stage. They are asked to actively participate.43 Again, procedurality and interactivity in a more general sense hand digital games these affordances by

42 https://support.ubisoft.com/en-gb/Faqs/000031846/Discovery-Tour-Mode-of-Assassin-s-Creed-Origins-ACO from 17.04.2020. 43 &I%UHFKW%HUWROW³7KHDWUHIRU3OHDVXUHRU7KHDWUHIRU,QVWUXFWLRQ´LQ-RKQ:LOOHWW (ed.), Brecht on Theatre. The Development of an Aesthetic, London: Eyre Methuen 1974, pp. 69-77.

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default. The player is always active on some level. It just depends on what the JDPH¶VFUHDWRUs want to afford them. In addition, I would like to suggest a philosophical perspective to approach history by arguing procedurally. Consider a game as a simulacrum of the historical object you would like to engage with. In his structuralist work, Roland Barthes GHVFULEHVVWUXFWXUHDVPHUHO\WKHVLPXODFUXPRIDQREMHFWEXWKHFDOOVLWDQ³LQ WHUHVWHG´VLPXODFUXPZKLFKPHDQVWKDWLWEULQJVIRUZDUGHOHPHQWV of the object it is imitating that were not visible in the natural object itself. 44 Jacques Derrida goes even further by describing a simulacrum as a trace of something that exists or did exist. The essence of a trace is that it is always vanishing, changing, not really existing, and thus its own extinction is part of its nature. 45 Processes in games are similar. Although they are to a large degree the intended outcome of WKHJDPHFUHDWRU¶VPHFKDQLFVWKH\DUHOLNHWUDFHVQHYHUUHDOO\WKHUHRQO\H[LVW ing in the moment they are being executed, already half gone. To approach the past with procedurality as traces means acknowledging the constant change of history, its multiple forms of existence through constant reinterpretation in the present for the future. The mandate of historical games is thus not the reconstruction of the past, but its constant deconstruction.

C ONCLUSION ,Q  *HUWUXGH +LPPHOIDUE ZURWH LQ KHU ³5HIOHFWLRQV RQ WKH 1HZ +LVWRU\´ DERXWDQHZIRUPRIKLVWRULRJUDSK\³$OWKRXJKGHFRQVWUXFWLRQLVPDVDFRQVFLRXV systematic philosophy, has been most prominent among intellectual historians, the mode of thought it represents, even its distinctive vocabulary, is permeating all DVSHFWVRIWKHQHZKLVWRU\+LVWRULDQVQRZIUHHO\XVHVXFKZRUGVDVµLQYHQW¶µLP DJLQH¶µFUHDWH¶QRWµUH-FUHDWH¶ DQGµFRQVWUXFW¶QRWµUHFRQVWUXFW¶ WRGHVFULEHWKH process of historical interpretation, and then proceed to support some novel interSUHWDWLRQE\DVHULHVRIµ SRVVLEOHV¶µPLJKWKDYHEHHQV¶DQGµFRXOGKDYHEHHQV¶´ 46 While this notion rings true at least in the sense that in the last 30 years a lot of

44 &I%DUWKHV5RODQG³'LHVWUXNWXUDOLVWLVFKH7lWLJNHLW³LQKursbuch 5 (1966), pp. 190196, here p. 191. 45 &I 'HUULGD -DFTXHV ³'LH GLIIpUDQFH³ LQ 3HWHU (QJHOPDQQ ed.), Postmoderne und Dekonstruktion. Texte französischer Philosophen der Gegenwart, Stuttgart: Reclam 1990, pp. 76-113, here. p. 107. 46 +LPPHOIDUE*HUWUXGH³6RPH5HIOHFWLRQVRQWKH1HZ+LVWRU\´LQThe American Historical Review 94:3 (1989), p. 661-670, here p. 667.

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attention has been given to the challenge posed by postmodern philosophy towards traditional forms of historiography, this mode of thought has not reached mainstream entertainment games production. Here a historist notion of history is still prevailing, even though it has adapted to a Zeitgeist that labels historical insights as subjective perspectives. The idea of the neutral, objective, true history is still an ideal that many game creators strive for. Historians analyzing the presentation of history in digital games on the other KDQGKDYHQRWHGWKDWWKHPHGLXP¶VPRVWGLVWLQFWSURSHUWLHVSURFHGXUDOLW\DQGLQ teractivity, lend themselves to a perception and expression of history that is far more in line with what Himmelfarb perceived historical expression to be: imagination, invention and construction.47 ,DQ%RJRVW¶V concept of procedural rhetoric provides a tool to integrate theoretical approaches to historical research into the technological properties of game development by making use of and expanding on their rhetorical figures. Thus, an extension from theory to game production is created that offers games pluralistic perspectives on history in line with their core medial properties: procedurality and interactivity.

B IBLIOGRAPHY $UQROG .ODXV ³4XHOOHQNULWLN³ in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 255-257. Bachmann-Medick, Doris: Cultural Turns. New Orientations in the Study of Culture, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2016. %DURQ-DLPLH³'LJLtal Historicism: Archival Footage, Digital Interface, and HisWRULRJUDSKLF(IIHFWVLQ&DOORI'XW\:RUOGDW:DU´LQ Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 4:2 (2010), pp. 303-314. %ODQNH +RUVW :DOWHU ³+LVWRULRJUDSKLH´ in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 152153. Barthes, Roland (1966): ³'LHVWUXNWXUDOLVWLVFKH7lWLJNHLW³in: Kursbuch 5 (1966), pp. 190-196. Bogost, Ian: Persuasive Games. The Expressive Power of Videogames, Cambridge, MA/London: The MIT Press 2007. %UHFKW%HUWROW³7KHDWUHIRU3OHDVXUHRU7KHDWUHIRU,QVWUXFWLRQ´in: John Willett (ed.), Brecht on Theatre. The Development of an Aesthetic, London: Eyre Methuen 1974, pp. 69-77.

47 Cf. A. Chapman: Digital Games as History, pp. 48-50.

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Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History. How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice, New York, NY/Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge 2016. 'DYLG0DULDQ³7KH&RUUHVSRQGHQFH7KHRU\RI7UXWK´in: Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truthcorrespondence/ from 18.04.2020. Derrida, Jacques: ³'LHGLIIpUDQFH³in: Peter Engelmann (ed.), Postmoderne und Dekonstruktion. Texte französischer Philosophen der Gegenwart, Stuttgart: Reclam 1990, pp. 76-113. Freyermuth, Gundolf S.: Games | Game Design | Game Studies, Bielefeld: transcript 2015. *DPH6WDU5HGDNWLRQ³.LQJGRP&RPH'HOLYHUDQFH± Die Reaktion auf die Rassismus-9RUZUIH³in: GameStar, January 01, 2018; https://www.gamestar.de/ artikel/kingdom-come-deliverance-die-reaktion-auf-die-rassismus-vorwuefe,3324854.html#top Goertz, Hans--UJHQ ³:LUNOLFKNHLW³ in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 328330. +LPPHOIDUE*HUWUXGH³6RPH5HIOectioQVRQWKH1HZ+LVWRU\´LQThe American Historical Review 94:3 (1989), p. 661-670 -RUGDQ6WHIDQ³+LVWRULVPXV³in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 171-173. /GWNH$OIUHG´Alltagsgeschichte: Aneignung und Akteure. Oder ± es hat noch NDXPEHJRQQHQ³LQWerkstattGeschichte 17 (1997), pp. 83-92. 0XKODFN8OULFK³,QGLYLGXDOLWlW³in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 179-180. Murray, Janet H.: Hamlet on the Holodeck. The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, New York i.a.: The Free Press 2016. 3HFNKDP0DWW³+RZ$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\1DYLJDWHVWKH)UHQFK5HYROXWLRQ¶V Politics, in: TIME, October 6, 2014; https://time.com/3471390/assassinscreed-unity/ 3ILVWHU (XJHQ ³µ'HV SDWULRWHV FHV DEUXWLV¶ ,PDJLQDWLRQHQ GHU IUDQ]|VLVFKHQ 5HYROXWLRQLPGLJLWDOHQ6SLHO$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\´ in: Frühneuzeit-Info 27 (2016); https://fnzinfo.hypotheses.org/852 Pöppinghege, Rainer: ³:HQQ *HVFKLFKWH NHLQH 5ROOH VSLHOW +LVWRULVFKH &RP SXWHUVSLHOH´in: Wolfgang Hardtwig / Alexander Schug (eds.), History sells! Angewandte Geschichte als Wissenschaft und Markt, Stuttgart: Steiner 2009, pp. 131-138.

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3UIHU7KRPDV³6XEMHNWLYLWlW/IntersuEMHNWLYLWlW´in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 276-279. Ranke, Leopold von: Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494 bis 1514. Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber, Leipzig: von Duncker und Humblot 1885. 5LF°XU 3DXO ³:DKUKHLW KLVWRULVFKH³ in: Stefan Jordan (ed.), Lexikon Geschichtswissenschaft. Hundert Grundbegriffe, Stuttgart: Reclam 2002, pp. 316319. 6FKZDU]$QJHOD³*DPH6WXGLHVXQG*HVFKLFKWVZLVsenschafW´in: Klaus SachsHombach/Jan-Noel Thon (eds.), Game Studies. Aktuelle Ansätze der Computerspielforschung, Köln: Herbert von Halem 2015, pp. 398-447. Sobchack9LYLDQ³7KH&KDUJHRIWKH5HDO(PERGLHG.QRZOHGJHDQG&LQHPDWLF &RQVFLRXVQHVV´ in: Vivian Sobchack (ed.), Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture, Berkeley: University of California Press 2004, pp. 258-285. 8ULFFKLR :LOOLDP ³6LPXODWLRQ +LVWRU\ DQG &RPSXWHU *DPHV´ LQ -RRVW Raessens/Jeffrey Goldstein (eds.), Handbook of Computer Game Studies, Cambridge/London: The MIT Press 2005, pp. 327-338. Wiemer, Serjoscha: ³Strategie in Echtzeit. Ergodik zwischen Kriegsspiel und Wirtschaftssimulation´, in: Rolf F. Nohr/Serjoscha Wiemer (eds.), Strategie spielen: Medialität, Geschichte und Politik des Strategiespiels, Berlin: Lit 2008, pp. 213-248. White, Hayden: Metahistory. The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe, London/Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press 1973. :ROI 3HWHU ³)UHLEHXWHU GHU &KURQRORJLH *HVFKLFKWVELOder des Historismus im Computerspiel µDer Patrizier¶´in: Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 44 (1993), pp. 665-670. :ROI 3HWHU ³+LVWRULVPXV DXI GHP %ildschirm? Überlegungen zu ComputerVSLHOHQPLWKLVWRULVFKHU7KHPDWLN´ in: Bergbau- und Industriemuseum Ostbayern (ed.), EDV-Tage Theuern 1997, Kümmersbruck: Bergbau- und Industriemuseum Ostbayern 1998, pp. 68-74.

O NLINE S OURCES ³Discovery Tour Mode of Assassin's Creed: Origins´ LQ Ubisoft Support, https://support.ubisoft.com/en-gb/Faqs/000031846/Discovery-Tour-Modeof-Assassin-s-Creed-Origins-ACO from 17.04.2020.

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³Historismus als epochale Denkform der Geschichtswissenschaft´ LQ geschichtstheorie.de, http://www.geschichtstheorie.de/4_3_2.html ³+LVWRU\¶V&UHHG ´LQ arte.tv, https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/074699-004A/history-s-creed-4-10/ from 17.04.2020. ³.LQJGRP &RPH 'HOLYHUDQFH´ LQ Steam, https://store.steampowered.com/ app/379430/Kingdom_Come_Deliverance/ from 17.04.2020. ³5HDOLVP´ LQ kingdomcomerpg.com, https://www.kingdomcomerpg.com/en/ga me-features/realism from 17.04.2020. ³7KH 2UHJRQ 7UDLO´ LQ Classic Reload, https://classicreload.com/oregontrail.html from 17.04.2020.

L UDOGRAPHY AGE OF EMPIRES II ± HD EDITION (Microsoft Studios 2013, O: Ensemble Studios/Hidden Path Entertainment) ASSASSIN¶S CREED ODYSSEY (Ubisoft 2018, O: Ubisoft Quebec) ASSASSIN¶S CREED ORIGINS (Ubisoft 2017, O: Ubisoft Montreal) ASSASSIN'S CREED UNITY (Ubisoft 2014, O: Ubisoft Montreal) CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (Activision 2008, O: Treyarch) CIVILIZATION (MicroProse 1991, O: MicroProse) KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (Deep Silver/Warhorse Studios 2018, O: Warhorse Studios) MAFIA II (2K Games 2010, O: 2K Czech) THE OREGON TRAIL ± DOS VERSION (MECC 1990, O: MECC)

Authenticity in and of History

History in Video Games and the Craze for the Authentic A NGELA S CHWARZ

A BSTRACT :LWKSHRSOHORRNLQJIRUWKHµWUXH¶RUWKHµUHDOWKLQJ¶LQQHDUO\HYHU\DUHDRIOLIH authenticity has turned into a buzzword. This applies even to history, which has become an integral part of everyday life. This article explores the strategies used by publishers to authenticate history in video games. It identifies four predominant constructions of authenticity, ranging from visual representation, narrative and credible characters to the involvement of external experts. They are implemented WRPDNHWKHJDPHVPDUNHWDEOHDVDSSURDFKHVWRSDVWOLIHµDVLWUHDOO\DQGWUXO\ZDV The issue here is to analyze their assets and limitations as seen from an academic point of view.

I NTRODUCTION : T HE PRESENT - DAY C RAZE FOR THE A UTHENTIC Authenticity has turned into a buzzword. People seem to crave for it in nearly every field of activity: authentic food, authentic clothing, authentic beauty products or sports articles. They mistrust experience that is second-hand and prize highly that which promises to be the real thing, be it an individual person, a group or societies, things or places. The trend for the authentic has been well established in the media as well as in business for many years. TRGD\¶VDGYHUWLVLQJLQGXVWU\ and economies focus on global consumers asking for authenticity in a product

118 | A NGELA S CHWARZ

rather than innovation or uniqueness.1 It is said about this huge and influential section of consumer society that its members are on a quest, relentlessly and obVHVVLYHO\³OLNH0XOGHUDQGKLVVHDUFKIRUWUXWK´RU³,QG\DQGKLVVHDUFKIRUWKH /RVW$UN´2 The media continuously nurture expectations of true stories and strive to fulfill this need in offering a variety of programs and formats: true crime, authentic depictions of dramatic episodes or supposedly everyday life experiences in the lives of celebrities, be they rich and beautiful or poor and otherwise marketable. In addition, not only media content but the media themselves are expected to be authentic, i.e. ideal representations of what is deemed characteristic of a specific medium.3 In fact, modern mass media have boosted the pervasiveness and range of a craving for authenticity in our world considerably. At the same time, they have widened the gap between the desire and its fulfillment.4 This is due to two factors or reasons: (1) Mediated authenticity is a contradiction in terms: When something is available through media channels, it has been altered, if not largely transformed, and that means the authentic in the sense of the original quality has been replaced by something else. What is of interest here is that this other quality transmitted by the PHGLDFDQEHKHOGDQGYHU\RIWHQLVKHOGWREHWKHµWUXH¶ thing.5

1

Cf. Cohn & Wolfe: Searching for authenticity? You've come to the right place, 2017; http://www.authentic100.com/; &RKQ :ROIH³*OREDO6WXG\IURP&RKQ :ROIHGH fines Authenticity in the Eyes of Consumers and Reveals the 100 Most Authentic %UDQGV´LQ Cision PR Newswire, April 19, 2016; https://www.prnewswire.com/newsreleases/global-study-from-cohn--wolfe-defines-authenticity-in-the-eyes-of-consumers-and-reveals-the-100-most-authentic-brands-300253451.html

2

&I'XGOHU5RJHU³7KH$JHRI$XWKHQWLFLW\:K\%UDQGV1HHGWR*HW5HDO´LQFrontify; https://www.frontify.com/en/blog/the-age-of-authenticity-why-brands-need-to-get -real/

3

Cf. Juul, Jesper: Handmade Pixels. Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity, Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press 2019.

4

For instance, cf. Funk, Wolfgang / Bousquet, David (eds.), The Aesthetics of Authentic-

5

There are multiple causes at the bottom of this desire for authenticity: alienation, frag-

ity. Medial Constructions of the Real, Bielefeld: transcript 2012. mented life, the desire to reconnect with one's true character or identity ± something which is constructed in the process of supposedly finding one's way back to it, and many more. For a more detailed discussion, cf. Rössner, Michael / Uhl, Heidemarie (eds.), Renaissance der Authentizität? Über die neue Sehnsucht nach dem Ursprünglichen, Bielefeld: transcript 2014.

T HE C RAZE FOR THE A UTHENTIC | 119

(2) What is more, authenticity does not exist as a quality in things or phenomena per se, but is rather a feature that is attributed, imagined and constructed. In consequence, it may be better seen as a construct or an expectation which is closely connected to the person constructing it or the context of this process. Popular notions of authenticity differ from academic ones, contemporary from older ones, notions of academic historians6 from those of their equivalents in philosophy or psychology. Scientific historical authenticity, to explain the one that will be of interest here in more detail, refers (a) to the origin of sources or documents as being verified, (b) to objects as witnesses of past lives, and, to a certain extent, (c) to representations of history. Seen in the light of the varying notions, it may be better to talk about authenticities in the plural²as we do with expectations of it and techniques of its production. When talking about history in the media, we are very often faced with the popular conceptions of authenticity. When confronted with the past, people expect the pure and genuine, even the feeling of bygone days. Whether they watch the history channel on TV, walk through the remnants of a medieval castle, read a historical novel or watch a movie set in the past: The wish to be well entertained may come first, but audiences ask for a true depiction of that particular time, place and context nearly just as insistently.7 Various programs on TV or web channels cater to this want in various degrees and manage to address heterogeneous audiences and theLUUHVSHFWLYHLGHDVRIWKHµUHDOWKLQJ¶ This description fits all popular media, and digital games are no exception to the rule. Games using a historic setting profit greatly from their interactive character and immersive qualities to foster the illusion of travelling in time. Is this the SDVWµDVLWUHDOO\ZDV¶"2UDWOHDVWDQDSSUR[LPDWLRQWRWKDWSDVWUHDOLW\²which is thought to exist and to be seizable? How authentic is the representation of the past that a gamer can find in D JDPH¶V YLVXDOL]DWLRQ QDUration and sounds? How

6

&IH[SODQDWLRQLQ6DXSH$FKLP³+LVWRULVFKH$XWKHQWL]LWlW´9ersion: 3.0, in: Docupedia Zeitgeschichte, August 25, 2015; http://docupedia.de/zg/Saupe_authentizitaet_v3_de_2015#Historische_Authentizit.C3.A4t For a review of research on authenticity and the present-GD\IDVFLQDWLRQZLWKKLVWRU\FI6DXSH$FKLP³+istorische Authentizität: Individuen und Gesellschaften auf der Suche nach dem Selbst ± ein ForVFKXQJVEHULFKW´ LQ H/Soz/Kult. Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geisteswissenschaften, August 15, 2017; https://www.hsozkult.de/literaturereview/id/ forschungsberichte-2444

7

For concepts of authenticity in connection with place, cf. Drecoll, Axel/Schaarschmidt, Thomas/Zündorf, Irmgard (eds.), Authentizität als Kapital historischer Orte? Die Sehnsucht nach dem unmittelbaren Erleben von Geschichte, Göttingen: Wallstein 2019.

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authentic can it be, and how authentic do game designers or players want it to be? It is likely that questions like these have come up in the minds of many who are immersed in the worlds of BATTLEFIELD (since 2002), AGE OF EMPIRES (since 1997), ASSASSIN¶S CREED (since 2007), CIVILIZATION (since 1991), ANNO (since 1998), RED DEAD REDEMPTION (since 2010), KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (2018) or many other games set in the past. This is true at least for those who go beyond the mere fun of playing a good game.

S TAGING THE P AST

AND CREATING

A UTHENTICITY

What are the ways in which video games create their historic setting or, to be more SUHFLVHKRZGRWKH\VWDJHµWKHSDVW¶"8 What kind of strategies do they employ to invest their creations with the feel and look of the authentic? As for strategies of authentication, four types seem to be the most prominent.9 All too frequently they

8

For a theoretical concept of staging the past in history as a tourist attraction today as ZHOODVLQWKHSDVWVHH6FKZDU]$QJHOD³3DVWQHVVLQWKHPDNLQJ9RQGHU7RXULVWL IL]LHUXQJGHUYHUUlXPOLFKWHQ=HLWLQGHU9HUJDQJHQKHLW³ in: Angela Schwarz / Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß (eds.), Reisen in die Vergangenheit. Geschichtstourismus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Köln/Wien/Weimar: Böhlau 2019, pp. 25-44. See also McIntosh, AlLVRQ-3UHQWLFH5LFKDUG&³$IILUPLQJ$XWKHQWLFLW\&RQVXPing &XOWXUDO+HULWDJH´ in: Annals of Tourism Research, 3 (1999), pp. 589-612. For patterns of staging history LQ YLGHR JDPHV FI 6FKZDU] $QJHOD ³µ-RLQ XV LQ PDNLQJ KLVWRU\¶ 0XVWHU YRQ *HVFKLFKWVLQV]HQLHUXQJLP&RPSXWHUVSLHO´LQ)UDXNH*H\NHQ0LFKDel Sauer (eds.), Zugänge zur Public History. Formate ± Orte ± Inszenierungsformen, Frankfurt a.M.: Wochenschau 2019, pp. 41-6FKZDU]$QJHOD³*HVFKLFKWHLP&RPSXWHUVSLHO(LQ µLQWHUDNWLYHV *HVFKLFKWVEXFK¶ ]XP 6SLHOHQ (U]lKOHQ /HUQHQ"´ LQ 9DGLP 2VZDlt / Hans-Jürgen Pandel (eds.), Handbuch Geschichtskultur, Frankfurt a.M.: Wochenschau 2020.

9

The question has been tackled before, though from a different disciplinary perspective. %XOOLQJHUDQG6DOYDWLKDYHFKRVHQWKHWHUP³VHOHFWLYHDXWKHQWLFLW\´WRFover what they see as characteristic strategies from the point of view of media studies: technology fetishism, cinematic conventions, documentary authority. Cf. Salvati, Andrew J./BullLQJHU-RQDWKDQ0³6HOHFWLYH$XWKHQWLFLW\DQG3OD\DEOH3DVW´LQ0DWWhew Wilhelm Kapell / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the Past. Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York/London: Bloomsbury Academic 2013, pp. 153-167, here pp. 158-)URPWKHKLVWRULDQ¶VSRLQWRIYLHZWKHVHWKUHHGRQRWVXIILFHWo cover the most widely used forms of authentication.

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are used in combination with one another rather than separately. The first two refer to history in that they touch upon the forms of representing the past, i.e. people, places, objects, processes, social structures etc., the latter two cover persons firmly rooted in the present who vouch for the historical character of a depiction: ‡ authentication through images and/or sounds, a characteristic way of audio-vis-

ual representations of specific (historic) elements in a game; ‡ DXWKHQWLFDWLRQWKURXJKIDFWVDQGGDWDSURYLGLQJWKHIUDPHZRUNIRUDJDPH¶VSORW

and a detailed design of characters and sceneries; ‡ DXWKHQWLFDWLRQ WKURXJK SOD\HUV¶ FRQWHPSRUDULHV ZKR WKH\ DFFHSW DV H[SHUWV

whose expertise can be but does not have to be history; ‡ authentication through fictitious characters as present-GD\FUHDWLRQVIRUDJDPH¶V

plot set in the past who are perceived as highly believable. All these patterns make lavish use of one thing game designers assume in their recipients: recognition. Over the past decades, history has become so common place in everyday life, so widely advertised in the media and so diligently popularized in so many different formats, that video games can count on at least rudimentary, if not more detailed foreknowledge or preconceived notions of the historic context10 chosen for a game. They add an extensive amount of detail about² and images of²the past to what players remember of their history classes in school. (1) Games in historical settings count on this factor of recognition. Foreknowledge of certain looks and sounds attributed to a particular past reality is a precondition when audiovisuals are to spark a feeling of familiarity. This, in turn, lays the foundation for the semblance of historical authenticity. The visual or acoustic references do not even have to accurately mirror the historical precursor on which it is modelled. Often vague allusions suffice to tinge something with a historical hue. The allusions mark one end of the spectrum and at the other we find intensive efforts to reproduce a scene of past life as close as possible to the original. This emphasis on reproductions abounds where the look of a building, landscape, or character is concerned.

10 For knowledge of history circulating in everyday contexts, Rolf Nohr, borrowing from -UJHQ/LQNKDVXVHGWKHWHUP³HOHPHQWDU\GLVFRXUVH´&I1RKU5ROI)³The Game is a Medium: The Game is a MessagH´LQ7RELDV:LQQHUOLQJ)ORULDQ.HUVFKEDXPHU (eds.), Early Modernity and Video Games, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014, pp. 2-23, here pp. 12, 17.

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KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE and the ASSASSIN¶S CREED series belong to the well-known games which follow the latter approach of a detailed visual representation of past sceneries. Publisher Ubisoft never tires of pointing out the effort that has been and will continue to be put into reconstructions of historical buildings and landmarks as near-accurate reproductions in their games. The depiction of Notre-Dame de Paris in ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITY (2014) has repeatedly been cited as a particularly impressive example, since some 5,000 working-hours11 alone went into the virtual construction of this famous cathedral. The Notre-Dame Cathedral depicted in the game set in the French Revolution of 1789 is actually the building as it existed in the early twenty-first century12²a clear indication of the fact that even the most detailed claim to authenticity has its limits. The other approach with its comparative lack of elaborate historical detail does not have to be less reminiscent of the original. In COSSACKS: EUROPEAN WARS (2000) and its remake COSSACKS 3  IRULQVWDQFHWKHµFKXUFK¶GHSLFWHGZKHQ the chosen faction is France is clearly modelled after the Notre-Dame²though the model is far less detailed and, due to game design parameters, transferred into a modified and smaller layout. What gamers see is Notre-Dame all the same, or a rather sketchy representation and thus an allusion to it.13 Nevertheless, it is all too clear which real life building the image is supposed to refer to. Therefore, a lot of games do not even need a distinct historical background to evoke the impression of a certain historical time. A prime example can be found in the ANNO series, which from its inception has generously mixed history with fiction and thrived on the tension between both.14 ANNO 1404 (2009), for instance,

11 &I'DO\6WHSKHQ³$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\&UHDWLQJ1RWUH'DPHLQWKH*DPH7RRk 5,000 Man-+RXUV´ LQ Gameranx, August 15, 2014; https://gameranx.com/updates/id/23650/article/assassin-s-creed-unity-creating-notre-dame-in-the-game-took-5000-man-hours/ 12 When fire destroyed part of Notre-'DPHLQWKHJDPH¶VGLJLWDOUHFRQVWUXFWion was the most accurate model of the building available before the catastrophe. 13 Despite the reductionist representation, the church of the French faction cannot be mistaken for that of the English one, which is modelled after Westminster Abbey ± which is, as a matter of fact, a Gothic cathedral with a two-tower front like Notre-Dame, so that less informed users might confuse both. 14 The allusions to history are always present in ANNO, but the gameplay always unfolds in a fictional world. It holds many references to facts of the past, which make their way into the ANNO-worlds only after a process of alteration and disguise. Thus, the names of countries and empires are just as fictitious as the actors in the game, no matter how closely they are based on historical models. These remain, however, clearly discernible.

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worked with numerous visual borrowings from Gothic cathedrals, Hanseatic cities RI1RUWKHUQ(XURSHDQGDQLPDJHRIµWKH2ULHQW¶²which Edward Said would call a classical Western construction of some Near or Middle Eastern environment. 15 The current title in the series, ANNO 1800 (2019), offers no exception to the rule and continues to produce vague images of past sceneries, in this case of industrial Britain. This is too blatant in the so-called monumental building with which players can decorate their virtual FLWLHV (YHQ ZLWKRXW WKH ODEHO µ:RUOG¶V )DLU¶ WKH reference to the Crystal Palace built for the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 is all too obvious. 7KHPRUHUHFHQWDKLVWRULFHSLVRGHLVWRDSOD\HU¶VSUHVHQWWKHPRUHGHWDLOV will be known and the more familiar it will seem. While the figure of the medieval emperor in ANNO 1404 is too distant and vague to pinpoint an exact historical figure on which the fictitious ruler is modelled, there is little, if any doubt as to who might be the historical personality behind the queen of a global empire in ANNO 1800. Parallel depictions of this queen in academic productions as well as popular media beyond video games, e.g. in the movie THE YOUNG VICTORIA (2009), a TV series entitled VICTORIA (running for three seasons between 2016 and 2019), or a daily webcomic which comments on present-day issues entitled NEW ADVENTURES OF QUEEN VICTORIA (since 2006), point to an important factor: The credibility of a character or setting which underpins authentication can and often does result from a broad spectrum of sources, ranging from contemporary sources and academic expertise to popular media. A graphic example of an approach in contrast to the one in ANNO 1800 is the representation of Queen Victoria in ASSASSIN¶S CREED SYNDICATE (2015). The nineteenth-century British monDUFK¶VDSSHDUDQFHLQLWVSORWLVLQVSLUHGE\ZHOO-known paintings and photographs of this first royal media celebrity. What is more, game designers only selected images that were widely disseminated and promiQHQWDPRQJ9LFWRULD¶VFRQWHP SRUDULHVDOOLQWKHHIIRUWWRHQKDQFHKLVWRULFDODXWKHQWLFLW\WKURXJKWKHJDPH¶VYLV uals. This kind of authentication is also used in a number of games which focus on meticulous reconstructions of military technology, i.e. planes, submarines, tanks, all types of weapons as they are found in simulation games, strategy games, and shooters. A visually correct representation of armory is to guarantee authentic historical situations, something that both game designers and players expect and

15 6FKZDU] $QJHOD ³%XQWH %LOGHU ± Geschichtsbilder? Zur Visualisierung von Geschichte im Medium des ComputerspiHOV´LQ%HQMDPLQ%HLO0DUF%RQQHU7KRPDV Hensel (eds.), Computer | Spiel | Bilder, Glückstadt: vwh 2014, pp. 219-253, here pp. 227-229.

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appreciate as the key to a successful journey back into the past. Those fascinated by these kinds of games often have a remarkably detailed knowledge of specific weapons technology at their command. The additional use of contemporary images for the visualization of such a game goes a long way to underpin the illusion of an authentic representation of the respective submarine, plane, tank or gun. To a considerable extent, this applies to contemporary photographs, since photography is still²despite a whole section of media research pointing to its manipulative potential16²commonly thought of as a true reflection of reality, be it one of the present or one of the past. It does not come as a surprise, then, that games like SUDDEN STRIKE (2000), BLITZKRIEG (2003), COMPANY OF HEROES (2007), STEEL DIVISION: NORMANDY 44 (2017) or its sequel STEEL DIVISION II (2019) continue to cater to these notions by making use of the available historical material. Advertisements of these games highlight this very procedure, making lavish use of the WHUPµDXWKHQWLF¶LQFRQQHFWLRQZLWKLW17 When all is said and done, what counts for a successful authentication via visual²as well as audio²channels is that a gamer actually recognizes the reference to a historical model or precedent. The more familiar a person, event or scenery of the past is among gamers²and the general public, for that matter ±, the less explicitly it must be related to and the greater the freedom of game designers to toy with their models. (2) Many people perceive history as a collection of dates and facts. To them, authenticity is given when events seem to unfold in a logical, i.e. chronological order, and offer a density of detail that seems necessary to make them tangible. It is a common concept of history, one that has existed in Western historiography since ancient Greece. It goes without saying that it supports a linear notion of passing time, with events, actions and persons following a quasi-deterministic chronology. Historical chronicles of this kind are not the preserve of pre-modern history only, but have made their way into modern mass media, most commonly into documentaries on TV, outlines in the press or encyclopaedias (offline as well as online). As part of video games, this kind of knowledge is authenticated through references. Game designers turn to textbooks, historical sources and/or academic

16 Cf. Jäger, Jens: Photographie: Bilder der Neuzeit. Einführung in die Historische Bildforschung, Tübingen: edition diskord 2000, pp. 11-13; Jordanova, Ludmilla: The Look of the Past. Visual and Material Evidence in Historical Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2012, pp. 130-133. 17 Cf. Eugen Systems: Steel Division II. Command your Army. Fight your battles; https://www.steeldivision2.com

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experts, the latter are usually invited to officially approve of the kind of history staged in a game. Naturally, the games that function along this pattern cover highly GLYHUVHGHJUHHVRIDXWKHQWLFDWLRQ7KHGDWHVDQGIDFWVSUHVHQWLQDJDPH¶VSORWRU in other in-game bodies of knowledge cover a wide spectrum too, as they range from a most detailed and exact representation of the past, down to a few mentions that appear as no more than mere hints. All of them utilize contemporary sources and material originating in present-day medial productions, and adapt these to the characteristics of video games. The only difference to the authentication by visual (and auditive) means is the chosen format: it is texts instead of images (and sounds), which in turn provide a historical narrative mainly consisting of dates and facts. They are generally considered the backbone of history. ASSASSIN¶S CREED and ANNO have already been mentioned above as examples of a tendency, in the first case, to present history close to historical sources and, in the second case, to use a wealth of allusions and playfully modified quotations. Both contain elements that are covered by this second mode of authentication by text-based facts as well. For example, the in-game database for ASSASSIN¶S CREED SYNDICATE contains several excerpts from letters written by Queen Victoria. These can be collected as objects in the game and read afterwards, so that SOD\HUV JHW WKH IHHOLQJ WKDW WKH\ FDQ IROORZ LQ WKH 4XHHQ¶V IRRWVWHSV DQG FRPH closer to the historic Victoria through these written documents. Thus, they contribute greatly to making the character in the game look more authentic. In contrast, ANNO 1800 sketches the picture of a queen with very few strokes, marking her out as young and inexperienced. The allusion to the historic Queen Victoria in the early years of her reign is nevertheless evident for those who know that she ascended the throne as a young woman lacking the proper education for her role as monarch, facts that are widely known through other popular representations. In combination with the visualization in a style reminiscent of what is GHHPHGW\SLFDOO\µ%ULWLVK¶PDLQly in terms of architecture or building styles and the use of English sounding names for the persons at the royal court and in various administrative positions of the empire, an image of nineteenth-century Britain is created. In addition, the empire in the JDPHLVUHIHUUHGWRDVWKH³(PSLUH´ZKLFK reinforces the association with the historic British Empire. Added to this is the GDWHµ¶DQGWKHVHWWLQJRID%ULWDLQ progressing to become the first workshop of the world in history, the first industrialized nation, so that players find themselves acting in a setting steeped firmly enough in a concrete historic antecedent, and in this way authentic to the degree they expect from a title in the series. Despite the visuals that mark out the ANNO series as set in a colorful but fictitious world, some people thought it so convincingly historic that they initiated a debate

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RQWKHLQWHUQHWDERXWWKHJDPH¶VRPLVVLRQRIVODYHU\18 As slave trade and slavery itself had been banned in the British Empire much earlier than the date set by the game as sometime in the 1860s, the debate in itself can be read as evidence to a successful way of authentication. When a few allusions can produce such an effect, historical knowledge presented as well-established facts is apt to do so with even greater impact. In this case, the in-game database, the in-game lexicon or any other body of knowledge in the game are very forceful means of authentication. The origin of this inclusion and presentation of factual evidence dates back to the early 1990s, when SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION  LQWURGXFHGWKHYHU\ILUVW³FLYLORSHGLD.´7KHIHDWXUH became an instantaneous success and has remained popular ever since, with numerous imitations and offshoots, especially in the field of strategy games. The campaigns in AGE OF EMPIRES (1997), to name one telling example, were presented like a chronological narrative of the most important stations of ancient cultures, often concentrated on individual personalities prominent in history in order to further facilitate recognition. When moving from one level to the next, not only the plot but also information on the historical background of the campaign is provided, interweaving the fictitious with the historical. Quite a few gamers will have appreciated this way of investing the story with the hue of authentic history. This way of interweaving is still very common in strategy games today, especially in those that deal with the Second World War. The mission briefings are often underpinned by additional information about the war period referred to, sometimes these are more detailed as in SUDDEN STRIKE 4 (2017), sometimes less so as in BLITZKRIEG 3 (2017) The intention, however, stays the same, i.e. giving players more details before they start the game. The development of the CIVILIZATION series is a good indicator of this factbased authentication of history working well beyond military history. Although world domination is still the aim of each of the individual games in the series, the kinds of dominance have become more varied. The two most recent games, CIVILIZATION V (2010) and VI (2016), extend the classic military form which includes science²as associated with the development of weapons and the technologies for space travel²to diplomatic, religious and cultural forms of dominance. ,QFRQVHTXHQFHWKHJDPH¶VFRQFHSWVRIWHFKQRORJ\FXOWXUDODQGVRFLDOGHYHORS ments have become more varied and complex. These in turn are mirrored in the

18 &I6FKRWW'RPLQLN³6NODYHQKDQGHOXQG Kolonialismus. Anno 1800 schreibt die GesFKLFKWH XP´ LQ golem.de. IT-News für Profis, May 7, 2019 https://www.golem.de/ news/sklavenhandel-und-kolonialismus-anno-1800-schreibt-die-geschichte-um-1905140996.html

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entries of the new civilopedias, which also serve as game manuals. Thus, they not only contain selected historical facts on persons, buildings, technologies or political issues, but at the same time classify these within a hierarchy of knowledge and functions in game(play). This linkage, in conjunction with the extensive increase in additional information from one title of the series to the next, paves the way to a successful authentication. What is presented in such detail has to be historically accurate. Such an assessment loses only little, if any of its persuasive powers in light of the fact that the information provided is at best cursory knowledge, most of the time stand-alone information, hardly ever rooted in the historical context²which is, however, the basis of all academic historiography. History is a (chrono-)logical succession of facts after all, or so it still appears to the general public. (3) In addition to these two strategies of authentication, historicized images and sounds as well as historical data and facts, contemporaries can advance into an important role when they are regarded and accepted as particularly well-informed in history in general or in a specific segment. This includes a great variety of experts and expertise, including scholars in academic contexts, professional experts in other fields than historiography, media representatives, influencers and celebrities who market themselves as connoisseurs or are attested sufficient command of history regardless of any knowledge or deeper understanding of the field. Though not an all-encompassing trend, the marketing of some games with settings in history emphasizes the fact that experts played an important role as adviVRUVLQDJDPH¶VGHYHORSPHQWPRVWQRWDEO\LQWKHFUHDWLRQ of its factual and visual framework. In 2000, for example, developer Related Designs explicitly credited a historian with a doctorate in history, Max Plassmann, as a historical consultant for their production of AMERICA: NO PEACE BEYOND THE LINE! (2001). World War II shooters tend to follow along these lines as they repeatedly benefit from the expertise of former military personnel with a preference for military history. They take on the role of historical-military advisors whenever former weapons technology or military strategy comes into play.19 Dale Dye and Martin Morgan, for instance, assisted in the development of various World War II settings in the MEDAL OF HONOR series (since 1999), John F. Antal did the same in the three parts of the

19 &I %HQGHU 6WHIIHQ ³'XUFK GLH $XJHQ einfacher Soldaten und namenloser Helden. :HOWNULHJVVKRRWHUDOV6LPXODWLRQKLVWRULVFKHU.ULHJVHUIDKUXQJ"´LQ$QJHOD6FKZDU] (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel, Münster: LIT 2012, pp. 137-162, here p. 143, who refers to these experts and their claim to act as producers of historical authenticity.

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BROTHERS IN ARMS series (since 2005).20 Players often accept them as guarantors of the true thing, even if their knowledge of warfare and military history covers DQRWKHUILHOGDVWKHRQHLQWKHJDPHLQTXHVWLRQ,QFDVHVOLNHWKHVHWKHµWUXHWKLQJ¶ can comprise the expertise in warfare and technology²which they may possess² as well as in the general historical background and context²which they may lack or possess only to a limited (and rather positivistic) degree. This leads to a more general phenomenon, for expertise in history or the label µKLVWRULDQ¶DVXVHGLQWKHSXEOLFRUWKHPHGLDLVDYDJXHTXDOLILFDWLRQQRWDFOHDUFXWGHILQLWLRQRIDSHUVRQ¶VNQRZOHGJH1RQHWKHOHVVWKHODEHOFDUULHVVRPHZHLJKW with gamers and the general public. In some instances, when publishers involve these types of experts, they pursue more objectives than a simple catering to the expectations of the fan community and a better sales record. A highly remarkable and hitherto unique advance in this direction is the permanent employment of a historian with an academic background. Publisher Ubisoft has relied on consultants for many productions. They assisted in the design of individual elements, provided details and visuals dependent on tKH KLVWRULFDO EDFNJURXQG RI D WLWOH¶V storyline. It was a big step forward when Ubisoft recruited Maxime Durand, a historian with academic training, as an in-house specialist and historical consultant for the entire ASSASSIN¶S CREED series in 2010. In addition, external advisors were employed as specialists for the historical eras in question. Judith Flanders, author of the book 7KH9LFWRULDQ&LW\(YHU\GD\/LIHLQ'LFNHQV¶/RQGRQ (2012) who was hired for ASSASSIN¶S CREED SYNDICATE, is one of many that could be named in this context. Her voice is heard in a trailer for SYNDICATE, produced to wet JDPHUV¶DSSHWLWHLPPHGLDWHO\EHIRUHWKHJDPH¶VUHOHDVH 21 She was one of eleven SHRSOHRULQVWLWXWLRQVDSWO\GHVFULEHGE\8ELVRIWLQWKHFUHGLWVDVµDXWKHQWLFLW\FRQ VXOWDQWV¶ZKRZHUHWRDWWHVWDQGIXUWKHUHQKDQFHWKHDXWKHnticity of SYNDICATE¶S representation of mid-nineteenth century London. In the development of new strategies of authentication, Ubisoft did not stop there. The DISCOVERY TOUR BY ASSASSIN¶S CREED: ANCIENT EGYPT (2018), introduced as a game of its own as well as a new and additional mode in ASSASSIN¶S

20 &I6FKOHU%HQHGLNW6FKPLW]&KULVWRSKHU/HKPDQQ.DUVWHQ³*HVFKLFKWHDOV0DUNH HisWRULVFKH,QKDOWHLQ&RPSXWHUVSLHOHQDXVGHU6LFKWGHU6RIWZDUHEUDQFKH´LQ$QJHOD Schwarz (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel, Münster: LIT 2012, pp. 245-262, here p. 255. 21 &I 8VHUµ$VVDVVLQ¶V &UHHG '(¶³$VVDVVLQ¶V &UHHG6\QGLFDWH ± Historische Figuren 7UDLOHU _ 8ELVRIW >'(@´ LQ YouTube, October 13, 2015; https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pe_WE4aQgIM

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CREED ORIGINS (2017), carries the gaming experience from enjoying a captivating gameplay to entering a walkable, interactive museum. As such, the DISCOVERY TOUR required yet another intensity of authentication to be credible, yet another level of involvement of experts, mostly historians, archaeologists, art historians, specialists in ancient Egyptian architecture (nearly) all from an academic background. Their cooperation in fashioning the tour distracted from the fact that the virtual world created was still that of a video game, the mise-en-scène of a fictional world, divested of most of its gameplay and invested with selected facts and interpretations of a few elements of life in this particular era. The tour in turn contribXWHVWRWKHDXWKHQWLFDWLRQRIWKHJDPH¶VSORWZKRVHKLVWRULFLW\LVWRDODUJHH[WHQW based on a mixture of fiction, knowledge established by research, and imaginative completions of all the gaps it did not or could not fill yet. This may all be very well with games designed for entertainment purposes, but can take on a different hue in connection with games that lay claim to be educaWLRQDO RU µVHULRXV¶ *DPHV OLNH ATTENTAT 1942 (2017) or SVOBODA 1945 (announced for 2020) have expressly been developed, with the help of academic historians in the field, to convey important aspects of Czech or Czechoslovak national history. Both games are advertised as produced with the participation of professional historians and therefore as truly authentic depictions of the events referred to in the titles. The games created at the University of Prague may be closer to the historic events and as such, may have a greater claim to authenticity than UbiVRIW¶V glossy illusions of time travel. They are, however, considerably less far-reaching DQGHIIHFWLYHDVIDUDVSHRSOH¶VQRWLRQVRIKLVWRU\DQGDXWKHQWLFKLVWRU\DUHFRQ cerned. (4) The type of authentication which is to be addressed last results from present-day influences, as did the one mentioned before. In contrast to that, it does not rely on expertise of others but rather on something much more personal, a way of individually appropriating history through identification with believable characters in WKHJDPHV¶SORWV7KHVHILFWLRQDOFKDUDFWHUVDUHSURGXFWVRf the time of their creation, deducing their authenticity from the fact that they largely mirror the concepts of history prevalent at the time of their development. It is therefore not a question of figures that act in a historically credible way but rather of figures that appear as acting in a manner believable to someone playing the game in the present and with present-day values and concepts. This, then, confers authenticity. To be sure, this is quite another type of authenticity than the ones described above. It is applied less frequently, since games generally tend to propel gamers into powerful roles of a kind they find barred to them in real life, e.g. that of an ingenious military leader, a potent ruler or an invincible hero. Nonetheless, you find video games which emphasize a kind of solidarity with the average guy or

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girl. Games like VALIANT HEARTS: THE GREAT WAR (2014) or 11-11 MEMORIES RETOLD (2018) tell stories of ordinary people in extraordinary (historic) situations. In both, World War I serves as background to an experience of war which is unknown to many of us living in the Western world today. Nevertheless, the protagonists of both games act in ways familiar to us, with strengths and weaknesses we might share. They did not want war to come, but they find themselves involved in one; they cannot lead their country to victory nor to an end of the fighting, which could bring an end to the meaningless loss of so many lives. As victims rather than powerful actors, they reflect the position and feeling of insignificance and powerlessness many people may have in modern life. In this sense, the protagonists can appeal to gamers as authentic human beings in two ways: firstly, their actions, hopes and fears are relatable and serve as the basis for identification with them, secondly, they find themselves in a situation which seems to be a reflection of present-day conditions, offering an additional level of identification. This enhances their credibility, which in turn endows the whole (hi-)story unfolded in the narration with the semblance of genuine historic occurrences. ATTENTAT 1942 operates on a principle that may make a connection between present-day players and actors in the virtual historical world all the easier. In a Czechoslovakia occupied by Nazi Germany, resistance fighters are preparing to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. Players approach past events through a character VHWLQWKHSUHVHQWZKRUHVHDUFKHVLQWRKLVJUDQGIDWKHU¶VLQYROYHPHQWLn the assassination. As a relative, the connection with the fictional character is a close one and identification highly probable. The plot is fictional, as it is in many other games. The characters, however, have been created in line with the most recent academic research. ATTENTAT 1942, then, operates with a dual strategy: authentication through experts according to the third pattern and authentication through believable characters, whose credibility is reinforced by family ties. Believability is prominent in games that focus on a sophisticated plot, thus more in adventures rather than in action-packed shooters or role-playing games. More recent management games concentrating on ways to master difficult situations have begun to copy this pattern of creating the flair of historical authenticity. One of the better-known examples is THIS WAR OF MINE (2014), though its setting is not explicitly historical but rather timeless in that it deals with war experience in a more general way. Titles in a similar line such as WARSAW (2019), THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (2020) or THE BERLIN WALL (announced for 2020) address the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the resistance against National Socialism in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s or the flight across the inner-German border in Cold War Berlin all through the eyes of ordinary people who have to face unusually hard times. All of the characters in these games seem highly credible and

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thus authentic. They possess more freedom and more opportunity to decide than their counterparts in adventure games. Players appreciate the greater freedom to come to decisions of their own²within the parameters of the programming² without falling back into the position of an all-powerful actor common to many strategy games. The designers of THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES expressly point out important restrLFWLRQVZLWKLQWKHSORW7KHDFWLRQVFDUULHGRXWZLWKRQH¶V own resistance group cannot prevent war from coming nor its outcome, as the character you lead through the plot²like simple people at the time might have done²can only save individual lives and influence individual fates, not the ones of larger groups or entire populations. As this is something people today can relate to as they may make similar experiences in their everyday lives, they can find the virtual world in its past setting credible, hence authentic.

C ONCLUSION From an academic point of view, none of these four types of authentication brings forth authentic representations according to the scientific understanding of the WHUPLQFOXGLQJDXWKHQWLFDWLRQWKURXJKµH[SHUWNQRZOHGJH¶ZKLFK as is pointed out above, does not necessitate historiographic expertise. That is beside the point however, since accuracy that would meet academic standards is not a prerequisite of video games that are played for entertainment purposes²or any other popular medium for that matter. What is relevant, is the fact that gamers²and game designers²deem authenticity in games with historical settings an important element and that both can operate with an astonishingly broad spectrum of different notions of it and different degrees in which they expect the desire for it to be gratified. With this they reflect a general trend in popular media and a wider public which appreciate temporary immersions in a world that seems to be modelled on real life precursors and for that reason promise authentic experiences. How strategies of authentication in video games compare to the ones utilized in other popular media would be an interesting question for further reflection. In fact, there is a whole field of research dealing with the reasons for these H[SHFWDWLRQVDQGQRWLRQVIDVFLQDWHGZLWKXVHUV¶DXGLHQFHV¶DQGYLVLWRUV¶FRQVWDQW and even increasing craving for authenticity. They seem to value authenticity as the most promising means towards getting in touch with past life. Since people are not simply content with entering worlds that are pure fantasy, the investigation of strategies of authentication in video games, films, comics, popular historical novels etc. would lead to concepts of history widespread in our society, and to their origins. This is something that deserves further investigation by a whole

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range of scholars, academic historians interested in public history (like the author) being among them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY %HQGHU6WHIIHQ³'XUFKGLH$XJHQHLQIDFKHU6ROGDWHQXQd namenloser Helden. :HOWNULHJVVKRRWHUDOV6LPXODWLRQKLVWRULVFKHU.ULHJVHUIDKUXQJ"´LQ$QJHOD Schwarz (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel, Münster: LIT 2012, pp. 137-162. &RKQ :ROIH³*OREDO6WXG\IURP&RKQ :ROIHGHILQHV$XWKHQWLFLW\LQWKH (\HVRI&RQVXPHUVDQG5HYHDOVWKH0RVW$XWKHQWLF%UDQGV´LQCision PR Newswire, April 19, 2016; https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-study-from-cohn--wolfe-defines-authenticity-in-the-eyes-ofconsumers-and-reveals-the-100-most-authentic-brands-300253451.html Cohn & Wolfe: Searching for authenticity? You've come to the right place, 2017; http://www.authentic100.com/ Daly, StephHQ³$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG8QLW\&UHDWLQJ1RWUH'DPHLQWKH*DPH7RRN 5,000 Man-+RXUV´ LQ Gameranx, August 15, 2014; https://gameranx.com/ updates/id/23650/article/assassin-s-creed-unity-creating-notre-dame-in-thegame-took-5-000-man-hours/ Drecoll, Axel / Schaarschmidt, Thomas / Zündorf, Irmgard (eds.), Authentizität als Kapital historischer Orte? Die Sehnsucht nach dem unmittelbaren Erleben von Geschichte, Göttingen: Wallstein 2019. 'XGOHU 5RJHU ³7KH $JH RI $XWKHQWLFLW\ :K\ %UDQGV 1HHG WR *HW 5HDO´ LQ Frontify; https://www.frontify.com/en/blog/the-age-of-authenticity-why-bran ds-need-to-get-real/ Eugen Systems: Steel Division II. Command your Army. Fight your battles; https://www.steeldivision2.com Flanders, Judith: The Victorian City: Everyday Life iQ'LFNHQV¶/RQGRQ, London 2012. Funk, Wolfgang/Bousquet, David (eds.), The Aesthetics of Authenticity. Medial Constructions of the Real, Bielefeld: transcript 2012. Jäger, Jens: Photographie: Bilder der Neuzeit. Einführung in die Historische Bildforschung, Tübingen: edition diskord 2000. Jordanova, Ludmilla: The Look of the Past. Visual and Material Evidence in Historical Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2012.

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Juul, Jesper: Handmade Pixels. Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity, Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press 2019. McIntosh, Alison J. / 3UHQWLFH5LFKDUG&³$IILUPLQJ$XWKHQWLFLW\&RQVXPLQJ &XOWXUDO+HULWDJH´LQAnnals of Tourism Research, 3 (1999), pp. 589-612. 1RKU 5ROI ) ³7KH *DPH LV D 0HGLXP 7KH *DPH LV D 0HVVDJH´ LQ 7RELDV Winnerling / Florian Kerschbaumer (eds.), Early Modernity and Video Games, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014, pp. 2-23. Rössner, Michael / Uhl, Heidemarie (eds.), Renaissance der Authentizität? Über die neue Sehnsucht nach dem Ursprünglichen, Bielefeld: transcript 2014. Salvati, Andrew J. / %XOOLQJHU-RQDWKDQ0³6HOHFWLYH$XWKHQWLFLW\DQG3OD\DEOH 3DVW´LQ0DWWKHZ:LOKHOP.DSHOO / Andrew B. R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the Past. Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York/London: Bloomsbury Academic 2013, pp. 153-167. 6DXSH$FKLP³+LVWRULVFKH$XWKHQWL]LWlW,QGLYLGXHQXQG*HVHOOVFKDIWHQDXIGHU Suche nach dem Selbst ± HLQ )RUVFKXQJVEHULFKW´ LQ H/Soz/Kult. Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geisteswissenschaften, August 15, 2017; https://www.hsozkult.de/literaturereview/id/forschungsberichte-2444 Saupe, Achim: ³+LVWRULVFKH$XWKHQWL]LWlW´9HUVLRQLQDocupedia Zeitgeschichte, August 25, 2015; http://docupedia.de/zg/Saupe_authentizitaet_v3_de _2015#Historische_Authentizit.C3.A4t 6FKRWW 'RPLQLN ³6NOavenhandel und Kolonialismus. Anno 1800 schreibt die *HVFKLFKWH XP´ LQ golem.de. IT-News für Profis, May 7, 2019; https://www.golem.de/news/sklavenhandel-und-kolonialismus-anno-1800schreibt-die-geschichte-um-1905-140996.html Schüler, Benedikt / Schmitz, Christopher / /HKPDQQ .DUVWHQ ³*HVFKLFKWH DOV Marke. Historische Inhalte in Computerspielen aus der Sicht der SoftwareEUDQFKH´LQ$QJHOD6FKZDU](ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel, Münster: LIT 2012, pp. 245262. 6FKZDU]$QJHOD³µ-RLQXVLQPDNLQJKLVWRU\¶0XVWHUYRQ*HVFKLFKWVLQV]HQLHU XQJLP&RPSXWHUVSLHO´LQGeyken, Frauke / Sauer, Michael (eds.), Zugänge zur Public History. Formate ± Orte ± Inszenierungsformen, Frankfurt a.M.: Wochenschau 2019, pp. 41-61. Schwarz, Angela: ³%XQWH%LOGHU± Geschichtsbilder? Zur Visualisierung von Geschichte im Medium des ComputHUVSLHOV´LQ%HLO%HQMDPLQ / Bonner, Marc / Hensel, Thomas (eds.), Computer | Spiel | Bilder, Glückstadt: vwh 2014, pp. 219-253.

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Schwarz, Angela: ³*HVFKLFKWH LP &RPSXWHUVSLHO (LQ µLQWHUDNWLYHV *HVFKLFKWV EXFK¶ ]XP 6SLHOHQ (U]lKOHQ/HUQHQ"´ LQ 2VZDOW, Vadim / Pandel, HansJürgen (eds.), Handbuch Geschichtskultur, Frankfurt a.M.: Wochenschau 2020. Schwarz, Angela: ³3DVWQHVV LQ WKH PDNLQJ 9RQ GHU 7RXULVWLIL]LHUXQJ GHU YHUUlXPOLFKWHQ =HLW LQ GHU 9HUJDQJHQKHLW³ LQ $QJHOD 6FKZDU] / Daniela Mysliwietz-Fleiß (eds.), Reisen in die Vergangenheit. Geschichtstourismus im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Köln/Wien/Weimar: Böhlau 2019, pp. 25-44. 8VHUµ$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG'(¶³$VVDVVLQ¶V&UHHG6\QGLFDWH± Historische Figuren 7UDLOHU_8ELVRIW>'(@´LQYouTube, October 13, 2015; https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=pe_WE4aQgIM

LUDOGRAPHY 11-11 MEMORIES RETOLD (Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe 2018, O: Aardman Animations/Digixart) AGE OF EMPIRES (Microsoft 1997, O: Ensemble Studios) AMERICA: NO PEACE BEYOND THE LINE! (Data Becker 2001, O: Related Designs) ANNO 1404 (Ubisoft 2009, O: Related Designs/Blue Byte) ANNO 1800 (Ubisoft 2019, O: Blue Byte Mainz) ASSASSIN¶S CREED ORIGINS (Ubisoft 2017, O: Ubisoft Montreal) ASSASSIN¶S CREED SYNDICATE (Ubisoft 2015, O: Ubisoft Quebec) ASSASSIN¶S CREED UNITY (Ubisoft 2014, O: Ubisoft Montreal) ATTENTAT 1942 (Charles University/Czech Academy of Sciences 2017, O: Charles Games) BLITZKRIEG (CDV Software Entertainment 2003, O: Nival Interactive) BLITZKRIEG 3 (Nival 2017, O: Nival) COMPANY OF HEROES (THQ 2007, O: Relic Entertainment) COSSACKS 3 (GSC Game World 2016, O: GSC Game World) COSSACKS: EUROPEAN WARS (CDV Software Entertainment 2000, O: GSC Game World) DISCOVERY TOUR BY ASSASSIN¶S CREED: ANCIENT EGYPT (Ubisoft 2018, Ubisoft Montreal) KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE (Warhorse Studios 2018, O: Warhorse Studios) SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION (Microprose Software 1991, O: Microprose Software) SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION V (2K Games 2010, O: Firaxis Games) SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION VI (2K Games 2016, O: Firaxis Games) STEEL DIVISION II (Eugen Systems 2019, O: Eugen Systems)

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STEEL DIVISION: NORMANDY 44 (Paradox Interactive 2017, O: Eugen Systems) SUDDEN STRIKE (CDV Software Entertainment 2000, O: Fireglow Games) SUDDEN STRIKE 4 (Kalypso Media 2017, O: Kite Games) SVOBODA 1945 (Charles University/Czech Academy of Sciences announced for 2020, O: Charles Games) THE BERLIN WALL (Playway announced for 2020, O: K202) THIS WAR OF MINE (11 bit Studios 2014, O: 11 bit Studios) THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (HandyGames 2020, O: Paintbucket Games) VALIANT HEARTS: THE GREAT WAR (Ubisoft 2014, O: Ubisoft Montpellier) WARSAW (Gaming Company 2019, O: Pixelated Milk)

Crusading Icons Medievalism and Authenticity in Historical Digital Games A NDREW B.R. E LLIOTT & M IKE H ORSWELL

A BSTRACT The medieval crusades were complicated; their memory even more so. Their reuse across popular culture is a maelstrom of images, tropes, and ideas, further exacerbated when added to the mushrooming world of historical gaming. Not only is it impossible to imagine any kinds of games which have no inaccuracies, it is no longer possible to imagine any which would be deemed as accurate; we are no longer in the realm of historical accuracy but authenticity, and the extent to which a given imagined past coincides with our individual memory of that past. By exploring a range of tropes and historical icons established over time and which contribute to the mythical capital of popular memory, this chapter will explore the ways in which historical games construct authenticity through a range of crusading icons which resonate with popular ideas and tropes about the crusades.

I NTRODUCTION The advertising for the 2010 game LIONHEART: KINGS¶ CRUSADE confidently deFODUHVWKDWWKHJDPH³JLYHV\RXWKHFKDQFHWR make the dreams of the past a realLW\´1 Set in the years of the Third Crusade (1189-92), this modest title from Hungarian developer Neocore was published by Paradox as a sequel to the 2009 game

1

³.LQJV¶ &UXVDGH´ Paradox Store; https://web.archive.org/web/20200311202211/ https://www.paradoxplaza.com/the-kings-crusade/KCKC01GSKtkc0001.html

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CRUSADERS: THY KINGDOM COME. KINGS¶ CRUSADE sees the player conduct a crusader invasion of the Near East under the command of King Richard I of England (1157-  µWKH /LRQKHDUW¶ EHIRUH RUFKHVWUDWLQJ D UHVSRQVH WR WKH FUXVDGH while playing as the Muslim Sultan Salah al-Din ibn Ayyub, known to the West as Saladin (1137-93). Despite its relative obscurity, KINGS¶ CRUSADE represents an excellent starting point for an investigation into medievalism and authenticity in digital games. Whilst the game directly engages with the medieval crusades and crusading, it embodies tensions between historical representation and popular perceptions of WKHSDVW4XLFNO\GHSDUWLQJIURPKLVWRU\WKHJDPH¶VFUXVDGHULQYDVLRQHQGVZLWK (an entirely invented) total domination of the region and capture of Baghdad, all subsequently undone by Saladin. It sits (as with all historical games) at a juncture between history, marketing, player expectation and game mechanics, which toJHWKHUDIIHFWDQGLQIOXHQFHIXUWKHUSHUFHSWLRQVRIµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶LQSOD\)ROORZLQJ the example of KINGS¶ CRUSADE and acknowledging that as a game based on the memory of the crusades it is fairly typical, the argument of this chapter is twofold. First, we argue that the process of playing the crusades through digital games is always, and inevitably, a result of tensions between accuracy and authenticity. We contend that navigating this tension necessitates a division into disassembly and then re-assembly. That is, in order to communicate the complexity of medieval crusading²and given the absence of any general consensus among historians about these complex periods²these popular-cultural artefacts break down the various crusades into a handful of key crusading tropes which are recognizable to most players familiar with predominantly western European, and often highly romanticized, memories of the crusades. Second, we argue that once disassembled, those key tropes are subsequently re-assembled within the game in order to reanimate the crusades from their constituent elements. Once again, this reanimation is a complex process when the concepts of ludonarratives and equifinality are considered, meaning that in digital games there is rarely such a thing as a distinct and unique narrative which governs representations of the past.2 However, as others have shown, it is possible to describe the process of reanimation as one which facilitates choices between a number of preselected elements of pastness²tropes, which we refer to as crusading

2

7KH VWDQGDUG DXWKRULW\ RQ WKLV SRLQW UHPDLQV %RJRVW ,DQ ³7KH 5KHWRULF RI 9LGHR *DPHV´LQ.DWLH6DOHQHG The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press 2008, pp. 117±40.

