Designing and using game environments as historical learning contexts

Hiriart, JFV

Abstract

The virtual presentation of landscapes in games, thanks to the exponential increase of
representational power of digital technologies, has been progressively challenging the capacity of
gaming audiences to distinguish virtual environments from real-world referents. This spectacular
growth, however, has not been mirrored by a comparable progress in the simulation of the
natural and social processes from real environments. Although highly realistic, game landscapes
in most commercial titles still remain as inert theatrical scenery, devoid of any capacity to reflect
the effects of human life agency and the inextricable nature of social and natural processes. In
this paper, I present a historical game prototype, developed with the intention of representing the
inherent complexity of historical landscapes. The game simulates everyday life in Anglo-Saxon
Britain, and has been iteratively produced in cycles of development and play-testing sessions
with the participation of archaeologists, historians, and educators.

Citation

Hiriart, J. (2017, March). Designing and using game environments as historical learning contexts. Presented at Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2017), Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2017)
• Conference Location: Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
• Start Date: Mar 14, 2017
• End Date: Mar 16, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Oct 1, 2016
• Publication Date: Mar 16, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.15496/publikation-43219
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.15496/publikation-43219
• Related Public URLs: https://2017.caaconference.org/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference