alexvandewalle.bsky.social
Postdoc at Ghent University // Video games, (counter-)hegemony, and Greek myth // DiGRA Belgium UGent & Twitter rep // Archaeogaming livestreams with Save Ancient Studies Alliance
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Thank you!
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Thank you, Alexis!
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the authors conducted an active play experiment with Classics students at Ghent University and the University of Bristol to investigate how players make decisions in historical games, and to what extent such choices are directed by historical considerations or ideas of history.
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Abstract: The various ways that players actually play historical games, and how history – or players’ conceptualization thereof – impacts play processes, remains understudied in the field of historical game studies. Using Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft Quebec, 2018) as a case study, ...
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Absolutely - even better!
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Back when the game was being marketed before its release people were hypothesizing that Socrates could've been the big bad behind the Order/Templars, so there could even have been a way to make it fit with AC lore! (Also, it would've avoided the surprisingly weird Trial of Socrates add-on)
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Thanks Briana! 😄
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Thanks!
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Thank you!!
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It is! Thank you! 😊
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Thank you!! 😊
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Haha, thank you Tine!
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Fantastic news, congratulations!! 🥳🎉
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...instead of saying 'this game is/isn't cozy', maybe we could say 'this game is/isn't played in a cozy way' or 'this game invites cozy gameplay'
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...cozy player engagement with games that traditionally aren't really cozy. E.g., players can approach AC Odyssey or RDR2 in cozy ways, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are prototypically cozy games, per se. There's a lot of new research on this phenomenon, but not in regards to history. So...
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Thanks! & Good question. In the paper I consider games like Tiny Glade, Reka, Valheim, Dawn of Defiance or even Manor Lords as presenting a cozy mode of the past, but my discussion also argues that maybe we sh/could move from the term 'cozy game' to 'cozy gam_ing_', which would account for...
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We might need more space 😅
Update:
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Same! They could easily have dozens of puzzles where you must balance objects in scales
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Update:
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Okay let's do it
Everyone let me know what I should add
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Yeah, an Ammit boss fight would definitely be in the cards!
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Okay let's do it
Everyone let me know what I should add
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Should we start an Egyptian God of War bingo card? 😅
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They've managed to 'separate' history and mythology pretty well in the previous games (I think their Athens didn't even have a Parthenon, which I guess is rare for 2005 video games) but I also wouldn't be surprised if they find a way to include or at least reference her!
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Also, I wonder how they'll find a compelling way to continue the narrative from the Norse Saga. Kratos' story beautifully came full circle at the end of Valhalla, so maybe Atreus will have to find himself stuck in Egypt somewhere? Will Kratos just be older again? So many questions...
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But thank you very much!
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It's uncanny! & Well, unfortunately we kept the heaviest and most fragile things to the end, so we're still at that first stage... Will likely change as the night continues!
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One of the greats for sure!
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Looking forward! 😄
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I haven't really written about Pentiment (aside from minor references to it in work on other topics), but @enwright.bsky.social's article is amazing! There's also a recent collection of German blog post scholarship on it, covering a lot of topics! mittelalter.hypotheses.org/category/bei...
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I haven't, but a pleasure to meet you, @profmikesell.bsky.social!
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Absolutely! The 'death of the author' is only one critical perspective - in my own work I've also found incredible utility in looking at dev intentions. Learning about dev practicalities helps greatly to uncover how history operates in tandem with other, more underexplored, concerns in these games
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So, different genres of HPSs, alongside differences in types of player engagement, could also lead to differences vis-à-vis depth and meaning