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icons.3 It seems obvious to us then, as we will argue in a moment, that such a process of reanimation is highly selective and therefore inevitably partial and inFRPSOHWH6DOYDWLDQG%XOOLQJHUGHVFULEHWKLVSDUWLDOLW\DV³VHOHFWLYHDXWKHQWLFLW\´ which operates aV³DIRUPRIQDUUDWLYHOLFHQVHLQZKLFKDQLQWHUDFWLYHH[SHULHQFH of the past blends historical representation with generic conventions and audience H[SHFWDWLRQV«´4 In order to explore the selectivity of this authenticity, and why and how some items are remembered and others forgotten, we assert that this process of reanimation is theorized more helpfully in memory studies than it is in studies of popXODUPHGLHYDOLVP7KDWLVWRVD\WKDWDQ\µDXWKHQWLF¶UHFUHDWLRQRIWKHFUXVDGHVLV made to be so only because it is first selected from a range of alternatives, and second it is deemed, in that specific moment by that specific user, to align with another specific memory of an appropriately crusade-like trope. In this respect, the whole process is reimagined not according to historiography, but semiotics, IROORZLQJ &KDUOHV 6DQGHUV 3HLUFH¶V GHILQLWLRQ RI D VLJQ DV ³VRPHWKLQJ ZKLFK stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a PRUHGHYHORSHGVLJQ´5 Our invocation of Peircean, rather than Saussurean, semiRWLFVLVGHOLEHUDWH3HLUFH¶VWULSDUWLWHVLJQLILFDWLRQRIIHUVDGLVWLQFWDGYDQWDJHRYHU 6DXVVXUH¶V GLDGLF ³VLJQLILHUVLJQLILHG´ PRGHO SUHFLVHO\ Eecause (as with videoJDPHVDQGWKHLUOXGRQDUUDWLYHV 3HLUFH¶VVLJQLVRQO\FUHDWHGZKHQWhere is a somebody present to create the interpretant. That is to say, no sign signifies innocently or absolutely, or free from context. The semiotic process described here thus offers a useful alignment with collective memory, which similarly requires an interpretant. The sociologist Maurice Halbwachs argued of collective memories that they KDGWREHHPERGLHGLQDVRFLHW\³WKHSDVW´*HRIIUH\&XELWWKDVHODERUDWHG³is always the past of something²a group, a community, a state, a nation, a race, a

3

See, for instance, the distinction between past, pastness and history in Jenkins, Keith: On What is History? From Carr and Elton to Rorty and White, London & New York: Routledge 1995, p. 16ff.

4

6DOYDWL$QGUHZ-%XOOLQJHU-RQDWKDQ0³6HOHFWLYH$XWKHQWLFLW\DQGWKH3OD\DEOH 3DVW´ in: Matthew Wilhelm Kapell / Andrew B.R. Elliott (eds.), Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History, New York & London: Bloomsbury 2013, pp. 153±67, here p. 154.

5

Peirce, Charles S.: The Collected Papers of C.S. Peirce, vols. 1-6, Charles Hartshorne / Paul Weiss (eds.); vols. 7-8, A.W. Burks (ed.), Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1931-58, vol. 2, p. 228. Emphasis added.

140 | A NDREW B.R. E LLIOTT & M IKE H ORSWELL

societyDFLYLOL]DWLRQ´6 Precisely in the same way, no memory of the crusades can be enacted, recalled, recreated or repurposed outside of society, and therefore ideology. Even in the most banal circumstances, we suggest, the use of a crusading trope is always an embodied act of interpretation, and thus authenticity must always²indeed, can only²be ideological in itself.

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Perhaps VXUSULVLQJO\WKHFUXVDGHVUHPDLQD³SRUWDEOH´SDVWLQWKHWZHQW\-first century; versatile shorthand for a range of contemporary purposes.7 Deployed by both Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and ISIS in recent years as an example of historic Western aggression in the Middle East and against Muslims, the crusades have also been used by white supremacists and those in the West²such as Anders Breivik and his emulators. Simultaneously, innocuous forms of crusading rhetoric and imagery can be found, particularly in the names and branding of sports teams, in descriptions of public health campaigns, and in entertainment from literature and art to films, TV dramas and digital games. Crusades and crusading²like medievalism²are a multimedia phenomenon spanning popular FXOWXUH ,Q DGGLWLRQ WR WKH RYHUWO\ ³SROLWLFDO´ XVHV GHVFULEHG above, they are the immediately recognizable subject of history, archaeology, art, literature, theater, film and digital games. While this cultural multiplicity is not new (though its fortunes have variously fluctuated), its forms have adapted to the modern world; not least in the mutable and ontologically slippery form of memes.8

6

Halbwachs, Maurice: On Collective Memory, Lewis A. Coser (ed. and trans.) London: University of Chicago Press 1992; Cubitt, Geoffrey: History and Memory, Manchester: Manchester University Press 2007, p. 199.

7

.QREOHU$GDP³+RO\:DUV(PSLUes, and the Portability of the Past: The Modern Uses RI0HGLHYDO&UXVDGHV´LQ Comparative Studies in Society and History 48:2 (2006), pp. 293±325; Elliott, Andrew B.R.: Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer 2017; Horswell, Mike / Awan, Akil N. (eds.), The Crusades in the Modern World: Engaging the Crusades, Volume Two, Abingdon: Routledge 2020.

8

+RUVZHOO 0LNH ³1HZ &UXVDGHUV DQG &UXVDGLQJ (FKRHV 7KH 0RGHUQ 0HPRU\ DQG /HJDF\RIWKH&UXVDGHVLQWKH:HVWDQG%H\RQG´LQ7KRmas F. Madden / Jonathan Phillips (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Crusades, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University 3UHVVIRUWKFRPLQJ+DJHQ6DO³µ'HXV9XOW¶7UDFLQJWKH0DQ\0LV 8VHV RI D 0HPH´ Open Intelligence Lab (blog), 25 March 2018; https://web.archive.org/

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The medieval crusades themselves, as their long historiography attests, were composite, dynamic, heterogeneous concepts which evolved. The memories and legacies of those crusades²always multiple, always partial, and always ideological² are even more so.9 Hence, when it comes to their representation in any kind of media, even in the decades after they took place, the crusades possess a decidedly mixed heritage, and their re-use across popular culture makes for a complex maelstrom of images, tropes and ideas where there is an inevitable collision between two or more fundamentally different starting positions, namely those of accuracy DQGRIDXWKHQWLFLW\7KHFUXVDGHV³DUHRIWHQDPDUNHURIZKDWSRSXODUO\GHILQHV µPHGLHYDO¶´IHDWXULQJSURPLQHQWO\LQZKDW7RP6KLSSH\KDVODEHOOHGWKH³SHUPD QHQWDQDFKURQLVWLFVWHZ´RIWKH³PHGLHYDOLPDJLQDU\´10 As Horswell and Jonathan Phillips have argued, exploring the crusades in this ZD\VKLIWVWKHGHEDWHDZD\IURPKLVWRU\7KH\FODLP³DWURRW, this is a matter of cultural memory, and in that sense, all of these studies are indebted, consciously RUQRWWRPHPRU\VWXGLHV´11 The functioQRIWKHFUXVDGHVZLWKLQVXFKDQ³DQDFK URQLVWLFVWHZ´LVEHVWEURXJKWWRWKHVXUIDFHQRWE\analyzing the historiography, but by the functions of those memories amid their specific cultural milieu: who is remembering the crusades and why. In this respect, what is needed is a methodology drawn in part from memory studies to produce a complex field of thinking about the past in ways which move beyond grand narratives and allow for multifarious, multivocal, and sometimes self-contradictory re-readings of multiple kinds of pastness. The world of gaming, likewise, is complicated. This complication is especially true of historically-themed digital games which have mushroomed in popularity over the past few decades. A new generation of scholars has arisen in response to this popularity, asking questions rooted outside of traditional disciplinary

web/20190629103451/https://oilab.eu/deus-vult-tracing-the-many-misuses-of-ameme/ 9

Tyerman, Christopher: The Debate on the Crusades, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011; Horswell, Mike: The Rise and Fall of British Crusader Medievalism, c. 1825-1945, Abingdon: Routledge 2018, pp. 11-15.

10 ,ELG S  6KLSSH\ 7RP ³0RGHUQLW\´ LQ (OL]DEHWK (PHU\  5LFKDUG 8W] HGV  Medievalism: Key Critical Terms, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer 2014, pp. 149-56, here p. 149. 11 Phillips Jonathan +RUVZHOO0LNH³,QWURGXFWLRQ(QJDJLQJWKH&UXVDGHV´LQ0LNH Horswell / Jonathan Phillips (eds.), Perceptions of the Crusades from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century: Engaging the Crusades, Volume One, Abingdon: Routledge 2018, pp. 1-6, here p. 2.

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traditions, exploring questions of ecology and affordance (Chapman, Linderoth), representation (Houghton, Mir and Owens, Hammar, Apperley, Kline), exclusion, gender and racism (Young, Cooper). Those questions, by dint of their interdisciplinarity, have also encouraged explorations from the perspectives of teachers and educators (McCall, Brown, Wainwright), and developers themselves (Grufstedt, Copplestone, Hiriart).12 As such, discussions about historical games have begun to reject the questions of accuracy and fidelity which dogged earlier studies of historical media like film and television as they emerged through adaptation studies and historiographical criticism. Leapfrogging those debates, the newest work on digital games has been able to ask²with scholarly impunity²why we should bother about historical accuracy. Instead, they ask how games can play with, and perhaps develop, historical thinking.13 In short, these studies RSHUDWHRQDZRUOGRIJDPHVZKLFKRIIHU³LP mersive, interactive, multimedia representations of the past that are radically difIHUHQWIURPRWKHUIRUPVRIPHGLD´14 When such a complicated legacy of historical gaming is thrown in with the mushrooming complexity of the memories of the crusades, those complications are exacerbated. Not only is it impossible to imagine any kinds of games which have no inaccuracies, it is no longer possible to imagine any which would be deemed as accurate. What this means for the study of the memory of the crusades through digital gaming is that we are no longer in the realm of historical accuracy but authenticity: the extent to which a given imagined past coincides with our individual perception of that past.

A CCURACY

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As the above overview makes clear, trying to navigate the representational minefield of representing the crusades turns out to be a thorny problem. The chief issue

12 See bibliography for indicative works. 13 6HHIRULQVWDQFH:LQHEXUJ¶VZRUNRQ+LVWRULFDO&RQVFLRusness. Elliott has discussed KLVWRULFDOWKLQNLQJDVDQDFKURQLFPRGHHQFRXUDJHGE\JDPHVLQ³6LPXODWLRQVDQG6LP XODFUD+LVWRU\LQ9LGHR*DPHV´LQPráticas da História 5 (2017), pp. 11-41, and as a WUDQVKLVWRULFDOPRGHLQ³&KDUOHPDJQHDWWKH%DWWOHRI*ettysburg: Video Games and WKH0LGGOH$JHV´LQ$OH[DQGHUYRQ/QHQHWDOHGV Historia Ludens: The Playing Historian, London & New York: Routledge 2020, pp. 170-85. 14 McCall, Jeremiah: Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History, New York: Routledge 2011, p. 9.

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is that both sides of the representational equation are fraught with tensions: on one side, the crusades themselves were complex, contested, and resistant to simplification; on the other side, it is impossible to represent the past in any way which is not subject to embodied ideological intervention. Thus, as far as representation goes, the perceptions of the crusades are riddled with pressures which often have very little to do with historical events but the circumstances of their commemoration in the modern day. Thus, historical representation moves away from the traGLWLRQDOµUHVSRQVLEOH¶ PRGH of historical reconstruction, and into issues of presentism, whereby the meaning of a specific historical event can never be neutral but is always contingent on a whole host of contemporary issues of ideology² partisanship, orientalism or triumphalism, for instance. In this messy context, the question of accuracy thus becomes yet more ideologically loaded, since accuracy almost always means some kind of adherence to one particular version of events. Thus, accuracy is dethroned from its role governing historical authority, instead finding itself embroiled in the courtroom dramas of historiography. Instead of asking whether a given popular-cultural representation is accurate, the question has to take into account whose accuracy, accuracy to which version of events, and who gets to decide what kind of accuracy that might be. With regards to the representation of the crusades in digital games, then, if it does turn out to be impossible to represent the historical record accurately, it becomes even more important to recognize that the question of accuracy is instead FRQWLQJHQWRQWKHVHJDPHV¶SURGXFLQJDYLVLRQRI the crusades which feels authenWLF$Q\IHHOLQJRIDXWKHQWLFLW\LVGHSHQGHQWQRWRQWKHGHVLJQHUV¶KLVWRULFDOFUH GHQWLDOVEXWWKHSOD\HUV¶DELOLWLHVWRrecognize and respond appropriately to what they will see as authentic depictions of the crusades (which is why Phillips and Horswell are right to situate the debate within memory studies). Where, then, does authenticity come from in such a complex and self-contradictory framework? By exploring a range of tropes and historical icons established over time and which contribute to the mythical capital of popular memory, the remainder of this chapter will detail ways in which historical games employ a range of crusading icons which resonate with popular ideas and tropes about the medieval past in general, and the crusades in particular.

144 | A NDREW B.R. E LLIOTT & M IKE H ORSWELL

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.LQJV¶&UXVDGH: Crusading as it could have been KINGS¶ CRUSADE, the SXEOLVKHU¶VGHVFULSWLRQDVVHUWV³SODFHV\RX´LQWKHKLVWRULFDO past, blurring the line between the fixity of past events and the agency of the player: ³KING¶S CRUSADE is a real-time strategy game that places you in the era of the Third Crusade, spanning the years 1189-1192. Control and upgrade the leaders and their armies, lead your men into fierce battles, complete the objectives of the campaign by guiding various historical factions through political events, collect relics, and unlock new content on your FUXVDGH´15

While temporal coordinates are supplied by the dates and facticity is supplied by ³KLVWRULFDO IDFWLRQV´WKHSOD\HUKDV³FRQWURO´RIWKHOHDGHUVDQGDUPLHVDUH³\RXU PHQ´7KHSOD\HULVLQYLWHGWR³UHZULWHWKHSDVWZLWKIDPRXVKLVWRULFDOFKaracters VHUYLQJDVWKHPDLQKHURHV´WKLVLV³your FUXVDGH´16 Through a mode of opening up a dialogue with DSOD\HUNQRZQLQPHGLDWKHRU\DV³LQWHUSHOODWLRQ´IURPWKH outset the game shifts the attention away from an extrinsic sense of historical authority.17 ,QVWHDGE\DOORZLQJµ\RX¶WKHSOD\HUWRFUHDWHDVVHPEOHDQGQDYLJDWH the past, the marketing of KINGS¶ CRUSADE introduces and calibrates the idea of historical authenticity as an embodied concept carried out by the player before the game even begins. If KINGS¶ CRUSADE DQGE\H[WHQVLRQ RWKHUKLVWRULFDOJDPHVVWUD\IURPµDF FXUDF\¶ LQ GHSLFWLQJ WKH FUXVades so quickly, how do they construct a sense of DXWKHQWLFLW\"7KHVWUDWHJLHVHPSOR\HGE\WKHJDPH¶VGHYHORSHUVWRORFDWHDFFXUDF\ and balance agency reveal their perceptions of authenticity. This fault line between

15 ³.LQJV¶&UXVDGH´Paradox Store. 16 Ibid, emphasis added. 17 Interpellation, in its Althusserian sense, is a way of explaiQLQJKRZLGHRORJ\µUHFUXLWV¶ VXEMHFWVGLUHFWO\,WGRHVVR$OWKXVVHUFRQWHQGVE\³KDLO>LQJ@RULQWHUSHllat[ing] conFUHWHLQGLYLGXDOVDVFRQFUHWHVXEMHFWV´VXFKDVWKHSROLFHKDLOLQJDFLWL]HQZLWKµ+H\ @

2

'HSSH 0DUWLQ ³'HU JUR‰H $QQR-5HSRUW  -DKUH ,QVHOUDIIHQ´ LQ GameStar 23:2 (2019), pp. 130±146.

3

&I%DXU6WHIDQ³+LVWRULHLQ&RPSXWHUVSLHOHQµ$QQR± Erschaffung einer neuen

4

Cf. ibid., p. 86. The curse of the medicine man is an in-game punishment for players

:HOW¶´LQWerkstattGeschichte 23 (1999), pp. 83±91. triggered by destroying a native village. It leads to severe draught and bad harvests in the vicinity of the place, but as it wanes rather quickly, this is no relevant drawback compared to what is gained (in gameplay terms) by seizing the land from the natives and eradicating their homes.

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 223

that numerous computer games on the one hand implicitly transmit historical perspectives, and that they reflect popular LPDJHVRIKLVWRU\RQWKHRWKHU´5 Those who study history in digital games are not much the wiser twenty years later: we still assert the above, and under this premise claim that analyses of digital games staging history are relevant beyond the point of nit-picky pedantry.6 But in consequence, this takes me directly to the heart of the matter I would like to problematize here: Given that digital games do implicitly incorporate (and perhaps transmit; this is a thorny issue still under discussion) historical perspectives and reflect popular images of history, which of these perspectives and conceptions should take primacy in discussing a title in question from the viewpoint of academic history?

D ETAILING THE Q UESTION Academic historians like me never get tired of explaining that history is complex, complicated, and relative to the stance of its observer. Presuming this academic platitude, this also holds true for images of history in any given historically themed digital game. Most likely, there are several such images to pick from, depending RQWKHLQWHUSUHWHU¶VRZQSURIHVVLRQDOEDFNJURXQGDQGUHVHDUFKLQWHUHVWV$JDPH like ANNO 1602 for example could be taken as recreating an image of the inevitability of European overseas conquests or an image of a modern-type rationality EHKLQGSODQWDWLRQFDSLWDOLVP:KDWVKRXOGEHHTXDOO\DVWHOOLQJDVDJDPH¶VEXLOWin images of history is which of these images take primacy in the discourses around the respective title²be they academically informed or not. The case of ANNO 1602 and its successors is illustrative here as the series remained popular and spawned new titles over the last two decades, the most recent incarnation being the aforementioned ANNO 1800. Of its seven main titles, five are historically themed: ANNO 1602 (1998), ANNO 1503 (2003), ANNO 1701 (2006), ANNO 1404 (2009), and ANNO 1800 (2019). Throughout the course of its development, the companies involved in the making of series changed a number of times so that any suppositions of a conscious attempt by the publishers and

5

,ELGS³,FKP|FKWHDOVRIUGDV)ROJHQGHYRUDXVVHW]HQGD‰]ahlreiche Computerspiele einerseits implizit historische Sichtweisen vermitteln und daß sie andererseits SRSXOlUH*HVFKLFKWVELOGHUZLGHUVSLHJHOQ´

6

Cf. Pfister, Eugen / Winnerling, Tobias: Digitale Spiele, Version: 1.0, in: DocupediaZeitgeschichte, January 10, 2020; http://docupedia.de/zg/Pfister_Winnerling_digitale_spiele_v1_de_2020

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developers taking part in the franchise to convey a certain uniform message about the nature of history are out of the question here. It is thus not my aim to charge producers, distributors, or consumers of ANNO titles with having a conscious agenda of any ideological kind, for instance whitewashing colonialism. These titles rather responded to and reproduced certain mindsets typical for the circumstances they were crafted in. ANNO 1602 and ANNO 1503 were true products of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The predilection for a predominantly economically and less openly militarily-driven reading of the processes behind the European Expansion ties in well with the post-war history of both German-speaking countries, which operated on the same basic constants. 7 As both games sold exceedingly well, the companies involved developed a strong interest in keeping the defining features of the series intact so as not to lose their unique selling points. This was achieved by keeping the basic processes of gameplay virtually unchanged throughout all later titles, with only a few modifications. Unfortunately, the preconceptions upon which these processes were modelled in the beginning were thus carried over, too.8 The question then is: Why did the discourses which centred on the games of the series always revolve around questions of historical accuracy by talking only about how the respective basic economic conditions were modelled, and not around the accuracy of the colonialist regime which was necessary to capitalize on those economic conditions? Or, in short, how did these games get away with selling colonialism?

7

Cf. Pfister, Eugen / Winnerling, Tobias: Digitale Spiele und Geschichte. Ein kurzer Leitfaden für Student*innen, Forscher*innen und Geschichtsinteressierte, Glückstadt: vwh 2020 (in print); also see FDEHO0DUWLQHWDO³3RGLXPVGLVNXVVLRQ1XW]HQZLUXQVHU 3RWHQ]LDO"1RWZHQGLJHU+DQGOXQJVEHGDUIXQG6WUDWHJLHQIUGLH=XNXQIW´LQ$UQROG Picot / Said Zahedani / Albrecht Ziemer (eds.), Spielend die Zukunft gewinnen. Wachstumsmarkt Elektronische Spiele, Berlin / Heidelberg: Springer 2008, p. 123±144; here p. 129.

8

&I :LQQHUOLQJ 7RELDV ³7KH HWHUQDO UHFXUUHQFH RI DOO ELWV +RZ KLVWRULFL]LQJ YLGHR JDPHV¶VHULHVWUDQVIRUPIDFWXDOKLVWRU\LQWRDIIHFWLYHKLVWRULFLW\´LQEludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, Special Issue: Digital Seriality, 8/1 (2014), pp. 151±170; http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/view/vol8no1-10; here p. 153± 154.

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 225

I NTO A D IGITAL N O -M AN ¶ S -L AND One part of the answer may be that the colonialist attitude was not discussed more prominently because it fitted seamlessly into the broader framework of attitudes towards history prevalent in digital games at large: almost all digital games of historic strategy, most certainly the major titles, depict history from a European/Western colonialist point of view.9 The ANNO titles however were not very prominently featured in the academic discussion on this colonialist framing of history,10 not even in German contributions to the debate. When Tobias Bevc discusses the possible influences of virtual models of societies and politics, he mentions ANNO 1701 and ANNO 1404 in passing, but puts the argument into a footnote only.11 Angela Schwarz discusses the power of a colorful and historically fashioned imaginary in digital games with the example of, among others, ANNO 1404. Although she concludes that the suggestive power of scenery is used to conjure feelings of historical authenticity and thus conceals the use of Orientalist and historicistic tropes,12 she does not extend this critique to the pivotal Orientalist cliché of hard-working Westerners penetrating an opaque and immobile Orient. Rolf Nohr includes the whole series into his examples of digital games with a particular mindset, one which he claiPV WR EH ³LQGLVWLQJXLVKDEOH´ IURP WKDW RI 6DPXHO3+XQWLQJWRQ¶Vµ&ODVKRI&LYLOL]DWLRQV¶13 They are, as Nohr writes, part RIDJURXSRIVWUDWHJ\JDPHVZKLFK³GHFODUHVRPHWKLQJDVµQDWXUDO¶WKDWLVDUWLIL cial, offering a reproduction of history that is only RSHUDWLRQDOL]HGSROLWLFV´14 Fitting and justified as the remark is, it also does not touch directly upon the issues of colonialism or imperialism, as Nohr is not specifically interested in games

9

&I%HYF7RELDV³9LUWXHOOe Politik- XQG*HVHOOVFKDIWVPRGHOOH´LQ7RELDV%HYF+RO ger Zapf (eds.), Wie wir spielen, was wir werden. Computerspiele in unserer Gesellschaft, Konstanz: UVK 2009, pp. 141±160; here p. 156.

10 Cf. Jeremiah McCall: Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History, New York / London: Routledge 2011, pp. 38±39 (by the example of ANNO 1701). 11 Cf. T. Bevc, Virtuelle Politik- und Gesellschaftsmodelle, p. 157, footnote 25. 12 &I6FKZDU]$QJHOD³%XQWH%LOGHU± Geschichtsbilder? Zur Visualisierung von GesFKLFKWHLP0HGLXPGHV&RPSXWHUVSLHOV´LQ$QJHOD6FKwarz (ed.), ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel, Münster 2010, pp. 213±244; here pp. 216±217, 220. 13 1RKU5ROI)³6WUDWHJ\&RPSXWHU*DPHVDQG'LVFRXUVHVRI*HRSROLWLFDO2UGHU´LQ Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 4/2 (2010), pp. 181±195; here p. 189. 14 Ibid., p. 190. Emphasis in the original.

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staging particular histories but is concerned with a broader notion of games as discursive embodiments of strategic geopolitics. While colonialism of course can be described as a kind of geopolitics, it is telling that the specific issues which colonialist historical processes raise are levelled within such an approach. As Nohr is first of all not writing as a historian and secondly is completely unapologetic in discussing geopolitics, this further confirms the suspicion that colonialism is not being seen as the most pressing issue in discussing any ANNO game. Which, again, prompts the question as to why this is the case. The crucial point might be that from its earliest beginnings, the series consistently capitalized on the narrative framework of terra nullius. The islands which are up for grabs are always staged as virgin lands, uninhabited, only waiting for a colonizer to wake them from their sleep and transform them into thriving commercial centers²which in turn justifies labelling the game as a foremost economic simulation.15 ANNO 1701 quite literally uses this trope in the opening paragraph to the manual: ³0DQ\LQGXVWULRXVKDQGVVHWWRZRUNLPPHGLDWHO\DQGFUHDWHG± almost out of nothing ± a settlement as large as profitable. [...] Against all odds and throwbacks they put all their dedication and hope into building up the new colonies, to create a new home in the distance DQGWRSURYHDOOVFHSWLFVZURQJ´16

The persuasive power this framing still carries might be visible in the recent positive listing of ANNO 1800 as a recommended strategic game for children aged 14 and above by the Austrian commission for assessing digital games at the federal ministry of education.17 While the listing itself is at least mildly critical, voicing regret for the whitewashing of slavery, pauperisation, and exploitation of

15 &I/DKO.ULVWLQD³$QJVW- und Sehnsuchtsräume. Repräsentationen der Natur in ComSXWHUVSLHOHQ´LQArs & Humanitas, 13/2 (2019), pp. 285±299, DOI: 10.4312/ars.13.2. 285-299, p. 287. 16 Cf. [Related Designs/Sunflowers]: Anno 1701: Handbuch Q S  S  ³9LHOH fleißige Hände machten sich umgehend ans Werk und erschufen ± nahezu aus dem Nichts ± eine gleichwohl profitable wie große Siedlung. [...] Allen Widrigkeiten und Rückschlägen zum Trotz legten sie ihre ganze Hingabe und Hoffnung in den Aufbau der neuen Kolonien, um in der Ferne eine neue Heimat zu schaffen und alle Skeptiker /JHQ]XVWUDIHQ´ 17 Cf. Bundesstelle für die Positivprädikatisierung von digitalen Spielen: Anno 1800; https://bupp.at/node/2235

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 227

indigenous people,18 it does not complain about colonialism as such, and subsequent uptakes on the listing cut the whole passage short.19 Interestingly, ANNO 1404 seems to not have been taken on the list ten years earlier, although it was recommended to the commission for children aged 10 and above. In the respective UHYLHZWKHJRDO³WREXLOGXSDQHPSLUHRIRQH¶VRZQ´ZDVH[SOLFLWO\IODJJHGDVD positive feature.20 Another telling example in this respect is that when ANNO 1800 was rewarded with WKH *HUPDQ 9LGHR *DPH $ZDUG ³'HXWVFKHU &RPSXWHU VSLHOSUHLV DV%HVW*HUPDQ*DPH³%HVWHV'HXWVFKHV6SLHO´ LQWKHMXU\GLG not comment on the historical setting besides praising its immersive power and much longer dwelt on the smooth game play. The game was said to take place in WKH³GRZQULJKWSHUIHFWO\FKRVHQVHWWLQJRI,QGXVWULDOL]DWLRQDQGWKH th FHQWXU\´21 Not a word about colonies. From the point of view of a critical historian this seems to horrifyingly confirm apologetic framings which were used to justify the European colonial expansion from its very beginning: the juridical fiction of terra nullius, the claims to bring civilization and progress to lands and people otherwise incapable of self-advancement, and the referral to internal constraints and pressures. The alleged need to feed an ever growing populace and to provide opportunities for their people abroad, a common line of argument employed by 19 th century imperialists to justify their actions is replaced by the need to conform to the rules of the game world: colonization is portrayed as the only viable option. Players can choose to not follow this line of action only if they are willing to lose the game.22 When Jeremiah McCall discusses games suitable for teaching history to US American children, he

18 ,ELG³/HLGHUZLUGDXFKHLQVHKUµVFK|QJHIlUEWHV¶%LOGGHV=HLWDOWHUVVXJJHULHUW6NODY enhandel, Verarmung und Verelendung durch Industrialisierung, Ausbeutung der %HY|ONHUXQJLQGHU1HXHQ:HOWNRPPHQQLFKWYRU´ 19 Cf. Kaiser-)DOOHQW .DULQD ³'LH /XVW DP %DXHQ ± digital umgesetzt ± pädagogisch JHQW]W´LQMedienimpulse 57/3 (2019), DOI: 10.21243/mi-03-19-16. 20 RosenVWLQJO +HUEHUW ³$QQR ´ LQ Medienimpulse 47/2 (2009); https://jourQDOVXQLYLHDFDWLQGH[SKSPSDUWLFOHYLHZPLS³(VJLOWHLQH6LHGOXQJXQG später ein eigenes Reich aufzubauen, die dazu erforderlichen Ressourcen zu sichern, diplomatiscKH%DQGHPLWDQGHUHQ5HLFKHQ]XNQSIHQXQGYLHOHVPHKU´ 21 See https://deutscher-FRPSXWHUVSLHOSUHLVGHSUHLVWUDHJHU ³*HUDGH]X SHUIHNW HUVFKHLQW GDVJHZlKOWH6HWWLQJGHU,QGXVWULHOOHQ5HYROXWLRQXQGGHV-DKUKXQGHUWV´7KDQNVWR Felix Zimmermann for pointing me to this. 22 &I 5HKP 0DUFR ³'R JDPHUV FKDQJH DWWLtudes towards economics through playing manager games?³LQ: Zeitschrift für ökonomische Bildung 1 (2013), pp. 162±176; here p. 171.

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fittingly refers to ANNO 1701 as a game depicting European settlement in the $PHULFDV ³ZKHUH WKH JRDO RI WKH GLJLWDO VHWWOHUV DV LW ZDV IRU PDQ\ (XURSHDQ countries, is to profit off of the perceived inexhaustible resources of the new worlds.´23 Mia Consalvo and Nathan Dutton point to ideological presumptions being built into ANNO 1503, but then only refer to the needs of the colonists, not to the process of colonization as such.24 Only the earliest title, ANNO 1602, features something like a tiny reminder that the lands colonized by Europeans in the 17th century were not quite as empty as they are portrayed: Some islands house indigenous villages of a few strawthatched huts players can communicate and trade with. Unable to progress and to grow, these villages provide initial advantages to players but over the course of playtime become less and less useful, until at a certain stage, the action insinuated by the game as most profitable is to militarily eradicate them to be able to annex their landVDQGXVHWKHPIRUWKHSOD\HUV¶RZQSURMHFWV7KLVWULJJHUVDVKRUW-lived in-JDPH µSXQLVKPHQW¶ LQ WKH IRUP RI WKH PHGLFLQH PDQ¶V FXUVH FULWL]LVHG DV Dhistoric by Baur (see above), but most of the time this hardly presents a serious obstacle to what constitutes²in dry historical terms²a genocidal action. Perhaps this is the reason why the manual does not explicitly specify the possibility; it only suggestively hints at military interactions: ³,I\RXGHFLGHWREXLOG\RXUVHWWOHPHQWRQDQLVODnd already inhabited by natives, you can trade with them (see chapter 8.6). Further diplomatic relations are not possible. If you decide WRDWWDFNWKHQDWLYHVWKH\ZLOOGHIHQGWKHPVHOYHV´25

The following iterations of the series did away with this possibility altogether; natives of any kind now took the form of AI controlled non-player characters or opponents²the first of which (in ANNO 1503) are not militarily assailable at all. Subsequently, however, (since ANNO 1701 WKH\DUHµQDWXUDOO\¶VHW up to be challenged and if possible beaten following the internal logic of a competitive game.

23 J. McCall, Gaming the Past, p. 39. 24 Cf. Consalvo, MLD  'XWWRQ 1DWKDQ ³*DPH DQDO\VLV 'HYHORSLQJ D PHWKRGRORJLFDO WRRONLW IRU WKH TXDOLWDWLYH VWXG\ RI JDPHV´ LQ Game Studies 6/1 (2006) http://www.gamestudies.org/0601/articles/consalvo_dutton. 25 [Sunflowers/Max Design]: 1602 A.D.: Manual, n. p. 1998, p. 26.

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 229

µ3 OCKET - SIZED I MPERIALISM ¶ 7KHKLVWRULDQ¶VGLOHPPDZLWKWKLVNLQGRIDSSURDFKLVWZR-fold: On the one hand, one might demand that if a publisher decides to publish a game centering on colonialism, it should not repeat such colonialist tropes and narratives but rather portray the brutal reality of the processes in question. On the other, one might argue that to do so, one would need to put players in the position of colonizers by giving WKHP DFFHVV WR WKH µWRROV RI WKH WUDGH¶²as seen from a contemporary perspective²and thus to actively encourage them to consciously engage in military onslaughts, slave trade, forced labour, disenfranchisement, subjugation, and perhaps even extermination of native populations. Also, it is possible to claim with good reason that this is probably not overly desirable either, as it might implicitly carry and perhaps even foster an attitude not very conducive to developing a critical historical conscience. It might serve to implicitly normalize colonialism by seemLQJO\SRUWUD\LQJWKHSDVWMXVWµDVLWZDV¶DQGVXJJHVWLQJWKDWWKHDWURFLWLHVOLVWHG up above have to be seen as normal and perhaps even inevitable parts of this historical phenomenon. Furthermore, if games would succeed in becoming seen as SRUWUD\LQJWKHSDVWMXVWDVLWZDVE\SXWWLQJVXFKDWURFLWLHVDWWKHSOD\HU¶VGLVSRVDO they would effectively exaggerate the agency of the colonizers of the past in depicting them as much more powerful and efficient than they ever were, because players are given nearly unlimited powers of control and surveillance in strategy games which have no historical correspondence but might also come to be seen as parts of the seemingly truthfully depicted past. That this is more than just a theoretical possibility might be deduced from the GHYHORSHU¶V EORJ GHGLFDWHG WR ANNO 1800 ,Q 1RYHPEHU  WKH GHYHORSHU¶V team published an entry in which creative director Dirk Riegert details the patterns of military interaction the new title would feature. He assures that the game has to PHHWSDUWLFXODUUHTXLUHPHQWVWREHDEOHWRFRQYLQFLQJO\VWDJH³WKHODWH th cenWXU\ WKH KH\GD\ RI LPSHULDOLVP´ 7KHVH LQFOXGH WKH SRVVLELOLWLHV WR H[WLQJXLVK competing AI players as well as to subjugate them to a form of indirect rule.26 The four modes of achieving supremacy offered by ANNO 1800 are spelled out quite FOHDUO\³HFRQRPLFGRPLQDWLRQ´DQG³HFRQRPLFH[WLQFWLRQ´UXQSDUDOOHOWR³PLOL WDU\GRPLQDWLRQ´DQG ³PLOLWDU\H[WLQFWLRQ´27

26 7KXQ %DVWLDQ  5LHJHUW 'LUN ³'HY%ORJ 'LH .XQVW GHV .ULHJHV ,,´; https://web.archive.org/web/20180423081528/https://www.anno-union.com/devblog-die-kunst-deskrieges-ii/ from November 23, 2017, par. 2±5. My translation. 27 Ibid., image 3.

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The post prompted a big response from the community (379 comments at the time of writing this article), many of which revolve around the topic of ground troops, which the developers had deemed necessary to implement at that time. Some of the commentators plainly voice the opinion that if you stage a game in the 19th century, you need to provide ground troops: ³7KLV$QQRVKDOO XQLWHWKHEHVWIURPDOO$QQRYHUVLRQV DQGWKLVIRUPHKDVDOZD\V been the precise link to history, accurate in the details. The player so far always had the feeling: 'Yes, this might actually be (=have happened) like this!' [...] yet something is missing though: A part of the atmosphere is missing! The feeling of really being in the 19th century is missing. The feeling to be able to immerse oneself into a world which is on the move ± through revolutions, through technological advancement, as well as with wars. For this, it is necessary to integrate ground troops into gameplay. For those were still indispenVDEOHDWWKDWWLPH´28

Many other users posted comments going in a similar direction, but a large part of these do not take recourse to historically informed arguments. Their main arguments are the need for a challenge built up by the threat of an enemy invading, the preference to fight their enemies to the death, and aside from being more fun, the necessity for ground troops for the look and feel of the 19th century, if for nothing else. Others, who backed themselves up with information from Wikipedia about the most important battles of the 19th century, claim that historical accuracy strictly demands terrestrial combat.29 Summed up, actively engaged players thought that land troops had to be part of the game because they were available in the 19th century, and everything else would be improper and spoil the look of the game.

28 UVHU³Ecopower´, January 21, 2018; https://www.anno-union.com/devblog-die-kunstdes-krieges-ii/comment-page-FRPPHQWV³'DV$QQRVROOµGDV%HVWHDXVDOOHQ $QQR9HUVLRQHQYHUHLQHQ¶XQGGDVZDUIUPLFKLPPHUGHULP'HWDLOJHQDXHSUl]LVH Zusammenhang mit der Geschichte. Der Spieler hatte ELVKHULPPHUGDV*HIKOµ-DGDV N|QQWHZLUNOLFKVRSDVVLHUW VHLQ¶>@XQGGRFKIHKOWHWZDV(VIHKOWHLQ7HLOGHU$W mosphäre! Es fehlt das Gefühl sich wirklich im 19. Jahrhundert zu befinden. Das Gefühl in eine Welt einzutauchen zu können, die sich im Unschwung [sic!] befindet ± durch Revolutionen, den technischen Aufschwung, sowie Kriege. Dazu ist es notwendig auch Landeinheiten ins Spielgeschehen einzubinden. Den [sic!] diese waren in dieser Zeit auch noch unabGLQJEDU´ 29 8VHU³Diru Kamachi´, December 2, 2017; https://www.anno-union.com/devblog-diekunst-des-krieges-ii/comment-page-5/#comments

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 231

From my point of view, both reactions may be seen as at least slightly disturbing. Although I have to admit that I liked digital combat as a teenager for the same reasons, I have come to feel uncomfortable at the thought of war as a fun thing to do; as I have already argued elsewhere, the suffering and the dying should not be written out of history that even-handedly.30 Apart from this opinion, which might be discarded as a matter of personal taste, I have also grown weary of the assertion that war²although of course a first-rate historical factor²should be unquestioningly accepted as a historical necessity. Not even everyone living in the 19 th century did. To chain oneself to the list of battles fought in a particular century² whether as a player or as a developer²means to force oneself to re-enact this kind of history over and over again as if it had come about without any alternative. And it did not. These issues apply to all titles of the ANNO series, because they touch upon how we²as individuals who interact with matters historical²make sense of history, which is something that is not prescribed by recorded fact. If it were, there would be no historians, only chroniclers. So in my mind, a good historically themed game should trigger a response from its players that goes beyond quesWLRQLQJWKHµKRZ-WR¶RIKLVWRU\DQGLQVWHDGSURPSWVWKHTXHVWLRQRIµZK\¶$QGLW is here where I find fault with the series because, at least judging from the responses I have seen so far, it does not. How the games of the ANNO Series indeed navigated these complications has been captured very well by Simon Parkin who directly addresses the underlying problem when describing ANNO 1701: ³:KHQD1DWLYH$PHULFDQ&KLHIHQWHUV\RXUEXUgeoning settlement to request politely that you leave, the game's wider purpose becomes clear: to play invader, stealing land and reVRXUFHVIURPWKHLQGLJHQRXVSHRSOHZKRDOUHDG\RFFXS\LW´31

30 &I:LQQHUOLQJ7RELDV³(LQOHLWXQJ´LQ7RELDV:LQQHUOLQJHG WKHPHLVVXHµ0RG ellierungen des Krieges? Digitale Spiele als geschichtswissenschaftliche ForschungsgeJHQVWlQGH¶ Militär und Gesellschaft 20 (2016), pp. 5±12; https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-XESIURQWGRRUGHOLYHULQGH[GRF,GILOHPJIQSGI LG ³'DUI¶V ein bisschen weniger sein? Ein Zwanzigjähriger Krieg: 1618±´ LQ &KULVtoph Nonn / Tobias Winnerling (eds), Eine andere deutsche Geschichte 1517±2017. Was wäre gewesen, wenn?, Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh 2017, pp. 59±86. 31 3DUNLQ 6LPRQ ³$QQR  'DZQ RI 'LVFRYHU\´ LQ 7RQ\ 0RWW ed.), 1001 Video games you must play before you die, e-book: London: Octopus Publishing 2011.

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The statement becomes tinged with a somewhat ironic flavor, however, when deWDLOLQJZK\WKHJDPHZDVDFFRUGHGDSODFHLQWKHUDQNVRIµYLGHRJDPHV\RX PXVWSOD\EHIRUH\RXGLH¶ ³7KHJDPH VHDV\-to-use mechanics ensure that you apply yourself to these engaging tasks without so much as a second thought. [...] The game's simplistic, streamlined, and effective approach works well for its system and audience. Pocket-size imperialism never slipped GRZQVRFRPIRUWDEO\´32

What happened here in the context of ANNO 1701 is the same process already visible in the appreciation of ANNO 1404 and ANNO 1800 by the Austrian commission for assessing digital games and the jury of the German Video Game Award, DQG DOVR LQ %DXU¶V GLVPLVVDO RI DQ\ QRQ-economic processes in his critique of ANNO 1602. In discussing these games there is something at work which might be called a dormant consciousness. This consciousness points to the larger issues FRQQHFWHGWR(XURSH¶VFRORQLDOLVWSDVWZKLFKDUHDWVWDNHKHUH+RZHYHUDOOLP pulses which might awake this consciousness are easily deflected by focusing on the well-working mechanics, the smooth gameplay and the pleasures derived from them. Rather than using historical imaginary to assert historical authenticity to better market the product as a historical simulation, the games of the ANNO series are historical dissimulation engines which obscure the harsh historical realities they stage by turning them into bright, shiny, polished, well-working colonial fantasies without ever admitting to do so. And they obviously do so with great success.

C ONCLUSION : A FFECTIVE A UTHENTICITY

VS .

