20th century

21st century

"Archaeogaming is an archaeological framework which, broadly speaking, includes the study of archaeology in and of video games as well as the use of video games for archaeological purposes." (Wikipedia)

"the utilization and treatment of immaterial space to study created culture, specifically through videogames (...) treating a game world, a world bounded and defined by the limitations of its hardware, software and coding choices, as both a closed universe and as an extension of the external culture that created it."
(M. Dennis 2016, cited in Wikipedia)

"Archaeogaming" (proper)

"Interactive pasts"

• Previous works exploring the intersection between archaeology (and history) to video games


• A. Reinhard coined the term in 2013 (Blog)


• Field work inspired


• Key idea:
  applying archaeological theory and methods to video games

• Video games as heritage
• Atari video game burial:
  • dumping of unsold products (1983)
  • excavation on 2013
  • A. Reinhard involved
  • Musealisation and re-selling of finds
• Software documentation and reconstructions
• Institucionalisation
  (e.g. Critical Play)

      
(left) By Rakhmat Jaka Perkasa, (The New Yorker, 2022)
(right) By taylorhatmaker - Atari E.T. Dig: Alamogordo, New Mexico, CC BY 2.0 , Link

• In-game worlds as co-creation:
  • game design (developers)
  • game play (players)
  • "culturally vocal" object
• Research goals close to sociology/psychology
• Purposeful application of archaeological methods
  e.g. No Man's Sky Archaeological Survey

• History and material history of games and game play


• Reconstruction of game rules out of written sources and archaeological finds
  e.g. ERC project "Locus Ludi" - Astragaloi


• Game play experiments
  e.g. Past-at-Play tabletop recording

• Branch pushed by the "Interactive Past" Conferences (2016, 2018)
• VALUE foundation
  (Leiden, 2017)
• Nexus between:
  • "Archaeogaming proper"
  • Game designers
  • Game and media researchers
  • Critics with backgrounds in archaeology, history and heritage
    (e.g. Public Archaeology)

• (Video) game and didactics
  (Gee 2014)
  • Identity projection
  • Situated knowledge
  • Cultural models: reinforcement and challenge


• Tools for experiencing
  recreated pasts:
  Story-telling meets 3D models, VR, AR, AI, simulation, etc


• Participatory simulation or "reenactment" (Bogdanovych 2010)
• "Enchantment" (Graham 2020)

Treasure hunter stereotype

e.g. Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Nate Drake (Uncharted)

The "Action hero"

less-known approaches

• Digging
  (revealing artifacts and structures)
• Treasure hunting
  (finding/reassembling artifacts)
• Detective work
  (understanding past events based on scattered clues)
• Puzzle and management
  (e.g. reconstructing, cataloging, exhibiting artifacts)

Historical or history-inspired

e.g. Far Cry Primal, Assassin's Creed series, Civilization series, Total War series, Ancestors, Dawn of Man

Fictional (fantasy, Sci-Fi)

e.g. Mass Effect series, Elder Scrolls series,
No Man's Sky, Fall Out series, Resident Evil series,
The Longest Journey, The Banner Saga

Walking simulators

Story-telling through materials
e.g. What Remains of Edith Finch,

Educational games,
serious games and gamification

e.g. Rome Reborn, Ancient Olympia, The Seafearers, Reliving the battle of Brandywine Creek
(Anderson et al. 2009)
Avoid Zeus' Thunderbolts (Antoniou et al. 2013)

Indie development

Key role of accessible game engines
e.g. Unity, Unreal, Godot

Boardgames

e.g. FORVM, TROIA

Consultancy

(Reinhard 2019)

• Archaeogaming is an academic "thing",
  though diverse


• Video games offer an opportunity for engagement
  whether for research, didactics, or public transference


• Trade-off between game design priorities
  (playable, fun, sellable, etc) and
  realism, precision, authenticity, ethical sensitivity, and didactic value

Image created by Leonardo.AI (Leonardo Kino XL)