You are here:

Game on! at the Interactive Pasts Conference

Archaeology and games... who would have thought this unlikely mix could be approached from so many different angles? Value, a grassroots research group at the University of Leiden, had a hunch that this was the case and organized a two day conference to explore the links between archaeology and games (beyond the latest Indiana Jones game). A mixture of archaeologists, students, game designers, programmers gathered in Leiden to be inspired. 

Games About Archaeology

A number of presentations focused on games as a way of learning about archaeology. Evolving Planet for instance is a science fiction game that enables users to use state of the art innovations in archaeology, such as archaeometry and laser scanning to excavate sites on a planet. In a number of missions players become a scientist studying the extinction of a species.

Crafting the Past is an ongoing Scottish project that uses Minecraft to bring archaeology to life and share the excitement of archaeological work. It recreates archeological sites, burying real archaeological buildings and inviting players to excavate. It was fascinating to hear how the Minecraft community, without any experience in archaeology, would organize itself to tackle the issues presented with, from health and safety issues (players would wear helmets and vests) up till the actual work of digging down layer by layer and researching their finds.

Archaeological Research on Games

But how about doing archaeological research on games? Dwarf Fortress is an online, multiplayer indi game (which is part of MoMA’s collection) in which players have to construct and maintain a fortress. Two students from Goethe University found an abandoned castle and tried to reconstruct what had happened there based on (virtual) engravings, (virtual) currency and (virtual) objects found on site, by doing so reconstructing a (virtual) historical event. The amazing thing is that in this particular game a fairly detailed account could be reconstructed. It did make me wonder about the broader application of the archaeological methods in (online) games.

Visualizing Findings

And then games as a way of presenting findings of historical and archaeological research. Think about the possibility of navigating historical sites such as WWI battle fields, or simulating historical data about the trade of grain in ancient Egypt. One of the favourite examples that came up in several presentations was Never Alone, praised for its stunning graphics and respectful production process, engaging with indigenous communities each step of the way. It engages a new audience with the stories from the Iñupiat people of Arctic Alaska that have been passed down generations for centuries, as well as displaying old artefacts and customs.

Games as Archaeological Objects

And finally games themselves as historical/archaeological objects. The GAME ON! talk was received with a ‘Yay, old stuff and dusty. Sounds great!’ on Value’s Twitch stream. And: ‘dialogue between researchers and archives is crucial!’ A very important presentation that tied into my presentation was by John Aycock of the department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary who will shortly publish a book called Retrogame Archaeology which sounds fascinating. He argues that most producers don’t remember how they wrote code and it is important to be able to understand the source code by looking at it. It shows the immense value that computer scientist bring to understanding the development of old games by (re)programming games, analysing code and writing tools.

Take-aways for Gamepreservation

First, the level of detail that some researchers are interested in when studying games is something we will have to consider in how we save games. It would be interesting to get more input from this specific community of researchers to know more about their desires for a game archive. Also, there is a lot of added value to close cooperation with computer scientists especially in understanding the production of historical games. Thirdly, I expected these researchers to be more interested in the materiality of games (i.e. hardware) because of my immediate association with media archaeology as a scientific field (the work of people like Huhtamo, Ernst, Parikka), but during the conference I heard very little about that. Finally, games provide an excellent way to engage young audiences with stories and (oral) history. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to make a game in which the history of gaming itself would be explained?

More Information

  • All the presentations were recorded and can be found on VALUE’s Twitch profile.
  • The proceedings of the conference will be published in a book, which got funded through Kickstarter. Don’t hold your breath though: publication is planned for April 2017. Something to look forward to!