C OLONIALISM

7KLVVKRXOGQRWEHWDNHQWRPHDQWKDWWKLVIULFWLRQRIJDPHSOD\DQGVHWWLQJKDVQ¶W been visible to the critical observer for the longest time. The criticism brought forth by Baur against ANNO 1602 on the contrary also holds true for the other parts of the series: Below the colorful and carefully crafted historicized appearances, the individual titles are very flexible when staging their historical settings. The mechanics of gameplay are very consistently employed throughout the series and basically do not change very much, although the respective iterations discussed here span a period of four centuries, from the 15th to the 19th, where it would be

32 Ibid.

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 233

patiently absurd to claim that basically nothing had changed much in the meantime. This causes mismatches of historical staging and gameplay which have been noted by historians already.33 Players for their part seem to have found other ways to deal with this: Either demanding that history is done by the book, and measuring historical accuracy by easily recognizable facts, which means in effect that surface trumps mechanics; or by applying different norms for measuring the importance and quality of game elements, some of which revolve around pure gameplay²terrestrial combat is fun, and therefore it is a good thing to have in a game²and are as such unrelated to any kind of content, so that they do not need to be concerned with historical accuracy at all. Both may even be combined in that only a mix of certain elements is VDLGWRFUHDWHWKHµUHDO¶IHHOLQJRILPPHUVLRQLQWRDQDXWKHQWLFSDVWZKLFKLVERWK accurate and fun, and in the judgement of which both criteria may be converted into each other. In such a reading, what is accurate is fun (because it fits the overall picture), and what is fun is accurate (if it fits the overall picture). This might even provide a clue to my initial question, although I would not take it as an answer, rather as a direction in which the answer might lie. Maybe the games of the ANNO series got away with colonialism because on the one hand, they provided ample space for historians to discuss things which were fun to discuss because they did not fit the overall picture, as they were not accurate from a KLVWRULDQ¶VSHUVSHFWLYHDQGWKXVGeflected historical inquiries, as it were, into the peripheries of their scenic imaginary and mechanical processes, making the historians miss the forest for the trees. On the other, they got away with it because they could rely on players who did not care about these games staging colonialism as long as they could rest assured that in staging it they were merely reiterating historical fact, and thus re-enacting a necessary part of the past that is missing all criticisms directed at the historical images painted this way becomes even easier as long as it is a fun thing to play it that way. The question remains if there is something which could be done to remedy these shortcomings. To do so, it would be necessary to create games staging the processes which ANNO 1602 to 1800 so nicely embodied with less smoothness and more of the everyday frictions and frustrations, economically and morally, which those setting out to colonize experienced. Just denouncing games which use historical settings connected to colonialism would not lead to a more critical engagement with this kind of history. This kind of engagement would, however, be possible through games with a more nuanced approach. But, and I would like to end

33 Cf. Nolden, Nico: Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen: Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter 2019, p. 45 [FN 110].

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on a cautionary note here informed by my own experiences in academic teaching on the subject,34 this is a complicated process. As the global entanglements of economics and politics which characterized the processes of the European Expansion were reproduced in the local entanglements of slavery and colonialism, players would, somehow, have to get their hands dirty on both levels in managing these complex issues. The outcomes would possibly be morally ambiguous, but perhaps they would better serve the development of a critical historical consciousness this way.

B IBLIOGRAPHY %DXU 6WHIDQ ³+LVWRULH LQ &RPSXWHUVSLHOHQ µ$QQR  ± Erschaffung einer QHXHQ:HOW¶´LQWerkstattGeschichte 23 (1999), pp. 83±91. %HYF 7RELDV ³9LUWXHOOH 3ROLWLN- XQG *HVHOOVFKDIWVPRGHOOH´ LQ 7RELDV %HYF  Holger Zapf (eds.), Wie wir spielen, was wir werden. Computerspiele in unserer Gesellschaft, Konstanz: UVK 2009, pp. 141±160. %XQGHVVWHOOHIUGLH3RVLWLYSUlGLNDWLVLHUXQJYRQGLJLWDOHQ6SLHOHQ³$QQR´; https://bupp.at/node/2235. &RQVDOYR0LD'XWWRQ1DWKDQ³*DPHDQDO\VLVDeveloping a methodological WRRONLW IRU WKH TXDOLWDWLYH VWXG\ RI JDPHV´ LQ Game Studies 6/1 (2006) http://www.gamestudies.org/0601/articles/consalvo_dutton 'HSSH0DUWLQ³'HUJUR‰H$QQR-5HSRUW-DKUH,QVHOUDIIHQ´LQGameStar 23/2 (2019), pp. 130±146. Deutscher Computerspielepreis: Bestes Deutsches Spiel; https://deutscher-computerspielpreis.de/preistraeger Diru Kamachi, December 2, 2017; https://www.anno-union.com/devblog-diekunst-des-krieges-ii/comment-page-5/#comments Ecopower, January 21, 2018; https://www.anno-union.com/devblog-die-kunstdes-krieges-ii/comment-page-5/#comments )DEHO 0DUWLQ HW DO ³3RGLXPVGLVNXVVLRQ 1XW]HQ ZLU XQVHU 3RWHQ]LDO" 1RW ZHQGLJHU+DQGOXQJVEHGDUIXQG6WUDWHJLHQIUGLH=XNXQIW´LQ$UQROG3LFRW Said Zahedani / Albrecht Ziemer (eds.), Spielend die Zukunft gewinnen. Wachstumsmarkt Elektronische Spiele, Berlin / Heidelberg: Springer 2008, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-78717-4, p. 123±144.

34 &I :LQQHUOLQJ 7RELDV³>:HQQ GLe Aussage lautet:] Spielerisch Geschichte lernen? >EH]LHKWVLFKGDVZRUDXI"@´LQMedienPädagogik. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung 28 (2017), pp. 19±27; http://dx.doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/28.X

H OW TO G ET A WAY WITH C OLONIALISM | 235

Jeremiah McCall: Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History, New York / London: Routledge 2011. Kaiser-)DOOHQW .DULQD ³'LH /XVW DP %DXHQ ± digital umgesetzt ± pädagogisch JHQW]W´LQ: Medienimpulse 57/3 (2019), DOI: 10.21243/mi-03-19-16. /DKO .ULVWLQD ³$QJVW- und Sehnsuchtsräume. Repräsentationen der Natur in &RPSXWHUVSLHOHQ´ LQ Ars & Humanitas, 13/2 (2019), pp. 285±299, DOI: 10.4312/ars.13.2.285-299. 1RKU5ROI)³6WUDWHJ\&RPSXWHU*DPHVDQG'LVFRXUVHVRI*HRSROLWLFDO2UGHU´ in: Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 4:2 (2010), pp. 181±195. Nolden, Nico: Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen: Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme, Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter 2019. 3DUNLQ6LPRQ³$QQR'DZQRI'LVFRYHU\´LQ7RQ\0RWWHG 1001 Video games you must play before you die, e-book: London: Octopus Publishing 2011. Pfister, Eugen / Winnerling, Tobias: Digitale Spiele und Geschichte. Ein kurzer Leitfaden für Student*innen, Forscher*innen und Geschichtsinteressierte, Glückstadt: vwh 2020 (in print). Pfister, Eugen / Winnerling, Tobias: Digitale Spiele, Version: 1.0, in: DocupediaZeitgeschichte, January 10, 2020; http://docupedia.de/zg/Pfister_Winnerling_digitale_spiele_v1_de_2020 5HKP0DUFR³'RJDPHUVFKDQJHDWWLWXGHVWRZDUGVHFRQRPLFVWKURXJKSOD\LQJ manager games?³LQ: Zeitschrift für ökonomische Bildung 1 (2013), pp. 162± 176. Related Designs / Sunflowers: Anno 1701: Handbuch, n. p. 2006. 5RVHQVWLQJO+HUEHUW³$QQR´LQMedienimpulse 47/2 (2009); https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/mp/article/view/mi169/434. SchZDU]$QJHOD³%XQWH%LOGHU± Geschichtsbilder? Zur Visualisierung von GesFKLFKWHLP0HGLXPGHV&RPSXWHUVSLHOV´LQ$QJHOD6FKZDU]HG ³Wollten Sie auch immer schon einmal pestverseuchte Kühe auf Ihre Gegner werfen?´ Eine fachwissenschaftliche Annäherung an Geschichte im Computerspiel, Münster 2010, pp. 213±244. Sunflowers/Max Design: 1602 A.D.: Manual, n. p. 1998. 7KXQ%DVWLDQ5LHJHUW'LUN³'HY%ORJ'LH.XQVWGHV.ULHJHV,,´; https://web. archive.org/web/20180423081528/https://www.anno-union.com/devblogdie-kunst-des-krieges-ii/ from November 23, 2017. :LQQHUOLQJ 7RELDV ³'DUI¶V HLQ ELVVFKHQ ZHQLJHU VHLQ" (LQ =ZDQ]LJMlKULJHU Krieg: 1618±´LQ&KULVWRSK1RQQ7RELDV:LQQHUOLQJHGV.), Eine andere deutsche Geschichte 1517±2017. Was wäre gewesen, wenn?, Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh 2017, pp. 59±86.

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:LQQHUOLQJ7RELDV³>:HQQGLH$XVVDJHODXWHW@6SLHOHULVFK*HVFKLFKWHOHUQHQ" >EH]LHKWVLFKGDVZRUDXI"@´LQMedienPädagogik. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung 28 (2017), pp. 19±27, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.21240/mpaed/28.X :LQQHUOLQJ7RELDV³(LQOHLWXQJ´LQ7RELDV:LQQHUOLQJHG WKHPHLVVXHµ0RG ellierungen des Krieges? Digitale Spiele als geschichtswissenschaftliche ForVFKXQJVJHJHQVWlQGH¶ Militär und Gesellschaft 20 (2016), pp. 5±12; https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/39469/file/mgfn20.pdf :LQQHUOLQJ7RELDV³7KHHWHUQDOUHFXUUHQFHRIDOOELWV+RZKLVWRULFL]LQJYLGHR JDPHV¶ VHULHV WUDQVIRUP IDFWXDO KLVWRU\ LQWR DIIHFWLYH KLVWRULFLW\´ LQ Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, Special Issue: Digital Seriality, 8/1 (2014), pp. 151±170; http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/ article/view/vol8no1-10

L UDOGRAPHY ANNO 1800 (Ubisoft 2019, O: Blue Byte Software). ANNO 1404 / DAWN OF DISCOVERY (Ubisoft 2009, O: Related Designs/Blue Byte Software). ANNO 1701 / 1701 A.D.: DAWN OF DISCOVERY (Aspyr Media 2006, O: Related Designs). ANNO 1503 / 1503 A.D.: THE NEW WORLD (Electronic Arts 2003, O: Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software, Max Design). ANNO 1602: ERSCHAFFUNG EINER NEUEN WELT / 1602 A.D.: CREATION OF A NEW WORLD (Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software 1998, O: Max Design).

Toying with History Counterplay, Counterfactuals, and the Control of the Past A NGUS A. A. M OL

A BSTRACT This chapter explores the concept of counterplay, particularly concerning games set in the past. It connects this concept from game studies with the act of counterfactual historying, as well as efforts to democratize access to the past through games. This chapter investigates authenticity by looking at how resistance against authorities of history and normative authenticities is given shape through counterplay. Acts of counterplay are illustrated via a series of vignettes, in which the focus of analysis lies on RoMeincraft, a playful public heritage project based on MINECRAFT. The chapter concludes by discussing how counterplay with the past can be productive but that it also provides challenges for those who make and play games set in the past.

I NTRODUCTION This chapter explores the concept of counterplay, particularly concerning games set in the past.1 It connects this concept from game studies with the act of counterfactual historying,2 as well as ongoing efforts to democratize access to the past

1

Meade, Alan: Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, New York: Routledge 2015.

2

Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History: How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice, Abingdon/New York: Routledge 2016.

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through games.3 Like other contributions to this edited volume, this chapter investigates authenticity in the context of playful experiences of the past in games ² referred to here, for the saNHRIEUHYLW\DVµSDVW-SOD\¶. I will do this not by addressing authenticity and past-play directly but by looking at how resistance against authorities of history and normative authenticities is given shape through counterplay. After a short discussion of my own counterplay in SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION 6 (CIV6, 2016), the focus of the analysis lies on counterplay during RoMeincraft, a playful public heritage project based on MINECRAFT (2009).4 Over the course of this chapter, an auto-ethnographic analysis is framed by a series of vignettes.5 The chapter concludes by discussing how counterplay fits into the broader politics of games and the past.

T OYING

WITH

T HERMOPYLAE

A large Persian army, consisting of archers, siege equipment, and fearless Immortals, is wedged in a narrow strip between the sea and the mountains. Beyond this pass lies the Greek heartland and the ancient cities of Corinth and Athens. All that stands between Persia and its conquest of the Greek cities are a handful of charioteers and bowmen. The battle commences. Arrows cloud the sky but fail to stop the advance of the Immortals. The Greek charioteers, caught by surprise and with not enough room to maneuver, are quickly defeated. Corinth cannot stand the siege and falls within a year. With minimal losses to the Persian army and little time for the Greeks to regroup, the city of Athens is soon to follow. In a defeat without

3

Boom, Krijn et al.: ³7HDFKLQJWhrough Play: Using video games as a platform to teach DERXWWKHSDVW´, in: S. Hageneuer (ed.), Communicating the Past in the Digital Age, London: Ubiquity Press 2020, pp. 27-44.

4

For an extended discussion of RoMeincraft, see Politopoulos, Aris et. al.: ³5RPDQVDQG 5ROOHUFRDVWHUV6FKRODUVKLSLQWKH'LJLWDO3OD\JURXQG´in Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 2 (2019), pp. 163±175.

5

Ellis, Carolyn / Adams, Tony / Bochner$UWKXU³$XWRHWKQRJUDSK\$QRYHUYLHZ´in Forum: Qualitative Social Research 12 (2011), art. 10. ² These vignettes (highlighted by grey text boxes) describe experiences written down from memory, several months after they took place. As such, they are based on my recollection of the facts, aided by input from others who were present during the events described and the tangible remains or other recordings of counterplay. They are, however, not a verbatim transcript of what happened.

TOYING WITH HISTORY | 239

distinction, the capital of the Greek world is ceded to the Persians. A few years later, nothing but toponyms are left to remind one of the once thriving Greek civilization. Figure 1: The Battle of Thermopylae in SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION 6

source: Screenshot from SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION 6 by the author The above episode played out on a warm summer afternoon in 2018 during a game of CIV6, jointly played by Aris Politopoulos and I (Figure 1). We played as the Persians with the Greeks controlled by the computer. In a great example of algorithmic historying, the PersLDQVDQG*UHHNVZHUHHDFKRWKHU¶VFORVHVWQHLJKERUV and we got caught in a protracted cold war over the allegiance of close-by city states. The local landscape of the game map, a peninsula of a larger continent with a mountain range restricting access to it, also lent a further air of authenticity to the scene of the pivotal battle. In short, the setup was a mostly accidental recreation of the popular history of the Greco-Persian wars, in particular the famous battle of Thermopylae.6 In contrast to how things happened, Persia decisively defeated the Greeks in the first turns of the conflict in CIV6. In the remainder of our playthrough, we would go on to achieve a Cultural Victory, a relatively pacific endgame state in which the player wins by culturally outproducing all other civilizations. The whole playthrough was streamed live and recorded as part of the One More Turn video series.7 When you watch it, it is clear that Aris and I were

6

Herodotus: The Histories, Book 7, 138-239.

7

VALUE Foundation: One More Turn, Episode 4, Part 2; https://youtube.com/valuefnd

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both aware of the historical weight of the events described above and delighted by it. One way to read this episode in our game of CIV6 is as an example of counterfactual historying: instead of a hard-fought Persian victory that some claim seriously hampered the Persian war efforts, our µ7KHUPRS\ODH¶ZDVDQHDV\DQGUH sounding victory, followed by the complete and permanent conquest of Greek civilization. Such µZKDW LI¶ QDUUDWLYHV DUH EDVHG RQ WKH VWDWHPHQW ³+Dd A been, C ZRXOGKDYHEHHQ´:8 Had the Greeks been defeated in the Greco-Persian wars, then one of the cornerstones of Western civilization would have been relegated to that of historical footnote. Counterfactuals are a core reasoning mechanism with which humans explore their world and are particularly common ² even if eyed somewhat skeptically by some academic historians ² in our attempts to make sense of the past.9 At a more basic level, counterfactuals are a key ingredient of our play, with the past or otherwise. It is by suspending engagement with the purely factual in our games of make-believe that interesting and immersive experiences can take shape. Any game set in the past ² from CIV6¶V sandbox simulation to the genetic memory-bound playgrounds of ASSASSIN¶S CREED (2007-2020) ²10 incorporates many forms of historical counterfactuals, whether they are explicit or implicit, on purpose or accidental. In games set in the past, remarking on every counterfactual we encounter would be akin to pondering why the sky is blue. If not (solely) because of its counterfactual nature, then why is the Thermopylae episode recounted above remarkable, at least to us as players?11 Why did I not start this chapter with, for example, a vignette of that moment in our game when the Persians were the first to invent satellite technology or that time when we conquered the Viking civilization? Later, when discussing how engrossed we were in our version of the Greco-Persian wars and why that was the case, it turns out that both Aris and I had a similar answer: we were playing against the idea of Thermopylae and the idea of Classical Greek (cultural) superiority.

8

5HLVV -XOLDQ ³&RXQWHUIDFWXDOV´, in: Harold Kincaid (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Science, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2012, pp. 154±83.

9

)HUJXVRQ1LDOO³,QWURGXFWLRQ´, in Niall Ferguson (ed.), Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals, New York, Basic Books 1999.

10 Wolf, Mark (ed.), Imaginary Worlds. Abingdon/New York, Routledge 2017. 11 We briefly DGGUHVVHGWKLVTXHVWLRQGXULQJWKHVWUHDPZKHQ,UHPDUNHG³,W¶VDbit weird playing this game with a Greek guy that wants to destroy all Greeks? Where is this FRPLQJIURP"´7RZKLFK$ULVUHSOLHG³/HW¶VQRWJRWKHUH«´

TOYING WITH HISTORY | 241

In both our cases ² in the case of Aris, who is a Greek citizen, perhaps doubly so ², we did this because we had become overly familiar with this trope and its VXSSRVHGUDPLILFDWLRQVIRUWKHµKLVWRU\RIFLYLOL]DWLRQ¶:HKDGOHDUQHGDERXWWKH Greco-Persian Wars through authoritative and highly codified Western (and, in the case of Aris, national) histories, often in formal educational contexts in which we had little to no control. In particular, we both had secondary and universitylevel education in Classics that we both found stifling. Finally, we also shared an ironic pleasure in having subverted a perceived pillar of Western civilization, through conquests that contributed to a Persian cultural victory. In sum, it turned out we were toying with Thermopylae and its aftermath, not because it was counterfactual history, but because it let us counterplay history.12

C OUNTERPLAYING THE P AST The concept of counterplay FRYHUVDODUJHYDULHW\RI³ZD\VRISOD\LQJJDPHVWKDW ZRUNDJDLQVWDEURDGPDWUL[RIH[SHFWDWLRQVUXOHVDQGODZV´13 Counterplay in video games can be primarily directed towards circumvention, resistance, or destruction of rule-bound constraints to play processes, spaces, and rhythms, yet counterplay can simultaneously take place in several dimensions at once.14 In a book devoted to the subject, Alan Meades discusses different modes of counterplay and how they can be studied.15 The book also includes an informative list of modes of counterplay, which include but are not limited to the following:

12 Interestingly, the Greco-Persian Wars are quite a staple of counterfactual historying. See, for example, its use in ASSASSIN¶S CREED: ODYSSEY (2018), in which the war is just one move in the larger conflict between the shadowy organizations that secretly FRQWUROWKLVJDPH¶VZRUOG$GHHSHUanalysis goes beyond the scope of this chapter, but its popularity VXJJHVWVWKDWFRXQWHUIDFWXDOKLVWRU\LQJRIWKLVµFODVKRIFLYLOL]DWLRQV¶UHDG ily taps into long-standing West-East phantasies and fears (see Said, Edward: Orientalism, New York City, Random House, 1978). 13 A. Meades: Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, p. 182 14 Apperley, Thomas: Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures 2010. 15 Readers may be familiar with other concepts akin to counterplay (such as the concept RIµWUDQVJUHVVLYHSOD\¶LQWKHZRUNVRI(VSHQ$DUVHWKRUµFRXQWHUJDPLQJ¶LQWKH Essays on Algorithmic Culture by Alexander R. Galloway). Meades provides a full list of analogous definitions and practices in Chapter 1 of Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, p. 3-27.

