Counterfactual Communities: Strategy Games, Paratexts and the Player’s Experience of History

Apperley, Thomas

doi:10.16995/olh.286

Cited by 17 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…As such, it is important to also view such histories through different perspectives. Although there is much scope for development, postcolonial positions on historiography in games have become influential lately, and this essay attempts to build on earlier discussions (Apperley, 2018;Ford, 2016;Fuchs, Erat & Rabitsch, 2018;Lammes, 2010;Majkowski, 2018;Mir & Owen, 2013;Mukherjee, 2018;Mukherjee & Hammar, 2018;Murray, 2018;Shaw, 2015) The particular case study of Far Cry 4 reveals much that may not be obvious at first sight (or play). Like its predecessors (and other franchises such as the Uncharted and Tomb Raider series), the game is set in an exotic and less-known (to Western audiences) locale.…”

Section: The Postcolonial History Of Kyrat: Border-thinking and Subaltern Pastsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Crab-Rangoons in Kyrat: (Re)Writing South-Asian History in Far Cry 4

Mukherjee

2021

Games and Culture

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Recent research has started focusing on the representation of history in videogames. Such representation is almost always of mainstream history and usually presented from a Western perspective. Set in a fictitious Himalayan kingdom in South Asia, Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4 is arguably a crucial example of how history is represented using Western and even colonial frameworks and where the narratives that do not emerge from conventional written history are almost always rendered invisible. Using the frameworks of Subaltern Studies and “border-thinking,” this essay attempts to unpack issues of Orientalism and “colonial difference”; it then engages with postcolonial digital humanities and postcolonial game studies to comment on how history is represented in videogames and how the neglected gaps and silences in the game are important in constructing the historiography in videogames. In the process, the essay engages in a debate with current notions of videogame-historiography.

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Section: The Postcolonial History Of Kyrat: Border-thinking and Subaltern Pastsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Crab-Rangoons in Kyrat: (Re)Writing South-Asian History in Far Cry 4

Mukherjee

2021

Games and Culture

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“…These participants' mods were evidently limited by the broader framework of imperialism and the colonial logic of EUIV, a reoccurring issue which has been discussed with other similar games (Apperley, 2006(Apperley, , 2018LaPensee et al, 2010;Mukherjee, 2017). However, despite this Eurocentric focus, participants found there was nonetheless an opportunity to discover marginalised histories, ideas and facts that would have been otherwise unknown to them.…”

Section: Learning History Through Mods and Moddingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Modding Europa Universalis IV: An informal gaming practice transposed into a formal learning setting

Loban

2021

E-Learning and Digital Media

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This article explores the use of modding as a formal tool for learning history. The article examines data from a formal analysis of Europa Universalis IV (EUIV), a survey of 331 EUIV forum participants and a case study of 18 university participants. Significant quantitative survey data indicated that 45% (149/331) of participants had modified EUIV, and of the 125 participants who responded with comments about modding, a significant number (86/125 responses or 68.8%) explained how they had learnt about history, geography or other subjects through the modding process. Closer analysis of survey and case study responses and mods reveals the variety of ways participants learnt and critiqued history through the modding process. The article discusses the data and the pedagogical affordance of modding in a few steps. First, the article briefly explores the evidence that indicates modding is popular within the EUIV gaming community. In this instance, it examines whether given the popularity of gaming practice, modding might also be seen as a new casual form of engagement with games. Second, the article reviews the modding process in EUIV and examines how both playing and creating mods may be beneficial for learning history. Modding is examined in terms of its pedagogical importance and the unique educational opportunities it may offer that are not otherwise accessible through other forms of game-based learning. Finally, the article explores how and what the case study participants learnt when they were tasked with creating and implementing playable mods to demonstrate their understanding of history. Overall, the article considers the growing importance of mods, how learners can create and represent history using mods and how mods can provide a platform for learners to develop their own critique and analysis of official history.

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“…First, The New Colossus takes a different approach than most other historical, war-themed games: Instead of building upon historical accuracy as a starting point from which to allow players the creation of their own counterfactual histories (Rejack 2007;Apperley 2018), The New Colossus puts players into a linearly scripted counterfactual history (J. . The New Colossus is set in the 1960s of an alternate timeline where Nazi Germany won World War II and colonized the United States.…”

Section: Aesthetics For Challenging Gamer Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Redneck Head on a Nazi Body. Subversive Ludo-Narrative Strategies in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Backe

2018

Arts

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This article argues that Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, a AAA First-Person Shooter, is not only politically themed, but presents in itself a critical engagement with the politics of its genre and its player base. Developed at the height of #Gamergate, the game is interpreted as a response to reactionary discourses about gender and ability in both mainstream games and the hardcore gamer community. The New Colossus replaces affirmation of masculine empowerment with intersectional ambiguities, foregrounding discourses of feminism and disability. To provoke its players without completely alienating them, the game employs strategies of carnivalesque aesthetics-especially ambivalence and grotesque excess. Analyzing the game in the light of Bakhtinian theory shows how The New Colossus reappropriates genre conventions pertaining to able-bodiedness and masculinity and how it "resolves" these issue by grafting the player character's head on a vat-grown Nazi supersoldier-body. The breaches of genre conventions on the narrative level are supported by intentionally awkward and punishing mechanics, resulting in a ludo-narrative aesthetic of defamiliarization commensurate to a grotesque story about subversion and revolt. Echoing the ritualistic cycle of death and rebirth at the heart of carnivalesque aesthetics, The New Colossus is nothing short of an ideological re-invention of the genre.

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Counterfactual Communities: Strategy Games, Paratexts and the Player’s Experience of History

Abstract: This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanities, which is a journal published by the Open Library of Humanities.

Cited by 17 publications

References 9 publications

Crab-Rangoons in Kyrat: (Re)Writing South-Asian History in Far Cry 4

Crab-Rangoons in Kyrat: (Re)Writing South-Asian History in Far Cry 4

Modding Europa Universalis IV: An informal gaming practice transposed into a formal learning setting

A Redneck Head on a Nazi Body. Subversive Ludo-Narrative Strategies in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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