Playing with things : representing medieval material culture through video-games

Hiriart, JFV

Abstract

In the same way that an empty room deprived of any objects to relate to becomes uninhabitable, an empty desert does not allow life to take place (Gibson, 1979). It is only through the perception and everyday use of the things of the world (i.e. buildings, artefacts, rocks, plants, and so on) that life can be sustained. Despite the non-physicality of virtual worlds, the same principle applies; it is only through the perception and meaningful interaction with virtual things that we can gain an understanding of life in the past within simulated worlds.

In this paper, I intend to explore how the interactions with things can be meaningfully represented in video games. For this, I will look into my own experience as a game designer and analyse systems found in different commercial video-games. Through these case studies, I will discuss possible design perspectives and approaches to convey the multi-layered meanings that characterise the relationship between humans and their material culture.

References:

Gibson, J. (1979). The Ecological Approach To Visual Perception. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.

Citation

Hiriart, J. (2020, June). Playing with things : representing medieval material culture through video-games. Presented at The Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter Conference, Online (Twitter)

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: The Middle Ages in Modern Games Twitter Conference
• Conference Location: Online (Twitter)
• Start Date: Jun 30, 2020
• End Date: Jul 3, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jul 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 25, 2020
• Deposit Date: Sep 28, 2020
• Journal: The Middle Ages in Modern Games (30 June-3 July 2020) : Twitter conference proceedings
• Pages: 13
• Publisher URL: https://issuu.com/theuniversityofwinchester/docs/final_mamg20_threads?fr=sNjMwNjE4NzgwMzQ
• Related Public URLs: https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1278312547205218305
• Additional Information: Access Information : The published conference proceedings can be read for free using the link above. The Publication link directs to the original thread on Twitter where this output was originally presented.; Event Type : Conference