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‡ ³,QFHQGLDU\ RIIHQVLYH RU RSSRVLWLRQDO SOD\HU SURGXFWLYLW\ HJ REVFHQH XVHU-

generated content; ‡ Offensive or asocial player interactions, e.g. grief-play; ‡ Non-adherence to rules, e.g. breaking etiquette or promises; ‡ The exploitation of game system vulnerabilities, e.g. cheating and the use of ex-

SORLWV´16 As it draws on a broad basis of research and examples of counterplay, the list is necessarily broad and covers a wide range of undesired, anti-social, or illegal player actions. At the same time and as will be discussed below, it provides some handles for the study of counterplay with the past but does not fully capture its specific nature. Meade does helpfully trace back the concept of counterplay to the influential critique on games as forms of Empire by Dyer-Whiteford and de Peuter.17 ,QWKHLUDQDO\VLVFRXQWHUSOD\WDNHVVKDSHDVDQ³DFWRIFRQWHVWDWLRQ´18 It is a form of activism, in their case targeting the entanglement of the game and military industries. The inherently political nature of counterplay is also emphasized in a dissertation on the topic by Thomas Apperley: ³As a practice, counterplay suggests that whatever games may do to us, this issue is inseparable from what we do to them. It is easy to focus on the futility or banality, of digital game play, to suggest that their digital environments are characterized by choices and configurations that are largely meaningless, or at best devoid of politics. Counterplay provides a counterpoint to this view.´19

2XUUHODWLRQWRWKHSDVWLVFRPSDUDEOHWR$SSHUOH\¶VWDNHRQJDPHVLQWKHVHQVH that it is dialectical and political, in other words, what we do to the past in the present, it may also do to us. How the past is produced in the present and vice versa is a question for all historical disciplines, but my perspective on this has been shaped in particular by so-called post-processual archaeology and critical

16 A. Meades: Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, p. 24. ² It is relevant to note Meades actually orders WKLVOLVWLQKLVHVWLPDWLRQRI³HVFDODWLQJULVN´DQGWKDWRQO\WKH beginning of the list, i.e. the least risky modes, is replicated here. Other counterplay modes are less an action in game and more form of messing with hardware, software, and most risky, the illegal accessing and distribution of content. 17 Dyer-Whiteford, Nick/de Peuter, Greg: Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games, Minneapolis, Minnesota/London, University of Minnesota Press 2009. 18 Dyer-Whiteford and de Peuter: Games of Empire, p. 191. 19 T. Apperley: Gaming Rhythms, p. 8.

TOYING WITH HISTORY | 243

and public heritage studies.20 Whoever has access to knowledge and stories about the past gets to make choices about its configuration. Yet, this access is not something that is available in equal measure to just everyone: those who study the past professionally frequently have the greatest access to it and may end up acting as gatekeepers for other groups. This has resulted in the amplification or attenuation of particular histories and heritages, contributing to the elevation of specific groups of people over others ² for example those who are male or white. Over the last decades, an increasing awareness of the political nature of this process and its existing imbalances led to a call for more and more diverse input from society at large. The resulting and ongoing complex process of democratizing access has become a core aim of public heritage efforts, particularly strongly represented in digital heritage studies. 21 To sum up: Counterplay directly concerns the politics of control in games. When the production of the past is also understood as an inherently political undertaking, this already goes some way in making clear why players may use counterfactuals and other forms of counterplay in games set in the past (see also Apperley 2018; Chapman 2016). In the remainder of this chapter I will further explore how this happens through a discussion of a game-based, public heritage project I participated in.

R O M EINCRAFT RoMeincraft is a reconstruction of the Dutch sections of the Limes, the border of the Roman empire, in MINECRAFT. This public heritage project is developed and hosted by the VALUE Foundation, a collective of archaeologists and historians working at the intersection of play and the past, which I am a part of. In RoMeincraft, VALUE works with members of the general public to rebuild the forts, towers, roads, farmsteads and other infrastructure of this border region in 150 AD. In

20 0HVNHOO/\QQ³7KH,QWHUVHFWLRQVRI3ROLWLFVDQG,GHQWLW\´, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002):pp. 279-301 ² Post-processual archaeology is an influential intellectual movement in archaeology starting in the 1980s, allied to post-modernism and post-structuralism that sought to change the singular control academic specialists held over histories and heritages and foregrounded how our knowledge of the past is heavily affected by our present interpretation of it. It paved the way for a more self-reflexive and public focused way of doing archaeology and heritage studies. 21 3HUU\6DUD³7KH(QFKDQWPHQWRIWKH$UFKDHRORJLFDO5HFRUG´, in: European Journal of Archaeology, 22 (2019), pp. 354-371.

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contrast to the United Kingdom and Germany, no remains of the Limes are visible above ground in the Netherlands and, partially because of this, there is relatively little public awareness of this cross-national World Heritage beneath our feet.22 The aim of RoMeincraft is thus to present a visual, hands-on, and positive encounter with this heritage. So far, VALUE has held about twenty events, in which more than 600 players participated with the building of parts of the Limes. A further 2500 people participated in these events through Virtual Reality tours, discussions ZLWKWKHRUJDQL]HUVRQWKHIORRURUDVµFR-SLORWV¶SULPDULO\DGXOWVRUDGROHVcents watching younger family members at play). RoMeincraft is designed as an event that can be held on location in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). GLAMs provide the space and the VALUE Foundation provides the equipment and the archaeological, historical and MINECRAFT expertise. VALUE also provides the playground: a MINECRAFT world based on the Dutch Roman border region at a 1:2 scale. The world started as an as authentic as possible depiction of the ecology, topography, and built landscape of 150 AD. Its basis is a Geographic Information System mapping geological, archaeological and historical information, which was then adapted into a MINECRAFT world using the Worldpainter tool.23 %HIRUHDSDUWLFLSDQWVWDUWVWRSOD\WKH\DUHWROG³7KLs is the Netherlands in Roman times at around 150 AD, what we all do here is trying to rebuild the buildings as they were in this time. Please, build along´7KLVLVWKHRQO\GLUHFWLYHSUR vided at the start ² unless organizers were prompted for more input by particiSDQWV7KHRUJDQL]HUVDOVRSURYLGHµLQVSLUDWLRQERRNOHWV¶FRQWDLQLQJSODQGUDZ ings, artifacts, and other Roman imagery. Participants can bring their own laptops, but a number of desktop PCs are also provided. To accommodate the high numbers of interested participants, we frequently had to limit playtime on these desktops to 15 minutes per participant. Cooperative play and free communication between participants and specialists are key parts of the experience. The game is hosted via a LAN-networked server VHWWRµ&UHDWLYH¶² a mode in which players have nearly all blocks available to them, can fly, and cannot receive damage from each other, the environment, nor NPC enemies. Two hosts, one of them me, are present on the floor to guide people during play and chat with them. Beyond a short introduction of the project and time period, such interactions have ranged from in depth discussions on Roman history and heritage to explaining basic MINECRAFT controls. Finally, there is also a build of a particularly large or complex building, coordinated by VALUE with

22 Colenbrander, B. (ed.), Limes Atlas, Rotterdam, Uitgeverij 010 2005. 23 See https://www.worldpainter.net/

TOYING WITH HISTORY | 245

SDUWLFLSDQWVDEOHWRMRLQLQ,QWKLVFDVHDµEXLOGPDVWHU¶IURPWKH9$/8()RXQ dation works on this continuously, the activities projected on a large screen. This build master also provides input and directions for participants that want to work together on that reconstruction. This process has had very diverse results. RoMeincraft¶VYHU\ILUVWSDUticipant, a teenage boy from Germany, constructed a Roman watchtower to scale, closely resembling archaeological drawings in under 10 minutes. Other participants have worked together to rebuild a massive amphitheater that stood close to the town of Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum (nowadays Nijmegen). During a particularly hot summer day, in a tiny museum in the east of the Netherlands, all participants first built a Forum, a Roman marketplace, after which we collectively defeated the final boss of MINECRAFT, the Ender dragon. Another player built a Roman villa in the style of a Dutch canal house because they thought both were pretty. The game world is also covered in literally dozens of iterations of the archetypical Classical Greek temple, which is a type of building that has no direct historical counterpart in the Roman Netherlands (Figure 2.a). Figure 2: Builds from the RoMeincraft project: a. three classical temples near Noviamagus; b. the beach hut at Katwijk; c. Polar bears in Matilo; d. the villa with its hillside partially destroyed due to TNT.

source: Screenshots from MINECRAFT / ROMEINCRAFT by the author In the case of counterfactual builds, the hosts remark that such a build or activity does not concur with what archaeologists and historians know about the Romans in the Netherlands, followed by a short explanation on what is known about similar things. After this, some people decide to change their builds (somewhat), but,

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as will be discussed in more detail below, they are happy to hear out these expert voices and subsequently still make up their own mind. RoMeincraft is certainly not the first heritage project of this kind. The brilliance of MINECRAFT, particularly of its Creative mode, is how it provides an immense sandbox for building whatever is interesting or important to you as a player.24 Heritage, whether locally or globally officially recognized monuments RUµROGEXLOGLQJV¶WKDWKDYHVRPHLPSRUWDQFHWRDQLQGLYLGXDORUFRPPXQLW\LVD major inspiration for this creative process. This becomes immediately clear if one just casually browses MINECRAFT builds online. The game has also seen relatively wide adaptation by GLAMs, primarily aimed at involving more youth with local and global heritage.25 Not one of these individual or organizational projects are exactly alike in their design, execution and (in)formal rules. What all of them seem to share, however, is the same desire to craft authentic pasts. VALUE designed RoMeincraft with an aim to democratize access to Roman heritage and history. It was therefore felt that too many guidelines or demands for accuracy would lessen the level of participation in qualitative and quantitative terms. In other words, RoMeincraft is not meant to be a history lesson but a heritage-based play activity. Furthermore, the organizers were not primarily interested in creating anything close to a faithful depiction of the Roman Limes. The demands of doing virtual archaeology, the subdiscipline that seeks to reconstruct the past in 3D as accurately as possible, are simply incompatible with MINECRAFT and crowd-based play.26 Instead, we are more interested to find out how the Roman past is perceived and reconstructed through play by non-specialists. The idea is thus to have participants express themselves as authentically and freely as possible ² however they want, based on their own desire to engage with and give shape to the past. There was really only one outspoken rule: participants were not allowed to destroy the creations of others on purpose.27 Otherwise, RoMeincraft was light on

24 *DUUHOWV1DWH³:K\ Minecraft MatWHUV´, in: Nate Garrelts (ed.), Understanding Minecraft: Essays on Play, Community, and Possibilities, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company Publishers 2014. 25 See for an overview of such other Minecraft projects: Politopoulos et al.: Romans and Rollercoasters 2019. 26 Beacham, Richard, et al.: The London Charter; http://www.londoncharter.org, 2009. 27 There were, of course, some further restrictions we had agreed upon beforehand. For example, builds that we deemed not fitting for a public, inclusive, and kid-friendly project would be removed by us. Interestingly, we only ever have had to remove one type

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rules as well as on guidelines for crafting authentic reconstructions. The setting is akin to ZKDW&DLOORLVKDVUHIHUUHGWRDVµIUHHSOD\¶RUpaidia.28 In the case of RoMeincraft, with not many clear rules to begin with, one could expect there would be very little counterplay. This turned out not to be the case.

T HE B EACH H UT ³7KH5RPDQVDWOHDVt the ones we know about, did not really like to come to the Netherlands at all. In fact, one of them, Tacitus, wrote something along the OLQHVRIµ7KLVLVDland rough in its surface, rigorous in its climate, cheerless to everyone who views it, except foUVRPHRQHZKRZDVERUQWKHUHµ´ The young girl sitting next to me at the computer looks affronted. She clearly does not agree with the spirit of the text I just quoted to her. ³7KDWJX\GRHVQ¶WNQRZDQ\WKLQJ´VKHIXPHV³+HFOHDUO\QHYHUYLVLWHG Katwijk GXULQJWKHVXPPHU´ She is right, of course, Tacitus never visited Katwijk, a little known place called Lugdunum Batavorum at the literal end of the road in 150 AD, but now a town popular for its beaches and also the home of this girl. I still try to do my best to explain to her that the landscape of the Netherlands was a bit more wild and less welcoming back then. ³7KHVH5RPDQVMXVWGLGQRWNQRZKRZWRKDYHIXQ´VKHUHSOLHV³EXW,¶OO EXLOGWKHPVRPHWKLQJWKDWVKRZVWKHPKRZIXQWKLVSODFHFDQEH´ She asks to be teleported from the fort we are building to the coast. Fifteen minutes later she has built a lovely, little hut, right there on the beach. The above is just one example of how RoMeincraft participants play against history (Figure 2.b). Our MINECRAFT version of the Limes is filled with many things that specialists of the Roman Netherlands would consider inauthentic: classical temples with resident flying cow deities, treehouse watchtowers, bathhouses with slides, and more. The results of the gameplay of these participants directly or

of construction for this reason (phalluses, in case you are wondering), and this only happened rarely. 28 Caillois, Roger: Man, Play, and Games, Urbana/Chicago, University of Illinois Press 2001/1961, p. 27 ² Alan Meades (Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, p. 8) draws a direct relation between paidia and counterplay, the latter being a version of the former.

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indirectly rejects historical authoritative voices like formal education, museums, old Roman writers, or us, the hosts. Yet, based on discussions with these players, it is clear that their builds, if counterfactual, come from a place of authentic interest in the past. This counterplay is not meant to be directly counterfactual and is certainly not aimed to disrupt play. Even when these players invariably decide to disregard the things I say as a host or ignore the infoUPDWLRQ WKDW LV LQ WKHLU µLQVSLUDWLRQ ERRNOHWV¶ WKLV LV QRW meant destructively or anti-socially. I come away from these conversations with the notion that, when it comes to the past, for many of our participants it is acFHSWDEOHµWRDJUHHWRGLVDJUHH¶)or some, this is also a clear rejection of the type of fun VALUE was proposing they have with the past. Many players would rather, for example, build their own vision of a marble temple than the sixth historically accurate but identical wooden soldier barrack. For others again, like the girl above, their version of the Roman past is one in which they find, own, and play a counternarrative to History as usual.

T HE P OLAR B EAR I NVASION We are rebuilding Matilo, a Roman fort now buried under Leiden. I am having a lively discussion with an elderly couple when I am called over by one of the SOD\HUV³/RRN6RPHRQHVSDZQHGSRODUEHDUVLQWKHIRUW´ Spawning animals in MINECRAFT is, apparently, a lot of fun. In any given moment, there are always at least a couple of chickens, cows, pigs, and sheep running around among the Roman barracks and towers. It also makes sense, as permanent forts like this would have been a home for many beings, not all of them soldiers, Romans, or even humans. Polar bears are more than a bit out of place, though. I look around and spot the person who is still busy spawning them, a boy around the age of ten. He has a somewhat apologetic look on his face as I walk up to him. ³+H\WKRVHVXUHDUHDORWRISRODUEHDUV«´,VWDUW He quickly rHSOLHV³,NQRZWKH\DUHQRWVXSSRVHGWREHKHUHEXWLWLVIXQ WRKDYHWKHPDURXQG´ ³'R\RXUHDOO\OLNHSRODUEHDUV"´,VD\WU\LQJWRJHt a sense of why he is spawning a legion of the, admittedly cute, critters. ³1RQRWUHDOO\«´ ³:K\SXWWKHPLQWKHQ"´ ³%HFDXVHWKH\DUHQRWVXSSRVHGWREHWKHUH´KHDQVZHUVZLWKDZLGHJULQ

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7KHµSRODUEHDULQYDVLRQRI0DWLOR¶LVDGLIIHUHQWDIIDLUIURPSOD\HUVZKRHQJDJH counterfactually but authentically with the past (Figure 2.c). It is one of around 10 examples of counterplay based on explicit counterfactuals that have happened during RoMeincraft events. Other particularly memorable examples are pig-riding Roman cavalry and lava fountains. What these examples have in common is that they are builds or other forms of additions to the world that are starkly out of place for Roman times and explicitly meant to be that way. In the occasions when the hosts were able to ask the participants about these builds, the answers were always along the lines of the reasons given by the boy who spawned the polar bears. To these players, it is fun to counterplay what they actually agree happened in the past. This is comparable to how Aris Politopoulos and I toyed with Thermopylae. These are seen as transgressive actions (at least in the minds of the people taking them), so it proved difficult to have deeper conversations with these players about it ² a known difficulty in studying counterplay that is discussed at length by Meades.29 What is clear is that they fully expect to have their actions corrected by the resident authorities, in this case the hosts. Hosts, in fact, do not take action, as their gameplay is still an example of the open-end experience that was originally envisaged. What I witnessed is that such players will instead be actively SROLFHGE\RWKHUSOD\HUV7KHVHµKLVWRU\SROLFH¶GRVRE\HLWKHUZDUQLQJDQGDVNLQJ us to take action or by taking direct action against what they experience as disruptive behavior themselves. In fact, hosts actively intervene if other players try to undo the results of counterplay. To the surprise of the boy, the polar bears were allowed to roam the fort and do so to this day.

T HE I NCIDENT

AT THE

V ILLA

It has been a very long day in the crowded hall of the Limburgs Museum. We have had a record number of participants, many of whom brought their own laptops to play with. With so many different participants playing in the world at all times, this means we as hosts cannot guide everybody the way we would like to, or even know what most of our players are up to. Still, our participants have filled nearly a valley worth of their own creations. We also collaborated on a terraced Roman villa complex, our big build for the day, which now proudly overlooks the river Meuse. The build master walks up to mHLQDKXII³'LG\RXVHHZKDWWKH\MXVWGLG" 7KH\EOHZDKROHLQWKHYLOODZLWK717´

29 A. Meades: Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, Chapter 2.

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³'R\RXNQRZZKRGLGLW"´,DVNEHFDXVH,KDYHQRWVHHQLWKDSSHQ ³,KDYHDVXVSLFLRQDQG,DPJRLQJWRVD\VRPHWKLQJDERXWLW´ Before I realize what is happening, he KDVFXSSHGKLVKDQGVDQG\HOOV´$W WHQWLRQHYHU\RQHSOHDVH´$OOSHRSOHLQWKHKDOOVWRSWDONLQJDQGSOD\LQJ ³:HKDYHVHHQWKDWRQHRI\RXKDVXVHG717WREORZXSWKHYLOOD:HNQRZ who you are and we just want to say that this is not cool and you should be DVKDPHGRI\RXUVHOI´+LVLQGLJQDWLRQLVEHOLHYDEOHDVLWLVRQO\KDOI-played. None of our players look very self-aware or even slightly bothered, so I still do not know who bombed the villa. Strangely enough, many of the non-playing adults in the room do look guilty, as if they were the ones just caught redhanded with a real barrel of TNT in the middle of a museum. When playing MINECRAFT in Creative mode, it leaves little opportunity for the mode of counterplay that Meade refers to as griefing.30 Players cannot die or get killed and resources are endless. Furthermore, in the case of RoMeincraft, console cheats were eventually switched off, further limiting griefing.31 What did happen was mostly innocuous. For example, people tried to cover other players under a ORW RI EORFNV 7KH\ VRPHWLPHV EXLOW ZDOOV ZLWK µGXPP\¶ EORFNV WKDWEUHDN DQG spawn animals. Some built elaborate pitfall traps or mazes, which everyone else just flies over. Other players loved throwing potions at other participants, making them invisible. While it would have been easy to do so, I did not witness any participant purposely destroying what other people had created, except for the DIRUHPHQWLRQHGµKLVWRU\SROLFH¶DQGWKHLQFLGHQWDWWKHYLOOD The only risk for genuine disruptive play came from TNT (Figure 2.d). This MINECRAFT block is different from all others: it explodes when hit, taking out all surrounding blocks in the blast radius. Before the incident, whenever someone was spotted placing TNT, we kindly but urgently asked them to stop. If players VWLOOMXVWµQHHGHG¶WRH[SORGHVRPHWKLQJWKH\ZHUHGLUHFWHGWRDSDUWRIWKHZRUOG where their pyrotechnics could not do any real damage. Following the partial

30 Ibid., Chapter 3. ² Grief-play is easy to recognize when it happens during play, but hard to unpack in its specifics. Meades, in an example drawn from grief-play in an online MINECRAFT survival game (pp.50-51), likens it to the behavior by schoolyard EXOOLHVXOWLPDWHO\GHILQLQJLWDVD³ZD\RIH[SUHVVLQJPDVWHU\DQGGRPLQDQFHRYHURWKHU SOD\HUVDQGDVVHUWLQJRZQHUVKLSRIWKHVSDFH´SS  31 After the first few events, we realized participants should not have access to the commands that can be activated via the console in Minecraft as they used it for minor but disruptive acts of counterplay, such as changing the time of the or the weather or to kill other players via commands.

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destruction of the villa and its hillside in RoMeincraft, measures were taken so TNT does not explode but instead disappears when activated. VALUE also rebuilt the villa. What is interesting about the griefing that took place during RoMeincraft, including the incident at the villa, is that most of its players did not mind it much or thought it was funny. It was an acceptable part of the game to them and probably relatively mild compared to what they experienced in online worlds or back home playing with siblings or friends. It is even more interesting how those not playing and also not used to playing MINECRAFT responded. These non-playing participants of our events, frequently adults, were generally more upset or annoyed about any kind of transgressive behavior during play, especially if it was done by children in their care. Carers would sometimes gently or even sternly admonish their kids, occasionally even accompanied with an apology directly to us. Accidental destruction of buildings, something which happens all the time in MINECRAFT, was taken quite seriously. What is more, even historically inaccurate builds would sometimes be a reason for a small rebuke. As I never thought to discuss this with any of the non-playing participants, it is impossible to know what exactly prompted some of their reactions. An educated guess is that these non-playing adult participants were much more preoccupied with the larger social context of the events than players. Another factor here could be that RoMeincraft was perceived by these non-playing participants as a museum, educational, or otherwisHµVHULRXV¶DQGUXOH-bound project, instead of as a form of heritage free play. Admittedly, as is clear from the reaction of the build master that day, it can be hard to draw clear lines when the past is at play.

