Classical Antiquity in Video Games : Playing with the Ancient World

Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Illustrations
Contributors
Preface
Prologue Playing with the Ancient World
	Classical reception, history and video games
	Existing scholarship
	Resources
	This book
	A way forward
	Notes
1 An Archaeology of Ancient Historical Video Games
	Hardware and genre
	Genre and history
	Ancient history in video games
	Antiquity, gamified
	Notes
Part One A Brave Old World Re-Figurations of Ancient Cultures
	2 Ludus (Not) Over
		Classical reception in video games: A set of features
		Notes
	3 Playing in a ‘Real’ Past
		Archaeogaming and the developing agenda
		Fantastic pasts: Ryse: Son of Rome
		Realism and representation: Assassin’s Creed
		Conclusion: The value of critical gaming
		Notes
	4 The Representation of Women in
		Women as damsels in distress
		Women as sexual objects
		Women and sex, trauma and violence
		Conclusion
		Notes
Part Two A World at War Martial Re-Presentations of the Ancient World
	5 Battle Narratives from Ancient Historiography to Total War: Rome II
		The Battle of Teutoburg: A long history
		From Suetonius to internet memes
		Reimagining Arminius
		Arminius the Liberator
		Arminius the Victor?
		Conclusion
		Notes
	6 Digital Legionaries
		The face of battle in the Roman Republic: An outline
		The common features of video game battles
		The games
		Conclusion: Video games as formal, dynamic, interactive, multimodal models
		Notes
Part Three Digital Epics Role-Playing in the Ancient World
	7 The Bethesda Style
		Introduction
		What is an RPG in relation to oral formulaic theory?
		A distinctive alloy: Three hallmarks of the Bethesda style
		Notes
	8 Postcolonial Play in Ancient World Computer Role-Playing Games
		‘Ancient gameplay’ and ‘ancient CRPGs’
		Role-playing invaders and natives in Nethergate
		Playing the Western hero in Titan Quest
		Conclusion
		Notes
	9 Playing with an Ancient Veil
		Behind the veil: Secret worlds of collective historical staging
		What is historical about digital games?
		A historical knowledge system for ancient history
		Gaming communities and commemorative discourse about ancient history
		Lifting the veil: Ancient history, commemorative culture and public history
		Notes
Part Four Building an Ancient World Re-Imagining Antiquity
	10 Choose Your Own Counterfactual
		‘Parlour-games with might-have-beens’
		Thucydidean counterfactuals
		The Melian Games
		Conclusion
		Notes
	11 Mortal Immortals
		The Greek mythic storyworld and its plasticity
		Apotheon ’s story in its post-apocalyptic and post-mythological setting
		The startling idea of deicide and its origin within the Greek myth
		Conclusions
		Notes
	12 The Complexities and Nuances of Portraying History in Age of Empires
		Introduction
		Emergent and embedded narratives in the Age of Empires series
		Game modes as context
		Narratives of progress and success in different contexts
		Decisions and their narration
		Freedom of play: Implicit and negotiated rules, and metagame
		Conclusion
	13 Simulating the Ancient World
		Introduction
		Game engines
		Game engines in current archaeological research practice
		The Pnyx research environment
		Expanding the senses
		Adapting the environment: The interface
		Communicating results: Collaborative research with game engines
		Conclusion
		Notes
	14 Epilogue
		Form and content
		Political contexts and accuracy
		Production, consumption and people
		(Ludo)narrative as form
		Playing the past into the future
		Notes
Glossary of Video Game Terms
Bibliography
Mediography
Ludography
Index