C OUNTERPLAY

AT THE

R OMAN B ORDER

The discussion of three examples of counterplay in RoMeincraft shows that this way of playing with the past can have diverse origins, modes, motives, and effects. It also emphasizes that, even if there are very few specific and outspoken rules, a certain subset of players will find something to counterplay to, and frequently end up having more fun with that than with desired or expected forms of play. In these aspects, counterplay in games set in the past mirrors general forms of counterplay, as discussed by Meade. Needless to say, historical games are not particularly impervious to general modes of counterplay. Yet games set in the past can also invite their own specific versions of modes of counterplay. Most notably, counterplay with the past will target a more ephemeral ruleset and set of boundaries: rules of history and historying. One clear mode,

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at the heart of our Greco-Persian experiences with CIV6 and the polar bear invasion of a Roman fort, is to use counterfactuals to create a rift with (what is generally accepted to be) what happened in the past, denying yourself and others a chance at having an authentic experience. Other modes of counterplay with the past rely on other, more negative actions: as in the extreme example of the destruction of in-game heritage with TNT or how Aris Politopoulos and I literally destroyed the Greek civilization in our game of CIV6. In this case, the counterplayer targets something that is cherished or taken seriously as history, mixing a well-known counterplay mode, that of griefing or trolling, with an attack, not on another player but on a system of values founded in an appreciation of (aspects of) the past. The two modes of counterplay above can at least partially be understood as rule-breaking behavior. However, the mode that was discussed first, in which players decided to counter expert sources of information, may not fit as comfortDEO\ZLWKLQJHQHUDOPRGHVRIFRXQWHUSOD\7REHPRUHFRQFUHWHZKDWWKLVµFRXQ WHUSOD\¶DPRXQWVWRLVDGLIIHUHQFHRIRSLQLRQRQWKHYDOLGLW\DQG authenticity of diverging views on the past. Indeed, this type of play also does not fit neatly within the concept of counterfactuals, as it presupposes that player and counterplayer agree on the facts to begin with. Still, as with other productions of the past, if views are ultimately incommensurable yet need to be resolved, one voice will outweigh the other, leading to the acceptance of one specific set of facts. In practice, this mediation is based on a tacit understanding or explicit agreement of hierarchy: for example, many would agree that professional archaeologists or historians know more than someone with no formal training in these disciplines. In other words, this form of counterplay can only be understood through the politics of the past-play. Looking back at past events through the lens of counterplay, it is clear that tacitly understood expert authorities played an implicit but crucial role during RoMeincraft. First of all, VALUE held the power in a practical sense as organizers, creators of this version of the MINECRAFT game, and as being the ones who could literally and figuratively pull the plug on the game. Furthermore, with almost every member of the organizing team being a specialist in the field of history or archaeology, we acted as the closest instance of an authoritative source of information. It is therefore relevant that the incident at the villa happened while play could not actively be monitored by us. The reaction by one of the organizers also accentuates how, underneath the playground, there is serious business after all. This also explains why counterplayers using counterfactuals expected to be policed by us, the organizers and experts. Additionally, it is why other players actively looked to

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us to stop this breaking of authenticity. Deference to implicit authority also explains why non-playing participants apologized to us for counterplayers in their care. In short, even if ² or maybe because ² the organizers consciously tried to level the playing field, overarching systems of authority ended up shaping this past-play. It is important to note that having an implicitly or explicitly recognized hierarchy and ruleset is not de facto undesired, oppressive, or counter to the democratization of the past. One of the things learned during this project is that a good subset of the participants did not like having free rein and instead were looking for a more structured experience. They asked hosts and the build master for explicit guidelines, which we would provide, in this way letting such players access a way of crafting the past that to them felt more authentic. Although counterplay is generally perceived as a net negative, this is not necessarily the case when it comes to counterplay with the past. Exploring what-ifs or formulating countervoices to sources of authority can result in creative disruptions. These can in turn lead to a new understanding of the past that is better contextualized and more multifaceted ² and, in my opinion, therefore more valid and valuable. As an example of this, the beach hut, built by the girl from Katwijk, countered a distant and monolithic reading of the land and its people by the Roman author Tacitus ² a view that is still present in the historiography of the Roman Netherlands to this day.32 Through this player intervention I came to the realization that, for many Romans as well as autochthonous people, living in this border UHJLRQPD\QRWKDYHEHHQVRµURXJKDQGFKHHUOHVV¶DWDOO What the rhythms of play and counterplay in this MINECRAFT version of the Roman border region underline is how games set in the past actually ask us to follow multiple rulesets. The rules of the game proper ² VHWE\WKHJDPH¶VGHYHO oper and checked by the player, computer, or through social control ² are one of them. The other rules we follow (or not) cannot be found in a rulebook or by digging through code. They cannot even be easily put into words. They are the structures and processes that give rise to a socio-culturally constructed and controlled understanding of what pasts are authentic, real, valid, or factual.33

32 %D]HOPDQV -RV ³5XLPWH HQ 9HUOHGHn 7LMG ,PSHULXP 6WDDW HQ 8QLH´, in: Colenbrander (ed.), Limes Atlas (2005), pp. 11-18. 33 Foucault, Michel: /¶DUFKpRORJLHGXVDYRLU Paris: Éditions Gallimard 1969. ² Here the explicitly archaeological work of making sense of the past intersects with FoXFDXOW¶V µDUFKDHRORJ\¶RINQRZOHGJHDPHWKRGWRFKDUWDQGDQDO\]HWKHERXQGDULHVRIWKRXJKW in a specific socio-cultural structure.

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C ONCLUSION : F IGURING

OUT THE RULES OF PAST PLAY

An analysis of particular experiences of counterplay ² my own counterplay in CIV6, and the counterplay that took place when I was part of the authority that was played against ² can provide an alternative perspective to understanding how we play with the past. Following other studies on counterplay as well as post-structural and post-processual understanding of the past, it highlights that both counterplay and past-play are inherently political undertakings. So, in order to study or prevent counterplay with the past, it is important to realize that it is rooted in the possibility to resist using two (or more) systems of opposition. Viewed from the angle of game rules or from within a supposedly impervious magic circle, the experiences recounted above may not register as real counterSOD\ ³6RPH SRODU EHDUV UXQQLQJ DURXQG LQ D MINECRAFT IRUW VR ZKDW"´ &RQ versely, if one looks at play from the outside ² DVDµVHULRXV¶QRn-playing scholar of the past, say ² it is easy to think all the goings-on are similar counterfactual make-EHOLHIV³$EHDFKKXWIRU5RPDQVROGLHUVZKDWDVLOO\LGHD´7RXQGHUVWDQG these forms of counterplay, as acts of resistance against and within historical games and in their relation to larger socio-cultural systems, requires being able to VZLWFKEHWZHHQERWKµUXOHVHWV¶MXVWOLNHFRXQWHUSOD\HUVWKHPVHOYHV7KLVVLWXDWHV past-play within a larger set of rule-based, political, social, and cultural rhythms and counterrhythms.34 More than that, I believe counterplay should be welcomed as an interesting and valid mode of inquiry, as it is able to resist, re-examine, and challenge monolithic, normative understandings of history and historying. This is not the only reason to figure out how and why players resist sources of authority in past-play. Game makers clearly have authority over the rules of their games and can go to great lengths to prevent counterplay, especially in the case of social games. Makers of games set in the past have a similar form of authority, not as makers of play, but as authors of a socially shared past. Yet many developers and publishers struggle with (or simply deny) the duality of this undertaking, and so do many of their players.35

34 T. Apperley: Gaming Rhythms, p. 8. 35 For example, Tommy Francois, member of the Editorial Board of Ubisoft, in an interview with Stephen Totilo, addresses but seems to still reject the idea that games made by the developer are explicitly political, even if they should be; see Totilo, Stephen: ³µ:H.QRZ:H¶UH1RW7DNLQJ,W)DU(QRXJKµ$8ELVRIW93:UHVWOHV:LWK3ROLWLFV,Q *DPHV´in: Kotaku, August 14, 2019; https://kotaku.com/we-know-we-re-not-takingit-far-enough-a-ubisoft; The developer of CIV, Sid Meier, has also stated that the game GRHVQRWUHIOHFWDSROLWLFDOSKLORVRSK\VHH0RO$QJXVHWDO³¶)URPWKH6WRQH$JHto

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TKLVµHYHU\WKLQJJRHV¶DSSURDFKDOVRDWZRUNLQWKHRoMeincraft project, provides space for counterplay. As explained above, counterplay can lead to interesting insights and, even if nefarious, has relatively minimal impact on the level of a small public heritage programme. At larger levels, a hands-off approach can have more serious ramifications. For example, it can provide room for counterforces that seek to undo the ongoing democratization and diversification of the past but also of games themselves.36 IWLVWHOOLQJWKDWUHFHQWGHEDWHVRYHUµDXWKHQWLF¶RUµDF curaWH¶ UHSUHVHQWDWLRQV RI WKHSDVW FDQ HDVLO\EH OLQNHG WR ODUJHUTXHVWLRQV RYHU who should play and be represented in games ² from which it is only a small step to the even larger issue of who are acceptable members of societies past and present.37 At least SDUWRIWKHUKHWRULFGHSOR\HGLQµDXWKHQWLFLW\¶GHEDWHVLVDIRUPRI counterplay with the past writ large. Adjudicating who is a bad faith actor, based on facts and counterfacts alone, is a thankless and fruitless undertaking in these sadly post-fact times. One clear solution is for game developers and publishers to more actively take control over the pasts they craft and provide clarity about rules for acceptable play in this regard as well. Critically constructive studies at the intersection of games and the past can provide much needed light for such a difficult undertaking. Ultimately,

WKH,QIRUPDWLRQ$JH¶$5HYLHZRI6LG0HLHU¶V&LYLOL]DWLRQ6HULHV´, in: Advances in Archaeological Practice 5 (2017). 36 Keogh, Brendan: A Play of Bodies. How We Perceive Videogames. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press 2018. 37 The clearest example of the politically explosive nature of counterplay (with the past) was given by Esther Wright, during the Clash of Realities summit of which this book is a result. She discussed an affair in which players beat suffragette NPCs in RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 and uploaded the footage of this attack to YouTube. While beating NPCs is not counter to the rules of this game, beating a suffragette, of course, is both a historical and political act of transgressive behavior. This created negative press for both YouTube, who banned and subsequently unbanned the uploader of the footage, and Rockstar, the developer of the game. Providing a detailed overview of this and similar affairs goes beyond the scope of this chapter, but the fundamental challenge is discussed in several other contributions to this book. See for example: Aurelia Brandenburg on the debates surrounding THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT, Jörg Friedrich on the responsibility of developers engaging with the past, Eugen Pfister on the ideological function of authenticity and Tobias Winnerling on the blanking of colonialism in the ANNO series.

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figuring out the rules of past-play and how they can sometimes be toyed with in a way that is fun, empowering, and inclusive is a task for all of us.38

B IBLIOGRAPHY Apperley, Thomas: Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures 2010. %D]HOPDQV-RV³5XLPWHHQ9HUOHGHQ7LMG,PSHULXP6WDDWHQ8QLH´, in: Colenbrander (ed.), Limes Atlas (2005), pp. 11-18. Beacham, Richard et al.: The London Charter; http://www.londoncharter.org, 2009. Boom, Krijn HWDO³7HDFKLQJWKURXJK3OD\8VLQJYLGHRJDPHVDVDSODWIRUPWR WHDFKDERXWWKHSDVW´, in: S. Hageneuer (ed.), Communicating the Past in the Digital Age, London, Ubiquity Press 2020, pp. 27-44. Chapman, Adam: Digital Games as History: How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice, Abingdon/New York: Routledge 2016. Colenbrander, B. (ed.), Limes Atlas, Rotterdam, Uitgeverij 010 2005. Dyer-Whiteford, Nick / de Peuter, Greg: Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games, Minneapolis, Minnesota/London, University of Minnesota Press 2009. Ellis, Carolyn / Adams, Tony / Bochner, $UWKXU ³$XWRHWKQRJUDSK\ $Q RYHU view³LQForum: Qualitative Social Research 12 (2011), art. 10 )HUJXVRQ1LDOO³,QWURGXFWLRQ³LQNiall Ferguson (ed.), Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals, New York, Basic Books 1999. Foucault, Michel: /¶DUFKpRORJLHGXVDYRLU, Paris: Éditions Gallimard 1969.

38 I would like to thank the organizers of the Clash of Realities conference and in particular Martin Lorber and Felix Zimmermann, the organizers of the History in Games summit. I would also like to thank Anh-Thu Nguyen, Markus Zimmermann, and Felix Zimmermann for their incisive feedback and the editing work on this chapter. I would like to warmly thank Aris Politopoulos for his co-play, comments, and other critically important input. A major thanks to the other co-organizers of RoMeincraft, Krijn Boom, Csilla Ariese, Vincent Vandemeulebroucke, and Bram van den Hout, and to all its enthusiastic (counter)players. The work for this chapter was made possible by a SnouckHurgronje grant of the Leiden University Fund.

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*DUUHOWV1DWH³:K\0LQHFUDIW0DWWHUV´, in: Nate Garrelts (ed.), Understanding Mine-craft: Essays on Play, Community, and Possibilities, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company Publishers 2014. Herodotus: The Histories, Book 7, 138-239. Keogh, Brendan: A Play of Bodies. How We Perceive Videogames. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press 2018. 0RO$QJXVHWDO³¶)URPWKH6WRQH$JHWRWKH,QIRUPDWLRQ$JH¶$5HYLHZRI 6LG0HLHU¶V&LYLOL]DWLRQ6HULHV´, in: Advances in Archaeological Practice 5 (2017). Meade, Alan: Understanding Counterplay in Video Games, New York: Routledge 2015. 0HVNHOO/\QQ³7KH,QWHUVHFWLRQVRI3ROLWLFVDQG,GHQWLW\´, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002), pp. 279-301 3HUU\ 6DUD ³7KH (QFKDQWPHQW RI WKH $UFKDHRORJLFDO 5HFRUG´, in: European Journal of Archaeology 22 (2019), pp. 354-371. 3ROLWRSRXORV$ULVHWDO³5RPDQVDQG5ROOHUFRDVWHUV6FKRODUVKLSLQWKH'LJLWDO 3OD\JURXQG´, in: Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 2 (2019), pp.163±175. 5HLVV-XOLDQ³&RXQWHUIDFWXDOV´, in: Harold Kincaid (ed.), Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2012, pp. 154±83. 7RWLOR 6WHSKHQ ³µ:H .QRZ:H¶UH 1RW 7DNLQJ ,W )DU (QRXJKµ $ 8ELVRIW 93 :UHVWOHV :LWK 3ROLWLFV ,Q *DPHV´, in: Kotaku, August 14, 2019; https://kotaku.com/we-know-we-re-not-taking-it-far-enough-a-ubisoft. VALUE Foundation: One More Turn, Episode 4, Part 2; https://youtube.com/valuefnd. Wolf, Mark (ed.), Imaginary Worlds. Abingdon/New York: Routledge 2017.

L UDOGRAPHY ASSASSIN¶S CREED [Series] (Ubisoft 2007-2020, O: Ubisoft Montreal et al.) ASSASSIN¶S CREED: ODYSSEY (Ubisoft 2018, O: Ubisoft Quebec). MINECRAFT (Mojang Studios 2011/Microsoft Studios 2014, O: Mojang Studios). SID MEIER¶S CIVILIZATION 6 (Take Two 2016, O: Firaxis).

You Do Have Responsibility! How Games trivialize Fascism, why this should concern us and how we could change it J ÖRG F RIEDRICH

A BSTRACT The text aims to shed light on the long and pop culturally interwoven history of digital games, historical fascism, and authoritarian thinking. It explains how the way historical Fascism is portrayed in video games is often dangerous and wrong, why we need to change it and how this can be achieved. Most games fail on a fundamental level when they portray historical Nazism because they are reducing historical fascism to the military aspects of World War Two and omit the ideology, that led to persecution and genocide. Games need to take responsibility when portraying such critical parts of history as the historical Nazi-Fascism.

I NTRODUCTION In December 2016, my then colleague Sebastian St. Schulz and I were so worried by the recent events in politics that we felt the urge to counteract these developments by doing the only thing we are good at: by making a game. Sebastian and I were children in the 1980s and our understanding of politics and history are strongly influenced by the 1990s. It was the time when historian

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Francis Fukuyama announced ³the end of history´1 Sebastian is from East Germany, I am from West Germany. We both experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the two Germanies as positive landmark events. When later, the borders within Europe opened and the upcoming internet connected people all over the world, to us, it seemed like everything was on a good path. Back then, history appeared to us as a straight line, leading from a dark past to a bright future. This admittedly very naive view of the world was shaken for the first time in September 2001 when planes crashed into the World Trade Center and proved to the world that history was by no means over. Over the last couple of years, with events like a right wing terrorist organization calling itself NSU 2 killing immigrants all across Germany, the xenophobic PEGIDA 3 movement which mobilized thousands of protestors every week and the growth of far-right movements and parties not only in Germany and in Europe but all over the globe, our views were challenged more and more. 2016 came to us as the year in which all these unsettling tendencies peaked, bearing real-world consequences that we would have never thought possible. In the UK, a majority voted for leaving the European Union and in the US, a man who is openly racist, sexist and nationalist became president. We had to give up on our image of history as a line from darkness to light. For the first time in our lifetime, we saw the possibility that the current path of the societies we lived in might lead into darkness again. Sebastian and I were co-workers back then. While not members of a political party or organization, we were looking at all these news and events and arrived at a point where we thought we needed to do something. We wondered what our medium, what digital games had to do with all of this and if there was a way to contribute in a positive way by making a game.

1

Fukuyama, Francis: "The End of History?", in: The National Interest 16 (1989), pp. 3-

2

Cf. 3LGG +HOHQ ³How could German neo-Nazi killers have evaded police for 13

18. years?´LQThe Guardian, November 18, 2011; https://www.theguardian.com/world/ 2011/nov/18/how-german-neo-nazis-evaded-police 3

Cf. Dostal, Jörg Michael: ³7KH 3HJLGD 0RYHPHQW DQG German Political Culture: Is Right-:LQJ 3RSXOLVP +HUH WR 6WD\"´, in: The Political Quarterly 86:4 (2015); https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/55598/ssoar-politicquarterly2015-4-dostal-The_Pegida_Movement_and_German.pdf?sequence=1

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Figure 1: Sebastian St. Schulz (l.) and Jörg Friedrich (r.)

Source: Paintbucket Games

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Before we started to work on THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES (2020) (TTDOT), a game about civil resistance against the Nazis, we looked at how games had treated that topic so far. We checked out games about that period, read criticisms from press, users, historians and parties concerned. What we found was that many games struggled when it came to historical fascism, anti-Semitism and the Shoah and that this was criticized mainly from people outside the games industry while players, games press, and developers seemed to accept it. We wondered why this was the case, if it was a problem and if it was possible to do better. Games often reduce Historical Fascism to World War II 0DQ\JDPHVUHGXFH1D]LVPWR:RUOG:DU,,,QPRVWJDPHVWKH³7KLUG5HLFK´ begins with D-Day²the Normandy landings of the US troops in 1944. From the first MEDAL OF HONOR in 1999 to the latest CALL OF DUTY: WWII (2017), countless digital games covering the time span from 1933 to 1945 have the Normandy landings as a playable opening. There is probably no other historical battle as well covered in digital games as D-Day²the 6th of June 1944 on the Coast of the Normandy. In these scenes, Nazis are people in a bunker²a military enemy, far away, wearing uniforms. Nazis are a faction, a military opponent like any other military opponent. This omits any civilian perspective; we do not learn or see

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anything but the military view on events as either soldiers or commanders. This is true for action games as much as it is for strategy games. Nazis are just a faction²if the game has a story, then Nazis are the enemy, but they are still just an enemy like any other video game enemy and while no one likes them, they are the faction with the best tanks and the coolest uniforms. Figure 2: When we show war in THROUGH THE DARKEST OF TIMES, we try to find different perspectives, like these German child soldiers of the µ9RONVVWXUP¶.

Source: Paintbucket Games/HandyGames

Using the M\WKRID³COHDQ:HKUPDFKW´ Many games that take place during World War II are conflict-based and a lot of them are multiplayer games or have multiplayer options. This leads to an urge in players to be able to play all sides that are involved in the conflict²including the Axis and in the case of Germany that means playing as the Wehrmacht. They often XVHDQDUUDWLYHRI¶UHJXODU*HUPDQVROGLHUVZKRGLGQRWGRDQ\WKLQJZURQJ¶7KH idea of brave and yet innocent German soldiers who were struggling with a criminal and alien Nazi leadership shows up in single-player campaigns like in the German campaigns of BATTLEFIELD V (2018) and COMPANY OF HEROES 2 (2013), too. +RZZLGHVSUHDGWKLVWURSHRIWKHµQRQ-1D]L¶*HUPDQVROGLHULVLVH[HPSOLILHG E\ D GHYHORSHU¶V TXRWH E\ WKH OHDG GHVLJQHU RI CALL OF DUTY: WWII OF SLEDGEHAMMER STUDIO. When asked whether a player could play as a Nazi, the designer answered:

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